Light ROM 3/Light ROM 3 - Disc 2.iso/tess/tess502.txt

Text File | 1995-03-06 | 21KB | 413 lines

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THE  T E S S E L L A T I O N  T I M E S  #502 - Issue #2 of 1995 - March 6
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TESS is Columbine, Inc.'s weekly electronic publication posted most Monday
evenings to supplement 3D ARTIST and ProCGI magazines.
_______
DETAILS
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appropriate DOS-style extension (ZIP, etc.).
  This file's contents are (c)Copyright 1995, with all rights reserved, and
may not be reproduced in or with any other print or digital publication
without express permission.
  Automatic permission is granted to non-profit 3D user groups to excerpt
*The Tessellation Times* in group newsletters so long as they credit TESS
and give contact information.
  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 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: [e-mail]

Staff:
Alex Kiriako, Editor, TESS & Sysop, 3dartist.com <[e-mail]>
Bill Allen, Pres., Columbine & Publisher <[e-mail]>
Sanford Kennedy, Editor/Publisher, ProCGI <CIS 73201,1374>
Sally Beach, Vice Pres., Columbine <[e-mail]>
Carol Williamson, Admin. Asst. <[e-mail]>

This issue was assembled primarily by TESS Publisher Bill Allen.
________
CONTENTS
502.00 - First, a Word from Our Sponsor: *Us*
502.00.01 - 3D ARTIST #18
502.00.02 - 3D ARTIST Issues in Progress
502.00.03 - TESS
502.00.04 - ProCGI
502.01 - Heads Up
502.01.01 - Price Cuts & Special Offers
502.01.02 - The Week in 3D
502.01.03 - Artists' Call Deadlines
502.01.04 - Online Doings
502.02 - Particles for Typestry & TrueSpace by Peter Plantec
502.03 - New Digimation Catalog
502.03.01 - Advanced 3D Studio Training Tapes
502.03.02 - MARS Board
502.03.03 - Lotsa Logos
502.04 - There's a New Pro in Town: ProCGI
502.05 - More News
502.05.01 - Corel CAD
502.05.02 - Multimedia/VR Degrees Offered
502.05.03 - Tie Me Dongles Down, Boys
502.05.04 - Gradient Designer fx as IPAS
502.05.05 - Raytracing for 3D Studio
502.06 - Contacts

502.00 - First, a Word from Our Sponsor: *Us*

502.00.01 - 3D ARTIST #18
Last we heard from the printer in Tulsa, 3D ARTIST magazine issue #18 was
headed into bindery, and the address list for the first mailing had been
received.
  We will be in even more bookstores and newsstands this issue. However,
_if_ you haven't seen 3D ARTIST (and aren't already on our inquiry list),
E-mail your mailing address to [e-mail], or use the contact
information above to request a sample. In North America, we send out samples
free. Elswhere, we send "tear sheets" (or mail us$2 to pay postage for a
complete sample issue).

502.00.02 - 3D ARTIST Issues in Progress

All editorial material for 3DA#19 is due this week, with some room to get
SIG and calendar listings next week. 3/14/95 is the late deadline for
advertising space reservations, and materials must be in Santa Fe by 3/21/95.
  The main focii will be architecture and advanced how-to for Imagine and 3D
Studio. There's also stuff about radiosity and more about water.

Editorial and space deadline for 3DA#20 is 4/18/95. We're looking for Form-Z
how-to, and more Mac reporting in general. We also need news for the "Shop
Talk" section about freelance assignments completed.
  For 3D Studio, we want to hear more about how people are using the new r4
features and all the new third-party IPAS programs. Got some Keyscript code
to share? How about an example of how to make good use of
multiple-resolution objects with the Yost Optimize IPAS?

Ftp /3dartist/guidline.txt from 3dartist.com to see our contributor
guidelines, or ask us to send them to you.

