jakev

Lovely render. I agree with the "dark" foreground trees being the weak link to a quality virtual tour. Not sure you need every second of those wireframe transitions (10 seconds long), but a little is very interesting. The walking people and cars really make it come to life, too! Also the fountain was a nice touch.

Lovely render. I agree with the "dark" foreground trees being the weak link to a quality virtual tour. Not sure you need every second of those wireframe transitions (10 seconds long), but a little is very interesting. The walking people and cars really make it come to life, too! Also the fountain was a nice touch.

ok, tagging on to a 2010 thread. I have Maya 2009 for Mac. I have a Maya 2009 project from ABC to get the ABC logo/model and textures. I want to change this fairly simple obj model to fact and use it in Electric Image. (I don't have obj2fact.) When importing the model to EIAS the ABC "pearl" is fine but the ABC text come into EIAS as though normals are reversed on the faces. Reversing normals in EIAS does nothing, but checking "use polygon color" actually does make the faces solid, but then causes some tearing and polygonal artifacts. Can I export out of Maya better for EAIS perhaps? What options do I really have at this point without OBJ2FACT? Thanks for any incite guys. BTW, ABC also gave me this model in C4D if that helps.

soon < 3 months? gotta bust yer chops a little Tomas... Thanks for replying.

Anyone ever taken a flat plane in EIAS and crumpled it like paper into a ball or vice versa? I've taken a plane and made it deform into a sphere before in EI. But I want this to start as a crumpled ball and uncrumple flat, like it's stop motion. And I don't want to actually use stop motion, unless that is easier? Any ideas would be very helpful? Thank you! Jake

Hi Tomas, Any wonderful new thoughts on v9's progress?

Oh to have all those plug-ins over the years at 100%. Dare to dream.

Thanks for the insight Dave. I'm not very familiar with Renderama. Probably should be by now though. I feel a little behind as much as I've rendered over the years. Just never had a good networked set up of CPU's.

Theoretically you could hook up 5 mac mini's with slaves and create a render farm with EIAS, correct? I am considering this path right now, so any info would be very helpful. Jake

I'm coasting with a G5 at home til the next hardware upgrade on towers. This reflects what I'd been reading about tower vs iMacs. Apple has to know this. I "assume" Apple will come up with a configuration that keeps their desktop towers at the top of the game. But, it's not really even close to their bread and butter (iPhone/iPad/MacBooks). I wonder if the incentives are too diminished for Apple in this sector? edit, looks like the whole line up may be getting Sandy Bridge in the coming months (you probably have heard this, but here's a link) http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/05/04/supply_chain_sources_say_all_remaining_macs_to_receive_update_in_coming_months.html

Maybe he'll translate it to English soon. Cristobal is a smart and talented artist.

Ha, great subject line. Yep, that's the best I've seen. Excellent work!

Very nice Alisdair Jones. I'm envious. I'd love to do those traveling light trails similar to long exposure tail lights on moving cars in the "connected" projects. How can I accomplish this look? Anyone know where to start? Glowing traveling texture maps warping along a path in 3d space? Or is this just faked dimension (west and east segment) in a compositing program? Any insight in here would be appreciated. Thanks.

Very cool, I bet it rendered pretty fast then. Raycast shadows I assume?

Love it! Parts number 0001?? No way. I've never seen that box. Mine is all black from `96/97. Thank you. Cool stuff Alex. Jake

I wouldn't say that is a basic question. How do you create a sphere would be basic. Arete Psunami was the Northern Lights plugin, right? I doubt that works now. I think they stopped support at EIAS 7.0.

Hi FelixCat, Just adjust the material for the object or objects you want as mask objects in the diffuse tab. Slide Opaque to Transparent (Mask 1.0) and you got it. I'd say make a huge selection set, make a master material with Mask set to 1.0 and assign that master material to all the objects using the selection set. (huge amount of objects at once). Jake

Chip, What does it say about me, when an old floppy disc really gets my blood pumping on a Monday morning? Don't answer that. Really fantastic post. I've never seen one of those puppies. So cool to see. I wish I could see and dive into the interface of the actual software somehow. That should at least be framed in a quality box and hung on your wall. I'm a little depressed that most anything I've done since doesn't live up to your space station project rendered on a 10 MB hard drive back in the early 90's. I started 3d modeling in `92 on an SGI. Props to you, Chip. That is really cool stuff. Keep `em comin EIAS pioneers and fanboys! ; )

Tomas, yes of course looking forward is always the best. But the core users, like you will always remember those early groundbreaking days. I think it is good for EAIS to remember it's history, no competition in doing that. All the stuff that got it here today. Be proud. So many others have disappeared along the way. I know I have fond memories. I too used Infini-D before buying ElectricImage. Man did that word ElectricImage sound fantastic or what? So many possibilities in 1997 (for me). Ha. Aziz, you nailed it. Those Infini-D particles and lens flares were so far ahead of their time. And the text was pretty great. Modeling was a bit simplistic but unique. I gotta dig out my old Infini-D animations. Pict sequences laid down to M2 tape one frame at a time. Took 8 hours for 30 second tape transfer. What??? I still can't believe it. Thank God these days for Media 100, Final Cut and the others. If any of you can scan old articles and post them here, we'd all appreciate the nostalgia ride. Cheers! Go EIAS!!

Was wondering if anyone had any old magazine ads or articles from the earliest Electric Image days? I found some ElectricImage Mac Week reviews from around `96 of version 2.75 and 2.8, and it got me thinking. I'd love to see some more, from way back! Anyone ever use Specular Infini-D before buying ElectricImage? : ) "Apple to spill more red ink!" Ha! (pretty thrilled I still own my AAPL stock from `97!) enjoy, Jake

I watch too many Zombie movies, be careful with that. Braaaaains. fyi, Tomas told me EIAS 9 is out April 1st, if anyone is interested. heh heh I kid

Thanks, I did not know about that. I had them on. Maybe I can finally use Modeler again without such stress!

I feel for you Tomas... You've been very accessible, but I can see some drawbacks to being so accessible. Still, you're doing the right thing by answering the questions as best you can. You don't want to over promise and under deliver. Sooo first quarter, 2011? ; )

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/videos/redgianttv/item/50/# http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/videos/redgianttv/item/51/# http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/videos/redgianttv/item/52/# Back in May Red Giant TV posted a great (long) interview with John Knoll. In part 1 he talks about animating in Electric Image and modeling the Enterprise in formZ, for Star Trek Generations. Cool stuff. I assume he's talking about the warp at the end of this Generations trailer?

Juanxer, you know about the spacebar (hand tool) shortcut to scroll in the project window, right? I was thrilled when even that was implemented. : )