#The World
20 messages in this thread
Can it work with Real3D2 in the same way as with Lightwave or Imagine?
Paul
Can What work with Real3D2??? Forge? if so , as long as the prg supports
Brush mapping it can use Forge.
PMFJI, but……
I was browsing the picture library of Forge textures today, and what did I
spy with my little eye?
Naught, but a texture straight out of a recent B5 episode. A recent
epsiode had some ship with a nasty oval shaped red & pink veined 'engine'.
If you'll check the 'Veins1' texture, you'll notice it looks amazingly
similar!
(I continue to be amazed at how well done this entire package is! I'd all
but given up on Amiga developers. This gives me hope! :^)
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Glad Apex has given you HOPE for the Amiga.
Eric,
I noticed the same texture when I saw the episode. Seems to me I've seen a
couple of other Essence textures on B5 but I can't think of what they were
at the moment.
Do you watch Star Trek TNG? Did you see the episode where the Enterprise
got trapped inside an asteroid after going in looking for an old
federation ship? I heard that the ship embedded in the rock was done with
LightWave and the asteroid was done with Essence. It's amazing what Steve
W. will tell you when you get him talking. ;^)
Jeff H…
I just got Essence two weeks ago. I'd remembered thinking what a _cool_
texture it was when I saw the episode. I was very happy to find it in the
Essence library. (I played with making the 'veins' pulse. My girlfriend
said 'ewwww!', so it must've worked! :^)
I do watch ST, and had heard about the asteroid. I think maybe they were
referring to the asteroid field, and the sequence when they went _through_
the rock. I missed some of the footage inside the asteroid, but what from
I saw of the ship and the main asteroid, I'd say they ware physical
models. (The surface shading looked too 'natural' to have been
rendered….maybe.)
(I _did_ find it funny that Riker was so uptight about the 'cloaking'
device in that episode. Especially when you consider the final episode,
where an older Riker decloaks the modified Enterprise and does a sneak
attack on the Klingon vessel. [I know, I know – the Romulans had been
overrun by the Klingons – the arms treaty banning cloaking tech was no
longer in force. BUT…..I bet Gene Rodenberry is spinning in his grave.
:^O])
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Eric,
I notice in the TV guide that the ST episode we were talking about is on
tonight. (June 4) If you see it again have a look at the shot where the
enterprise finds the other ship embeded in the asteroid. They only showed
it for a few seconds, but I thought the other ship and asteroid looked
VERY much like a LW render.
Makes a bit of sense too. You'd think it would be much easier to put a LW
model halfway into a rock wall than it would be to do the same shot with
physical models.
By the way, I'm doing a fire tutorial from an old Apex newsletter. I'll
upload the attribute file if it works. I've also found that the cyclone
texture with no twist makes a good transparency map for nebula's. Add
fractal noise for the cloud color and you can get some nice effects.
If you come up with any cool settings how about archiving the attribute
files and uploading them?
Jeff H…
I saw the episode again the other night. I still stick by my assertion
that the Pegasus was a physical model. If it was modeled in LW, they did
an excellent job of lighting and construction. I'd like to know how they
got that kind of shading from LW.
(Also, in one of the first shots -seen through the viewscreen- of the
Pegasus, the rightmost spotlight appears to jiggle a bit. The sort of
behavior I'd expect from a motion control scene, not a LW scene.)
As for Essence, I'm still at the playing around stage. As soon as I get
some interesting attributes, I'll make sure and share them. (BTW, thanks
for the tip on creating nebulas. I'll have to try it out.)
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Hi Eric,
I watched that ST episode again and now I'm starting to wonder if it's LW
or a physical model. There was one shot that I thought looked a lot like
LW and a couple of others that I thought looked like models. I can't see
them using both for that episode, so until next time I talk to Steve W
I'll go with your opinion.
Still in the playing around stage with Essence? You'll ALWAYS be at that
stage. Unless you're right in the middle of a job it's too easy to get
distracted and end up spending a couple of hours playing with all the
settings. I often run the program with the intention of making one image
and end up spending a couple of hours making brushmaps to see what I can
come up with. I've managed a cool transparency map for a fire texture I'm
working on.
Jeff H…
The fire texture sounds interesting. I could see as to how it would be
possible, if not easy, to do it well with Forge. Do upload it when you
have a chance.
