#3d studio flc -> amiga?
38 messages in this thread
Is there a way to convert an autodesk 3D studio animation (.flc) to
amiga animation format? The goal is to use chromakey on the Ami to
mix video and the anim (already built on the pc side). TIA, David
Yes, ImageMaster from Black Belt Systems will import .flc animations
and allow you to work with them. Go to AmigaVendor and leave mail to
Ben Williams. He's president of the company and will be able to give
you more detailed information.
ImageFX from GVP supports reading .fli and .flc animations and can
convert them to animations using it's IMP utility without having to
write an arexx script. You can also download a demo of ImageFX from
the libraries here to get a feel for it. The demo doesn't have the
flick loader however.
Kermit,
Can I-F/X write .fli or .flc anims?
Mike, ImageFX does not currently write .fli or .flc …yet! 🙂
Kermit Woodall Nova Design, Inc.
KW>ImageFX does not currently write .fli or .flc …yet! 🙂
Make it so, Number One. ;-}
Kermit, everything I have seen thus far makes me very happy that I
bought your program. I will have questions for you as I plow my way
through the features, so I am glad that you will be here to answer
them. As a cross platform media guy, I look forward to creating
animations in Animator Pro and importing them to my Amiga and to
creating 3D stuff with Imagine and moving them into .fli files for my
PC.
–brand new ImageFX owner, Mike Nielsen, Dover DE.
MN>Make it so, Number One. ;-}
Aye, Cap'n!
MN>brand new ImageFX owner
Ah, makes my heart sing! Seriously, feel free to drop me email anytime you
like with suggestions, comments, etc. I'm online fairly often and always
welcome feedback. Thanks!
Kermit Woodall Nova Design, Inc.
Kermit, I will as I delve into it more. Spent two fun-filled no
pressure hours this morning fooling with the tools and rendering to
DCTV. Very nice stuff. I have not tried to load a .flc yet.
Exciting prospect. Does this mean I can load 256 color 640 by 480
flc files and render them in DCTV anim format for real-time animation
output to tape? I scanned the manual but didn't see any direct
references to this process.
Can you load .flc amimations, convert them to DCTV, so you can play
them to tape? But of course! In fact, IMP can automate the whole
process for you if you don't want to write an arexx script. Check
out some of the demo projects for IMP for ideas on this.
Kermit Woodall Nova Design, Inc.
I will get cracking on the IMP program. Haven't had time to try it
out yet. I did some terrible morphing to GAL.JPEG today. I hope
whoever she is she has a sense of humor <g>. The end result looked a
bit like a snip from the film "The Howling."
You sould be able to load in each frame of the FLI/FLC and render out
to DCTV(tho I'd rescale to 736*482 so you don't get a border) for
animating. I still haven't grabbed the ImageFX demo yet so I'm not
that familiar with it. I use Imagemaster from Black Belt Systems and
Adpro from ASDG mostly Tho Adro is the only one of the 3 now that
DOESN'T supports FLI's and Flicks yet
Howdy Mike, tis I Pete Greci of Midgard Graphics, how goes your Targa to
Amiga endeavors?
PG> how goes your Targa to Amiga endeavors?
Peter, fancing meeting you here <g>. Well, you guys have to be
putting me on about using ADPro to do it. Man, how in the heck do
you get an Arrex routine to: 1. load TEST0001.TGA 2. convert to DCTV
3. save to TEST0001.DCTV 4. load TEST0002.TGA etc. ? You and Ron
didn't tell me that I would have to write my own Arexx script to do
this. I am still stuck. I did do it manually and it worked great. I
created a 120 frame sequence of .tga images of a helicopter from 3D
Studio and then I moved them to the Amiga with a simple null modem
cable at 115,000 cps and then converted them, one by one to DCTV,
saved them, then compiled them with a simple makeanim script. Talk
about time consuming!
I bought Imagine 2.0 and I am cracking through the book slowly now to
see if it is an acceptable substitute for 3D Studio. I may be
dumping my copy of 3D Studio if I am happy with Imagine. Then the
whole .tga to dctv will be a moot point. Nice to see you here. I
have been lurking in the shadows reading your posts for about three
weeks.
The price of Amiga video add-ons keeps dropping, eh? Opal down to
$700 and IV24 down to $1200. Wonder if this in anticipation of a
close-out on old Toasters??? Or maybe they are reacting to each
other, the Retina, etc? It seems as if I picked a good time to
switch platforms. Right now I have the A3000, a Prime Image TBC, a
G-lock, Imagine 2.0, ImageFX, DCTV (on that one, you were right on
the money, a neat device for $299). BTW, have you heard of a device
called an Emplant board? Some guy on RIME said it was possible to
emulate a very high powered Mac with one, much more powerful than the
Amax. But I have not seen any ads for any Emplant boards in AW.
I don't have the info on Emplant, but I did see it demo'ed a few
weeks ago. It IS faster than Amax and also runs on it's own window as
a task, so you can still do other work in the background. Amax takes
over the Amiga, so no multitasking with that one. The estimated speed
of the tasked Emplant is that of a Mac II. I don't recall which Mac
II model specifically, but I do recall the Mac II.
