Light ROM 3/Light ROM 3 - Disc 2.iso/tess/tess530.txt

Text File | 1995-09-19 | 20KB | 362 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   #530
   Issue #30 of 1995, for Tuesday, September 19th
====================================================
*The Tessellation Times* (*Tess*) is Columbine, Inc.'s weekly electronic
publication usually posted overnight Monday as an online supplement to *3D
Artist* magazine. The full Web version of this issue of *Tess* is at:
  http://www.3dartist.com/tess/95/txt/tess530.htm

E-mail recipient count for this issue: 1,549
Also read in forums, on BBSs, and on Web sites worldwide!
________
CONTENTS

530.00 - Heads Up!
  530.00.01 - The Fortnight in 3D
  530.00.02 - Artists Call
530.01 - Dateline Moscow by Michele Bousquet Part II
530.02 - Readings
530.03 - News Wrap
530.04 - Opinions Rendered
530.05 - Follow-Ups

Departments
  Masthead - see "Details" below
  Calendar - events, galleries, classes & artists call
    grab ftp.3dartist.com/3dartist/calendar.txt
  Special Offers -
    grab ftp.3dartist.com/3dartist/offers.txt
  Contacts - see end of file
_______
DETAILS
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pointers to our HTML editions. This file's contents are copyrighted and may
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property of their respective owners. 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]
  Web: http://www.3dartist.com/tess/tessmain.htm
_____
Staff
Alex Kiriako, Editor, *Tess* <[e-mail]>
Rob Glidden, Technical Editor <[e-mail]>
Sally Beach, Vice Pres., Columbine, Inc. <[e-mail]>
Bill Allen, Publisher & Pres., Columbine, Inc. <[e-mail]>

---------

530.00 - Heads Up!

530.00.01 - The Fortnight in 3D

Sept. 19-21, New York, N.Y.: Video Expo Image World, Jacob K. Javits
Convention Ctr. 800/800-5474; 914/328-9157, -2020 fax.

Sept. 20-22, Boston, Mass.: CD-Rom Expo/Conference, World Trade Ctr.
Contact: CD-Rom Expo, 260 Milton St., Dedham, MA 02026. 617/361-0817, -3389 fax.

Sept. 20 & 23-24, Savannah, Ga.: Savannah 3D User Group meeting Sept. 20 and
demonstration weekend at Media Play Sept. 23-24. The demo weekend will
include Brad Hiebert from Softimage and Marshall Hash from Hash, Inc.
Contact coordinator John Brooks at CIS 75551,2037.

September 26-28, San Francisco, Calif.: Seybold Conference and Exposition at
the Moscone Center will have over 300 industry suppliers related to digital
publishing. Seybold, P.O. Box 5856, San Mateo, CA 94402-0856; 800-488-2883;
415/688-4396, -4396 fax, http://www.sbexpos.com/.

530.00.02 - Artists Call

Creativity Cafe is sponsoring interactive participatory theater from San
Francisco on 30 Sept., 13 Oct., 28 Oct., and 11 Nov. The emphasis is on
creative content concerning human potential and incorporates music, large
screen presentations, graphics, and other performances both on and off the
Internet. Call the Creativity Cafe at 415/776-0821 to set up a 15-minute
spot on the Internet group jam, E-mail <[e-mail]>, or visit
http://www.creativity.net/ccafe/.

530.01 - Dateline Moscow - Part II
  By Michele Bousquet, CIS 100237,162 or <[e-mail]>

