New forum section

[Mark Johnston]

Hi I propose a new forum section , ideas for getting more users , that do not involve new features being add too the program. I propose in this section users post one idea per thread, not a list of suggestions. Then other users could rate 1 to 10 each idea in their replies as , could be helpful or don't think would be helpful at ends of scale. and also just post comments about the suggestion.

[Juanxer]

I think such a forum section could be quite interesting. There are a few obvious ideas that can be implemented for free, actually.

(I don't know if it would get more users right away, but it surely would bring some attention: when you think you are ready, what about letting the 3D-specialized websites and magazines know about recent developments and your view of EIAS' future? Places such as Architosh.com, the very CGsociety.org, etc. would welcome a press note, at the very least, and perhaps they could be interested in doing a short interview. Even some Mac magazines could take note of EIAS' evolution, given its heritage.)

[Tomas Egger]

Ola,

The new forum section is interesting..

About contact the outside world to show our new forum, We are planning to do this, but only when our web site become ready.. :)

It will take some time.. then we will attack. :)

Thanksss

Tom

[Mark Johnston]

HI Thanks Guys , for thinking it could be a interesting idea . I was almost afraid to see if the suggestion would just be ignored , or not taken in the right way . Like who this guy who thinks he's going to show us how to market our product. I'm just a hobby user, but this summer when i got a 8 processor mac I finally felt the rendering speed increase gave me a big boost in desire to really get to work instead of just noodling around. I had some ideas that I didn't want to see disappear in to the bottom of along line of threads where no one really consider them. Tomas , After looking at the link you gave me to your web page. I really liked all the stuff and I felt , man these are just the kind of guys I wish I had could hang with. Intently in to their art but still fun. I play guitar, drums and keyboards and the jam in the studio was fun to see. I read your interview and was pleasantly surprised to see how much in common our background was as far as i too had all but the last 2 konkeptoine plug'ins all the Northern lights plugin's and was almost going to by the other 3000.oo dollars of plugins that where on the market but decided , I'd hold it there for now. I to had all the interests in the effects people you mentioned and feel the same gratefulness that you expressed to all the others who have helped you. Differences is I spent 34 years stocking shelfs in a grocery store and I'am now retired and can finally do the kind of stuff that I like all day and at my own pace , no deadlines for me. I was born in the decade of Forbidden Planet , War of Worlds, ect. learned to play guitar ( practicing 7 hours a day) at 13 years old when the Beatles came out . I love this program Man !

[Tomas Egger]

Hey Mark,

Im really happy you are having time to do 3d with EIAS... ITS TIME TO PUT YOUR PASSION ON EIAS.. do, renders, animations tests, short films..

Everything I know about 3d was because I choosed EIAS to my life...

Im remembering now when a I first saw a DEMO REEL VHS from EIAS 2.5 with some of the most incredible animations and render quality in that time and some of them touched me a lot were “Space Rangers” TV show made by Jonh Knoll and Terminator 2 “blast” scene, BINGO, I only thought, I NEED THIS APPLICATION.

After soo many years using and loving EIAS, I always had this desire: How can I take care more of EIAS? which made all my personal dreams come true.

I never felt soo excited with this new step in my life long waited, My true desire and goal is make all users proud of EIAS and when new artists start to use it, have the same feeling once time I had, Imaging in a future a chance of make dreams and creativity become amazing images and animations.

I hope to see everybody here more and more happy from this moment in our new road.

