HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mmcohen@cats.ucsc.edu (Michael M Cohen)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: speculation on synthetic actors
Date: 16 Oct 1992 13:04:04 GMT
Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz
NNTP-Posting-Host: si.ucsc.edu


In article <1992Oct12.042134.9473@netcom.com> nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle) writes:
>broehl@sunee.uwaterloo.ca (Bernie Roehl) writes:
>>Rendering human hair realistically is not easy; at the moment, the computation
>>cost is prohibitive. 

Not always necessary to draw every hair.
Texture mapping of hair and skin looks pretty good....
-- 

======================================================================
=   Dr. Michael M. Cohen                   mmcohen@dewi.ucsc.edu     = 
=   Program in Experimental Psychology     mmcohen@fuzzy.ucsc.edu    =
=   433 Clark Kerr Hall                    408-459-2655 LAB          = 
=   University of California - Santa Cruz  408-459-2700 MSGS         = 
=   Santa Cruz, CA 95064                   408-459-3519 FAX          = 
======================================================================
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: Video Blaster $ REMOTE VCR
From: djlewis@ualr.edu
Date: 8 Oct 92 23:18:38 GMT
 <1992Oct8.112025.11292@waikato.ac.nz> <1992Oct7.231041.2019@sol.cs.wmich.edu> <Bvt25u.Drq@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca>
Organization: University of Arkansas at Little Rock

In article <Bvt25u.Drq@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca>, broehl@sunee.uwaterloo.ca (Bernie Roehl) writes:
> In article <1992Oct7.231041.2019@sol.cs.wmich.edu> amundson@sol.cs.wmich.edu (Tugrik d'Itichi) writes:
>>The things it can do well are pretty much this: display video in a window, any
>>size up to 640x480.  Decent realtime scaling of the image.  Snap a SINGLEFRAME
>>(NO motion recording possible)
> 
> That brings up an interesting point.  My VCR is capable of single-frame
> playback; is there any way I could hook up infrared LEDs to a parallel port
> so that I can step it in software?  (i.e. single-frame, grab, single-frame,
> grab, and so on)
> 
> -- 
> 	Bernie Roehl, University of Waterloo Electrical Engineering Dept
> 	Mail: broehl@sunee.UWaterloo.ca
> 	BangPath: uunet!watmath!sunee!broehl
> 	Voice:  (519) 885-1211 x 2607 [work]
The infrared signal to perform a single task ei; 'PLAY' is not only a special
sequence of pulses but most probably modulated. The infrared receiver in the VCR
has a demodulator circuit for stripping the pulse back to a logic level. 
The modulation (if I am not mistaken) improves noise immunity and distance for
the signal.
	Do you have a hardwire port on the back of your VCR? If not, Then for 
about $35.00 you could buy a spare remote and dismantle one and hardwire your
parallel port to remote adapter interface. The type of switch on your remote 
needs to be examined as to developing the specifications for the parallel port
to remote adapter.
	Just a little input from me. If anyone cares to elaborate, go for it.
Don
djlewis@ualr.edu
From: smothers@nauvax.ucc.nau.edu
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Wavefront converter wanted
Date: 13 Oct 92 05:45:59 GMT
Organization: Northern Arizona University

I just got a brand new toy BUT I need a conversion program to convert
3-D Studio 2.0 objects to Wavefront object format. Any of youze knows
wherze I can cop me a copy?

many thanks.

mark
----
smothers@nauvax.nau.ucc.edu
My cat just farted.
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: hollasch@kpc.com (Steve Hollasch)
Subject: Ray Tracing JELL-O (r) Brand Gelatin (was Re: ILM, Pixar, and mis-information)
Organization: Kubota Pacific Computer, Inc.
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 18:20:34 GMT

Steve Hollasch (hollasch@kpc.com) writes:
>    Since this appears to have attained true folklore status, would you
> happen to know if Heckbert's "Ray Tracing JELL-O (r) Brand Gelatin" paper
> (Computer Graphics, 1987) was the originator of this idea, or was he just
> passing it on?

