Received: from dylan.mindspring.com (dylan.mindspring.com [204.180.128.4]) by ccnet.ccnet.com (8.6.12/8.6.9) with ESMTP id QAA21830 for ; Fri, 7 Apr 1995 16:11:56 -0700 Received: from ballen.mindspring.com [168.121.37.86] by dylan.mindspring.com with SMTP id TAA22482; Fri, 7 Apr 1995 19:14:04 -0400 Message-Id: <199504072314.TAA22482@dylan.mindspring.com> X-Sender: ballen@mail.3dartist.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Version 1.4.4 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Fri, 07 Apr 1995 16:15:33 -0500 To: adams@tgax.com, animmaster@aol.com, daniele@netcom.com, pcmike@aol.com, tess@graphics.rent.com, thaifan@aol.com, trinity@tyrell.net, wag@sirius.com From: ballen@3dartist.com (3D Artist magazine) Subject: Tess#507 X-UIDL: 797320666.002 ============================================================= THE T E S S E L L A T I O N T I M E S #507 Issue #7 of 1995, for Friday, April 7th (This issue is early in place of our regular Monday edition.) ============================================================= TESS is Columbine, Inc.'s weekly electronic publication usually posted Monday evenings to supplement 3D ARTIST magazine. See the end of this file for contact information for companies whose products are mentioned here. _______________ TESS on the Web http://tgax.com/resource.htm >in the Multimedia Resources area of The Graphics Alternative BBS Web server http://www.lightside.com/~dani/ >in the Literature, Reference section of 3DSite __________________ TESS subscriptions Send an E-mail message stating "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" to tess@3dartist.com. _______ DETAILS This file may be passed between individuals and can be reposted in any online forum _as_long_as_ the file is not modified in any way (it must be left whole and unchanged). It should be posted as TESS507.TXT (TES507.TXT where only six characters are allowed), or compressed as TESS507 with the appropriate DOS-style extension (ZIP, etc.). Reposting to *mailing lists* is _not_ recommended. TESS's master files are maintained with corrections on our 3dartist.com Internet site (ftp to 3dartist.com and go to /3dartist/ballen/tess). These are the latest corrected copies, and the only TESS files for which we can vouch file integrity. This file's contents are copyrighted and may not be reproduced in or with any other print or digital publication without permission. Any trademarked names mentioned in this file are the property of their respective owners and are used only in editorial fashion without intent of infringement of such trademarks. Columbine, Inc. and its publications are totally independent. No companies or products are endorsed. Published by and (c)Copyright 1995, all rights reserved Columbine, Inc. P.O. Box 4787, Santa Fe, NM 87502 USA 505/982-3532 voice - 505/820-6929 fax 505/820-6929x3 voice mail E-mail: tess@3dartist.com Staff: Alex Kiriako, Editor, TESS & Sysop, 3dartist.com Bill Allen, Publisher & Pres., Columbine, Inc. Sally Beach, Vice Pres., Columbine, Inc. Carol Williamson, Admin. Asst. This issue was assembled primarily by TESS Publisher Bill Allen. ________ CONTENTS 507.00 - Heads Up 507.00.00 - Howdy! 507.00.01 - The Fortnight in 3D 507.00.02 - Price Cuts & Special Offers 507.00.03 - Product Upgrades 507.00.04 - Artists' Call Deadlines 507.01 - Video Toaster for Windows 507.02 - New Immersion Hardware 507.02.01 - MicroScribe 3D 507.02.02 - Impulse Engine with Force-Feedback 507.03 - Animation Master Online by Jeff Paries 507.04 - What's Up in Santa Fe 507.04.01 - TESS 507.04.02 - 3D ARTIST 507.05 - Continuing Listings 507.05.01 - Special Offers 507.05.02 - Shows 507.05.03 - Artists' Calls 507.06 - Follow-Ups 507.07 - Contacts 507.00 - Heads Up 507.00.00 - Howdy! Welcome to a special early edition of TESS, since next Monday some of our staff will be in Las Vegas at NAB. We resume our regular schedule on 4/17/95, when we will publish an NAB report. According to a conversation with NewTek yesterday, the biggest news happening this day, 4/7/95, is that the new version of LightWave ships _today_ for Windows (3.1 & NT), Amigas, and SGI. We've been told by beta testers doing TV and game production work that the program has been running solidly for months now. Repeating continuing items each issue is starting to take a lot of space, so we're splitting "Heads Up" into "Heads Up" and "Continuing Listings" (507.05 below) Here's the stuff you need to know the soonest... 