Awesome, thanks rob. That's a really cool rendering you did and for 1997 is really a feat.
Thanks. There was MUCH more work to that image than you might think. On a 16-bit machine, rendering was dog-slow, and even test renders (to check for errors) took several minutes. Final renders could take DAYS! Today's typical machine can render the equivalent image in a few minutes, or even seconds!
On top of that, my Amiga had 7 megs of RAM, and to do 3D seriously, you need a HUGE amount of RAM (1 Gig isn't enough for a lot of projects!). Seven megs is insanely low memory for 3D rendering! I had to cut a LOT of corners and come up with creative ways to overcome these barriers. I rendered the spaceship, the planet, and the space/nebula background in separate passes, and combined the three images in ImageFX on the Amiga. I also had to cut out a LOT of detail on the spaceship itself, since the more polygons the object required, the more memory it required.
I painted the "nebula" in DCTV-Paint, which came with my DCTV video attachment unit. (The DCTV allowed for greatly expanded color capability). As for the planet background, my technique is still top secret, but let's just say it involved cardboard and water, among two ingredients!!!
I did indeed create about 4 seconds of animation with this scene, two 2-second spaceship fly-by scenes. The Amiga couldn't do high-speed, broadcast-quality animation at that high a color range, but I found a way! :-)
I used the DCTV video unit to output the animations to TV, which allowed a much higher color range and resolution than the Amiga was capable of natively. I also discovered a video/animation program called "Clarissa," which allowed for 30 frames-per-second/60 fields-per-second full-speed animation. Unfortunately, I had to "letterbox" the video to achieve full-speed playback.
So there I had it: a "Babylon 5" style special FX scene done on a desktop, playing at full speed! Unfortunately, the only copy of this scene I have left is on VHS tape.
The whole project pretty much killed my interest in 3D, though, since it took up SO MUCH TIME AND PATIENCE to work with such a limited computer. The animation sequence took ALMOST A MONTH of off-and-on rendering to get four seconds worth of animation! Today's computers might take a couple of hours max for the same sequence, and do it with better rendering quality.
Martin Touhey wrote:
Blender looks quite promising. I'm not quite versed in the 3D rendering world so it's kind of inundating. I actually found an old raytacer I used to work with on my pc back in the day called Persistence of Vision.
I've NEVER come across a 3D program that's "easy" to learn. Some are easier than others, but none are EASY compared to other types of production software. Compared to other 3D programs, Blender is actually considered one of the harder programs to learn, but it's MUCH easier than Imagine on the Amiga, and WAY more powerful! If you're going to try 3D, you're going to have to face the fact that 3D is going to have a tough learning curve. As for "Persistence of Vision," that's a seriously hardcore/technical/geeky platform that is much harder to learn than other mainstream raytracers (although I understand there's GUI frontends for POV).
Martin Touhey wrote:
Rowdy Rob wrote:
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
BTW.... what does this mean exactly?
It's a sort of "gamer's" joke, written in "upside down text." If you stand on your head (or turn your monitor upside down), you should be able to read it.
I think it's time I retired that tagline.... :-(
Mark Vergeer wrote:
Rob, that just looks awesome!
Thanks, Mark! I pretty much retired from 3D after that project, though. It killed me.
Awesome, thanks rob. That's a really cool rendering you did and for 1997 is really a feat.
Thanks. There was MUCH more work to that image than you might think. On a 16-bit machine, rendering was dog-slow, and even test renders (to check for errors) took several minutes. Final renders could take DAYS! Today's typical machine can render the equivalent image in a few minutes, or even seconds!
On top of that, my Amiga had 7 megs of RAM, and to do 3D seriously, you need a HUGE amount of RAM (1 Gig isn't enough for a lot of projects!). Seven megs is insanely low memory for 3D rendering! I had to cut a LOT of corners and come up with creative ways to overcome these barriers. I rendered the spaceship, the planet, and the space/nebula background in separate passes, and combined the three images in ImageFX on the Amiga. I also had to cut out a LOT of detail on the spaceship itself, since the more polygons the object required, the more memory it required.
I painted the "nebula" in DCTV-Paint, which came with my DCTV video attachment unit. (The DCTV allowed for greatly expanded color capability). As for the planet background, my technique is still top secret, but let's just say it involved cardboard and water, among two ingredients!!!
I did indeed create about 4 seconds of animation with this scene, two 2-second spaceship fly-by scenes. The Amiga couldn't do high-speed, broadcast-quality animation at that high a color range, but I found a way! :-)
I used the DCTV video unit to output the animations to TV, which allowed a much higher color range and resolution than the Amiga was capable of natively. I also discovered a video/animation program called "Clarissa," which allowed for 30 frames-per-second/60 fields-per-second full-speed animation. Unfortunately, I had to "letterbox" the video to achieve full-speed playback.
So there I had it: a "Babylon 5" style special FX scene done on a desktop, playing at full speed! Unfortunately, the only copy of this scene I have left is on VHS tape.
The whole project pretty much killed my interest in 3D, though, since it took up SO MUCH TIME AND PATIENCE to work with such a limited computer. The animation sequence took ALMOST A MONTH of off-and-on rendering to get four seconds worth of animation! Today's computers might take a couple of hours max for the same sequence, and do it with better rendering quality.
Blender looks quite promising. I'm not quite versed in the 3D rendering world so it's kind of inundating. I actually found an old raytacer I used to work with on my pc back in the day called Persistence of Vision.
I've NEVER come across a 3D program that's "easy" to learn. Some are easier than others, but none are EASY compared to other types of production software. Compared to other 3D programs, Blender is actually considered one of the harder programs to learn, but it's MUCH easier than Imagine on the Amiga, and WAY more powerful! If you're going to try 3D, you're going to have to face the fact that 3D is going to have a tough learning curve. As for "Persistence of Vision," that's a seriously hardcore/technical/geeky platform that is much harder to learn than other mainstream raytracers (although I understand there's GUI frontends for POV).
qoj hpmoj o+ 6uo73q 3Jv 3svq jnoh 77V
BTW.... what does this mean exactly?
It's a sort of "gamer's" joke, written in "upside down text." If you stand on your head (or turn your monitor upside down), you should be able to read it.
I think it's time I retired that tagline.... :-(
Rob, that just looks awesome!
Thanks, Mark! I pretty much retired from 3D after that project, though. It killed me.