Received: from dylan.mindspring.com (dylan.mindspring.com [204.180.128.4]) by ccnet.ccnet.com (8.6.12/8.6.9) with ESMTP id SAA00106 for ; Mon, 24 Apr 1995 18:27:10 -0700 Received: from ballen.mindspring.com [168.121.37.86] by dylan.mindspring.com with SMTP id VAA22280; Mon, 24 Apr 1995 21:29:07 -0400 Message-Id: <199504250129.VAA22280@dylan.mindspring.com> X-Sender: ballen@mail.3dartist.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Version 1.4.4 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 19:31:21 -0500 To: adams@tgax.com, animmaster@aol.com, daniele@netcom.com, pcmike@aol.com, tess@graphics.rent.com, thaifan@aol.com, trinity@tyrell.net, wag@sirius.com From: ballen@3dartist.com (3D Artist magazine) Subject: Tess#509 X-UIDL: 798792337.000 ================================================== THE T E S S E L L A T I O N T I M E S #509 Issue #9 of 1995, for Monday, April 24th ================================================== *The Tessellation Times* (TESS) is Columbine, Inc.'s weekly electronic publication usually posted Monday evenings to supplement 3D ARTIST magazine. See the end of this file for contact information for companies whose products are mentioned here. _______________ Tell it to TESS Send your 3D news tips and forward interesting messages to tell.tess@3dartist.com. Anonymity will be honored if requested. _______________ TESS on the Web http://tgax.com/resource.htm >in the Multimedia Resources area of The Graphics Alternative BBS Web server http://www.lightside.com/~dani/ >in the Literature, Reference section of 3DSite __________________ TESS subscriptions Send an E-mail message to stating simply "subscribe" or "unsubscribe". _______ DETAILS This file may be passed between individuals and can be reposted in any online forum _as_long_as_ the file is not modified in any way (it must be left whole and unchanged). It should be posted as TESS509.TXT (TES509.TXT where only six characters are allowed), or compressed as TESS509 with the appropriate DOS-style extension (ZIP, etc.). Reposting to *mailing lists* is _not_ recommended. TESS's master files are maintained with corrections on our 3dartist.com Internet site (ftp to 3dartist.com and go to /3dartist/ballen/tess). These are the latest corrected copies, and the only TESS files for which we can vouch file integrity. This file's contents are copyrighted and may not be reproduced in or with any other print or digital publication without permission. Any trademarked names mentioned in this file are the property of their respective owners and are used only in editorial fashion without intent of infringement of such trademarks. Columbine, Inc. and its publications are totally independent. No companies or products are endorsed. Published by and (c)Copyright 1995, all rights reserved. Columbine, Inc. P.O. Box 4787, Santa Fe, NM 87502 USA 505/982-3532 voice - 505/820-6929 fax 505/820-6929x3 voice mail E-mail: tess@3dartist.com Staff: Alex Kiriako, Editor, TESS & Sysop, 3dartist.com Bill Allen, Publisher & Pres., Columbine, Inc. Sally Beach, Vice Pres., Columbine, Inc. Carol Williamson, Admin. Asst. ________ CONTENTS 509.00 - Heads Up 509.00.01 - The Fortnight in 3D 509.00.02 - Special Offers 509.00.03 - Upgrades 509.00.04 - Galleries & Art Shows 509.00.05 - Computer Shows Soon 509.00.06 - Hardware 509.01 - NAB Report, Part 2 509.01.01 - More Reports & Ruminations 509.01.02 - New Market Spotted for 3D Art 509.02 - Multiple Moscone Multimedia Meetings 509.03 - Other News 509.03.01 - Caligari TrueSpace 2.0 509.03.02 - Publisher's Notes 509.04 - 3D Online 509.05 - What's Up in Santa Fe 509.05.01 - TESS 509.05.02 - 3D ARTIST 509.05.03 - 3dartist.com Internet Site 509.06 - Continuing Listings 509.06.01 - Special Offers 509.06.02 - Galleries & Exhibits 509.06.03 - Shows & Exhibitions 509.06.04 - Artists' Calls 509.07 - Contacts __________ 509.00 - Heads Up See also "Continuing Listings" (509.06 below). Here's the stuff you need to know the soonest... 