507.00.01 - The Fortnight in 3D April 10-13, NAB, in Las Vegas: 3DA Editors Bill Allen and Sally Beach, and writers Rob Glidden and Peter Plantec, will be there for part of the show and hope to see you! April 13-17 in Riccione, Italy: Bit.Movie '95 at the Palazzo del Turismo main hall. Vox/fax 39/541-643016, E-mail bitmovie@mclink.it April 17 in Seattle: Open Studio "for artists and technologists" at Symbionics at 7:30pm in the Western Bldg., 619 Western Ave. Check with Bret Battey at 206/281-8639 to reserve time. April 23, 3-5pm, in Sharon, N.H.: Opening reception for "Out of the Internet" show held by the Sharon Arts Center and *Digital Video* magazine. Works by artists from 17 states. The show runs 4/16 to 5/28/95, Mon.-Sat. 10-5pm, Sun. 12-5pm, four miles south of Peterborough on Rte. 123, admission free, 603/924-7256. April 26 in Los Angeles: seminar on copyright for digital artists, $60, American Film Institute, 213/856-7600. 507.00.02 - Price Cuts & Special Offers Through 4/30/95: Avalon site archive on CD-ROM for $30 postpaid instead of $49.95/S&H, from Syndesis. Contains 1,200 models in 20+ file formats, file conversion utilities, textures, and more. ISO-9660 & Rock Ridge compatible. (Per 4/5/95 E-mail to trueSpace mail list forwarded by Peter Plantec.) Visual Reality price cut: see next section. CrystalGraphics, according to a fax received today, 4/7/95, will be announcing in three days a new pricing and a bundling for a suite of its and other publishers' tools. Watch for our report in the next TESS. See 507.05.01 below for continuing time-limited offers. 507.00.03 - Product Upgrades Razor Pro from In:sync Corp. is promised for 5/31/95 on Alpha and Intel versions of Windows NT at $1,499, according to a fax received today, 4/7/95. AutoCAD release 13 change 2: Includes new Windows NT version, performance improvements, and bug fixes include "more complete DXF documentation." Contact your dealer or check with Autodesk's various online activities. This per a flyer received 4/6/95 by 3D ARTIST writer Gary Dohanish. Visual Reality version 1.5: Includes more flexible XYZ extruding, new automatic mapping type, bug fixes, direct import into Renderize Live of .AI and .WMF files, and a "cookie cutter" to cut 2D shapes through 3D objects. Upgrade is free to registered users, and the product's price has been dropped to $299 from $595. Simply 3D owners can upgrade to Visual Reality 1.5 for $149. (Per communications on 4/6-7/95.) 507.00.04 - Artists' Call Deadlines June 16, 1995 for CD-ROM Showcase, a CD of software demos with a "Digital Portfolio" section for artists' work, to debut at Siggraph '95. Contact Oregon Data Products, 1730 S.W. Skyline Blvd. #208, Portland, OR 97221; 503/292-5119, -5146 fax. (Per communications 4/6-7/95.) June 30, 1995 for "3-D Coolness '95" animation contest with prizes topping out at $2,000. To be judged on overall "coolness," creativity, originality, etc. Basic rules: must be looping 24-bit animations of 10-60 secs. at 15 fps (150-900 frames), rendered raytraced or at equivalent quality. Enter preliminary judging (lower res OK) with .FLC/.FLI/.AVI/QuickTime animation as vidotape or on DOS 3.5" HD disks, QIC-40 or -80 tape, CP-backup DAT tape, or uploaded to ftp site (to be announced). Final judging requires sequential stream of .BMP, .TGA, or .TIF (preferred) files, may be compressed with PkZip or self-extracting format. Send to World Fusion Software, 5942 Edinger, #113-718, Huntington Beach, CA 92649; 714/894-4094; worldfusion.com. Entries give non-exclusive rights to World Fusion Software to duplicate, modify, sell, and distribute the animation, with credit to the artist(s). There are many more artists' calls below in 507.05.03 507.01 - Video Toaster for Windows According to a fax received 4/6/95, NewTek will be announcing at NAB on 4/9/95 a Video Toaster for Windows. Features include: a full broadcast quality video switcher, digital effects, stillstore, character generation, a paint system, a 3D animation system, luminance keyer, and a color processor. Other capabilities include simultaneous record and playback along with NewTek's proprietary compression scheme (VTASC). NewTek also plans to include a disk recorder that can record hours of D-2 quality images. Pricing and delivery dates were not available as we upload this issue of TESS.