interstellar

Hi Aziz, I would also like to know what Adobe has announced! Joe

Hi Thomo, You can add light streaks to a light in EIAS. In the Information Window for every light is a "Flare" tab. In that tab is a "Flare" drop-down menu where you will find LensFlare and LightFlare. Joe

Maybe someone can help me figure this out. I have successfully used Dante_31.plm in many EIAS v8 projects with Dante set to "Object Particle" mode. I just bought EIAS v9 and installed Dante_31.plm in it. I opened some of my old, v8 projects that have Dante and they rendered fine with the version 9 Camera. However, when I create a new v9 project, add Dante, set it to "Object Particle" mode and scrub the timeline, I get this error message: "A requested plug-in feature or mode is not supported, File:/Development/NLP XCode Plugins/Needs revised projects/Dante X/Source/UEI Particle.cpp" This happens whether I attach either a UberShape sphere or an exported, FACT sphere to Dante. Has anyone tried Dante in v9? Joe

This is very good news. I use Dante in about a third of my projects and Big Dipper is in 99% of my animations. Joe

Hi David, When I render an object that has a procedural shader, the details shimmer if the "density" of the shader is set too high. That also happens near the edges of round objects where perspective causes the shader's details to crowd together. Shimmering also happens when the scene is rendered at the default anti-aliasing and sampling levels of 4x4 and 1x1. However, I don't use GI so my thoughts might not apply to your situation. Joe

Dante has its quirks, but I use it all the time in EIAS v8. I never use it with Renderama. It will quit when it is creating lots of high-polygon objects over a long time span. The way to avoid this is to split the render into sections, as outlined in the manual. I used it just today in a project; in fact, I use it in about 1/3 of all my projects. Joe p.s. I'm still using it on my Mac with OS 10.6.something

Hi Tomas, Thanks for letting me know about this plugin. Joe T

Hi Everyone, I use large RGB texture maps on Uberspheres; the biggest are ".img" maps measuring 7,500x15,000 pixels. I created these from RGB TIFF files on a Macintosh G5 (dual-core, 2.5 MHz, 4 Gigs RAM, OS 10.4.11) using EIAS v6.5.2. I now use EIAS v8 on a MacPro (6-core, 18 Gigs RAM, OS 10.6) but the biggest RGB TIFF file I can successfully convert to an ".img" file is about 5,000x10,000 pixels. Is there something (disk cache, preferences, etc.) I can change that will enable me to convert bigger TIFFs, like 7,500x15,000 pixels, into the ".img" format? Thanks for your advice. Joe T

Hi Michael, I know you're trying to reduce your render times, but you might want to reconsider the 1920x1080 format. I have a library of animations; a few of them are 1280x720 but most are 1920x1080. When a client sees one of my 1280x720 clips, they usually ask if it can be re-rendered at 1920x1080. Just two weeks ago I re-rendered several of my 1280x720 clips to 1920x1080 at the request of a Discovery Channel producer. Fortunately, my work doesn't require GI (I don't even know how to use it!) so my 1920x1080 render times are very small even at anti-aliasing/sampling levels of 8x8 and 2x2. Sincerely, Joe

Hi Felix, Thanks for posting this link; i would give a lot to have this in EIAS! Joe

RandomStreaks.prj.zipHi Tomas, I made a "zip" file like Richard suggested; here it is . . . Joe

Hi Tomas, Where and how should I send a file? Joe

Hi Everyone, I apologize if this has already been addressed, but I found small specks in the LightFlare streaks. They're best seen if you only keep "Random Streaks" enabled; turn off lens flares, anamorphic and glows. Then boost the "Streak Intensity" up to 0.2 or higher. Thank you for your attention! Sincerely, Joe T

Hi Tomas, Thank you for responding. No, I don't use GI in my renders, so that's good. Sincerely, Joe

Hi Everyone, Does anyone have experience rendering scenes for large-format films? Someone has asked me if I can render a project at 3072x4096 pixels. I set the resolution of one of my 1920x1080 EI projects to that size, rendered a few frames and it worked fine. I was just wondering if I might encounter any unexpected hurdles, aside from the long render times and large storage needs. Thanks in advance, Joe

Hi vgd and everyone else, I'd like to add my vote for a nice smoke & fire generator. Dante is good but it would be nice to have something more advanced. Joe

Hi Mickael, A friend of mine who is a well-known artist was once asked if he will ever retire. He laughed and said "What would I do if I retired, take up painting?" Joe T

Hi Kurt, Thanks for pointing out this article. I'd love to see some more destruction effects for EIAS, like a next-generation version of Dante, for example. Joe T

The kind of faking mentioned by Tomas works very well. I created a book with turning pages and, as Tomas suggests, each of my pages consisted of two planes separated by the smallest possible amount. Each plane had its own, unique texture map that represented the front & back sides of the page. Identical deformations were applied to both planes so that the turning page bent like real paper would. Of course, the planes had enough polygons to look smooth under the Deformations. Joe T

The kind of faking mentioned by Tomas works very well. I created a book with turning pages and, as Tomas suggests, each of my pages consisted of two planes separated by the smallest possible amount. Each plane had its own, unique texture map that represented the front & back sides of the page. Identical deformations were applied to both planes so that the turning page bent like real paper would. Of course, the planes had enough polygons to look smooth under the Deformations. Joe T

Thank, guys, for your thoughts on this subject. Joe T

Thank, guys, for your thoughts on this subject. Joe T

Hi Everyone, I would really appreciate your thoughts on 3D productions. Do you see 3D movies at theaters, and do you like them? Do you own a 3D TV? Do you think 3D is here to stay? Basically, these are the same questions that someone asked on a DV Info forum (http://www.dvinfo.net/) last month. He received mostly negative responses when he asked people what they thought about the "success" of 3D. On the other hand, three companies who produce TV shows for the History & National Geographic channels have asked if my stuff is available in 3D. Before I dive in head-first, I thought I'd see what you all have to say . . . Thanks, Joe T

Hi Everyone, I would really appreciate your thoughts on 3D productions. Do you see 3D movies at theaters, and do you like them? Do you own a 3D TV? Do you think 3D is here to stay? Basically, these are the same questions that someone asked on a DV Info forum (http://www.dvinfo.net/) last month. He received mostly negative responses when he asked people what they thought about the "success" of 3D. On the other hand, three companies who produce TV shows for the History & National Geographic channels have asked if my stuff is available in 3D. Before I dive in head-first, I thought I'd see what you all have to say . . . Thanks, Joe T

Hi Diego & Richard, Thank you very much for your advice. Richard, thanks for the tutorials and thank you for all the information, Diego. I'll be looking at all of this as soon as I can. Sincerely, Joe T