The Mac...

[archiea]

Hey beam, hey gang...

its been a while since I b*tched.. er.. I mean posted. I've been working 7 day work weeks!!! I briefly reviewed the recent anouncements from apple at NAB and found them noteworthy to LW users.

In particlar and to my surprise was the annoucment of final cut pro's support for 32 bit HDr images. A feature that I didn't even consider, and that should have been at the top of my list. Considering FCP's color correction facilities, the possibilities of using FCP as a grader to LW renders is intriuging. This also opens up FCP to be used (with the appropriate Hardware) as a poor man's digital intermediate station. I'm assuming this from the specs alone, and I'm waiting until I get some hands on esperience before I go completely nuts...

Also, now FCP includes the once $1000 cinema tools as well as music scoring possibilites, expanded text abilities, Mpeg 2 authoring, etc. you can really see the possibilites here.

Shake 3.0 was announced with a much desired integration of tracking within paint and roto. This brings Combustion functionality to shake, a big step. How much so? I hope to find out. Also, the mac exlusive of free render nodes is evidence of Apple realizing the realities of the market regarding the nonsense of paid render nodes. I hope making it mac exlusive opens more purchases of apple servers than pissing people off...

DVD studio pro priced is reduced in half, while its accessability increases with more iDVD approachable option. You just have to wait until august.. ;(

Apple also featured Logic, music production software as a solution to complete its own suite.

I think its interesting how Apple is making up for slower CPU's. They are providing such an integrated and polished solution for post that you fathom how such a solution can be assembled on the PC. FCP alone reigns in the PC envy catabory. shake is hoping to get there, but it may piss off current customers enough to make them migrate out of spite. DVD studo pro offers an ease with integration and toolset that, with its new price point, may also stir up PC envy...

More to the point, its really a show of how accessable alot of these tools have become. Their relevance to the Lw mac community here is evident now with this expanded color support. I think that Lw users, even for video work, should consider this workflow as it offers alot of options after the render. it also produces a better images even if the final output is 8 bit video. Fact is that you would be working on a canvas that would never contaminae or degrade your image. thats something that makes me sleep a little better!!

[Beamtracer]

Hi Arthur. Good to see you back in the forum. I hope you got some green bits of paper in your pocket for all that work.

I was also amazed to see FCP4's 32-bpc floating point renderer. This is truly astounding for an editing package.

Meanwhile, more expensive Avid editing machines still work only in dismal 8-bpc mode, severely degrading 3D renders.

Adobe's compositing software still can't work in 32-bit mode. Arthur, you're right that FCP4 will make a great color grader for Lightwave animations.

I can only imagine that Apple is aiming at taking the feature film editing market away from Avid. With this new offering they will.

August should be a big month for Apple. DVD Studio Pro, Panther OS, +64-bit hardware. I hope Newtek can see that there are some big things happening over at Apple.

[luka]

That sounds amazing! HDR image editing in FCP 4

I reckon Lux can see the 64bit OSX. Do you think that Lux is creating some sort of 64 bit app to coincide with the G5?

And LW is definately going to be updated at siggraph. Whether it's going to be 64bit on OSX is the question?

[theosmekhanes]

Yeah I've been a FCP user from 1997.

I saw this comming for a long time.

Shake is awsome, 2.5 had some big holes but 3 is a dream come true...Cue master, told ya so Newtek. anyway cue master is open, you can use it to render Maya!

Now all we need is for NT to support QuickTime properly.
:rolleyes:

[wizlon]

From The Lux Website:

'Luxology, LLC currently has strategic technology relationships with Apple Computer, Inc., Intel, AMD, nVidia, and 3Dlabs.'

I guess Strategic Relationships means - $$$

This should be good for Mac users because whatever Lux is working on, I assume will be partly paid for by Apple, and if Apple aren't happy this financial support will be pulled.?

The financial shelter Brad talked about back then, could only come in the form of sponsorship, as they have no actual product..yet.

[Ade]

ohh ohh can i start the next rumour...

Apple to buy out Lux, thus getting Lightwave (somehow)...Not a bad rumour.

[theosmekhanes]

Rumors were floating around last year that Apple was looking to buy a 3D package.

They have the money to buy out Maya. LW would be peanuts (If they would sell it).

I think Apple is too smart to buy LW or Maya, too much baggage and spagehtti code.

They will most likely buy out former NT contracts and whip up somthing completely new incorperating LUX and Pixar Tech.

That would make my Day. :D

[Johnny]

those apps with 'spaghetti code'...are they in danger of being overtaken by newer apps with more efficient code?

how does an app get in such a state in the first place?

J

[wizlon]

I think the 'Strategic Relationship' Lux have with these companys is to do with Realtime Rendering Support, just look at the list - it speaks volumes, that and Beth Loughney on the board of advisers - didn't she have something to do with Blue Moon Tools the Renderman compliant realtime rendering app?

[theosmekhanes]

"those apps with 'spaghetti code'...are they in danger of being overtaken by newer apps with more efficient code?"

That's a big YES!

LW was started back in the 80s as a text generator for the Toaster (I've used it).

over the years they have revamped a lot of things but with the baggage of old user habits.

Their common code base strategy is also a culprit. Instead of a custom fit we get one size fits all. that's why we have all these workarounds and hacks.

It's kinda like OS9, when it's core was invented, things like the internet and multimedia had not been considered. Over the years, things where wedged in and hacked about. These compromises made for a faulty tower prone to collapse. Apple then set out to start from scratch with internet, audio, video, and 3d in mind. and we got OSX (yeee-haww)

Same deal with LW. New advances in drag and drop, object oriented software development , has made it easier to "start from scratch", and take advantage of Altivec, MP, and clustering.

[robewil]

LW was started back in the 80s as a text generator for the Toaster (I've used it).
Correction: Lightwave was developed from Videoscape 3D and Modeler 3D from Aegis Corporation of whom, Allen Hastings and Stuart Ferguson were employed.

From the beginning, Videoscape and Lightwave were meant for basically, the same thing then as they are now. That is 3D animation of objects, text, and characters. If you really "used it", then you would remember such animations as 'Infinite Loop' done in Videoscape and Todd Rungren's 'Change Myself' done in Lightwave 1.0.

Still, I basically agree with your comments that the core of Lightwave does not use today's top technologies and, like all software, can be more efficient. However, I seriously doubt that Lightwave 7.5 contains any leftover code from 1.0.

[theosmekhanes]

"I seriously doubt that Lightwave 7.5 contains any leftover code from 1.0"

oh, of course not. 6.0 was a big rewrite (and fiasco) wasn't it?

However, some of the same workflow kludges and interface shortcoming have carried over.

a wholly integrated workflow with an organized - canonized interface would be refreshing.

All the buzz going 'round about integrating the scene manager with the graph and key framer to make a "dope sheet" illustrates the need for a fresh approach.