Multimedia Toolkit 2/Multimedia Toolkit 2.iso/imagine/text/archive.21b

Text File | 1993-03-12 | 135.9 KB | 3,634 lines

IMAGINE archive: collected off of [e-mail]

ARCHIVE XXI (PART B)
Mar. 13 '92 - Apr. 10 '92

If you have questions or problems with this file, email Marvin Landis
at [e-mail]

note: each message seperated by a '##'

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Subject:     Amiga World
Date:        Fri, 13 Mar 92 18:51:57 GMT-0600
From:        Randy Carris <[e-mail]>

It's examples of innaccuracies such as their comparison of 3D programs recently
 is what caused me to cancel my subscription.  It is mostly in their lousy comp
arison charts.  They RARELY get it right, but that 3D one was worse than ussual
.  It contained more errors than truths.
Randy Carris.

##

Subject:     anim players etc.
Date:        Sat, 14 Mar 92 10:49:10 EST
From:        Paul Wehner <[e-mail]>

It seems to me that Impulse's proprietary player "PlayIANM" is good for ham
interlace pages in Imagine format. The page sizes are a little smaller than
regular anims. However for putting together anim5 anims with sound the best
I've found is Deluxe Video 3. It offers timing control, is easy and direct in
use and can have unlimited number of scenes in whatever loop configuration
you desire. Of course its commercial and costs anywhere from 60 to 100 dollars
but for me its the perfect choice for adding that extra level of control to
my animations...

##

Subject:     DCTV <--> 70mm effect
Date:        Sat, 14 Mar 92 22:12:29 MST
From:        Edward Chadez <[e-mail]>

I found out this answer on my own.  If you build a picture with the
resolution of 640 x 350, with the x aspect set to 10 and the y aspect
set to 12....

ifftodctv will create a properly centered dctv picture, without
stretching the y aspect (as it would if the dimensions were 640x200).

And I didn't have to buy ADPro to do it. :^)

->Edward Chadez/Amiga3000
  Computer Animation(DCTV)/Pixel Pusher
  and Intuition 2.0 Programmer

--
  //                                                               ()__()
\X/   [e-mail]/Edward Chadez     CARL Systems(303)758-3030       (  )
      [e-mail]                                               MM

##

Subject:     NFS and Imagine
Date:        Sun, 15 Mar 92 16:47:53 -0500
From:        Elmer Beachley <[e-mail]>

Hello,

I recently upgraded from TurboSilver to Imagine 2.0, and am having a problem
using files mounted on the Amiga via NFS (I have the Ameristar ethernet card,
the software that came with it, and am using a Sun for a file server).

Basically, what seems to be happening is Imagine is failing to do any
file i/o to the NFS drive.  Loading an object gives a message something
like "Premature EOF found".  Copying the object to a local hard drive and/or
a ram drive, everything works fine.

This is frustrating because I want to use the NFS drive to hold lots of
objects, anims, etc., while keeping the local amiga disks for program
binaries, etc.  I have had very few amiga programs not work fine with
the NFS drive (there is a problem with case-sensitivity in file names,
but that's not hard to work around), and am wondering why Imagine should
be different.  I don't have TS around anymore, so I don't know if this is
an inherent limitation in the program since it's beginning, but any
info pertinent to disk i/o pecularities in Imagine would be much appreciated.

Elmer Beachley
[e-mail]

##

Subject:     Finally, new Hard Drive installed
Date:        Sun, 15 Mar 92 18:34:37 CST
From:        Steve Davis <[e-mail]>

See the sig.  We finally got a new hard drive installed on our system which
brings our total storage capacity to about 730 Mb.  We have over 500 meg free,
so you are all welcome to use our system as a trading point for 3-D objects
and images.

The person who is actually in charge of day-to-day operations of the Boarding
House for the next 2 months is my father, Robert Davis.  We do not charge
for access to the system at all.

RSN:  v.32 bis modem, expanded file areas (we have to do something with all the
new free space).

--
  Steve Davis  |    Contact me at ...            | The Boarding House BBS!
               | Internet:  [e-mail]    | 9600 baud (v.32/v.42)
               | FidoNet:    Steve @ 1:295/3     | America: 913-827-0744

##

Subject:     Re: anim players etc.
Date:        Mon, 16 Mar 92 12:20:23 MET
From:        Marco Pugliese <[e-mail]>

> [............] However for putting together anim5 anims with sound the best
> I've found is Deluxe Video 3. It offers timing control, is easy and direct in
> use and can have unlimited number of scenes in whatever loop configuration
> you desire. [.................]

Ok, I sometimes use Deluxe Video III too, but how can you obtain looping anim
without black black screen during the scene rewind?
I couldn't get rid of it!
                                        CIAO.

--
 *****************************************************************************
 * It is good to disregard analysis and design phases and to rush into the   *
 * software implementation, in order to gain the time needed to debug the    *
 * failures dued to disregarding analysis and design phases.                 *
 *****************************************************************************
===============================================================================
  Marco Pugliese   *| Dipartimento di Scienze |* [e-mail]
  via Roncaglia 13 *|    dell'Informazione    |* [e-mail]
  20146 MILANO     *|        ---------        |* [e-mail]
  ITALY            *|  Universita' di MILANO  |* [e-mail]
===============================================================================

##

Subject:     Imagine & color 0
Date:        Mon, 16 Mar 92 07:53:27 EST
From:        John Rosner <[e-mail]>

Good morning,

Is it possible to have Imagine not use color 0 when it creates
shadows?  The problem is when I use the genlock feature,for the
background (Or not if I set background colors to 0) not only is the
background transparent but there are holes everywhere Imagine rendered
to 0.

Thanks in advance,

John Rosner

##

Subject:     Re: Head sculpture
Date:        Mon, 16 Mar 92 18:53:03 PST
From:        [e-mail]

An interesting concept in telecommunications at some BIG university (MIT?)
explored a way to have a talking person appear while talking over phone lines
For some reason, they didn't want to use a plain old TV so they built a
standard "Head" shape and projected a 2D image of the person talking onto the
head.  The effects were okay, but since the person kept moving and the hea
to be moved to keep up with the person, it lacked realism.
    Anyway, the point is, perhaps you could digitize the persons face, an
Image map their picture onto a standard head. This should work decently.
    [e-mail]
    BTW, I suppose you would use a flat wrap, just on the face area...

##

Subject:     Telephone # for Axiom Software
Date:        Tue, 17 Mar 92 11:33:38 -0500
From:        [e-mail]

I want to find out more about "Polyform" from Axiom Software.  Does anyone
know their address and/or telephone number?  I do not know if it will do
any good to call, but I need to know if their new software will really
support creating 3D objects from 2D views.  It seems too good to be true,
but so did DCTV...

Rich Nollman

##

Subject:     Head Sculpture
Date:        Tue, 17 Mar 92 11:45:47 EST
From:        Paul Wehner <[e-mail]>

Here's a technique thats useful for hands-on modelling in real life that
should help you in your quest for achieving a likeness in modelling a human
head. Assuming you have a clay model or poured a soft clay molding the best
way to make perfectly measured cross sections from it is to build a cutter.
The cutter is nothing more than a flat board, any dimensions, with 2 wooden
"lifts" on each side such that the thing looks like a "[" in profile. You
should then string a wire between the high edges, remembering to keep tension
tight. The wire is the cutter and now all you need do is to pull your soft
clay model through it. The height of the wire is proportional to the detail/
# of slices you want. The lower the wire, the more slices and therefore
greater detail. After you have the 30 or 40 slices of a head, etc. your ready
to trace it on graph paper and use it as a guide in the forms/detail editor.
This is a method I find useful not only for 3d vector objects but for
previewing spacial relationshiips in sculptures I make. Hope it proves useful
to someone else out there...Paul Wehner

##

Subject:     Favorite Anim Players-- RESULTS (the short form)
Date:        Wed, 18 Mar 92 12:12:49 EST
From:        Sandy Antunes <[e-mail]>

Hello!  Out of 12 people responding to my call for anim players,
the following results were obtained (in order of popularity, with
commercial products indicated as such).  For more information, see
the next post (the Long Form), which includes (reprinted without
permission and with editing) everyone's specific comments (good stuff!).

And the winner is...

1) View 3.2 by Cryogenic Software is the clear winner, with 3 votes
    (plus another vote for someone using 3.0) Good point is the fast
    playback rates.  Criticisms are  program size and slow loading.

the next two tied, as:

2) Superview (version 3.0 or 3.1), receiving two votes.  Good for IFF
    anims and general purpose stuff.

3) RTAP, with two votes.  Best feature is ability to play anims
    directly off the HD.  My personal criticism is it crashes my machine.


The rest of these all received one vote each:

- Deluxe Video 3 - recommended for anim5 format, it has good timing
                   and loop control.  Warning- it's commercial.

- Photon Cell Animator - (may be commercial?) a fast pageflipper

- PlayIanm - this (the player that came with Imagine) was recommended for
             showing Imagine format anims.

- View 1.7 - one person liked this because it was small and had a nice gui.

- single frame recording with sound dubbed in later - clearly the winner
                     in professional quality.  :)

Thanks for the responses!
                    sandy
----------------------------
[e-mail]  Sandy Antunes  "Lights! Camera! Action! Timber!"

##

Subject:     Animation Player Results- The Long Form
Date:        Wed, 18 Mar 92 12:14:23 EST
From:        Sandy Antunes <[e-mail]>

Here are the comments, condensed, the people sent me (along with
credits indicating their worth).  Some of these were posted to
this group already, others were from email.

thanks again, folks!                              sandy
--------------------------------------------------------
From: [e-mail] (John T. Grieggs)
I use View 3.2, from Cryogenic Software, and I love it.
_john

From: Peter Daniels                        <[e-mail]>
I use View3.2, largely because it's the fastest player I have found, and it nev
er leaves me with telltale razorburn.
Pete

From: [e-mail] (Aaron Tucker)
    I use Superview 3.1 for general purpose viewing of IFF ILBM files or
IFF ANIM files. It is VERY GOOD! But, for the fastest playback of ANIM files,
use View 3.0. It gives the best frame rate...it just takes longer to load the
program because it is bigger than Superview and also decompresses in memory.
Juan Trevino    [e-mail]

From: [e-mail] (Paul Wehner)
Well, first off I use Impulse's playianm when rendering in Imagine's own file
format. It seems to me that larger size anims are better when rendered this
way as the seperate pages are smaller than a normal interlaced Ham page.
For IFF anims I use view 1.7 from Cryogenic software. It has a nice gui and is
pretty small and  easy to use-perfect for boot disk demo anims...
those are my preferences anyway...  take care, paul wehner

From: [e-mail]
     I use Photon Cell Animator sometimes.  Lousy interface and it doesn't
support severe overscan but it's the fastest pageflipper I've ever seen and
it doesn't rely on delta compression which gives you less frames but allows
rock steady playback rates.

From: [e-mail] (Steve Koren)
I use RTAP for playing IFF anim5 files directly from HD.  It
works well if your controller is fast enough had takes little
enough CPU time during disk transfers.   - steve

From: Marco Pugliese <[e-mail]>
I could't find an anim player which allow to play IFF-sounds, while playing
animations.  I tried MOVIE (Byte by Byte), but it seemed not able to play
Imagine's opcode5 anims.

From: GREG GRANVILLE <[e-mail]>
"MOVIE" doesn't play anim-5 format animations. Byte by Byte had their
own "anim" format that used somewhat more advanced compression methods
than the Aegis "anim" format did at that time.
Eric Graham (sp?), the author of the Sculpt3/4D programs, released
several additional movie utility programs (called Pilbm and Dilbm)
at about the same time that Ken Offer updated the movie player to
allow frame triggered playback of sound samples. (I hope I have my
ancient history correct here) The Dilbm and Pilbm programs would
(will still) allow you to write a script that would compress any
palette-locked sequence of ILBM images into an animation playable
with the "movie" program from Byte-by-Byte. The real beauty of these
utilities (at that time) was that it would allow you to program an
animation that would do sequenced looping. (i.e. play frames 1-60,
then play frames 61-90 three times, then go back and play frames
40-70, hold the last frame for 10 seconds, and then exit or start
the loop all over again... you get the idea) The ability to be
able to trigger a sound sample at any point in the script was really
a way-cool feature at that time.
I haven't used this program in years, and I'm sure that their are
several others out there that can do the same type of thing now.
Unfortunately, I really can't help much with them, since almost
all of the anims w/wo sound I've done in the past few years have
been single frame recorded with sound dubbed in later.

From: b24a!camelot![e-mail]
    I'm just getting started into this myself.  I will be interested
    in getting your summary.  I just ordered the Director 2.0 which I
    think has it's own player program.  I have just recently, within
    the last week, got a number of PD animation player programs.  The
    ones you mentioned are in the list.  It is too early to tell
    you which is my favorite.    Dale

From: [e-mail] (Paul Wehner)
It seems to me that Impulse's proprietary player "PlayIANM" is good for ham
interlace pages in Imagine format. The page sizes are a little smaller than
regular anims. However for putting together anim5 anims with sound the best
I've found is Deluxe Video 3. It offers timing control, is easy and direct in
use and can have unlimited number of scenes in whatever loop configuration
you desire. Of course its commercial and costs anywhere from 60 to 100 dollars
but for me its the perfect choice for adding that extra level of control to
nnmy animations...

From: [e-mail] (Bob Lindabury, SysAdm)
I am currently using View 3.2 for all my animation and IFF file
viewing.  It works quite nicely and is available from my mail based
file server at [e-mail].
Put the following in the body of the message if you want to retrieve
it:  /GET amiga/upload/view32.lha
 The Graphics BBS  908/469-0049  "It's better than a sharp stick in the eye!"

From: [e-mail]
Actually Sandy, I use superview3.0 and RTAP for my animations.  Superview is
a PD picture viewer and anim player and RTAP will play anims directly from
the hard disk drive.  Hope this helps.
Joe Cotellese
--------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------
[e-mail]  Sandy Antunes  "Lights! Camera! Action! Timber!"

##

Subject:     Imagemaster
Date:        Wed, 18 Mar 92 15:04:58 -0500
From:        "ESTES,JON-PAUL" <[e-mail]>

There is a neat new (not really new, actually) out there that some of
you might find interesting.  Imagemaster from Black Belt Systems is the
program, and yes it is the one that comes with HAM-E.  Well, that
isn't exactly right, ImageProfessional comes with HAM-E, but IM is the
version for the rest of us (there is even a firecracker version).
Anyway, version 7.4 (which is now outdated as they have just released 8)
came out in February, and a neat new feature was added---MORPHING!!!
You give it two pictures, mark control points on each, set the number of
frames and let it go.  It produces a series of stills which when compressed
make an incredible animation.  An example:  take two faces and load them in;
mark an eye on one face, move the corresponding point on the other face to
line up with that eye, and keep doing this for as long as you want; the more po
i
points that you add, the longer it takes to render, so don't go wild;  about f
fifty is the suggested number; the resulting animation shows one person
morphing into the next.  The results are incredible!!!!!  The price is
only $125 on the street (I don't know what retail is).  (As an added bonus,
it does everything AdPro does)  I will be uploading an animation in a few days
to demonstrate what my very first attempt looked like.  This will show you
how easy it is.  I spent about fifteen minutes setting it up, and the computer
spent the next 20 hours doing the 20 frames.  I only have the anim in DCTV
format, and I have already erased the original frames, so I am sorry if
you do not have DCTV (get one!).  Maybe your dealer can give you a demo.
If anyone does get it, be warned--don't skip the first and last frames on
the rendering cycle; although it seems that they would not be needed seeing
as how you already have them, IM does adjust them somewhat so that you
get a jump in the animation at the start and finish.  Over the past two
weeks, I have completed 8 morphs, and another will start tonight, I can't get
enough of it.  So go see it!