509.00.01 - The Fortnight in 3D April 26, Los Angeles, Calif.: Seminar on copyright for digital artists, $60, American Film Institute, 213/856-7600. April 26 on NBC TV, 8pm EDT/PDT, 7pm CDT/MDT: "The Making of Jurassic Park." May 1: SGI reportedly will announce "a set-top box for home VR netcruising," according to a reliable anonymous source. This presumably will be hardware that facilitates traveling the World Wide Web using the new VRML language (3D ARTIST#18). May 2, Detroit, Mich. & May 4, Chicago, Ill.: AutoCad on the Road training series for Release 13. One day class ($99), 800/373-3284. May 2, Los Angeles, Calif.: Cutting Edge Salon, introduction to the latest hardware and software used in digital production in Hollywood, American Film Institute, 800/999-4234, 213/856-7690. May 5, Santa Fe, N.M.: Opening reception for Binary Visions '95 art show. See 509.00.04 below. 509.00.02 - Special Offers Vibrant Software's Liquid Speed, a display speed enhancer for 3D Studio priced at $295, is available for $195 until 6/15/95. Use reference #207 when ordering by phone, U.S. 800/937-1711, Europe 44 (0) 91/478-1016. Macromedia has another special going, besides the ones mentioned in TESS#504.00.02 and 509.06.01 below. "Graphic Design Studio" for Windows or Mac includes FreeHand, MacroModel, Renderman, Fontographer, and Fractal Painter at $995 retail. It can be ordered from Macromedia vendors such as Audio Images 415-957-9131 and PC/MAC Mall 800-222-2808. 509.00.03 - Upgrades AddDepth 2 for Mac has been announced by Ray Dream, expected for June, 1995. Version 2 adds native support for Power Macintosh and automated processes for creating quick 3D images from Illustrator and Freehand files, as well as Postscript and TrueType fonts. At $99 you get a CD with lots of clipart and fonts. Current Mac users can upgrade for $39 until 8/31/95. Orders: 800/846-0111. 509.00.04 - Galleries & Art Shows May 5 to June 16, Santa Fe, NM: Binary Visions '95, a juried show of digital art hosted by The Printmaker Ltd., 1807 - 2nd St. #40, 505/425-9456. 509.00.05 - Computer Shows Soon May 11-13, Los Angeles, Calif.: Electronic Entertainment Expo, L.A. Convention Ctr., 10-6pm except 9-4pm May 13. Held by Knowledge Industry Publications, 800/787-3976, 914/328-9157, -2020 fax. May 14-17, Anaheim, Calif.: Interactive '95 conference & expo. Contact: Ziff Institute, 10 Presidents Lndg., Medford, MA 02155-9865. 800/348-7246, 617/393-3322 fax. May 16-17, Brooklyn, N.Y.: Symposium of computer visualization & digital production technologies, 9-7pm, College of Aeronautics, La Guardia Airport, $15/day. Contact Lee Palmiter: 212/741-2320, 201/226-9105; 212/206-6759 fax; rocket@cerfnet.com. 509.00.06 - Hardware Are you making hardware purchase decisions today and expect to use that equipment to run the big new NT 3D software packages that should start arriving in late 1995/early 1996? An anonymous source working on one of those programs tells us that nothing less than a Pentium 90 and 64Mb RAM will do. Lesser machines won't be useful even for render farms. Multiple CPUs and 128Mb RAM will be common. If you need 32Mb or 64Mb to get your work done today, double that for NT. Systems with multiple fast CPUs will drop in price quicker than RAM, so dual Pentium, Alpha, and PowerPC machines will help get more out of such large RAM investments.--B.A. 509.01 - NAB Report, Part 2 509.01.01 - More Reports & Ruminations By Bill Allen, TESS Publisher It was great to meet 3D ARTIST writers at NAB, most of whom we had known only by voice until then. Jeff Paries' first task with his new job at Hash, Inc. was to help demo Animation Master to the crowds. The rest were there as reporters and artists/producers: Rob Glidden, Wallace Jackson, Kevin Kilbride, and Peter Plantec. There was lots to report on, as I started to say last week. Here's some more... CrystalGraphics was selling a pre-release version of their Windows product, Flying Fonts Pro 3.0. The full $245 title/logo animator for Windows 3.1/95/NT is