Gigayoda

Lol, Hey Grasshopper. I was just talking to my friend about that. It was like an early zbrush that had potential. Last I checked this team does not own that tool.

Wow!... Just wow, hey Richard long time no chat. EIM is still running in my windows and g5 mac it still solid and wow. I'll send an email and will contribute where I can. This is exciting.

Hi Gang, Just a heads up that the safeness-inc.com website that hosted the dongle drivers seems to have been acquired. The new site is: https://safenet.gemalto.com Keep in mind that searching for the drivers yields a lot of results. Tomas, maybe with the new url you can have a list on the EIAS3d downloads page to make it easier to sort the drivers for each OS. Probably the framework steps and the eve file instructions. Best!

Hi Tom, In the newsletter you mention that its Sierra compatible. My questions is what is the lowest OS requirement if any. I'm still in 10.8.5 as some of my apps are not benefiting from the newer OS. Any motion graphics enhancement tools? Thanks.

Tom, Thank you for early Sunday response. It worked. Now to get used to windows again :)

Hi Tomas, I'm setting up a new Win10 Home laptop and managed to install the dongle drivers. Camera and EIM open with no issues but EIAS opens asks to enter the dongle serial code and it shows it booting then it quits. Then I have to redo the process and it loops over and over. EIM is working fine after using the code. I saw the post about UAC and I modified that feature and no luck. Do you have any insights that may allow EI to take the serial code and launch? Thank you!

Hi Tomas, Igors, I noticed that back in 2010 and 2011 there were discussions about Octane renderer and back then it was considered to be at its infancy. Since then various render RT engines have emerged but as it has been pointed out the video cards are limited to NVIDIA using CUDA. Outside of the NVIDIA world Apple developed Metal to aid in their version of DirectX or improved openGL. Have you been able to research if a) this is a viable option for EIAS3D as far as preview within Animator or b) considered the RT developers to include a plugin for EIAS3D (has there been any interest?). From the benefits I found in some of the tools is transforming the animation platform into a motion capture tool. Similar to Lightwave or Autodesk where the actor performance can be rendered with the 3D object in the scene. These are some of the tools I've been looking at for C4D but I felt that EIAS could allow us to add additional render engines if possible. https://www.thearender.com http://www.nvidia-arc.com/iray.html http://furryball.aaa-studio.eu/ https://www.redshift3d.com/products/redshift https://home.otoy.com/render/octane-render/ http://frostsoft.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/pixelberg-update-release-18b.html Look forward to your response. Thanks!

Regarding Sculptris I've used it quite a bit and to paint "inward" you hold option key. Sculptris is quite powerful option to cut into the object and shift to smooth off polygons. the more you zoom in the mesh can also be increased or decreased based on your brush settings and the more you zoom in the more details you can carve or add onto your model.

Hi Gang, I've been out of the loop for a minute but Silo for those of you who want to test it on the cheap can be found at macheist. http://macheist.com They have a web / desktop graphic bundle but this is the first time I see them offer silo or any 3d package. $19 for a few apps isn't bad. I'm new to Silo and avoided it for the longest but now I can play without guilt in my wallet. Cheers,

Hi Vic, Nice render. Michael covered some good areas. Upper left brightness feels a bit forced the light bleed makes it hard to differentiate if the center 2 floating light panels are floating on the left or attached. Between top light panels lights are hot on the material. The store in the background with the blue sign is hard to make out what it is. Is it fictitious or a real store? If its made up use type that stands out or insert a layer that allows the sign to pop Add receptionist behind the table on the counter on the right facing the guy that seems to be looking for a receptionist Tone down reflectivity on the floor just a bit add mild bump imperfections. The perspective in the car / camera angle makes it seem like its a limousine if its a sedan the lady coming through the door has an odd scale to the car or vice a versa. She is either casting a long shadow or is missing a shadow/reflection. With intense lighting i guess no shadow may show. The flowers in the middle of the furniture seem to be floating no shadow on the where it sits. Adding a petal on the surface adds realism. The calla lily flowers near the lady sitting down may be worth adding to each table or opposing corners. The balance has the left 2/4ths a bit heavy on content 3/4ths open and the last 4th somewhere in the middle This is more of a question but the wood flooring in the middle is it meant to be seamless to the floor or a bit elevated? Some back story to see if I should judge against an airport, hotel, mall or business lobby. I think some sort of LCDs under Torre El Forjador could also add some visual interest to balance the visual weight. Finally something I've experimented with and have had good results is treating it like a photograph at the end. You can use light room and make it seem like you are developing a photogrpah to add a bit of soft focus around the outter edges. I've even played with similar filter like instagram to add grain and visual flair. Awesome job.