The Emplant CURRENTY is able to emulate the MAC IIx not really THAT high
end of a MAC but still nice. I haven't seen it in action myself tho.
As to Adpro and Arexx, I learned Arexx BECAUSE of Adpro's Excellent
Manual
It's a relatively simple BASIC like language. If you EVER programmed in
BASIC Arexx should be a breeze when coupled with ASDG's Manual for Adpro.
just heard about a Very DCTVish gadget for the IBM/Clones called Pro Video
Spectrum for $349 and does 15 bit anims at 30 FPS in 640*480 REZ.
Good luck in yer Endeavors, also you might be able to automate things a
bit with the Sentry in Adpro 2.3
Imagine is quite nice, I hope you enjoy it.
I may have to eat my words about ADPro, Peter. I have to confess that my system
files were screwed up. I looked at the startup sequence and it turns out that
my REXX drawer was mislabled as REXXC, for some unknown reason. And my
user-startup file was pointing at drawers that did not exist. I am slowly but
surely getting the hang of the Amiga workbench system files, especially the
ASSIGN statements. I seem to have screwed things up pretty good, but I am not
sure how. I am now installing ADPro again and paying close attention to where
I install the arexx scripts. A very nice guy gave me a .tga to anim rexx
script and I am going to try it out once I get the system straightened out.
(VOILLA! While I have been typing here on the clone, I have tweaking various
things on the Amiga and I just got the F9.ADPRO batch load arexx to work
correctly!)
BTW, Pro Video Spectrum is a so-so video capture device. New Media had a shoot
out a couple of months ago and the PVS came in around the mid range of image
quality. It does capture motion video clips but it does not do NTSC output. I
already own a Digital Vision R/T board already, (which came out on top in terms
of image quality) so I am a bit biased in favor of that board. It can capture
in either .AVI (Microsoft) format or in .FLI (Autodesk) format.
Imagine's manual is different, isn't it? These guys are the bachelor Norwegian
farmers of programming. I think I got to page 35 before they even allowed me
to open the forms editor and make a sphere. I never saw so much psychological
coaching in my life. I guess they know what they are doing, but it is such a
totally different approach from that taken by Autodesk in the 3D Studio manual.
'the bachelor Norwegian farmers of programming'!
Well. . ., as a member of the oppressed minority of Norwegian-Americans, I
would like to take you to task for your slanderous insults of our fine
culture! :^)
I hold that a bachelor Norwegian farmer could write a MUCH better manual
than the one supplied. (Uff Da! Who do these people think they are! :^)
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom
Kan Du Slemme Gimle Norge ?
This Sunday on 5th Ave in Bay Ridge Brookyln will be the Annual
Norwegian Independence Parade. Since my New lady won't be around I'll be
out Blonde and Red Head Spotting hehehehehehehehehe
EF> . . ., as a member of the oppressed minority of EF> Norwegian-Americans
Hey, it takes one to know one, pal. Except the Norwegian is on my paternal
grandmother's side. Peterson. When my father took a day off work, I would
ask him why and he claimed that it was "Norwegian Flag Day."
Did you hear about the Norwegian bachelor farmer they called Barney because he
only washed his bib overalls once a year?
No, I got this Norwegian vibe from the names on the screen when Imagine starts
up and the fact that they live in Minnesota. Is it possible that they are
(heaven forbid!) Sweeds????? Pass the herring and render me some norhtern
lights. Ja sure. (Azure?)
Don't feel bad Dude, Most folks are unhappy with Imagine's manual. The
Writer of the Manual assumes that we know too much already hehehehehe.
Get Steve Worleys book/disk combo as well as Louis Markoya's
Surfacemaster.
Good Luck with yer Targa to DCTV conversions.
Ta dah, I finally got it to work. If you know anyone who needs to do the
TGA to DCTV anim5 conversion in the future, send them my way. Along the way, I
added my own little improvements to the arexx that John Bennett sent me. It
loads, scales, converts to DCTV and renders a 16 color IFF file repeatedly
until it runs out of files in the selected load directory. Then I compiled
them with MAKEANIM. Worked like a charm (after two hours of hot and heavy
tweaking). Now, I am able to keep the clone 486 chugging away generating
frames while I learn more stuff about the Amiga. Got the same advice from
others about Stever Worley's book. But what is Surfacemaster?
BTW, I tried rendering my DCTV anim to full overscan (736 by 482) and then
viewing it with VIEW. It was a flying logo with a moving sky bacground. Too
high delta value, I guess. It played very choppy. I went back and did the
whole thing over at 320 by 200 and it worked great, albeit small. Do you think
that some other output device such as the Retina or the Opal board might do a
better job of output of full overscan anims?
Peter-
My impressions from my extensive readings (I have no life) is that none of the
sub-$500 video capture boards (including Video Blaster, Pro Movie Spectrum, and
Video Spigot) can even approach 30 FPS, even in 256 color. They all seem to
choke at 8 – 15 FPS. In windows, 10 FPS in a 160 x 120 window is about the best
you can do for playback on a 386/33. A 486 will do maybe a half screen at 12
-15 fps. Note that all these cheap(?) boards use software video compression /
decompression (codecs), and the compression often trades quality for speed.
