CompuServe Thread

Gary: The best part of the Sony Animation Showcase was seeing every major software animation company locked in one little room together! Everyone from TDI to Wavefront to Alias and XAOS and SoftImage and Electric Image and even the Toaster and Digital Arts, all tied together with Sony's Laser Disk systems, Hi-Def TV, and and awesome editing suite (all Sony, of course!) Going out to the same video system is the great equalizer. I think that the big boys (read: expensive systems) have always had an advantage in that most of 3D Studio output they see, and compare themselves to, is either in Flics recorded 'live' to VHS, or, at high end, 24 bit recorded to SVHS. Color pallettes ar not Legal NTSC, lots of bleeding, tearing, etc. And for a long time, the 'trained animators', of course, were using these systems for years. And they always recorded to 1" tape, or Beta SP, or Laser Disk, because the $30,000 in video equipment is nothing when you have spent $150,000 to $250,000 in computer hardware and software. Now we have 'little old 3DS', running on $4,000 hardware, available to anyone who wants it. It reminds me of the early days of desktop publishing, when everyone thought that they were experts because they simply had the tools, and we saw the most amazing trash being published. Another interesting sidenote: spoke to a few of these hi-end systems people, and most of them have 3D Studio at home!!! They were very interested in the IPAS routines for themselves, when they thought no one else could hear them asking! <big grin> So seeing 3DS output right there, in front of their eyes, to the same hardware, AT THE SAME QUALITY as these expensive systems, and able now with IPAS to do just about anything the others could do at a fraction of the price, should do wonders to 3DS sales! All the networks, Disney, etc. had people there to see the programs and the output. With the view from the floor, – G(reg)