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EIAS FAQ

 Last updated:  11/19/98 22:27:30

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Animation
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:How do I use velocity curves?

A:During one of my most recent projects in EI, I was required to animate a
fourteen second animation of two motorcycles chasing each other through a virtual
city. I hope my experiences will help you to avoid some of the problems I
encountered while using EI's velocity curves.

I initially created the path of the first bike using an effector and ran through
a test of the animation and the thing I noticed was that the bike sped up and
slows down before and after various keyframes. This is because when I looked at
my velocity window there were up and down curves in my animation. This meant that
for the motorcycle to get from one keyframe to the next it had to go faster or
slower to get to the next keyframe.

TIP----------------------------- |You can customize what values you see in the
velocity |window. If you are only working with a position value, turn |off all
the other ones getting in your way using the |'Custom' popup. It will also allow
you to make your curves |taller using the 'Size' popup.
--------------------------------

In the Velocity window, I changed the positions of the keyframes on the keyframe
posts (my word) to get all the numbers at the top to be the same. The effect
produced was that at the keyframes currently set, the speed of the bike was the
same.

The next thing was to move the keyframes left and right (by dragging the red
keyframe post) so that the spikes and dips between the keyframes were minimized.

WARNING------------------------- |If you drag a keyframe post in the Velocity
window it |will create a NEW keyframe. If you want to keep things |simple with
very few keyframes, drag your keyframes |from within the project window.
--------------------------------

By getting rid of the velocity spikes, the bikes were now going the same speed
all the way through. The same had to be done with the second bike and camera.


TIP----------------------------- |A camera linked to an effector is much easier
than trying to |animate the position and reference point of a camera. It |also
allow you to use off center rotation points like real |camera rigs. Try it,
you'll like it. --------------------------------

Sometimes you will find that you get very obstinate keyframes that just don't
want to flatten out. One thing that I've found that works is to insert keyframes
at every frame surrounding a wierd spot and look at your velocity curves. Then
after you are done flattening out the offending parts, you can delete the
keyframes that aren't necessary to correct the problem.

The process of 'flattening' out the keyframes was the most intensive part of the
process but it made all the difference in the world. Hope this helps out.

Submitted by:
Michael Jackson


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:How can I smooth camera paths?

A:One thing that can help smooth motion paths is if you set up all your key
frames , then (in the camera velocity window) change them from bezier to natural
cubic, then back to bezier again. Why? well in editing your keyframes you can get
some extra loops & bumps that you may not want & cannot easily see, making them
Natural cubic knocks out those irregularities, then switching it back to bezier
gives you back your control handles again.

Submitted by:
Scott Wells
Animax Design


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:Any tips on camera paths?

A:1. You may want to use as few keyframes as possible, and use the bezier handles
to fine-tune the motion.

2. Check the velocity window of the camera. If you want a constant speed as you
fly through the canyon, level out the velocity curves.

3. Work on one thing at a time. First get the camera fly through motion right and
save your project. Then work on banking, twisting, etc (I find this the most
comfortable way to work...others may have different suggestions that work better
for you).

Submitted by:
D. Hsu


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:Any ideas on spicing up flying logos?

A:The best advice I can give is - constant movement/motion. Even after the
"pay-off" it is nice to see something moving, otherwise, people think that the
show is over. 3D is great fun for giving perspective, so use the most of it,
however, don't neglect the 2d design.

If you are using "3D" and "Design" as your words of interest, how about really
using that 3D space. That is not to say go crazy. Slow dramatic movements around
the set will always look elegant. I will assume that this would be the beginning
of your presentation, so maybe you could darken the surroundings, while
brightening the logo to simulate the beginning of the show/movie.

Last but definitely not least, make a nice transition into the next scene without
fading out or dissolving. It is always fun to go through an element into a "new
dimension".

Submitted by:
MikeT


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:How can I make cool cities without 2000 hour renders?

A:>If I was going to do a city, I am curious about modelling the buildings? Maybe
not put real rooms in, but maybe put luminance maps or something? Would one just
put a single floor map on and tile it so it looked like many floors? I just want
to avoid obvious tiling as much as possible. What if I wanted to do a fly through
of a city, ending at some spotlights and a sign, or city hall or something? What
is the best way to do something like that? Model the buildings close buy with
exceptional detail, and those far way with little? I am curious, because it seems
like it would be easy to get a high polygon count really fast....do you know of
any techniques for minimizing polygon counts in this instance?<

That's exactly what the city fly I did was - twisting through the streets of a
fantasy future city, zooming up the side of an Art Deco city hall, and ending on
the roof with a panoramic view of the city at sunset. I modeled the city hall and
a plaza in front of it with a fair amount of detail; the buildings along the path
with just enough detail that they didn't all look the same; and the background
buildings were just stretched cubes. Start with very simple shapes and set up
your flight path. Then watch a test render a few times and you'll see where stuff
needs more detail. Remember that in an animation you can get by with far less
detail than a still needs.

I did the same with textures. The buildings along the path had fairly detailed
maps and city hall was very detailed since it appeared in extreme close-up. I was
able to use many of the building textures a few times; that cut down the workload
quite a bit. Each building was a single non-tiling texture with color, bump and
glow maps. For the bg buildings I made a few variations of glow-mapped window
lights - no color or bump at all - and applied them to the cubes at different
scales, rotations and start points. Worked fine - with the bg popping in and out
of view and constantly moving even I couldn't spot the repetitions. The best way
to keep polygon counts low is to use textures instead of modeling whenever
possible. Especially in an animation, its amazing how much detail you can
simulate with good textures.

Submitted by:
Screaming Metal
[e-mail]
http://home.earthlink.net/~mac3d/


1/1/97 00:00:00

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bugs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:Is there a texturemap bug in 2.8R?

A:Yes,

Texturemaps cannot be of the size 640x480. You need to
either resize them in Photoshop or AfterEffects, or clip
a few pixels off either dimension.

This bug may apply to textures with a single dimension
of 640 pixels as well. (I had it crash like this once.)


Submitted by:
Joe Laffey
LAFFEY Computer Imaging
[e-mail]
http://www.laffeycomputer.com


9/2/98 18:50:39

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Q:Are there any import bugs in 2.8R?

A:The prefs in 2.8R are out of whack. Even if you change
the inherit settings for importing models the change will
not "stick."

You can either choose "Default Preferences" from the Edit menu (I think)
before import files... Or you can import them and then go
to the group link window of a single model and hold down
the option key as you click inherit rotation, scale, and
position.

Note that for most operation in EI holding down the option key
while you change a setting or click a checkbox will
apply the setting to all the models in the project.
This is a fast way to set the motion blur of all your
objects to motion vector.

Submitted by:
Joe Laffey
LAFFEY Computer Imaging
[e-mail]
http://www.laffeycomputer.com


9/2/98 18:57:57

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Q:What is an error #-1309?

A:I recently had this error (or something very
similar) after bringing a project from home to work. What seemed to be
the error was a bad master material. If you have any master materials, do
some tests by assigning then to simple shapes, and then render each shape
separately until you get the error or it goes away. That will be your bad
master material.

Worked for me, anyway... but I could be way off, too. Worth a try.


Submitted by:
Bear Weiter
Wombat Interactive
[e-mail]
http://www.wombative.com/bear/


9/4/98 16:17:17

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Camera & Rendering
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:How Can I use Hi-Res Models for rendering and Low-Res for animating?

