One thing to consider is when using computer modelled people, they most likely are also using motion capture of real people. That's just for the basic movements though, but I'd imagine in the future (if not already in testing/application) they'll be able to really use motion capture for such things as facial expressions. But that leads to a question, if you need actors do all this motion capture, why bother with the CG renders at all? For games it works well, since they can then select the appropriate motion cap sequence, but for a movie, something that's static, just using a real actor would probably be best. Movies that are supposed to have a CG look (Shrek, Final Fantasy, etc) are obviously exceptions. I just don't see CG actors replacing actors for quite a long time, if ever. Although who knows, when AI becomes almost indistinguishable(sp) from real intelligence, the CG will be just as real.
Now, for my question to Thad Beier: Want to hire me?
The galaxy may have been born roughly 14 billion years ago (I thought the universe was roughly 14 billion, not the galaxy, oh well), but I doubt all the planets and stars were fully created, much less life. Our own planet (which, last time I checked, was in the galaxy) was only formed a couple billion years ago. Life didn't start until a little while after that, and intelligent (to understand the concept of even primitive space travel) life has only recently come about.
Sure we do. That's why we buy foreign cars a lot. It's the designers that don't have any taste:) . Seriously though, they're starting to make some extremely ugly cars nowadays. The PT Cruiser, Chevy Impallas, not to mention the MiniCoopers, the Beetles, the Civic Hatchbacks, just to name a few.
True. The point I was getting at though is that they do provide income. Some sites are able to fully pay for their operational costs through ads, and others just do it for added income.
trueSpace has a very intuitive and powerful interface. You can also scale first like in max. The pricetag for tS is also very reasonable for an application with it's power. tS's interface can also be customized. It's currently at 500 dollars for the boxed copy of tS6.
You can find info on the latest version of tS at: http://www.caligari.com/Products/trueSpace/tS6/Bro chure/modeling.asp?Cate=BModeling
While I do agree with you, I still think referring to US citizens as american is still somewhat correct. After all, we're the United States of America. As you pointed out, United States-men-and-women just doesn't sound right. Canadian, Mexican, Costa Rican all sound "right". So I guess calling us Americans is in a way right, but to say that someone else from a (North/Latin/South) American country isn't American is wrong. I don't think when someone from the US calls themselves american, they're trying to be arrogant or offensive, it's just that that's what we're used to.
First off, this isn't meant as an attack or anything, just stating what I think.
Slashdot is in the US. Many, if not the majority of the users are American. Well, maybe not most, but I'm sure there are more users from the US than any other country. That doesn't mean it should be US-centric, but that's the way it is.
You are right, often stating facts that make the US look bad in comparison to other countries will result in people flipping out. I think one reason is maybe that americans tend to think of Europeans as stuck up, and may think they're using those facts to just make themselves look better. As to your american psyche thing, I think it's more that sometimes the facts are wrong. Much like as someone pointed out that BTU/GNP is a much more meaningful measure. As for americans getting defensive, maybe it's because it often appears that the europeans (well, not just the europeans) are quick to point out those facts, as if they're the ones who are insecure and need the reassuring. Anyway, I think it just comes down to a "culture clash" of sorts, with misunderstandings on both sides.
I've also wondered whether or not the dehydration that occurs when drinking alcohol can have an effect on body temp. After all, water is a great retainer of heat. Any ideas?
Although, if they had cell phones on that soccer/football (or was it rugby? I forget) that was forced to resort to cannibalism, they all probably would have gotten sales calls - after all, they always call during dinner.
Huh, interesting. Or, the reason there isn't a response is because radiowaves generated by us haven't left our planet till very recently in a cosmic state of mind and it hasn't reached those who are indeed listening.