502.00.03 - TESS

Peter Plantec gets the honors for being the first writer to have an article
in TESS. See item 502.02.
  Deadline for TESS#503 is 1pm Mountain Time (3pm New York time), Monday,
3/13/95.
  TESS#501 correction: Item 501.02 begins "In 3D ARTIST #16.." Uh, make that
#18. On page 7 to be exact, right next to Rob Glidden's in-depth report on
Apple's new QuickDraw 3D.
  If you missed the first *Tessellation Times*, ftp /tess/tess501.txt from
our Internet site 3dartist.com, or look for it in/on the many forums and
BBSs that are re-posting TESS.

500.00.04 - ProCGI
ProCGI is our new magazine for high-end computer graphics. See 502.03 below
for the full 3/4/95 announcement. The first six-page ProCGI issue is
embedded in 3DA#18.

502.01 - Heads Up
Here's the stuff you need to know the soonest...

First, before someone steals the copy from your local library, run down and
read the Feb. 1995 *Smithsonian*, which has a cover story about computer art
pioneer Charles Csuri.

If you're watching the O.J. Simpson trial coverage on CBS, the computer
animation is supplied by Alec Jason using 3D Studio. As we described in
3DA#5, Alec learned 3D Studio while working on the first computer animation
ever admitted into a murder trial.

502.01.01 - Price Cuts & Special Offers

TESS learned 3/4/95 that Byte by Byte Corp. has announced a 50% cut in its
prices for the spline-based Sculpt 3D 4.0 for Macs. Price for basic Sculpt
3D (phong rendering) is now $995, and $1,495 for the version with raytracing.
  See TESS#501.01.01 about Byte By Byte's competitive upgrade offer
available through April 15th for their new SoftF/X animation package for
Windows 3.1/95/NT.

502.01.02 - The Week in 3D
See calendar.txt for a long-range list of 3D-related events. And see
/3dartist/dt3dsigs.txt for routine 3D user group meeting dates.

March 15, New Media Expo, Convention Ctr., Los Angeles, Calif.

502.01.03 - Artists' Call Deadlines

March 24 for 1995 Caddie Awards, with categories for still images, still
image series, and animations created with software from Autodesk and
Autodesk developers. Call 503/343-1200 for rules and instructions. 3D ARTIST
magazine is a co-sponsor.

April 13th for New Mexico-based artists for the "Binary Vision" juried
exhibit for 2D and 3D computer art. Contact The Printmaker, 1807 - 2nd St.
#40, Santa Fe, NM 87501; 505/425-9456.

April 24th for the Electronic Cinema at the Int'l. Symposium on Electronic
Art, Sept. 17-24, Montreal, Que., Canada. Call 514/990-0229, fax
514/842-7459, E-mail [e-mail].

April 26th for the Computer Animation Festival/Electronic Theatre at
Siggraph 95 (Aug. 6-11, Los Angeles, Calif.) Contact: Frank Foster,
310/280-7603, or E-mail [e-mail].

May 1 for the 3rd annual New York Digital Salon, hosted by the School of
Visual Arts. Welcome are interactive installations, prints, animations, and
telecommunication events. No entry fee. Send slides, videotape, or CD-ROM
with artist's name, work's name, date, space requirements, medium, price if
for sale (15% commission to the school if sold), and 1,500 to 5,000 words
for the catalog essay, which will appear in a special edition of the journal
*Leonardo*. For more information, contact Dr. Timothy Binkley, MFA Computer
Art Chair at the school, 209 E. 23rd St., New York, NY 10010; 212/592-2535,
-2509 fax; E-mail [e-mail]. Include SASE if you want your slides back.

502.01.04 - Online Doings

In the 3dartist.com site root directory, we have a file called 3donline.txt
to list all BBSs, online forums, Internet sites, and Web sites having to do
with 3D graphics.
  We have only made a small start at this formidable task, so it's good to
get some help. 3D ARTIST subscriber Charles Blaquiere sent E-mail 3/4/95
with a listing for The Gravity Guild BBS in Toronto, Ont., Canada at
416/778-6652. The sysop is Gord Davis, and coverage is for Imagine,
LightWave 3D, and 3D Studio.

A news release received 1/30/95 says that there will be an online trade show
in conjunction with A/E/C Systems '95 June 5-8 (the actual architectural and
engineering CAD show will be in Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Ctr.).
You can find out more about all this by going to the Ideal Internet Shopping
Mall at
http://www.ideal.com
or E-mail to Kathy Magenhiem at [e-mail].

