Xref: utzoo comp.graphics:14387 comp.sys.next:9646 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!olson From: olson@sax.cs.uiuc.edu (Bob Olson) Newsgroups: comp.graphics,comp.sys.next Subject: Re: Next machine as animation platform Message-ID: Date: 14 Nov 90 07:16:33 GMT References: <85866@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News) Organization: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Lines: 89 In-Reply-To: jim@baroque.Stanford.EDU's message of 14 Nov 90 00:37:58 GMT I asked around and got the following replies to the query... >Couldn't you just created rendered graphics, get >it into compressed format and then dump, 20 seconds or so. You wouldn't >need an Abekas or special single step video recorder. Am I right? am >I wrong? Thanks to those who replied. ********************************************************************** From: Kim_Orumchian@NeXT.COM Here are some of my thoughts related to animation on NeXTdimension: I think what the discussion below hinges on what is meant by "broadcast quality". Images that are compressed and played back by a NeXTdimension are not going to look as good as those produced frame by frame on a dedicated video production system. This is not to say that images produced in this way will look bad, just that they won't be exactly what you would expect from a dedicated machine costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. This brings up several issues. The first is that NeXTdimension is fully capable of generating very high quality still frame images in much the same way that the SUN workstations are bring used (as described below). The speed of NeXTdimension for manipulating 32 bit graphic images makes it quite desirable for this kind of operation, (the i860 is one fast chip). Another issue is that even though the NeXTdimension's JPEG compressed images may not be as high resolution as what production houses have today, an important question is who would use low cost, easy to use animation, video editing and production products. I think there is an analogy to desktop publishing: in the early days only large very specialized production houses used computers to aid in layout and production. When Pagemaker came out on the Mac, many people scoffed at the solution because it did not offer them the same kind of quality as the high end systems. The point is a new audience was found because the lowered price point/simplified ease of use appealed to a different, much broader set of people. I think the same is going to be true in the case of software products that sit on NeXTdimension. In summary, yes NeXTdimension is a great stand-alone animation computer (among other things) and even though it does not offer "broadcast quality" output in the strict sence, the video it generates by playing back compressed images is pretty high resolution (better than most VCR's). Also, there are coming high-end consumer-grade single frame VCR's that would let you image frames with full resolution (640X480, 32 bits per pixel), and then output them one frame at a time without doing any compression whatsoever. ********************************************************************** From: Eddy Wong In order to output production quality video suitable for broadcasting, the video signal has to strictly conform to RA170A standard. In another word, the timing of the video signal has to be very accurate. Although there are many video boards for different computer platforms capable of producing good enough video signal to be recorded to commercial video equipments, they are not good enough for professional quality video recording. I don't have enough information to tell whether NeXTDimension is good enough for professional quality video. Hope this help. ********************************************************************** From: jasmerb@ohsu.EDU (Bryce Jasmer) >Does anyone know more precisely what he is talking about? My gut >feeling is that he is underestimating the NeXTdimension, but I'm not >sure... No, I think he is hitting the nail right on the head. Remember what the NeXTDimension is actually doing when it does compression. It is taking an image and doing 37 times compression on it. This isn't easy to do, it must remove some things for the picture and do its best to get a close approximation. The data going into the compression is not the same as the data coming out of the compression. This is fine if you plan on doing a quick recording of CNN but if you plan on doing animation with "photorealistic" quality, the NeXTDimension and C-Cube (the chip that does the JPEG compression) just don't cut the mustard. The animation frames take a long time to generate and need to be exact. If you compress them to the hard disk you will lose some of the sharpness of the frames. Now don't get me wrong, the NeXTDimension and compression chips are really sweet but they just don't cut it for what this guy is thinking about doing.