Thanksss

Tom

HI Thanks Guys , for thinking it could be a interesting idea . I was almost afraid to see if the suggestion would just be ignored , or not taken in the right way . Like who this guy who thinks he's going to show us how to market our product. I'm just a hobby user, but this summer when i got a 8 processor mac I finally felt the rendering speed increase gave me a big boost in desire to really get to work instead of just noodling around. I had some ideas that I didn't want to see disappear in to the bottom of along line of threads where no one really consider them. Tomas , After looking at the link you gave me to your web page. I really liked all the stuff and I felt , man these are just the kind of guys I wish I had could hang with. Intently in to their art but still fun. I play guitar, drums and keyboards and the jam in the studio was fun to see. I read your interview and was pleasantly surprised to see how much in common our background was as far as i too had all but the last 2 konkeptoine plug'ins all the Northern lights plugin's and was almost going to by the other 3000.oo dollars of plugins that where on the market but decided , I'd hold it there for now. I to had all the interests in the effects people you mentioned and feel the same gratefulness that you expressed to all the others who have helped you. Differences is I spent 34 years stocking shelfs in a grocery store and I'am now retired and can finally do the kind of stuff that I like all day and at my own pace , no deadlines for me. I was born in the decade of Forbidden Planet , War of Worlds, ect. learned to play guitar ( practicing 7 hours a day) at 13 years old when the Beatles came out . I love this program Man !

[Mark Johnston]

Hi Tomas,, it really sounds like EIAS is in good hands . I have been telling people . I would be able to make as good looking stuff as they see in major motion pictures as soon as I became better at using EIAS for years . I think of EIAS as a powerful imagination machine , where if you can image it, you can make it happen, and have long thought EIAS does'nt get the respect it deserves in the industry. Yeah i'm trying to work on it every day now and at some point I know I'm going to totally blow some of the non belivers away. You know, the told you so moment. I also like your a mac user, made with a mac. I was the only one at work who belived in apple .THIS IS MY PASSION NOW !!!! MY 86 YEAR OLD MOM SAYS MARK, YOU TALK SO MUCH ABOUT HOW GREAT THAT PROGRAM IS YOU SHOULD BE A SALESMAN FOR THEM . but of course my goals are to make great music videos , Tv shows and maybe even a movie someday . I THINK EIAS IS THE ROAD TO THE FUTURE.!!! Mark

[Tomas Egger]

EXCELENT MARK!!!!

Thanksss

Tom

[RichardJoly]

THAT's the spirit Mark!

Keep this dream in your heart for it is bound to blossom into something wonderful!

[Mark Johnston]

HI Richard I have been a fan of EIAS since almost the start of the CG industry . I use to read all the computer mags when the home computers frist came out , and use to know most of the names of the people who were creating the programs . I would read about how Tron was done and Last Starfighter and so on through the years. When I read about people like John Knoll I use to think he must be about 5 years older then me , when I found out he was about 5 years younger then me, I was blown way . I noticed you said you started with the DVGarage Toolkit thats when I started too. I went to a few of the DVGarage meetings one in Oakland and the one that was in SF where John Knoll , Eric Chauvin and many other were speakers. They had a hang out and meet the guy"s after they spoke , but I was suppose to be at work at midnight so I left and went to work missing the chance to meet them. I was also aliitle afraid if I met them, they might have said show me some of your stuff and I didn't have anything to show . I still just mostly do test renders and toss them so I have no demo reel . I plan on trying to do new animation everyday to build all my ablities as fast as possible and to make a demo reel so I wouldn't be in that situation again. AS I was riding BART home that night I thouht how stupid I was for not staying and trying to make those connections that can change things. So Yeah this dream is a dream that will never die as long as I can put one foot in front of the other. Thanks for being one of those who has been answering my questions lately Richard Mark

[jakev]

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?

[Tomas Egger]

Hey Jake,

I saw all when It was released, wonderful to see J.K. talking about EIAS. :)

I bought EIAS when I was a Teenager because of him :)

Thanks

Tom

[FelixCat]

Hi Tom, Mark, Jakev

I´m seeing now the Red Giant interview (what a shaky camera!!) it runs smoothly until minute 21:44, when is talking about FormZ and Ei. Then it hangs... :(

BTW I first read about Ei in a Macworld review and felt in love. I was producing an spot for TV and need an animation so i purchase the (in that time) very expensive program EiAS 1.75 cine. Worked like a charm and i was sold out.

And here i am, doing another animation... in EiAS.

FelixCat

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Felix,

We both are :) I work with it 24 hours a day.. :)

Thanks

Tom

[Frankg]

Ok, I see I have to do a lot more efforts with EIAS :)

My first version was 2.9. I bought it together with a G3 Mac. The G3 was the gimmick.