A:As a work around you can keep 2 sets & swap them before you render. I've done this
several times & it works well. If you hold the option when you click "render", ei
will write out the camera temp to the camera directory (those of you who have
slave cameras probably already use this instead of rendertrauma). Camera will
launch, which you should immediately pause, go to the finder & get info on the
camera temp file & lock the file, & then quit camera. Once you've done that, swap
your 'hi-res' fact files into the folder where your low res are & move the low
res ones to another folder. Its important that the names of the models & the
objects contained in each fact file are identical other than poly count (name,
number of objects, etc...). Double click camera & it will automatically start
rendering the Camera file in its directory, now with the hi-res models. I've done
this with a great deal of success when using the "~~" model cycling feature.
Since Camera loads them one at a time, but EI wants to load them all in ram, I
found having extremely low res versions made working in EI much more pleasant,
while still getting the being able to use the hires versions when rendering.

Submitted by:
Scott Wells
Animax Design
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:How do I texturemap cycled models?

A:You have to understand that the dxf cycling option is only suitable for certain
types of animation. Fully jointed, seamless characters animated in Hash &
exported to EI would be impossible to texture in a meaningfull way. And since EI is
not aware of the nature of the cycling geometry, your textures will 'slide' as
your model moves.

If, however, you just wanted to do a characters head this way there is a bit of a
workaround on the texture issue. I promised to post this a few weeks ago & will
do so now:

What you will need is a program that can do morphs/distortions (e.g. Elastic
Reality, Morph, Movie FLo). I'd highly recommend Movie Flo, having used all three,
it is by far the superior product in terms of power & quality.

First - create the texture map for your model, using the first model in the
animation for a base.

Next, in Photoshop or some paint program, you need to make a grid that you will
map on your animated models that is the same res as the texture map. The grid
should be such that it has a main grid in one line color and a sub grid of higher
resolution (subdivides each square of the main grid into 4 smaller squares) in a
lighter color. Number each main grid with a unique number (starting at say 001, &
increasing left to right/ top to bottom) and letter each sub grid with "a-d". The
point of all this is to be able to track where the geometry moves within your
grid once its mapped to your animation. The grid needs to be big enough (pixel
dimension) so you can read the numbers & letters when you render the animation.
Those of you who have taken Zax class will remember the grid he used to
demonstrate how to create textures that map correctly to your model. This takes
that principle a step further.

Save the grid out as an Image file & import it into EI, mapping it to your
"~~Parent" using what ever mapping method you desire (spherical seems to work
best for me). Render out the animation once from the front & once from the side
(if you object's geometry is asymmetrical or animates in an asymmetrical fashion -
say a lopsided smile, you may need to render other views as well).

You'll want to resave the Image file animations as quicktime so they will be
easily accessible for reference.

In your morphing/warping package, import the grid image. In the background you
want to have the quicktime movies of your model open in movie player & the info
windows open so you can reference frame numbers. Or, to reduce clutter, you could
run them though premier & ad timecode to them.

>From this point, the basic Idea is (referencing the quicktime movies) to create
the shapes of your major masses on the model referencing where those shapes pass
though your grid. For a face, you'd create outlines for the jaw, mouth, eyes,
eyebrows, nose, etc.. by noting how the geometry intersects the lines of the grid
mapped to the face & duplicating it with control lines in the morphing program.
Once you've created all the outlines to your satisfaction, you want to walk
through the qi movies & find "key frames"of extreme motion. at these
points, take not of the frame, move to that frame in your morphing program &
modify your outlines, (again referencing the way the geometry has moved & where
it now intersects your grid).

Continue to do this for the entire sequence. Some experimentation may be required
so the texture distorts in a "natural" way. Movie Flo has an unbelievable amount
of control over both the region of influence of each control line and the quality
of the final image (no pixelating), so I would recommend it highly over other
programs.

Once you've finished, swap your grid for your texture map & render out the
sequence. Convert it to image format & replace the grid with your new movie as
the parents texture. Render your animation out of EI again for a check, then make
any adjustments necessary in your morph program.

A couple of things to note: If your working with a face, starting with a closed
mouth & going to an open mouth wont give the morph program enough information to
make a believable open mouth (you'll get stretched lips!)- the same could be said
for the eyes. Plan your animations accordingly & be prepared to paint more
texture maps that you might do true morphs between. Also, programs like MovieFlo
allow you to have different images on layers, but warp them locally & globally, so
you could break your texture into layers to avoid problems with mouths & eye
areas.


Hope this makes sense. It seems complicated, but its not that bad & works very
well. If anyone needs clarification, feel free to ask.

Submitted by:
Scott Wells
Animax Design
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:How can I take a project to be rendered on a slave machine without using
RenderTrauma?

A:Check batch render box in EI, when you hit "go" and assign a name and destination
a Camera.temp file will be written into the Jobs folder.  Take these camera.temp
files along with appropriate project, model and texture files to the computer you
installed the slave on and drag and drop the camera.temp to Camera app. and
rendering starts. There might be an easier way to do this, but this has been
working for me.

Submitted by:
Jon
[e-mail]


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:How can I get outlined objects and shadows with an alpha?

A:Use the visibility check marks next to the objects that you do not want visible
(The background, etc.) Check "Shadow Object Only" in the Group Info dialog for
any object that you do not want to see, but you do want to cast a shadow.

Check "Generate Shadow Mask" in the Group info dialog for any object (e.g. the
background) that you do not want to show up, but you do want to "catch" a shadow.
Go to the Group Color dialog for these shadow catching objects and set their
group color to black with no specular value. ( You may use another color if you
wish. This is the color that the shadows show up as in the final composite.)

Be sure you choose Millions+ in the Render dialog and if you use QuickTime make
sure you choose Millions+ for the codec settings.

If you desire to you may have the fog control fog out to an alpha value. Thus,
objects beyond a certain point could vanish from the composite. This can be
gradual or sudden depending of the settings in the starting and ending fog
values.

Submitted by:
Joe Laffey
LAFFEY Computer Imaging
[e-mail]
http://www.laffeycomputer.com


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:Any tips on rendering and disk fragmentation?

A:If you have Camera on the same disk as your rendering is being saved to...
(i.e. the temp files (shadows, reflections, etc.) are on the same disk as the
rendering. You will get some SERIOUS disk fragmentation in a very neat pattern.
You can see it with Speed Disk or Mac Tools. The system tries to allocate
contiguous blocks for files and each frame is written after the tempfiles are
written. When the temp files are removed, there is not quite enough space to re
allocate the temp files in the same place on the disk. Thus the temp files get
written AFTER the frame.. Then the whole thing starts over... Render an animation
on the same drive as your Camera and take a look at it in Speed Disk. You'll see
what I mean... Freaked me out the first time I saw it.

This also fragments the hell out of your animation making it play back very
poorly.

Submitted by:
Joe Laffey
LAFFEY Computer Imaging
St. Louis, MO
[e-mail]
http://www.laffeycomputer.com


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:How do I make my rendered image sharper?

A:EIAS texture mapping sharpness

The default texture map and anti-aliasing settings in ElectricImage tend to
create "soft" images that have no temporal aliasing artifacts. This softness
is sometimes not desired. There is great flexibility in the renderer and sharp
maps can be created without resorting to high anti-aliasing settings (eg 32x32
oversampling).

The first step in creating sharper images is to change the anti-aliasing mode
from Oversample to Adaptive in the render control window. The anti-alias
setting should be at its default of 4x4 and the sampling level should be at
its default of 1x1. Upon rerendering, you will notice that image is much
sharper.

To increase the sharpness further, adjust the Min Adaptive Sampling Threshold
in the render control window. It defaults at 0 but try it at 32, 64, 128 and
finally, 255. When both the min and max are at 255, the renderer is in its
Average anti-aliasing mode. This will yield the sharpest imagery, but may
result in temporal aliasing artifacts (ie. crawl or buzz). You may find that a
lower setting yields an acceptable level of sharpness with no temporal
problems.

