Light ROM 3/Light ROM 3 - Disc 2.iso/tess/tess520.txt

Text File | 1995-07-11 | 21KB | 406 lines

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 T H E   T E S S E L L A T I O N   T I M E S   #520
      Issue #20 of 1995, for Monday, July 10th
====================================================

*The Tessellation Times* (TESS) is Columbine, Inc.'s weekly electronic
publication normally posted Monday evenings as a supplement to 3D ARTIST
magazine.

See Contacts at the end of this file for companies whose products are
mentioned here.
_______________
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> a page just for *3D Artist* resources and *Tess*
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> in the Literature, Reference section of 3DSite
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DETAILS
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  Reposting to *mailing lists* is _not_ recommended.
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  Opinions herein are not necessarily those of independent sites or forums
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  Columbine, Inc. and its publications are totally independent. No companies
or products are endorsed.

Published by and (c)Copyright 1995, all rights reserved:
  Columbine, Inc.
  P.O. Box 4787, Santa Fe, NM 87502 USA
  505/982-3532 (voice); 505/820-6929 (fax)
  505/820-6929x3 voice mail
  E-mail: [e-mail]
_____
Staff
Alex Kiriako, Editor, TESS & Sysop, 3dartist.com <[e-mail]>
Bill Allen, Publisher & Pres., Columbine, Inc. <[e-mail]>
Sally Beach, Vice Pres., Columbine, Inc. <[e-mail]>
Carol Williamson, Admin. Asst. <[e-mail]>
________
CONTENTS
520.00 - Heads Up
  520.00.01 - The Fortnight in 3D
  520.00.02 - Special Offers
  520.00.03 - Upgrades
  520.00.04 - Shows and Exhibitions
  520.00.05 - Classes of Note
520.01 - Rendering Sound
520.02 - 3D Online
520.03 - Shop Talk
520.04 - News on High End
520.05 - News Wrap
520.06 - What's Up in Santa Fe
  520.06.01 - TESS
  520.06.02 - 3D ARTIST
520.07 - Continuing Listings
  520.07.01 - Shows & Exhibitions Soon
  520.07.02 - Artists Call
520.08 - Contacts

There is no Web Pictorial Supplement this week.

---------

520.00 - Heads Up

Here's the stuff you need to know the soonest...

520.00.01 - The Fortnight in 3D

Through July 15: Heartsong gallery, 934 Lopez, Santa Fe, N.M. Paintings and
computer works by Robert Schrei. 505/982-7244 or 505/983-7213.

July 17, Seattle, Wash.: Northwest CyberArtists Open Studio, 7:30pm at
Symbionics, 619 Western Ave. Equipment is available to show your VHS or DAT
tapes as well as use of synthesizers, mixers, and an Internet feed. Contact
Pierre DeVris, 206/822-9185.

520.00.02 - Special Offers

Autodesk, Inc. is offering AutoCAD LT r2 to AutoSketch users for $199 until
7/31/95. The three new AutoCAD LT symbol libraries are also available for
$99 each. Ask for offer #D9: 800/435-7771.

520.00.03 - Upgrades

Minor upgrades for Adobe Photoshop 3.0 have just been announced to take
greater advantage of both 604-based Power Macintoshes and Win95. The 3.0.4
upgrade in CD-ROM format is free to registered users ($19.95 on floppy disks).
  The Windows upgrade features performance improvements under Win95,
including some important work-a-day features such as right mouse button
configuration for the Commands palette, long file name support, Registry
support, and better support for a number of 16-bit plug-ins. OLE 2.0 support
will be available in the 4th quarter with a fully Win95 logo compliant version.
  The Mac version takes advantage of the new 604 chip with direct support
for commonly used functions like Rotate, Skew, Gaussian Blur, and some of
the Path functions. Power users will immediately want access to the new
HSB/HSL plug-in and a new fat version of the Kodak PhotoCD plug-in. Also of
use, primarily to power users, is support for the Edit Graphic Object (EGO)
AppleEvent, which will allow programmatic embedding of Photoshop images in
word processing documents that support this feature.

Corel Gallery 2 for the Mac ($99) is a CD-ROM with 15,000 clip art images,
500 fonts, and 75 sounds. It includes QuickTime 2 and Adobe Type Manager.
This version is PowerMac ready and has utilities to manage and view all of
its resources. It supports a large number of file formats for import and
export, as well batch file translation and batch printing.

