jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) (08/11/90)
Wow. Wow. Wow.
Loads of A3000's, in a booth equivalent to Sun or any other workstation
class vendor. They were showing Disney's Animation package, Animation
Station (I think it was AS. It had Bezier curve based animation and
"spines" for objects), ASDG stuff, X software, etc. It was way cool.
NewTek had a large booth, showing the VideoToaster live and in action.
They had a unit you could play with ("keep it away from that guy over
there in the suit" the woman who let me look at the card told me.
Later examination of his badge showed he was from Sony. :-) They
also had a 4d rendering package (Imagine? Is that from NewTek?)
being demoed; and, of course, the Penn and Teller demo tape.
Lots of people were crowded around both the CBM and NewTek booths.
What I overheard the most: "That's the educational cost. What's the
*real* cost for us end users. You're kidding. That's the
*retail* cost?"
Also, I ran into two salesgoons from the local (and only) Amiga
dealership. It was a pleasant surprise.
--
J. Eric Townsend -- University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics (713) 749-2120
Internet: jet@uh.edu
Bitnet: jet@UHOU
Skate UNIX(r)ked01@ccc.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) (08/12/90)
In article <1990Aug11.001916.9035@lavaca.uh.edu> jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes: > > NewTek had a large booth, showing the VideoToaster live and in action. > They had a unit you could play with ("keep it away from that guy over > there in the suit" the woman who let me look at the card told me. > Later examination of his badge showed he was from Sony. :-) They > also had a 4d rendering package (Imagine? Is that from NewTek?) > being demoed; and, of course, the Penn and Teller demo tape. OK ... I'm ready for a good laugh ... What was NewTek's "story" this time concerning actual availability? Price? Hopefully they have been able to come up with something more creative than: "It's in FCC testing" (where it has been for a year or two), or "DRAM prices are (still) too high" (which was worn out 18 months ago), or "We decided to re-engineer it to work on 3000's/2.0" (which means we can play this vapor- ware game all over again, whilst still keeping the market stifled). /kim -- UUCP: kim@uts.amdahl.com -OR- ked01@juts.ccc.amdahl.com or: {sun,decwrl,hplabs,pyramid,uunet,oliveb,ames}!amdahl!kim DDD: 408-746-8462 USPS: Amdahl Corp. M/S 249, 1250 E. Arques Av, Sunnyvale, CA 94086 BIX: kdevaughn GEnie: K.DEVAUGHN CIS: 76535,25
jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) (08/12/90)
In article <fctU02P101n601@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> ked01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Kim DeVaughn) writes: >In article <1990Aug11.001916.9035@lavaca.uh.edu> jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes: >> >> NewTek had a large booth, showing the VideoToaster live and in action. >> They had a unit you could play with ("keep it away from that guy over >> there in the suit" the woman who let me look at the card told me. >> Later examination of his badge showed he was from Sony. :-) They >> also had a 4d rendering package (Imagine? Is that from NewTek?) I remember now: They were showing off LightWave. There was also an animation in the rejects show (a friend at Pixar told me it was the "animation for the artistically impaired" show) produced on an Amiga with "LighWave". It was "Rush Hour", by Allen Hastings, produced on an Amiga 2000 using NewTek LighWave. >What was NewTek's "story" this time concerning actual availability? Price? $1495? $1595? GA is not been specified, but "developers are getting units already". For $1600 you get a VT and a calculator (according to Penn and Teller :-). One more thing: "Animation - Agony & Ecstasy 30 Times a Second" was shown in the Screening Room. It was produced on an Amiga 500 with Deluxe Paint 2.0 and Quickflix 1.03 by Stephen A. Wroble. It got the most applause I heard for any of the stuff shown in the rejects show. (This is a very funny quick slide-show about trying to do animation on an Amiga.) There were a total of 5 Amiga-based animations in the Screening Room. -- J. Eric Townsend -- University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics (713) 749-2120 Internet: jet@uh.edu Bitnet: jet@UHOU Skate UNIX(r)
millerjv@rigel.crd.ge.com (Jim V Miller) (08/14/90)
In article <1990Aug11.001916.9035@lavaca.uh.edu> jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes:
Wow. Wow. Wow.
