CompuServe Thread

I spent a lot of time at the Alias booth at SIGGRAPH and CES, but I don't think I've put in enough time on PowerAnimator to talk about rendering times. The hair and particle effects are easy to use and very powerful, but as with all special effects, especially Wavefront's Dynamation, it's easy to create a repetitive look that is mirrored in every production. My complaint about 3D software is modeling tools. Nurbs modeling is the one feature that I would like to use for my work. The Alias tools are intuitive and fast, but I would have to spend more time with the system to see where the problems might be, the filleting between objects comes to mind.

Brandon, >> Did you see how long it took to render a particle efx? << the programmer who was doing our demo, claimed the yeti took 12 minutes per frame on an Indy – not sure if that was for full frame NTSC (720×486) or half frame (360×243). Also, there was no background or environment – it was the yeti on its own, filling the view. >> from what I saw, it was verry slow. On the other hand Wavefront's Dinamation is almost real time. Not seeing to much of Alias particle systems do you think its better? I know alot of movie efx's are made with Dinamation. << I think Alias particle systems are MUCH better looking. 3ds particle systems are MUCH better looking, too IMHO. I think the reason Wavefront is probably still popular in the movies is because it has an more open architecture than Alias and animators can write their own code to augment the effects. Maybe, a lot has to do with the creativity (or lack) of the artist/animator but I haven't been impressed with Dinamation's smoke/fire/explosions whereas Alias 6 particles and lights make me drool – their smoke, flames and lights are just the most realistic I've ever seen. BTW, where do you work? You're name is familiar ….