#The World
46 messages in this thread
Make a globe, download Jim Roof's Image map of the earth peiced together
from NASA satallite photos, do a spherical image map and voila! Nice
earth. Want to get close? use the same image map, take ADPro turn it to a
grey scale and use LW facilitys to add that to the mix as a bump map. You
can also use it as a diffusion map to get some more reality look.
For clouds, download some satellite weather pics, use a paint program to
get rid of the land mass boundary lines, and to fill the background with
black. Paste several such section together to get a realist "global cloud"
cover, turn it to grey scale and use it as a transparency map on a
210,210,210 (RGB) globe slightly wider diam than the earth. Use another
globe sightly wider than the earth to with very high transparency and a
210,210,210 color to give the impression of an atmosphere.
Want night time? Get the earth at night images from NASA CDRoms or from I
think, the Walnut Creek space picture CD rom and build a nighttime
surface.
Or say, "dang, this is too much work – gues Ill pay Erik the $50 since
he's done this already".
wmc – via Autopilot!
I'd say that last option sounds like the best one to me…<G>
Thanks!
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Yeah, but for fifty bucks don't you think I should get a true animated
cloud cover with a hurricane making its way up the gulf coast :^}
(ducking for cover behind the steel desk….)
wmc – via Autopilot!
'a true animated cloud cover with a hurricane..'
In my dreams! Rest assured, as soon as I find out where to get/make
something like that, it'll be tops on my list!
BTW, I found a 'bug' in the current Earth object:
When using Anti-aliasing & Pixel Blending on the _BUMP_ map, I get a weird
pattern artifact on 'sunken' areas. Don't know what caused it, but I was
able to get rid of it by turning off anti-aliasing for the bump map
only….
So, big-time ex-NASA guy, do _you_ know where I might find an animated map
like you mentioned? :^) (I'd be willing to rotoscope it…)
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Erik, while having NOTHING to do with the Earths Atmosphere I suggest you
take a Look at the CD entitled "Pyromania! Playing with Fire" which
contains series of PICT's of Explosions. I read about it in CD-ROM World
and it sounds like just the thing to make REALISTIC looking explosions in
LW or Imagine etc.
'Pyromania'…Hmmm, just the other day some guy was asking about doing
explosions with LW…….
Thanks!
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Yes Pyromania. it's a Semi Expensive CD at $199 but I guess it's worth it
if it'll give CONVINCING looking Explosions.
Off Topic But it looks like I'll be back animating starting today, My
Imagine 3.0 arrived today thanks to Mike Halvorsen. I'm going to be like a
kid with a new Toy…..And Just Last Night I setup a Horse Model using the
STATES feature of 2.9 it's a Bit Cartoony but still nice. At Least my
Girlfriend got a kick out of the 1/4 screen Ham test animation.
You've received 3.0 on a Saturday? I hate you! *B^)
Actually, I hate having the Canadian Post Office closed on Saturdays. Oh,
woe is me…. Will I ever see my Imagine 3.0, or should I just enter
"format" and end it all? *B^D
-= Vance =- Image Master
Flying high on Imagine and Imagemaster R/t!
Thats one good feature of the US Snail, Saturday delivery's. Yupper I got
my 3.0 and am rendering a nice 1/4 screen Ham anim of a Galloping horse as
I type this.
Are you still using DCTV, or do you have AGA and/or a true 24 bit card?
Ever since using AGA, I cannot bring myself to go back to using DCTV. I
only use it now as a digitizer.
I'm still using my A3000T and have use of the office's A1200 to see the
results of my work. A friend of mine who has an A4000/040 (GRRRR!) is
joining up with me to put AGA anims to tape. He has 14 mb on that mutha',
so that's enough to get 3 or 4 seconds at a time, to tape.
The only downside to all of this is having to card around my huge
Panasonic AG-7500 editor over to his place everytime we record. Oh well,
can't really complain so much. *B^)
-= Vance =- Image Master
Flying high on Imagine and Imagemaster R/t!
Still using DCTV. Just figgured out BONES. Aren't AGA anims ALOt slower
than DCTV anims?
Yikes! For $199, I'll take your word for it. I'm still hard pressed to
cough up $30 for a CD….
Congrats on getting the Imagine 3.0 package! You'll have to upload some
examples – once you've had some time to play with it.
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
I've just done a quarter Screen Bones anim of GUMBY!!!!