Loads of A3000's, in a booth equivalent to Sun or any other workstation
class vendor.
Just a slight correction. Commodore's and NewTek's boothes were about half
the size of Sun, HP, etc.
But they were still really impressive. I don't have a use for Video Toaster,
but it sure was neat.
--
Jimmy Miller
General Electric Corporate Research and Developement: millerjv@crd.ge.com
Rensselaer Design Research Center (RPI): jvmiller@rdrc.rpi.edu
"All I need is room to play."seanc@pro-party.cts.com (Sean Cunningham) (08/14/90)
In-Reply-To: message from ked01@ccc.amdahl.com Oh, you haven't heard... The Video Toaster has passed FCC classA...meaning its available for sale to "professionals". FCC class B is expected in a few months for average joe buyers... The Toasters (according to our contact at NewTek) will ship the first week of September, with ToasterPaint and LightWave 3D...we've already got brochures and all on it...and four of them ordered...and already spoken for :') Sean //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// UUCP: ...!crash!pnet01!pro-party!seanc | ARPA: !crash!pnet01!pro-party!seanc@nosc.mil | " Fanatics have their INET: seanc@pro-party.cts.com | dreams, wherewith they | weave a paradise for RealWorld: Sean Cunningham | a sect. " Voice: (512) 994-1602 PLINK: ce3k* | -Keats | Call C.B.A.U.G. BBS (512) 883-8351 w/SkyPix | B^) VISION GRAPHICS B^) \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
cmcmanis@stpeter.Eng.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (08/14/90)
In article <fctU02P101n601@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> (Kim DeVaughn) writes: >Hopefully they have been able to come up with something more creative than: >"It's in FCC testing" (where it has been for a year or two), or "DRAM prices >are (still) too high" (which was worn out 18 months ago), or "We decided to >re-engineer it to work on 3000's/2.0" (which means we can play this vapor- >ware game all over again, whilst still keeping the market stifled). I like the Atari story, whenever a new product previews, the one that is supposed to work was "dropped by the UPS guy" and so unfortunately it can't be demonstrated. Of course it will ship in production quantities next month. ha ha ha. The NewTek people are just new to the game. I can't believe the Digiview revenues have kept them alive this long. -- --Chuck McManis Sun Microsystems uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: <none> Internet: cmcmanis@Eng.Sun.COM These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. "I tell you this parrot is bleeding deceased!"
mark@calvin..westford.ccur.com (Mark Thompson) (08/14/90)
In article <1990Aug11.001916.9035@lavaca.uh.edu> jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes: >Loads of A3000's, in a booth equivalent to Sun or any other workstation >class vendor. They were showing Disney's Animation package, Animation >Station (I think it was AS. It had Bezier curve based animation and >"spines" for objects), ASDG stuff, X software, etc. It was way cool. I think you have a few different products mixed up. Disney Animation Studio was being demoed next to Hash Animation Journeyman. It was Journeyman that was doing spline surface 3D objects being animated on spline motion paths. The Disney product is a 2D cel animator. >NewTek had a large booth, showing the VideoToaster live and in action. >They had a unit you could play with ("keep it away from that guy over >there in the suit" the woman who let me look at the card told me. >Later examination of his badge showed he was from Sony. :-) They >also had a 4d rendering package (Imagine? Is that from NewTek?) >being demoed; and, of course, the Penn and Teller demo tape. Imagine is an Impulse product which was being demoed with the Firecracker frame buffer over at the Commodore booth. The NewTek renderer is called LightWave 3D. Both it and the Toaster made quite an impression at the show. I overheard a couple of Exhibitors by the RasterOps booth trying to convince a Mac owner that for her video work, she would be better off selling her Mac and getting an Amiga/Toaster combination rather than wasting any more money on the Mac. Pretty good advice coming from a couple of Macintosh peripheral people. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Mark Thompson | | mark@westford.ccur.com | | ...!{decvax,uunet}!masscomp!mark Designing high performance graphics | | (508)392-2480 engines today for a better tomorrow. | +------------------------------------------------------------------------- +
baer@qiclab.uucp (Ken Baer) (08/16/90)