Hi Steven, A screenshot of your fact export settings might help. I just had some trouble this past weekend just getting the geometry to come through. FormZ changed some settings in the "Decomposition" triangulation options that I found helped me resolve some of the issue I had. I'm not in front of my workstation right now but I'll try to get some of my settings that have worked. I believe Form-Z hasn't changed their export methods but they've changed the way models are built and triangulated. Some are 4 sided some are deconstructed as 3 sided polys. If I recall correctly EI liked 4 sided faces. Tom I recall there was a link in the forum that showed some base settings out of FormZ to EI. Maybe a new EI9 FormZ workflow thread may be needed.

Hi Tom, Just curious but the EI9 reel logo. Was that with new dynamics or with slow-mo blaster? I guess other option would be a pre-sliced model. Looked sharp just wondering if its built in or add on. Thanks & looking good so far.

Hi Gang, Haven't posted in a while. I am still running Snow Leopard and a colleague of mine runs Mountain Lion and Lion. He informed me that transporter is no longer working in any Lion OS. I did a search in the forum and please correct me if I'm wrong but for EIAS3d 8 currently there is no working transporter other than using a 3rd party modeling application that can export fact, obj, 3ds etc..., to EI. Is this assessment accurate?

I haven't posted in a while and I went through the same workflow questions. Pixologic has a free modeler that is a baby version of Zbrush called Sculptris. It's barebones but if you know how to build clay models in real life both modelers feel natural specially if you have a wacom tablet. I second modo modeling but I leave animation to EI. I've used C4d for logos as you can have 1 project file, duplicate it to use similar setting for another client and all you have to do is import an illustrator 8 or eps file for the new project. You drag a few items around in less than 2 minutes and you have a quick 3d model. I export as Lightwave OBJ and then Transporter or OBJ to FACT to EIAS. As far as workflows are concerned you can have your custom extrusions and bevels in your own templates and then as the job calls you can add deformers or additional items. I played with Rino beta and was able to do some amazing work within minutes (hard body modeling). MOI lasted a few minutes since my beta expired shortly after downloaded it. Hexagon from Daz had an early death (it's began resurrection) but they were offering it for free. You may get lucky and get it in one of the specials they offer. Viacad was recommended by many members here but I never dropped the $ to try it out. Form-Z team has a sketch-up like app called Bonzai that has pretty nice capabilities and personally I think it performs faster than FormZ UI wise. I'm sure there are other tools I'm forgetting that I've experimented with but C4D logo export, modo modeling to EIAS have been my replacements. Sculptris is a fun tool and only downside I ran into was that I've had to add a lot of geometry to bring in a smooth model to EIAS while a lesser density model works well in modo and C4D ( I might not have used a smooth tool or shader in EIAS but I've had bad luck with some imports ). Hope some of this helps.

I feel your pain and have started using other options. I'm loyal to EIAS and have been for over 15 years. I feel like a parent that has to eventually let go of their kids so they can grow up. EIAS has gone off to college and I hope it comes back strong competitive. In the mean time I'm playing with other nephews and nieces although they are quirky and don't always play nice. Blender has impressed me and give or take 2 years I see it taking on some high end products at no cost.