Last November, sculptor and computer artist Walter S. Arnold
<[e-mail]> reported that he had found a web site for 3D graphics
appropriately named 3DWeb hosted by Daniele Colajacomo. Its WWW address is
http://www.lightside.com/~dani
The site is looking for job listings (ASCII or HTML) and resumes (ditto,
with optional GIFs, MPEGs, QT), and listings of related web sites and other
3D links. E-mail to [e-mail].
  Walter, by the way, maintains a home page virtual gallery for his own work
(3DA#10) at
http://www.mcs.net/~sculptor/home.html
  If you have a home page gallery showing your art using 3D techniques, let
us know so we can spread the word for you.

In an item we received 2/27/95, StereoGraphics Corp. (LCD shutter glasses
for stereo vision) announced that they just set up a business home page at
http://infolane.com/infolane/stereog/sghp.html

Spring Internet World 95 on April 10-13 at the San Jose (Calif.) Convention
Ctr. is being modestly billed by Meckler Media and *Internet World* magazine
as "the largest Internet and World-Wide Web conference and exhibition." Call
800/632-5537, 203/226-6967, or fax [phone], or E-mail
[e-mail], or go to
http://www.mecklerweb.com/iwconf

502.02 - Particles for Typestry & TrueSpace
By Peter Plantec

Typestry 2 [TESS#501.01.02] from Pixar has an odd addition: particle
physics. You can have letters spitting sparks or fountains of colored
particles. Animate them with color morphs, gravity, life spans, etc. for
strange effects.
  If you *really* need a particle effect in a trueSpace animation, you can
use a small "o" or a period and have it spewing out bits and chunks against
a transparent background and composite it into your AVI files using
in:sync's Razor or Adobe Premiere 4 [both covered in 3DA#18].
  Speaking of trueSpace, David Strippgen at the University of Passau, in
Germany has contributed a fantastic little windows program called Exploder
1.0. It allows you to convert saved objects to exploders. Load an Explodered
object back into trueSpace, hit the animation button, and the object
explodes into big and little chunks.
  You can set several parameters including rotation and the minimum number
of chunks you'll get. The effect is impressive. Exploder is available via
ftp from: ftp.netnet.net under /pub/mirrors/truespace.
  David is a remarkable young programmer. He wrote Exploder over a mad
weekend while downing gallons of strong German coffee. We beta tested it
here, and the following weekend he polished off the noticeable bugs.
  Note that you can make the effect even more spectacular by rotating the
original object. This will make the pieces spin out along several axes.
___
Editor's note: Peter Plantec <[e-mail]> is a multimedia game
developer and film producer (DreamScape Productions) in Beverly Hills,
Calif. He also is a columnist for *Connect* magazine and just started
writing for 3D ARTIST.

502.03 - New Digimation Catalog
This catalog, primarily for 3D Studio users, is due out 3/15/95. If you
aren't on their mailing list, see Contacts below [502.06].

502.03.01 - Advanced 3D Studio Training Tapes
Within a couple hours of uploading last week's issue with its report about
Michele Bousquet's new series of 3D Studio books [TESS#501.04.01], we got a
fax from Michele telling about her two new videotapes produced with
Digimation. The tapes are "Character Animation Basics" ($59.95) and
Character Animation Techniques ($79.95), both for $129.90. The first covers
story writing and storyboarding, character design, walk cycles, and use of
exaggeration, anticipation, and personality. The "Techniques" tape gets into
advanced morph target work, lip synch, "interactive inverse kinematics," and
an introduction to Digimation's Bones Pro IPAS program. This tape also
includes "The only complete description in existence of what the
tranformation matrix is and how it works. This concept is not explained in
any manual or book anywhere."

502.03.02 - MARS Board
Described as a "Junior PAR," the Daewoo MARS is an MPEG recording system for
3D Studio that, unlike the present DPS PAR, includes sound track
capabilities. The system uses any hard drive in your machine, and is claimed
to play back in realtime, all with hardware compression and decompression. A
standalone utility will process a stream of JPEG or Targa files from any
animation application. Output is 340x220 MPEG format to NTSC or PAL through
composite or SVHS connection. Digimation's price is $1,395.