520.00.04 - Shows and Exhibitions

Oct. 29 to Nov. 2, San Francisco, Calif.: AutoDesk University at Moscone
Center will address what's happening in rendering and animation. After a
keynote speech by Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz at 6pm on Sunday the 29th, there
will be a video presentation of work done with Autodesk software including
clips from the forthcoming movie "Virtuosity."
  The multimedia portion of the conference will offer 75 classes covering
all aspects of content development, as well as a variety of hands-on labs.
Talks scheduled for Monday Oct. 30 include Frank Foster on "Johnny Mnemonic"
and Graeme Devine on "The XIth Hour."
  In contrast with the 14 labs offered in 1994, the AutoCAD portion of the
conference will feature a total of 80 hands-on sessions.

520.00.05 - Classes of Note

High school seniors can compete for full scholarships awards for the
computer animation and multimedia program at The Art Institute of Dallas.
The school, which is a sister to The Art Institute of Atlanta
(TESS#519.00.03) and six other Art Institutes, offers an associates degree
in applied arts in computer animation/multimedia. For scholarship info, call
800/275-4243 (214/692-8080, -6541 fax).

520.01 - Rendering Sound
  By Bill Allen <[e-mail]>

MIDI Renderer is a software sampler-synthesizer for Windows 3.x and OS/2 2.x
introduced a year ago by DiAcoustics and now in version 1.3. MIDI music
(ASCII) files are converted directly into audio WAV files without having to
play through a board or external synthesizer, and without using any other
sound hardware. The $69.95 program comes on CD with more than 200Mb of
samples for 128 instruments and drum set. The software lets you add
instruments from 16-bit WAV files in 44MHz samples of up to 15 secs.
  With MIDI Renderer, more than 16 instruments can be played simultaneously
in stereo or mono, 8- or 16-bit sound at sampling rates of up to 100KHz. It
supports sustain, pitch bend, velocity, expression, and other factors, as
well as ten tuning systems (from equal temperament to Pythagorean).
  The upgrade loads and runs faster, has reworked interfaces, and allows the
user to choose individual channels to convert.
  With up to 65,000 simultaneous notes possible, MIDI Renderer sounds like
the most convenient and economical way to record that grand John
Williams-style orchestral background you always wanted for the soundtrack to
your animations.
  MIDI Renderer Professional is in the works and there is a program for
developers.

Drum Action, the newest product from DiAcoustics, is designed to create
considerably better sound for multimedia applications using "any sound card
with audio playback capabilities" (FM or wavetable, including Sound Blasters
and compatibles). It is a $39.95 sound card driver for Windows 3.1 that
catches percussive notes and substitutes wavetable sound, not only obtaining
better, "full-bodied" sound, but also freeing up the end user's sound card
resources for non-percussive elements. The driver comes with 47 (and can
work with up to 128) drum samples.

520.02 - 3D Online

*LightWavePro* is starting a column by Dan Ablan about where to find
LightWave 3D activities on Internet. (The first installment in the June '95
issue simply introduces the Internet.) If you are operating a
LightWave-related Internet or Web site, let him know at <[e-mail]>.
  The June issue, by the way, includes how-to articles about simulating
explosion shockwaves and realistic light beams with atmospheric scattering,
and explores demo reel pitfalls--B.A.

Viewpoint DataLabs International got a little more buzz than they may have
expected when they dropped a news release (dated 5/24/95?) into Internet
news groups late last Wednesday. The release stated that Viewpoint had
acquired the Internet's primary worldwide repository for 3D objects, the ftp
site at avalon.chinalake.navy.mil (TESS#504.01.02), and was stopping all
access except through Viewpoint's own new World Wide Web site
(http://www.viewpoint.com/) and other sites under its control. Despite
assurances like "We're committed to maintaining the free nature of the site
as well as growing the archive," some sharp criticism arose from both the
Avalon contributor and user camps about several issues, especially whether
the open spirit of Avalon was being lost.
  Things didn't calm down when Syndesis announced that it will discontinue
its Avalon CD-ROM at Viewpoint's request, but, by today 7/10/95, Viewpoint
seemed to be handling complaints smoothly.
  Viewpoint's news release states that they are setting out to turn their
Web site into a 3D industry "information mecca" with news, events calendar,
galleries, vendors' product demos, tutorials and how-to's from gurus, news
group archives, VRML sites, job postings, links to artists home pages, and
access to Viewpoint's own range of products and services. "[Acquiring]
Avalon represents the first step toward this goal."
  More next week.--B.A.

520.03 - Shop Talk

3Name3D, also known as YWD or Yglesias Wallock Divekar, Inc., describes
itself as "a 3D modeling studio serving the game, film, and broadcast
industry." If you've watched the 3D saxophone that helps open NBC's "Tonight
Show," you've seen their work. Other clients include Time Warner, RezN8
Productions, Rh...
  3Name3D is located in Santa Monica with 11 SGI workstations, three
PowerMacs, a Pentium PC, and an 8-ft. FARO digitizing arm. Their software
includes Renderize, 3D Studio, Form-Z, Hyperspace, and Wavefront. The staff
includes, according to Sandeep Divekar, "animators, architects, artists,
sculptors, [and] computer programmers."
  3Name3D just put out a library of their models on CD-ROM, calling the
product Cyberprops. Each CD at $395 includes more than 100 objects in DXF
and Wavefront OBJ formats. Included are antique weapons, musical
instruments, furniture, and a variety of other objects such as fire
hydrants.--B.A.