This was not a paid commercial.  I just love Imagemaster that much.

--Jon-Paul Estes

##

Subject:     Impulse Q&A
Date:        Thu, 19 Mar 92 01:07:36 EST
From:        [e-mail]

On Wednesday, Mike Halvorson of Impulse was a guest at the online Chat
on Portal, an online telecommunications service. Here is a transcript
of the questions asked and Mike's answers.  I have edited the text to
remove the cruft like "Ok, your turn to ask" and just leave the
questions and answers themselves.  There were about 40 people
participating.

Hope this is of interest...

-Steve

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Worley                                       [e-mail]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----

Questions alternate with answers.... topics seperated by "---"

----

The firecracker is a good display medium, but it could be better. Is a
deinterlaced firecracker (for people who don't need NTSC) or any other
display hardware currently in the works?  Also, how about a Zorro III
firecracker mapped into 32 bit memory space with no wait states, or
some such, to make an excellent Multimedia platform?


Yep we already have a 31KHZ FC24 it is to spendy right now, 32 bit is
in the future but we are looking into it.  we realize that there are
those who want the fc24 for print not video, so we are working on the
res issuea as well as the ise of Postscript

----

Do you currently have plans for an upgraded Firecracker? Something
with higher resolutions, and perhaps an onboard processor? Do you need
beta testers for a product like that? :-) I'm less concerned with
lotso colors and more with higher resolutions.  Shoot, Steve sort of
toook my question. :-) Guess the omnboard processor is the thing.

Co-Processor,,,, Yes Intel I860

----

Mike, I was wondering when the Impulse BBS mentioned in the
letter might come out.  And what about new imagine Effects..

We have just installed our Network, I would hope by early summer

---

Might we in the future see real altitude mapping?

Dave if you have a different method than we use please let us know..

-----

When is the IBM version of Imagine coming out, and will the objects be
compatible with the Amiga version?

Imagine 3.0 for the PC and Amiga will probably ship late summer, and
yes the files will all be compatiable...

----

Being from out in Cottage Grove, I am happy to see a great company
like Impulse here. Just generally, I am interested in how Impulse got
started...how many people at the start and now...where you see
yourself in 5 years...  and I speak for all of us in saying thanks for
spending your time with us here tonite.

Wow, all that and a bag of chips, Thansk for having me here.  We got
started... when like many others we realized animation was possible on
a computer.. that did not cost 40K, there are six of us at Impulse and
I have no idea where we will  be infive years much less 5
weeks

----

There are some things about Imagine that people find frustrating -
like it asking if you want to leave the detail editor whether there
are any unsaved changes or not.  Is most of the work on Imagine going
into the renderer and effects, or is the interface going to get an
overhaul of sorts someday?


Each person who uses software finds things that they don't like, we
try and please as many people as we can.  If you find something that
is just terrible, document it...  send it to us in writing and we will
fix it.  The software is in a continual state od change... We hope to
make it easier and faster and better and everthing that you want, and
all that for 3bucks and do it in 5 days....we appreciate crtical
review of what we do othewise we don't know. what you want, so please
let us know what you want and we will do our best to respond....

---
How much do you think the Rendering Engine will cost?

You mean the rendering engine that was hinted at in the newsletter?
Nothing to say at this time, except we are working on making it
affordable...
----

Imagine's Cycle editor is one of it's most powerful features...  And I
love it dearly. However, as I'm sure you know, we get those annoying
edges when things bend making "smooth" curves that bend difficult.  My
question: Will there be any provision for spline objects in future
versions of Imagine?

Splines as you might know them are very memory expensive, we are
working on a form of spline that will make what you want a snap, so
the answer is YES

----

What Support will IMAGINE have for the SAGE/ or RESOLVER.. Also, will
IBM version support i860 (directly)?

When we see the products that have the Sage or Resolver features we
will be in a position to tell you the real stuff, right now I have not
seen these products and I hate like hell to make comment on something
that is not a real product.  This is not to say that these guys from
DMI or PPI are fooling around but until we see the real thing any
comment I could make is just a bunch of bull hockey...

----

I've read that ScapeMaker creates elevation based on RGB values of an
IFF pic... Also why can't the color requesters in Imagine be the same
ie check boxes an sliders?

I DON'T UNDERSTAND Dave can you remake your point?

The oject attributes requester has three sliders and several check
boxes to apply color to.... but texture color requesters are
different. Why?

We added the color boxes in the Textures area at the last minute
because Lou Markoya wanted us to. In the next version we intend to
have more continuity between such screens, Your input is noted

----

 Mike-any chance of an external FC24 for us 500 owners in the future?

 Sorry but No, get a Bodega Bay it works fine

----

 Mike can you give a quick idea of what is added in Imagine 3.0?

 NOPE !

----

are you familiar with Metabols.. and could you discuss the object
recognition feature hinted at in the manual?


These are features that people want, we are working on these kinds of
things for the future, but I don't think its fair ro you to say that
we aregoing to release them at any certain time before we really have
them nailed down.. in truth we wnat to make the software easier to use
and make it more powerfull as well, we have to make the software
better be complexity.  and the things that you suggest are very
complex indeed...ore we add on more weill get to them as we move
forward promise..

----

Not to hurt your feelings Mike, but since Imagine has such steep
learning curve It would be nice to have a decent manual, A program is
worth the $100 upgrade only if one can operate the previous version.
Let Worley write the next one!

Thanks for your comment, However I am not sure that Mr. Worley could
do Imagine justise either, he writes great tutorials, but there is
more to the software than just a few things to do, there are too many
options for many people, Mind you that Steve has done a great job with
his recent book, we are still searching for someone who can do the
best job possible, and My feelings arent hurt, I just hope that we can
get the software to the state where we dontneed a manual, thats a
better idea, no matter what it costs.

---

Are you aware that the cylindrical map doesn't repeate, as per my
letter? I got no written response to my written doc with the disk
update and the new version DID NOT fix the problem.

No Rick I was not, but I will look into it

BTW, in the interim until the manual free program...Steve's book is an
order of magnitude better than the new manual.

I dont know Rick.

---

More of a comment/request than a question.  I think the algorithmic
textures (ie CHECKS, etc) are great feature, and I would love to see
more of them.  Also, how about releasing the format these are in so
users can write their own (and release them for other users)?

Great idea Steve but they are very hard to do and we arent prepared to
support alot of questions on how to do them, maybe in the future we
can open them up with AREXX and you guys can go crazy... HINT HINT ON
3.)

---

 Well, we've all seen morphing and particle systems and true
raytracing and neat stuff like that... So what's the next "NEATO"
computer effect that you're working on?

SOUND AND MUSIC TRACKING AND SYNCING

---

two quick requests for you mike, which I hope you'll consider for the
next imagine.... (a) make projects more "portable" somehow.... that
is, lemme copy a project to another disk or urpload it... so the othe
guy who gets it can use it as-is, if possible and... (b) please
consider making your file requester larger.

OK just for you HarV

----

Mike, the hot topic these days is morphing (a la "T2").  Do you see
Imagine growing in this area?...  What about in the "character
animation system"? ... Will the two work togeather?

Yes Lee Morphing will get better and the Cycle Editor will be much
imporved in the future

 ---

How has the response been to the Imagine School mentioned in last
NL...Will there be any?

we have had a bout 30 requestes and we are working on putting it
together

---

Harv asked about making project portable, which is my main concern but
will you also be able to read DEM files in the future

OK someone tell me again what a DEM file is

Digital Elevation Model.

I think not, but you might look for a more cohesive interface between
Vista Pro and Imagine

----

Mike - Are there any plans to implement a general morph algorithm
within Imagine, or should I continue working on my own in TTDDDLIB? By
"general morph", I mean one that does not rely on the geometry *or*
topology of the two objects.  That is, the objects may have totally
different numbers of points, edges, and faces with different colors,
reflectivity, filter, etc.

We only have a problem with objects with unlike point counts, The
other stuff morphs fine. Yes we are going to fix the Morph problem as
well

----

Could you discuss the "advanced users guide" and how it will differ
from the current and Steve's manual?

A more advanced tutorial document that will give detailed instructions
on building objects and lighting as well as camera use, it will be
very specific not general

---

Is there a chance of getting a setting between Scanline and Trace with
just shadows but not reflection or refraction? I'd put all this into a
letter like you said, but I guess you don't get them.

The next version will have a feature just like you have suggested.
And more.

---

Mike, two short ones - 1.  Is techincal info available on the format
of the Action editor save file?  2.  Any chance of a Pause/Resume
command fo the renderer?

NO YES

----

I loc-ve the(love )the new fog objects..in the future can they accept
and cast shadows..

Fog objects are so wierd to do that I doubt it, but we have talked
about this as in TODAY when I wanted them to do just that, I dont
think the next version will address

----

 Mike-one small request-I use Camera Retrack quite a bit-is it
possible instead of typing the tracked object in each time to have the
previous retrack already in the requestor? It would save some time

Great Idea we will do it, why didn't I think of that, Oh well

--

 Is there any plans to add Vista landscape animations as backgrounds
in Imagine animations?  EX. A scrolling mountain seen (VP generated)
with a Airplane (imagine generated).

 You can do that now with vist pro output I just finished a 12000
frame anim uising VP2.0 --

----

Are there any plans for an alpha channel in the FC?

Not in the present version, maybe in the future .  Stay Tuned GA



--------------------------------------------------------

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The Portal Online System [sm] is home of The Amiga Zone, the BEST
online Amiga support SIG on any commercial dial-up system, and the
MOST economical.  Here are just a few of our features you can partake
of:

-The entire Usenet, read and write.
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-The Imagine, Lightwave, DCTV and HyperAmi mailing lists fed
 directly into our message bases!
-33 HUGE Amiga file libraries covering all topics, all
 fields of interest, plus we are the ONLY national commercial
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-Live nightly chats and special conferences like this one!  We
 also give away great Amiga prizes every Sunday evening. One Portal
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 in the Amiga Zone.
-Lots of "famous" Amiga folks to talk to, exchange mail and messages
 with: developers, magazine editors and writers, hardware
 designers, mfr's reps, etc.
-14 Amiga-specific Vendor areas for product updates and press
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 own library with 4 Meg of files from their magazine's disks, and
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The list of features goes on and on.  The Amiga Zone is run by Harv
Laser, Steve Worley, Steve Tibbett, Dan James, Bill Seymour, Oran J.
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##

Subject:     Favorite Anim Players-- RESULTS (the short form)
Date:        Thu, 19 Mar 92 08:20:56 EST
From:        "Bob Lindabury, SysAdm" <[e-mail]>

"Sandy Antunes" <rutgers!astro.psu.edu!antunes> writes:

> Hello!  Out of 12 people responding to my call for anim players,
> the following results were obtained (in order of popularity, with
> commercial products indicated as such).  For more information, see
> the next post (the Long Form), which includes (reprinted without
> permission and with editing) everyone's specific comments (good stuff!).
>
> And the winner is...
>
> 1) View 3.2 by Cryogenic Software is the clear winner, with 3 votes
>     (plus another vote for someone using 3.0) Good point is the fast
>     playback rates.  Criticisms are  program size and slow loading.

I would also like to point out that View 3.2 is available via mail in
uuencoded form by requesting it from my file-server!

Send a mail message to [e-mail] with the
following in the body of the message:

/GET amiga/upload/view32.lha

and view will be uuencoded and mailed to you.  You MUST have a
UUDECODE program handy for conversion and an archiver that will
uncompress .LHA files.

-- Bob

 The Graphics BBS  908/469-0049  "It's better than a sharp stick in the eye!"
 ============================================================================
  InterNet: [e-mail]                | Raven Enterprises
      UUCP: ...rutgers!bobsbox!graphics!bobl      | 25 Raven Avenue
    BitNet: bobl%graphics.rent.com@pucc           | Piscataway, NJ 08854
    Home #: 908/560-7353                          | 908/271-8878

##

Subject:     Re: Imagemaster
Date:        Thu, 19 Mar 92 09:10:21 -0500
From:        "Michael B. Comet" <[e-mail]>

>There is a neat new (not really new, actually) out there that some of
>you might find interesting.  Imagemaster from Black Belt Systems is the
>program, and yes it is the one that comes with HAM-E.  Well, that
>isn't exactly right, ImageProfessional comes with HAM-E, but IM is the
>version for the rest of us (there is even a firecracker version).
>Anyway, version 7.4 (which is now outdated as they have just released 8)
>came out in February, and a neat new feature was added---MORPHING!!!
>You give it two pictures, mark control points on each, set the number of
>frames and let it go.  It produces a series of stills which when compressed
>make an incredible animation.  An example:  take two faces and load them in;
>mark an eye on one face, move the corresponding point on the other face to
>line up with that eye, and keep doing this for as long as you want; the more p
oi
>points that you add, the longer it takes to render, so don't go wild;  about f
>fifty is the suggested number; the resulting animation shows one person
>morphing into the next.  The results are incredible!!!!!

    Yes,  I found this out a week ago.  Perhaps you could make a
demo in HAM format?

>  The price is
>only $125 on the street (I don't know what retail is).  (As an added bonus,
>it does everything AdPro does)

    Actually, I understand it does more.  Anyways, I don't
understand the $125 price.  According to my delaer that version is only
available directly from Black Belt, and they said the price was $250.
Hmm.....maybe I'm missing something.


    [Stuff deleted]


               Michael Comet
               [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Re: Impulse Q&A
Date:        Thu, 19 Mar 92 8:05:52 MST
From:        Edward Chadez <[e-mail]>

One item that was not addressed was the upgrade "path" required for
version 3.0.  In other words, will I have to spend $100 now for version
2.0 in order to spend $xxx later for version 3.0??

I realize this is a rhetorical question, for it is far too early to
contemplate such a policy.  But it is good food for thought.

->Edward Chadez/Amiga3000
  Computer Animation(DCTV)/Pixel Pusher
  and Intuition 2.0 Programmer

--
  Edward Chadez                         CARL Systems, Inc
  Network/Operations                         [phone]
  Programmer                    Internet: [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Morph
Date:        Thu, 19 Mar 92 10:58:38 -0500
From:        "ESTES,JON-PAUL" <[e-mail]>

Well, I just uploaded my first morph to Hubcap.  It is in the Uploads directory
and is about 500K.  A word of warning:  I had to go through a Mac to upload
it and I do not know if it did any conversion on the file that might mess it
up.  I hope it works.  Since this one, I have done seven others.  Some are
better, some are worse.  If the resolution looks bad, it is because I had
to go non-interlaced to save time for the project.  (Deadlines are soooo
wonderful!)  Let me know what you think.