Juhana Kouhia (jk87377@cc.tut.fi) writes:
| 
| When I read it first time I was in high school and didn't know
| about Sch\"odinger wave equations or such; so I did lieve the article
| to be read in the future in believ that something great was written.

    Indeed, something great _was_ written.

| I were in this believ few years until I read the jell-o.saga
| from hanauma.stanford.edu:/pub/graphics/Comp.graphics/.
| 
| The article was just joke.

    Boy Juhana, this is just like you to dismiss as a "joke" a truly great
paper.  It may have been only two pages long, but in my opinion was a true
jewel of consolidated thought.  It is the best article, in my mind, to
reconcile empirical physical observation (Soupy Sales, 1966) with
theoretical physics -- the first approximation to the JELL-O equation
presented (J=0) is a remarkable distillation of what must have been years of
effort on the part of Mr. Heckbert.  It is also the first paper that I know
of to acknowledge that mathematics can indeed be hairy.  In fact, as I
review the paper, I also recall that it was the first (and so far only)
paper to build upon the raspberry-lime-strawberry orthogonal basis in the
realm of computer graphics.

    So you may think this article is a "joke", sir, but I will not stand
idly by while you proclaim so.  This paper is a must-read for those who are
interested in both computer graphics and JELL-O (r) Brand Gelatin.

    (BTW, for those of you grad students looking for thesis or dissertation
topics, this is the field to be in, IMHO).

______________________________________________________________________________
Steve Hollasch                                   Kubota Pacific Computer, Inc.
hollasch@kpc.com                                 Santa Clara, California
From: neil@celia.UUCP (Neil Richmond)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: GRIPE: Out of control
Date: 13 Oct 92 20:46:17 GMT
Reply-To: celia!neil@usc.edu (Neil Richmond)
Distribution: world
Organization: Rhythm & Hues, Inc., Hollywood

In article <1bcvsdINNmbb@manuel.anu.edu.au> lonachon@anu.edu.au writes:
 
>I am really disappointed that after all the years the mac has been out and all the
>graphics packages that have come and gone 
>that no good modern package on any platform allows object operations like 
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>solid subtractions unions and intersections like the

This is not true. There is a progarm on the Amiga called Imagine, whose modeller
allows boolean operations on the geometry. I believe that there are other 3D 
packages for the Amiga that allow boolean operations, like Real3D.

neil 



-- 
Only 2636 shopping days left till the next millenium! 
Neil F. Richmond         INTERNET: celia!neil@usc.edu
Rhythm & Hues Inc.       UUCP: ...{ames,hplabs}!lll-tis!celia!neil)
From: tlc@cx5.com
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: Cutting up old movies
Date: 9 Oct 92 22:39:22 GMT
Article-I.D.: cx5.1992Oct9.223922.10466
Reply-To: tlc@cx5.com
Organization: CX5 (San Francisco)

In article <1992Oct9.174850.8070@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>  
c60c-3gp@web-3b.berkeley.edu (Francois Chew) writes:
> 
> In aritcle <1992Oct9.164134.29758@unocal.com> (Richard Ottolini) writes:
> 
> I wonder if the current Diet Coke commercial is a sign of things to come.
> I speculate we will see more of this in the future with dead actors doing new  
scenes.
> 
> [ stuff deleted ]

> Imagine: new Clark Gable movies.  New I Love Lucy epsisodes!...
 
Now there's a dreadful thought.

[Francois chew adds]
>>The only problem is that even when we do have the
> >technology, stuff like that will be impossible for legal reasons. 

Thank god and country for "intellectual property" laws!

