#EXPLODE IPAS
21 messages in this thread
is there any way to view the effects of explode without having to render the
whole animation. I have to set parameters render the animation to check it then
set the parameters and render the animation again , and so on . This gets
lengthy.
Cindy,
>> I have to set parameters render the animation to check it then set the
parameters and render the animation again <<
that's the way it works with .axp's, unless they specifically have a little
preview window included, like flame and vapour. Hopefully, in the future all
plug-ins will have a real-time (if computationally possible) preview method.
Many do now, but older ones tend not to.
In the meantime render test with flat shading, anti-aliasing off, no shadows or
mapping, and in a smaller window than for final renderings (1/4 or 1/8 screen
rez).
Cindy…
For what it's worth and I'm sure you've figured this out, is to view animation
every X number of frames.
If animation is 100, do a quick "pre-render" in a smaller resolution, look, do
another, then piece together in your head.
Not exactly what you wanted to hear but,…it's better than they whole
animation. Not much else one can do for now.
Kev.
Kevin,
What's the explode IPAS?
I've been doing the Magic/LenzFX/Glow thing a la Planet Studio. I going to
upgrade to the LenzFX2 routines shortly.
I would love have something like the routines I saw on Monday Night Football.
I'm sure that was done with Alias and Renderman though.
Thanks.
Mark…
There are two explodes…one by Yost, the other by Schrieber.
The Yost Particle System "explodes" faces ONLY, into flat triangles. Very easy
to use…usually, tessellate a target object to get enough faces, then explode
or implode, whatever. That's optional though. If you do a box, it would
explode into 12 faces. Not to dramatic. Therefore, the tessellation. You also
get disintigrate, which kinda morphs an object into X number of spheres, to be
"exploded" outward, or reverse to morph spheres back into object. Haven't
really used it though. In addition, there's also Snow, Rain, Fireworks, and
Spurt. Good basic particle system type stuff.
Schrieber has "volume explode". I need that one. Blows up target object into
small multi-sided "balls?", similar to "Seed of Life" in "Beyond the Mind's
Eye" video. On a smaller scale, of course. We're not working with 1000's of SGI
machines here.
Combining both would give good results I imagine. At a 100 bucks each ( maybe
Yost is more), they're good to have. One never knows when they'll need to blow
the s— outta something!
Do you use any IPAS routines currently? Just curious.
I write you later re: antivesa junk…I not freakin' out…not that big 'a
deal.
Kev
Yeah, I'm an IPAS junkie. About the only thing I dont have is Meshpaint.
I going to stop getting anything for R4 and wait for MAX now.
Found a new motherboard though…IT WILL TAKE UP TO 8 DEC ALPHA 275Mhz
PROCESSORS! WOW!
Mark,
>> Found a new motherboard though…IT WILL TAKE UP TO 8 DEC ALPHA 275Mhz
PROCESSORS! WOW! <<
calm down, Mark. You're drooling on your keyboard <G>. Actually DEC themselves
make an Alphaserver 8400 which will take 12 300Mhz CPU's. Support for NT server
is on it's way.
However, it will cost you a pretty penny and isn't a plug-in motherboard
situation. Make a nice render server for film work and is probably cheaper and
easier to run than the equivalent number of Pentiums.
Yeah, with 8 chip the unit is around 20K. 2 chip ain't bad, less than 6.
I was think of setting up a 2 chip Alpha as a model machine with either 2 four
chip boxes or 1 eight chip box as a render server.
What are you doing? I understand the research shows only marginal gains after
more than 4 chips are installed on system because of overhead.
Mark,
>> What are you doing? I understand the research shows only marginal gains
after more than 4 chips are installed on system because of overhead. <<
what am I doing? With regard to what? I'm just running the PC department at
MetroLight and animating, that's all.
DEC minimizes the overhead, as does SGI, by using very large caches per CPU
(4mb each for the Alphaserver) and by having a fast memory bus (1.2gb/Sec). The
systems architects squeeze the most out of every chip. If you check the
benchmarks you'll see this. Intel OTOH is probably a little behind on this,
although individual systems manufacturers could architect some nice P6
motherboards. Quad P6's sound like the most I've heard of with that CPU, so
far.
Martin
Silly Boy!
I know what you're doing, having fun and making a living doing animation. A
difficult combination as I understand. I read the Special Effects book. Nice
job!
No, what I'm asking is what type of server and network architecture are you
running for the rendering. The SGI's run IRIX I think, but what are you doing
for 3DS now? Novell? Unix with TCP/IP?
