#Hi! I'm new here!
12 messages in this thread
Hi, everyone! I'm new here and wanted to introduce myself. I'm a beginner on
3D Studio (been working with it for about 5 mos.) =and= a beginning animator
=and= a beginner with video. At least I am pretty comfortable with computers
(having worked as a Cobol,Basic, Fortran, and assembler programmer/analyst for
many years).
Amazing but true: even though I'm a rank novice, I'm already getting some
paying projects in 3D Studio (six months ago I couldn't even spell "animator",
and now I are one!). Of course, my B.A. was in fine arts, so I guess it's not
entirely a case of the universe randomly smiling on a =completely= undeserving
person <g>. All the same, I feel very lucky to be able to do something I
really enjoy doing, even if it doesn't pay as well (yet?) as my old job.
Right now I'm freelancing for a computer animation studio here in Atlanta,
which is great, but long-term I'd like to also be able to do work at home. I
am bewildered by the wealth of choices in video interfaces, monitors, and
graphics adapters, (not to mention vtrs, which are nearly a complete mystery to
me) and I'd like to make intelligent choices when I start buying equipment.
Can anyone recommend a basic text on video technology? I'd also ask for a book
on the how to understand and choose hardware for animation, if I thought such a
thing existed.
I can already tell that keeping up with what's going on in this forum is going
to add a lot to my education – so thanks in advance for how much smarter you
all are going to make me in the months/years to come!
Now I'm going to go download TAPCIS so I don't have to get a second mortgage to
pay my CI$ bill!
-Madeline
… …-….1200 N81N ……………………. … …-….1200 N81N
Hello Madeline,
Welcome to the forum! Picking up TAPCIS or one of it's cousins is certainly a
smart move! Gotta keep those $bills$ down somehow…
I hope you are enjoying your work with 3DS. Most of us feel that it is one of
the best deals going in the world of personal computers today! Where else can
you build, decorate, and move your own world right at home?<g> All at a
reasonable price, and supported by *extremely* dedicated software developers
that you may communicate with — right on this forum!
As far as help with hardware (and the software), feel free to ask any questions
and I'll guarantee you will get many useful answers from experienced users.
Stick with the forum and you will be among some of the most informed users of
3DS in the world.
Best of luck!
-Alan Iglesias
Welcome Madeline
Isn't it a wonderful feeling to be doing 3D Studio animations in such a short
time (and being paid!). This software unleashes the creativity in us all. I
would continue what you are doing and listen close to those video people at the
studio. I _fell_ into this in much the same way and things have not been the
same since.
If you have some particular questions about hardware/software, ask away…you
get great info here. And by all means get TAPCIS up and running, it will save
you $$$.
-Ralph Frantz
Would you please explain how TAPCIS will save $$$.
I currently use WINCIM and can download all current messages as well as the
ones to me by marking them globally then Retreive marked and sign off all
automatically. Reading and responding are done offline. I typically spend 1-3
minutes online time to do this for about 35-50 messages. If there is a faster
way let me in on it.
BTW, a friend of mine is benchmarking several access softwares for 9600 Baud
and has found the WINCIM typically operates at 5000-7000 baud equivalent. The
same downloads with procomm are at 9600 consistently. Is CIS cheating us out
of $ by authoring software that is intentionally slow? He has benchmarked the
dos ver and it is equally slow. I might switch when all his trials are
completed. I typically get downloads twice as fast (4800?) at the 9600 setting
as 2400. Since it costs 2X there is no gain for the purported CIS9600 access.
What do you think?
Don,
DosCIM and WinCIM do a bunch of stuff which undoubtedly slow it down. It tracks
the people coming on and off the forum and such other pretty interesting (or
useless depending on what you want) stuff. I'm starting to think I may dump it
after 2 years with it – I'm using DosCIM 2.04 which isn't the latest version. I
wouldn't be surprised if the CIM people have no incentive to optimize the
software in the same way that Tapcis or Ozcis does. I'm thinking of converting
to Ozcis which is more user friendly than Tapcis and Ozcis is freeware versus
shareware/commercial for Tapcis.
Martin,
Do you know where I could find out more about the Ozcis program you
mentioned? Thanks…
Ed…
Ed,
I don't remember where it is. If you try the CI$ file finder feature – go ibmff
– then you will probably find it. Anybody else know?
Ed,
You can find OZCis in the IBMCOMM area.
-Chris
Panacea
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the timely response. I'm off to check it out.
Ed…
Don
It looks as though you are doing with WINCIM what I am doing with TAPCIS. You
have the choice of doing a quick scan and marking the threads you wish to read
while offline. Then go online to retrive those messages. The other choice is
to retrive all the messages in your selected forum/section for reading offline.
I use to go the quick scan method, now I just retrive ALL in sections 1,2,3,12
since I'm typically on once a day.
All of this takes about 1-3 minutes depending on the amount of messages. Just
about what you are getting win WINCIM.
I'm just now tring to figure if there is a savings with this 9600 baud (with
it's surcharge) and would be interested in your friends trials. Please let us
know what he finds.
BTW, the $ saved was meant for anyone not using TAPCIS, OZCIS, WINCIS as
compared to fumbling around CIS – reading/replying online. I think you will
agree the savings can be alot!
-Ralph Frantz
Thanks for the explanation. I guess there is no significant advantage to going
to another software for simple short downloads. If my speed freak friend's
(seems that's all he does is do benchmark tests and try to increase
performance) theory is correct I will be using something like Procomm+ for
large downloads at 9600 and higher. I'll keep you posted. We all need to save
our$ for 3D sr3. right? <g>
Madeline,
You've picked a good place for 3DS help … lots of pros here.
Anyway, a good book that covers basic animation/video techniques is
"Desktop Computer Animation" by Gregory MacNichol; he even pops up on the forum
now and then. It's put out by Focal Press. The address in the book is:
Butterworth-Heinemann 80 Montvale Avenue
Stoneham, MA 02180
ISBN 0-240-80065-6
'Hope this helps.
John Schmidt