A second feature that can be used to improve the sharpness of texture maps is
the Softness: pulldown in the texture map window. Changing it to None from
Sharp may actually yield better results.

Submitted by:
Kaos


2/1/97 14:11:34

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Q:Why are my camera temp files SO HUGE?

A:There are several things that can cause big control files.  The first is
deformations.  If you have used deformations, especially when you've
applied deformations to a parent of many children, the deformation record
is HUGE.  This also applies to deformations applied to plug-ins, where
the deformation record is created twice and, I believe, four times for
plug-ins that have children or are children of deformed parents.  (This
is the cause of one of the bugs where sometimes deformed children appear
as though they are deformed twice as much as they should be.)

Another main cause for large control files is the record stored by each
plug-in.  When EI writes the control file, this record is repeated for
every frame. It's also repeated for every plug-in, so if you have a scene
with lots of plug-ins you're getting a lot of duplicate information for
every single frame.

There are ways of minimizing this amount of information though.  I can't
speak for the other plug-in developers, but when the Invigorator reads
your Illustrator file, it reads in and stores the whole file.  This
includes anything on Invisible layers and any bitmaps you've placed on
the page, and any bitmaps you've used as a background for tracing over.
If you leave these things in your Illustrator file the plug-in record for
each frame becomes the size of the Illustrator file times the number of
Inivgorators you've used.  Multiply this by the number of frames and
viola! you've used up a couple of Gigs.

Just in case you're wondering why the hell the Invigorator is storing all
the bitmapped data instead of throwing it out when it reads in the
file... it's a loophole.  We decided early on to keep all the data in a
file for when we added more features in the future and you would thereby
be able to open old projects and do more with them at a later date.
However, we forgot that "all data" meant the bitmaps too, so these
slipped by.  This will be corrected in a forthcoming version, but in the
meantime, just remember to delete them before you save your file.  If the
size of your AI file is small you should be fine.  It's only when it's
over a meg and you create lots and lots of Invigorator models that you
will get Camera temp steriod meltdown.


Submitted by:
Zax Dow
Zaxwerks
[e-mail]
http://www.zaxwerks.com


9/8/98 11:3:30

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Deformations
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:Tips for multiple bend deformations

A:Firstly:
The min/max co-ordinates refer to the region along
the axis that the bend will occur
eg. if you are deforming the x axis values of -10 & 10
    would bend the object over a range of twenty units
    centered on 0.
clicking the boxes means that the deformation will
not occur outside this region, not that these numbers
are now meaningful (I naively assumed they were irrelevant
if the box was not ticked :)).
Secondly:
You want to move consecutive bends along the axis
to be deformed (with the position variable).
You can then get a pretty nice result with sharp bends
and are able to create some really outrageous curves
that you can follow with for instance a unrolling frieze
(which I was working on when I worked all this out).


Submitted by:
Nigel Caughey
PlanetGo
[e-mail]
http://www.planetgo.co.nz


5/28/97 7:11:41

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Getting Work
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:How can I get a job doing 3D animation?

A:Good question, there are several steps and ways. For example, Disney offers a
test for all potential artists. You must go to one of these tests and your work
will be judged by their experts. In my opinion this is fair. Another step is
through your Art Center or wherever it is that one studies art. They should have
placement info posted. Warner Bros Animation looks at Portfolios, Reels and art
backgrounds as do the rest. Word of advice,,, if you want to work in the film
industry then you need to relocate yourself to where the film industry is. There
are many artists of all sorts ringing the phones off the hook everyday at all
major studios. Not only do potential employers want to see your work, they want
to see you. It's very rare that someone outside the area gets hired unless he/she
already has an excellent and well known track record in their work history or
fresh out of animation/art school. As far as contracting, that all depends on the
production house you are working for. 3D Job opportunities are not limited to the
film industry, there are also game developers, TV Networks and smaller production
houses all over the country. One thing that I feel uncomfortable doing is sending
my artwork to agencies unless I'm there with the artwork.

This is the #1 way to get your hard work and ideas stolen. I have seen this
happen at every level.

There are good agents one can acquire, but then you must see that agent on a
regular basis. These agents are normally found in offices right off the lot which
brings you back to the fact that you must live in or near the studio area. I know
it hurts, but I have also seen people get great positions because of mommy and
daddy being way up in the company. On a good note 9 out of 10 artists will get
hired at one level or another. Sometimes it's enough to get your foot in the door
by doing pion work. We all have to start somewhere.

I recommend that you also get along with the Software company of whose product
you're using and see what they can offer. Attending shows such as Siggraph, NAB,
MacWorld, etc. are invaluable to your success. Regardless of the expense, the
contacts you can make there will pay for everything quickly.

On a last note I also suggest feeling around your own area if the prospect of
moving out to the big city is too much for you at this time. I'm posting the Job
Hotline # at Warner Bros. I give no guarantee of any jobs being offered, but I
did notice the job board offering jobs for 2D and 3D animators at Warner Feature
Animation. The # is: 818-954-5400. Follow the instructions from there. I hope
this helps a little.

Submitted by:
Erik Dekhoda
[e-mail]


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:Any newbie tips on dealing with clients?

A:Let me explain the points I was trying to make. Be conscious of the image you
are portraying to people as you communicate with them. 'Stuff like that' portrays
you as some one who is unsure. Which is fine in this forum asking for advice, but
something like 'or related subjects' would have conveyed the same message very
professionally. When you are dealing with clients you need to make them feel
confidant that you can do the job they need. The second half of that is Don't
Bullshit. People will usually know. You only have one reputation and it's better
to be honest and tell someone you can't do something or you're not sure than to
say 'No Problem' when you have no idea what you're doing. People will respect
you're honesty and trust you for bigger and better things.

Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Submitted by:
kory
Fox Sports


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:Any more tips for newbies seeking work?

A:If you are showing me your reel, never introduce it with an apology. If it
merits an apology, why should I bother to watch it? Be proud of your work. Of
course, if there is a technical problem beyond your control you might wish to
explain (not apologize). If the tools you have access to are limited, don't use
that as a crutch or an excuse. Creativity and craftsmanship transcend tools. Use
what ya got to the best of your ability.

Submitted by:
adam g


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:Still more tips for getting work?

A:<<Another trick is to reverse the rolls (only do this if your REALY confident)
& tell them your entertaining other projects at the same time, make them feel
they have to compete for you! As I've been very busy lately, this has, in truth,
been my situation and I've been surprised at how clients will pursue me to do
projects for them. I've got friends in other fields who have experienced the same
thing. Sometimes being "unavailable" can be the best thing for business.>>

Nobody wants to be the first person in. It is a self perpetuating cycle,
apparently, that sometimes you aren't busy, because you don't look busy! Ever go
walking by a store and looked in, and all you saw was the clerk at the back of
it, and nobody else, and even though the store looked interesting you didn't go
in, because you didn't want the clerk to come over a "help you" and try and sell
you something, because you like to shop in peace? Its the same thing with our
pianist. He always puts a couple of bucks in his tip jar at the start of the
night, or else he won't make jack. Nobody wants(except for me) to be first.
Anyways, that's my two bits.

Submitted by:
Donovan Rittenbach
CineOptic Productions


1/1/97 00:00:00

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Memory Management
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:Tell me about Memory Allocation and EI...

A:"Could not allocate transparent map: 4566754" is an error message too well known.
The result of this error is almost always a compromise, and only leaves a few
options.

