"Yawn. Who cares? A lifetime achievement award for making a bunch of low-quality plot-recipe movies and becoming stinking rich as a result; and we have to give him an award?"
Like or hate Star Wars, it's hard to ignore the whole bit about ILM's advances in visual FX.
" "He has advanced the art of the moving image like few others, and in the process has inspired a new generation of filmmakers around the world."
Star Wars may suck, but that has little bearing on the above comment.
"The open-source community just discovered cell-shading? I'm ashamed."
Sorry to take the fun out of your comment, but this isn't cel shading. It's inking. Cel shaders are, in essence, a dumbing down of normal shading. Instead of getting a smooth gradient from light to dark, instead you get a handful of harsh color zones. Inking is the following pass that takes the edges of a model and paints a line on them. It's trickier than it sounds.
"If you can't even draw.....then how the hell are you going to create realistic 3D meshes?"
Simple. Good reference. Drawing is not a requirement for 3D models. As a matter of fact, I bet you've seen CG work that has stunned you that was created by a person with no drawing skills.
"No, this sort of software is actually much more useful for people who _can_ draw and/or sculpt, or who at least have a well-developed sense of proportion. "
I'm not sure I understand this comment. This software is for people with 3D models that they want to appear 2d. It seems they wouldn't find it so interesting if they were capable of doing the inking pass on their own.
"It's hardly a new idea."
Where was "this is a new idea!" advertised? What's 'new' about it is that it's free and it uses a well supported format (.OBJ). Plus, the results aren't half bad. It's a pity, though, that it has a painfully bad interface. I tried it and I can't get much out of it without jumping through a lot of hoops.
"I feel for ya, buddy, those of us that *can* draw (with, like, their hands and stuff, with a pencil and paper or a rock and a cave wall) are rapidly becoming obsolete. Very sad, isn't it."
No, you're not. I'm a 3D artist, and the best thing that ever happened to my career was learning how to draw. The reason why surprised me. Anybody can pick up and use a 3D app. Serious, they're not that hard. Few, though, can actually design with it. Drawings are far better for cooking up interesting new ideas. Not to mention, it's far quicker to cook up a drawing and get approval on it than it is to get a 3D model built and ready to show.
In short, the explosion of 3D rendering on the market has dramatically increased the need for pencil and paper artists. It isn't killing them at all.
"I think you would need very high poly counts on your mesh to achieve a level of detail good enough to look like professional cartoons."
Nah, not really. Modelling for toon shading is a different technique, though. It's about creating edges so that the inking software can figure out where to draw the ink. Normal 3D rendering is about creating polygons to get the right shading per rendered pixel. (Not to mention, you also need good textures, lighting, etc etc.)
"If it's just to do an image (or a few), I don't think its worth the effort. "
Not true. A stylistic choice from photo-realism to this sort of inking would result in a great deal less work. As I said before, you don't need as much polygonal detail. (You need good edges, though...) You also don't need a lot of lights or textures. It doesn't take many data points for software like this to generate an outline.
"But nothing will ever beat SouthPark characters... so simple, and so much personality!"
That's entirely up to the artist. Go over to www.cgtalk.com and look at the gallery. Though this sort of rendering isn't done so often there, I think it will better punctuate my statement about it being up to the artist.
As others have mentioned, it's a reference to Chasing Amy. The basic gist of it is there is a comic book artist in the movie. Somebody else did the drawings, and he went over it in ink. Nobody, however, was impressed by this because they thought inking was just tracing. The artist in question found this quite offensive.
Sadly, as an artist, I sympathize with him. Inking is an art-form just like drawing. It's not something anybody can run out and do. Nor, for that matter, is it all that easy for a computer to do. Many have tried to make 3D renderings look hand drawn, and it is quite challenging.
Gotta say, though, I like the results on the website.
"In other words, I'd like to see Bush's publicists rescue him from the whole 'killing tens of thousands of civilians to gain control of Iraq for dubious reasons' debacle."
It's not so hard. Bush's target was the Iraqi gov't. Tragic? Oh yes. However, wars have a way of being that way. Al Qaeda cannot fall back behind that excuse. One dude decided he didn't like the USA, so he attacks a civillian target that isn't even, in the remotest way, a military target. At least Bush had support for the invasion.
