CompuServe Thread

#3D-Studio and Animation

9 messages in this thread
#176084From: Thorsten PawelczykJun 19, 1995 2:10 PM
Dear Sysop, I am working as a computer – coordinatior for a great architect and houseplanning office in germany. We are planning to use 3d-studio for our ACAD12-based construction-software in order to get 3d-animations of our 3d-developped housing-plans. How can we provide these animations to our customers. Is there any chance to make a compressed animated-file that can be shipped to our customers. What additional software or equipment do we need ??? Please write to 100127,3554 Thorsten Pawelczyk. Thanks a lot !
#176108From: Jeremy Hubbell [Adesk]Jun 19, 1995 5:38 PM
Thorsten, How would you like to distribute your animations? With the popularity of real time playback devices like the DPS Personal Animation Recorder, many people are putting their animations to video tape. It's convenient, fairly fast, and you're almost guaranteed that your client has a VCR to play them back on. Another option would be to distribute your animations on a CD-ROM.(By the way, I'm assuming that they're pretty large animations). CD-ROM's after the initial buy-in(writer and software) are pretty cost effective if you're planning on mass distribution. Again, like the video tape solution, many clients will have CD-ROM drives to play back your stuff. The only caveat is the variances in hardware from computer to computer. When distributing computer based presentations and you're looking to ship a large quantity, you should figure in the lowest common denominator. This means you'll have to take into account customers who still may have 640×480, 16 color displays and running on a 386SX with 4Mb of RAM. It's still quite common to see those computers around. If your animations are small enough, you could always distribute them on a diskette. There are several programs out there to help you create a custom installation program that your customers can use to install your animations from diskette to their hard drive. This is a quick and somewhat limited solution, but at least it's another option for you to consider. Hopefully this has given you some insight. Enjoy! Jh
#176241From: Greg WoznicaJun 20, 1995 11:00 AM
Using DPS or PAR etc, and some software packages you could create anim's using the Mpeg standard, if the Client invested in a Hardware card that could playback Mpeg CD-ROM's e.g. the new DS vid' card or a "Reel Magic" card etc.. they could play the animations back real time on a PC. This isn't commen yet but it probably will be, of course you can put to tape (easy,) but there are problems with tape formats e.g. NTSC,PAL etc worldwide and MPEG etc solves this Problem. Greg 🙂
#176481From: Thorsten PawelczykJun 21, 1995 1:59 PM
Hi Jerry, Thank you very much for your advices ! Thorsten
#176389From: Ted BoardmanJun 21, 1995 5:14 AM
Thorsten IMO,the best method for the money is the DPS PAR board to put the animation on video tape. The European office is at (0730) 233084 or fax at (0730) 266691. Good luck TedB -Ted Boardman !^NavFont01F0007MGHHG93C79E
#176485From: David OrfJun 21, 1995 2:14 PM
Ted & Thorsten, PMJI Ted but that looks like a UK number, you should be informed that as from April this year all UK numbers have had an extra 1 added after the 0 so, assuming I'm right about it being in the UK, the numbers would now be (01730) 233084 and (01730) 26691, Thorsten you will of course have to add the international prefix but I dont know what that is I'm afraid Hope I'm right and this helps David
#176518From: Ted BoardmanJun 21, 1995 4:51 PM
David Thanks for the info, it is a UK number. TedB -Ted Boardman !^NavFont01F0006MGHHGp09A0
#177069From: David OrfJun 24, 1995 5:41 AM
Ted, Thats Ok just glad I was right about the number, & happy to help, actually i might give them a call myself sometime soon <G> david
#179047From: SteveJul 8, 1995 5:36 PM
Hi Thorsten, Perhaps the simplest way is to have a low spec PC to run the animations on,basic graphics card,4 Meg etc. and try to keep your animations as simple as the low spec PC can run reasonably well.Hook this PC up to a converter,a device which allows you to use your TV as a PC monitor.I am in the process of setting this up myself so I haven`t tried it yet but if you can get it to a TV screen you should be able to get it to video.I used to save my action replays of John Madden on the Sega Mega Drive in this way.I`ll keep you informed once I`ve got it all up and running. Steve Bradley.