rnollman@maxzilla.encore.com (Richard Nollman) (12/27/90)
I recently bought an A3000 and Imagine. My first experience with software was a good one (Deluxpaint3) and I was probably spoiled. My experience with Imagine has been horrendous. For months before I bought my computer, I kept reading about Turbo Silver as the program to use for rendering. So when I heard that Imagine was coming out, I waited, figuring that lots of people out there have been using Turbo successfully, and that the learning curve would be a little longer than Deluxpaint. I was wrong. I have been working my way through the first tutorial without much success. The documentation does not agree with the software in many places. My local Amiga store verified this from experiences of other customers who bought the package. I really want to use this product, but I need help. In the first tutorial (the one that morphs a circular figure into a cube to "demonstrate the power of Imagine"), I was not able to understand how the camera is supposed to work. It really is a pathetic 'feature' of the software. It is so tiny that I had to strain to see where the little projectile which I assumed to be the camera lens was pointed. Then (as the manual suggested) I tried the Track to Object feature to track the camera to the object I was supposed to be rendering. The manual told me that when I selected DONE from the Stage Editor, the object (the circular object -- form.1) would appear centered in the perspective window. The perspective window was empty. I eventually just dumbly placed the camera on top of the object in the three perspective windows and that seemed to work. But I do not think that is the correct way to Track to an Object. Anyway, I ran the wireframe preview and instead of watching the circular object (form.1) morph over 28 frames to the cube (form.2), form.1 became a cube in frame 2, leaving the other 28 frames repeating the shape of the cube (its final form). I could not figure out how make a gradual transformation (the manuals were not very helpful). Finally, I gave up, accepted the abrupt transformation, and followed the instructions in the manual to create the animation frames from the Rendering Screen (menu?). (At this point I just wanted to see some kind of rendered image.) Then it went off and for 20 minutes or so created the 30 frames. When it was done, I tried to run the animation (according to the directions in the manual). The screen went black, and that was it. I had to reboot. I never saw any images. A friend demonstrated Lightwave on the Toaster and by comparison the user interface was easy and very intuitive. I am on the verge of just selling Imagine and waiting for the Toaster to come out on the 3000 (at least I know that there is someone that can help me learn how to use it). If there are other people who have bought Imagine out there, who have no prior experience with Turbo Silver, I would like to hear from them. I am convinced this package has alot of power. I just do not know how to get to it.
menzies@CAM.ORG (Stephen Menzies) (12/28/90)
menzies@CAM.ORG (Stephen Menzies) writes: >rnollman@maxzilla.encore.com (Richard Nollman) writes: >>I recently bought an A3000 and Imagine. My first experience with >[stuff deleted] >>or so created the 30 frames. When it was done, I tried to run the >>animation (according to the directions in the manual). The screen >>went black, and that was it. I had to reboot. I never saw any > The most obvious possibilities are 1) you don't have any lights > in your setup. Either add a light in the STAGE Editor or Add an > Object via the ACTION EDITOR (btw, I in the above paragraphs I > mistakenly refered to the Action Editor as the Stage Editor) and > pick "light source". I wouldn't get fancy here, just accept the > defaults or 2) your objects have no attributes (color info etc). > If this is the case, reload your object(s) into the Detail Editor > and provide them with Attributes and save them.(Its not neccessary > to reload them into the Stage Editor) or 3) your Camera was not > directed towards the objects (remmber to select, Camera view) or > 4) you're having problems with the numerous types of rendering > or sizes 5) you're not using version 1.0. In an afterthought it occurred to me that your "Ambient" light may have been left at it's default, 0,0,0. You can check this by clicking on the Global channel in the Action Editor. If it can help, I usually set the RGB values anywhere from 45,45,45 to 80,80,80 and in certain cases where I want a "clearer" transparency I may go over 100. Ofcourse you can also vary the values to give a colored ambient light. In is possible to have a black screen if the Ambient is 0,0,0 and certainly if the light source is set to "diminish" and is too far from subject. BTW, you will find Impulse very helpful if you call them on their 800 number. Also another very good resource is the TurboSIG Bulletin , a monthly 8 page bulletin covering Turbo Silver and now Imagine and 3D in general. The bulletin is full of short articles, tips, interviews,info. I have always found something new for me each month. CONTACT: The TurboSIG-Victor Osaka 1341 Ocean Ave. #349 Santa Monica, CA. 90401 Subscription Rates: $15.00 per year Other Countries: $27.00 US -steve >-- >Stephen Menzies >Email: S.Menzies@CAM.ORG -- Stephen Menzies Email: S.Menzies@CAM.ORG