Now, as for what I meant about Imagemaster will "do everything that ADPro will.
"
It will do all of the image processing functions, such as line art, resizing,
compositing, solarizing, and so forth.  It does have font support, but I am
not sure about outline fonts (I will try that tonight).  It will do image
conversions between any type of IFF file, IFF-24, HAM-E, and DCTV.  It might
do more, but I have not had time to explore this (again, tonight).  JPEG is
supported, through some type of scripting function (you don't have to write
it, it is already written), and the format for the scripts is there so other
processing functions can be written by the user.  AREXX is supported.  I can't
think of anything else right now, but ask if you think of anything.

-- Jon-Paul Estes

##

Subject:     Re: Morph
Date:        Thu, 19 Mar 92 08:18:54 PST
From:        "Glenn M. Lewis ~" <[e-mail]>

    So will some kind soul please convert this DCTV anim to
"showanim" format so that the rest of us graphics enthusiasts without
DCTV can view it?  Thank you very much!

                            -- Glenn

##

Subject:     Re: Morph
Date:        Thu, 19 Mar 92 10:17:47 PST
From:        Patrick Chu 3605 <sv001![e-mail]>

> Well, I just uploaded my first morph to Hubcap.  It is in the Uploads directo
ry
> and is about 500K.

Can you give the full pathname?  I have to go through FTPMAIL since I
don't have internet ftp access, and I need the full pathname.

> It will do image
> conversions between any type of IFF file, IFF-24, HAM-E, and DCTV.  It might
> do more, but I have not had time to explore this (again, tonight).  JPEG is
> supported, through some type of scripting function (you don't have to write
> it, it is already written), and the format for the scripts is there so other
> processing functions can be written by the user.  AREXX is supported.  I can'
t
> think of anything else right now, but ask if you think of anything.

Can it convert GIF files too?

##

Subject:     Re: Impulse Q&A
Date:        Thu, 19 Mar 1992 13:32:06 -0500
From:        Christopher Stevenson <[e-mail]>

Edward Chadez writes:
> One item that was not addressed was the upgrade "path" required for
> version 3.0.  In other words, will I have to spend $100 now for version
> 2.0 in order to spend $xxx later for version 3.0??
>
> I realize this is a rhetorical question, for it is far too early to
> contemplate such a policy.  But it is good food for thought.
>
I, too, upon learing in Impulse's newsletter that there *will* be a 3.0,
am forced to wonder. Sorry for the premature question, but if people out
there are going to sneak tantalizing tidbits about future versions, I
think it's reasonable that I be curious!

-Christopher Stevenson (no particular offilliation)

##

Subject:     Re:  Morph
Date:        Thu, 19 Mar 92 14:40:29 EST
From:        [e-mail]

Try hitting F1 to play with jpeg images. F2, F3, F4 bring up some other nice
toys.

Frank

##

Subject:     Morph on Hubcap
Date:        Thu, 19 Mar 92 15:41:24 -0500
From:        "ESTES,JON-PAUL" <[e-mail]>

The full pathname for the morph on hubcap is:  pub/amiga/incoming/uploads.

-- Jon-Paul Estes

##

Subject:     No response from Impulse
Date:        Thu, 19 Mar 92 16:13:04 EST
From:        [e-mail]

I'm curious about how responsive other people have found Impulse to be.
Several months ago I purchased Imagine (I think 1.0) and promptly sent in
my registration card and asked about upgrading to 1.1 and 2.0.  I did not hear
from them so I wrote again and still have heard nothing.  Recentlly there have
been some references to what seems to be an Impulse newsletter.  What is it and
am I supposed to get it?  I asked them about that as well but still no  reply.
I am getting annoyed because I even included a SASE but they have not replied.
I suppose that if it normally takes them several months to respond that I can
be more patient but I'm beginning to wonder.

-Craig Zupke

##

Subject:     Re: Morph on Hubcap
Date:        Fri, 20 Mar 92 11:33 EST
From:        [e-mail]

I downloaded morph.lzh and the archive was corrupt.
Has anyone else tried it?


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  //  /"| |\/| | /"" |"\  Support your Amiga programmers.
\X/  /""| |  | | \_T |""\ Buy the software that you use.
Jason Koszarsky
[e-mail]        THE AMIGA GROUP (TAG)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

##

Subject:     Color 0 avoidance rendering
Date:        Fri, 20 Mar 92 12:01:18 EST
From:        John Rosner <[e-mail]>

2.0 of Imagine will do the darkest parts shadows in color 0 even though
genlock sky is turned on, no matter whether rendering to rgb8, rgb24,
etc.  This cannot be interpreted as a feature.  A good suggestion from
this group was to turn up ambient light.  I set ambient to 25 and this
helped, reduced the number of holes by about 50%, but still left holes
in the darkest parts.

Thanks for your responses,

John Rosner

##

Subject:     Rendering to the Toaster
Date:        Fri, 20 Mar 92 12:16:57 -0500
From:        Elizabeth E Sack <[e-mail]>

Does anyone know if there are plans to have an upcoming version if Imagine
render to the Toaster's framebuffer(s).  Since I am getting one, this would be
a great option for me.  Sure Lightwave is great, but does a mechanic use just
one wrench?  Variety IS the spice of GRAPHICS (graphics=life).

Jeff Hanna
Studio J Video Productions

##

Subject:     Re: Head Sculpture
Date:        Fri, 20 Mar 92 17:53:49 GMT
From:        Yury German <[e-mail]>

:greater detail. After you have the 30 or 40 slices of a head, etc. your ready
:to trace it on graph paper and use it as a guide in the forms/detail editor.
:This is a method I find useful not only for 3d vector objects but for
:previewing spacial relationshiips in sculptures I make.
    The only question I have is why go through all the steps of
creating a model. If you have a picture that you digitized from different
sources you can achieve same things by just doing this.
    Take a form of a head and photograph it. The next thing you can do
is either put it over a light table and trace it with tracing paper. Or
just digitize it and do the cutting with the computer... not to difficult
with Deluxe Paint.


   -----------------------------------------------------------------------
   ! Yury German                  yury@bknight or [e-mail]   !
   ! Blue-Knight Productions      GENIE EMAIL: Blue-Knight               !
   ! [phone]                (Graphic Design and Video Productions) !
   ! [phone]          P.O. Box 985, Queens, New York, 11354  !
   !_____________________________________________________________________!

##

Subject:     Re: Color 0 avoidance rendering
Date:        Fri, 20 Mar 92 13:31:09 -0500
From:        "Michael B. Comet" <[e-mail]>

>2.0 of Imagine will do the darkest parts shadows in color 0 even though
>genlock sky is turned on, no matter whether rendering to rgb8, rgb24,
>etc.  This cannot be interpreted as a feature.  A good suggestion from
>this group was to turn up ambient light.  I set ambient to 25 and this
>helped, reduced the number of holes by about 50%, but still left holes
>in the darkest parts.
>
>Thanks for your responses,
>
>John Rosner
>
>

    Are you sure?  I have 2.0 and have succesfully used this feature
time and time again, and dark objects are dark, and the background is
clear.  I have only had a problem with this feature in 1.0

               Michael Comet
               [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Re: Rendering to the Toaster
Date:        Fri, 20 Mar 92 13:36:46 EST
From:        Mark Thompson <[e-mail]>

> Does anyone know if there are plans to have an upcoming version if Imagine
> render to the Toaster's framebuffer(s). Since I am getting one, this would be
> a great option for me.

And since I just bought Imagine, it would be nice for me also. However,
NewTek has been reluctant to give out their Frame format or any libraries
to support their product. Not sure if this has changed recently, but it
is preventing a lot of wonderful programs from supporting the Toaster.
As it stands right now, you must render your images to IFF24, then load
them as a background image sequence in LightWave and render to the frame
buffer (or save Frame files). This adds an additional 2 to 4 minutes per
frame which can add up quickly.

> Variety IS the spice of GRAPHICS (graphics=life).

And no single program does it all.
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
|      `       '        Mark Thompson                 CONCURRENT COMPUTER  |
| --==* RADIANT *==--   [e-mail]        Principal Graphics   |
|      ' Image `        ...!uunet!masscomp!mark       Hardware Architect   |
|     Productions       [phone] [phone]   & General Nuisance   |
|                                                                          |
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

##

Subject:     Re: Color 0 avoidance rendering
Date:        Fri, 20 Mar 92 13:50:26 EST
From:        John Rosner <[e-mail]>

> >2.0 of Imagine will do the darkest parts shadows in color 0 even though
> >genlock sky is turned on, no matter whether rendering to rgb8, rgb24,

>     Are you sure?  I have 2.0 and have succesfully used this feature
> time and time again, and dark objects are dark, and the background is
> clear.  I have only had a problem with this feature in 1.0
>
>                Michael Comet
>                [e-mail]
>
Yes, the image is used as a foreground to VistaPro2, parts of the Vista
landscape show through the image.  It's not VistaPro because the holes
really are 0,0,0, and the same effect when I composite them with
Adpro.  The problem occurs on a rendering of a surface with a woodgrain
IFF mapped onto it.  It has also occured on other images.

Later,

John Rosner

##

Subject:     problems rendering with roughness
Date:        Fri, 20 Mar 92 12:50:41 CST
From:        ted reichardt <[e-mail]>

    I've got a problem that's cropped up...I've noticed that I
have an object that apparently will not render with it's roughness
value.  I can quickrender the object (from the detail editor) and get
the roughness, but when I do a regular render, either in scanline or
raytrace, it comes out with no roughness.

    I'm not sure what I did to kill it, because earlier it was
rendering the roughness value fine.  At this point, I have the
reflection, filter, dithering, hardness, specular, shininess set to 0.
Refraction is 1.00.  No phong shading.  And there's no maps or
effects.  Is there something I'm doing that could cut out the effect
of the roughness?

tedr
[e-mail]

##

Subject:     Re: Rendering to the Toaster
Date:        Fri, 20 Mar 92 15:14:51 PDT
From:        Aaron Tucker <[e-mail]>

    Someone just informed me of an AREXX script included with Toaster
software 2.0 that converts 24bit IFF images to Framestores. Can anyone with
Toaster v2.0 confirm this? This coould make single frae controlling much
easier.


Juan Trevino
[e-mail]
"Wake up. Time to die."  -Leon from BladeRunner

##

Subject:     Re: Head sculpture
Date:        Fri, 20 Mar 92 17:28:44 EST
From:        Mark Thompson <[e-mail]>

Ryan C. White writes:
>     Anyway, the point is, perhaps you could digitize the persons face, and
> Image map their picture onto a standard head. This should work decently.

Well I have experimented with this and the results are rather disapointing.
Unless the features on the head line up exactly with those on the image,
some rather disturbing looking faces are created. There is just too much
variation from one person to the next to simply project the face image.
What is really needed is a set of control points in the face image that can
be linked to key features on the head model. However even this can cause
some pretty good facial distortion.

On a side note, remember about 7 months ago I said I had my head scanned
in a Cyberware scanner. Well I have an 8000 polygon model in LightWave
format with the associated color image map all ready for uploading.
It doesn't look too bad, considering the low polygon resolution compared
to the original data. I'll try to get it onto hubcap real soon.
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
|      `       '        Mark Thompson                 CONCURRENT COMPUTER  |
| --==* RADIANT *==--   [e-mail]        Principal Graphics   |
|      ' Image `        ...!uunet!masscomp!mark       Hardware Architect   |
|     Productions       [phone] [phone]   & General Nuisance   |
|                                                                          |
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

##

Subject:     RE: Rendering to the Toaster
Date:        Fri, 20 Mar 92 18:27:28 CST
From:        Jason Linhart <[e-mail]>

 In response to the following:

<       Someone just informed me of an AREXX script included with Toaster
<software 2.0 that converts 24bit IFF images to Framestores. Can anyone with
<Toaster v2.0 confirm this? This coould make single frae controlling much
<easier.


<Juan Trevino
<[e-mail]
<"Wake up. Time to die."  -Leon from BladeRunner

 Yes, the Toaster2.0 software does come with an AREXX script that will convert
    a sequence of IFF24 file to Framestores.  It is an incredibly handy feature
    that saves a lot of time.  This bypasses the problem of having to load them
    into ToasterPaint and saving them as Framestores.

Jason Linhart
[e-mail]
ComputerGraphicsIntern@HCI

##

Subject:     Imagine as a Titler
Date:        Fri, 20 Mar 92 23:58:35 CST
From:        Wayne Haufler 283-4160 <[e-mail]>

Sorry for this long posting, but I have a lot of thoughts on a nonintuitive
use of Imagine to share.

I was working on a task requiring lots of crawling text, (but no 3D objects
needed), when I realized just how tedious and time consuming DPaint could
be for certain tasks.  Lacking a real video titler, a friend and I
considered whether Imagine could be used as a stopgap Titler.

Here are some thoughts on how to use Imagine as a Video Titler, though
I have yet to try it.  Perhaps using Imagine as a Titler is a big
overkill, but it's also wise to make the best use of the tools at hand,
or go broke buying a different tool for each need.  :)
Then again, maybe it IS a stupid idea; you be the judge.

It seemed to me that if Imagine could be used for scrolling lots of 2-D
text, it would at least be more automated than DPaint.  If you did not
need 3-D text, you could make several IFF images containing the lines
of text in the desired font(s).  Then flat wrap each of those, each one
below the previous one, onto a flat object like a plane.  Since Imagine
2.0 will allow up to four wrapped brushes per object, if there are more
than four, just make another plane object and wrap similarly.

Of course, aligning each brush so that the text looks continuous and
evenly spaced instead of on different pages may be tricky.  Especially
since one can`t see the brush itself until it is rendered.  I have more
on this I can share later.

The next step is to aim and position the camera at the first brush,
create a straight path 'down' the brushes for the camera to follow, and
render.  Its much easier to move the camera than the objects.  The
timing would have to be played with, of course, but once it is setup,
just let it go. (MORE THINKING NEEDED HERE :)

Of course, if you have a combination of scrolling and crawling text, or
text moving in different directions, it would be best to hold the
camera still while moving the different plane objects holding the
brushes.  One might even tumble the planes for fun.

You could even use the brushes as transparency maps, such that the
background of the text is transparent, and set up a scene behind it, or
simply use a different image as a Backdrop.  The text then would be the
color of the plane object.  Crawling text could be implemented in a
similar fashion.

The lighting for this needs to be smooth and balanced, otherwise some
parts of the text will look darker than others.  It may be best to move
the lights with the camera. Or simply set the plane objects' attribute to
Bright, so that it is evenly lit (I think that will work with brush
wrapping), and/or use a bright Ambient light setting only.

Also, in Projects Editor, set Render type to High Res.  Probably no
need for HAM for this application, unless you have a HAM backdrop.
Titling needs higher resolution more than it needs number of colors.
Rendering in High Res with few colors may even be a lot faster.  Using
HAM mode, though, may provide a degree of anti-aliasing at the
expensive of resolution.