Solution 1:  Buy more memory.  Although this is the most costly, it makes
rendering easier in all respects and prevents a lot of frustration.  Ultimately
this is the solution to memory problems altogether.

Solution 2:  Since spending more money is not a high priority on anyone's list,
another option is to minimize the project, or in other words make compromises
with quality.  This can be time consuming and is surely a cause of headaches.

Solution 3:  Optimize the memory usage so that you know the memory being used is
being used at its potential, before you follow any of the previous solutions.  As
a guide, the following formulas can be used to figure the basic memory
requirements for your specific project.


Polygons

1 Polygon = 100 bytes 1 Transparent Polygon = 300 bytes

ElectricImage displays the number of polygons in the project if you select
Statistics from the File menu.  Keep in mind that this statistic does not take
into account the sub-polygons Camera creates when rendering the surfaces of
complex polygons.  So this can only be used as an approximation.  The exact
number of polygons rendered is  displayed in the render information while Camera
is rendering.

You can arrive at a close estimate of transparent polygons by adding the polygon
statistics from each individual transparent group.  Then by subtracting the
number of transparent polygons from the project's total number of polygons, you
will have an approximation of the number of non-transparent polygons.

Multiply the number of non-transparent polys to 100, and then multiply the number
of transparent polys to 300.  Add these two values together and you have a good
idea of how much memory the model requires to render.

Example:

Project Total:    122504 Transparent Total:    10432    3,129,600 Non-Transparent
Total:    112072    11,207,200

Total Memory Required: Over 14 Megabytes



Shadows

((Buffersize[in pixels]^2) * 4[bytes per pixel])/1024

Don't let this formula daunt you.  It is really quite simple.

Shadows are measured in pixels, similar to a texture map.  The default size for a
shadow map is 1280x1280 pixels.  This value is set in the Light Info Window by
the Buffer Size.  Since the shadow map is a perfect square, the Buffer Size edit
box only requires a single value.  Each pixel of the shadow map requires 4 bytes
of memory.

This is calculated as follows: 1280 * 1280 = 1,638,400 * 4 = 6,553,600

In order to convert this value into kilobytes divide by 1024: 6,553,600/1024 =
6,400 or 6.4 megabytes

The equation in its entirety can be viewed as: ((1280 * 1280) * 4)/1024



Texture Maps

Summation = X * Y * 16 bytes Mip = 1.3333 * X * Y * 4 bytes Total map size =
largest texture1 + largest texture2 + largest reflection map size.

What this means is that the total map size is the amount of memory allocated to
every map in the project.  So even the smallest maps get the largest memory
allocation.  This is contrary to the idea that the physical size of an image in
megabytes determines the amount of memory needed, although there is a
correlation.

Largest texture:    1000x1000  pixels Second largest texture:    500x500
pixels Largest reflection map:    750x750      pixels

Largest texture memory:    1000 * 1000  * 16 bytes = 16megs Second largest
memory    500   * 500    * 16 bytes = 8megs Largest reflection map:    750   *
750    * 16 bytes = 12megs

Total Map Size    36megs

So every map that is in the project (including the largest and second largest)
are allocated 36megs.  This also means that all smaller texture maps can be as
large as the second largest without impacting memory usage.   This is not an
additive process, but rather maps are swapped in and out of this 36 meg
allocation as they are needed.

When transparency related maps are involved, the memory needed for those maps is
allocated at the beginning of the render in addition to the normal map
alloaction.  This has potential to really take up a lot of memory and is
something the user should be aware of, and avoid if possible.

Memory optimization

Polygons:

The best way to optimize polygons is to use ElectricImage's import and export
features.  Using the import features you can combine co-planar faces, merge edges
and vertices that reside within a certain distance of each other, and merge
duplicate polygons.

This often works magic with complex models and there have been cases where the
polygon count has been dropped by half without reduction in quality.  Be careful
with the merge features because they do have the potential to impact the quality
of a model.

The export features include options to save only polygons.  This is useful if
you have a model that has line and point artifacts floating around.  This will
strip everything but the polygons and leave you with a clean model.


Shadows:

Quite often the buffer size for a shadow can be decreased without an apparent
impact on the render quality.  This is especially true for background shadow
casting lights that are not directly the center of attention.


Textures:

There are several ways to optimize memory use for textures.

One way is to find the 2 largest texture maps and the largest reflection map and
scale them down using Photoshop.  Trial and error will bring you to the lowest
resolution setting for each of the largest maps without loosing quality.
(Remember that a map that is too small will blur.  So when you reach the blurring
point you know that it is too small.)

Another way to optimize memory usage for maps is to hierarchically link all
groups with the same texture together.  This will not actually make more memory
available, but will save the time Camera takes to swap textures in and out of
memory.

The last way to modify memory usage for textures is to use CameraExtender.  This
application allows the user to set special preferences for Camera.  One of these
preferences is to 'Load All Textures'.  In effect, every map used in the project
is loaded into memory from the beginning of the render.  This will almost always
take up more memory, but renders much faster.

'Load All Textures' can be used to save memory in cases where there is only one
texture used, and it is used multiple times in the project.  Generally, Camera is
able to locate instances and load each texture only once.  However, when only one
map is used multiple times, it takes the role of both the largest and second
largest texture.  This results in a render that takes twice the memory needed.
If you use 'Load All Textures' you will load this single texture file from the
start and it will be forced to instance the texture.


System:

Often it is the system that keeps the Camera from reaching its maximum
efficiency.  There are several things a user can do to improve render performance
through the system level.

Turn off all extensions. (Quicktime is needed for 2.5.2 versions and higher)

Turn off extras such as menu clock and background tile.

Turn off 'Calculate Folder Size', 'Info header', and files size, date, and type.


Camera:

The memory allocated to Camera has been a minor controversial issue.  Some prefer
to leave a lot for the Finder to avoid 'Type 1' errors, while others will leave a
minimum amount.  The problem is that the system memory fluctuates.  Probably the
best thing to do is to see 'About this Macintosh'.  This will show the current
amount of memory being used by all running applications.  Be sure to do this just
before your render so you get the current statistics.  When you allocate memory
to Camera, leave room for the Finder to fluctuate a couple of megabytes and the
rest can go to rendering.  This will help avoid errors.

Note:  Camera should be the only application active when it is rendering for the
best results.  Do no use renderama unless you need to batch process renders.
Renderama tends to slow Camera down because of the feedback process.




If all else fails, solution 1 is almost always the answer.  However, it is always
a good idea to contact us at ElectricImage.  After all the cause of the out of
memory error could be a bug such as a memory leak.

Good Luck, and remember:

"You can never be too beautiful, have too much money, or have too much RAM!"
-Etienne Taylor

Submitted by:
Steven Walker
ElectricImage


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:How can I have maximum memory for Camera to render?

A:You might try holding down the control key (or is it the option key.. I never
remember) when clicking the Go button in the Render dialog. This will allow you
to specify where to save a cameratemp file that is not invisible.

Let the Camera start.. Then choose pause from the camera file menu. Next go to
the Finder and lock the cameratemp in the get info box. Then go back to the
Camera and choose quit.. Then look at your largest unused block in the About this
Mac window and set your Camera partition to this size minus a meg or two for
system use...

(Might not be a bad idea to restart Mac here.)

Then double click camera. It will start the render again and hopefully it will
have more memory than before... Be sure to unlock and delete the cameratemp
before you do another render..

>To Joe, Frank (or others), one follow-up on this whole issue: Last night I tried
the control-"Go" trick and it worked, except for one very important issue: EI
didn't quit. The camera attempted to fit into the 12 Mb left over but didn't kill
EI like it usually does. Is there any way around this, or do EI and the camera
have to be in the same folder for this to>work?