--A.K. 507.02 - New Immersion Hardware 507.02.01 - MicroScribe 3D The MicroScribe 3D is a new addition to Immersion's line of 3D digitizers. It has a counter-balanced mechanical arm constructed from graphite to be strong but light in weight. This system accommodates a workspace the size of a 50" sphere, and has a mean accuracy of 0.02". The MicroScribe 3D sells for $2,395 and comes with an adjustable grid platform to affix objects to be digitized. It runs on DOS, Windows, Mac, PowerMac, Unix platforms, and outputs to standard file formats. 507.02.02 - Impulse Engine with Force Feedback Immersion is selling force feedback systems which yield just enough force to let your hand know it is touching or is constrained by something. Four engine models (1D, 2D, and 3D in three and five degrees of motion) allow feedback based on the level of constraint desired. These engines are sensitive enough to be used in medical laparoscopic and endoscopic simulations. Other potential uses could be for working in 3D space, robotic control, 2D design, virtual reality, and, in fact, anywhere some form of pressure feedback to the user would be valuable. Imagine adding 3D tactile feedback to the visual and auditory ones. Pricing for the Impulse Engines is $7,995 for the three-degrees-of-freedom unit, and $8,595 for five degrees of freedom. In the future, instead of giving your video game joystick a beating, it may have a few whacks at you.--A.K. 507.03 - Animation Master Online By Jeff Paries For Animation Master users who need to find help, America Online and CompuServe offer relatively inexpensive access to tech support, plus contact with hundreds of users. America Online has a smaller Animation Master (A:M) forum than CompuServe's, but the rates are more affordable. If you are a member, type Ctrl-K to bring up the keyword window, and "hash" to enter the forum. You will find a message board with timely information and tips, hints from other users, help files, a large collection of graphics, and some excellent essays by Martin Hash. You can e-mail Hash, Inc. tech support by sending to "AnimMaster". For more about joining AOL, call 800/827-6364. Compuserve offers a heavier flow of traffic in its "hash" forum than does AOL. There are rendered graphics, tech support, timely tips, problem-solving discussions, and other chat. To join CompuServe, call 800/524-3388. ______ Jeff Paries is a regular contributor to 3D ARTIST magazine, and in fact did our first A:M cover, which will be on 3DA#19. This week he has been scurrying between the two coasts setting up living quarters as he and his soon-to-be bride move from college and Virginia to Washington state and a job for Jeff at Hash, Inc. 507.04 - What's Up in Santa Fe 507.04.01 - TESS Last Monday evening when we went to broadcast TESS#506, our Internet service provider was having problems with a new router they had just added, and about 10% of the E-mailing list couldn't go out. We got almost all of those out 24 hours later, but some of you apparently received empty messages from us. If that happens to you again, and we always have a few problems in every broadcast, don't bother to tell us--we know immediately. Deadline for TESS#508 is Monday 1pm MDT (3pm New York time) 4/17/95. Stay tuned for our report from NAB. 507.04.02 - 3D ARTIST Editorial and space deadline for 3DA#20 is 4/18/95, with probably another week to play with. The issue focus will be hardware for 3D graphics, stereo viewing, probably a lot of 3DS IPAS stuff and the radiosity articles originally planned for 3DA#19. 3DA#21 will have as its focus 3D medical illustration, and we're looking for related how-to's. Looks like we may do a courtroom presenter's focus in this or another issue soon. 507.05 - Continuing Listings See 507.00 above for new items of immediate interest. 507.05.01 - Special Offers Through 4/15/95: See TESS#501.01.01 about Byte by Byte's competitive upgrade offer available for SoftF/X for Windows 3.1/95/NT. Through 5/30/95: Schreiber Instruments' IPAS six-pack: Lightning, Explode Volume, Particle Cloud, Rings, Comet, Starburst, all for $150. 