In article <1990Aug11.001916.9035@lavaca.uh.edu> jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes: > They were showing Disney's Animation package, Animation >Station (I think it was AS. It had Bezier curve based animation and >"spines" for objects) The new Disney package (formerly Onion, formerly Backlight) is called Disney presents The Animation Studio. It is a program for doing 2D Cel animation, by hand (you do the in-betweening, not the program). The program with spline curves, was Animation:Journeyman from Hash Enterprises (I was the one showing it). BTW, they weren't Bezier curves, they are a new kind of 3D spline that we developed. Another important distinction between the Disney program and Journeyman is that JMan is 3D. I just wanted to clear up this misunderstanding. >NewTek had a large booth, showing the VideoToaster live and in action. >They also had a 4d rendering package (Imagine? Is that from NewTek?) You mean Allen Hasting's new animation program for the Toaster? It's called LightWave, and it's fantastic. Imagine is the new program from Impulse that was also in the Commodore booth. >-- >J. Eric Townsend -- University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics (713) 749-2120 -- // -Ken Baer. Programmer/Animator, Hash Enterprises / Earthling \X/ Usenet: baer@qiclab.UUCP or PLink: KEN BAER "These new tax forms really aren't much easier" -- Mighty Mouse.
ammrk@swpyr2.sbc.com (Mike R. Kraml) (08/16/90)
In article <140582@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> cmcmanis@stpeter.Eng.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) writes: > >The NewTek people are just new to the game. I can't believe the Digiview >revenues have kept them alive this long. The rumor I heard was that Commodore basically bought out NewTek a couple of years ago when NewTek got in trouble with the FCC for the Digiview product. Rumor has it that they were fined some very huge sum of money, and Commodore stepped in and paid the bill (they didn't want to see the Toaster die). Again, no facts here, all rumors. Kind of makes since don't it. Really, when did the last NewTek product come out? Have you seen their displays at some of the Big Shows? Where does all that money come from. Why would this wonderful board ONLY be produced for the Amiga? Etc, etc, etc. See ya all, Mike... >-- >--Chuck McManis Sun Microsystems -- ============================================================================= Mike Kraml - Manager-Separations Mechanization - SWBT - Finance Department One Bell Center - 30-D-06 - St. Louis, Mo. 63101 PHONE: 314-235-8012 UUCP: {uunet, bellcore, texbell}...!swpyr2.sbc.com!ammrk
jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) (08/17/90)
In various articles, various people write: >In article <1990Aug11.001916.9035@lavaca.uh.edu> jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes: >> [A bunch of incorrect names for products.] > [The correct names for products.] Sorry about all that. I think I shifted all the names in [name,description] by one or two places. Did anyone see the animation made with LightWave? How was it? (I didn't get a chance to see it.) I don't know how I got Disney's name/product confused with Animation:Journeyman. I've had friends drooling over the prospect of good cel animation for some time now who won't shut up about that damn thing. -- J. Eric Townsend -- University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics (713) 749-2120 Internet: jet@uh.edu Bitnet: jet@UHOU Skate UNIX(r)
mark@calvin..westford.ccur.com (Mark Thompson) (08/17/90)
In article <1990Aug16.192440.23809@lavaca.uh.edu> jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes: >Did anyone see the animation made with LightWave? How was it? >(I didn't get a chance to see it.) There were two animations running that were produced with lightwave. One was a remake of "Rush Hour" (originally done with VideoScape 3D) and the was "Flying Chrome Teapots" or someting like that. Rush Hour looked pretty good except for the tower that gets shot by the attacking helicopters, it was in bad need of antialiasing. The other animation was a teapot spinning toward the camera with a relection map of the background applied to it making it look like chrome. There were 3 or 4 different backgrounds. This animation looked like it was done in the low-res rendering mode (probably to get it out in time for the show) although I could be mistaken. The effect was nice but it had a jagged look to it. Note that that LightWave does not create RAM animations like other 3D packages. Niether the Amiga or Toaster is currently capable of real-time 24bit page-flip animation (VERY few machines are, Silicon Graphics can't do it). Animations must be single framed to a suitable recording medium. Which brings up a question: Is anyone out there currently using an Abekas A60 video disk recorder for single framing their Amiga animations. I would be very interested to here from you if own, rent, or use an A60. I am particularly interested in a comparison between it and single-frame capable VCRs as well as cost of use. +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Mark Thompson | | mark@westford.ccur.com | | ...!