#FRACTINT > DXF > 3DS
16 messages in this thread
1. OK, I can load a fractal landscape into 3ds fine, but when the
camara moves across, bits start disappearing ? It really is very
annoying !
2. Are there any raytracing magazines available in the UK ?
3. What is the minimum hardware I need to get an animation on to
VHS tape. already have 486/33 16Mb,240Mb,VGA
Sounds like your camera clipping plane is the problem. Either scale
up your entire mesh (the preferred method) or change the clipping
distance in the 3DS.SET file.
Dave
You need to scale your scene up some to stop the camera clipping
problems you are experiencing, Mat. When the size of your scene is a
reasonable number of world-coordinates, things will stop
"dissapearing" on you. The *minimum* hardware needed to get a
real-time flic to tape would be a low-cost RGB-to-NTSC (or PAL)
converter to go along with your computer's VGA output.
Thanks Alan,
I try the "camera clipping distance" thing tonight.
As for Flic -> Tape, how does it work ?
does the converter sit between my PC and monitor, and will I be able to render
straight to video, or am I missing something here ?
Mat
Some RGB-to-NTSC converters are actually part of a VGA card (like my
Everex Vision-Vga) or frame buffer card (like the Targa+), and some
are stand-alone units (like the IDEN converter or other external
solutions). You simply run your flic on your computer and record
real-time to a VCR. Note that this is a lower-level recording
technique and will have color and motion limitations.
-Alan Iglesias
OK, I see,
I would have to have to have the whole flic rendered on my harddisk, then press
record on my Video and play the flic on my PC ?
Hmmm… surely it would be very hard to piece together a long animation and get
it frame perfect ?
Mat
Well, as long as you have a deck with flying erase heads, you should
be able to fairly seamlessly string together flics on tape…BTW,
playing flics from anything but RAM can often be unacceptably slow.
Hmmm… Flying Erase Heads ?
Sounds like a fault !
What is it/are they ?
How do I know if I have them/it ?
Mat
>> Hmmm… Flying Erase Heads ? What is it/are they ?
The "Flying Erase Heads" was a circus acrobatic team founded by Alan
Iglesias and his family many years ago. They toured around the
country until computers were invented, when they stopped using
pencils, and lost all their erasers.
When they realized that their name didn't make sense any more, they
got despondant, and stopped performing. Good thing for us, because
it gives Alan enough time to frequent this forum on a regular basis.
PS – Don't bring it up in a conversation with him, it's still a sore
subject.
GregP's *mildly*<g> ammusing answer notwithstanding, Mat, flying erase
heads (so-called 'cause they're on the helical scan head-drum and not
stationary, I think) Allow you to make some pretty clean edits with
some comsumer-grade VCRs. They are commonly found on 4-head machines
and such, and are usually listed as a "feature" of the deck.
-Alan (misses those trapeeze days…)
PS — Be sure to ask Greg about how his family originally emigrated to
the US — seems the *original* Pyros Partnership, a loosely formed
band of fireworks makers in the Greek Isles around the turn of the
century headed up by Greg's great-grandfather "Sparksopolous" Pyros,
got just a little too Ouzo'ed up during a big fireworks show they
were putting on. The next day (even though they only burned down
*half* the town), the company was forced to redesign and build the
town up again, or suffer very dire consequences. Being people of
integrity, the Partnership *did* redesign town and became extremely
good architects in the process. Being that there was nothing left to
build in their area, they decided to come to the land of oppurtunity,
the US, and settle here, bringing their knowledge with them. GregP,
who reportedly could sell non-existent HO-scale brooklyn bridges to
his classmates at the age of 6, came to California to settle here in
the good land of LA, where he continues family traditions…and we're
glad he did!
>Be sure to ask Greg about how his family originally emigrated to the
US >– seems the *original* Pyros Partnership, a loosely formed band
of fireworks >makers in the Greek Isles around the turn of the
century headed up by Greg's >great-grandfather "Sparksopolous" Pyros,
That's one of the best things I like about this business – the
creativity of the people involved in more areas than one <G>! Seems
to be that it was this family background that may have "sparked" a
few IPAS routines! <g>
Thanks, Denise. Lets hope that Greg was as amused as you were. I just
*had* to do something after that erase-head story!<g> Actually, one
of the things that Greg is real good at is that he can take it as
well as dish it out. Gotta like that in a person! Bottom line is that
a little good-natured ribbing every now a then just keeps things
hoppin'a little around here…
>> Actually, one of the things that Greg is real good at is that he can
>> take it as well as dish it out.
Oh, yea? We'll see about that! <bg>
Anyone else who wants their family history maligned, please contact
either Alan or myself. We also perform live at weddings,
bar-mitzvas, and Siggraph parties!
>>(so-called 'cause they're on the helical scan head-drum and not
stationary, I think)<<
Correct! and more correctly they are called rotary erase heads. They
are located on the sync controlled spinning servo driven drum in a
fixed relation to the record head so that each diagonal track of
video can be laid down by the record head immediately after it is
erased from a previously recorded video track. The method can be
designed for field erasure or frame erasure 2 or i erase heads
respectively. These tracks look something like: \\\\\\\\\\\ along
the tape each being a field of video. This allows for precise frame
accurate editing along the diagonal track. The other type of erase
head is a clean sweep stationary erase head set some distance from
the rotary video record heads and by its nature can not do a diagonal
track erasure because it's like: ||||| and would leave a partial
track of snow or unrecorded video after erasure til the next recorded
segment locked up. A cheap compromise was incorporated in VCR's
without rotary erase heads which backs up the tape at each pause,
which begins recording over top of previously unerased video This
allows for a butt edit with only a color rainbow defect at the splice
where the two different video fields got layered for a short distance
of tape.
4 heads or 2 heads has nothing to do with rotary erasure. A 4 head
design was incorporated for two reasons. First to optimize the head
gap for slow speed and for normal speed, 2 for each. A two head VCR
can do all speeds but at a compromise quality for all speeds.
Second, when incorporating analog special effects as slo-mo all four
heads are switched to lock the picture stability. Digital sfx does
not require four for these effects.
Thanks, Don, for the technical wrap-up! It's nice to get the real dope
on this stuff, especially for folks who are coming into this business
pretty dry. BTW, I didn't mean to imply that 4-head arrangements and
flying erase heads were directly associated, just that when a
manufacturer includes one, they often include the other!
>> I didn't mean to imply that 4-head arrangements and flying erase
heads were directly associated, just that when a manufacturer
includes one, they often include the other!
Yes, that is true for consumer grade decks, not true for industrial
decks that do single speed.