As for today, the whole afternoon has been shot by a variety of user
errors which blew out the RDB areas on my Mac formatted drives. I've been
hobbled by lack of tools on floppy (of all things!)
Oh well, maybe I'll play with Essence until my girlfried gets home with
the Norton Emergency disk from her work (it's Maxis, someone should have a
copy. :^).
BTW, just read your next message, and I hadn't noticed that it only save
the current keyframe you're editing. (I guess you could save each keyframe
with an A/B suffix?)
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Eric,
I'm not sure if it would be practical to upload the fire when it's done.
I'll need quite a few frames of transparency maps to shape the fire so the
archive would be quite large.
A friend on mine is trying to convince me to make enough materials for a
commercial disk. Between the two of us we've managed to make; liquid
spreading on a floor, billowing smoke, spraying steam, and fire. (in
progess) Is there a market for this sort of stuff?
It's funny; You're the third person I've talked to with Mac hard drive
trouble in the past 2 weeks. I'd hate to have to depend on one of those
things.
They let your girlfriend bring software home from work? I thought most
software publishers tended to frown on that sort of thing. ;^)
Jeff H…
Oh, I thought the fire was an Essence Attribute file(s).
As for the Mac, most of the problems were the result of my accidentally
writing an RDB to the Mac drives – not really the fault of the Mac.
I've got my own copy of Norton Utils, but it's on the disk that's dead.
Thanks,
Keep On Toastin'
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Hey! What a neat idea! Uploading attribute files for the Essence
textures. 🙂 There just isn't enough time in the day to play with all
these applications!
Dan
Daniel J. McCoy // CIS – 73742,3072
AP Engaged! \X/ Render 'till ya drop!
Dan,
One of the things I like about attribute files is that they're so small.
I've had Essence 1 and 2 since they were first released but it wasn't till
I got Forge that I got around to trying all the attribute files I got with
them. Has anyone else notice that the attribute files don't seem to save
the keyframe settings. I suppose that makes sense since the attribute
files have to be compatable with Imagine, but it makes it more difficult
to make animated textures. :^(
Jeff H…
It would be kinda Cool if some of the Old Timer Imagine dudes would put up
some attribute files that us new users of Essance and Forge can enjoy.
Hint Hint
I haven't had much luck with the docs that came with Forge. I wish there
were some tutorials. Just starting to get the hang of it.
….John
John,
You found th Forge docs confusing? I thought the manual was VERY good. The
only thing it didn't mention was the 'NewPal' button. Of course you
usually don't have to use that anyways. :^)
One of the tips Steve Worley gave me was to make big changes to the
settings and only change one thing at a time. This way it should be
obvious what's happening when you move a slider.
You did look at the attribute files that came on your Essence disks didn't
you? I though there was some neat stuff there.
Jeff H…
Jeff,
I'm using Forge mostly to create Bump maps for use with LW. I'm having
problems figuring out which settings to use for View, Shading, Lifghting
to get good maps to use for LW. I have done a few things that I've been
wanting to do with Forge. It was handy to make a Swirl texture that I used
for a Displacment Map in LW to get a real nice Wirl pool type surface :^)
I'm kinda starting to get the hang of it, and also learning alot about
different type of image maps. Just wish I had more time to experiment with
this stuff :^)
….John
John,
If all you're doing is making maps for LightWave you will probably want to
use flat views most of the time. I use default settings with the flat top
views most of the time. Some textures work along the 'Z' (vertical) axis
so if you aren't getting the look you think you should check the front or
side view.
When you're ready to render you should set shading to none and turn the
ambient light to 0. You can also save a lot of memory by using an image
processor to convert the 24 bit images down to 256 color or 8 bit
greyscale.
Note: even if you tell Forge to 'save greyscale only' it still writes a 24
bit image file. (it just has no color)
Jeff H…
There are about a zillion attribute files that come with Forge, have you
tried all of those?
I've tried a few of the attributes that come with Forge, but after
getting the full package I can see it will take Alot of experimenting to
get what I was hoping for. I wish it had aleast an attribute for Fire,
Smoke, Grass. Maybe I was expecting to much, Its not Exactly what I was
expecting.
….John