Thierry Castro
tlc@cx5.com
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: markv@pixar.com (Mark T. VandeWettering)
Subject: Re: mis-information? (Pixar, ILM, etc.)
Organization: Pixar -- Point Richmond, California
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 18:23:02 GMT

flip@cgrg.ohio-state.edu (Flip Phillips) writes:

>In article <623@wavefront.wti.com> hb@wavefront.wti.com (H.B. Siegel) writes:
>>For those of you that are keeping count, each and every message
>>posted to this newsgroup by a current or former member of Pixar
>>has contained exactly one piece of misinformation.
>>
>>	H.B. Siegel :-)

>I never worked at Pixar.

>-- flip

Yes, you just rested here :-)

	Mark VandeWettering
From: bwc@waikato.ac.nz (Ug!)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Interpolation
Date: 12 Oct 92 10:37:39 +1300
Organization: Vooniersity fo Kaiwato

I'm tired of the arguments about which machine to use.  My opinion?  Use *all*
of them (or at least, any that you can)!

Anyway, a *real* question.  Is anyone out there doing animation using object-
based graphics?  (i.e. graphics made up of lines, curves, etc)

If someone has any experience in animation from one set of bezier-based objects
to another, I'd love to hear from them.  At the moment, I'm in the middle of
doing the following:

Take images which have been scanned and edge-traced to produce object-based
graphics.

For a start and end frame combination:
  - in each corresponding object, scale up the number of defining points to
    a common multiple, so they can be interpolated.
  - do something with objects that don't exist in one or the other frame.
  - define speed/acceleration of objects (based on number of frames to be
    produced)
  - interpolate!

Has anyone else had a go at something like this?

Bruce W. Cassidy
University of Waikato
Hamilton, New Zealand
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: govil@Warren.MENTORG.COM (Shalini Govil)
Subject: Animation Machines
Organization: Mentor Graphics Corp. -- IC Group
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 14:58:52 GMT


hi..
I had a question ...

I was interested in but\ying a machine for doing animation at home. Which
are the good machines to look into? Does anyone know the price of a personal
Silicon Graphics Iris ? Also what kind of modellers, rendering and animation
tool kits work on it, and what are their prices?

Please reply to govil@warren.mentorg.com

Thanks in advance
Shalini Govil

Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: crux@artcom.de (Dirk Luesebrink)
Subject: Re: Abekas A60 Digital Disk Recorder, opinions, alternatives?
Organization: ART+COM e.V., Berlin, Germany
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 92 17:59:14 GMT

kunau@cray.com (Timothy M. Kunau) writes:


>Does anyone out there have experience with the Abekas A60 Digital Disk
>Recorder. We are thrashing our Betacams to death doing frame-by-frame
>animation and are planning to add a couple of A60 to buffer the frames
>and write the completed sequence to tape.

Not considering the price, the a60 is a great product we are using for over
3 years now, i guess. There is a new succesor of the a60, ( maybe a65, not
sure) which is much cheaper. 

-- 
ART+COM					Dirk Luesebrink	
1000 Berlin 12				crux@artcom.de
Hardenbergplatz 2			+49 (30) 262 93 01
Germany					+49 (30) 261 90 36 FAX
From: neil@celia.UUCP (Neil Richmond)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: ADVICE: I'm working on an animated short...
Date: 9 Oct 92 16:05:38 GMT
Reply-To: celia!neil@usc.edu (Neil Richmond)
Organization: Rhythm & Hues, Inc., Hollywood

In article <1b24apINNoii@gap.caltech.edu> andrey@cco.caltech.edu (Andre T. Yew) writes:
>
>	Actually, you can play DCTV frames back in realtime.  Tobias
>Richter showed an animation of his at the Amiga meeting at this
>year's SIGGRAPH that was just recorded straight off his DCTV
>with no single-framing.  The results were rather impressive,
>especially considering the video was about 5 to 7 minutes long.
>--Andre

Andre,

Did he have any special hardware for this? I have found that even on an '040
equipped machine, animations with large deltas from one from to the next
slow down. Perhaps, if he didn't make anims, but was able to read full frames
off the disk and double buffer them, he might be able to do this, but I 
expect it would require a fairly fast disk and an 040.