{decvax,uunet}!masscomp!mark Designing high performance graphics | | (508)392-2480 engines today for a better tomorrow. | +------------------------------------------------------------------------- +
navas@cory.Berkeley.EDU (David C. Navas) (08/18/90)
In article <17@swpyr2.sbc.com> ammrk@swpyr2.UUCP (Mike R. Kraml) writes: > The rumor I heard was that Commodore basically bought out NewTek a couple >... You know, at first I dismissed this, but then I thought: A-Live! purchased by Cmdre, delayed for three years. Toaster purchased by Cmdre, delayed for three years. Hey, this makes some sense :( :() -Dave David Navas navas@sim.berkeley.edu "Excuse my ignorance, but I've been run over by my train of thought." -me
koshy@abekrd.UUCP (Koshy Abraham) (08/20/90)
In <45993@masscomp.ccur.com> mark@calvin..westford.ccur.com (Mark Thompson) writes: >Is anyone out there currently using an Abekas A60 video disk recorder >for single framing their Amiga animations. I would be very interested I haven't tried this combination (i.e. I haven't done any animations yet), maybe this is something for me to try out. >to here from you if own, rent, or use an A60. I am particularly interested ...own, rent, or use... -see the signature. >in a comparison between it and single-frame capable VCRs as well as >cost of use. I have none available. >+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ >| Mark Thompson | >| mark@westford.ccur.com | >| ...!{decvax,uunet}!masscomp!mark Designing high performance graphics | >| (508)392-2480 engines today for a better tomorrow. | >+------------------------------------------------------------------------- + -- Koshy Abraham UUCP: ...!uunet!mcsun!ukc!pyrltd!abekrd!koshy Abekas Video Systems Ltd. NET: koshy@abekrd.co.uk // 12 Portman Rd, Reading, PHONE: +44 734 585421 // Berkshire. RG3 1EA. FAX: +44 734 597267 \\ // United Kingdom. TELEX: 847579 K\A/b
david@twg.com (David S. Herron) (08/21/90)
In article <45993@masscomp.ccur.com> mark@calvin.westford.ccur.com (Mark Thompson) writes: > ...Note that that LightWave does not create >RAM animations like other 3D packages. Niether the Amiga or Toaster >is currently capable of real-time 24bit page-flip animation (VERY few >machines are, Silicon Graphics can't do it). Animations must be single >framed to a suitable recording medium. Which brings up a question: The DCTV (Digital Creations TV (forget what TV stands for)) is capable of doing 24bit page-flip animation out of a standard Amiga. 'course it's not on the market yet so it doesn't count. It does this by compressing the pictures using some funky encoding technique similar-in-concept-to the Black Belt scheme. Decoding is done in an external box that also doubles as a 24bit/pixel video digitizer. The resulting frames are the same size as normal ILBM frames and can (so long as no IFF purists are in the room) be put in place of normal ILBM frames and animated from something like Deluxe Paint III. It works! It was being demonstrated at FAUG in May (I think)! -- <- David Herron, an MMDF weenie, <david@twg.com> <- Formerly: David Herron -- NonResident E-Mail Hack <david@ms.uky.edu> <- <- Sign me up for one "I survived Jaka's Story" T-shirt!
bobl@pro-graphics.cts.com (Bob Lindabury) (08/24/90)
In-Reply-To: message from koshy@abekrd.UUCP
Most high-end facilities that process single-frame 3d animations now use the
abekas for thier single frame chores. It's alot better then tying up a 1" or
BetaCam machine to churn away for hours and hours. That can be VERY abusive
to a good VTR. Storing them in the Abekas created no wear and tear on the
equipment. Ya just hafta find the big-bucks for an Abekas that's gonna store
enough time for you.
I don't use 'em personally because I don't have the money but I know several
people who swear by them and they are coming from SGI platforms and WaveFront
software.
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