Greetings from Moscow, comrades. This week we visited Video International's
Computer Graphics Center. Video International itself is a large advertising
agency capable of managing a product's promotion from start to
finish--packaging, print advertising, and a complete service for making
commercials and arranging broadcast times.
  The graphics division gets most of their work from the main company. For
example, a designer from the agency storyboards a television commercial,
then a film crew shoots the live portion. The work then passes to the CG
Center for animation or touch-up work.
  The CG Center houses a collection of PCs and SGI workstations, about ten
systems in all. On PCs they use 3D Studio and Animator Studio, the latter
for scanning and retouching hand-drawn animation cels.
  For their work with 3D Studio, Video International is in the fortunate
position of being able to create their own IPAS routines inhouse. Oleg
Buyborodin, the resident programmer extraordinaire, is the author of the
Camera Mapping and Refraction Mapping IPAS plug-ins, and worked on sticky
mapping for OrganiX, Danny Mercurio's new metaballs IPAS available from
Digimation.
  I had a sit-down session with Oleg where he showed me the CG Center's
latest work, much of it in the "How on earth did you do that?" category. I
now have a new respect for the Camera Mapping IPAS. Video International uses
this plug-in liberally in their work.
  I also saw an animation where a sphere unrolls itself into a flat plane.
When I asked Oleg how he did this, he showed me a 3D Studio technique for
rolling a grid into a perfect sphere. You can then morph from one to the
other. After promising to give credit where credit is due, I recorded this
event for posterity. (You'll have to get my videotape to see how it's done.)
  An ordinary job at the CG Center is 5 to 15 seconds of graphics and
animation for a television commercial. In Russia many commercials are only
five seconds long, so sometimes they create the entire commercial from
scratch. More often they are asked to create a few graphic elements to fit
in with a larger production.
  Chief Manager Kuzma Mikhailov <[e-mail]> says the CG Center also
gets a fair bit of live video touch-up work. In one instance, a client
already had a commercial made in Europe which was fine except for one small
problem. The ad, for a breath mint, showed a woman writing her telephone
number in a man's little black book. When shown in Russia, the unfortunate
owner of the telephone number was inundated with calls about breath mints.
The CG Center erased the telephone number from the offending sequence and
the commercial was re-aired.
  I couldn't help wondering how they can afford all this equipment when the
Russian ruble is so weak against the dollar and all the PC and SGI software
comes from the U.S. Kuzma told me that costs for advertising in Russia are
comparable to those of the U.S., and much of the figuring and negotiation
takes place in U.S. dollars. Kuzma quotes general prices in the same league
as the United States, such as us$500 to $1,000 per second of finished
animation. Most of the CG Center's clients are international names that
don't blink at the price.
  My cameraman, Bill Forsche, and I are the only English speaking people at
this hotel, including the staff, which has added an interesting twist to our
trip. Bill is an accomplished special effects sculptor and artist who has
worked on such films as "Beetlejuice," "Lost Boys," and a few "Nightmare on
Elm Street"'s. Before our trip he had the foresight to print up 100 pictures
of him making up Freddie Kreuger. This picture has done more to pave our way
than any amount of broken Russian and hand waving.
_________
Michele Bousquet is a much traveled 3D Studio instructor and author at work
on a series of three videotapes showing artists and their work in Europe,
Russia, Australia, and the U.S. We'll give you the details about the tapes
when they're ready. Her previous report was in TESS#527.01, and we hear that
there's one more coming.

530.02 - Readings

>From New Riders (order from Prentice Hall; 201 W. 103rd St., Indianapolis,
IN 46291; 800/428-5331; 317/581-3500, -3535 fax)

Review: *3D Studio 4 Beginners*, by Jim Lammers & Michael Todd Peterson
(ISBN 1-56205-419-8, $40.00).
  Although there are a lot of good 3D Studio books out there, few adequately
address the complete novice. Many tend to assume that the beginner has
already gone through 3D Studio's excellent documentation and tutorials, and
understood them.
  *3D Studio 4 Beginners* takes another tack that should prove more
accessible to many beginners by approaching its subject in several passes
with increasing levels of detail.
  The authors make this process straight forward with an easy genial style
and by supplying the new user with a helpful conceptual overview of what
type of creature 3D Studio is. These detailed discussions of what 3D Studio
can and _cannot_ do are sure to save a lot of hair pulling by anticipating
questions new users can't even conceptualize let alone look up. And, far
from being watered down, the depth of information supplied about the 3D
Studio environment may surprise experienced users.
  Each chapter has lots of helpful techniques and time tested
rules-of-thumb. Detailed explanations are offered on relations between the
2D Shaper and the 3D Lofter, and how to handle lettering, speed up
rendering, etc. You also get a CD-ROM with IPAS demos, chapter tutorials,
textures, and utilities.
  *3D Studio 4 Beginners* appears to be the first book on the scene with a
comprehensive teaching approach. It is quite distinct from books offering
compilations of techniques for advanced users or rehashed software
documentation, and would be a great choice for course material.--A.K.