Err I'm not trying to defend Bush here, just pointing out that the situations were significantly different.
"Why is that Mr. Gates? I would have thought that you would offer a secure environment as part of your product out of the box?"
Offering anti-virus is not the same as making a more secure environment. Anti-Virus searches for specific types of attacks, as opposed to closing ports or limiting the damage an executable can do. Windows does not have built in virus protection, but Microsoft is actively closing security holes.
"After all, does not my automobile come with airbags and antilock brakes and skid control and all wheel drive? Under your logic, those features would only work if I paid a monthly premium."
This is a flawed analogy. Microsoft is already providing (err trying to provide) those equivalents. (Although, if Windows were a car, it'd be recalled. Bear with me.) Anti-Virus would be more like On-Star. It's a service for helping drivers with situations that building a car 'correctly' can't deal with. For example, if your car is stolen, On-Star can track it. However, that is a monthly service. Yes, you can make doorlocks tougher, that doesn't prevent On-Star from being an interesting service.
Still not convinced? Okay, consider this: Recently Slashdot had a story about a Mac exploit. A 'beta' of Word 04 wsa supposedly released. A bunch of Mac users downloaded and executed it. They were all victims of an exploit. Basically, the executed file wiped out their home directory. (Note: My memory is fuzzy on this. Corrections or additional info appreciated.) Permissions can be set. Apple could release a patch, no problemo. But what do you do? Lock down the machine so that executables have really strict rules to follow? Do you run an anti-virus app to scan for known exploits like that? Well I'm not trying to answer that. All I'm saying is that they are two very different techniques, and yes forced anti-virus can cause unwanted results.
" Thus far, I have been looking at the various 5.4" displays for console systems like the Gamecube, but all of these connect to the systems via proprietary connectors that stick out of the front of the displays and would interfere with mounting it to my case."
The only thing that's really proprietary about the connector is the shape of it, not the signal. It's just an analog signal that's sent out to RCA cables. A brief trip to Radio Shack and a little trial and error will help you figure out which terminal goes to which analog input. The sad thing, though, is that you'll have to figure out a way to get your computer outputting that signal. Some vid cards have an output like that. In that respect, yeah, you could make it work with that screen. If you don't have NTSC-out, well forget what I'm saying entirely.
It comes froms from a joke that Yakov Smirnoff (sp?) made. I can't quote the joke. Something like "In Soviet Russia, the party holds YOU!" or something like that.
Part of me wonders if the resurgence of this joke came from an episode of Family Guy where Peter bought a car with a GPS featuring Yakov mode.
"Will this be a true test of human survial though?"
Why should it be? It's a test to see if people can spend 500 days on Mars. If this test can't be passed without a MacGuyver in the group, then they should not be going to Mars. It's one thing if the situation turns sour causing survival instincts to kick in, it's another when the situation starts out that way.
Don't get me wrong, I think you make a good point, I just don't see why, in this case, it has to be a test of Human survival ingenuity.
Slashdot Mirror
"I can already hear the bickering over usage rights while driving."
I wouldn't mind having a HUD for my car.
"I take good movies in black and white with mono sound over bad movies with excelent visual and sound effects."
George gave moviemakers better tools. He can't make other moviemakers make better movies.
"Yawn. Who cares? A lifetime achievement award for making a bunch of low-quality plot-recipe movies and becoming stinking rich as a result; and we have to give him an award?"
Like or hate Star Wars, it's hard to ignore the whole bit about ILM's advances in visual FX.
" "He has advanced the art of the moving image like few others, and in the process has inspired a new generation of filmmakers around the world."
Star Wars may suck, but that has little bearing on the above comment.
"i don't suppose you want to enlighten us NON spanish-speaking people? There's over 5.5 billion of us who DON'T speak the language, you know?"
It's a spanish term for the RIAA's pricing policy.
"The open-source community just discovered cell-shading? I'm ashamed."
Sorry to take the fun out of your comment, but this isn't cel shading. It's inking. Cel shaders are, in essence, a dumbing down of normal shading. Instead of getting a smooth gradient from light to dark, instead you get a handful of harsh color zones. Inking is the following pass that takes the edges of a model and paints a line on them. It's trickier than it sounds.
