CompuServe Thread

> 3. What *magazines* would your recommend highly to the 3DS user? (i.e. 3D Artist) < Besides your typical CGI mags, I would recommend a visit to the local bookstore to look at the picturebook called "Star Trek: A pictoral history" -or something like that. It has great scenes of various ships, space stations, interiors. While some of these are physical models that were filmed, the photos still show excellent cinematography (ie lighting, cam viewpoint, etc.). These photos serve as great examples of good scene composition. In fact, any publication on good photography also applies to 3D, and is generally more available/accessable. — James — MAP —

Martin, >> 1. What *television shows* do you think are a "must see" for 3DS Users and why? << Seaquest, Hercules, Beavis and Butthead, MTV's liquid Television. Some for CGI others just for a sense of modern humour. >> 2. What *Feature films / videos* are a "must see" and why? << T2, Lawnmower Man, Lion King, True Lies, Caligula. They all have cool CGI except Caligula, which is just good clean fun, Roman style <g>. Oh and Bladerunner, just for Ridley Scott's view of the future. >> 3. What *magazines* would your recommend highly to the 3DS user? << 3d Artist, Computer Graphics World, all the Multimedia mags, Computer Gaming mags, Spawn comics etc.

I was pretty impressed when surfing channels and coming across "REBOOT" on abc (8 or 8:30 on Saturday am).

<<2. What *Feature films / videos* are a "must see" and why? (i.e. Jurassic Park for the dinasours of course)>> IMHO THE most influential film is "Nightmare Before Christmas". There is no reason why a film this beautiful couldn't be produced with computers. It presents the perfect goal. By the way, if you've read any of the articles/books on the making of, you've seen the selection of different heads they made, each one for a different sound. Not much different from a morph-target library. To me, the best computer animation is the one that doesn't look it. scott

2. <<must-see feature films>> – I just watched "Fantasia" for the millionth time – I haven't yet seen a computer graphic animation that tops that old pre-CG favorite for sheer beauty, imaginativeness, and design. (There are portions of "Bambi" e.g. rain sequences which haven't been topped yet either IMHO). -I second the recommendation of "Nightmare Before Christmas", mostly stop-action animation, for cleverness, a terrific score, and the creation of believable pathos in animated characters. -CG animation in feature films is still too technique driven – it LOOKS like CG. (If I see that 3D ballroom from "Beauty and the Beast", re-texture mapped and re-used one more time I'm going to puke. I think I've identified it at least 3 times in other films or cartoons since B&B was released. Also sick of the all-purpose Klingon-and-others city-of-the-future backdrop used in STNG and DS9). -"Jurassic Park", of course, but that's a different kind of use of CG – I think it's the best current example of what can be technically achieved – and while the animators were surely very creative in their modelling and mapping and animating – I don't think it's the same kind of creativity as went into, for example, the goldfish sequence in Fantasia. (Looks like I'm starting the New Year volunteering for target practice ;-]). – <<TV>> OK, on B5, the lacey black Enemy ships that give this great whole-body pulse just before they fire, are terrific. Sorry if this minor flame offended anyone – just realizing that Fantasia is older than most of the people on this forum, and we still haven't topped it … is kind of discouraging.