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REVIEWS
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About_Anim
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1988-05-28
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*****************************************************
a review on...
VIDEOSCAPE 3D by Allen Hastings & Aegis Development..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The DIRECTOR by Keith Doyle & The Right Answers Group..
~~~~~~~~~~~~
.. A demo or two and a word or two....
by Rob Englander ..
*****************************************************
VIDEOSCAPE 3D...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VideoScape 3D is a solid modelling graphics animation program, or
rather, several different programs, totally combining to give you a
pretty powerful 3D animation package, enabling you to create graphic
animations, or even full length animated movies (with the aid of a
video recorder).
In VideoScape 3D,three dimensional objects can be moved through
a three dimensional space, giving the illusion of reality. In
addition to being able to move objects, the light source and also
the point of view (the camera) can be changed as the animation is
recording.
*>---- VideoScape components have no restriction on movement,they can
be moved in any direction, turned in any direction and viewed from
any direction.
Were each frame of such an animation calculated and drawn by hand
the work would be enormous. Such are the tasks at which computers
excel. Redrawing each picture in accordance with the effects of
movement upon size, perspective, color shading, and so on, is taken
care of automatically by VideoScape 3D. Released from such time
consuming work, the operator is free to concentrate upon the
artistic process.
VideoScape 3D allows individual, complex paths of motion for
animated objects simultaneously with control of the position and
orientation of the "camera's" point of view. Along with VideoScape,s
numerous other features, this makes animations of prodigious
complexity possible.....
So ends part of the VideoScape 3D manual's introduction, and I
agree with all of it...except the part about being released from all
the time consuming work. Being relatively new to computers I found
VideoScape,s idea of object composition instructions, motion and
camera instructions, and other instructions being continually created
and edited, via the text editor initially a bit confusing and tiring.
But now after spending more (Yawn) 5ams than I care to remember
editing, calculating and trying to get a reasonable animation going
I am slowly starting to get the hang of it.
_____________________________________________________________
VideoScape 3D is comprised of three discs:
1). The VideoScape Disc...
2). The Objects Disc...
3). The IFF Disc...
DISC 1...
The VideoScape disc has the main program with which you can create
all your neato little animations.
*>---- The control window appears once the program has been successfully
loaded. This is the "command center" of VideoScape 3D. With it you
can preview object appearance, experiment with various effects, and
finally assemble all of the various elements into a complete animat-
ed scene.
It is separated into four main operational areas, called "panels",
and a conventional menu bar across the top......
The OBJECT DESCRIPTION Panel contains the tools and data displays
necessary to load objects and control their motion....
The CAMERA MOTION Panel contains similar options for controlling
the camera (viewpoint), including its zoom factor and mode of frame
advance.
With the VIEWING OPTIONS Panel, you choose the overall visual
parameters which will be in effect throughout the scene.
The SCENE PANEL is a panel of four buttons along the bottom of
the control window that let you save all the settings that comprise
a scene, reload previously saved settings, or activate them for
visual review or actual recording onto film or video... The last
button on the scene panel is quit, and we all know what happens
with that.
Also found on the main disc are two utilities designed to help
in creating and editing VideoScape objects. Their names are acronyms:
EGG --Easy Geometry Generator and OCT --Object Composition Tool.
EGG is used to create specific types of objects by simply entering
information from the keyboard in response to the programs prompts..
OCT uses the same question/response method to manipulate a single
object or join two or more objects into a single, larger one.
Included as well is the Designer 3D program written by Colin French,
this is the enhanced version of the public domain 3D designing
program "ROT".
D3D more or less lets you design simple objects in three dimensions
while viewing those dimensions (length,breadth and width) in three
windows, you use the mouse to make your necessary ajustments.
When you want, you can switch over to the action editor to see your
object assembled.
DISCs 2 & 3...
The Objects disc has drawers containing some sample objects and
motions as well as camera motion files. These files can also be
edited using just your own CLI...saved under a different name so as
not to wipe the original.
There are quite a few samples here..a red Lotus sports car,
a house and garden, the red and white amiga ball, the alphabet and
heaps more.....
