[comp.graphics] Liquid TV ? I'm hooked!

joem@nos850.UUCP (Joe Muller) (06/06/91)

  I was just flipping through our cable channels trying to tell what from
what (our cable company made the wise and boisterous decision of reshuffling
80 % of the channels around overnight) when I caught the last few minutes of
one of the best computer graphics animations I have ever seen.  The anim was
called 'Evil Grinning Death' or something similiar and from what I surmised
in the credits it was created at MIT.  Turns out it was the last segment on
a show on MTV called 'Liquid TV.'  From what I can tell from the credits, it
looks like the whole show is nothing but rock videos usings computer graphics.
Anybody know anything else about the show ?  When is it on regularly (my
cable guide had something else listed on MTV at the time) ?  How long has
it been on ?  Anybody have any on tape ?  Also, if the guys who created
that animation are out there, how about filling us in on what was used
(in terms of computing power) to accomplish the feat ?

   Sign me stunned...

...uunet!coplex!nos850!joem .OR. jamull01@ulkyvx.bitnet

dfite@ringer.cs.utsa.edu (David W. Fite) (06/06/91)

In article <311@nos850.UUCP> joem@nos850.UUCP (Joe Muller) writes:
>
>in the credits it was created at MIT.  Turns out it was the last segment on
>a show on MTV called 'Liquid TV.'  From what I can tell from the credits, it
>looks like the whole show is nothing but rock videos usings computer graphics.
>Anybody know anything else about the show ?  When is it on regularly (my
>cable guide had something else listed on MTV at the time) ?  How long has
>it been on ?  Anybody have any on tape ?  Also, if the guys who created
>that animation are out there, how about filling us in on what was used
>(in terms of computing power) to accomplish the feat ?
>
>   Sign me stunned...
>
>...uunet!coplex!nos850!joem .OR. jamull01@ulkyvx.bitnet

OK, Liquid TV is a brand new show on MTV that debuted this very week.  It
is a half-hour devoted entirely to animations (including the obligatory
music videos that have even the slightest animated bits).  The stated
times would be Sundays at 7:30pm on the coasts, 6:30pm for those of us
in the Central Time Zone.  Unfortunately for me, I was busy Sunday and
missed the first installment.  Quite a bummer, too, since this is one of
the few MTV shows I'm interested in.

Oh well,
D.W.

mg15@prism.gatech.EDU (Glynn,Mike) (06/06/91)

Someone else saw it too! I saw the preview on Sat and luckily remembered to
watch it on Sun. There were 2 different Liquid TV episodes on, the first was
at 7:30 and the second was on at 9. The show was broken up into 2 parts, the
first ( and best ) part was a bunch of "short animations" followed by approx
1 hour of animated videos. These short animations were great! 

If this is a regular show on MTV when is it on? I taped the first one but saw
no references to a regular time slot.

Mike Glynn


-- 
Mike Glynn...........Internet: mg15@prism.gatech.edu|  

meyers@wybbs.mi.org (John Meyers) (06/07/91)

[
In article <311@nos850.UUCP>, joem@nos850.UUCP (Joe Muller) writes:
> 
>   I was just flipping through our cable channels trying to tell what from
> what (our cable company made the wise and boisterous decision of reshuffling
> 80 % of the channels around overnight) when I caught the last few minutes of
> one of the best computer graphics animations I have ever seen.  The anim was
> called 'Evil Grinning Death' or something similiar and from what I surmised
> in the credits it was created at MIT.  Turns out it was the last segment on
> a show on MTV called 'Liquid TV.'  From what I can tell from the credits, it
> looks like the whole show is nothing but rock videos usings computer graphics.

Anything animated can  be considered "Liquid TV" material. This includes 
cartoons, stop-frame work, and even puppets. Most are not related much to music
videos. There are some interesting serials, for instance.

> Anybody know anything else about the show ?  When is it on regularly (my
> cable guide had something else listed on MTV at the time) ?  How long has
> it been on ?  Anybody have any on tape ?  Also, if the guys who created
> that animation are out there, how about filling us in on what was used
> (in terms of computing power) to accomplish the feat ?

Just started last Sunday at 7:30, and there was another episode at 9:30
(EST), just for the debut, I imagine. 

Was 'Evil Grinning Death' the one with the alien bug? I really enjoyed that
one!


>    Sign me stunned...
> 
> ...uunet!coplex!nos850!joem .OR. jamull01@ulkyvx.bitnet

                                           John

-- 
  __        ,                 |John M. Meyers _/ meyers@wybbs.UUCP
 (_/_ /     /)) _    _  _   _ |                \ sharkey!wybbs.mi.org!meyers
 _/(//)/)  / / (-'(/(-'/ ' '-,| "I only laughed away your tears, 
(/""""""""""""""(_/"""""""""" |               but even jesters cry!" - Fish 

murray@sun13.scri.fsu.edu (John Murray) (06/07/91)

In article <311@nos850.UUCP> joem@nos850.UUCP (Joe Muller) writes:

>Also, if the guys who created
>that animation are out there, how about filling us in on what was used
>(in terms of computing power) to accomplish the feat ?

Well, they don't talk about the whole rendering process, but the authors
of the legged locomotion stuff used 4 minutes, per simulation timestep of
1/1200th second, on a 12 MIPS HP 9000 to do the math on the video's main
character.  They said they got real-time performance from their code by
reducing the degrees of freedom from 38 to 20.

The above is from "Dynamic Simulation of Autonomous Legged Locomotion"
by Michael McKenna and David Zeltzer of the Computer Graphics and Animation
Group, Media Lab, MIT. (ACM SIGGRAPH '90 Conference Proceedings).

"Grinning Evil Death" was pretty much done entirely by the Media Lab folks.
Strictly in fun, I wave my genitals in their general direction and say,
"You just wait!"

>Anybody know anything else about the show ?  When is it on regularly (my
>cable guide had something else listed on MTV at the time) ?  How long has
>it been on ?

That was the first episode of Liquid TV. It's supposed to be airing weekly,
same time, same MTV. A local newspaper article ran down the next month or
two of episodes, and animations range from purely computer-generated to
traditional cel stuff to live-action characters with still backgrounds.
The (ack, I hate this word) 'cyberpunk'-ish flavor is about the only
constant, according to the article.

Sure sounds like an interesting series. Too bad I don't watch TV.

>...uunet!coplex!nos850!joem .OR. jamull01@ulkyvx.bitnet

"Whatsa matter, kid? Scaaaared of a little... bug?"

-- 
*Standard Disclaimers Apply*|        ---Get Out Of HELL Free!---
John R. Murray              |The bearer of this card is entitled to forgive
murray@vsjrm.scri.fsu.edu   |Himself of all Sins, Errors and Transgressions.
Supercomputer Research Inst.|                                -- D. Owen Rowley