Those aircaft would still be more than enough to cause a world of trouble for most 3rd world countries...
Too bad a carrier by itself is rather useless. Even with aircraft it would still need some other ships to provide protection to it. Anyone happen to know where to get some surplus frigates, cruisers and submarines?
Give Softimage|XSI a try. The basic hotkeys are standardized, as are the dialog boxes. It takes all of an hour to get used to the basics. Beyond that it may take some time to get GOOD output... XSI gives the user basic tools with which one builds up different effects. Check out XSIBase for a good discussion group, complete with links to tutorials.
I remember reading an article in Avation Weekly years ago (1991 or so) about a system being developed for helicopters to help them avoid power lines. Basically they installed a high resolution millimetric wavelength radar on the nose of a Cobra, and had some electronics convert the rebounding microwaves into an image that a pilot could understand. If I'm not mistaken the Longbow system on the newer Apache choppers does this sort of thing, but I don't recall if it had a fine enough resolution to discern power lines and the like.
Its called motion capture. Vicon are among the best in the business hardware and software wise for this sort of thing. I believe they used vicon hardware in FF-TSW if I'm not mistaken.
I'd have to disagree. Great looking hair is now just a matter of render time. Check out mighty joe young for some damn nice fur. The problem with photoreal humans is when you attempt to animate them, it all breaks down. The subtle things that we only notice at a subconcious level can't be solved by more cpu cycles.
The problem with attempting photorealistic humans is that the closer to "real" you get, the lower the tolerances for what is acceptable are. A creature that is only 50% human looking will be far more "real" looking than a 99.9% accurate looking human. Why? Because each and every human is hardwired to know exactly what a person looks like and moves like. It'll take some time until we get to the point where flesh and blood actors are out of a job.
That being said, cgi is great for things like Gollum, dinosaurs and other such stuff. It's also great for stunt doubles, where some things are just too damn dangerous to pull off with a real live human.
But Engineers are the only people in the near future who need 64-bit processors on their desktops.
Engineers are not the only ones. Visual effects people will snap up itanium and athlon64 based machines quite readily (I know I will!). I have a feeling the release of these new processors will be the final nail in sgi's coffin in the cg industry (yes they will still be around for other stuff, but for visual effects they are irrelevant now.)
"Professor, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it's time for our viewers to crack each other's heads open and feast on the goo inside?" "Yes I would, Kent."
Ahh yes... typical hystaria over short term problems.
I have one as well, and it rocks for games. Pity there's no linux support afaik though. It's also great for stuff like photoshop, instead of pressing silly hotkey combos like alt-shift-ctrl-x I can setup a quick macro and bind it to one of the nostromo buttons. A friend of mine uses one in conjunction with the mel scripting in maya and can just fly along in that program.
Most of the shots involving the Ents in TTT had that poorly composited made for tv look to them. I don't know if it was just a mismatch in the lighting, or that they didn't do a proper de-graining job before comping all the layers together. It's a shame really, as the job they did on integrating Gollum into the shots was incredible.
Hmm, I use that sort of trick right now, but manually. I orbit around and try and "lock on" to whatever vertex I want to grab with my eyes, then try and keep track of it when I stop orbiting. Wiggling the view around slightly does sound like it might work, I'll have to see if I can script somthing like that in XSI.
Slashdot Mirror
Mmm, yes I do belive I'll be paying money for the privelage of playing an incomplete game... or not.
IANAP (I am not a physicist) but the velocities needed to create that much atmospheric friction would appear to be pretty damn high.
And utterly defeated by the almighty printscreen key in the case of online comics.
Whorebuster? Hmm, the mascot could be a little cartoony pimp who pops up like the much hated paper clip and smacks the bitches around.
Other than that, the first boot in this beta version of Zeta greets you with two dead replicants Good to see Decker is still taking out the trash.
Those aircaft would still be more than enough to cause a world of trouble for most 3rd world countries... Too bad a carrier by itself is rather useless. Even with aircraft it would still need some other ships to provide protection to it. Anyone happen to know where to get some surplus frigates, cruisers and submarines?
1. Give crazy man who thinks the Earth is round a bunch of ships.
2. ???
3. ???
4. ???
5. profit!
Seriously, a western route to the orient is really tough to justify right now...
Give Softimage|XSI a try. The basic hotkeys are standardized, as are the dialog boxes. It takes all of an hour to get used to the basics. Beyond that it may take some time to get GOOD output... XSI gives the user basic tools with which one builds up different effects. Check out XSIBase for a good discussion group, complete with links to tutorials.
So is NASA planning on probing Uranus next?
/me goes back to the corner.
Geddit?
No? Ok,
So that what those skid marks in your underwear are from.
All your warez are belong to us!
-The Government of the United States
Will this allow me to put a GBU-32 through a window of the building where the goatse website is hosted?!
I can see the music!
I remember reading an article in Avation Weekly years ago (1991 or so) about a system being developed for helicopters to help them avoid power lines. Basically they installed a high resolution millimetric wavelength radar on the nose of a Cobra, and had some electronics convert the rebounding microwaves into an image that a pilot could understand. If I'm not mistaken the Longbow system on the newer Apache choppers does this sort of thing, but I don't recall if it had a fine enough resolution to discern power lines and the like.
Its called motion capture. Vicon are among the best in the business hardware and software wise for this sort of thing. I believe they used vicon hardware in FF-TSW if I'm not mistaken.
I'd have to disagree. Great looking hair is now just a matter of render time. Check out mighty joe young for some damn nice fur. The problem with photoreal humans is when you attempt to animate them, it all breaks down. The subtle things that we only notice at a subconcious level can't be solved by more cpu cycles.
If I want to go see photoreal people I'll go to the pharking supermarket!
That being said, cgi is great for things like Gollum, dinosaurs and other such stuff. It's also great for stunt doubles, where some things are just too damn dangerous to pull off with a real live human.
No fun in amd chips. They don't have bunnymen dancing around as they're made.
Engineers are not the only ones. Visual effects people will snap up itanium and athlon64 based machines quite readily (I know I will!). I have a feeling the release of these new processors will be the final nail in sgi's coffin in the cg industry (yes they will still be around for other stuff, but for visual effects they are irrelevant now.)
"Yes I would, Kent."
Ahh yes... typical hystaria over short term problems.
Argh... do i wait for athlon64 or opteron, or do I get one of these bad boys?! Decisions, decisions...
I have one as well, and it rocks for games. Pity there's no linux support afaik though. It's also great for stuff like photoshop, instead of pressing silly hotkey combos like alt-shift-ctrl-x I can setup a quick macro and bind it to one of the nostromo buttons. A friend of mine uses one in conjunction with the mel scripting in maya and can just fly along in that program.
Most of the shots involving the Ents in TTT had that poorly composited made for tv look to them. I don't know if it was just a mismatch in the lighting, or that they didn't do a proper de-graining job before comping all the layers together. It's a shame really, as the job they did on integrating Gollum into the shots was incredible.
Hmm, I use that sort of trick right now, but manually. I orbit around and try and "lock on" to whatever vertex I want to grab with my eyes, then try and keep track of it when I stop orbiting. Wiggling the view around slightly does sound like it might work, I'll have to see if I can script somthing like that in XSI.