davidlgood

His best work seems to always be his 'personal' projects. That probably has to do with the limited vision we sometimes have to deal with when trying to please a client (more so if you work for a single company than if you freelance). If you've seen his past work I think you'd agree -- his 'personal' projects are much better than his 'commercial' (or "job") work.

Juanxer Do a search for X.264. It's a standalone package that will create high quality H.264 files that are superior to QuickTime Pro's version (which does seem to alter gamma and sometimes produces banding). This is NOT an alternate codec, rather a simple application that exports your video files to H.264 the correct way -- the way you originally thought QuickTime Pro would. :) There are Mac and Windows versions available. Windows: http://sourceforge.net/projects/megui/ Macintosh: http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/mycometg3/ This you find this helpful.

Although the MDD addition is wonderful I have to say that I am absolutely thrilled with the feedback and communication I've seen since the recent 'switch'. Seeing frequent communication from the developers REALLY has me excited about the future of EIAS. Even if the communication isn't date/product specific, it's just nice to hear from the actual developers on anything. It makes me feel like they're really listening... really involved... and they really care about this product. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling this excited about the future of a product!!

Resolution found! As it turns out someone came in over the weekend and installed tracking software on my box (which is supposed to be an EIAS-only machine). They did their work and then tried to uninstall the software, which apparently didn't totally uninstall, or corrupted some files in the process. It seems the tracking software used the same kind of dongle (purple EVE3) that we have for EIAS -- so maybe it was just a simple conflict. Once the offender confessed to what he had done I simply started rooting out all the Sentinal (?) files from the System/Library directories on my machine. I then reinstalled EIAS 8.0 (and Modeler from my Universe 5.0 disc) and re-installed the dongle files from the disc... Opened the applications, put in my "unlock code" and all is now working perfectly well again. Thanks for your suggestion -- I wouldn't have thought to ask anyone if they had worked (or installed anything) on my machine while I was out, as it isn't supposed to happen.

Tom I'll certainly contact Phil and see what he has to say. I didn't install any new software did required a dongle, but do recall my computer fixing some "permission" issues when I booted it up on Monday. Since then Modeler hasn't worked. I'm just assuming that the two are related. EIAS 8.0 works just fine, regardless of which USB port I have my dongle in. Modeler gives me the same error no matter where the dongle is (I tried all available USB ports, including the two on the keyboard). Very odd indeed. Thanks for the suggestions.

Who is doing support for previous versions (prior to 8) of EIAS (or just 'generic' issues with the dongle)? Also, might that include support for Universe Modeler? Modeler was working perfectly fine on Friday, but on Monday it decided to give me the following warning: "No hardware key could be located on the ADB chain. Click the Reset ADB button to try resetting the ADB bus. Warning: This could crash some computers." I am presented with three options: Retry, Abort, and Reset ADB. The only button that works is "Abort" as the other buttons do nothing useful. I have tried reinstalling Modeler on a different machine, and it works perfectly well on that machine. I've tried disk permissions, repairing the disk (thinking maybe a permission was screwed up) but can't get it to launch on my main system. I even tried to copy the Universe 5.0 folder to the main machine to see if it was just a corrupt install of modeler, but it simply refuses to work on my main machine now. Both machines are the same OSX version (Leopard, up-to-date) and Intel processors. Every other version of EIAS (that will run on this OS and processor) seems to run just fine -- no "ADB chain" warnings at all. It's just something has happened that will not allow Modeler to run on this machine (when a copy of it will run on a similar machine with no issues). I guess my question is: Is there a preference file, or something somewhere that I can trash that might help? Something I can try? Reset? I'm open to suggestions.

Good job on the pieces there -- and thanks for posting them. I love this type of work as well. :)

Not only do I find the development fast, but I really like the open communication here -- letting us know what is being worked on, showing us samples, and giving us a vague idea of when to expect it is GREAT!! It's so much better than being left in the dark wondering if anything is being done at all on your favorite 3D package. Good work all!

Number 1 is more than a nice idea -- it's been a source of my hair loss for many years. I've wondered why EIAS can't look inside folders it creates for missing .FACT or assets. When you choose to "collect" a project you have the options for EIAS to automatically create a number of folders to help organize the assets. Why EIAS doesn't naturally 'look' into these folders when it's missing something is beyond me. It is, however, a ROYAL pain to constantly have to select missing files (sometimes I'll get a couple dozen, or more, small projects handed to me from an artist to do additional work on... and I have to go through that monkey routine EVERY time). Otherwise it's not really that big of a deal... my was going to go bald eventually anyway.