neil

-- 
Only 2640 shopping days left till the next millenium! 
Neil F. Richmond         INTERNET: celia!neil@usc.edu
Rhythm & Hues Inc.       UUCP: ...{ames,hplabs}!lll-tis!celia!neil)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: entpph@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Subject: Ottawa Animation Festival
Reply-To: entpph@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 11:31:29 GMT

I have just returned from the Ottawa International Animation
Festival where there were a handful of computer animated films
in competition and a new computer animation system was introduced.

Shown in competition were a segment from the Adventures of Tommy
and Nardo --Sorry Thomas and Nardo by Denis Morella, Meggamorphosis
by Sean Schur (these two pieces ran on Liquid TV last night), Gas
Planet by Eric Darnell of PDI and Shadow Puppets, by Chuck Gamble--his
thesis movie from right here at good old RIT.  Bob Sabiston's piece
about recycling and angry trees was also shown.

Gas Planet, a 3 minute fart joke, won best computer animation.  It
is a personal film of Darnell's made with PDI resources.

John Weldon of the Canadian National Film Board, who is one ofthe
world's funniest people, won The Gordon Bruce Award for
Humor, oops, pardone moi, Humour, with his film The Lump.  It
is a collage/puppet film using junk materials, but soem of the
facial animation was done with cut out computer printouts.

The lowlight of the festival was the computer animation presentation.
There were four presenters, three of whom simply showed their demo
reels.  In the case of Softimage, it was insult piled on injury because
as the price of their sponsorship their reel was shown at the com-
petition screenings friday even, and had been running in the
lobby of the theater all during the festival.  Nancy St. John
of Rhythm and Hues publicly encouraged people to come to work in
LA--threre are lots of jobs, said she.

The fourth presenter at the panel was David Harrison of England's
Cambridge Animation System.  He presented their new animation
system Animo.  It's a 2D system and it runs on the NeXT.  Features:
it seems to work exclusively with bezier curves.  Folks familiar
with Illustrator or Freehand will have no trouble with it.  It
understands stretch and squash, in betweens for you, easy to
see and understand timeline, paint your character once and you
never have to paint it again, and it automatically does lip sync--
you give it the mouth shapes for the phonemes, fed it the track,
and the system will look for phonemes and paste the right mouth
onto the face.  Impressive.

After three days of watching the cream of animation from all over
the world, movies that folks have put their hearts into, it was
sad to wlak into a theatre, sit down and be shown a shoe commercial.
A well crafted, slick shoe commercial, but a shoe commercial
nevertheless.

Geez, I didn't get to use kick ass.  Animo from Cambridge Animation
Systems--it's kick ass.

Erik Timmerman
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: broehl@sunee.uwaterloo.ca (Bernie Roehl)
Subject: Re: Shader
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 19:05:34 GMT

In article <1992Oct12.185352.2868@nic.csu.net> earrond@calstatela.edu writes:
>Can someone suggest the name of a public domain shader.

SIPP

-- 
	Bernie Roehl, University of Waterloo Electrical Engineering Dept
	Mail: broehl@sunee.UWaterloo.ca
	BangPath: uunet!watmath!sunee!broehl
	Voice:  (519) 885-1211 x 2607 [work]
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: osha2@utkvx2.utk.edu (CAMFIELD, RONDA R)
Subject: What do I need?
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: University of Tennessee Computing Center
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 20:41:00 GMT


HEY...

I am new to this animation game, brand new in fact.  I have a 386 machine,
with 155Meg drive and 8 meg ram.  I want to use the monitor through 
MS-windows to watch, catch screens and manipulate pictures from my VCR.

What hardware, software do I need to do this (I have the VCR)?