PROS: Renderings of these simple flat brush-wrapped objects
    would be rather fast, probably MUCH faster than making and rendering
    3-D text.  (Big deal, also much less impressive :)
    May be less time-consuming, that is, more automated, than
    using DPaint's move requester on each line or group of lines.
CONS:  It may require lots more disk space for the frames
    than a real video titler would require.
    Much less feedback for the user than in a real titler.
    The user has to play with the number of frames to get
    the right speed.
    Nowhere near real-time titling.

Have fun with these ideas.  Let me know what you think.


         __      Wayne A. Haufler   [Christian/SW Engineer/XWindows/Amigan]
\\ /\\ /\\ //_    [e-mail]    McDonnell Douglas-Houston
 \/--\// \//__    Hobby:"Exploring the Use of Computer Graphics and
     //                  Animations To Support Christian Endeavors"

##

Subject:     Whishlist Imagine 3.0
Date:        Sat, 21 Mar 1992 16:01 MET
From:        Adri Mathlener <[e-mail]>

After reading the transcription of the Portal session with Mike Halverson we,
members of ARGH (Amiga Render Group Holland), came up with some whishes for
Imagine 3.0:

- ARexx support for Project Editor

  All buttons, including their options, should be accessable from ARexx.


- Keyframin motions with splines

  Keyframing now only works on a path. This path can only exist of lineair
  klines. With Hinge you can make some improements, but we would like to
  incorporate splines into this.

- Acceleration and de-acceleration (Ease in / Ease out)

  Now you can only specify the begin- and/or endspeed. We would like to
  define this as a factor from 0 to 1 between to keys.


- Confiure screen format

  Put the size of the edit screens in the confiuration-file, so you can
  define a interlaced overscanned edit screen.


- A2024 monitor

  This is a high resolution (1024*1008 non-interlaced) 4 color monitor. Please
  make imagine work on this monitor, as imagine opens a screen with 8 colors.


- Edit macros

  Define, edit, execute, save and load a macro in all editors.


- Free form deformation

  Speaks for itself. Real3D 1.4 has it.


- Negative lights

  Subtractive lights. Lightsource does not add light, but removes it.


- Shadow in pulldown menu options

  Please remove it, or make the color seperately editable in the configuration
  editor.


- Outline rendering

  Create a render mode, so you can render objects in wireframe. So you only see
  the outlines of it.


- Better GUI (Graphical User Interface)

  Conform the GUI to AMigaDos 2.0, giving it a more professional look.


- Tutorials

  Include severa tutorials with the program for better understanding the
  program and new options.


- PAL video tapes

  If there will be any tapes includes, have them also in PAL fromat for Europe.


- DCTV rendering

  Improve it. If ytou
  Improve it. If you render to 24 bits and the push it through Arts Department
  and save it as a DCTV picture you get good quality. If you render directly
  to DCTV the is a reduction in quality.


- Vanishing cursor

  In some requestors the cursor disappears. Imagine needs improvement on this
  point.


- One dimensional snap

  This means a independent X, Y or Z snap to grid.


- Requestor size

  If you configure imagine to work in interlace, the requestors are small.
  Please make them bigger.


--------------------------------------------------------
Mabey
Maybe some of the wishes are already possible, if so please let us know.


- Adri
[e-mail]

##

Subject:     Re: Whishlist Imagine 3.0
Date:        Sat, 21 Mar 92 13:31:35 -0500
From:        Andre Kian-an Tan <[e-mail]>

Another feature that I would LOVE to see implemented in 3.0 would be the
ability to morph object in the cycle editor by means of key frames.  This
could open up a lot of possibilities in the way of cycled objects.  At the
moment, I am working on an animation involving a human character.  My biggest
problem is that since all limbs are broken up into upper/lower arm, calf/thigh
etc. there is a very visible seam where they meet.  If the cycle editor was
capable of handling morphs, I would be able to set key frames for the
character at say a certain stage of walking, and then set others to create
a smooth walking motion without seams at joints.  Then obviously I could
bring the cycled object into the stage editor and do as I wish with it.  Having
this feature in the Cycle editor would be quite a lot more convienient than
having to do many, many changes in the action editor.  Oh well... Just a
thought...

 < ANDRE >

##

Subject:     Re: Whishlist Imagine 3.0
Date:        Sat, 21 Mar 92 18:04:33 -0500
From:        "Michael B. Comet" <[e-mail]>

>After reading the transcription of the Portal session with Mike Halverson we,
>members of ARGH (Amiga Render Group Holland), came up with some whishes for
>Imagine 3.0:
>

    [Stuff deleted at some locations]

>- Keyframin motions with splines
>
>  Keyframing now only works on a path. This path can only exist of lineair
>  klines. With Hinge you can make some improements, but we would like to
>  incorporate splines into this.
>

    What do you mean?  You can set key frame info for any of
Imagines time lines, and the object will morph position, size or
whatever at the frames you tell it to.

>- Acceleration and de-acceleration (Ease in / Ease out)
>
>  Now you can only specify the begin- and/or endspeed. We would like to
>  define this as a factor from 0 to 1 between to keys.
>
    This is allready available with use of paths, you set the start
acceleration frames, and the decleration frames, and the rest is all
nicely interpolated for you.  Great for everything from bouncing balls
to accelerating jet fighters.

>
>
>- Edit macros
>
>  Define, edit, execute, save and load a macro in all editors.
>

    These are these new "Buttons" that you can make in 2.0.  Also in
1.0 and 1.1 and 2.0 you CAN define Function and shifted function key macros as
well.

>
>- Better GUI (Graphical User Interface)
>
>  Conform the GUI to AMigaDos 2.0, giving it a more professional look.
>
    Like what?  The 2.0 version is quite the 2.0 look if you ask me.

>
>
>- Vanishing cursor
>
>  In some requestors the cursor disappears. Imagine needs improvement on this
>  point.
>
>

    This may happen if you click outside the window and thus
deactivate.  Thus, don't click outside the window.  The reason the
cursor usually disappears is to let you know that typing at that point
won't do any good!

>- One dimensional snap
>
>  This means a independent X, Y or Z snap to grid.
>
    Sounds like a great idea, I'm going to add this one to my list
too!

>
>--------------------------------------------------------
>Mabey
>Maybe some of the wishes are already possible, if so please let us know.
>
>
>- Adri
>[e-mail]
>
>
>

    Just my thoughts.

               Michael Comet
               [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Re: Whishlist Imagine 3.0
Date:        Sat, 21 Mar 92 18:09:35 -0500
From:        "Michael B. Comet" <[e-mail]>

>Another feature that I would LOVE to see implemented in 3.0 would be the
>ability to morph object in the cycle editor by means of key frames.  This
>could open up a lot of possibilities in the way of cycled objects.  At the
>moment, I am working on an animation involving a human character.  My biggest

    [Buncho stuff deleted]

>thought...
>
> < ANDRE >
>
>

    Okay, this is possible!

    Try this:

    Make a simple cycle object out of other simple objects.  Now
make another in the SAME HIERARCHY and with the same number of points
for each of the objects that correspond to one another.  For example,
take 2 tubes and make them swing.  Then mush those objects into
something different in the detail editor and group them the same way.

    Make 2 cycles, thenumber of key frames MUST be equal.  But the
motion and stuff can be different.

    Go into action editor, make the first object cycle like normal,
then have it morph to the second cycle object.  Result: the cylce morphs
as well as the objects.

    Note you don't have to morph objects, for example, you could
have your human figure now smoothly start from a stand, to a walk to run
all by morphing as long as they have the same keyframe number.  (Thus
one cycle would be of the standing person not moving with a bunch of key
frames anyways).  And so on.....

               Michael Comet
               [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Re: Whishlist Imagine 3.0
Date:        Sat, 21 Mar 92 18:55:03 -0500
From:        Andre Kian-an Tan <[e-mail]>

Unfortunately, that isn't what I meant.  I don't want to morph two
cycled objects.  What I would like to see Imagine do is enable a user to
cycle a morph.. Simple Example: The (imaginary new) cycle editor would create
ONE cycled object that would consist of morphs.  For instance a sphere that
would morph into a cube and back.  That way, all a user would have to do is
load ONE cycle object into the Action editor and cycle it, producing an
object that repeatedly morphs from a sphere to a cube.  At present, to do
this, one would have to edit the object's Actor bar in the action editor
many times for this to occur.  I hope someone understands me, and thinks
that this would be a useful feature like me... :}

 < ANDRE >

##

Subject:     ImageMaster
Date:        Sun, 22 Mar 92 19:48:50 CET
From:        Ottmar Roehrig <ajberl![e-mail]>

Does anybody know how to obtain ImageMaster from within Germany?? I
do not now of ANY dealer here who sells Black-Belt-Products...

Ottmar
--
AtelierRoehrig, Ottmar Roehrig, Hamburg, Germany
ETG021,UUCP:...!cbmvax!cbmehq!cbmger!ajberl!ottmar

"Excuse me, can you tell how to get to cyberspace?"

##

Subject:     Re: Whishlist Imagine 3.0
Date:        Sun, 22 Mar 92 10:47:14 -0500
From:        "Michael B. Comet" <[e-mail]>

>Unfortunately, that isn't what I meant.  I don't want to morph two
>cycled objects.  What I would like to see Imagine do is enable a user to
>cycle a morph.. Simple Example: The (imaginary new) cycle editor would create
>ONE cycled object that would consist of morphs.  For instance a sphere that
>would morph into a cube and back.  That way, all a user would have to do is
>load ONE cycle object into the Action editor and cycle it, producing an
>object that repeatedly morphs from a sphere to a cube.  At present, to do
>this, one would have to edit the object's Actor bar in the action editor
>many times for this to occur.  I hope someone understands me, and thinks
>that this would be a useful feature like me... :}
>
> < ANDRE >
>
>

    Ah I get it.  Actually, I would love to see this and have been
thinking about this in somewhat of a more expanded format.  How's this:

    A] The action editor should have basic functions such as CUT,
PASTE and copy to be able to duplicate timelines easily from object to
object, or for the same object, thus if you had a repeating section,
rather than having to keep adding timelines that said the same thing
over and over for one object, just copy and paste!

    B] One should be able to INSERT and DELETE any number of frames
at ANY position and all timelines should be adjusted accordingly.

    C] Finally, like what you were saying, an object could be saved
based upon a number of frames and it's timeline, that is you could save
the info of what you had done for an object or group of object, and then
load them into any number of frames in the ACTION editor, and the
timelines would reappear.  (Similar to Copy and Paste, but this would be
of use for multiple projects).

    Just my 2 cents.

               Michael Comet
               [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Re: Whishlist Imagine 3.0
Date:        Sun, 22 Mar 92 11:33:35 EST
From:        Dan Drake <[e-mail]>

I might as well throw in my two cents here :-)

what I would really like to see is to be able to deal with time instead
of frames.  The would really simplify syncing music, and putting
together movement.  For instance,  I can say 'I want this ball to
roll off the table 2.5 seconds after the door slams.'  Or 'I want
the planet to take 5 seconds to rotate 360 degress.', Or when the music
stops, I want all movement to stop too.  Since I have to do the conversions
in my head or with a calulator anyway, this would save alot of time.
One problem is the frame rate.  You would need to specify the fps you are
planning to use so the calculations would be accurate.  Thes would not be
a problem is you were recording out to a single frame capable recorder, but
when creating anims the fluctuations in the fps might throw things off too
much.

dan.

##

Subject:     Re: Whishlist Imagine 3.0
Date:        Sun, 22 Mar 92 14:56:44 -0500
From:        "Michael B. Comet" <[e-mail]>

    Yes, as far as seeing or using actual time instead of frames, it
could be very very very useful.  Actually, if you look on the top bar of
the STAGE editor, it tells you not only the frame number of the
animation you are on, but the time as well.  That helps but not enough.
The main downfall is when you play back the small test anims in the
STAGE edtior.  There is no way to tell how fast you are playing back at-
a very important thing to know when you are trying to time your
animations!

               Michael Comet
               [e-mail]

##

Subject:     2.0 question
Date:        Sun, 22 Mar 92 20:45:43 GMT-0500
From:        Scott Matthew Krehbiel <[e-mail]>

All I have is a nickel.  Anyone have change?

Does Imagine 2.0 give you the option of saving your "morph objects"
separately?  For instance, if you had a head morphing into a speaker
cone, could you save an object that's midway between them, say a
rather conical face??

Also, what about being able to copy and paste sections from within
the detail editor?

I don't have 2.0 yet, so one of those may have been a dumb question.
Oh well.

[e-mail]   "An apple a day makes your files go away"

##

Subject:     2.0 question
Date:        Sun, 22 Mar 92 23:45:18 EST
From:        "Ryan C. White" <[e-mail]>

 You can save stages of your morph by making the object morph in the
stage editor.  Then goto the inbetween frame you want]<R6|u want.  ClickFG:kSel
ect the
object, then use the SNAPSHOT command (under stage object menu).  Imagine
should give you a requester to save that object.  I believe this command
is also available in 1.1 or 1.0.

Hope it helped

 Chris

##

Subject:     Wishlist Imagine 3.0
Date:        Sun, 22 Mar 92 23:59:44 -0500
From:        " Ryan C. White " <[e-mail]>

 Here is my two cents on what I would like to see in the new Imagine.

 - output the HAM_E!

 - object shaders that the user can create (like MacRenderman)

 - a sky where you can control the transition of colors.

 - predefined camera lenses like in TurboSilver.

 - ARexx support.

 - possibly Z-Buffer shadows.


 Chris

##

Subject:     Re: 2.0 question
Date:        Mon, 23 Mar 1992 06:14:06 GMT
From:        Stephen Menzies <[e-mail]>

Scott Matthew Krehbiel <[e-mail]> writes:

>All I have is a nickel.  Anyone have change?

>Does Imagine 2.0 give you the option of saving your "morph objects"
>separately?  For instance, if you had a head morphing into a speaker
>cone, could you save an object that's midway between them, say a
>rather conical face??

Yes, use "snapshot" in the stage editor. This is good for 1.1 and 2.0

[lines deleted]

>[e-mail]   "An apple a day makes your files go away"
--
Stephen Menzies
#Internet: [e-mail]
#Fidonet : Stephen Menzies @ 1:167/265

##

Subject:     Re: Trace mode
Date:        Mon, 23 Mar 92 18:31:36 MET
From:        Marco Pugliese <[e-mail]>

>       Imagineers,
>
>       I was working on a flying logo this weekend.  It shows up quite
>       nicely when I'm rendering in Scanline mode (Ham).  When I use
>       Trace for rendering all I get it my background screen; no objects.
>       If I switch back to Scanline... poof, the objects are there again.
>
>       I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.  Is there some attribute
>       setting that would cause this?  Any suggestions?
>
>
>       Thanks,
>
>       Dale
>

Oh yes! This is a very old problem for the list, isn't it?

What you did wrong is setting the World size too small for your object.
Default size is 1024 on all axes, so you can either scale down your object, or
just go in the action editor and create a size bar in the global actor;
now you can make your world size all way down to ZERO (in this case, Imagine
will proprely scale the world on your objects), or just pump up the values
to an adequate value.

Hope this helps.
                                        CIAO.