When you use the control-click EI does not quit.. Which is sometimes good...

But if you are running out of RAM once Camera launches switch to it immediately
and choose "Pause" from the File menu. Then go to the Finder locate the
camera.temp file and lock it in the Get Info box. Then go back to Camera and quit
Camera. Next Quit EI. Then restart Camera and it will render the camera.temp file
in its folder...

Kind of a pain but it works...

Submitted by:
Joe Laffey,
LAFFEY Computer Imaging
St. Louis, MO
[e-mail]
http://www.laffeycomputer.com


1/1/97 00:00:00

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Miscellaneous Tips
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:Tell my about units in EI...

A:I've read several answers that were correct about this whole granger units thing,
but not quite as clear as they could be. A Granger unit is not equal the size
of the first object imported, but to one of the _units_ in which that model was
created.  For instance, if I import a human figure that is modeled in inches, my
Granger units equal one inch and my model will be about 72 Granger units high. If
I then import a model of a building that was modeled in meters, each meter will
be scaled to one inch, and I have a nice desk-top scale model of the building
next to my full sized human.  If I then import a third model, this one of a human
figure modeled using feet as the standard unit, it will come in as a six inch
"action-figure".

I usually work at full scale in Form*Z, using decimal inches (I used to work in
an old machine shop and got used to thinking in 1000ths of an inch. I should just
bite the bullet and go metric). If I need to use a third-party model, I first
import it into Form*Z and make sure it is properly scaled. This can be a bit of a
pain if a model has been created with metric units, or as I have seen often, with
no regard to scale what-so-ever using what ever units the modeling program used
as defaults. That seems to only be a problem with organic type models, as more
mechanical objects usually require some kind of numerical precision.

So anyway, what that all boils down to is that for me, one Granger unit always
equals one inch.  Most Granger related plug in stuff is either strait GUs or
GUs/Sec.

Submitted by:
Frank McIntyre
<[e-mail]>


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:Where can I find models online for download?

A:Online Models
URL: http://www.baraboo.com/3dcafe/models/

Submitted by:
Anonymous


1/1/97 00:00:00

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Modelers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:Any tips on using Amapi with EI?

A:Some Amapi file conversion hints:

If you export a file and its corrupted, or won't open at all in other apps, just
keep re-exporting. This usually fixes it. You can export the same file to the
same format several times and other apps may read all, some, or none of the
copies correctly. More of an irritation than a real problem but be ready for it.

Amapi exports get much less stable as files get bigger. If your Amapi files are
more than a couple MB in size you'll probably have to export piece-by-piece.

Be sure to give Amapi a lot of RAM if you want to import 3DS files. Amapi needs
over 80MB to open a 6MB 3DS file dependably.

Be sure to 'Force Backfaces' when bringing Amapi exports into Infini-D.

Don't use Amapi's FACT export. Use DXF instead and let ElectricImage do the
conversion. Trust me on this.

Very small objects will not import or export properly.

Amapi's 3DMF export occasionally inverts the X axis. The only solution I've found
is to export as DXF instead.


>What caught my eye is that it outputs directly to POV.  So for everyone >who has
posted requests for POV export, here is it is.

That's the reason I bought it in the first place. Unfortunately Amapi exports POV
and some other formats with the coordinate handedness flipped. This means you
have to model a mirror image of the object you want to export*. I should have
been warned since the Amapi guys didn't even know there was a Mac version of
POV...

Amapi (the full version) is a great modeler with some really aggravating quirks
and bugs. I've been using it a lot and been annoyed most of the time, but I keep
going back for more ;)  A new version was supposed to ship sometime in December.
(1996--should be out in Jan 97)


* unless you export an entire scene and use camera transformations in POV. You
can't imagine how much trouble this is until you try it.

Submitted by:
Screaming Metal
[e-mail]


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:Is there a FormZ mailing list?

A:Yes.

Send a email to [e-mail].

No subject or message body text is needed.

To sign off, send a email to [e-mail]

To mail to the list send to [e-mail]

Submitted by:
Rene Hedemyr
[e-mail]
SoftMotion AB, Sweden


1/1/97 00:00:00

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other Programs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:How great is Hash and it's compatibility with EI?

A:The models work quite well considering Hash's variable resolution output & EI's
excellent (and quick!) dxf import. I've never had a problem on EI's end with Hash
models - once they look good in Hash, they always look good in EI. Some
experimentation with the smoothing angle is ususally required.

>Also, if I'll be rendering with EI, do I need the full Animation Master version?
<

No, the only thing that the full version gets you is more rendering effects in
Hash (motion blur, network rendering, depth of field). If you want to render in
EI, this doesn't matter to you, the rest of the two packages are identical.

Submitted by:
Scott Wells
Animax Design
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:What's the best way to use Detailer with EI?

A:The following notes are designed to make EI 2.7 and Fractal Design Detailer work
together.

Assuming that the geometry to be painted is inside EI follow these steps. 1)
Select the desired group (one group only) and export as 3DMF.

2) In Detailer Import the 3DMF file. Set the 3d view to the most comfortable size
memory permitting.

3) Now you need to decide what is the best method for texture map projection that
you will use inside Electric Image that best fits the model. Keeping this in mind
there are couple of things that you should not do inside Detailer. A) You CANNOT
use box mapping. The ways that Electric Image uses cubic maps and the way that
Detailer does it are different.

4) In Detailer initiate a new texture(texture,bump,highlight, or glow) map with
the desired projection. For the first map that you define align, it with OBJECT
AXIS. All subsequent maps align with first defined map. For spherical projections
define maps that have equal number of ROWS and COLUMNS. Decide early how big your
map should be. You can rez down but not up too much without sacrificing quality.

5) Using your artistic talents and art direction, paint the texture, bump and
other maps. In Detailer, set the bump map to be INVERTED and value of 1. Set the
specular, diffuse, and reflection values to approximately planned values in
ElectricImage.

6) When complete, export the maps as Photoshop 3 documents or PICT files.

7) Quit Detailer and launch Photoshop or equivalent application. Load the texture
and bump map files from the previous step.

8) Insert copy/paste the grayscale bump map into the ALPHA channel of the texture
map. Export the resulting 32 bit image as EI IMAGE format.

9) Launch the EI project. Select the group that was painted and go to its texture
window.

If spherical projection was used: Set the spherical projection with following
values. Rotation X 0.0 Rotation Y 90.0 or -90 Rotation Z 90.0 or -90 If necessary
set transformation to Z -1.0 or 1.0 to nudge the map Turn off all repeats except
NEGATIVE Z Set WRAP ANGLE TO 360 Set BAND ANGLE to 180

For cylindrical maps: Align to either TOP or BOTTOM assuming that in Detailer
cylindrical map was defined along the OBJECT axis Turn off all repeats except
NEGATIVE Z Set WRAP ANGLE TO 360 Set BAND ANGLE TO 180.

Assuming the map you painted contains a bump map in the alpha channel: Set Alpha
to BUMP Set BUMP VALUE to 1.0

For complex shapes, such as a head of character, it is best to use spherical map
projection.

Submitted by:
(EI tech support I think)


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:Is there an After Effects mailing list?

A:Yes.

Send a email to [e-mail].

No subject or message body text is needed.

To sign off, send a email to [e-mail]

To mail to the list send to [e-mail]

Submitted by:
Rene Hedemyr
[e-mail]
SoftMotion AB, Sweden


1/1/97 00:00:00

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plug-Ins
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:How can I keep that damned Dicing dialog from showing up every 2 seconds?

