#Which Software To Buy?
5 messages in this thread
Mark: I think that if you can keep everything in memory, you get the best
possible speed. I know from experience (and from the manuals!) that if an
Animator Pro animation is too big to fit into memory you get a visible
pause in the replayed flic when it hits the disk to get the rest of the
FLIC.
I suggest more memory, particularly if you are going to move to 3DS
eventually, for two reasons: It is probably the cheapest improvement that
you can make in your system, and it makes a substantial difference in the
rendering speed. If you hit your memory limit it really slows down and
stays slow. Adding more memory lets you do bigger, more complex scenes.
I've never used Deluxe Animation, so I can't compare it to Animator Pro,
but I've been happy with Animator Pro. I bought 3DS after I got more
experience with animation, because "real" 3D effects are a lot easier with
a real 3D system. The best that you can do with a 2D package is to fake the
perspective.
Chris
P.S. As I always point out to the people at work, you don't always need
photorealistic 3D rendering to tell your story – remember the RoadRunner
vs. Coyote cartoons? They got their stories across quite well without
realistic rendering, "real 3D", or even dialog!
Chris,
I've had a lot of nice results (and fun) with 2-D animation. Using a move
command on Deluxe Animation, you can move a 2-D object in 3-D space. With
some easy touch-ups it appears as though it was 3-D. What you will _never_
get, though is the ability to work with lighting, shadows, and different
materials. Since I'm involved with video and some 16mm filmmaking, I feel
the 3-D software can help me "study" various zooms, pans, lighting, and
techniques without having to waste any film, build a set, etc.
/\/\ark
Mark: I'm **not** trying to sell you off of 3D animation at all. You were
looking, I thought, for something relatively inexpensive before you got
3DS.
We've done some 16mm animation, but it requires some pretty expensive
hardware to do right. We've got an analog film recorder (a Matrix
Multicolor) that exposes 16mm negative film in an Oxberry pin registered
movie camera back. It is actually cheaper to animate to 3/4" videotape but,
of course you don't get the resolution that you can get with film.
Chris
Chris,
Oh, I know you weren't selling me off. . .just trying to save me some money
for something that might serve my purpose just as well.
As for 16mm, I've HEARD from several people that you can get some decent
results by actually filming a high quality monitor (in 24-bit mode) with a
good camera and lens. They say that if you can work out the exposure and
focus, the screen does it's own "anti-aliasing" and compares with some
low-end film recorders. Have you heard anything about this?
I own a 16mm Bolex, so I'm gonna give it a try when I get the new software.
I won't expect anything great, but ya never know… it could be worth a $20
roll of film.
/\/\ark
Mark: I just wanted to make sure that you knew that I wasn't trying to
convinve you that you didn't need a 3D package. I like 3DS a lot (so much
that I bought myself a copy at home!) but I still use Animator Pro. My main
use for it lately has been for making texture, bump, and opacity maps –
particularly animated ones, but I find that there are some things that are
easier to do in 2D than in 3D, and vice-versa.
In fact, some things are easy to visualize, but seem to be **very** hard
to do in either 2D or 3D. I have this Christmas tree structure that I'm
trying to build and I can't figure out how to do it. The closest that I've
gotten is in RenderMan on my SGI machine at work. The thing is a parabola
with little sidearms at intervals down its length. The sidearms are roughly
parabolic and get smaller as you get closer to the tip of the main
parabola. I made a displacement map by superimposing two sine waves at
right angles to each other – the frequency on one axis was sent to give me
sidelobes at 90 degree intervals around the structure and the other axis
was set to give me 5 or 6 sidelobes as I got closer to the tip,
exponentially decreasing as they get close to the tip. I used the map on a
parabola and got reasonable looking dendrites. Unfortunately, I can't
figure out how to do it in 3DS unless I write a program to generate bump
maps.
I remember reading that James Blinn (I think) made his first movies by
filming a video dispay with a movie camera. As long as you use either a
really dark room or a light tight hood to kill the reflections you should
get good films. We just shot some 16mm on a film recorder and I was
dissapointed at how grainy the print was. I haven't looked at the negatives
to see if they are grainy or if it is in the print.
Chris