The IFF disc has pics that can be used for foregrounds, backgrounds
or both..or you can design your own using Deluxe Paint II or any
other paint program which utilises the IFF exchange format...
And all this can be recorded on your VCR using the video, and
overscan modes to create full length animated movies..
Now let's see all those Steven Spielbergs out there...
* * *
The demos that I have included are bits'n'pieces of an animated
sci-fi video that I am working on. Spacewiz was created with Video-
Scape 3D. ..Alieneyes with Deluxe Paint II(Pal) & The Director.
All animations are recordable on video (in color if you have the
PAL chip)... Anyhow this will give you some idea of what is possible...
You could get quite a bit more elaborate, with more memory to spare.
In Videoscape 3D (as in some others) the individual frames are
compressed..(that is roughly speaking, only the differences between
each frame are recorded..this saves on memory.)...into a single
playable animation. Even with the compression of frames, memory used
is high, hence the slight mistakes where I cut some of the frames out
to allow room on the disk for both animations. The SPACE WIZ anim
was almost totally created using VideoScape..all except the interior
of the cockpit, which was made using an IFF paint program.
(...As I am still a beginner my examples are pretty rough and
and don't really do justice to VS3D and the Director..)
[Ed: Anyone who would like to see Rob's animations can get
in touch with him through us.]
THE DIRECTOR..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*>--- The director is a slideshow/animation/scripting program that
allows you to setup a series of display events to be sequenced by
the Amiga..including custom animations, graphics drawing functions,
and the display of standard IFF image and ANIM files (VS3Detc), as
well as many other animations and effects.
The Director can be utilized for a variety of presentation
tasks, including slideshows, video presentations, interactive games,
educational presentations, and experimentation with the Amiga's
powerful display capabilities.
The Director is compatible with the IFF standard..Pictures and
digitized sounds are easily loaded and used within a script, that,
when run, gives some pretty amazing effects..
The Director was responsible for much of the animation/graphics
display in a 30 minute television production, simulating the contact
of an unmanned surveillance craft with an alien planet in the Alpha-
Centauri system. Also Director was used in the making of a number of
computer animations submitted to the Badge Killer computer animation
competition, some of which are in the public domain.
>(The probe sequence is also now in public domain.)<
[Ed: anyone who wants to see these remarkable demos can get them
from our PD library - "Probe", "RGB-Hazard" and a couple made by
Graeme Whittle.]
Unlike many other display and animation programs, The Director does
not have a pictorial interface for configuring animations, it uses a
"script" oriented system, which, according to the makers, is the best
way to retain the complete flexibility required to create sequence
effects such as randomness and conditional looping, user interaction
and easy editing.
The script language conforms where possible to the BASIC computer
language. The makers chose BASIC because it is both easy to learn,
many people are already familiar with BASIC, and a version of BASIC
comes with the AMIGA.
The manual is designed to be easy to read and understand even for
people who may never have even worked with a computer before. You do
not need to be a programmer to use the Director effectively.
The Director's script language provides a simplified set of BASIC-
like commands, but at the same time differs from BASIC in that it has
built-in features for reading IFF files, using text fonts, managing
screens, using the Amiga's specialized graphics hardware, digitized
sounds and performing a variety of display effects..
VIDEOSCAPE 3D & THE DIRECTOR are both NOT copy protected..
Spread the word not the disk...
~~~
Both animations can also be run from CLI with the following
commands, calling up the program PLAYANIM (one of two player
programs supplied with VideoScape.)and PROJECTOR a play only
program supplied with The Director...
playanim -c5 +3 saturn.anim
* -c5 -- you want the program to run five times in a
continuous loop...
* +3 -- the speed..
-------------------------------------
* projector alieneyes.film --don't forget drives and
directories...
.... All in all VideoScape 3D can achieve effects that you could
probably only get on one of those great whizz-bang graphic
animation generators the television networks use....
But you have to pay for it.$345.00 for mine in Nov.87..(Adelaide)
The DIRECTOR gets my vote as being great value for money..
around the $100.00 mark..(prices vary)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* * * * * * * * * * * *
*>---- Excerpt--Introduction.. VideoScape..Aegis Development..
*>--- " " --Manual The DIRECTOR..Right Answers Group..
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