Review: *3D Studio IPAS Plug-In Reference*, by Tim Forcade (ISBN
1-56205-431-7, $55.00) is a survey of 3DS plug-ins worthy of a team of
researchers. As a resource for production artists using 3D Studio, it is
invaluable. There are copious illustrations for each plug-in effect, and you
get a CD-ROM with over 100 demo versions of commercial plug-ins and
animations illustrating their effects. Each IPAS has a short summary
description and comes with a screen shot and brief descriptions of the
IPAS's control parameters.
  The IPAS market may take a different turn with this book. Persons doing
work with 3DS now can look up listed effects and purchase those they need
without doubts. Greater visibility for individual plug-ins should improve
interest in them, as well help buyers who until now had no simple way to
approach the confusing wealth of plug-ins available.--A.K.

530.03 - News Wrap

LightWave 3D v4.0 compiles for Windows NT (shipping version) are in full
swing according to NewTek. On 14 Sept. we were told that the Alpha compile
was at the replicator, and the MIPS compile was slated to go this week. The
Intel compile started shipping 24 Aug. Getting out the SGI and Amiga
versions is "near." Those who purchased the v4 pre-release should already
have or should soon receive the final package. It includes a CD of goodies,
Xaos Tools' Pennello, and new docs which PR chief Donetta Colboch calls "the
best documentation that's come out of NewTek ever."
  A reader who just got a copy also reports that the shipping version
includes VRML file export.--B.A.

3D sound, once the province of movie theaters and expensive home stereos, is
finding its way into home computers and could become part of 3D animation.
Fully localized sound effects might become the fifth dimension for 3D realism.
  The Orchid Nusound PNP, expected to ship in November, is an inexpensive
sound board ($199, $249 with front panel control) with wavetable synthesis,
3D audio, game compatibility, and Microsoft plug-and-play. The Diamond Ultra
Kit 8000, also offering 3D sound, consists of an 8x CD-ROM drive with
speakers, four CD-ROM titles, and wavetable for $695.
  See the 26 Sept. *PC Magazine* for more about 3D sound.

Crisis in Perspective, Inc. announced a 4.0 upgrade to its Joey Programmers
Toolkit ($250) now incorporating new Visual C++ features and a custom app
wizard. The new version supports Windows 95/NT with OLE, OpenGL, and the new
Heidi 3D API from Autodesk. Also included is *Interactive 3D Graphics in
Windows*, a new book on 3D programming techniques published by Springer-Verlag.
  Crisis in Perspective states that its Joey Programmers Toolkit with its
premade 3D programming tools will readily allow developers to create 3D
applications or add 3D capabilities to other applications directly or via
OLE. What's more, there is no run-time fee and you can check out an
evaluation copy on the Web at http://www.autodesk.com/.

Taylor Made Software, Ltd. is offering its Drawing eXchange Engine (DXE) to
3D developers for working with AutoCAD DXF and DWG files. DXE sports a
modular design allowing for incorporation of only the desired functions like
DXF read, DXF write, DXF drawing display, DWG read, and DWG write. DXE works
with DOS, Windows 3.1/95/NT, and UNIX.

The 3D file format wars may be starting to heat up. Spatial Technology, Inc.
announced that it is making its ACIS SAT format publicly available. This
will bring what Spatial Technology claims as the industry's de-facto
standard 3D modeling technology (based on the number of users alone) to the
forefront.
  The SAT format is touted as being more precise and smaller than standard
faceted formats, and capable of creating faceted models if desired. Spatial
Technology will also offer an OLE-enabled DLL for Windows developers. The
new format specification will be made available at ftp.spatial.com and
http://www.spatial.com/spatial "later this year."

We first reported on VisArt's RayMan, the 3D Studio raytracer, in
TESS#502.05.05. Version 1.5 now reportedly gives you far more functionality
at a new price point (us$399). New features and improvements are claimed to
include animation with field rendering, improved rendering speeds, lower
memory requirements, better bump mapping, and a stereo rendering mode that
doesn't require two cameras.
  Animation is handled by creating a VUE file from 3DS and bringing it into
RayMan. RayMan has adaptive antialiasing, depth of field, distance cueing
and fog, soft or sharp reflections, refractions, and textures. RayMan 1.5
also has an optimized Z-buffer for quicker rendering of non-refractive and
non-transparent surfaces. Area light sources are also supported with
umbra/penumbra and light caustics. Other RayMan features include alpha
channels, selected object rendering, Hall-illumination, and support for a
wide variety of file formats.