--
 *****************************************************************************
 * It is good to disregard analysis and design phases and to rush into the   *
 * software implementation, in order to gain the time needed to debug the    *
 * failures due to disregarding analysis and design phases.                  *
 *****************************************************************************
===============================================================================
  Marco Pugliese   *| Dipartimento di Scienze |* [e-mail]
  via Roncaglia 13 *|    dell'Informazione    |* [e-mail]
  20146 MILANO     *|        ---------        |* [e-mail]
  ITALY            *|  Universita' di MILANO  |* [e-mail]
===============================================================================

##

Subject:     Morphing help needed
Date:        Mon, 23 Mar 92 8:24:44 EST
From:        Adam Benjamin Core Hardware Engineering <[e-mail]>

I GOT STEVES BOOK!!! (na nah na na)
It is great!
Oh yea, I had a question too...

I am toying around with that Aero-car object from hubcap and I want
to make the front jets rotate down 45 degrees.  Simple I thought...
I'll just UNGROUP it, rotate the jets, re-GROUP it, save it as a new
Object and then in the ACTION editor I can Morph from one object to
the other.  Well, it isn't working.  In Steve's book I thought I read
that grouped objects can't be morphed, is this true??  I think I may be
doing something wrong in the stage editor.  Here is what I did.:
I loaded the straight car in frame 1, loaded the modified car in frame
2-19 and told it to trasistion for 17 frames.  Is that right?  How does
the stage know what to morph? does it just use whatever is ending at the
frame your new object appears?
Thanks for your help.
--
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
   //   [e-mail]  OR [e-mail]
 \X/  Adam Benjamin          Insert snappy humor here
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

##

Date:        Mon, 23 Mar 92 8:41:07 CST
From:        "Dale R. Rogers" <camelot![e-mail]>
To:          Imagine mailing list <[e-mail]>
Subject:     Trace mode



    Imagineers,

    I was working on a flying logo this weekend.  It shows up quite
    nicely when I'm rendering in Scanline mode (Ham).  When I use
    Trace for rendering all I get it my background screen; no objects.
    If I switch back to Scanline... poof, the objects are there again.

    I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.  Is there some attribute
    setting that would cause this?  Any suggestions?


    Thanks,

    Dale


        ____________________________^__________________________________

        dale r. rogers               Email:  ingr!b24a!camelot!dale
                                     Internet:
                                     [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Re: Rendering to the Toaster
Date:        Mon, 23 Mar 92 09:56:39 EST
From:        Mark Thompson <[e-mail]>

Jason Linhart writes:
> Yes, the Toaster2.0 software does come with an AREXX script that will convert
> a sequence of IFF24 file to Framestores.  It is an incredibly handy feature
> that saves a lot of time.  This bypasses the problem of having to load them
> into ToasterPaint and saving them as Framestores.

Peter Bowmar just reminded me of this method. And as he pointed out:
"if you use an Arexx script and load your I24 Imagine images into
Toasterpaint, and render and record from there, it only adds 24 seconds per
frame (assuming you are going to Laserdidsc."
Actually saving them to HD or recording to tape will take longer.
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
|      `       '        Mark Thompson                 CONCURRENT COMPUTER  |
| --==* RADIANT *==--   [e-mail]        Principal Graphics   |
|      ' Image `        ...!uunet!masscomp!mark       Hardware Architect   |
|     Productions       [phone] [phone]   & General Nuisance   |
|                                                                          |
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

##

Subject:     Re: Wishlist
Date:        Mon, 23 Mar 92 10:02:38 -0500
From:        Elizabeth E Sack <[e-mail]>

Here are two things I would like to see in an upcoming version of Imagine:

    Rendering to the Toaster's Framebuffer(s)
and
    The abilitiy to use the harddisk as virtual memory (if Commodore won't
    do it, Impulse should just write their own driver).

I only have a penny, so I owe the mail-list $.01 :)

Jeff Hanna
Studio J Video Productions

##

Subject:     Re: No response from Impulse
Date:        Mon, 23 Mar 92 11:47:58 CST
From:        Michael Linton <[e-mail]>

Well in last months Impulse Gazzette, they mentioned that their address had cha
nged to:

        Impulss, Inc.
        8416 Xerxes Ave. North
        Brooklyn Park, MN
        55444

and the phone number is: 612-425-0557

So you might want to try to mail them a letter asking if they had recieved your
 letter, seems like kind of a waste of paper.
Hope this helps someone.

##

Subject:     Re: Trace mode
Date:        Mon, 23 Mar 92 13:41:04 CST
From:        Loyd Blankenship <fnordbox![e-mail]>

:    I was working on a flying logo this weekend.  It shows up quite
:    nicely when I'm rendering in Scanline mode (Ham).  When I use
:    Trace for rendering all I get it my background screen; no objects.
:    If I switch back to Scanline... poof, the objects are there again.
:
:    I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.  Is there some attribute
:    setting that would cause this?    Any suggestions?
:
:     ____________________________^__________________________________
:
:     dale r. rogers           Email:  ingr!b24a!camelot!dale
:                      Internet:
:                      [e-mail]


How much memory do you have? It sounds like there isn't enough to render in
full trace mode.

Loyd

***************************************************************************
*                 Once you pull the pin,  *    Loyd Blankenship  *
* GEnie: SJGAMES        Mr. Grenade is no longer *    PO Box 18957      *
* Compu$erve: [73407,515]     your friend!         *    Austin, TX 78760  *
* cs.utexas.edu!dogface!fnordbox!loydb             *    512/447-7866      *
***************************************************************************

##

Subject:     Spastic Rotate F/X
Date:        Mon, 23 Mar 92 18:53:03 CST
From:        Christopher Ice <[e-mail]>

I finally got Imagine1.1 and have a question...

I have created a logo of several grouped objects, an axis at the center being
the parent object.

In the action menu, I have its position set at 0,0,0; no alignments; default
sizing; no hinge...

I also have the action menu set up for the std. 30 frame anim.

When I apply the Rotate F/X on frames 1 thru 30 for a 180 degree rot around
the Z axis, the object is rotated slightly in frame #1 (I want it to be
parallel and perpendicular to all axes in frame #1)

Then, if I skip ahead to frame 7 (the object should be
rotated approx 45 degrees), it has rotated near 90...if I skip to frame 15, it
has gone thru over 100 degrees and is still rotating.....

If I apply the Rotate F/X to a path, and align my logo to the path, it works
ok, but is offset from the center and rotates eccentrically about the center
0,0,0.  I realize that I could offset the axis of the object to compensate for
the path, but isn't there a more elegant way to do this?

I hope you can visualize the problem I am having, am I missing something???

Any suggestions would help, and thanks in advance...
--
+--------------------------------------///-------------------------------------
+|    Chris Ice                        ///         Bradley University
 |
|    [e-mail]   \\\///          Peoria, IL, USA
|+----------------------------------\XX/---------------------------------------
-+

          "We are programmed just to do....anything you want us to."

                                               --The Robots

##

Subject:     Waving paper
Date:        Tue, 24 Mar 92 1:15:16 PDT
From:        Aaron Tucker <[e-mail]>

    Greetings. I am having a problem with an animation that invloves
just 60 frames, one simple object, and one F/X.

    Here is the situation:

    I need to simulate a piece of paper right about in the middle of
the screen. I would have to be looking at it from about a 30 to 45 degree
angle. The words Service Order are supposed to be large and cover a good
deal of the page disgonally. This piece of paper is to remain stationary
throughout the animation, other than a waving effect. It is supposed to
have the feel of waving through the air. I can do this without a problem.

    Here is the problem:

    I need it to be a seemless loop. I need approx. 60 frames of this
paper waving (along it's length...parallel with the camera, not
horizontal) and continuing without a hiccup. I need this by Wednesday night
so I can render and put it to tape Thursday morning. HELP! If worst comes
to worst, I will pay for such a staging file. The animation must be smooth,
however, so the plane has to have many vertical sections to it. The brushmap
of the letters "Service Order" MUST conform to the paper...or at least appear
to anyways.

    Here is the plea:

    HELP...Quickly!

Juan Trevino
[e-mail]
"Wake up. Time to die."  -Leon from BladeRunner

##

Subject:     Re: Trace mode (fwd)
Date:        Tue, 24 Mar 92 8:36:43 CST
From:        "Dale R. Rogers" <camelot![e-mail]>

> :    I was working on a flying logo this weekend.  It shows up quite
> :    nicely when I'm rendering in Scanline mode (Ham).  When I use
> :    Trace for rendering all I get it my background screen; no objects.
> :    If I switch back to Scanline... poof, the objects are there again.
> :
> :    I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.  Is there some attribute
> :    setting that would cause this?    Any suggestions?
> :
> :     ____________________________^__________________________________
> :
> :     dale r. rogers           Email:  ingr!b24a!camelot!dale
> :                      Internet:
> :                      [e-mail]
>
>
> How much memory do you have? It sounds like there isn't enough to render in
> full trace mode.

    5 Meg. (1 chip, 4 Fast).  I'm rendering on a A2500/30.

    It was also suggested that perhaps my world size is set badly.
    I will modify the values and check it out.  Why would it render in
    scanline mode and not in trace mode though?  Wouldn't the world
    size settings affect either mode?  If this has been answered
    before, let me know, it might be in some OLD mail.  I'll dig back
    for the answer.

    Last night I attempted to rerender the scene and I received
    rendering errors.  Is there some rule about not having
    light sources in front of the camera?  Just wondering.  Anyway
    I repositioned the light as an experiment and rerendered.
    I received this intense flashing red warning.  The screen
    went black except for the red flashing warning telling me I had
    a software failure and to press the left mouse button to
    continue.  Then it gave me an error number (Sorry I forgot it
    at home).  The system would not respond to my pen tablet, so I
    had to dig up my mouse, plug it in, and hit the left mouse
    button.  The system then did a reboot and took me back to
    the workbench screen.

    Does anybody have any ideas as to what happened?


        ____________________________^__________________________________

        dale r. rogers               Email:  ingr!b24a!camelot!dale
                                     Internet:
                                     [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Re: Waving paper
Date:        Tue, 24 Mar 92 10:26:07 PDT
From:        "John T. Grieggs" <[e-mail]>

>     I need it to be a seemless loop. I need approx. 60 frames of this
> paper waving (along it's length...parallel with the camera, not
> horizontal) and continuing without a hiccup. I need this by Wednesday night
> so I can render and put it to tape Thursday morning. HELP! If worst comes
> to worst, I will pay for such a staging file. The animation must be smooth,
> however, so the plane has to have many vertical sections to it. The brushmap
> of the letters "Service Order" MUST conform to the paper...or at least appear
> to anyways.

I did something vaguely like this a while back.  I wanted to make a
smoothly rippling checkerboard tablecloth.  Effects, like brushmaps, do
not apply themselves like decals, but rather create sort of a spatial
region of existence which happens to intersect the object.  Yes, that
was a hand-waving explanation.

Anyway, what I did was make a plane with a LOT of individually colored
segments.  I did this by making a single 4-quadrant chunk which looked
the way I wanted, then cloning and joining until I had an extremely
complex checkerboard object.  It worked - it ripples real smooth.

I think you'll need to do something sort of like that, although perhaps
not as dramatic.  One way to proceed would be to start with a simple
plane, and fracture as needed to get the level of detail you want.  You
will need to color the actual faces to match the letters - sorry.

_john

##

Subject:     Guru! Guru!
Date:        Tue, 24 Mar 92 13:36:49 EST
From:        [e-mail]

Dale says:

>  I received this intense flashing red warning.  The screen went black
>except for the red flashing warning telling me I had a software
>failure and to press the left mouse button to continue.  Then it gave
>me an error number (Sorry I forgot it at home).  The system would not
>respond to my pen tablet, so I had to dig up my mouse, plug it in, and
>hit the left mouse button.  The system then did a reboot and took me
>back to the workbench screen.  Does anybody have any ideas as to what
>happened?

Imagine "guru'ed", crashing the machine. A guru is a major fatal
software error, like the bomb on the Macintosh (IBMs just lock up).
What you hit was a bug in Imagine, probably the 2.0.0 version.. (if
you raytrace with 2.0.0 with multiple light sources and
transparencies, you'll guru.) The latest version of Imagine I know
about (2.0.2) fixes this problem. The software is *NOT* labelled which
version it is, but the filesize of the FP executable 2.0.0 is 575636,
2.0.1 is 575640, and 2.0.2 is 575700 bytes. You can call Impulse and
ask for an update... I'm not sure what their policy is but they have not
publicizied the existence of the new versions.

BTW: the version numbers are mine... I don't know what Impulse calls them.

-Steve

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Worley                                        [e-mail]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

##

Subject:     Re: Spastic Rotate F/X
Date:        Tue, 24 Mar 92 13:47:59 -0500
From:        "Michael B. Comet" <[e-mail]>

>I finally got Imagine1.1 and have a question...
>
>I have created a logo of several grouped objects, an axis at the center being
>the parent object.
>
>In the action menu, I have its position set at 0,0,0; no alignments; default
>sizing; no hinge...
>
>I also have the action menu set up for the std. 30 frame anim.
>
>When I apply the Rotate F/X on frames 1 thru 30 for a 180 degree rot around
>the Z axis, the object is rotated slightly in frame #1 (I want it to be
>parallel and perpendicular to all axes in frame #1)
>
>|    [e-mail]   \\\///          Peoria, IL, USA
>
>

    Okay, the rotate effect works like this:

    Say you want your object to rotate 360 degrees in 30 frames.
Imagine will START your object out with whatever degreee of rotation is
needed, and the last frame will be the final rotation which will be the
straight on view.  The reason for this is that you could now make this
anim loop.  Otherwise, you would have to make a frame 31 and set up
frame 1 to be the straight on view, and then rotate 360 from frame 2 to
31, and actually only render frame 1-30 to smoothly loop (otherwise both
the start and end frame look identical!).

    If this is too confusing, the best way to do it is to just use
key frame (Right Amiga 7,8,9) to do the rotation your self.  Goto frame
15, and bring up the Transformation requestor fro rotate Z 45 degrees,
and then okay and then Right amiga 8 I believe.  Do the same for frame
30 and the object will rotate.

               Michael Comet
               [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Re: Trace mode (fwd)
Date:        Tue, 24 Mar 92 13:55:55 -0500
From:        "Michael B. Comet" <[e-mail]>

>    5 Meg. (1 chip, 4 Fast).  I'm rendering on a A2500/30.
>
>    It was also suggested that perhaps my world size is set badly.
>    I will modify the values and check it out.  Why would it render in
>    scanline mode and not in trace mode though?  Wouldn't the world
>    size settings affect either mode?  If this has been answered
>    before, let me know, it might be in some OLD mail.  I'll dig back
>    for the answer.
>
>
>        dale r. rogers               Email:  ingr!b24a!camelot!dale
>                                     [e-mail]
>
        Well, here's how world size works.    The STAGE editor
has what is known as world size or global XYZ size values.  The defualt
is 1024 x,y,z Imagine Units.  Any object which is outside these
boundries will NOT be rendered IN TRACE MODE.  The reason has to do with
the different rendering methods between Ray Tracing and Scanline.  Thus
for scanline, the world size is not important.

