#3D Studio Hardware HELP
3 messages in this thread
I work for a production company near Chicago and am about to purchase
3D Studio 3. I'm having a lot of trouble getting good help on the
hardware I should get. I'll list below what I need to do and if
ANYONE has suggestions, please let me know either by posting them
here OR private mail OR call me OR give me your number and I'll call
you. Here's what I need-
* The ability to render to a Sony Beta SP BVW-75 and also take video
off the same machine for a rolling texture map (if that's even
possible).
* The ability to render mattes (alpha channel) on the same machine.
Also the ability to take the video and alpha channels and plug them
into our composite switcher (Grass Valley 200).
The hardware needed for these fuctions are unknown to me. We are
attempting to make 3D Studio 3 our main 3D platform here. I can't
seem to find anyone who has done the same so I'm apparently treading
on virgin territory. However, anyone who has attempted the same, I'd
appreciate your input.
Thanks!
-Derek Chimenti
Karl Productions
Elmhurst, Il.
(708) 782-5553
Derek,
<<* The ability to render to a Sony Beta SP BVW-75 and also take video off the
same machine for a rolling texture map (if that's even possible).>>
There are two popular solutions for this, one is the Diaquest
Controllers and the other is the Soft VTR. I use the Soft Vtr
solution, which is a bit less expensive, and lay my animations off to
a BVH 3100 and to a PVW-2800. There are routines for both solutions
for capturing and rotoscoping from recorded video.
<<* The ability to render mattes (alpha channel) on the same machine.
Also the ability to take the video and alpha channels and plug them
into our composite switcher (Grass Valley 200).>>
If you make the mattes, by making everything white, all of the frame
buffers will do. As far as feeding a key signal from the image, I'm
not the best to ask, I am also working on this one, it seems that the
Matrox Illuminator-Pro is the only board that has a seperate keyable
channel as output. Supposedly this is indeed suitable for driving
the keyer in a composite switcher.
I'm sure that others will jump in here and fill in the details on keying.
To some degree, I am doing what you are looking to do and I must say that you
can't make a better choice than 3DS for your 3D animation program. I might
just mention that 3DS will not give you live action animation by itself, I am
reading into your query on a key channel question, but there are some solutions
that will allow you to accomplish this.
That last comment will open the discussion for Murph and Greg.
If I can be of more help, let me know.
Fred
Derek,
You've found a new home. <g>
With a framebuffer like the Targa 32+, AT Vista or the Illuminator Pro you can
render and output from. For "rolling texture map" what we call "rotoscoping"
you'll need a controller which provides this feature. SoftVTR, Diaquest and
V-LAN to name a few all have the ability to do this.
3DS provides you with the ability to create a seperate "alpha matte" which can
be laid to tape on a second pass so that you can key. I don't recall how many
ME's the 200 has but all you'd need is two dedicated banks and you can roll the
matte over the source and luminance key off the matte.
Feel free, to ask if there are any other particulars you're interested in
pursueing.
-JE