You can save out your diced model as a FACT and re-import it. This way it is
already diced.

You might have two versions of your model, a low-res for animating, and a hi-res
for rendering. See elsewhere in this FAQ for techniques...


The same technique can be used for standard shapes as well.

Submitted by:
Joe Laffey
LAFFEY Computer Imaging
[e-mail]
http://www.laffeycomputer.com


1/1/97 00:00:00

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reference Material
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q:Is there an EI mailing list?

A:Yes. Visit  http://www.toolfarm.com/resources/eilist.htm  for details...

Anonymous

Submitted by:
Reference Material


Q:How Can I use Hi-Res Models for rendering and Low-Res for animating?

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Q:What are some good books on character animation?

A:Here's four of my favorites --

The Illusion of Life(The Illusion of Life---ISBN-0-7868-6070-7) - Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston

Animation - Preston Blair

Animation from script to Screen - Shamus Culhane

The Animator's Workbook - Tony White

Submitted by:
George Maestri
[e-mail]


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:Where can I get a PIXAR animation tape?

A:>I have not seen any pre Toy Story Pixar stuff except Luxor Jr. I would
however, love to see it. Can you point me towards a source for this tape? Is
Luxor Jr. on it as well?<

the Tape has:

1. Luxo (not Luxor) Jr. (1986)
2. Reds Dream (1987)
3. Tin Toy (1988)
4. Knickknack (1989)

I also recommend you "The Worlds greatest animations" from Expanded entertainment
the toll free # is 800-996-toon

Submitted by:
Rolando


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:Are there any books on special effects or ILM?

A:There a book out called.

Industrial Light & Magic
Into the Digital Realm
ISBN 0-345-38152-1

The book covers the history of ILM, leaving off with Star War New Hope.

Great pictures of John Knoll work using EIAS.

It a must have!

Submitted by:
David Sunder


1/1/97 00:00:00

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rumors
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:Is anyone gonna submit a rumor?

A:Hopefully so...

Submitted by:
Anonymous


9/8/98 10:44:17

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Secret Techniques
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:What are those hidden Advanced features of EI?

A:ElectricImage Animation System Version 1.5 Advanced Features

(NB: Many of these no longer apply to the current version of EI)

This document describes some advanced features in version 1.5 of ElectricImage
Animation System (EIAS).  These features are either experimental in nature or
were added to the software after the manual was printed.  These features have not
been as thoroughly tested as the rest of EIAS and should be used with caution.
Niether printed documentation nor telephone support is available for these
features.  Questions, comments, suggestions and bug reports should be sent to
Mark Granger on America Online (user ID "Granger").

The purpose of providing this documentation and support files is to allow some
new and experimental features of EIAS to be made available to advanced users
without having to wait for the normal beta cycle to be completed.  The success of
this process will determine whether documentation will be provided for advanced
features in future versions of EIAS.

This documentation has three sections.  The first section describes how to access
the solid texture shaders built into Camera, the second section describes the
CameraExtender application, and the third section describes some hidden features
of the system.


Built In Solid Texture Shaders

Plugin code support is planned to be added to EIAS in future versions of the
software.  These plugins will provide a method of adding solid texture shaders to
Camera.  As an experiment, several solid texture shaders were hard coded into
Camera before the plugin code support was developed.  These shaders consist of
the most common types of solid textures.  In version 1.5 of EIAS, a method was
devised to make the shaders available to users with a fairly simple (although
limited) interface.

Each shader is activated by applying a specially named texture map to a group.
The names each begin and end with a dollar sign which makes them easy to
recognize.  The contents of each texture's image is not used for mapping.
Instead, a single alpha channel is calculated which is used to mix between the
texture's material color and the selected RGB channel.  Some of the solid
textures also generate a normal perturbation which is used to generate a bumpy
surface.

Solid textures can be used in the same way as image map textures.  The Alpha
channel of the map is generated by the solid texture function.  The RGB channels
of the texture come from the Group Color of the Texture Filter material picker.
The Alpha and RGB popup boxes work in the same way they do when an image map
texture is applied to a group.  The Bump Factor can be used to scale the bump
generated by the some of the solid textures.  Unless otherwise described, the
alpha channel of the Group Color of the Texture Filter material picker is used to
scale the alpha channel which is generated by the shader.

Each of the solid textures is described below:

$Noise$ generates a simple 3D noise pattern.  The shader also generates bump
normals which can be used to give any model a randomly bumpy surface.

$Stucco$ is a modification of the $Noise$ shader.  It has the effect of producing
a stucco surface.  This shader also produces bump normals.

$Marble$ is the most commonly used of all solid texture shaders.  It creates a
simulated marble surfaces with turbulent bands of color.  Bump normals are not
generated by this shader.

$Wood$ is another very common solid texture.  Light brown or orange for the
texture color and dark brown or black for the surface color yields the best
results.  Use Cylindrical mapping for this shader to create concentric rings of
wood.  Bump normals are not generated by this shader.

$Fractal$, if used to darken the diffuse channel of a group, creates a good
weathered surface appearance.  Bump normals are not generated by this shader.

$Clouds$ is a modification of $Fractal$.  The alpha channel of the Group Color in
the Texture Filter material picker is used as a cutoff value for the fractal
noise.  The Bump Scale is used to scale the fractal noise.  Bump normals are not
generated by this shader.  This shader works best when the texture's RGB channels
are white and the group's surface color is blue.  The Alpha popup should be set
to Decal and the RGB should be set to Surface.

$Waves$ produces a concentric series of wave rings.  The rings move outwards from
the center over time.  The alpha channel of the Group Color in the Texture Filter
material picker is used to control the speed of the waves.  Zero creates
stationary waves.  255 creates waves which move out at the speed of one cycle
ever 255 frames.  The lower the value the faster the waves move outwards at each
frame.  The shader generates bump normals which will make the mapped surface
appear to be wavy.

$Mandelbrot$ is a mandelbrot set generator.  This shader is currently not very
useful because it can only be used to blend between two colors rather than
picking a color from a table.  Since the bottom left corner of the map is located
at [0.0, 0.0], the map must be offset and scaled so that the bottom left corner
of the map is in the center of your group's extents.

In addition, the texture application mode can be forced by including $Flat$,
$Cylindrical$, $Spherical$, $Cubic$ or $Planar$ in the name of any image map.

$Cubic$ is used for cubic mapping for textures and environment mapping for
reflections.  You can create your own cubic environment map by generating the six
sides of a cube in Photoshop from photographed images.  They should be taken from
a camera position facing front, facing backwards, facing left, facing right,
tilted up and tilted down from some home position.  Each image must have the same
resolution and must have a square aspect ratio (the same X and Y resolution).
Append the six images into one six frame animation and apply it as a flat
reflection map to your group.

Rather than trying to take six 45 degree field of view images from the same exact
location, you could try using a single wide angle image and then using Photoshop
to generate the six approximate sides of a cube.  When rendered, the approximation
should not be very noticeable.  The only thing you should be concerned with is
making the edges of the cube match so that seams are not visible in the rendered
image.

$Planar$ is used for blurred refraction mapping for textures and environment
mapping for reflections.  To generate a refraction map, you can render an image
of a scene from the same camera location with the group to be mapped turned off.
The image should be of the same resolution as the final rendered image.  Include
$Planar$ in the name of the map and then apply it as a flat texture map to your
group.  By raising the Mip Factor, you can create the appearance of a fogged
piece of glass.  The map's scale should be 1.0 for each axis and the offset
should be 0.0 for each axis.  You can create the effect of refraction by changing
the offset slightly.  The offset value is scaled in pixels.


