Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!ll-xn!oberon!nunki.usc.edu!sal1.usc.edu!rjung
From: rjung@sal1.usc.edu (Robert Jung)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Which paint programs should I support?
Message-ID: <674@nunki.usc.edu>
Date: 8 Apr 88 16:45:39 GMT
References: <2618@tekig5.TEK.COM> <649@nunki.usc.edu> <2632@tekig5.TEK.COM>
Sender: news@nunki.usc.edu
Reply-To: rjung@sal1.usc.edu (Robert Jung)
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 71
Keywords: Animation maddness

In article <2632@tekig5.TEK.COM> wayneck@tekig5.TEK.COM (Wayne Knapp) writes:
>In article <649@nunki.usc.edu>, I wrote:
>>   Speaking of animation, does anyone in netland know whatever's happened to
>> Broderbund's "Arti Director/Film Director" package for the ST? They've
>> announced it so long ago, and I'm *still* waiting! (Cel animation is the only
>> way to go!) Is this just so much vaporware, or can I still wait on Broderbund
>> to pull through for me? For an $80 art/animation package, that's a steal!
>> 
>Thanks for your input.  I'm curious to know why you feel that Cel animation is
>the only way to go.  It seems nice for some effects but on the whole very 
>limited or at least very time consuming to do really nice animation.  Do you
>like Cel animation because it is easier to do or it there some other values of
>it I'm not aware.  By the way isn't Aegis Animator about $80 dollars, it is a
>Cel animator, also isn't Cyber Paint mainly just a Cel animator for about $70.
>
>I think the that Cad3D, Cyber Paint, other paint programs, Aegis Animator,
>Animator:Apperetice (The one I'm working on), raytracers, and special effects
>packages are just tools in an animators toolbox.  In an ideal sitution the 
>animator should be able just to pick whatever tool he wants for whatever effect
>he is working on and with this picking and choosing build any animation he
>wants to.  

  Oboy, one of my favorite comp.sys.rec.fun.n.games topics!

  To address your queries/points one at a time:

(1) I like cel animation because it's easier, and I get "more" detail out of
  an animation. Aegis Animator's "metamorphoises" mode, CAD-3D, and other
  things like that, while they *move* nicely, they don't *look* nicely.
  For me, it's the little things that make a computer animation fun.
  CyberPaint is the best in this regard, since I can draw every frame
  individually, but it's not quite what I'd love to do work with.

  Given enough cel "pages", you can do quite a lot. I have a friend here who
  just completed a CyberPaint demo of the "California Raisins", and he
  duplicated cel animation by drawing components on DEGAS blocks, and animating
  them indivdually. (This animation will be featured on Antic's upcoming
  Cyber animation VCR videotape, I hear)...

(2) Art Director/Film Director also provides SOUND/MUSIC, which none of the
  other ST animation programs you mentioned (except for Animator:) offer.
  I don't need the hassle of having to link up G.I.S.T. with the Cyber
  programs...I'd like to have everything in one convient package (hey,
  another tip for your program!). An ability to define my own sounds would
  be nice, too.

(3) You must remember, I'm not a professional animator by any definition of
  the term. I'm looking for an animation equvalent to Neochrome: Something
  fully-featured, easy-to-use, and adequate for my purposes. Sure, there are
  more expensive, detail-loaded paint programs for the ST, but NeoChrome
  does what I want (and very well, I may add). Similarly, I would like an
  animation program that's a complete package, offering me enough features to
  do quality work, but not necessarily swamping me with every trick in the
  book.


  The MOVIE MAKER program for the Atari 8-bits is/was the kind of package
I'm looking for. Heck, just chain eight or nine two-minute animations together
on a disk, and you get a full-featured "movie"...I'm surprised nobody has done
anything similar to this for the ST (and that's what FILM DIRECTOR was
*supposed* to do!)...


						--R.J.
						B-)
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