flare problems
10 messages in this thread
The only way I can help you would be to see the tape AND the project
file with any associated maps that it takes to reproduce it. If you
send those items with a document describing exactly what to look for
to me, I'll try to get some time to look at it, but that may not be
until after Siggraph, unfortunately. (I'll do my best, but I'm
extended to my limit at the moment.) Your problem is pretty bizarre,
since we've got dozens of people doing field rendering with the lens
flare routine and none of them are reporting field problems. (We do
quite a bit of it ourselves, and it works fine here.) Send the stuff
to me at 3739 Balboa St. #230, SF, CA 94121.
I'm looking at buying a 3D package – I've got it narrowed to one on the MAC, 3D
Studio and Video Toaster. I know you may be a little biased in answering this
as you make 3D Studio but I would still appreciate hearing from you.
I'm concerned about the modeller. From what I hear, most of the animations or
images made in 3D Studio had the models created in Autocad. I'm not interested
in using or buying Autocad. How powerful is the 3D studio modeller? Does it
support boolean operations?
Also, my system – a Gateway 486/66 has an ATI Ultra Pro video card. I upgraded
the card to allow 24bit images – I think at 800×600. If I just use this one
card and one monitor for now, will I be able to create and view 24bit
animations on it?
Thanks
Joe
You're absolutely right about our being biased. That said, I can easily state
that 3D Studio is the world's greatest 3D modeling and animation program– bar
none. <g>
Seriously, you'd be better off addressing this question to "ALL" so you can
hear from the people who _use_ 3D Studio. We just develop it, so we're not the
best judges of its abilities. Also, we don't use the competitor's software, so
it's impossible for us to make comparisons.
(Anybody out there want to jump in and reply to this?)
– Jack
>>> most of the animations or images made in 3D Studio had the models created
in Autocad.
In those cases, it's often because they needed to create working drawings to
use for actual construction or machining. Since 3d Studio doesn't allow to
dimension parts. On the other hand, 3d Studio is a very powerful modeler. I've
found that I can build practically anything with the shaper and lofter. Check
out ANTIQC.ZIP in the 3d studio forum. It is a rendering of an antique car I
modeled entirely in 3d Studio, I didn't use AutoCAD for any part of the car.
What really shows off the modeling power or flexibility of 3ds are the fenders
on the car.
Also check out BOATS.ZIP, in the same section. there are 2 files in it, one of
which is a trimaran heading under the golden gate bridge. Everything except for
the bridge was built in 3ds using the lofter. The bridge I already had as an
AutoCAD drawing.
Both the car and the trimaran would have been pretty much close to impossible
to build in AutoCAD since AutoCAD doesn't handle surface building too well.
Enjoy the two renderings. I hope they convince you that the modeler is pretty
powerful.
Yann Bertaud – I.D.L. Autodesk.
PS: don't think I'm biased because I work for Autodesk. I used to model
everything in AutoCAD because I had been using for years, but once I started
playing with the lofter, I realized it's power, I saw the light <BG>. These 2
models are the result of my trying to see how far I could go with the modeler.
3D Studio has one of the most powerful modelers in the visualization business.
It's not built for making blueprints, but for 3D vis projects it's EXTREMELY
flexible.
Plus, as soon as you see the renderer in R3, you'll realize that you'd be
insane if you got any other package. (oops.. I better shut up)
The ATI card will allow you to render to 24-bit images… no problem.
– G
Gary,
I hate to bug you about this again cause I know that you're EXTREMELY busy
right now but… <g> Have you had a chance to look at the flare/explode problem
we talked about a few weeks ago?
I need to be able to complete this animation for a contract I'm working on
for BattleCruiser 3000AD. If you haven't got time to look at it right now I'll
have to come up with some other way of creating the effect I need.
Thanks,
Danny…
Sorry Danny, but it's still sitting in my mailbox. I've had DAILY deadlines ,
and will continue that way for another week. I may have some time to look at
it next weekend, however.
– G
Thanks Gary.
Danny…
Joe,
I think the modeler is extremely fast and powerful and I have been able to
build pretty much anything that I set out to build with it. When I do
architectural projects, however, I usually have an Autocad operator build the
basic structures just because it's more exact for working from blueprints but I
add all the details in 3d Studio.
I definitely can't recommend the Mac platform for 3d animation since the
hardware is so darned expensive and relatively slow; and a comparable 3d
package (that doesn't even include a modeler, I believe) is Electric Image and
it's more expensive. I researched the 2 platforms about 2.5 years ago and 3d
Studio on the IBM/PC platform won hands down as far as cost/performance
quality.
Martin
Not only is the modeler in 3DS powerful, I think it's much easier to use in 3D
than AutoCAD, due to the way they designed the user interface around 3D. I
generally use AutoCAD/AME when building something complex and mechanical that
requires precision, because of all the great object snaps, CAD features, and
AME stuff. However, I use the 3DS lofter/editor for 95% of everything and I
find it far superior for curved surfaces. You can do booleans with both, the
biggest difference being an AME boolean can be taken apart and adjusted if
necessary. With 3DS booleans, you have to save your objects in temporary files
if you want to adjust them later, but it's not a serious problem.
The people I know with Mac stuff are so disgusted that they can't do what 3DS
will do that they won't talk to me anymore. <g> I also knew one guy using a
Toaster for modeling who bragged on it constantly, until one day he switched to
3DS and never went back. And that's the truth.
JKJ (biased with cause)