Paul Sherstobitoff's phantastic work was the reason for me to decide for EIAS.

I studied Industrial-Design and struggled with Strata Studio Pro and Cinema4D for getting the right look.

We had Alias Designer at the University, but this one was way too expensive for me to buy.

EIAS was a very good deal in those times because it included a production-ready modeler too.

A little Alias for poor students:) I thought if Paul can do such a high professional work it's only me and my lazyness, not the program. Man, I hated him in the first weeks of working with EIAS:)

To earn money for my studies I startet to teach 3D. Unfortunately nobody used EIAS in Germany.

Mostly 3D Studio Max and Strata, so decided for Strata because it run under MacOS, which I prefer.

Later I switched to C4D, which I always teach twice a year. But you can be sure all my students know EIAS now:)

Most of my High-End samples which I'm showing are EIAS-samples. They simply can't believe that nobody knows about EIAS here. Even the price is very welcome. I would really like to do some seminars with EIAS. Who knows, next year we will become an officially recognized art college. I hope we can do al least some projects with EIAS.

Finally I have the feel that EIAS is in the right hands of people who knows what a jewel they hold in their hands.

Best regards

Frankg

[Tomas Egger]

Hey Frank,

I did industrial design too ;)

But my passion was always films and VFX after my father went with me to see Star Wars with 8 years old ;)

Since my second passion was always Macs, I played with Strata and jumped to EIAS + FormZ and then EIAS + EIM.

Btw: this is my personal web site, outdated of course:

www.ottostudios.com

Good to show to students..

Btw: I did some seminars on Brazilian Universities last year, I will do more for sure this year, I will post some pictures later, I need to remember only..

Thanks

Tom

[fantomaz]

Memories, deep inside my brain - somewhere, very deep....

It was in 1989 when i was finishing studying IndustrialDesign and

one of my teachers came to me, asking me to do some graphics

for VW at his newly founded company.

So i did, graphics, lots of graphics and more graphics (Freehand 2.0)

One of our customer at VW came to me with a very special idea,

he asked me if i can do a shot for a film he was doing for VW.

It was a new technic to open a door in a car and, if it were possible,

do a virtual visualisation of a crash of that car.

The only computer in these days, which were perfect for doing cg-stuff

were Macs and i had heard about some software for making professionel

3D on the Mac was a software called ElectricImage Animation System.

The rest was easy: EIAS 1.0 for around 10.000$ a new MacIIFX with

8MB Ram and a 80MB HD for an other 10.000$, a NuVista Videoboard

for getting Video out of the Mac and a DiaQuest board for controlling

the Sony AnalogDraw. All in all around 60.000$. Much cheaper than

an Evans&Sutherland System for 100k or a Symbolics for 150k...

Ok, the shot for VW was a big success and from then Ei was my main tool.

Only the years when Ei was "at PLAY" i took a look at ArtlantisRender and c4d,

did some jobs with it and came back to EI when PLAY left the stage

and Ei became again independent.

Now i am too old to learn an other software and hope that the next release

will have mousescrolling in the project window.

Remember: the projects back in 1990 had around 20-100 models in the

window, now i have often 200-5000...and i am not getting younger.

So i have not so much time left to scroll through those windows without

mousescrolling ;)

work hard, render fast, retire young

(who did this sentence? We should give him a medal and after that we shoot him to the moon.... ;) )

Alex

edit: here is the shot for VW:

http://www.volkswagen.de/de/Volkswagen/video.html?v=iLyROoaf8MTt

[Frankg]

Wow, industrial-design seems to be the main profession of EIAS-users :)

I came to animation by sheer chance. I've never had a real passion for it.

My passion are cars, airplanes and boats. I'm doing actually two private projects.

1. an airplane

2. a carbody

I hope I can post them later this year.

They will be modeled in solidthinking and rendered in EIAS.

Frankg

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Frank,

I will be waiting to see it :)

Thanks

Tom