thomas@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Thomas Summerall) (10/29/90)
I am a consultant for a small video production company. We use a 2000 with nine megs and a supergen 2000s. Deluxepaint III is our animation software of choice. We also do a lot of frame grabbing in concert with the animations. The time has come to upgrade the system. We are looking at accelerator boards, but we are mostly concerned about increasing the number of colors/resolution. As far as I know, the toaster is the only way to do this. The problem is this. If we use the toaster (assuming it's out) how can we use dpaint's amazing animation features? Is there animation software specifically for the taoster? Does it run stuff live? How much acceleration will we need? How many bit planes is it? Does it have as many 2d features as dpaint? Might there be a dpaint IV that supports higher resolutions? Are there other options besides moving to a different platform? Thanks, Thomas Summerall
mikep@hpmwtd.HP.COM (Mike Powell) (10/30/90)
There is an INCREDIBLE animation package that come FREE with the toaster called Lightwave. It is a true 3-D animation program, while DPIII produces 2-D animations... One other critical difference is that the .anim type files that can be created with DPIII cannot be done with the toaster. The rendering from Lightwave must be sent to videotape frame-by-frame in order to produce an animation. I know of no plans to attempt to do delta-frame animations with the Toaster (this is what DPaint uses). Hope this helps. -Mike-
dak@pro-graphics.cts.com (DAK Productions) (10/31/90)
In-Reply-To: message from thomas@eleazar.dartmouth.edu Very good question? We are in a similar boat and have always believed the strength of the Amiga is to run animates "right out of the box. I don't think the Toaster will support any animation other than through LightWave. Although this is VaERY high quality imaging it is 3D and requires single frame recording. That's additional hardware and chewing up a VCR or getting a frame recorder (ouch!) A great way to "animate" on the other hand is to load logos into the DVE function of the Toaster and zoom bounce or whatever, similar to the functions in PVP/Post but simpler and with less work and time required. Theses images would have to be brough in through oaster paint and the end result is, subjectively, better than straight iff out. We use a GVP 030 and it makes a significant difference when running larger anims. We're not running 32bit mem yet but I'm told this further increases the speed. IT WOULD BE ABSOLUTLY WONDERFUL if DPAINT 4 took advantage of the 030 and or the 881/882. Although DPAINT doesn't use them now, as I said , anims runn considerably faster in the machine with them. Probably because it moves everthing around faster than a stock machine. HAM-E is a product we're looking at as a means to get higher res without sacrafising DPaint anims. From what we've found out so far it could be the ticket! We will probably order one this or next week and we'll post our results. If you know of anyone using it to "bump up " anims please let us know! Hope some of this information helps, seeya on the Radio.....DAK
jerry@truevision.com (Jerry Thompson) (11/09/90)
I have seen Lightwave and it does appear to have an emormous number of features. The user interface seems to be a weird bird though. Maybe once you get accustomed to the way it does things, it will make sense. The Calligari interface still seems to be the best. Oops, I better be careful as I haven't seen Imagine... yet. Put that on my ToDo list. Lightwave should at least output IFF files, so you could assemble them into an animation later (not 24 bit, but what do want!) It should do this... right guys... please... for the love of God, please! -- Jerry Thompson | // checks ___________ | "I'm into S&M, "What I want to know is, have | \\ // and | | | | Sarcasm and you ever seen Claude Rains?" | \X/ balances /_\ | /_\ | Mass Sarcasm."
bobl@pro-graphics.cts.com (System Administrator) (11/14/90)
In-Reply-To: message from jerry@truevision.com > I have seen Lightwave and it does appear to have an emormous number of > features. The user interface seems to be a weird bird though. Maybe > once you get accustomed to the way it does things, it will make sense. > The Calligari interface still seems to be the best. Oops, I better be > careful as I haven't seen Imagine... yet. Put that on my ToDo list. > Lightwave should at least output IFF files, so you could assemble them > into an animation later (not 24 bit, but what do want!) It should do > this... right guys... please... for the love of God, please! The Lightwave software does allow the saving of either 24 bit IFF images or raw RGB files when rendering. The only other option is to run a VTR controller. As far as the interface goes, I find it to be better than calligari's once you get use to it. It certainly models alot better than Calligari. Moving aroundt the scenes are a snap and the animation conventions are a snap. Much easier than Calligari. You get a bit more bang for the buck with Lightwave and a toaster. -- Bob ______ Pro-Graphics BBS `It's better than a sharp stick in the eye!' ________ UUCP: crash!pro-graphics!bobl | Pro-Graphics: 908/469-0049 ARPA/DDN: pro-graphics!bobl@nosc.mil | America Online: Graphics3d Internet: bobl@pro-graphics.cts.com | CompuServe: RIP _________ ___________ Raven Enterprises 25 Raven Avenue Piscataway, NJ 08854