"If you can't even draw.....then how the hell are you going to create realistic 3D meshes?"
Simple. Good reference. Drawing is not a requirement for 3D models. As a matter of fact, I bet you've seen CG work that has stunned you that was created by a person with no drawing skills.
"No, this sort of software is actually much more useful for people who _can_ draw and/or sculpt, or who at least have a well-developed sense of proportion. "
I'm not sure I understand this comment. This software is for people with 3D models that they want to appear 2d. It seems they wouldn't find it so interesting if they were capable of doing the inking pass on their own.
"It's hardly a new idea."
Where was "this is a new idea!" advertised? What's 'new' about it is that it's free and it uses a well supported format (.OBJ). Plus, the results aren't half bad. It's a pity, though, that it has a painfully bad interface. I tried it and I can't get much out of it without jumping through a lot of hoops.
"I feel for ya, buddy, those of us that *can* draw (with, like, their hands and stuff, with a pencil and paper or a rock and a cave wall) are rapidly becoming obsolete. Very sad, isn't it."
No, you're not. I'm a 3D artist, and the best thing that ever happened to my career was learning how to draw. The reason why surprised me. Anybody can pick up and use a 3D app. Serious, they're not that hard. Few, though, can actually design with it. Drawings are far better for cooking up interesting new ideas. Not to mention, it's far quicker to cook up a drawing and get approval on it than it is to get a 3D model built and ready to show.
In short, the explosion of 3D rendering on the market has dramatically increased the need for pencil and paper artists. It isn't killing them at all.
"Programs like this will never replace drawing."
Err. Duh. That's not the goal. It's a style, not a replacement.
" It will be many, many years before we can emulate 2D animation with 3D, and then, what's the point, why not draw it?"
Eh? 2D animation has been emulated with 3D for a long time now! Don't believe me? Have a peek at Spirited Away or Futurama.
Why not draw it? I can think of a few reasons:
- You can get more 2d looking renderings done in the time it takes to draw.
- Not every 3D person can draw. What's wrong with giving artists easy access to another style?
- Think about why CG is, in some cases, replacing miniature photography.
"I think you would need very high poly counts on your mesh to achieve a level of detail good enough to look like professional cartoons."
Nah, not really. Modelling for toon shading is a different technique, though. It's about creating edges so that the inking software can figure out where to draw the ink. Normal 3D rendering is about creating polygons to get the right shading per rendered pixel. (Not to mention, you also need good textures, lighting, etc etc.)
"If it's just to do an image (or a few), I don't think its worth the effort. "
Not true. A stylistic choice from photo-realism to this sort of inking would result in a great deal less work. As I said before, you don't need as much polygonal detail. (You need good edges, though...) You also don't need a lot of lights or textures. It doesn't take many data points for software like this to generate an outline.
"But nothing will ever beat SouthPark characters... so simple, and so much personality!"
That's entirely up to the artist. Go over to www.cgtalk.com and look at the gallery. Though this sort of rendering isn't done so often there, I think it will better punctuate my statement about it being up to the artist.
"Why bother with using bloated tools that only get in the way when you can do the exact same thing with a boot floppy."
GUI != bloat. Web browser != bloat, especially during system recovery.
Come to think of it, why am I even wasting time spelling out the obvious reasons why Knoppix is an awesome recovery tool?
"Hmm..i'm missing the joke. What's a tracer?"
As others have mentioned, it's a reference to Chasing Amy. The basic gist of it is there is a comic book artist in the movie. Somebody else did the drawings, and he went over it in ink. Nobody, however, was impressed by this because they thought inking was just tracing. The artist in question found this quite offensive.
Sadly, as an artist, I sympathize with him. Inking is an art-form just like drawing. It's not something anybody can run out and do. Nor, for that matter, is it all that easy for a computer to do. Many have tried to make 3D renderings look hand drawn, and it is quite challenging.
Gotta say, though, I like the results on the website.
"In other words, I'd like to see Bush's publicists rescue him from the whole 'killing tens of thousands of civilians to gain control of Iraq for dubious reasons' debacle."
It's not so hard. Bush's target was the Iraqi gov't. Tragic? Oh yes. However, wars have a way of being that way. Al Qaeda cannot fall back behind that excuse. One dude decided he didn't like the USA, so he attacks a civillian target that isn't even, in the remotest way, a military target. At least Bush had support for the invasion.