Not really relevant to the current article, but I really wished Dynamix wouldn't have gone under. Back when I got my first machine (an IBM PS/1, 486sx, 20mhz) the first couple games I got were by Dynamix, and they were the best I had played. The aces series were just amazing. I even fell in love with the manuals for them. Full color plans of each aircraft, and a great historical reference (for a game manual). I even used cited it in a research paper I did in 5th grade on WWII aircraft. I even kept the manuals when I discovered my box full of old computer games, as they might come in handy for modelling some 3d aircraft. Ah, nostalgia.
If only my friend's place of work would have a better DVD selection. They currently only have maybe 40 movies on DVD, most of the ones I'm interested in, I've seen already. I'd for sure buy a DVD burner then, movies for 13.50 would be pretty sweet.
Actually, speaking of battling the paperclip bastard.... About a year ago, doing a freelance job, I had to work a lot with Frontpage2000. Not too bad, since I was able to use Dreamweaver at home, but I also had to use Word a lot when I was in the office. It was mostly for conversions of data to be put into HTML. Since I was working on a machine that someone else used, and they were the primary user, I opted not to really change anything around. Anyway, one day when working with Word, the paperprick bastard kept popping up. I got so mad (mostly from being hungover) I took the box of paperclips at the desk and proceeded and to simply bend probably around 20-25 until they broke. Man, that was great. Not only did I kill the minions of the paperclip army, I killed enough time to the point that I chilled out and got back to work. Anyone else have a similiar pathetic story?
(yeah, yeah, I eventually turned the helper off, but whatever.)
They have a "Boozehound of the Week" now. It's apparently a joint thing between The Onion, Riverwest Brewery (they make some rocking beers), Foundation Milwaukee, and Cream City Culture. Don't know if they have this kind of thing in other cities.
Slashdot Mirror
One thing to consider is when using computer modelled people, they most likely are also using motion capture of real people. That's just for the basic movements though, but I'd imagine in the future (if not already in testing/application) they'll be able to really use motion capture for such things as facial expressions. But that leads to a question, if you need actors do all this motion capture, why bother with the CG renders at all? For games it works well, since they can then select the appropriate motion cap sequence, but for a movie, something that's static, just using a real actor would probably be best. Movies that are supposed to have a CG look (Shrek, Final Fantasy, etc) are obviously exceptions. I just don't see CG actors replacing actors for quite a long time, if ever. Although who knows, when AI becomes almost indistinguishable(sp) from real intelligence, the CG will be just as real.
Now, for my question to Thad Beier: Want to hire me?
The galaxy may have been born roughly 14 billion years ago (I thought the universe was roughly 14 billion, not the galaxy, oh well), but I doubt all the planets and stars were fully created, much less life. Our own planet (which, last time I checked, was in the galaxy) was only formed a couple billion years ago. Life didn't start until a little while after that, and intelligent (to understand the concept of even primitive space travel) life has only recently come about.
Sure we do. That's why we buy foreign cars a lot. It's the designers that don't have any taste :) . Seriously though, they're starting to make some extremely ugly cars nowadays. The PT Cruiser, Chevy Impallas, not to mention the MiniCoopers, the Beetles, the Civic Hatchbacks, just to name a few.
True. The point I was getting at though is that they do provide income. Some sites are able to fully pay for their operational costs through ads, and others just do it for added income.
Yes. If advertising on websites didn't work, why would there be ads at all?
trueSpace has a very intuitive and powerful interface. You can also scale first like in max. The pricetag for tS is also very reasonable for an application with it's power. tS's interface can also be customized. It's currently at 500 dollars for the boxed copy of tS6.
o chure/modeling.asp?Cate=BModeling
You can find info on the latest version of tS at: http://www.caligari.com/Products/trueSpace/tS6/Br
While I do agree with you, I still think referring to US citizens as american is still somewhat correct. After all, we're the United States of America. As you pointed out, United States-men-and-women just doesn't sound right. Canadian, Mexican, Costa Rican all sound "right". So I guess calling us Americans is in a way right, but to say that someone else from a (North/Latin/South) American country isn't American is wrong. I don't think when someone from the US calls themselves american, they're trying to be arrogant or offensive, it's just that that's what we're used to.
