Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!celia!neil From: neil@celia.UUCP (Neil Richmond) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.graphics Subject: Re: Amiga graphics to video (In n) Keywords: graphics animation video Message-ID: <932@celia.UUCP> Date: 8 Mar 91 21:56:38 GMT References: <703@digigw.digital.co.jp> <5665@tahoe.unr.edu> Reply-To: celia!neil@usc.edu (Neil Richmond) Organization: Rhythm & Hues, Inc., Hollywood Lines: 66 In article <5665@tahoe.unr.edu> tucker@tahoe.unr.edu (Aaron Tucker) writes: >If you are going to be doing any type of high quality graphics with a >ray-tracing package like IMAGINE, you should get three things: If you want to do animation, in a reasonable amount of time I wouldn't recommend a rendering program that does any kind of ray-tracing. I know this rules out most of what is available, but you do want to get this done in your lifetime, right?:-) There are some packages that use scanline type algorithms for rendering and they will be about 10-30x faster than a ray- tracer with the same features. In a scanline type renderer, the thing that will really slow you down is transparency. But with a scanline renderer, you could almost live without an accelerator, but you will really want one of these too. >1) An industrial grade VTR that is accurate to a single frame. You don't >really need a single frame controller to put down animations onto tape. >Just load up the frame, record it onto tape for two frames, back up one, >then repeat the process for each frame. Remember, a hires 24 bitplane >image takes up between 300k and 1.4MB, depending upon the complexity >and file format used. Now this is a real problem for the home animator. Because, by the time you have bought all the things you need to shoot on video, you will probably have spent 10-20,000 dollars. I have never seen anything recorded to tape in real time that looked good. You really need a single frame system. A possible solution to this problem is 1) Find some kind video house that will allow you to hook up your system to theirs and allow you to shoot your video and not take every cent you have or 2) find a cheap 16mm camera like a Bolex and hook it up to your computer and shoot off the screen. This can look surprisingly good and with a film finish, you might be able to get your film into film festivals or siggraph and win all kinds of accolades and earn very little money because no one pays much money for short films:-) Whew! You can find Bolex cameras for about $100 and 100ft of 16mm film costs about $20.00 to develop. You can later find a place to transfer it to video if you want it there. Not a perfect solution, but it works. 3) Another possibility is to by a Panasonic Optical Disc recorder. I think the one we use here cost about $12,000 new. It records 12 minutes per disc, but the quality is not broadcast by any means. You would still need a genlock, but I don't think you would need a time base corrector. I think they have an RS-232 port on the back, as well. They might be hard to find now as the one we have has been replaced by a more expensive model. >2) A 24bitplane display board with a paintbox(software) that is real-time >24bit RGB! This means either a Colorburst, Firecracker24, or a >Harlequin board. HAM, or regular HIRES just doesn't cut it anymore. Yeah! >3) A removable media hard/optical drive. The popular brands are: > Syquest, Ricoh, Bernoulli for hard drives. > I am not sure for optical. You might call XETEC and find out >what they are using. Why is a removeable media necessary? Any large disk should do. >"Anything else would be unprofessional." No comment. neil -- Only 3221 shopping days left till the next millenium! Neil F. Richmond INTERNET: celia!neil@usc.edu Rhythm & Hues Inc. UUCP: ...{ames,hplabs}!lll-tis!celia!neil)