Octree's Caligari 3D
5 messages in this thread
Caligari is here, but who is going to shell out $1995.00 for another 3D
product? Even if you are a professional, you have products like
Video-Scape 3d for around $130. So who is going to buy this stuff?
If I remember correctly from Octree's presentation at a user meeting a
while back, the package is not only the 3D rendering software, but also a
high quality VCR and a hardware adapter so that you can record frame by
frame DIRECTLY to the VCR. Next best thing to buying a VCR which has stop
motion recording, which runs significantly more than $2000… I'd guess
the primary use would be those people who want to do lengthy 3D
animations. –>Steve Bennett
Octree still can't compete even though they have video controller software.
You can buy VideoScape 3D, Modeler 3D, Photon Video controller software and
a hardware controller for 400.00 bucks. You could do a similar setup with
Animate 4D as well. Besides, they've been working on their stuff for over
three years and are not equipped to properly support the working business
industry. I do think they may have a neat solution for completely animated
cartoons or movies, but how many people do that for a living?
Steve, to record to a standard VCR, wouldn't you require large amounts of
memory so you can dump it as a live action shot. Is there some way around
this?
What the Octree unit apparently does is this: Using a decent 4 head VCR (so
they can get seamless edits), they record a frame for several seconds along
with an SMPTE time code. Then they render the next frame, rewind the tape
to several seconds BEFORE the frame they just recorded, start playing it,
and when the time code indicates retrace right after the frame they just
recorded, they start recording with the next frame. Since the edits are
smooth due to the VCR's good edit capabilities, and the computer is fast
enough to start the record at exactly the start of the proper frame, you
effectively get single frame recording.
You can then have the Octree software render every frame from a script and
end up with a recorded animation of any length (hours, even…).
The only effective method of doing this otherwise is to film the screen
frame by frame with a movie camera (which has it's own problems…), or get
a video recorder capable of single frame recording. Such VCR's do exist,
mostly for professional broadcasting, and they tend to run a bundle.