promised for late May. (Owners of Flying Fonts 2 and Pro 2 will be able to upgrade for $49, or free if you purchased after Oct. 15th last year). Features include field rendering, 32-bit output, resolution to 8Kx8K, NTSC/PAL color correction, TrueType and Type 1 font support, and AVI and FLC output. Crystal also announced a repackaging of Topas Pro 5.1 at $1,995 as Crystal Kaleidoscope. This is a suite of packages that includes Kai's Power Tools 2.0 SE, Elastic Reality 1.01, Fractal Design Painter 3, Leadview 3.0, three CDs of textures and models, and more. A surprise announcement was NewTek's Video Toaster for Windows 95/NT. Unlike the original revolutionary low-cost board for Amiga computers, this is a separate box with many additional capabilities. It comes in various configurations listing at $7,995 to $9,995, projected to ship in third quarter 1995. Whether you need to shoot onsite digital video, or just want to work on and record your animations at some remote cabin, this SCSI device certainly catches the imagination. It is reported to provide battery-powered video recording direct to disk (it has three SCSI-2 ports), single-frame recording, still store, TBC, non-linear editing, four-input switcher, eight 16-bit sound tracks, proprietary compression with realtime playback, digital video effects, and a 5.6" LCD color monitor. And it comes with LightWave 3D and NewTek's Flyer software. (Amiga Flyer owners can buy this unit without its Flyer component for $2,995 to $4,995 to use with their Amiga system.) It's about the size of a standard mailbox. Output is to analog NTSC. 509.01.02 - New Market Spotted for 3D Art By Kevin M. Kilbride An interesting potential market for 3D artists is in creating geometry objects for use in 3D digital video effect (DVE) systems to map video onto. Play, Inc. announced a digital video editing system at NAB that makes use of such geometry. Called "Trinity," the new system is an external chassis that connects with two coax cables to any PC running Windows 95 or NT, pumping data at a smokin' 330Mbits/sec. The chassis itself has a totally modular backplane with dedicated video slots into which 2D and 3D DVE cards can be inserted, along with I/O cards and disk interfaces. With a 3D DVE card installed, the Trinity can map video onto 3D objects in real time while the objects move and morph. At $6,000 ($14,000 with 3D DVE), Trinity won't be available until the end of 1995, but it threatens to outfight Newtek's Video Toaster on the holy field of price-performance by at least an order of magnitude. And, yes, it does have Y/C inputs, as well as options for component, 8- or 10-bit digital serial, and 24fps film sync I/O. ______ Kevin Kilbride heads Sapient Systems Laboratories and occasionally reports to 3D ARTIST's readers about shows and the state of technology. This report is an excerpt from a draft of his full NAB report for 3DA#20. 509.02 - Multiple Moscone Multimedia Meetings One of the grand scheduling accidents of 1995's multitude of multimedia shows is that both the Macromedia International User Conference & Exposition and the Autodesk University Conference & Exhibition will overlap at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on Oct. 30 to Nov. 1 (Autodesk University starts a day earlier). We hear there is preliminary talk about allowing attendees at one show to visit the exhibit space at the other. But there is natural wariness between the two sides. Autodesk is poised to enter Macromedia's main market area with multimedia authoring tools, and Macromedia is readying a new product (still code named Daffy) that will compete with 3D Studio. Autodesk University, which went from having one 3D graphics booth in 1993 to several in 1994, will have a "Multimedia Pavilion" this year. And Macromedia, which has been underplaying its suite of 3D products, should have real reason to push 3D at their show. We'll report registration details later in the year, but here's info for potential exhibitors: For Macromedia, call Reed Exhibition Companies at 203/840-5860. And for Autodesk, call Miller Freeman at 415/905-2476. A question: Why do these shows always happen on weekdays? There must be many working and aspiring artists who would be more likely to attend a weekend event.