Count me in as someone who thinks keeping the dongle is the way to go. I've seen just about every application out there get cracked (I work in the software industry). I have not, however, seen a 100% successful crack of EIAS. I think there was one close around the 2.7-2.9 days, or thereabouts... but every other crack/dongle emulation for EIAS that I know of caused the application to break in such a way that make it impossible to use in a production environment. I've always been a paying customer, and realize the value of EIAS... and it's not something I want to see vanish because of bunch of hacks start flooding the market with a bunch of pirated working copies. I wonder if the huge price tag associated with MAX / Maya isn't in part to make up for the lost revenue due to all the pirating of their software. As far as a product demo goes... that would be nice. Not sure how you're going to pull it off without the dongle (if it is really hard to remove the dongle code) but I wish you the best of luck. I do think, however, that you should consider maybe re-introducing a "broadcast" version or a dv-Garage version. When EIAS Broadcast came out I finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel and started saving up my pennies to buy my own personal copy so I didn't have to spend 20 hours a day at work. Later, of course, EIAS because a single product -- and the price was even more reasonable. So, maybe a trimmed down version of the software at a greatly reduced price would help to bring more lower-level people into the mix? More users certainly wouldn't hurt -- word of mouth is what really helps to sell products. Also, it I were running the show, I would greatly consider some free or very cheap copies to be personally given away to art students who show great promise/talent. Having an extremely creative person using your software will do more for selling that product than a hundred grand in print-related advertising. Just my $0.02 there. I've actually sold a few copies of EIAS myself. People would look at some of my work, become amazed (they were easy) and they would do what everyone does -- ask what tools I used. Then they went out and purchased those tools (including EIAS). Never mind the obvious -- it's the artist that makes something cool, not the tools (they only help the artist), but still... I guess my point is, the more copies of EIAS that are out there in creative hands the better it will be for sales. Every day people see Maya and Max creations posted in all the forums, so naturally people starting out in 3D will WANT to use THOSE tools. EAIS doesn't have much of a shot, simply because they've never seen it in action. I think the dv-Garage version of EIAS went a long way to getting some people interested in 3D. I know my best friend purchased a copy of it, which I think was just a slightly older version of what EI was selling at the time (I think the dv-Garage version was 2.9). Regardless, it was another example of someone who liked what they saw of my work (and not because he was my best friend) and it inspired him to want to do the same. He couldn't afford the full-meal-deal, and even if he could he wasn't willing to risk that much money just to test the waters. The dv-Garage version (which was either $99 or $199) was worth it to him. Those are just a few of my thoughts. It's all about getting EIAS out into a LOT of creative hands. HEY... that kind of brings us back full circle to the dongle talk. Do you think MAX became one of the most popular 3D programs because it was so heavily pirated? Young slackers pirating 3D software will often grow up to be decent 3D artists... and when they get a job at some company and offer to do 3D graphics, that company is going to ask them what software to buy... (just a thought -- I still prefer the dongle).

I seem to recall reading somewhere that EITG was developing a modeler. Does anyone know if there is any truth to this? I'm interested in knowing what other EI users use as their primary modeler. I'm starting to pull my hair out with my current workflow, which bounces around from one application to the other... none of which seem to work well enough any more. First, let me start off by saying -- I love accuracy. Nothing pleases me more than to be able to build a model that is numerically accurate -- quickly. And yes... I'm an old Form•Z user. I understand that modelers like Silo 'can' be numerically accurate for the most part, but it's assumed that models built in those applications are going to be more 'organic' in nature, so the numerical controls are an afterthought (many more clicks, math, and fidgeting are required) -- and even then not everything can be numerically controlled. EI Modeler -- I still have my copy of EI Modeler. At first I didn't like it, because it didn't act like Form•Z, but I quickly got over that and learned to love it. Unfortunately, I have to keep it running on an older machine, as it seems to like to bomb out on me on my newer Intel machine (Mac). Anyone using EIM still with success? Silo -- I spent a lot of time getting to know this application. It took a lot of extra clicks and math to get the accuracy out of the models I needed, and there were some operations that you simply 'had' to eyeball, as there was no way to numerically enter what you wanted, but I was able to live with some of those. The problem with Silo is that the last several version (including the 2.2 beta that just came out) still have not resolved the .FAC exporting issue -- where it seems to export invisible bounding boxes, but no visible mesh or other data. Very frustrating. Also, as you might have guessed, I actually model things that need hard edges -- and I can't seem to get the "crease" function to work properly. Not sure if that's just broken, or what. I don't really want to fall back to Silo 1 (which actually has a working .FAC exporter). Modo -- No experience here, although people seem to love it. Blender -- I've downloaded it and will attempt, for the 8th time, to get my head wrapped around the interface, but otherwise have no experience with it. Lightwave -- I'm just about ready to break out my old Version 6 copy and see if it works on any current machine I have. Maya -- I enjoy this application, and since they've bundled so much with the 2010 version it's almost at the point where it might be a contender for a total workflow replacement. It's a money-hog, though... and with all the greatness that comes with it, so do the headaches and workarounds. I've still found nothing better than EIAS for camera moves, interface, etc. I would hate to leave EI, so that's not really an option I'm willing to consider. Form•Z -- Oh... my pride and joy, back in the day. Does anyone have any recent experience with this application? I, unfortunately, stopped my upgrade path with Form•Z back when EI Modeler came out. To upgrade to a current version now would be a major investment. It used to export .FACT files wonderfully. Any opinions on the current version? Bonzai 3D -- Made by the same people who make Form•Z. I tried a beta version of this application and, the few times I could keep it from crashing, I thought it acted nothing like Form•Z. It seemed to act a lot like SketchUp. I might be totally wrong about this application (since I tested an early release)... so please set me straight on this one if you have any experience. SketchUp 7 (Pro)? -- I've played around with SketchUp (free version) but nothing more than that. I really enjoyed some of the ways it modeled, and it was fun to play with. But you couldn't really export anything useable in it. I guess you can, if you pay for the Pro version. Anyone have any experience with this application? So, those are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head. I'm really interested to hear what people prefer for a modeling application, and specifically why -- and what kind of modeling do you do mostly (mechanical/organic). I'd also like to hear how you get your model from your application of choice into EIAS. I've had a lot of random luck (or non-luck) with various applications... trying everything from FBX/OBJ/3DS/DXF with sometimes good results and sometimes unpredictable results. Anyone else have issues like these, or do the out-of-the-box exports typically work for you? Makes me really miss the early days of Form•Z. David L Good Oh... and I'm not out to bash any of these applications -- just interested.

I think the image is great! Very nice work. And Richard is right -- not everything has to be "Avatar" in look and feel, since it's not "Avatar" you're producing. Specific styles should be compared to similar styles, not ranked as 'good' or 'bad' based on a totally different look and feel. Personally, I find this style to be most pleasing and is the style that originally got me interested in EIAS in the first place. I would love to see more of your work posted here. Thanks for sharing! David L Good