    So, assuming your object goes beyond 1024 units, you can do the
following.

    1] Rescale your entire scene.  This is usually a big pain.

    2] Simply find out the maximum X,Y,Z values that you need by
using the coordinates mode in the ACTION editor and enter those values
for the X,Y,Z size timeline for the GLOBALS for frame 1->1 in the ACTION
editor.

    3] For frame 1->1 in the Action Editor add a GLOBAL size
timeline which has X,Y,Z values of 0,0,0.   This forces Imagine to
Calculate the size for you.  This is usually the best method for complex
Ray Trace scenes.
>
>
>
    As for not having enough RAM that is possible, try to watch the
memory as you go through the initialization phase of the TRACE.  If you
go very very low (ie close to 0) you need more RAM for the rendering.

    Finally, as for getting error messages, I have no idea what
would cause that!  (Maybe you are running out of RAM).  There is no rule
about light sources, they can be anywhere.

               Michael Comet
               [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Water
Date:        Tue, 24 Mar 92 23:56:03 EST
From:        [e-mail]

Hello Imagineers!  I have a question for you.  I am trying to render an
object with water and it doesn't seem to be working.  Let me explain my
project.  I have generated a scene in Scenery Generator and brush mapped it
onto a plane.  Then I also created another plane which I would like to use
as water
                             |
                             |
         O-                  +
                             |  \
                             |    plane 1 (brush map)

                      ----------------   -plane 2 (Ocean)
                        {Right View}

The ocean intersects plane one at the plus sign on the diagram.  When I
render the Ocean disappears and all I see is the bottom of my brush.
(Everything below the plus sign in diagram).  Could I be using the wrong
attributes for water?  The effect I am looking for is the water to reflect
the background and also the objects I will add later.

Thanks in advance.
Joe Cotellese

##

Subject:     Head Sculpture
Date:        Wed, 25 Mar 92 10:37:27 EST
From:        Paul Wehner <[e-mail]>

The method of digitizing a picture and using a lighttable to grid a picture
will work but consider that the resulting object will be a flat object-you'd
have to extrude for depth, good for complex logos etc. but for a true 3d
object like a head I think its better to cut slices and assemble in the forms
editor...
Paul Wehner/cinci

##

Subject:     Step by step for (logos,water)
Date:        Wed, 25 Mar 92 11:22:12 CST
From:        Toaster Man <[e-mail]>

Im going to have lots of time soon to work on animations.  I would like some
step by steps for flying logos and how to make water.  Any help would
be apperciated..


-steve

##

Subject:     Ground & Brush Maps
Date:        Wed, 25 Mar 92 12:24 CST
From:        [e-mail]

Hello and Help

Could someone please tell me how to put a brush map on ground.
I have tried many times and many ways with many failures.
I'm using Ver.2.0 and have tried HAM and 24IFF brushes with
no luck. Any help would be appreciated.

        Thanks - Ken

##

Subject:     Imagine 2.0.X versions (Re: Guru! Guru!)
Date:        Fri, 27 Mar 92 12:48:53 EST
From:        [e-mail]

Dale gurued Imagine and I replied:

>>The latest version of Imagine I know about (2.0.2) fixes this
>>problem.  The software is *NOT* labelled which version it is, but
>>the filesize of the FP executable 2.0.0 is 575636, 2.0.1 is 575640,
>>and 2.0.2 is 575700 bytes.  I'm not sure what Impulse's update
>>policy is but they have not publicizied the existence of the new
>>versions.
>>
>>BTW: the version numbers are mine... I don't know what Impulse calls
>>them.
>>
>>-Steve

Steve Gillmor of Impulse has told me that Impulse does not consider
these as different "versions" of Imagine, just different releases, and the
differences between them are due to different compilation options.

I certainly don't work for Impulse and I don't represent them, which I
thought was clear from the above post.

-Steve

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Worley                                        [e-mail]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

##

Subject:     TTDDDLIB update
Date:        Fri, 27 Mar 92 14:14:53 PST
From:        "Glenn M. Lewis ~" <[e-mail]>

    I typically do not announce TTDDDLIB updates to this mailing list,
since I am now up to release #33 (!) and many are probably not interested.

    But I just added some new features and extended the Imagine 2.0
support such that it will be much more useful to more people, I hope.  The
enhancements were prompted by the request of a registered user of TTDDDLIB,
by the way.

    [ For those that do not know, TTDDDLIB is a programmer's library for
manipulating Imagine (and Turbo Silver SV) objects, plus a number of handy
little utilities that use the library, including filters that convert to/from
a number of other popular formats, the most useful being my own TTDDD.  My
favorite filter reads an Imagine object and writes out an isometric drawing
of the object in PostScript format, with top, front, right, and isometric
views. I know, I know... I have to change the name.  TTDDD is a pain to say! :-
)
]

    Here is the README.R33 file I place on hubcap.clemson.edu in the
same directory as the release (pub/amiga/incoming/imagine/TTDDDLIB):

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    As of Release 33 of TTDDDLIB, I have decided to add some new features
that I am sure many will appreciate.

    First, the "readwrite" filter (AKA ext2int) can now output Imagine obje
ct
files directly (in the TDDD format) when given the "-tddd" option (or "-t" for
short).  Also, for some time now it has already had the ability to read either
TDDD *or* TTDDD files without you having to specify which is which.

    This release supports a number of new Imagine 2.0 TDDD "chunks",
including the following:

    SPC1 - Specular default
    PRP1 - Object properties
    EFLG - Edge flag
    FGRP - Face subgrouping

    I realize that documentation is still severely lacking, for which I
apologize.  If you have any problems, bug reports, or questions, please feel
free to contact me at: [e-mail]

    Thanks!
                            -- Glenn Lewis

##

Subject:     Imagine & Firecracker
Date:        Fri, 27 Mar 92 22:41:45 -0800
From:        Jeff Owens <[e-mail]>

I just got a 2 meg Firecracker 24 board and Imagine 2.0.  (set me back a
pretty penny)  Tonight is the first test of both, and I have a question
regarding Imagine utilizing the Firecracker.  Does the Use Firecracker 24
button actually do anything?  I have rendered (scanline - maybe thats the
problem ?) both with and without the button selected.  Whenever I then
select show, it just puts it to a HAM Amiga screen.  I assumed it would
do like VistaPro2.0 and ouput directly to the Firecracker.

Is anyone else out there using a Firecracker with Imagine?  Am I hallucinating
about this problem?

Thanks.   Jeff Owens

##

Subject:     Imagine & DPaint Anims??
Date:        Sat, 28 Mar 92 12:47 EST
From:        [e-mail]

I wanted to alter some anims created with Imagine using DPaint however the
palette always gets messed up.  I was told to lock the palette in Imagine
before rendering but this hasn't worked.  Any solutions?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  //  /"| |\/| | /"" |"\  "For this to be that which it was, it must be
\X/  /""| |  | | \_T |""\  provided with restrictive ricketts."
Jason Koszarsky
[e-mail]        THE AMIGA GROUP (TAG)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

##

Subject:     Re: Imagine & Firecracker
Date:        Sat, 28 Mar 92 13:03:50 -0500
From:        "Michael B. Comet" <[e-mail]>

>I just got a 2 meg Firecracker 24 board and Imagine 2.0.  (set me back a
>pretty penny)  Tonight is the first test of both, and I have a question
>regarding Imagine utilizing the Firecracker.  Does the Use Firecracker 24
>button actually do anything?  I have rendered (scanline - maybe thats the
>problem ?) both with and without the button selected.  Whenever I then
>select show, it just puts it to a HAM Amiga screen.  I assumed it would
>do like VistaPro2.0 and ouput directly to the Firecracker.
>
>Is anyone else out there using a Firecracker with Imagine?  Am I hallucinating
>about this problem?
>
>Thanks.   Jeff Owens
>
>
>

    Well, yes and no.

        Imagine supports the Firecracker Directly ONLY WITH VERSION 2.0
of the Imagine software.  With 2.0, the neat-o thing is when you render
in ILBM-24 or the RGB 24bit format, the rendering is shown as it goes on
the 24 bit screen.  This means at 50% of the rendering, you can actually
see the top half of your picture. (in 24 bit).  Also, when you click
show, and 24 bit file will automatically be shown on the firecracker.

    Thus, to use the firecracker with Imagine render in a 24 bit
format (usually ILBM24) and it will work, with 2.0.

    PS: Another neat thing you can do is to render a 24 bit
background, use the showiff24 routine or ADPro to show the pic, and then
play a HAM animation with color 0 for the background.  The result is a
genlocked HAM anim over a 24 bit still since the firecracker
automatically genlocks the amiga screen with color 0.

    Hope this helps.

            Mike C.
        [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Re: Imagine & Firecracker
Date:        Sat, 28 Mar 92 10:40:13 PST
From:        [e-mail]

>I just got a 2 meg Firecracker 24 board and Imagine 2.0.  (set me back a
>pretty penny)  Tonight is the first test of both, and I have a question
>regarding Imagine utilizing the Firecracker.  Does the Use Firecracker 24
>button actually do anything?  I have rendered (scanline - maybe thats the
>problem ?) both with and without the button selected.  Whenever I then
>select show, it just puts it to a HAM Amiga screen.  I assumed it would
>do like VistaPro2.0 and ouput directly to the Firecracker.
>
>Is anyone else out there using a Firecracker with Imagine?  Am I hallucinating
>about this problem?
>
>Thanks.   Jeff Owens

Go into the "modify" requester and select "Firecracker 768" as well as
clicking the "use firecracker 24" button and then you'll get what you're
after :-)  As soon as you start a rendering, after the initialize
phase completes, the FC will turn on and you'll see your rendering
appear, scan line by scanline, on the FC behind Imagine's interface
(assuming you're using a 1-monitor FC setup as I am). Works for me!
Also works in "quickrender" mode in any of the editors.

Harv

##

Subject:     Imagine & Firecracker
Date:        Sat, 28 Mar 92 12:03:23 -0800
From:        Jeff Owens <[e-mail]>

Thanks for the reponse guys.  I am using Imagine 2.0, and the darn thing
actually decided to work, it just "popped on" after several tries.  I
hope it was just a glitch somewhere, and that this board isn't zooey.

Jeff Owens  ([e-mail])

##

Subject:     Re: Imagine & Firecracker
Date:        Sat, 28 Mar 92 18:44:20 -0500
From:        "Michael B. Comet" <[e-mail]>

>Thanks for the reponse guys.  I am using Imagine 2.0, and the darn thing
>actually decided to work, it just "popped on" after several tries.  I
>hope it was just a glitch somewhere, and that this board isn't zooey.
>
>Jeff Owens  ([e-mail])
>
>
>

    No problem.  My suggestion would be to make sure the board is
seated properly and securely inside the Amiga.  Never hurts to be safe.

               Michael Comet
               [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Imagine & Dpaint anims
Date:        Sun, 29 Mar 92 07:49:32 EST
From:        Paul Wehner <[e-mail]>

If you render an Imagine anim in the anim opt 5 format(showanim to dummies
like me) Dpaint cannot handle it-Imagine's "lock Palette" button apparently
doesn't work correctly. What I do for ham animations is render single frames
only and import frames to dpaint/digipaint to touch up and then use the
pd "makeanim" utility. I don't own Spectracolor so perhaps that would prove
more useful for imagine ham anims, absent that I'd suggest importing the
frames into art dept pro and tweeking the pallete there. It hasa extensive
arexx support and there is an excellent shareware utility called MacroMaker
that makes script generation very easy-just click on the options you want and
it saves a script.

##

Subject:     Brush maps
Date:        Sun, 29 Mar 92 08:48:19 EST
From:        [e-mail]

I have a quick question regarding brush maps.  I am trying to wrap a label
around a glass.  What I am doing is trying to put a scale on a glass tube.
I went into DPIII and drew a white scale on a black (color0) background.
When I tried to render it I could barely see the lines. I used a filter
map for this.  I then went back into DPIII and redid the brush as a black
scale on a white BG.  I re-rendered to no avail.  What am I doing wrong.  I
know the brush is wrapped correctly because I could see the line originally.

Joe Cotellese

##

Subject:     Re:  Imagine & Firecracker
Date:        Sun, 29 Mar 92 15:34:33 -0500
From:        Brian Bishop <[e-mail]>

  Hey, I just got a Firecracker recently, and have noticed that
sometimes it will not sync up properly when I boot. I get the uper
left-hand corner of the screen rolling up from the bottom. No amount
of adjustment of my monitor will fix this, and I haven't seen any pots
to adjust this on the board. The only solution is reboot. It's not a
major complaint, but it happens about 1-2 out of every ten times I
boot. If this is a problem, I'd like to get it fixed now, while it's
still under warranty.


 Also, I have been looking into getting DEM (digital elevation map)
data straight from the USGS. They sell a sampler 9-track tape for
around $40 (I live within 10 minutes of the national headquarters, and
even worked there one summer when I was in high school). Does anyone
know if the VistaPro folks mung with the data somehow? I'd really love
to have the grand canyon loaded up for rendering. I need to find out
pretty soon, since I only have access to a 9-track drive for a few
more months....


  Brian

P.S. Got Steve's book yesterday; it is indeed great.

##

Subject:     Re: Imagine & SPaint Anims??
Date:        Mon, 30 Mar 92 8:49:33 CST
From:        "Dale R. Rogers" <camelot![e-mail]>

> Subject: Imagine & DPaint Anims??
> To: [e-mail]
>
> I wanted to alter some anims created with Imagine using DPaint however the
> palette always gets messed up.  I was told to lock the palette in Imagine
> before rendering but this hasn't worked.  Any solutions?

    The only way I have found to accomplish this is to create the
    anim in the impulse format.  A requester will pop up and ask you
    if you want to lock the palette.  Answer yes.  Another one will
    ask you if you want to save your picture files.  Answer yes.
    After you have created the anim, you can translate each picture
    that was created using ADPro from an Impulse format to a standard
    IFF file and rebuild the animation with another anim utility or
    DPaint.

    ADPro seems to be pretty handy for tranlations and other image
    processing tasks.  I don't understand why Impulse won't let
    IMagine lock a palette on standard anim format animations.  At any
    rate... if you really need to get this done, you can accomplish it
    using the above technique.  If there are other ways to do it,  I'd
    been interested in learning other ways.

    Hope this helps.

    Dale


        ____________________________^__________________________________

        dale r. rogers               Email:  ingr!b24a!camelot!dale
                                     Internet:
                                     [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Re: Brush maps
Date:        Mon, 30 Mar 92 11:11:09 -0500
From:        "Michael B. Comet" <[e-mail]>

>I have a quick question regarding brush maps.  I am trying to wrap a label
>around a glass.  What I am doing is trying to put a scale on a glass tube.
>I went into DPIII and drew a white scale on a black (color0) background.
>When I tried to render it I could barely see the lines. I used a filter
>map for this.  I then went back into DPIII and redid the brush as a black
>scale on a white BG.  I re-rendered to no avail.  What am I doing wrong.  I
>know the brush is wrapped correctly because I could see the line originally.
>
>Joe Cotellese
>
>

    I think the second brush map is the correct filter map that you
want since you want the glass to be clear (ie background white).
However, my guess would also be that you should or could use a color map
BEFORE applying this one.  Here's what I would do assuming you know how
to correctly wrap a brush map.