--B.A. 509.03 - Other News 509.03.01 - Caligari TrueSpace 2.0 Caligari says now that trueSpace 2.0 will come ship at the end of May. 509.03.02 - Publisher's Notes By Bill Allen Starting this issue, TESS Editor Alex Kiriako takes over the main tasks of assembling each week's *Tessellation Times*. He is responsible for our Internet site and other special projects, and has been at work on preparing a Web edition of TESS. Though it will be great to add graphics and get away from dull text, we'll also continue the E-mail edition. "500 Nations" seen last week on CBS was produced by Kevin Costner and included segments about American Indian civilizations done with Form-Z, MacRenderMan, CoSA After Effects, Photoshop, and Wavefront. Computer production was by Santa Barbara Studios with XO Digital Arts and Kleiser-Wolczak. Thanks to *Morph's Outpost* for mentioning TESS and how to subscribe. According to their April 1995 issue, you can download TESS from the "current issue downloads" section of Morph Online BBS (510/704-7100). Writer Rob Glidden commented after NAB that desktop video and 3D graphics seem to be growing in parallel in their sophistication and availability. There must be dozens of magazines now that cover general multimedia and/or video. For some solid outside reporting from the mainstream computer press, check your newsstand or library for the May 1995 *Byte* cover story on "Our Unhappy Digital Video Experience" and related articles. The issue also explains Apple QuickTime VR and Microsoft Surround Video. The April 11th *PC Magazine*, now off newsstands, also did a major video wrap-up. We hear that Disney's movie, "Toy Story," is finishing up at Pixar as perhaps the first feature-length movie to be fully produced with 3D graphics. It will run around 70 mins., and is slated for release this Nov. 17th. Send your news tips to tell.tess@3dartist.com. We may add your info to a story we have in the works, especially where a company is helping 3D ARTIST and TESS to be jolly on the spot when they make a development public. On the other hand, if we haven't been informed by first party sources, we may just run your tip up our electronic flag pole at an appropriate moment and see who salutes! 509.04 - 3D Online http://www.wimsey.com/PhotoModeler/ E-mail: questions@photomodeler.com Eos Systems has a new WWW site for their PhotoModeler program for Windows. PhotoModeler is used to build 3D models from photographs (a demo is available for US$25). E-mail to info@photomodeler.com for an automated reply. http://www.creativity.net/ccafe E-mail: peter@creativity.net The Creativity Cafe (TESS#508.03) is sponsoring an "Arts for Social Change" award to promote works of art to address categories such as people care, planet care, species rights, family, recycling, peace, energy, and metaphysics. No deadlines or rules yet. Call organizer Peter Rosen at 415/776-0821, or 985-7040 voice mail. 509.05 - What's Up in Santa Fe Alternating days of snow and sun seems to be the new norm here in Santa Fe. Almost makes you wish for the dust storms of May... But by then, we'll almost have the pristine skies of June.--A.K. 509.05.01 - TESS Deadline for TESS#510 will be 1pm MDT (3pm New York time) Mon., 5/1/95. TESS#511 will be published early, and deadline will be 5/4/95. 509.05.02 - 3D ARTIST We're still looking for 3D related how-to's on medical illustration articles for 3DA#21. 509.05.03 - 3dartist.com Internet Site Here are some recent file changes on our Internet site. You can grab these files by anonymous ftp, which we hear is now readily available to those of you on CompuServe. /(root) 3d_books.txt: book reviews, updated with "Readings" from 3DA#19 calendar.txt: completely revised /3dartist subdirectory 3daprevu.txt: the status of current and upcoming issues bakissue.txt: a new file listing available back issues 509.06 - Continuing Listings See 509.00 above for new items of immediate interest. 