Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!well!shf
From: shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: 3d animation systems
Message-ID: <5820@well.UUCP>
Date: 26 Apr 88 23:17:01 GMT
References: <39845R38@PSUVM> <5785@well.UUCP> <1853@ut-emx.UUCP>
Reply-To: shf@well.UUCP (Stuart H. Ferguson)
Distribution: na
Organization: The Blue Planet
Lines: 27
Keywords: 3D Animation Length
Summary: Single framing with WORM type drives


Butler Hine asks about recording single frame animations on video device
such as WORM drive.  I have some direct experience here.

I work at an astrophysics lab doing image processing and data analysis.
We record our computer enhanced astro images and animated simulation
results on a Panasonic TQ-2023F Optical DIsk Recorder.  It takes an NTSC
input signal and records a single video frame at a time onto a 9"
videodisc under RS-232 control.  It also has a burst mode which we've
never used.  Once recorded, the animations can be played back at full
speed or even very fast with little or no static.  As with most
laserdiscs, sigle steping is much better than tape.

It's been very servicable, although it does appear somewhat sensitive
to dust, and costs about $15K these days I think.  The read-only
players cost about $2K.  The discs themselves are under $100, I think,
and store 24,000 frames, or 13 minutes of full speed video.  The device
is much easier to use than video equipment, and if the poeple using it
are non-technical this is a big win.

I have used it in conjunction with an Amiga running VideoScape 2.0 and
it works great (provided the video from the Amiga is cleaned up a bit
with a genlock).  VideoScape provides a built-in facility to send
commands out the serial port and it was able to control the recorder
just fine, automatically snapping a frame after rendering.
-- 
		Stuart Ferguson		(shf@well.UUCP)
		Action by HAVOC		(shf@Solar.Stanford.EDU)