CompuServe Thread

Gary, I truthfully wanted to wait some time before bothering you, but perhaps you can simply file this thought away — maybe for Release four — because otherwise I'II forget it. I was reading Computer Graphics World (January '93) and they were talking about Newtek's Lightwave and how the developer's worked with animators in Hollywood to improve their product. The following quote is about one of the most signicant features: "…bone's are 'influence objects.' That is, they influence whatever thing(s) they're near or inside or touching. When you move a bone, the model moves with it. You could put a bone in the center of a picture and twist the picture by twisting the bone. Or use them to move an arm, or animate a face. The bigger they are or the closer they are, the more they influence a model. 'They're like force fields,' says Newtek's Daniel Kaye. 'They make character animation a snap.'" It's this last that most interest me: Gary, I know you don't think highly of "spline" animation (at least, it's not a big priority to you) because you think that the morphing capabilities in 3D are enough. Maybe for more talented individuals it is. But for people with no talent (such as myself) we REALLY NEED this tool. 3DS makes "architectural" animation a snap — even for me. But moving fluid 3D characters around would be an equal snap if you had this kind of spline based movement. Then I could move surfaces fluidly without having to generate a number of models, figure out which numbers go where, figure out how to move them back — honestly, the present 3DS approach to morphing is archaic. IMHO, this would be the ONLY improvement you'd ever have to make to 3DS (well, other than having it render in 0 seconds). So, at LEAST think about it for release FOUR — the way I see it, that's in 1994 sometime — and everything you have would be perfect.