ElectricImage CameraExtender Application

CameraExtender is a small application which can be used to change some special
features of Camera.  The application modifies the ElectricImage Preferences file
located in the Preferences folder in the System folder.  When this program is
launched, a modal dialog box appears with several options.  When the OK button is
clicked, the special features which have been changed are updated in the
preferences file.  Selecting Cancel will cause any changes to be ignored and the
preferences file will not be modified.  Default will set all the features to
their default values.  Revert will revert all of the features to their original
values before CameraExtender was launched.

Reserved Memory sets the amount of application memory set aside by Camera for
use by System routines.  When Camera is launched, it allocates all of the
available application memory for its own use.  The reserved memory will not be
allocated and is available for use by system routines such as those used to
display the preview window and status boxes.  The reserve memory is never smaller
than 64KB and free memory for Camera should never fall below 32KB.  128KB (131072
bytes) is the default reserved memory.  You should never need to change this
value unless you see Camera's free memory falling below 32KB (which has never
happened to our knowledge).

Motion Blur Shutter Angle adjusts the length of trails behind motion blurred
points and lines.  By default, EIAS uses 1.0 for this value which means that the
length of each trail is the distance between the point or line's position at the
last frame and its position at the current frame (0 in this box selects the
default shutter angle of 1.0).  To simulate the shutter of a more realistic
camera, a value of less that one could be used.  0.5 would be a good
approximation of many film cameras.  Values greater than 1.0 or negative values
can be used to create special effects.

Preload All Texture & Reflection Maps, when checked, causes Camera from loading
all mapping images into memory for each frame and prevents it from swapping them
from the disk.  This could force Camera to require more memory to render an image
but may make the rendering go much faster if there are many different textures or
reflections in the scene.  If you have a large amount of memory allocated to
Camera (over 32MB) this option is highly recommended because it could save you
many hours of rendering time.  If less memory is available, the decision will
have to be made on a job by job basis.  You should use this option whenever you
think Camera is spending a lot of time swapping textures and can easily fit them
all into memory.

Store Polygon Normals In Memory is another feature which can eat up more memory
but can give a small rendering speed increase.  This option has the most effect
when there are a lot of intersecting polygons in the scene.  When this option is
unchecked, the surface normal of each polygon is recalculated every time it is
used.  When checked, the surface normals are calculated once and stored in memory
for each polygon.  You could try using this option when you have 64MB or more
allocated to Camera.

Supersample Filter Transparencies will super sample all groups which have filter
transparencies or transparency maps assigned to them.  Supersampling must also be
enabled in the Render Control dialog box for transparencies to be supersampled.
Supersampling will cause textures to be appear to be four times as sharp but can
take four times as long to render.  This option should only be used when you wish
to make a transparency map sharper.  It should be used with caution because all
transparent groups must be supersampled if this option is checked.


ElectricImage Animation System Hidden Features

ElectricImage

In ElectricImage, if a group has Precision Shadows turned on and Cast Shadows
turned off, the Gap and Transition values will be forced to zero.  This will make
shadows cast on the group by other groups begin very close to the surfaces
casting the shadows.  If the group is a ground plane, for example, a thin wall
sitting on the ground will cast a shadow beginning precisely at its base.  This
trick can also be used for any group which does not need to cast a shadow on
another group.

Transporter

In Transporter, hold down the Option key and click the 'Assume Correct Normals'
check box to change it to 'Force Correct Normals'.  This will cause all imported
models to have their surface normals to point in the same direction.  This does
not prefer clockwise or counterclockwise orientation for polygon vertices, it
simply matches polygon edges so that all polygons which touch will have the same
orientation.

This option is recommend because it does not take much time when importing models
(you will probably not notice it) and it can improve the shading of many imported
models which were created in AutoCAD or other programs which do not have
clockwise or counterclockwise polygon vertex ordering.  This option will probably
be turned on all the time in the future version of Transporter and the Assume
Correct Normals option will be removed.  This option does not appear to have any
negative side effects

Projector

Projector has some hidden features which can only be accessed by pasting in two
new menu resources with ResEdit.  Use ResEdit to open "Projector Menus" and Copy
the menu resources.  Open a copy of Projector and Paste the menus into it.
Choose to replace the menus with the same IDs as the ones you are pasting.  Save
the changes to Projector and Quit ResEdit.  When you run the modified Projector
application, two of the pop-up menus will be different.

The Alpha Channel Display menu in the Preferences window now has two new options:

Invert will display the all four channels (Alpha, Red, Green and Blue) in the
display buffer with the alpha channel inverted.  This may be useful on some
display boards which require inverted alpha channels for overlaying graphics over
video.

Display will draw only the alpha channel of the image as a gray scale picture on
the screen.  This is very useful for quickly viewing the alpha channel of the
image.  You can use the Overlay mode to view only the RGB channels of an image.

The Alpha Mode menu in the Composite Image open file box now has six new options:

Screen will mix the background image with the foreground image.  Each channel is
calculated as follows:  result = (255 - background) * (255 - foreground) / 255.

Multiply will mix the background image with the foreground image.  Each channel
is calculated as follows:  result = background * foreground / 255.

Screen Composite calculates the red, green and blue channels in the same way
Screen does but the result alpha channel is chosen as the largest of the
background and foreground alpha channels.

Multiply Composite calculates the red, green and blue channels in the same way
Multiply does but the result alpha channel is chosen as the largest of the
background and foreground alpha channels.

Screen Layer calculates the red, green and blue channels in the same way Screen
does but the result alpha channel is chosen as the sum of the background and
foreground alpha channels clipped at 255.

Multiply Layer calculates the red, green and blue channels in the same way
Multiply does but the result alpha channel is chosen as the sum of the background
and foreground alpha channels clipped at 255.

All EIAS Applications

An FKey resource has always been present in all ElectricImage applications which
can be used to grab an image of the entire screen which Shift-Command-9 is
pressed.  The FKey will create an EIAS Image file if the Caps Lock key is up and
will produce a PICT file if the caps lock key is down.  If the Control key is
down, the cursor will not be hidden while the screen snapshot is taken.  You may
find this FKey useful if you are producing documentation or an animation of the
screen contents.  If multiple images are taken, each will be numbered.  You can
use the Edit command in Projector to append the individual frames into an
animated sequence.  You can use ResEdit to copy and paste the FKey into other
applications or your System file so that it will be available at all times.  You
can also change the resource ID number so that it does not conflict with some
other FKey you already have installed.  There are public domain INITs which you
can download which will allow you to activate this FKey while a menu is pulled
down.

Submitted by:
Electric Image, Inc.
117 East Colorado Boulevard
Suite 300 Pasadena, CA  91105
Voice:  [phone] Fax:  [phone]


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:What are some of the hidden features in EI?

A:This is an attempt to unveil all the hidden features in EIAS v2.7. Please fill in
the missing ones.

Ctrl - Go = Select which Camera to render with Alt - Windows Menu = Reset your
windows into the default positions Alt - File Menu = Misc new features in the
File menu Alt - Select = Misc new features in the Select menu Alt - Keyframe Menu
= Misc new features in the Keyframe Menu Alt - Checkboxes, PopupMenus = Switch
all checkboxes, menus for all the objects Alt - ObjectLock, Visibility = Switch
all lockers, checkmarks under the selected objects Alt - Assume correct normals =
Force correct normals Cmd - MoveIcon (pointing diagonal) = Adjust angel for the
move tool constrains Cmd - PlugInIcon = show some information about the plugins
Cmd - KeyframeCell = select entire row ~~parent = model cycling PageUp, PageDown
(Shift) - Scroll Up, Down (fast) HomeKey = Zoom to all objects F2, F3, F4 = Cut,
Copy, Paste Procedural Textures = $Clouds$, $Cubic$, $Mandelbrot$, $Noise$,
$Stucco$, $Wood$ $Wave$

Each file saved from EIAS contain information about who saved it. Use ResEdit to
look at it.