507.05.02 - Shows The 1995 Computer Game Developers' Conference 4/22-25/95 at the Westin Hotel, Santa Clara, Calif. (415/856-4263), followed 4/26/95 by the Microsoft Win95 Game Development Forum at TechMart next to the Westin (contact unknown). The CGDC costs a lot to get into, but last year it sold out and we heard that artists were hired right off the floor. VR World 5/22-25, Convention Ctr., San Jose, Calif., sponsored by *VR World* and *CyberEdge Journal*, held by Mecklermedia, 800/632-5537; 203/226-6967, -6979 fax; vrconf@mecklermedia.com. 507.05.03 - Artists' Calls April 13th for New Mexico-based artists for the "Binary Vision" juried exhibit for 2D and 3D computer art. Contact The Printmaker, 1807 - 2nd St. #40, Santa Fe, NM 87501; 505/425-9456. April 14th for "The Book of Icons and Other Digital Addictions" art exhibition. Submit on floppy, 5.25" SyQuest, or as 35mm slides to Walt Whitman Cultural Arts Ctr., 2nd & Cooper Sts., Camden, NJ 08102; 609/964-8300. See TESS#506.00.05 for a few more details. April 24th for the Electronic Cinema at the Int'l. Symposium on Electronic Art, Sept. 17-24, Montreal, Que., Canada. Call 514/990-0229, fax 514/842-7459, E-mail isea95@er.uqam.ca. April 26th for the Computer Animation Festival/Electronic Theatre at Siggraph 95 (Aug. 6-11, Los Angeles, Calif.) Contact: Frank Foster, 310/280-7603, or E-mail caf_et.s95@siggraph.org. May 1 for 3rd annual New York Digital Salon, hosted by the School of Visual Arts. Contact Dr. Timothy Binkley at the school, 209 E. 23rd St., New York, NY 10010; 212/592-2535, -2509 fax; E-mail binkley@sva.edu. June 1 for Autodesk's Siggraph '95 Demo Reel. Send Betacam SP tape(s) to the Autodesk Multimedia unit at 111 McInnis Pkwy., San Rafael, CA 94903, attention "Siggraph 95 Video." See TESS#506.00.05 for more details. Fax inquiries to 415/507-5150. 507.06 - Follow-Ups TESS#505.03: We repeated what turned out to be an internal Autodesk Web site for the demonstration World Viewer. According to a message forwarded to us 3/28/95, the public sites are --CompuServ asoft forum: Cyberspace VR/Kit library --on the Web: http://www.bluerock.com/cdkwv/ --by anonymous FTP from ftp.autodesk.com We understand that this is a program Brian Blau wrote using Autodesk's Cyberspace Developer Tookit r2 ($1,995). This is not to be confused with what looks like a terrific viewer that we'd like to see Autodesk include with 3D Studio or sell as a separate utility. That program allows you, using a converted 3DS file, to flexibly look around inside a running animation, inspecting for the kinds of problems that can pop up in character animation. Another use would be for more-flexible architectural walk-throughs. 507.07 - Contacts The following companies have products mentioned in this issue of *The Tessellation Times*. When you contact companies, please BE SURE to say you heard about them from TESS. > Autodesk, Inc.; 111 McInnis Pkwy., San Rafael, CA 94903; 800/879-4233; 415/507-5000, 491-8311 fax; autodesk.com > Byte by Byte Corp.; 8920 Business Park Dr. #330, Austin, TX 78759; 512/795-0150, -0021 fax; bytebybyte.com; http://bytebybyte.com > CrystalGraphics, Inc., 3110 Patrick Henry Dr., Santa Clara, CA 95054; 800/979-3535, 408/496-6175, -6988 fax. > Hash, Inc.; 2800 E. Evergreen Blvd., Vancouver, WA 98661; 360/750-0042, -0451 fax; animmaster@aol.com > Immersion Corp.; P.O. Box 8669, Palo Alto, CA 94309; 415/960-6882, -6977 fax > In:sync Corp.; 6106 MacArthur Blvd., Bethesda, MD 20816; 301/320-0220, -0335 fax, -0338 BBS > NewTek, Inc.; 1200 S.W. Executive Dr., Topka, KS 66615; 913/228-8000, -8001 fax > Schreiber Instruments, Inc.; 4800 Happy Canyon Rd. #250, Denver, CO 80237; 800/252-1024; 303/759-1024, -0928 fax, -3598 BBS; corp@schreiber.com > Syndesis Corp.; 235 S. Main St., Jefferson, WI 53549; (414) 674-5200, -6363 fax; syndesis@beta.inc.net > Visual Software, Inc.; 21731 Ventura Blvd. #310, Woodland Hills, CA 91364; 800/669-7318, 818/883-7900, 593-3750 fax __________________ 3D ARTIST magazine If you haven't seen 3D ARTIST and can't find it on a newsstand or through your local user group, E-mail your snail mail address to t3.info@3dartist.com for a sample issue in North America. Elsewhere, we send an info kit including sample pages. [end]