    1]  Make the picture with the lines in whatever color you want
such as red on any color background.  This will be a color map.  The
background color is unimportant since it is going to become clear in the
next step.

    2] Make a second picture simply by adjusting the palette for it.
Make the background a bright white and the lines or anything that is to
show up on the brush map black.   It is not important to use color 0 or
anything, just as long as the palette for the picture is correct.

    3]  Go into imagine and wrap your color map.  Then read off the
position and alignment values from the transformation requestor for this
brush map and write them down.

    4]  Wrap the second picture on the object also.  Use the
transformation requestor for that brushmap also and copy the data from
the fist so that the 2 maps are wrapped IDENTICALLY.  This is very
important.  Now select  FILTER map type before you leave and render.

    What should happen is you will now get red lines or whatever on
you object, and the rest will be clear.  This means the object filter
setting should be 0.  Also, if the glass to too clear, simply make the
second brush map less of a bright white.  The way filter maps work is
anything close to 255,255,255 (white) becomes transpaent, and 0,0,0 is
opaque.  Anything in between in interpolated.

    Hope this helps.

            Mike C.
            [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Re: Imagine 2.0.X versions (Re: Guru! Guru!)
Date:        Tue, 31 Mar 92 00:37:08 GMT
From:        Yury German <[e-mail]>

Hi [e-mail], in <[e-mail]> on Mar 2
7 you wrote:

: Steve Gillmor of Impulse has told me that Impulse does not consider
: these as different "versions" of Imagine, just different releases, and the
: differences between them are due to different compilation options.
: -Steve

    Steve so what you are telling us is that Impulse are making some
bug corrections without telling us. I assume that 2.0.X will be a small
bug squash but for some of us even that small squash is worth it.   -----------
------------------------------------------------------------
   ! Yury German                  yury@bknight or [e-mail]   !
   ! Blue-Knight Productions      GENIE EMAIL: Blue-Knight               !
   ! [phone]                (Graphic Design and Video Productions) !
   ! [phone]          P.O. Box 985, Queens, New York, 11354  !
   !_____________________________________________________________________!

##

Subject:     Re: Imagine & Firecracker
Date:        Tue, 31 Mar 92 01:27:18 GMT
From:        Yury German <[e-mail]>

Hi Jeff Owens, in <[e-mail]> on Mar 27 you wrote:

: button actually do anything?  I have rendered (scanline - maybe thats the
: problem ?) both with and without the button selected.  Whenever I then
: select show, it just puts it to a HAM Amiga screen.  I assumed it would
: do like VistaPro2.0 and ouput directly to the Firecracker.
     Jeff there are 2 things that you are missing. First of all you
have to change the preference from rendering HAM to Rendering into 24 bit.
If you selected the firecracker mode by using the presets then just change
the front pannel to render into an appropriate resolution and file
standard. I think its RGBN standard so just turn on that button.
    Good Luck

    _____________________________________________________________________
   |                                                                     |
   | Yury German                  yury@bknight or [e-mail]   |
   | Blue-Knight Productions      GENIE EMAIL: Blue-Knight               |
   | [phone]                (Graphic Design and Video Productions) |
   | [phone]          P.O. Box 985, Queens, New York, 11354  |
   |_____________________________________________________________________|

##

Subject:     imagine object format
Date:        Mon, 30 Mar 92 23:16:00 EST
From:        Ramin Taraz <[e-mail]>

Does anybody know how imagine saves its object?

The reason is that I am taking a graphics class and I have to write a modeler.

So, I though it would be alot easier to convert the imagine format to
the standard format of my class.


anyway, if you know the format, please let me know!

thanx
[e-mail]

##

Date:        Tue, 31 Mar 92 18:13:07 EST
From:        Mark Thompson <[e-mail]>
To:          [e-mail]
Subject:     3D model of my head

A Cyberware scanned 3D model of my head is now available on hubcap and can
be found in /pub/amiga/incoming/graphics/markhead.lzh. It is in LightWave
format but should not present a problem to convert to Imagine format with
Pixel3D or InterChange Plus (though the Imagine people will definately be at
a disadvantage for setting up the image map). Make sure to read the included
readme file (it is included in the lzh archive). Have fun and let me know if
you put together any real disturbing animations with it.
%~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~%
%      `       '        Mark Thompson                 CONCURRENT COMPUTER  %
% --==* RADIANT *==--   [e-mail]        Principal Graphics   %
%      ' Image `        ...!uunet!masscomp!mark       Hardware Architect   %
%     Productions       [phone] [phone]   & General Nuisance   %
%                                                                          %
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

##

Subject:     New T3DLIB Amiga executables
Date:        Tue, 31 Mar 92 22:35:08 PST
From:        "Glenn M. Lewis ~" <[e-mail]>

    Due to popular demand, I have just compiled my TTDDDLIB
filters for the Amiga, and placed them on hubcap.clemson.edu
in the directory: pub/amiga/incoming/imagine/TTDDDLIB/T3Dexe33.lzh.

    You will find several filters in there that support Imagine 2.0
objects (and previous versions including Turbo Silver SV, of course).  The
most important filter you will use is called "readwrite" and basically
replaces the old ReadTDDD and WriteTDDD programs.

    "readwrite" will read from its standard input, *EITHER* an Imagine object
file *OR* a TTDDD file, and it is smart enough to know which is which without
you telling it.  (In fact, all of the executables from TTDDDLIB now read
either type of file!)  It will also read old Turbo Silver files, and make all
external objects internal.  (readwrite is actually the exact same program
as ext2int, but with a better name.)

    "readwrite" will, by default, output TTDDD files to its standard output.
But if you give it the "-tddd" flag (or "-t" for short), it will output
Imagine object files directly!

    Remember that all of these programs are filters, so you must redirect
their standard input/output from/to files.

    readwrite   - reads and writes both TDDD and TTDDD files
    tddd2mif    - reads TDDD or TTDDD files and outputs FrameMaker MIF files
    tddd2ps     - reads TDDD or TTDDD files and outputs isometric wireframes
                  with Top, Front, Right, and Isometric views in PostScript
    tddd2nff    - reads TDDD or TTDDD files and outputs NFF files
    tddd2off    - reads TDDD or TTDDD files and outputs OFF files
    tddd2ray    - reads TDDD or TTDDD files and outputs Rayshade 4.0 files
    tddd2vort   - reads TDDD or TTDDD files and outputs VORT files

    Have fun!
                                                            -- Glenn Lewis

Glenn Lewis | [e-mail] | These are my opinions...not Intel's

##

Subject:     T3Dexe33.lzh
Date:        Thu, 2 Apr 92 10:03:03 PST
From:        "Glenn M. Lewis ~" <[e-mail]>

    Sorry to bother you all, but if any of you have tried out the
T3Dexe33.lzh library, and it either works for you or doesn't, could you
please e-mail me the details?  A user just tried it under V1.3 of the
operating system, and couldn't get it to work because of incompatible
libraries.

    I would like to know if it *does* work for anybody else but me.
That would be great!

    Please don't send your replies to this mailing list...  Please send
them directly to me at: [e-mail]!

    Thanks a bunch!

                            -- Glenn

##

Subject:     Re: Image Master Anim and Morphing
Date:        Fri, 3 Apr 92 19:49:04 PDT
From:        Aaron Tucker <[e-mail]>

    Imagineers,

    I just purchased Imagemaster and have been using it for a couple of
days. I paid $145+tax at a local dealer. I definately say it is worth the
money. I will give a brief overview because I have not been able to use all
the features as of yet.

Distribution: 1 Program Disk with 68000 version.
          1 Program Disk with 680x0 version.
          1 Images disk with several different image formats.
          1 PI Disk with various modules.

Manual:  This is probably the biggest fault of the package. While it is
very eye appealing (except for the example graphics) it lacks in information.
It is a real wirebound manual so you can lay it flat or wrap pages behind.
It is organized fairly well with a consistent feel and a good index. The
example graphics are 16color hires greyscales. So, nothing other than a menu
is going to look anywhere near it is supposed to.
     The manual briefly describes some of the features. It doesn't give
very many examples and doesn't even describe a sample use. Of what features
the manual doesn't cover, they include a 108k addendum on disk for you to
print out and read. (The text file is formatted nicely, however.)
     One of the only plusses about the manual is the section on AREXX. It
is fairly well documented from what I can see. (I BARELY know AREXX :-) )

Upgrades: Well, currently upgrades are $16 to upgrade from any version to any
version for the same program. This price will not to go from Imagemaster to
Imagemaster F/c or vice versa. Currently, the latest version is 9.02. I
bought 8.02, even though the dealer just ordered it from their distributor.
Even if you just bought the program, it is still a $16 upgrade.

Requirements:  Amiga with AT LEAST 3MB of memory. I highly recommend using
an accelerated machine with an 030 or 040 and at least 5MB of memory. A hard
drive is also a strong recommendation.

Limits:  Max image resolution: 32k x 32k pixels...this is not a typo.
     Max #of colors per image: 24bits.
     Max #of transparency levels: 24bits....that's right...24bit not 8.
     Macro recursion limit: 100 levels (using AREXX)

Formats supported: IFF ILBM at 1,2,3,4,8,12,15,18,24,HAM,EHB,HAME,GIF,DCTV
(sorry, that was OUTPUT formats supported...input supports all above plus:

DHRZ, RGB8, RGBN, NASA, DKB, JPEG, RAW and a I think a couple of other. You
can write to most of these formats of not all.

Some of these formats are suported through AREXX only...so I would recommend
adding that to the intial purchase price if you don't have it...actually,
I recommend getting the 2.0 update...it is only $99 after all and it comes
with AREXX.

I am only going to list the processing and compositing options. They are too
numerous to describe in this post...plus I'm short on time right now.

PROCESS PANEL:
    Contrast   Brightness   Gamma   Dynamic Range   Histogram Eq.
Sharpen I   Sharpen II   Low Pass   High Pass   Smear   De-Contour   Contour
Remove Pixel   Remove Streak   Remove Chunk   Remove Feature   Make Mono
Make Luma   Mono Neg   Luma Neg   Color Neg   Colorize   Set to Color
Pseudo Color   False Color   Line Art   Edge Line   Motion Blur
Implode/Explode   Spiral Blur   Thin   Thicken   Saturation   Adjust Hue
Posterize   Solarize   Pixelize   Hoiz Flip   Vert Flip   Color Deriv
Watercolor   White Balance   Grey Balance   Antique   Un-Antique   Blueprint
Connect   Dis-Connect   Point Cellular   Asterize   Reduce Glare
NTSC limit   NTSC filter   Antialias   Digiview Correction   Set Grad
Grad Fill   Area Fill   Define Color   Clip Region   Stretch Clip
Rotate Clip   Clip 2x   Clip 5x   Stepped Zoom   Set Blend   F/X PANEL
RGB PANEL   Analysis Panel   Make Mask   Print Area

ANALYSIS PANEL:
    Set Scale   Histo. Eval.   Calc Area   Measure Distance
    Measure Density   Count Colors   Define Background

F/X PANEL:
    Relief   Mirror   Wave Distort   Caricature   Dome   ZigZag
    Droop   Lined   Melt   Oil Brushed   Shear
    Geographics Elevations   Shadowed Elevations   Make Shine   ColorMap
    Random Tile   Radial Wave   Countour Line   3-D Net   90deg. Rotate
    Pad to Aspect   Zipper Removal (for DCTV images)   User Convolve
    Scan Contrast Correction   Re-align Color Guns
    Load Color-Map from Palette   Build palette from Image or HAME image
    Perspective Scale

COMPOSITION PANEL:
Set Blend   Merge   Min Merge   Max Merge   Color Keyed Min Merge
Color Keyed Max Merge   Color Keyed min Rub-Thru   Color Keyed Max Rub-Thru
Keyed Sec Min Merge   Keyed Sec Max Merge   Keyed Sec Min rub Thru
Keyed Sec MAX Rub-Thru   ADD   SUBTRACT   Absolute ADD   Absolute Subtract
Exclusive OR   Combine   Emboss   Punch   Place with Anti-Alias
Primary Surface Warping   Primary Surface Shading   Stretch from Clip
Clip Region   Transparency Channnels   Define Color


Well, how is that for features? In the F/X and process panels, you are given
many options with varying controls for each item to control exactly how
you want it to happen.

This is not all, however for I have missed many additions that are only in
the 108k readme on disk...like MORPHING! Yes, this is a great feature. I have
done a couple of test morphs....amd they turned out pretty good. You can
specigy control points very easily...although it is a time consuming process.
You can also vary the colimetry over the morph via line graph.
The Morphs can be any resolution and number of colors that you specify and
it will automatically add the number extension to your file name and save
it to a designated path.

The Paint Section: Is lacking. HArdly a paint program at all. I am out of
time so I will make this short...VERY few features. There...that covers it
pretty acurately.

SUMMARY:  BUY IT. It is definately worth it...it makes a great addition to
ADPRO or Rasterlink.
Scale: (1-10)
    Docs: 5
    Features: 10
    Ease of Use: 7.5
    Functionality: 9
    Support: 9
    Value: 10

HAVE FUN!

Juan Trevino
[e-mail]
"Wake up. Time to die."  -Leon from BladeRunner

##

Subject:     Marble
Date:        Sun, 05 Apr 92 00:32:03 EST
From:        [e-mail]

Hi,  Need some help with getting a good marble texture.  Could some one
give me some ideas on a nice-looking marble.   I've been trying but it seems
to keep coming out looking like white wood.  And due to the fact that I have
an un-accelerated Amiga (sigh) it makes experimentation timely and
frustrating.  Any help would be appreciated.

Oh by the way I am trying to put the texture on a plane.  Kind of like a
marble slab.

Thanks in advance,

Joe Cotellese

##

Subject:     Re: Marble
Date:        Sun, 5 Apr 92 10:51:29 -0400
From:        "Michael B. Comet" <[e-mail]>

>Hi,  Need some help with getting a good marble texture.  Could some one
>give me some ideas on a nice-looking marble.   I've been trying but it seems
>to keep coming out looking like white wood.  And due to the fact that I have
>an un-accelerated Amiga (sigh) it makes experimentation timely and
>frustrating.  Any help would be appreciated.
>
>Oh by the way I am trying to put the texture on a plane.  Kind of like a
>marble slab.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Joe Cotellese
>
>
    I have been trying to do the same thing, and have found the
following, you get best results with a high variation factor, like
around 3.  Also, try rotating the texture axis at weird angles to the
plane.

    However, I have found even this is not that "great" looking.
The obvious best results, and those I would use if I needed it would be
to obtain a brushmap of marble.  If you are rendering in HAM, get a HAM
marble brushmap and just map in there.  Poof.... instant perfect marble.

               Michael Comet
               [e-mail]

##

Subject:     Waving flag effect?
Date:        05 Apr 92 16:17:37 EDT
From:        Peter Jay Gould <[e-mail]>

I have to create the effect of a strip of film flexing as it comes on
screen.  The kind of motion would be similar to a flag waving in the breeze,
or a snake wriggling through grass.