Submitted by:
Johan Aberg
[e-mail]


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:How can I use average anti-aliasing?

A:Most of you probably know this trick, but it is good to keep in mind when you
are rendering still images:

The default anti-aliasing type in EI is "Oversample":. This anti-aliasing type is
great for producing animated video for NTSC but causes still images to appear
fuzzy. You can make the image appear sharper by using the "Adaptive" antialiasing
mode, but to make the images really sharp, you should try "Average" antialiasing.

You cannot select "Average" anti-aliasing from the pop-up menu in the Render
Control window. Instead, select "Adaptive" and set both the Min and Max Adaptive
Sampling Thresholds to 255. When you render your image, you will see that the
anti-aliasing mode is now "Average" in Camera's information status window. The
resulting image will appear a lot sharper than either Oversample or standard
Adaptive anti-aliasing. This really helps when using EI for pre-press work or to
build user-interface elements for use in multimedia.

<Ed. Note: I do not care for the look that this gives. I feel that it is much too
contrasty. Instead I would suggest Adaptive Oversample with a min of 23 and a max
between 40 and 150. Then use Unsharp Mask in the post.>

Submitted by:
Mark Granger
VP R&D
Electric Image, Inc.


1/1/97 00:00:00

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special Effects
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:Where can I get flame and spark images or movies?

A:The ElectriKinetics CD has nice animated looped flame movies.

Editor's Note: It does have excellent flame animations. Very nice for doing
torches, etc. not to mention some excellent tutorials and models, including a
fully articulated skeleton.

There is also a CD called Pyromania available.

Submitted by:
Anonymous


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:How do I make colored light rays for stained glass?

A:Use a projection map in version 2.8. Render an image from the position of the light.
Match the cone angle of the camera to that of the light.
Then use this image as a projection map for the light. Enable volumetrics and you're set.
Shadows may need to off for the projector light to get the beams through the window.

The is a tutorial on this on the 2.8 CD.

Submitted by:
Anonymous


11/19/98 22:27:30

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Texture Mapping
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:Can I create environment reflection maps myself? How?

A:This is a trick I picked up on the AOL forum almost a year ago. It has saved me
many hours of rendering time, and allowed me to make short deadline projects look
better than they would have otherwise.

(These would be the maps that actually reflect their surroundings, not "Weird Hi-con".)

There is a nifty thing you can do when using environmental reflection maps if you
don't need the reflection to change over time.  If you set your Data folder to a
custom location then render an image that contains objects with environmental
reflection maps, Camera will put files called environment0.temp,
environment1.temp etc there as it renders.  You can then pause Camera and rename
these files $cubic$anyname.  Later, put them in the reflection map slot on the
texture map window.  Now camera will use your $cubic$ environmental map each time
without having to re-render six images for the reflection in every frame.  This
speeds things up tremendously.

The cubic reflection map is just six square image files in a row, so you can
easily build your own cubic environmental reflections.  Just make a six frame
animation file with Projector and name it $cubic$something. I always forget to
write down the order of the images for each face, but it only takes a few minutes
of testing to figure it out.  I've built up a small library of environmental
reflections that can be used in many situations; things like Living Room
Reflection, Desert Reflection, Orbiting Earth Reflection, Industrial Reflection,
High Altitude Reflection etc.

I seem to remember that this was not intentionally designed into the program.  It
just turned out that because of the way EI works, you can trick it into using
custom files for the environmental reflection map. Thus there is no documentation
of this "feature".  It sure would be nice if we had this kind of cubic mapping
for all textures, not just reflections.  I'm no programmer, but it seems like
most of the coding for such a thing must be done already since the reflection
thing works so well.

Submitted by:
Frank McIntyre
<[e-mail]>


1/1/97 00:00:00

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Q:How can I make a moving chrome sheen?

A:>>Just for the record, environment maps cannot be animated in terms of rotating
the map over time. You can, however, use an Image animation file of any length as
an animation map<<

It is a lot easier (and saves disc space) to link all your objects, including
camera and lights, to an effector (null obj.) and rotate the effector once you
have set up the animation.

This will give you that nice "moving sheen" even when the flying logo or whatever
you are animating is standing still (in relation to your camera).

Submitted by:
Mario Fuchs
Softmotion
Stockholm, Sweden


1/1/97 00:00:00

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Video & Film Output
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Q:What is field interlacing? How do I do it?

A:This is an issue that has confused so many people (including myself at one time)
it should just be uploaded weekly.

What is field interlacing? Televisions draw their screen images in two fields (or
passes). The image is drawn every other line and then goes back and draws the
other lines, (even/odd, even/odd, and so on and so on....) faster than the human
eye can see. This dates back to black and white televisions. When some of the
first tvs were created there were not two separate fields and the screen was
drawn from top to bottom. This caused a problem because the top of the screen
image would start to fade before the bottom of the image. Hence someone (Mr. TV)
came up with the idea of using two passes to draw the image. (enter present day)

Does my computer screen draw in two passes? No. The computer monitor is of better
quality and can draw pictures from top to bottom with no problem. (HD tvs can do
this also.) This becomes important later.

If video is 29.97 FPS, why does everyone suggest rendering at 59.94 FPS? AH HA.
When you render your animation non-interlaced you are creating frames at 29.97
FPS non-interlaced. Hence, there is only enough information for one field.
(Actually the television will try and fill in the gaps to the best of its
ability.) The reason for rendering at 59.94 FPS is to give After Effects (or
other converters) enough information to build both FULL fields. (Render out of AE
at 29.97 with interlacing on. Media 100 users should choose upper fields first.)
As a side note. When you render from EI as interlaced, it should take about as
long as it would take to render at 59.94. Although I receive better results
rendering at 59.94 and then field rendering in After Effects. If you are creating
animations for the web, kiosks, or CD-ROMS render at 29.97 FPS and forget about
interlacing.

With today's tvs does interlacing really matter? The jury seems to be out on that
one. In MY experience rendering with enough information for both fields produces
a much cleaner/sharper image. I will not render out to tape at 29.97
non-interlaced. The choice is yours.

I don't have the time to render at 59.94. Uh.....okay. There is another choice to
save time. Some people render their animations at 24 FPS and then use After
Effects with a 3:2 pulldown. (24 FPS being films frame rate.) This can create a
unique look but doesn't always look that great with things like flying logos.

Cut the techno stuff, how do I get the best looking animations to tape.

1. Render out of Electric Image at 59.94 FPS. 2. Import your animation into After
Effects with a comp set to 29.97 FPS. 3. Render out of After Effects at 29.97 FPS
with Field Interlacing chosen. (You may need to experiment to find out if you
need Upper Fields first or Lower Fields first. It can vary from output board to
output board.) 4. Lay off to tape.

If you (or anyone) has any questions/comments fire away.

Submitted by:
Jason Hill
Creative Director
Digital Imagery Productions
[e-mail]


1/1/97 00:00:00

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END OF FAQ
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End of the EIAS FAQ

 Last updated:  11/19/98 22:27:30

This document was automatically generated by web server software
developed by LAFFEY Computer Imaging.

Updates to this document can be retrieved from LAFFEY Computer Imaging:
http://www.laffeycomputer.com

Special thanks to Donovan Rittenbach for his efforts toward this FAQ.
Visit his website at:
http://www.sirius.com/~zen7