530.04 - Opinions Rendered

In presenting readers' letters, *Tess* reserves the right to convert text to
our writing standards, to edit for length and focus, and to apply our flame
filter.

LTR> I noticed that you listed an IPAS add-on for 3D Studio and Caligari's
separate World builder yet you don't mention LightWave 3D. The version I
just bought (4.0 Intel) has full VRML exporting built into it.--Phil Thorn

RESP> This E-mail received 15 Sept. was the first that we knew that VRML
output was included in the newly shipping final version of LW3D v4.0 (see
above), although we did mention in TESS#525.01 that NewTek announced at
Siggraph '95 that it would be adding VRML support. The writer is referring
to our VRML Products & Suppliers page,
http://www.3dartist.com/3dah/vrmlcont.htm, which has been updated.--B.A.

LTR> In regards to TESS#528.06, you suggested that users may want to start
with a P90 or faster system and consideration should be given to a
multiprocessor system. I would remind you and others looking to acquire a
high performance machine to consider a faster generation of processors, the
DEC Alpha 21064A and 21164--the kind you will find in DeskStation
Technology's Raptor 3 line of computers.--Mark F. Jaimes, Inside Sales
Manager, DeskStation Technology, Inc.

RESP> In TESS#509.00.06 (April) and #528.06, we were only forwarding the
inside advice that someone who expected to be moving to the next generation
of production desktop 3D software on Windows NT, and who couldn't postpone
hardware purchases, should buy nothing less than a Pentium 90 with lots of
room for RAM. We did not say to buy only Intel, only that the P90 was the
minimum CPU. However, for the many production artists and animators
currently using programs that don't run well under NT (e.g., 3D Studio and
Topas), non-Intel CPUs are of little use until the next generation software
actually arrives, while Pentiums will serve now and after.
  The respective software publishers won't yet go on record about what
compiles they will provide, but doing an NT recompile is easy enough, and
lacking an Alpha compile would be a serious disadvantage. Production users
of software such as LightWave 3D and Animation Master are already on Alphas
or looking at them seriously, so they don't need any of this advice.--B.A.

530.05 - Follow-Ups

CrystalGraphics, Inc. has moved to: 3350 Scott Blvd., Bldg. #14, Santa
Clara, CA 95054. Phone numbers remain the same.

529.00: We forgot to mention that you can grab a text checklist of the Santa
Fe Web Walk of Artist Gallery Pages as
<ftp.3dartist.com/3dartist/santafe.txt>. It includes artists' names and URL
addresses, and a copy of our draft jurying criteria.
  There are 14 galleries listed as of last Friday and more are in review.
The newest addition carries the whimsical mathematical images and humorous
commentary of Truman Brown, a name long familiar to POV and Vivid fans for
his raytracing work and for his utilities such as CTDS (Connect the Dots
System). He wrote about his work in *3D Artist* issue #s 8 and 10.--B.A.
________
CONTACTS

> Crisis in Perspective, Inc.; 1306 NW Hoyt St. #409, Portland, OR 97209;
503-227-2584; CIS 74107.2217.
> Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc.; 2880 Junction Ave., San Jose, CA
95134-1922; 800/468-5846; 408/325-700, -7070 fax; http://www.diamondmm.com/.
> Digimation; 1000 Riverbend Blvd. #L, Saint Rose, LA 70087; 800/854-4496;
504/468-7898, -5494 fax; <[e-mail]>
> NewTek, Inc.; 1200 S.W. Executive Dr., Topeka, KS 66615; 800/847-6111;
913/228-8000, -8001fax
> Orchid Technology; 45365 Northport Loop W., Fremont, CA 94538;
800/767-2443; 510/683-0300, 510/490-9312 fax.
> Spatial Technology, Inc.; 2425 55th St. Bldg. A, Boulder, CO 80301;
303/449-0649, 303/449-0926
> Springer-Verlag; P.O. Box 2485, Secaucus, NJ 07096; 800/777-4643;
201/348-4033, -4505 fax.
> Tailor Made Software, Ltd.; 28006 - 122nd Plc. SE, Kent, WA 98031;
206/637-1513, 639-4022 fax.
> VisArt Computergrafik GmbH; Essener Str. 5, D-46047 Oberhausen, Germany;
208 85738-0, -24 fax; CIS 100114,1717

Please mention TESS when contacting companies about products reported here!

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