502.03.03 - Lotsa Shapes
Surely a must-have for freelancers whose bread-and-butter is advertising
work and flying logos, Digimation's Logomation is a $195 product due out
late this month introductory-priced at $95. It reportedly includes more than
500 logos from major companies as 3D Studio shapes.

502.04 - There's a New Pro in Town: *ProCGI*
Here's the text of our news release about 3D ARTIST's newest sister
publication. (Including TESS, that's _two_ appearing within six days of each
other!)

March 4, 1995, Los Angeles, Calif._At today's meeting of the 3D Art Forum,
Sanford Kennedy Design and Columbine, Inc. announced the launch of ProCGI,
a new magazine for high-end professional computer-generated imagery as
practiced in Hollywood and other centers of film, TV, and entertainment
production.
    ProCGI is published and produced by Columbine, Inc., which publishes 3D
ARTIST magazine in Santa Fe, N.M. ProCGI's editorial content is being
assembled at Sanford Kennedy Design in Los Angeles, Calif.
    Editor/Publisher Sanford Kennedy, who published Special Effects Business
Magazine from 1988 to 1991, has worked on more than 40 movies doing
mechanical special effects, and has had his own computer graphics design
firm for two-and-a-half years.
    The mission of ProCGI is to give voice to the people who actually do
Hollywood-style computer-generated imagery (CGI). This coverage ranges from
general "what was used to do that," to specific how-to information that will
be useful to working and aspiring computer artists. A special focus will be
film-to-digital-to-film production solutions, including compositing CGI and
live action footage. High-end 2D and 3D software that runs on Unix and
Windows NT hardware will be a main focus, but ProCGI also will report on how
studios are incorporating desktop graphics software.
    ProCGI is being embedded in 3D ARTIST for now, and will "spin off" when
it acquires its own base of reader and advertiser support. This means ProCGI
gets the immediate benefit of 3D ARTIST's 10,000+ print run, established
readership, and newsstand distribution. ProCGI's first issue is embedded in
3D ARTIST March issue (#18), shown at today's 3D Art Forum meeting.
    3D ARTIST will continue as it has since 1991: dedicated to how-to's and
news for freelance 3D graphic artists who use affordable desktop software
and hardware. Most of 3DA's editorial content consists of how-to articles
written by the readers themselves.
    Columbine, Inc. launched a third publication on Feb. 27th, The
Tessellation Times, a Monday evening news publication posted on its new
Internet site <[e-mail]>, broadcast to an E-mailing list, and
posted on many other online sites and forums.
    3D Art Forum (909/338-1786) is a platform- and program-independent
Southern California user group for 3D artists and animators. It holds large,
very informative meetings in the Los Angeles area. The readership for 3DAF's
old how-to publication was incorporated into 3D ARTIST's audience in 1994.
___
Direct contact: Sanford Kennedy Design, 4121 Redwood Ave. #203, Los Angeles,
CA 90066; 310/306-0978, -0579 fax, E-mail: CIS 73201,1374

502.05 - More News

502.05.01 - Corel CAD
We mentioned last week that Corel is headed toward shaking up the lower end
of the 3D graphics market with a new application [TESS#501.02]. Here's a
short blurb we received 3/1/95 from Corel: "We've recently acquired some
excellent CAD and 3D technology and plan to release Corel CAD at the end of
the third quarter, 1995. CorelDraw popularized computer illustration and we
plan to do the same thing with 3D design. We will have a very easy-to-use
product at an attractive price that is full of useful templates so people
don't have to start off with a blank screen. This product will be great for
home and business use. We licensed American Small Business Corporation's
Design CAD, as well as Ray Dream Designer which will provide excellent 3D
design and illustration capabilities. Specular's LogoMotion will also add to
our CAD product and it will be the first time such 3D animation technology
is offered under Windows."
  Corel, by the way, is holding a big conference in Ottawa June 1-2. For
show info, call 800/896-2056 or 617/893-2056, or fax [phone].