520.04 - News on High End

In a press release received today, 7/10/95, Silicon Graphics, Inc. announced
a new line of computers at the SGI intermediate price level. The Indigo2
Impact series is reported to offer three times the 3D performance of the
Indigo2 Extreme.
  SGI states that the Indigo2 Impact integrated imaging subsystem "generates
a record 100 million trilinear interpolations [that's triangles in
English--Ed.] per second for advanced visualization." The new Impacts also
incorporate a new RAM bus technology running at up to 500MHz.
  The Impact systems are said to run all software made for the Indigo2 line.
New applications have been prepared as well, by a number of software
companies to take advantage of the new system's capabilities.
  Pricing is $35,000 for the High Impact and $40,000 for the Maximum Impact,
both to be available this quarter. More powerful and higher-priced Impact
models are scheduled to appear in the 4th quarter.

520.05 - News Wrap

On inquiry, a spokesperson at Corel Corp. today 7/10/95 corrected a previous
press release (reported in TESS#519.00.02) about CorelDraw 6 and its
CorelDream 3D module. CorelDream 3D will _not_ include 3D animation.
CorelDraw 6 is to be formally announced August 10 in Ottawa and will ship at
the same time as Windows 95. Corel CAD, also a 3D product, is to ship
sometime in November, details and pricing not available.

In an announcement dated 6/22/95 and received today 7/10/95, Adobe Systems,
Inc. tells of an agreement to acquire Frame Technology Corp. via a common
stock exchange. Pending a decision by Frame stockholders in September and
other closing conditions, Frame will be completely incorporated into Adobe.
Frame Technology Corp. publishes FrameMaker, a high-end technical publishing
package whose main market is on the Unix platform.
  Frame recently made use of its Unix savvy to instill HTML support into its
desktop products, a goal which Adobe is also pursuing with Acrobat. Adobe
also earlier acquired Aldus and its PageMaker publishing package.

Miller Freeman, Inc., publisher of *Cadence* and *Publish* magazines, has
announced a new one: *3D Design*, which they describe as "the first graphics
magazine to focus on the technical how-to aspects of creating computer
models in 3D." First issue is promised for newsstands in late September.
U.S. subscription is $39.95 for 12 issues.--B.A.

Wacom Technology Corp. announced today, 7/10/95, five new digitizing tablets
at lower prices. It also announced new digitizing pens with everything from
a pencil tip (so you can see your sketches on paper as well as on screen),
to a rocking double switch that acts as multiple mouse buttons, to a digital
eraser.
  The erasing pen has the eraser just where it would be on a pencil, and
senses 256 levels of pressure. Major graphics software providers who say
they will support the erasing interface include Adobe, Fractal Design, HSC,
Alias Research, Softimage, Wavefront, Autodesk, Corel, Fauve, Macromedia,
and FutureWave. Currently, only Adobe Photoshop 3.04, Fractal Design Painter
3.1, FutureWave SmartSketch 1.0, and Strata Media Paint 1.1 support this
feature.

The newest supplier of computers is the Portland Trail Blazers.
  In conjunction with Asymetrix and FEI America, the basketball team is
offering Games Ops Commander, a new PC-based system geared to management and
quick delivery of CD-quality sound effects and video at arena sporting
events. Games Ops Commander is claimed also to be the only such system
offering sound synchronization with video clips from laser disc player
output to large arena screens.
  Turnkey systems are offered through a joint collaboration of the Blazers
and FEI America. Starting at $5,995, you get a 90MHz Pentium, 15" color
monitor, 1.2Gb hard disk, 16Mb RAM, and CD-ROM. The Asymetrix software is
$2,500 including full technical support from Asymetrix.
  If computerized multimedia systems are widely adopted at sporting events
large and small, they could offer new content development opportunities for
3D freelancers.
  Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen owns the Portland Trail Blazers (and
Asymetrix), so it probably should come as no surprise that this basketball
team would be selling computers.

If you're a developer, you can get an inexpensive Linux port of OpenGL from
Portable Graphics for $79. This package runs as an extension to XFree86 with
a supported server color depth of 8 bits. The package supports rendering in
software only and is reported to be fully portable to all other OpenGL
platforms. Paper manuals are not included but you can download helpful
information.

520.06 - What's Up in Santa Fe

520.06.01 - TESS

Deadline for TESS#521 will be 1pm MDT (3pm Eastern) Mon., 7/17/95.