Err I'm not trying to defend Bush here, just pointing out that the situations were significantly different.
"They just don't have the publicists that Westerners can afford."
Yeah, I'd like to see a publicist rescue their image from the whole 'crashing a plane into a civilian target' debacle.
" THE GOVERNMENT IS THE CAUSE of the wars and terrorism."
Funny, I always thought extremists were to blame. Interesting note: Al Qaeda is a small group of people, not the population of a country.
"I want to know why Bill Gates thinks it can't be built in."
A recent court case comes to mind...
"Why is that Mr. Gates? I would have thought that you would offer a secure environment as part of your product out of the box?"
Offering anti-virus is not the same as making a more secure environment. Anti-Virus searches for specific types of attacks, as opposed to closing ports or limiting the damage an executable can do. Windows does not have built in virus protection, but Microsoft is actively closing security holes.
"After all, does not my automobile come with airbags and antilock brakes and skid control and all wheel drive? Under your logic, those features would only work if I paid a monthly premium."
This is a flawed analogy. Microsoft is already providing (err trying to provide) those equivalents. (Although, if Windows were a car, it'd be recalled. Bear with me.) Anti-Virus would be more like On-Star. It's a service for helping drivers with situations that building a car 'correctly' can't deal with. For example, if your car is stolen, On-Star can track it. However, that is a monthly service. Yes, you can make doorlocks tougher, that doesn't prevent On-Star from being an interesting service.
Still not convinced? Okay, consider this: Recently Slashdot had a story about a Mac exploit. A 'beta' of Word 04 wsa supposedly released. A bunch of Mac users downloaded and executed it. They were all victims of an exploit. Basically, the executed file wiped out their home directory. (Note: My memory is fuzzy on this. Corrections or additional info appreciated.) Permissions can be set. Apple could release a patch, no problemo. But what do you do? Lock down the machine so that executables have really strict rules to follow? Do you run an anti-virus app to scan for known exploits like that? Well I'm not trying to answer that. All I'm saying is that they are two very different techniques, and yes forced anti-virus can cause unwanted results.
"I'm still waiting for Windows on x86 to have full efficiency."
Damn straight!
Oh, btw, do you have an ISO for disc 4 of RedHat?
" Thus far, I have been looking at the various 5.4" displays for console systems like the Gamecube, but all of these connect to the systems via proprietary connectors that stick out of the front of the displays and would interfere with mounting it to my case."
The only thing that's really proprietary about the connector is the shape of it, not the signal. It's just an analog signal that's sent out to RCA cables. A brief trip to Radio Shack and a little trial and error will help you figure out which terminal goes to which analog input. The sad thing, though, is that you'll have to figure out a way to get your computer outputting that signal. Some vid cards have an output like that. In that respect, yeah, you could make it work with that screen. If you don't have NTSC-out, well forget what I'm saying entirely.
"Why, oh why, did they have to specifically aim this at all the apps I don't use?"
Well, you did choose apps that aren't used by 10s of millions of people.
"where did that joke come from anyway?"
It comes froms from a joke that Yakov Smirnoff (sp?) made. I can't quote the joke. Something like "In Soviet Russia, the party holds YOU!" or something like that.
Part of me wonders if the resurgence of this joke came from an episode of Family Guy where Peter bought a car with a GPS featuring Yakov mode.
"microsoft.com - loads fine"
Set your faces to stun!
"There's already a million browsers that use the IE rendering engine, so why not do something new for a change!"
You think AOL customers are going to be happy when some pages don't load correctly? The web is not where you want to do something 'new'.
"Dad?
Is that you?"
Asking somebody on Slashdot if they're your father... That raises some interesting questions about your mom.
"Will this be a true test of human survial though?"
Why should it be? It's a test to see if people can spend 500 days on Mars. If this test can't be passed without a MacGuyver in the group, then they should not be going to Mars. It's one thing if the situation turns sour causing survival instincts to kick in, it's another when the situation starts out that way.
Don't get me wrong, I think you make a good point, I just don't see why, in this case, it has to be a test of Human survival ingenuity.
"(Sorry, I had to.)"
Why? Are you on a mission to make sure the joke is never funny again?