I just read where the PCI bus is still limited 33Mhz on the next generation of
Pentiums, but cleared to 66Mhz, however the internal bus is faster. I wonder
what will happen to the P6 however. While it will compete with the RISC chips,
the motherboard designs have got to improve. 512K cache, indeed!
Several of us talked about what hardware to get for MAX and I think it was you
talking about the diminishing returns of multiple P5 processors, how after 2
you don't get all that much improvement because of overhead. Does that apply to
the Alphas too or does the cache negate that? The reason I'm asking is I found
a Alpha supplier with a motherboard that will take up to 8 chips. Given the
recent conversations, it sounds like I had better look at bus speed and maximum
cache per CPU.
Ok, lets open another can of worms, OpenGL. From my research, there seems to be
a difference between the true OpenGL cards, and the Glint cards. Opinion? I
have data on 6 cards or card sets right now with the most expensive being 3K.
Send me you pearls of wisdom!
And thanks for the patience Martin! 🙂
Mark,
>> No, what I'm asking is what type of server and network architecture are you
running for the rendering. <<
oh, I see. We have 16 Pentium 100's with 128mb RAM, most with dual pentium
m/boards. The file server is an SGI ChallengeS, which is like an Indy but
without the graphics and plus some network goodies. The software is PC-NFS and
SGI-NFS. We use the 3ds SGI renderer on our render "fridge" (huge render
server) is an SGI ChallengeXL with 8 cpu's and 1gb RAM – great for big scenes
and nominally equal to about 16 Pentium 100's but on huge scenes it's been
equal to 400+ Pentium's because of it's huge RAM pool. That's because the
Pentiums slow to a crawl with scenes requiring 400-500mb RAM to render. We
share this with the SGI artists who use Indigo2's as workstations – there's
about 20-30 of these, I'd guess.
>> Does that apply to the Alphas too or does the cache negate that? <<
Well, it applies to all systems, I'd guess – the cache and cpu architecture
can reduce this quite a lot. The SGI ChallengeXL is very efficient in this
respect and I suspect the Alphaserver is too – I'm no expert so please seek
other opinions on this <G>.
Martin
Stupid me!
I forgot about the SGI renderer with 3DS. Of course… Also I think your
probably the most knowledgeable person about both the hardware and software
that I've talked to here. Thanks for the input!
Meanwhile, onward with the hunt. I'll get some specs on the new Alpha board I
found. I've got some specs coming on a few more OpenGL card sets. I'll publish
a list when the final research has been done.
What do you think of the PVR card? I know that the SGI's use something
different, probably to do high end recording like D1 or D2. I've got the PAR
board and I'm happy with it. I tossed my Matrox framebuffer in the junk pile
when I got it.
I don't need anything higher than Beta SP right now and in fact I am doing
everything at SVHS for the moment.
Mark
Hi Mark, PMJI – further to Kenvin's thoughts on explode and disintegrate: While
it is true you can tesselate an object and get more complex explosion effects,
you can also nest a series of dissimilar shapes and, based on the number
tolerance, have a bizarre array of chunks o' thingies come flying out at moment
of impact. In the Yost Explode, there are actually a number of very subtle
adjustment parameters that enable you to achieve terrific
deconstruction/construction effects, with bounce planes, decay, chaos etc.
Actually, there is a demo explode .fli included with the disk that demonstrates
a terrific explode with motion path, etc. The disintegrate routine actually
places polyhydra along the wireframe and disperses them to a point of vanishing
or appearing, and works very much like the explosion. All the routines on that
disk are great fun, and work very well. My only complaint is that U/V maps,
which control the color of the particle flow from SPURT and FIREWORKS do not
take their time cue from START, but seem to rely on FRAME 0 always. That is a
drag, because if I have an 800 frame run and want SPURT to start at frame 500
and run till frame 650, designing the U/V map is nightmarrish. Other than all
that, I am really interested in taking a peak at Dynamic Motion Module or Key
FActory. That could be very interesting.
I did a little eval of both physics routines and bought Key Factory. MUCH MORE
CONTROL. I'm real happy with it.
thanks for the eval – i received the demo from shcreiber and have not played
with it. I know I won't be ablt to *resist* <pun intended> Jeffrey
Ha!
Did you get any 3DS meshes with to render? The program has some samples on the
disk.
Mark, I'm holding myself back. Not going to look at Key Factory for another few
weeks.
Get the ropes and chains!
Mark – 4 walls do not a dungeon make. It only takes a computer and a lot of
great software. Maybe I could rent a part of Alcatraz cheap. (probably catch a
glimpse of Autodesk's shiny reflective building just over the bridge too. BTW,
I have been having such great session with Bones Pro, can hardly believe it.
Super!
But get out of that room once in a while!
Bye!