CompuServe Thread

#Editing and Editors

9 messages in this thread
#2444From: Vincent ChenJan 31, 1995 3:07 AM
Tim, I've never go abroad for more than a few weeks in the past. Anyway, our US company is located in LA and I have a few classmates living in San Jose, so that I've visited San Fransisco twice. Yes, it's a charming city and many movie activities there. I've used CP/M, DOS, MS Windows, OS/2, Unix, Linux, and SGI before. When playing some of the new APs on the SGI, I was amazied by the power (mainly the speed to do rendering) and the very terrifying UI that they offer. <grin> –Vince (writing on 1995 January 31) Internet: VChen%Ulead@mcimail.com or VChen@ulead.com
#2447From: Chris HarlanJan 31, 1995 5:52 AM
Vincent, your use of the SGI sounds interesting. Do you use it mostly for pure animation or effects animantion? I often look lustfully at those systems and would love to try one out. Is the interface really that daunting? Best, CJH
#2515From: Vincent ChenFeb 2, 1995 10:58 AM
>> your use of the SGI sounds interesting. Do you use it mostly for pure animation or effects animantion? I often look lustfully at those systems and would love to try one out. Is the interface really that daunting? << I don't really use them to do productive works so that I probably not the right person to answer this question. My company is developing software tools and I use these tools on various plateforms to know the general feeling, main UI, usefulness, and their strength and weakness. Yes, most SGI software that I used are for 3D animation and modeling. They (at least for the software packages that I've played with) all offer a lot of options/parameters in a few floating palettes or dialog boxes for you to adjust almost everything. When you get to know each parameter's meaning, it is very convinient. However, it needs more education time to get familar with. What I means is that they don't guide you through the hierachy of menus and dialog boxes. Anyway, they look quite professional with a lot of switches, edit boxes, spin boxes, and buttons. May be this is exactly what they want and which people like, professional lookings. –Vince, Ulead Systems (writing on 1995 February 02) MCI Mail: EMS: ULead, 522-0621 MBX: VChen @ ultc1 VChen%Ulead@mcimail.com or VChen@ulead.com
#2457From: Timothy LiebeJan 31, 1995 9:51 AM
Vince: >I've used CP/M, DOS, MS Windows, OS/2, Unix, Linux, and SGI before. When playing some of the new APs on the SGI, I was amazied by the power (mainly the speed to do rendering) and the very terrifying UI that they offer. <grin>< Funny–I've got this on-line friend who's programming in Norway for the Unix, and she's also mentioned the popularity of SGI overseas (for me, at least…<g>). Over here, OTOH, it seems to be mostly Mac, DOS or Amiga that people use–while I've seen folks in forums like this mention SGI, they're generally in the minority. Wonder why that is… Tim
#2516From: Vincent ChenFeb 2, 1995 10:58 AM
>> I've got this on-line friend who's programming in Norway for the Unix, and she's also mentioned the popularity of SGI overseas (for me, at least…<g>). << In here, when talking about hollywood kind of effects for movie/CF/wedding video, people generally refer to things to be done with SGI. For example, in a single advertising company/studio that I know of they normally use 16 SGIs to do the effects of a CF for their customers. >> Over here, OTOH, it seems to be mostly Mac, DOS or Amiga that people use << I don't know, either. BTW, remember the problem to use your Intel SVR Pro card to do 320×240 30fps non-dropping frame capturing? Here is an owner of it who doesn't have any problem in doing that. You may want to ask him how to do that. I believe the trick is in the AV hard drive and the Indeo 3.2 compression. Forum: Multimedia+ Section: Digital Video Subj : Smart Video Rec Pro To : Judy Rothschadl, 73312,2646 1995 February 02 8:33:11 AM From : Ron Wodaski, 75530,3711 #118184 I don't know why you and other folks are having trouble capturing at 30fps with the ISVR Pro. I'm getting 30fps on a 486/66 equipped with a Micropolis 2217AV hard drive. I use the Indeo 3.2 codec; the RAW codec won't deliver 30fps to disk. –Vince, Ulead Systems (writing on 1995 February 02) MCI Mail: EMS: ULead, 522-0621 MBX: VChen @ ultc1 VChen%Ulead@mcimail.com or VChen@ulead.com
#2544From: Steve Bennett/SYSOPFeb 2, 1995 11:53 PM
Vincent, re: using SGI for high-end visual effects… I think that using high-end workstations for visual effects processing is the next "target" of the DTV world (my definition of DTV is doing broadcastable graphics on your desk in your basement with a tool (read toy) that is affordable by the average professional/hobbiest). With the advent of non-linear editing and the processing power of todays machines, the DTV editor can (and does) create awesome stuff, even if it does take him or her twice to ten times as long to do it than with a tool like an SGI. -John
#2570From: Vincent ChenFeb 3, 1995 6:28 AM
John, Exactly. One more note, these PC class tools (read toys) do have the capability to do broadcasting quality video in your basement, they just take longer time than SGI. However, when talking about speed, that SGI is still not fast enough. Take my friend's studio as an example, when using all 16 SGIs for a day, at most they can produce about 2000 frames (around 1 minute) animation video. As an evident, I have just being informed today that an Japanese firm is using our software, MediaStudio, on a few Pentium machines equipted with good boards to produce a TV series Yamaxxxx something (?) for their TV station. It also will be broadcasted in US shortly since its US broadcasting right is sold to an big US publisher. A few Australian studio are also using it to produce CF and TV show at Australia successfully. So, Let's wait for the price of these capture/M-JPEG boards to go down further at this summer for a big bang of DTV to come. –Vince, Ulead Systems (writing on 1995 February 03) MCI Mail: EMS: ULead, 522-0621 MBX: VChen @ ultc1 (Vincent Chen) VChen%Ulead@mcimail.com or VChen@ulead.com
#2574From: Timothy LiebeFeb 3, 1995 8:21 AM
Vince: >In here, when talking about hollywood kind of effects for movie/CF/wedding video, people generally refer to things to be done with SGI.< I think I need to look into this more! I'd always thought Silicon Valley was a small (and not much-patronized) company… BTW, thanks for putting me onto Ron Wodaski! Best, Tim
#2591From: Vincent ChenFeb 3, 1995 11:21 AM
Tim, I should say these SGI guys represent less than 0.1% of the DTV users here. Only big companies and big studio here can afford that kind of equipment and manpower resource. Small companies in general will pay extra money for the service or use other means like Toaster or Mac/PC. BTW, customers will pay extra cost for each effect being used. –Vince, Ulead Systems (writing on 1995 February 03) MCI Mail: EMS: ULead, 522-0621 MBX: VChen @ ultc1 (Vincent Chen) VChen%Ulead@mcimail.com or VChen@ulead.com