520.06.02 - 3D ARTIST

3D ARTIST issue #20 should be on press tomorrow, 7/11/95. We hope most U.S.
subscribers will have their copies before Siggraph.
  As we reported in the last TESS, we found out at the final hour that more
paper and postal cost increases were coming immediately, forcing a
subscription price hike that was in the works anyway. We got new
subscription prices onto the order form insert, but only one small mention
into the magazine itself. New prices will take effect 9/1/95, going to $37
for U.S. 12 issues surface. Starting with 3DA#21, U.S. cover price will be $5.
  A fresh batch of 3DA#19s is hitting many chain bookstores this week. If
you didn't find a copy before, check again. Look for Jeff Paries' red ribbon
man done with Animation Master, as he explains inside. (You can see a
facsimile of the cover on our home page at http://www.3dartist.com/.)

520.07 - Continuing Listings

520.07.01 - Shows & Exhibitions Soon

August 2-4, San Francisco, Calif.: Virtual Reality and Persons with
Disabilities. Sponsored by the Center on Disabilities, Cal. State U.
Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330-8349; 818/885-2578
V/TDD/message, -4929 fax, E-mail [e-mail].
  Video tapes of the 1994 conference are available from CyberEdge;
415/331-3343, -3643 fax.

August 14, Appleton, Wisc.: 1995 3D Artists Conference and Seminars will
feature a courtroom animation seminar by Paul Kakert of Fresh Look Design,
who is a forensic animation specialist. Emphasis will be on practical issues
related to being able to offer these services to clients. Contact James
Murphy Consulting 414/435-7345, -7395 fax; CIS 71165,1321.

520.07.02 - Artists Call

July 31 for 3-D Coolness '95 animation contest. See TESS#507.00.04 for more
info (but old deadline). Contact World Fusion Software, 5942 Edinger
#113-718, Huntington Beach, CA 92649; 714/894-4094; [e-mail].

520.08 - Contacts

Please mention TESS when contacting companies about products reported here!

> 3D Design; P.O. Box 56604, Boulder, CO 80322; 800/289-0484
> 3Name3D; 1202 W. Olympic Blvd. #101, Santa Monica, CA 90404; 800/993-4621;
310/314-2171, -2181 fax; [e-mail]
> Adobe Systems, Inc.; P.O. Box 7900, Mountain View, CA 94039; 800/833-6687;
415/961-4400, -3769 fax
> Autodesk, Inc.; 111 McInnis Pkwy., San Rafael, CA 94903; 800/879-4233;
415/507-5000, 491-8311 fax; autodesk.com, http://www.autodesk.com/
> Autodesk University c/o ARI, Inc., 1420 MacArthur Dr. #104, Carrollton, TX
75007; 214/242-4262, 245-7800 fax.
> Blazers, Portland Trail; 700 N.E. Multnomah St., Portland, OR 97232;
800/346-8037; [e-mail]
> Corel Corp.; 1600 Carling Ave., Ottawa, ON K1Z 8R7, Canada; 613/728-8200,
761-9176 fax
> DiAcoustics, Inc.; 555 Sparkman Dr. #600F, Huntsville, AL 35816;
800/365-6134; 205/722-0490 vox/fax; CIS 74033,2705; [e-mail];
ftp.diacoustics.com; http://www.diacoustics.com/~diac
> LightWavePro; 273 N. Mathilda Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94086; 408/774-6770,
-6783 fax
> Portable Graphics; P.O. Box 161002, Austin, TX 78716; 800/580-1160;
800/580-0616 fax, 512/306-460, -0016 fax; [e-mail]
> Silicon Graphics, Inc.; 2011 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA 94043;
415/960-1980
> Viewpoint DataLabs International; 625 S. State St., Orem, UT 84058;
800/328-2738; 801/229-3000, -3300 fax; http://www.viewpoint.com/
> Wacom Technology Corp.; 501 S.E. Columbia Shores Blvd. #300, Vancouver, WA
98661; 360/750-8882
__________________
3D ARTIST magazine - 3D How-To's & News
A full-color magazine since 1994, founded 1991. Completely written by real
users. Covers PC, Mac, and Amiga 3D software, and topics of interest to
freelance artists.
  If you haven't seen and can't find 3D ARTIST, E-mail your snail mail
address to [e-mail] for a sample issue (North America) or an
info kit with sample pages (elsewhere). Sample issue arrival may take 6-8
weeks by third class mail. Purchased issues ($4 each, postpaid surface mail
worldwide) are sent immediately (fax Visa/MC orders to 505/820-6929 or call
505/982-3532).
  12-issue surface subscription (through August 1995) is $29 U.S., us$41
Canada/Mexico, $46 elsewhere. 6-issue, first class, and airmail
subscriptions also available.

[end]