#SCULPT4D question…
21 messages in this thread
Hi all.
I'm making an animations with SCULPT4D, but there seems to be a "bug"(?).
The problem is that sculpt4d won't do the in-betweening when a texture has
changed, for instance, I have a glass sphere in frame 1 and the same sphere
in frame 15, only now I modified the texture to DULL.
Why doesn't the texture change GRADUALLY?
Hope you guys can help me… 🙂
L8r
-Sergio
Sergio, it's not a 'bug'. It's just NOT a 'feature'. Sculpt does NOT have
'in-between' textures. You can set the texture to Dull, Shiny, Metal,
Bright, Glass, etc, but NOT '1/2 Dull', etc….
So tweening just keeps the new texture until it changes. No gradual
changes.
Some other tracers will gradually change textures, etc, but not Sculpt,
That's just one of it's limitations you have to live with. Each program
has the things it excels at and it's limitations. Would that all the good
features were combined in one program 🙂
(but then we'd just want *one* more feature and competition would begin all
over again…. I love it!)
–jp–seattle–
J.P.'s comment is good and accurate. I've tried to make certain changes in
animations in KEY FRAME mode, but I havn't yet figured out how the program
does what it does in such circumstances. I have been successful in adding a
new object in the middle of a key frame anim. Say you want to add an
element at frame 5. If you make frame 1 a key frame, then
make frame 4 a key frame, you can add an object to the tri-view and save
that as key frame 5. As long as your added or deleted object is in a
keyframe next to one where the object is added or deleted it works. I can't
get this to work however if I delete an object and put another in its
place. The second object appears but doesn't render correctly. It might be
worth experimenting with. Best, George Roland
George, here's how I *think* it works….
Success in tweening in Sculpt depends on you keeping a 'one-to-one'
relationship between the different points/objects. For instance, imagine a
hemisphere with 60 points. The points of the hemisphere are numbered
(internally) by Sculpt in the order they are entered. Say the outside
circumference is created first, hence its points get assigned 1,2,3,4,etc.
Now imagine a flat rectangle 10 points wide by 6 points tall. (60 points)
It's point are numbered row by row (ie. row 1 gets points 1,2,3…10; tow
2 gets 11,12,13, etc).
You want to morph between them. If you load the hemisphere in keyframe #1,
and the rectangle in keyframe #2, then Sculpt will do what you want, but it
sure will look weird! Sculpt would move point #1 in the hemisphere to the
position of point #1 of the rectangle, gradually over the frames. It would
do the same for points #2,3,4…60. Imagine how the points are laid
out…. it would be a mess. Points would be crossing in front of others,
mixing up, etc…
The solution is to not create a new rectangle, but instead *modify* the
original object (the hemisphere). Move each point of the hemisphere to a
position on the rectangle, where it *makes sense*. Don't cross points over
the top of each other, etc. If you always *modify* the original object,
then *you* have control over how it will morph, rather than Sculpt having
to guess (incorrectly usually).
This holds true no matter how many objects you have. If you delete an
object in keyframe #3, and add another, Sculpt will get all mixed up re the
point positions, and what points to move where. You need to recognize that
adding/deleting points during a morph anim can be real difficult; maybe you
should just move it offscreen and be done with it that way? That's what I
usually did. Hope this helps.
–jp–seattle–
Yeah! eheheh you're right…
Anyway I've always worked with sculpt, it's easy to use, not very fast
(although I have an A3000), or not as fast as REAL 3D, but just great! So I
think I'll just wait for a new release in which BBB will (I hope) include
this and more features (such as more textures, can you believe DKB uses
about 30 parametered textures? and it's PD!!). deal would be a package with
DKB power and SCULPT4D's tools! 🙂 I'm afraid I'll have to wait a long
time… Or perhaps, could u advice me a package you think is better than
sculpt? I'm beginning to HATE those limitations and some bugs (such as a
VEEEERY VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY slow refresh-window mode in 2.0 and deformed
windows in 1.3!). Thanx for claryfing! L8r
-Sergio
Sergio, boy do I know what you mean about tracers! I still use Sculpt a
fair amount too. I still like the look of the Sculpt paint and trace
images, and it's very fast to model and animate in. Like many I learned
with it, so maybe it's my familiarity that keeps me coming back. It works
fine for me under WB2.0 (except the windows don't look correct, with the
new coloring).
I don't know about Real3D. Still waiting for folks like you to get the
feel of it first.
One of my favorites was 'Opticks'. I don't think it's made anymore, but it
sure put out some great images! And wonderful rendering support too. Had a
wonderful lighting scheme, based on theatrical lighting, using colored
gels, spots, etc. I wish it had continued to develop, but….