Shouldn't it be first crack in this case?
I think screwing a bottlerocket would prove to be quite painful.
First off, this isn't meant as an attack or anything, just stating what I think.
Slashdot is in the US. Many, if not the majority of the users are American. Well, maybe not most, but I'm sure there are more users from the US than any other country. That doesn't mean it should be US-centric, but that's the way it is.
You are right, often stating facts that make the US look bad in comparison to other countries will result in people flipping out. I think one reason is maybe that americans tend to think of Europeans as stuck up, and may think they're using those facts to just make themselves look better. As to your american psyche thing, I think it's more that sometimes the facts are wrong. Much like as someone pointed out that BTU/GNP is a much more meaningful measure. As for americans getting defensive, maybe it's because it often appears that the europeans (well, not just the europeans) are quick to point out those facts, as if they're the ones who are insecure and need the reassuring. Anyway, I think it just comes down to a "culture clash" of sorts, with misunderstandings on both sides.
I've also wondered whether or not the dehydration that occurs when drinking alcohol can have an effect on body temp. After all, water is a great retainer of heat. Any ideas?
Although, if they had cell phones on that soccer/football (or was it rugby? I forget) that was forced to resort to cannibalism, they all probably would have gotten sales calls - after all, they always call during dinner.
a sales call came in handy.
Huh, interesting. Or, the reason there isn't a response is because radiowaves generated by us haven't left our planet till very recently in a cosmic state of mind and it hasn't reached those who are indeed listening.
Nah, you're arguement is much, much better.
Not really relevant to the current article, but I really wished Dynamix wouldn't have gone under. Back when I got my first machine (an IBM PS/1, 486sx, 20mhz) the first couple games I got were by Dynamix, and they were the best I had played. The aces series were just amazing. I even fell in love with the manuals for them. Full color plans of each aircraft, and a great historical reference (for a game manual). I even used cited it in a research paper I did in 5th grade on WWII aircraft. I even kept the manuals when I discovered my box full of old computer games, as they might come in handy for modelling some 3d aircraft.
Ah, nostalgia.
If only my friend's place of work would have a better DVD selection. They currently only have maybe 40 movies on DVD, most of the ones I'm interested in, I've seen already. I'd for sure buy a DVD burner then, movies for 13.50 would be pretty sweet.
Well, that depends. If they were chiwauhas(sp), I would have punted them. Otherwise I, well, whatever.
Perhaps it was a robot that actually made these comments...
Or he's one of them
Actually, speaking of battling the paperclip bastard....
About a year ago, doing a freelance job, I had to work a lot with Frontpage2000. Not too bad, since I was able to use Dreamweaver at home, but I also had to use Word a lot when I was in the office. It was mostly for conversions of data to be put into HTML. Since I was working on a machine that someone else used, and they were the primary user, I opted not to really change anything around. Anyway, one day when working with Word, the paperprick bastard kept popping up. I got so mad (mostly from being hungover) I took the box of paperclips at the desk and proceeded and to simply bend probably around 20-25 until they broke. Man, that was great. Not only did I kill the minions of the paperclip army, I killed enough time to the point that I chilled out and got back to work. Anyone else have a similiar pathetic story?
(yeah, yeah, I eventually turned the helper off, but whatever.)
As the AC pointed out, I was indeed poking fun at the title. And, as the AC suggested, chill out.
everyone has my phone number. Or those with a phonebook at least.
I always find it funny when there's people repeating the "didn't we see this already?"
Kind of ironic, isn't it?
They have a "Boozehound of the Week" now. It's apparently a joint thing between The Onion, Riverwest Brewery (they make some rocking beers), Foundation Milwaukee, and Cream City Culture. Don't know if they have this kind of thing in other cities.
going to be using it yourself?
Who needs to puke up to lose a little weight on Earth, when you can puke up and lose it all going into space? :)
They'd be better off not eating at all. Afterall, puking could shoot them in the opposite direction and smash their head into something.