Thanks in Advance

Terry Dishongh
From: psjmt@frodo.cc.flinders.edu.au (<J.Tizard> Psychology x2420)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: Computer of choice? (Indigo!)
Date: 9 Oct 92 10:54:42 GMT
Distribution: aus,usa
Organization: Flinders University

In article <1992Oct7.053911.16045@cam.compserv.utas.edu.au> scarnie@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au (Stuart George Carnie) writes:
>Well, stick with the 486-50, I certainly have a biased opinion towards IBM's, asI own one. With the message about the "Toaster", obviously you haven't heard of the Video Blaster, which allows 24Bit colour, and direct, recording to and from a video. It all...
>scarnie@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au

Does the Video Blaster *really* allow recording to video ??? The reviews I've
seen make no mention of this features. Great news if it does :-)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 _--_|\        James Tizard                             
/      \       Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory
\_.-*._/       Psychology Department                    
      v        Flinders University of South Australia   
               psjmt@cc.flinders.edu.au
From: pjotr@ludd.luth.se (Peter Sj|str|m)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: Computer of choice?!
Date: 8 Oct 92 00:30:25 GMT
Organization: Lule} Tekniska H|gskolas Datorf|rening - Ludd

In <1992Oct8.112025.11292@waikato.ac.nz> ldo@waikato.ac.nz (Lawrence D'Oliveiro, Waikato University) writes:

>In article <1992Oct7.053911.16045@cam.compserv.utas.edu.au>, scarnie@esk.compserv.utas.edu.au (Stuart George Carnie) writes:

>(You might like to compare the Video Blaster with the VideoSpigot card
>for a Mac.)

>> PS, IBM's have far superior computing power to Amigas, for the cost.

>I hear Microsoft is busy working on AVI (Audio-Video Interleaved), which is
>its answer to Apple's QuickTime. I also hear it'll be able to play back about
>15 frames per second at one-sixteenth (160*120) size on a 33MHz 486 machine.

>QuickTime 1.0 can manage that--with real-time dithering thrown in--on a
>20MHz 68030.

	DMI has just started shipping their new 'Digital Editmaster'
that can both record and play jpeg images with synched sound (using extra
hardware I think) in 30 fps NTSC or 25 fps PAL, full screen size, 750*550
or something like that. Source can be any NTSC, PAL or S-VHS source and
same goes for recording your jpegs live to tape. Images don't have to
be in any order or so on disk. You do all this using an Amiga capable
of 900kb/s transfer rate to HD, which any decent Amiga should do.

	This card has a list price of US$ 2500 approx, if I am not mistaken.
I have no connections to DMI and speak purely for your information.

>> I'll let you dwell on that.

>And I'll let you dwell on that. :-)

Boys, boys, boys... 15 fps at 160*120... tss tss tss :)

		/Peter

pjotr@ludd.luth.se, pjotr@sics.se
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: ed@cwis.unomaha.edu (Ed Stastny)
Subject: ADVICE: I'm working on an animated short...
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 16:34:51 GMT

Hi there, a friend and I are looking to produce at least one animated
short (3-5 minutes long).  We'd like to do most of the "real" motion,
art, etc. on paper, then scan it in frame by frame and add effects,
speed, sound, and  such.  
 
He has an Amiga 500, I believe, with digitizer, DCTV, and a an extra 3.5
drive.  We don't think this will suit our needs appropriately, perhaps
you agree.
 
My question, which may be too broad, what would be the best option for 2
artist-types with a not so huge budget ($2000 tops) to create animation?

I also have 2 8mm film cameras, those would be our last resort.
 
Our plan as of now: get a higher end Amiga, a hard drive, and a syncher
to put the stuff on videotape.
 