Have you (or anyone here) used 3D Professional (PP&S?) recently? It's
interface looked real nice; it was supposed to get some new ray tracing
modules added via an upgrade recently. What about it?
–jp–seattle–
I talked to a friend of mine that sells specialized graphic-soft. He told
me 3D PRO is very powerful, but the results look bettere on sculpt, for
instance, dithering is relative to the WORLD and~ not to the object. Can
you imagine the UGLY effect it does with animations?
-Sergio
Dithering relative to the world? I'd have to see it to know exactly what
he meant, I guess.
Dithering uses patterns, that have to be relative to *something* in order
to remain consistent. I'd have thought that most progs would be relative
to the screen coords while rendering? I can imagine other ways, but screen
coords would be far away the simplest, I'd think… Does quality differ?
–jp–seattle–
Well, It means that in frame 1 for example, you a have a sphere whith a
certain dithering (dependind only on the intesity of the light source)
If you make the ball move across the screen, up and down or whatever
you'll see that the ball shows a kind of stencil effect, it's like if the
background was dithered and the ball is just a hole that moves… See what
I mean? Of course, it's not EXACTLY this way, but it produces an unreal
effect… If you want I can send you some examples…
L8r
-Sergio
Sergio, I believe, about 4 or 5 months after releasing SA4D, Byte-by-Byte
announced they would no longer support the program as it was being pirated
in such large volumes that they lost money. Seems I vaguely remember a
statement that they left the Amiga market altogether.
'Course, I'm getting old and they say the memory is the second thing to go
… forgot what the first was ;^} If anyone knows that SA4D is still a
supported program and is in process of an upgrade, I sure would like to
hear about it.
wmc
Wayne, I think you've heard correctly. There was an upgrade to the
original Sculpt4D released, that added a Metal2 texture and fixed a few
bugs, but that is it. No further support nor upgrades that I have heard of
in years now.
Still a fine renderer, I think. Still use it from time to time,
particularly for modeling. I still think it is easier to model in than
Imagine, etc…
–jp–seattle–
John, I share your feelings re Sculpt. I have a 2.06 rev which I beleive
was the last one. I still use it some too. I only got Imagine because
Byte-by-Byte went bye-bye-bye. I also didn't like the protection scheme –
royal pain when there is a cat on your lap and the doc is more than an
arm's reach away.
wmc
Well, there is a version 2.09c of Sculpt4D. You might ant to try to get
it from the current supplier, since it does have a few new features, and
one major bug fix. Not earth shaking, but what the heck 🙂
I've never been able to really figure out the protection scheme. It seems
that if I CD to the Sculpt dir, then start it, that it only asks me for it
once each day. If I start it from outside the dir, then it asks every
time. Weird.
–jp–seattle–
John,
After I sent the message I went back and checked – I've got the 2.09c as
well.
I believe the protection scheme is based on both time since last use and if
the directory structure within its home directory has changed some amount.
I've had periods of heavy use where I didn't get the protection scheme for
almost 2 weeks. I thought, "gee, thats nifty, after 200 invokations they
feel its not stolen so they self-destruct the protection scheme." Then it
came back :^{
wmc
I have heard that Byte by Byte was going to file for bancrupcy but an Amiga
Store chain is trying to 'help' (buy them out) but I still don't know what
has happened.
If I hear anything new I will let you know.
Thanks. Not that I am counting on them ever releasing an upgrade for the
amiga, but I'd like to know they're still in biz. They deserve that.
–jp–seattle–
The latest I heard now is that they are not in financial trouble, just
moved to a different location. Even though there is still no plans on
porting Mac/Sculpt 4D to the Amiga, unfortunaly for us.
Anthony Ramirez
What does the Mac version of Sculpt 4D have that the Amiga version didn't
have? At this point, I'm not sure how much it matters, since with
programs like Imagine and Lightwave, Sculpt 4D has been left in the
dust….well, at least the Amiga version of Sculpt 4D…I haven't seen the
Mac version.
Steve
Mac sculpt has texture maps and output to Mac formats, using more Mac
conventions and is not very well known in the Mac world as far as I know. I
last saw it at the '89 Siggraph in Boston. The Mac also has the ability to
connect different physical monitors as a single "workbench" space, so all
three views of the trigraph can be on full sized, separate monitors.
Anyway, don't look for Amiga support – there's no money in it. Amiga must
have at least 10 high end ray trace/texturish modeler/renderer packages by
now. (including Public domain stuff…)
I'm not looking for Amiga support from Byte by Byte at all…I gave them up
a long time ago. My current favorites are Imagine and Lightwave. <grin!>
Steve
That's what happens when you byte the hand that feeds you!! ;^}
wmc