Congrats on the Gumby! (Did you model him too, or is there alread a Gumby
object?)
I need to sit down and play with Imagine. If their bones work the way I
think they do, I _sure_ could have used it for a project I just finished.
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
A buddy of mine sent me a Scan of his Gumby which I cleaned up in
Imagemaster and converted to 2 colors and imported into Imagine and
extruded into Gumby's Body. I've sent it into John Foust so I imagine
it'll get distributed around on a 3D ROM eventually.
Essentially from what I see of Imagines Bones feature you create Subgroups
of Faces on your model then assign these subgroups to bones with a major
and minor subgroup for each bone. in the Gumby Model I used only 1 Bone in
each LEG and got good results. I'm sure a Human Model would need 2 per leg
minimum tho 3 would likely be better(ankle,knee,hip) tho You could
probably get DECENT results even using but 1 bone.
> 'a true animated cloud cover with a hurricane..'
try Steve Worley's FORGE/Essence package which has a Cyclone animating
texture procedural which is very nice indeed. Mix in a little fractal
this and that and "WHOOPDY-DOOPY, WE HAVE FUN."
Grant Boucher – Amblin Imaging
"It's hard to believe grown-ups do this for a living."
Have they release that package for LightWave yet? (Anyway, I'll be
breaking into Imagine 3.0 this week….Maybe I'll get excited enough to
run out and buy it.) (That FORGE product does sound pretty hot.)
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Steve is working night and day on good stuff for LightWave :}
Grant Boucher – Amblin Imaging
"It's hard to believe grown-ups do this for a living."
I have to admit that this FORGE product gives me hope for Amiga
developers!
Compared to other LW addons I have seen, this one is a markedly superior
product. It has a nice user interface, and the manual is beautiful!
(Finally, someone who realizes that computers _can_ do spell-checking!
:^)
While I seriously doubt that I needed to read the manual to use FORGE, I
read it cover to cover (it's a thin one) merely for the joy of reading a
well-written and comprehensive manual.
As for the program itself, the preview window (with it's "divide &
conquer" drawing routines ala Stratavision) is a joy to use, and is
_blazingly_ fast on my 40MHz 040 AGA system. It's almost like having Kai's
Power Tools for LightWave!
Needless to say, I think it's a pretty cool program! IOW that I could
import those procedural textures straight into LW. :^)
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Another Forge convert. :^) Everyone seems to have nothing but praise for
this program and I've yet to see a negative comment. I guess I'll have to
make the first one;
The thing I hate most about Forge is that you can't run it, render just
one image and quit. It's just so much fun that every time you run it you
HAVE to stay and play a while. How's a person supposed to get anything
done with software like this on the market? ;^)
There, I did it! I made the first negative comment about Forge. (Sorry
Steve, it had to happen sooner or later.)
Jeff H…
Sounds like Steve Worley has made a Happy Camper eh? I better get of fmy
butt and order Forge before it sold out hehehehehehe
Anybody have any idea where to order Forge and Essence from? I've looked
through the latest AW and found no mail order listings for either
software. Where are the good deals <g>?
Stephen Bailey
Sawyer & Bailey Film and Video CIS # 72773,2451
Dunno where the DEALS are but you can get Forge/Essence from Apex Direct
at 415-322-7532
'before it's sold out.'….
I'm _sure_ they would gladdly dup a set for you.
When I placed my order, I could tell he was intent on selling me the
entire $175 bundle. :^)
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
hehehehehehehe Would YOU be trying to push the $175 deal too???
Eric,
Poke around the weather forums for those satallite cloud covers shots and
past a buch together from several days observations? ;^} I think a better
approach would be to find some procedural texture with whorls in it that
can be animated, fuzzed and used as a transparency map, maybe in
combination with ye old fractal reflection image.
Or just wait for LW to get "gases" and force fields :^}
wmc – via Autopilot!
Wayne-
And if he used a "tweening" program to link the frames, I bet it would
come out looking quite realistic.
-Pat "Cruising the North Coast
on Autopilot"
'wait for LW to get "gases"'…..You mean LW will have a hook for the new
'Smell-O-Rama' process?!? :^)
Grant's suggestion of trying FORGE & Essence might be workable though…
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Eric,
Actually, I just thoughtof something else. There might be a way to create
a wrap-able image sequence from DPaint anim, using their morph function.
