#PC PAR Wanted
23 messages in this thread
Anyone out there in the LA area have a PC PAR they want to unload?
Having just purchased a Pentium system, I'm looking around to see if
anyone has one for sale.
How gozit? Don't know of anyone getting rid of a PAR offhand, but if I
come across one, I'll give ya a call…
Hey Alan! What's up out there! I'm still doing seaQuest, and it's
as wacky as ever.
We did however get ST Voyager as a client. We actually built a CG
Voyager that is indistinguishable from the real model.
So how's things down under in sunny San Diego?
I'm looking for a PAR because I just picked up a freelance job and
need one to put in my new PC. God I'm glad to finally get off that
Amiga!
Take care
Greg
Hey, Greg, it's good to hear that y'all are still crankin' away on SQ.
You guys must be the Undersea Rendering Experts of the world by
now!<g>
Congrats on the STV model coming out so nicely. I'd love to see a
segment with both the model and CG to eyeball them together…did ya
go to film with it? Kinda seems to me that the production values
over there probably wouldn't allow for anything less, eh? If you know
of a particular segment with the model, could you let us know?
Things are great down here, thanks. Still goin' at the game stuff, and
I am enjoying it very much. It's a bit more rewarding these days
'cause we are delivering high-res/quality shots and animation. The
game producers then can "beat down" the stock into whatever format
they need for a particular game platform, and always have the
high-quality stuff on hand.
Hey, best of luck with the PC stuff. The Amiga was an old friend to
me, and it's kinda sad to see it die like this. Oh, well. Time
marches on…
Good to hear that the games are treating you so well. There is this
game company upstairs from us called Naughty Dog, and they are using
Alias Power Animator running on Indigo 2 Extremes to build 700 face
polygon models! A little overkill IMHO, but hey, if money's no
object…..
I just picked up a freelance job from Toshiba. It's a kind of 'Intel
inside' type spot where we fly through the inside of their new VHS
deck. Right now I'm building the deck, so I have this dismantled VCR
sitting on my dining room table.
As far as Voyager goes, we have our CGI mesh in the first, third, and
final shots of the opener each week, in addition to episodes. The
first one is where the Voyager flies through a solar flare, with the
flare created by Santa Barbera Studios, as well as the ship flying
through the clouds, with the clouds done on Wavefront by SB Studios
as well, and the final jump to warp shot at the end is also our mesh
model. All other elements of the opener were done by SB Studios. All
other Voyager shots in the opener are the real model done with motion
control. As a general rule, any shot of the Voyager rolling or
jumping to warp is ours. Another tell tale givaway is if you see
illuminated windows on the butt of the ship. The real model dosen't
have them because they couldn't fit lights back in that part of the
model!
I do think that they go to film for international distribution, but
all shots are rendered at D1 rez, which I think is 752×480. The
Voyager itself was built using a new tool we have called Metaform.
It's a kind of intelligent sub-divide routine that will take a blocky
primitive mesh and smooth it out to give you a clean organic shape.
Once you have the primitive built, you just keep sud-dividing it
until it has the refinement you're looking for. I'll never use
splines again!!! (besides, LightWave's splines have never been my
favorites….)
Anyhow…. take care, and if you hear of a PAR somone wants to sell, let
me know.
Greg
Whew! Thanks for all the great info, Greg. I'm sure many on line here
appreciate hearing about this stuff as much as I do.
I'll be keeping an eye out for your shots…and a 3DS version of Metaform!
Thanks again,
-Alan
Hey, nice hearing from you again Alan. I'm glad that you're
obviously keeping yourself busy down there.
I'm thinking of visiting my sister sometime soon. She lives in San Diego.
Perhaps we could finally hook up.
Talk to ya later.
Greg
And it was nice hearing from you, as well Greg (as usual).
If you do come down this way, _please_ let me know. It would be very nice if
you stopped in sometime.
Later,
-Alan
>> We did however get ST Voyager as a client. We actually built a CG Voyager
>> that is indistinguishable from the real model.
That show is turning out to be quite interesting, but every time I
see the ship I can't tell if it's a mesh model or real model. Are
you saying they are using both? If so… nice job!
Yep, they're using both. See my message to Alan for a more complete
description of the shot which are ours.
Great job on the Voyager model. I love the shot where it is flying
over the astriod belt and you can see its' reflection.
Is Metaform is a subset of lightwave? Can you produce similar results
using the smooth utility that shipped with Bones Pro?
>>Can you produce similar results using the smooth utility that
shipped with Bones Pro? PMJI. While I haven't used Metaform, I was
able to come fairly close to duplicating an example I saw in an old
VTU in which two hexagon tubes, one 90 degrees to the other, were
booleaned together and Metaformed into a smooth link. Took a couple
of minutes. If you like, I can upload a before/after pic. or the
mesh itself.
Thanks for the kudos. Actually, the shot where the Voyager flies
over the asteriod belt was the real model though. Metaform is a
modeling tool in the PC and Alpha standalone versions of LightWave.
It's been a while since I've used 3DS, so I'm not real framiliar with
the smooth utility in Bones Pro.
Max, both Metaform and Bones Pro smooth use a subset of the Sabin Do
subdivision algorithm.
– G
<<Sabin Do subdivision algorithm.>>
Wow! You wouldn't happen to know the full name of the Sabin in that
little piece of trivia would you?
Sure… The original paper, published in 1978, was by M. Sabin and D. Doo at
Brunel University (somewhere in the UK). Any relation?
– G
Gary,
<<both Metaform and Bones Pro smooth use a subset of the Sabin Do subdivision
algorithm.>>
If smooth works in a similar fashion to the way Greg described Metaform it will
be an invaluable modeling tool.
ME
>>If smooth works in a similar fashion
Looks like it does to me, save that it (smooth) doesn't tessalate as it goes
along; you've got to tessalate in advance.
John Stetzer
JWS
John,
<<it (smooth) doesn't tessalate as it goes along>>
I d-loaded your mttest.zip. Thanks for the example.
ME
>>Thanks for the example
No problem. In fact, it was your post that started me asking questions. One
other difference I've been told as to how Metaform and smooth work is as
follows. W/Metaform, the resulting shape will pass through the 'control points'
(the benifits of tessalating as you go along, I guess), wereas w/smooth it is
averaged to near the 'control points' (sort of like the difference between a
Catmull-Rom spline and a B-spline). As an example, if you Metaformed a box into
a sphere shape, the sphere would enclose the orginal box; if you smoothed a box
into a sphere shape, the sphere would be inside the original box. The Metaform
info is second hand; still haven't gotten a chance to see it in action first
hand.
John Stetzer
JWS
> We actually built a CG Voyager that is indistinguishable from the real
model.<
You know, Greg, I would be happy to make sure your monitor and keyboard stays
clean for minimum wage . . . 🙂
— James — Choreo Motion —
Thanks, but we already have a maid… <g>
> we already have a maid <
Aw, shucks. I guess I'll just have to help you with those images then. <BG>
— James — Choreo Motion —