The strip itself does not have to have images mapped onto it or anything; it
will have a chrome attribute so it can reflect a global brush.  The strip is
essentially a very wide rectangle with sprocket holes along the edges.

Any suggestions on creating the most realistic motion?

Pete

##

Subject:     lighting
Date:        Mon, 6 Apr 1992 19:06:44 -0400
From:        Troy Hacker <[e-mail]>

Hi all,

I've been using Imagine 2.0 for 3 weeks now and love it.  After building
several objects, I've now tried to construct a room with various objects in
the room.

So far all of the objects in the room are light correctly, except the
ceiling.  I believe the problem is that the light is two close to the
ceiling.  Only the center of the ceiling is bright.  I don't want to use
the bright attribute because I've applied a bump map to the ceiling.

The funny thing is that the corners of the ceiling are black as if now
light is falling on the faces, but the tops of the walls that touch the
ceiling are ok.

Anyone have any ideas???

Thanks in advance,

Troy
INTERNET  : [e-mail]
          : [e-mail]
USENET    : {...!uunet,...!telly}!moore!courier!troy
BITNET    : troy@yorkvm2
CompuServe: 76566,2357

Quote of the day:
  Putting a bunch of people to work on the same problem doesn't
  make them a team.
   -The Psychology of Computer Programming,
    Weinberg, p.35

##

Subject:     Re: lighting
Date:        Tue, 7 Apr 1992 12:22:47 -0400
From:        John J Humpal <[e-mail]>

Troy Hacker writes:
>
>
> The funny thing is that the corners of the ceiling are black as if now
> light is falling on the faces, but the tops of the walls that touch the
> ceiling are ok.
>
> Anyone have any ideas???
>

I have two ideas:

    (1) Boost the ambient light (from Action/Globals).  Setting all
        guns to 40 or 50 would probably take care of the dark corners.
    (2) Add more lights.  Put them in the corners and have them diminish
        in intensity.


-John

John J. Humpal -- [e-mail] -- short .sig, std. disclaimer

##

Subject:     Re: lighting
Date:        Tue, 7 Apr 92 12:27:11 -0400
From:        "Michael B. Comet" <[e-mail]>

>The funny thing is that the corners of the ceiling are black as if now
>light is falling on the faces, but the tops of the walls that touch the
>ceiling are ok.
>
>Anyone have any ideas???
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Troy

    I have been doing something similar.

    A] Turn off phong shading for the ceiling.  This should make
some difference.

    B] If that doesn't work, then the only options i see are to add
a couple of dim lights that diminsh in intensity at the dark area of the
ceiling.  That, or move the ceiling higher or add some global light.

    Hope this helps.

               Michael Comet
               [e-mail]

##

Subject:     global fog
Date:        Tue, 7 Apr 92 16:56:05 -0700
From:        [e-mail]

This may have already been covered, but does global fog work in 2.0?
I've been able to get a kind of substitute by using a screen size box as
a fog object covering all the objects on the stage, but I'd rather just
use the global fog.  Seems like no matter what I set, I can't get it to
do anything at all.

Thanks.  Jeff Owens ([e-mail])

##

Subject:     Re:  lighting
Date:        Wed, 8 Apr 92 01:17:58 -0400
From:        david r watters <[e-mail]>

Sounds like the ceiling has smoothing on.

David

##

Subject:     The new Imagine (was Re: Forwarded from Steve)
Date:        Wed, 08 Apr 92 09:57:44 EDT
From:        Mark Thompson <[e-mail]>

Chris A. Teuben writes:
> > How do people feel about comp.sys.amiga.applications.imagine?
>                                     ^^^^^
> Will there be a version of Imagine for IBM PC's or Unix available?
> Anyone?

Yes, Impulse plans to release version 3.0 for both the Amiga and PC clones
this summer. After reading the coversation that went on between Mike
Halvorson (sp?) and portal users, I was interested to see what they were
up to and gave Mike a call. He seemed pretty hyped about the PC clone
release because he figured it would blow everything else on that platform
away. But the main reason I called was to find out about the coprocessor
board he mentioned in the portal conversation. Apparently it is supposed
to have 4 i860s and up to 128MB of RAM. He said that it would likely never
see the light of day because the proposed ballpark pricing goal of $10K
was too lofty for most Amiga users. While this is probably true, I would
mention that there are customers scooping up fully configured CSA Magnum
040 boards for over $8K. I think it would have been much wiser on their part
to develop a single or dual i860 card (especially considering all the
added complexity of bus routing/crosspointing that would be necessary
with a quad design) thereby keeping the price much more reasonable.
However, it was my impression that they didn't because there already exists
a plethora of similar cards for the PC (yes, the first dreaded signs of Amiga
work not done because of the PC version). Oh well, looks like the DMI
board will be the only truly big number cruncher out there for the Amiga.

PS. While I was quite impressed with how frankly Mike Halvorson spoke to me
about their development work, I found his extreme tendency to flagrantly
bad mouth competing Amiga products rather unprofessional.
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
|      `       '        Mark Thompson                 CONCURRENT COMPUTER  |
| --==* RADIANT *==--   [e-mail]        Principal Graphics   |
|      ' Image `        ...!uunet!masscomp!mark       Hardware Architect   |
|     Productions       [phone] [phone]   & General Nuisance   |
|                                                                          |
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

##

Subject:     Offer for club members/developers
Date:        Wed, 8 Apr 1992 17:36:48 GMT
From:        Stephen Menzies <[e-mail]>

I recently forwarded a message to comp.sys.amiga.graphics regarding
a special limited time hardware/software offer by RCS Management
(Fusion 040 board). This offer has been made available to all (and only)
*US* Amiga club members and US developers.

RCS has offered their Fusion40 board at a low price of $995US with 0MB,
and $145 for each additional 4MB. With the purchase of the Fusion40
board, club members/developers are also offered specials on 5 other
software packages: ImageMaster/Cando/Caligari2/Caligari PRO24/ and
the just released, Caligari-Broadcast2.1. The software packages are
offered at aproximently 1/2 of their retail price (ie: Broadcast2.1 is
offered at $995US (retail $1995).

RCS informs me that ALL previous US purchasers of their board are
eligable for the special prices on all the softwares.

If their is enough interest, I can repost the original RCS offer in
full to this mailing list. Otherwise, please do not contact me by
e-mail. Instead, contact RCS directly:

Voice: [phone]
Fax  : [phone]

I am not nor ever have been an employee of any of the above hardware/
software companies. However, because of limited time nature, restricted
offer and significant savings regarding the above products, I only
wish to make sure all club member/developers have equal opportunity.

With regards to whether or not this mailing list qualifies as a User
Group, I don't know, but my *guess* is that it would. This mailing list
does have a list of members (for starts).

The deadline for this offer is May31,1992


-stephen
--
Stephen Menzies
#Internet: [e-mail]
#Fidonet : Stephen Menzies @ 1:167/265

##

Date:        Wed, 8 Apr 92 17:21:44 EDT
From:        Shayne White <[e-mail]>
To:          [e-mail]
Subject:     funny face tutorial

I tried to follow the funny face tutorial in the "Imagine Companion" book
but I am having problems (using Imagine 1.1 and 2.0).  I created the face
outline with no problem, extruded it and got the primitive plane as well.
Now, when I bisected the template with the plane (in order to perform a slice),
and sliced, I got an "edge too close to another edge" or something like that.
ANyone know what I am doing wrong?

Thanks

Shayne White
[e-mail]

##

Subject:     RE: Global fog
Date:        Wed, 8 Apr 92 16:14:34 -0700
From:        [e-mail]

OK, on the global fog problem, I was following what Steve Worley had on page
122 of the Understanding Imagine 2.0 book:  'If you set both the "Fog Top"
and "Fog Bottom" to zero, the fog will extend to all of the world at every
altitude.'  This is not mentioned in Impulse's imagine manual (the one time
I actually picked it up to look up something :) ), but I assume I either
misinterpreted Steve's version, or it is incorrect.  Whatever the case:
Using global fog requires entering something other than zero in one or both
of the top and bottom fog gadgets.

##

Subject:     Re: funny face tutorial
Date:        Wed, 8 Apr 92 19:16:29 EDT
From:        Dan Drake <[e-mail]>

> I tried to follow the funny face tutorial in the "Imagine Companion" book
> but I am having problems (using Imagine 1.1 and 2.0).  I created the face
> outline with no problem, extruded it and got the primitive plane as well.
> Now, when I bisected the template with the plane (in order to perform a slice
),
> and sliced, I got an "edge too close to another edge" or something like that.
> ANyone know what I am doing wrong?

To get around that problem, try moving the plane on the global y axis a little.
I found that if I moved it toward me a bit, the problem would be corrected.
I'm not sure what the problem is, I just know the fix.

dan.

##

Subject:     Re: RCS offer ! Post it, Please!
Date:        Thu, 9 Apr 1992 02:18:01 GMT
From:        Stephen Menzies <[e-mail]>

[e-mail] (George Hepker) writes:

>I'm looking into an accelerator and that RCS offer sounds nice.  Please post t
he
>entire article.

>George Hepker
>[e-mail]

here it is:

This a forwarded message regarding a hardware and software offer being
made to all Amiga club members and developers in the US. The message
is an exact duplicate of the notice now being mailed to clubs
throughout the US.


-----------------------start of forwarded message-----------------------

                           UNBELIEVABLE !!!
      A 68040 ACCELERATOR FOR YOUR AMIGA 2000 FOR LESS THAN $1000
        PLUS, A HARD TO BELIEVE DEAL ON PRESTIGIOUS SOFTWARES.

Dear Amiga club members and registered developers,

No, you're not dreaming, at RCS Management we know that a great number
of club members and registered developers are the heart of the Amiga
market.

To show them our appreciation and support we are presenting to all club
members and to all registered developers in the United States an
exceptional hardware and softwares offer.

The 28 MHz FUSION-FORTY 68040 accelerator board for $995 with 0 MB,
plus $175 for each additional 4MB !!!

To enjoy your accelerator even more we are offering you a selection of
very affordable high quality softwares,so for each person buying our
accelerator you can buy one or all of the following software packages:


ImageMaster (68030 version)
    (From Black Belt Systems)    $109.95  (retail $249)
CanDo
    (From Inovatronics, Inc.)     $72.00  (retail $149.95)
Caligari2
    (From Octree Software, Inc.)    $199.00  (retail $399)
Caligari PRO 24
    (From Octree Software, Inc.)    $599.00  (retail $995)
Caligari Broadcast 2.1
    (From Octree Software, Inc.)    $995.00  (retail $1995)

RCS Management would like to thank Black Belt Systems, Inovatronics and
Octree for their comprehension and support of this exceptional offer.

You will find an order form and some more informations enclosed in this
envelope, please feel free to call if there are any questions about this
offer.

For the clubs, we would like to have a representative that would order
for it's members, if that is not practical then please provide us a
list of your members so that we can verify who is and who is not a
member: we are not doing this to make your life difficult but in fact
this offer should be a nice way for clubs to increase their membership.

For Amiga registered developers, your developer number has to be
provided.

Thank you for your attention, RCS will keep you posted on our upcoming
"CHIP RAM ACCELERATOR" for the FUSION-FORTY.

N.B:    Proof of club membership or developer status is required.
    Prepayment required for this special.
    Please 3-5 weeks delivery. (Worst case scenario)
    Shipping and handling extra.
    All prices in US dollar.
    This special ends May 31st 1992.

CONTACT:

RCS Management Inc
120 McGill Street,
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H2Y 2E5

#Voice: [phone]
#Fax  : [phone]

------------------------end of forwarded message-----------------------

Please note that I bear NO responsibility for the above notice. I am
not and never have been, an employee of any of the above mentioned
companies.

This is a exact duplicate of RCS's mailing announcement. You will not
find the mentioned "order form" accompaning  this post. For this and
other information, please contact RCS directly.

Please, do not send *me* e-mail regarding this message. Contact
RCS directly. If I have time, I will to however, try to respond to any
messages/questions posted directly to this group.

With regards to the various versions of Caligari, I hope to be able
to post a brief report on Octree's (now shipping) Caligari-Broadcast2.1
sometime soon and place a image (or two) at an ftp site. I have also
asked Octree to prepare a Broadcast2.1 demo that will include their new
deformation lattices.

According to RCS, all previous US purchasers of the RCS Fusion40 ARE
eligable for the software specials mentioned above.

-stephen


--
Stephen Menzies
#Internet: [e-mail]
#Fidonet : Stephen Menzies @ 1:167/265

##

Subject:     How do can you Attatch a camera to an object
Date:        Thu, 9 Apr 92 08:37:27 -0500
From:        David Potter <[e-mail]>

Hello Everyone,

    Got a question I hope, someone can answer. I am doing a project
that has a space ship going around a planet and then a sun, I would like
to have the camera follow behind the spaceship. Is there a way in imagine
that you can attach the camera to an object and have it follow it a distance
behind it. My object follows a path, I have tried to make a dup path and move
it behind the current one but that is not very smooth, I have also created
another small path that has the axis off center and attached that path to
follow the path that the oject is following but that has problems too.


Thanx in advance.

P.S. Steve's Book is Great!!!



David
[e-mail]

##

Subject:     Flashing anims
Date:        Thu, 09 Apr 92 17:57:21 EDT
From:        [e-mail]

Hi, I just completed an anim with Imagine in anim format.  When I try to
display the animimation I get a really strange flash when the animation
loops.  I looked at the individual pictures and I don't have that problem.
Please help.

Joe Cotellese

##

Subject:     Imagine and IBM
Date:        Fri, 10 Apr 92 00:26:10 GMT
From:        Yury German <[e-mail]>

Hi Chris Teuben, in <[e-mail]> on Apr 8 you wrot
e:

: Will there be a version of Imagine for IBM PC's or Unix available?
: Anyone?
:
    Chris Yes they stated that they want to make an Imagine for an IBM
over at Impulse.

    Speaking about Impulse... they need some help in their cust
support department. I have a friend who is writing a review of Imagine
he had alot of problem getting the refractions with glass to work... his
machine kept crashing all the time. When he calls up Mike (without telling
him he is doing the review) he gets no there are no new versions and that
its a problem with his machine. Well today I sent him my version of
Imagine FP which was a few K bigger then his... guess what ... works great
renders great. I guess Mike should get his priorites correct... does he
want to keep customers or not??? Obviously when you will see the review a
thing about customer support will be mentioned in there.

    OH YEAH... one thing about the IMAGINE NEWSGROUP if proposed...
Please do not make it under the amiga area. Just make it under the
graphics are... like alt.graphics.imagine that way both the Amiga and the
Future IBM users can talk about it in one place.

    _____________________________________________________________________
   |                                                                     |
   | Yury German                  yury@bknight or [e-mail]   |
   | Blue-Knight Productions      GENIE EMAIL: Blue-Knight               |
   | [phone]                (Graphic Design and Video Productions) |
   | [phone]          P.O. Box 985, Queens, New York, 11354  |
   |_____________________________________________________________________|