Thankies...
...e

--
 ____                     + Editor, SOUND News and Arts magazine
|____                     + PO BX 31104, Omaha,NE 68131 (lg SASE for copy)
|____ D@CWIS.UNOMAHA.EDU  + SOUND FTPable: quartz.rutgers.edu(pub/journals) 
(Ed Stastny/UNO/Omaha,NE) +                141.214.4.135(docs/zines/sound)
From: philb@cats.ucsc.edu (Philip Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: UN-LZHing fli's (how??)
Date: 13 Oct 1992 02:16:06 GMT
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz
NNTP-Posting-Host: si.ucsc.edu


ccjames@cybaswan.UUCP (j hussell) writes:

>Hi!

>I just downloaded a .LZH file from phoenix.oulu.fi's archive.  It's an
anim-fli
>but I can't un-lzh it.  How can I do it???


if you don't know what ".lzh" means, use lharc

otherwise... try ftp'ing it in binary mode.

-- 
  --------------------------------------------------
"How do I love sea? Let me count the waves.." |philb@cats.ucsc.edu
P.Anthony, "The Colo(u)r of her panties"      |philb@soda.berkeley.edu
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: Bruce@Pixar.com (Bruce Perens)
Subject: Re: Pixar is alive and well
Organization: Pixar -- Point Richmond, California
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 16:36:06 GMT

In article <1992Oct14.182719.10139@imax.imax.com> dave@imax.imax.com (Dave  
Martindale) writes:
> Pixar sold their hardware business to Vicom.  So if you wanted to buy a
> Pixar Image Computer, you talked to Vicom not Pixar.  Then Vicom went  
Chapter 11.
> This is probably the source of the confusion.

I agree with your observation.

Please also note that Vicom is not out of business, and is still selling
imaging systems. We'd like to see them become more successful.
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
From: stgprao@st.unocal.COM (Richard Ottolini)
Subject: Re: synthetic actors
Organization: Unocal Corporation
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 21:41:06 GMT


This month's Computer Graphics World has article on "performance animation".
This is where key points on a cartoon figure or synthetic creature are
tied into measured motions of equivalent key points on people.
Some systems are real time.
From: aron@tikal.ced.berkeley.edu (aron bonar)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: Wavefront converter wanted
Date: 14 Oct 1992 21:23:17 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: tikal.ced.berkeley.edu

yes..yes..yes...I would love to have a ulitity that did that.
The modeling power of 3ds with the rendering and animation of wavefront...

the possibilities boggle the mind....  :-)
From: bobl@bobsbox.rent.com (Bob Lindabury - SysAdmin)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation
Subject: Re: Sculpt Animate 4D
Date: 16 Oct 92 14:25:15 GMT
Organization: Raven Enterprises -- Piscataway, NJ USA
X-NewsSoftware: GRn 1.16f (10.6.92) by Mike Schwartz & Michael B. Smith

In article <1992Oct15.074914.7988@cs.uow.edu.au> ted@cs.uow.edu.au (Edward Simon Dunstone) writes:
> Is anyone aware if this Amiga program was ever ported to the IBM. There
> was talk of it being ported to the Mac a few years back. It is by
> far the best raytracing/Animation package I have ever used.
>
> Ted

It was ported to the Mac.  Basically the company that produced it (Byte
by Byte) dropped Amiga support to go full bore with the Mac version.

While Sculpt/Animate 4D was very good in its time, it is now a very
outdated (Amiga Version) 3D program.  I haven't been keeping up with its
incarnations on the Mac.

I suggest you check out either Imagine 2.0 or Autodesk 3D Studio for the
IBM platforms.  Will Vinton's Playmation (was Hash Enterprises
"Animation Journeyman for the Amiga) is also another program you should
check out for IBM platforms.  Playmation uses Spline patch technology
for modeling.

--
 Bob Lindabury

InterNet: bobl@bobsbox.rent.com                | Raven Enterprises
    UUCP: ...rutgers!bobsbox!bobl              | 25 Raven Avenue
  BitNet: bobl%bobsbox.rent.com@pucc           | Piscataway, NJ 08854
  Home #: +1 908/560-7353                      | +1 908/271-8878
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.animation