These boards don't handle the playback either, your normal display card does.
Word is the Video Blaster is a buggy nightmare, but it does do overlay keying.
The Video Spigot get much higher praise, but doesn't do keying.
The Pro Movie Spectrum doesn't seem to be getting much PR on way or another
(but it won't do full screen 30 FPS, even in your dreams).
All the Best-
Ed
Thanx for the info Ed. I'd rather NOT get into shooting this Bloke Down on
the Foremnet tho so I'll keep the info you just gave me to myself.
After chatting with him on several occasions I have come to the conclusion
that he really has no idea what he's talking about and is probably relying
on third hand accounts for his info. Or he just wants to stir up a hornets
nest.
Have Fun with Imagine. Tis a pretty amazing piece of software for it;s
price
Michael,
_please_ do yourself a favor and buy a book titled "Understanding Imagine
2.0"! It's a crystal-clear explanation of all of Imagine's features and quirks.
The manual written by Impulse is a pure waste of time, and has caused several
people to give up on Imagine. With Steve's book, the program becomes
understandable. And as of last week, (I phoned him yesterday) Steve is set up
to accept credit card orders if you're the impatient type. His coordinates are:
Steve Worley
405 El Camino Real
Suite 121
Menlo Park, CA
94025
(415) 322-7532
In addition, Steve has created a package of procedural textures called
Essence. (You know procedural textures, those little algorithms you can tack
onto an object, such as Pastella or Grid, which take up little memory and show
no pixel artifacts when you zoom in on them) Once you become familiar with
Imagine, you could do much worse than pick up that package. Your objects will
seem much more lifelike once you apply some fractal noise to make them look
dirty. Not only that, but flames, bumps, explosions… all those real-world
features that you couldn't possibly be expected to model using little
triangles. And all animated!
Anyway, give Steve a call and inquire about his products. They are some of the
most useful third-party Imagine add-ons you can find.
Blaq!
Charles, thanks a lot. I copied your message and will be giving Steve a call
about the book and Essence. Truly a strange manual. I think those guys who
wrote the Imagine manual should take a look at the 3D Studio manual. Much
better and gets you up and making things quickly and painlessly. The Imagine
manual is the most text heavy manual I have ever seen.
Hi Michael —
If you do decide to dump your copy of 3D Studio, and if manuals are included
and registration can be transferred, please drop me a line — I'm interested in
that program.
Thanks!
John D.
Yup, Imagemaster 9.51 will allow you to convert yer FLI's and FLC's to
something useable on the Amiga
Could I get a tutorial in that? I have the latest Imagemaster, and I'd like to
convert a few .FLC to ANIMs. I've never played around with the filmstrip or
animation features in Imagemaster. These FLCs are 256 colors, and I don't have
an AGA machine yet. Can Imagemaster save an AGA animation, as well as reduce
the colors and save an old-style 32 color ANIM?
YES, tho the conversion of the FLC's to Anims will be a bit Painful unless
you write an Arexx Script to automate the process of breaking the FLC into
the individual Frames then using the Mulit Sequencer to Compile into an
AGA anim or 32 color anim etc.
The Filmstrip is more of a Preview than anything else John
OK, Ben, you can jump in here any time, saying "There's a script around here
someplace that converts FLCs to ANIMs…" 🙂
Now that'd be nice. ONCE we get a REAL manual for Imagemaster I'm
sure I'll be able to quickly put some Arexx scripts together. I've
done quite a few for ADPRO since the Commands are nicely laid out but
I dread wading thru the current IM addendums so I haven't even
ATTEMPTED ant Arexx scripts for Imagemaster
1: I once examined your ARexx script to drive AD Pro to make
2: pencil test animations… you should learn abou tht the programmer's
3: concept of "indentation" – you know, that white space that
4: belongs on the left margin.
5: 🙂
6: /post
Message # 30008 posted
I once examined your ARexx script to drive AD Pro to make pencil test
animations… you should learn about the programmer's concept of "indentation"
– you know, that white space that belongs on the left margin. 🙂
I thought 'white space' was for page design & layout? <g>
Blargh, Yer right, I don't make any attempt to make my scripts or
Programs( back when I used to program) readable. I just Bash away till I
get the Script working. I also usually don't include error correction
routines either. What can I say, I did the script for my own use then
decided to share it so I really didn't do much other than get it
functioning.
Public Service Announcement…..
Never hire me as a programmer. Anyone trying to debug the code other than
me will go INSANE within 3 days.
Well Ben will probably jump in this conversation, but thought I would let you
know that there is an Arexx script on Black Belt's BBS that will convert
FLC anims to individual JPEG frames. I then use Rend-24 to convert the JPEG
frames to an Amiga Ham-8 animation and works pretty well so far. I just glanced
over the code, but from what I saw it shouldn't be too difficult to change it
so that it would render directly to an Amiga anim. I just haven't had the time
to tackle it yet.
I think there *is* a simple way to do it; but I don't know what it is.
:^)
I'll try and find out, tho.
–Ben
…via AutoPilot