509.06.01 - Special Offers Through 4/30/95: Avalon site archive on CD-ROM for $30 postpaid instead of $49.95 + S&H, from Syndesis. Contains 1,200 models in 20+ file formats, file conversion utilities, textures, and more. Through 5/30/95: Schreiber Instruments' IPAS six-pack: Lightning, Explode Volume, Particle Cloud, Rings, Comet, Starburst, all for $150. Through 5/31/95: SGI version of LightWave $995 (regular $1,995), available from Xaos Tools, SGI version distributor. Through 6/15/95 Macromedia's MacroModel with RenderMan for Mac or Windows for $199. It has been confirmed that buying now puts you on the upgrade path for Macromedia's coming full 3D animation package ("Daffy") for Mac and Windows. A free demo can be requested. See 509.00.02 above for ordering info. 509.06.02 - Galleries & Exhibits Through 5/28/95, Sharon Arts Ctr., Sharon, N.H.: "Out of the Internet," held by the Center and *Digital Video* magazine. Works by artists from 17 states. Open Mon.-Sat. 10-5pm, Sun. 12-5pm, four miles south of Peterborough on Rt. 123, admission free, 603/924-7256. 509.06.03 - Shows & Exhibitions VR World 5/22-25, Convention Ctr., San Jose, Calif., sponsored by *VR World* and *CyberEdge Journal*, held by Mecklermedia, 800/632-5537; 203/226-6967, -6979 fax; vrconf@mecklermedia.com. 509.06.04 - Artists' Calls May 1 for 3rd annual New York Digital Salon, hosted by the School of Visual Arts. Contact Dr. Timothy Binkley at the school, 209 E. 23rd St., New York, NY 10010; 212/592-2535, -2509 fax; E-mail binkley@sva.edu. June 1 for Autodesk's Siggraph '95 Demo Reel. Send Betacam SP tape(s) to the Autodesk Multimedia Unit at 111 McInnis Pkwy., San Rafael, CA 94903, attention "Siggraph 95 Video." See TESS#506.00.05 for more info. Fax inquiries to 415/507-5150. June 16, 1995 for CD-ROM Showcase, a CD of software demos with a "Digital Portfolio" section for artists' work, to debut at Siggraph '95. Contact Oregon Data Products, 1730 S.W. Skyline Blvd. #208, Portland, OR 97221; 503/292-5119, -5146 fax. June 30, 1995 for "3-D Coolness '95" animation contest. See TESS#507.00.04 for more info. Contact World Fusion Software, 5942 Edinger, #113-718, Huntington Beach, CA 92649; 714/894-4094; worldfusion.com. 509.07 - Contacts The following companies have products mentioned in this issue of *The Tessellation Times*. When you contact companies, please BE SURE to say you heard about them from TESS. > Autodesk, Inc.; 111 McInnis Pkwy., San Rafael, CA 94903; 800/879-4233; 415/507-5000, 491-8311 fax; autodesk.com > Caligari Corp; 1955 Landings Dr., Mountain View, CA 94043; 800/351-7620; 415/390-9600, -9755 fax > CrystalGraphics, Inc.; 3110 Patrick Henry Dr., Santa Clara, CA 95054; 800/867-2733; 408/496-6175, -0970 fax > Eos Systems Inc.; 2040 W. 12th Ave. Vancouver, BC V6J 2G2, Canada; 604/732-6658; photomodeler.com > Macromedia; 600 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94103; 800/326-2128; 415/252-2000, 626-0554 fax > Play, Inc.; 2890 Kilgore Rd., Rancho Cordova, CA 95670; 800/306-7529; 916/851-0800, -0801 fax > Ray Dream, Inc.; 1804 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94043; 415/960-0768; 415/960-1198 fax > Schreiber Instruments, Inc.; 4800 Happy Canyon Rd. #250, Denver, CO 80237; 800/252-1024; 303/759-1024, -0928 fax, -3598 BBS; corp@schreiber.com > Vibrant Graphics; 12741 Research Blvd. #102, Austin TX 78759; 512/918-2270, -3411 BBS > Xaos Tools, Inc.; 600 Townsend St. #270E, San Francisco, CA 94103; 415/487-7000, 558-9886 fax __________________ 3D ARTIST magazine If you haven't seen 3D ARTIST and can't find it on a newsstand or through your local user group, E-mail your snail mail address to t3.info@3dartist.com for a sample issue in North America. Elsewhere, we send an info kit including sample pages. [end]