When I DIDN'T want it, I've gotten some morphs that looked like a storm
unravelling as it went. To get a realistic start and end point for the
morph just put peiced together weather satellite photos in the light table
and paint over them.
wmc – via Autopilot!
The problem with using DPain(t) is that it really doesn't seem to handle
large IFFs very well. (The rev4.1 I've got would probably choke if I tried
to morph the 900×700 cloud bitmap.)
Otherwise, an interesting suggestion…..
Thanks,
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
I was thinking of morphn individual cloud masses (as brushes) then
compositing the three or four anims. But, the forge/essence may be the
easier waty to do it.
wmc – via Autopilot!
'morphing individual cloud masses'….Got lotsa time on your hands, eh?
Now, as far as I know, FORGE only works with Imagine, right?
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Nein Nein Nein, Forge will work with Any 3D prg that allows the use of
Brushmaps. it evn according to the Newsletter will PRE Conform the texture
to a Sphere. It outputs iff24's that you can then use as a Brushmap. The
Essence Textures are Imagine only when used DIRECTLY. If used thru FORGE
kthey'll work with LW or Real 3D etc…..
Eric,
As peter mentioned Forge will make brushmaps that will work on any 3D
program and will even distort the map for spherical wrapping so that it's
undistorted when it wrapped. What he didn't mention is that it will also
generate repeating maps that will tile without seams and that you can make
image sequences. You can animate an Essence texture, preview it in Forge
and render it out at whatever resolution and number of frames you want.
(The Essence marble texture animates into a pretty cool electrical arc.)
The only problem with using Essence textures as imagemaps is that you lose
the altitude effect of the textures. You CAN get around that by generating
a seperate bump map, but you have to play with the settings a bit to make
a convincing bump map.
Forge will also let you combine up to 9 Essence textures and layer them in
any order you want so you can get some interesting results. I've seen some
of the LightWave stuff you've done and I think you'd get a lot of use out
of Forge and Essence2. (At least till there's a version of LW that
supports external textures.)
Jeff H…
Erik,
Even if it only works with Imagine, you just need a series of frames to
map on a "cloud globe", right?
And no, I don't have lotsa time – thats why I'm offering suggestions
instead of doing it. Maybe when the paying jobs slack of I'll try to come
up with something…
wmc – via Autopilot!
Maybe you can make a single frame of clouds and apply the adpro swirl
effect to animate it. Throw in in a couple of passes so you can make those
different hemisphere weather vortices.
I had thought about doing that with ImageMaster.
Suffice to say, until a client pays me to do it, or I get lots of free
time, it's low on my list of things to do.
Optimally, I'd like to find a 'real' sequence of images. I'd guess one of
those gov't weather guys has made one by now.
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Erik:
About the animated atmosphere maps…. do you know anyone with a
weather-sat receiver in their 'puter? Or anyone in the weather department
at your local tv station? Or at the local National Weather Service/NOAA
office? Or even a local ham radio operator. Any of the above might be
able to give you a sequence of cloud photos you could animate.
-Pat "Cruising the North Coast
on Autopilot"
The major problem with weather sat stuff is they are always limited to one
hemisphere _at best_…..It takes computer compositing to generate the
maps for the entire earth.
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Unless you want to draw 'em freehand, Erik, I don't know of any better way
to get 'em. Still, I have one of my co workers, who is a radio ham and
involved with the local SkyWarn unit, looking inot NWS cloud summaries for
you.
-Pat "Cruising the North Coast
on Autopilot"
Speaking of the world (NOT), it looks like the MultiMedia forum is in the
throes of spawning a 3D animators forum. GO MULTIM to say hi.
Thanks for looking! Drawing the clouds freehand would be hard enough for a
real artist, and I confine myself to the polygonal world of 3D anyway. The
best solution would be a series of full erth composites. Like I said
previously, I'm sure one of these weather guys has done it with
theirsupercomputers already.
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Speakin' of supercomputers, mayhap I'll put a bug in the ears of the guys
at CIESIN or the local EPA center–both have plenty of 'puter power and
may have some anims.
-Pat "Cruising the North Coast
on Autopilot"
'Yeah, that's the spirit!!'
Send those image sequences to me, and I'll send you a copy of the (now)
four disk set of the latest Earth object…..
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Uhhhh, Erik? I already have a copy of the four disk set… and I shipped
you the "night earth" image, too.
-Pat "Cruising the North Coast
on Autopilot"