502.05.02 - Multimedia/VR Degrees Offered
An announcement received 3/1/95 reports that the CAD Institute in Phoenix
has received approval for an arts-based B.A. in Multimedia and Virtual
Reality, which will be taught on a "fast track" schedule requiring only
2-2/3 years to complete. If that's too long, an A.A. in Multimedia also will
be offered. The school claims a 100% placement rate for its graduates.

502.05.03 - Tie Me Dongles Down, Boys
You probably have another idea about what you'd _like_ to do with all those
dongles dangling off the back of your computer(s), but R&D Plus thinks you
should put them in its "Locks" Box. According to a flyer received 1/7/95,
the box mounts to the surface of your choice, and stores up to four
connected hardware locks, and is secured by key. Introductory price is
$69.95 plus shipping, Mac and PC versions available.

502.05.04 - Gradient Designer fx as IPAS
We received notice 2/26/95 that HSC Software was shipping its first IPAS
program, and within days heard from reader Lou Spivak that he had received
his order. HSC Gradient Designer fx, which we haven't seen in Santa Fe yet,
brings the power of the original KPT Gradient Designer program to animation.
It requires 3DSr4 and 16- or 24-bit display, and has a list price of $395.
By the way, HSC is grouping this new product line under the name VideoWare.

502.05.05 - Raytracing for 3D Studio
Last time we reported a third-party raytrace engine for 3D Studio [3DA#13],
the product didn't make it to market. From the looks of two terrific slides
we received on 2/17/95, let's hope that RayMan succeeds. "Acceptable
raytracing times are achieved [by implementing] the newly developed
Octree-Space subdivision algorithm," the simple flyer says, adding that
RayMan has soft shadows and uses Hall illumination for "a more realistic
look." It reportedly works both standalone and networked, and supports
reflection, _refraction_, and variable blurring.
  The sheet said RayMan was to be available from Computer Aided Animation
GmbH in February at $948, 8Mb minimum, 16Mb recommended.
  Just as we get ready to upload this issue, Digimation says they have
RayMan in stock  at $895.

502.06 - Contacts
The following companies have products mentioned in this issue of *The
Tessellation Times*. When you contact companies, please be sure to state
that you heard about them from TESS.

>>Adobe Systems, Inc.; P.O. Box 7900, Mountain View, CA 94039; 800/833-6687,
415/961-4400, -3769 fax
>>Autodesk, Inc.; 111 McInnis Pkwy., San Rafael, CA 94903; 415/507-5000
>>Byte by Byte Corp.; 8920 Business Park Dr. #330, Austin, TX 78759;
512/795-0150, -0021 fax; bytebybyte.com; www.bytebybyte.com
>>CAD Institute; 4100 E. Broadway Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85040; 602/437-0405,
-5695 fax
>>Caligari Corp; 1955 Landings Dr., Mountain View, CA 94043; 800/351-7620,
415/390-9600, -9755 fax
>>Computer Aided Animation GmbH; Kennerweg 15, D-72622 Nuertingen, Germany;
49/0722-95770, -56758 fax
>>Corel Corp.; 1600 Carling Ave., Ottawa, ON K1Z 8R7, Canada; 613/728-8200,
761-9176 fax
>>Digimation; 1000 Riverbend Blvd. #L, St. Rose, LA 70087; 800/854-4496,
504/468-7898, -5494 fax
>>HSC Software Corp.; 6303 Carpinteria Ave.; 800/472-9025, 805/566-6200,
-6385 fax; [e-mail]
>>In:sync Corp.; 7315 Wisconsin Ave., #400E, Bethesda, MD 20814;
301/831-5008, 983-9674 fax
>>Pixar; 1001 W. Cutting Blvd., Richmond, CA 94804; 510/236-4000, -0388 fax
>>R&D Plus, 444 W. 6th St., Lexington, KY 40508; 606/252-8366
>>StereoGraphics Corp.; 2171 E. Francisco Blvd., San Rafael, CA 94901;
415/459-4500, -3020 fax; [e-mail]

[end]