Carl's Corner :)

Chaoscope sure is a very interesting app, and there's even a 3rd-party tool for putting out animated sequences of these 'strange attractor' thingies...

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Crapadilla wrote: Chaoscope

That's the thing there's a fair few free to use/freeware fractual 2d softwares out there that I wonder why some people buy some of the other ones.

I even think Gimp has a fractual plug-in that has similar images to one of the 2d to buy ones.

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ronviers wrote: Googling 'Chaoscope youtube returns several examples. I will add some to my queue. Thanks

Chaoscope makes cool images much easier than apophysis, and doesn't take long to get the hang off.

okay heres one I just did in Gimp, then added an edge to it

I have FF, PS, AI, Maya and Office on my desktop – that's plenty. I installed some kind of movie copying software recently and everything came to a crawl. I had to go to backup. Now I'm afraid to install anything.

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Beliria wrote: FF, PS, PSP, Office, Gimp, XenoDreams, Second life, Vue 6 easle, vue 6 studio, vue 6 xstream (last 3 are demo/tutorial packages), Terragen, and a few more.

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Beliria wrote: Good thing I didn't list them all

No fair. Let's see the whole list. I was holding back too. I admit that I also have Virtual Dimension, Filebox Extender, Context and Fastone. That's everything.

um.. art rage 2, Pov-ray, Blender, Daz3d, chaoscope, and a few on my hard drive download folder I haven't unpacked yet like Truespace, plus a heap of games etcs

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Beliria wrote: um.. art rage 2, Pov-ray, Blender, Daz3d, chaoscope, and a few on my hard drive download folder I haven't unpacked yet like Truespace, plus a heap of games etcs

Games too!

You must have a angel looking out for you.

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Beliria wrote: is it bad

It shouldn't be. If everything is well written and well behaved. But even with the best software it increases the number of things that can go wrong.
The Windows OS keeps a database (registry) of all the applications and their components. Each installation makes it bigger and more complicated. Things can slow down because of that. Also, some applications do not uninstall well. This can leave the registry in a state that is not as good as it would have been without the software being installed.

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Carl wrote: oh no I've got over 40 programs on the machine - some are only small though

hehe.. I have over 40 programs too!

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ronviers wrote: The Windows OS keeps a database (registry)

Yep I know.. think I need to figure out how to clean mine up without freaking anything out.

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ronviers wrote: I still think you're both brave.

Not sure brave is the right word

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ronviers wrote: Please don't tell me you're relying on the StevieJ plan of system recovery.

Not quite but I probably should make a new backup recovery disc.

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Crapadilla wrote: Chaoscope sure is a very interesting app, and there's even a 3rd-party tool for putting out animated sequences of these 'strange attractor' thingies...

Ooooooo....that's a good one too!!! Thanx!!!

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StevieJ wrote: I'm not reading all of those posts!!!

All of what posts? at least 4 of them pages don't exist as we know it .

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StevieJ wrote: I love these little freebies that you can use in conjunction with FF and PS to make some really neat textures..

Ditto, specially when they have the words attached saying you can use them for personal and commercial projects, not just for personal use only

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StevieJ wrote: You can do some neat things with those fractal programs

We all know who is a bad Steve

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Beliria wrote: All of what posts? at least 4 of them pages don't exist as we know it

Your right I don't know what he is talking about

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ronviers wrote: Please don't tell me you're relying on the StevieJ plan of system recovery

mmmmmmm I need a new stragety

I am going through sheer hell right now. I am forcing myself to move my left hand from the tablet to the keyboard – maya is faster that way. I feel like tearing my hair out.

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Carl wrote: cs4 is coming out - it seem very quick after cs3

Just heard about that yesterday. It does seem quick but it seems like things have been changing a lot lately.
I downloaded Maya 8.5 only one year ago. Last month they released the first service pack. About six months ago, they released Maya 2008, then this month they released Maya 2009. So by the time they get one version stable it is already two versions behind.
It may be Lightwave and Poser that is pushing PS to upgrade but then again I have not seen the list of new features so it could be another industry entirely, like photography or printing, that is doing the pushing. Have you heard about what any of the new PS features will be?

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Carl wrote: why is it faster

I only have a total of six buttons (expreskeys) on the tablet. Three are modifiers, one is the spacebar, up (touchstrip) is exit tool and down is move. That is just not enough buttons. If the tablet had 16 buttons I could make it work but six is not enough. If I keep my left hand on the keyboard any action in maya is at most two clicks away. If I use the menus, which is what I have to do frequently if I use the tablet, then some things are often three or more clicks away. It is extremely aggravating to make the change. I have seen it coming for a long time but I have been putting it off. I decided to do it while learning subdivision surfaces because conceptually they are straight forward.
How many buttons does your tablet have?

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Carl wrote: more directly vista friendly and for the first time takes advantage of your graphic card

Sounds like an important upgrade. I will have to skip cs4 too because I will need to buy training dvds that cover texture and lighting - first things first.

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Carl wrote: using the tablet for art work and the mouse for general stuff

I think that's the way most people do it. I just find the stylus more comfortable than the mouse. The tablet came with a mouse but I have never used it. What model is your tablet?

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ronviers wrote: What model is your tablet?

Intuos 3 [ 9x12 ] what about you

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ronviers wrote: I will have to skip cs4

I've got cs2 would love to upgrade purely for the raw for my camera but simple can't afford to, I'd get flash first then the latest corel painter.......... mmmmm lot programs........ money money money LOL

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ronviers wrote: I finished the spider tonight.

post something please

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ronviers wrote: I'm ready to get started texturing and lighting.

cool

and the mesh

Notice when you look at the mesh how the number of polygons increases only where there is a need for more detail. This is how subdivision surfaces work. Much more efficient than polygon proxy modeling and much easier than nurbs patch modeling.
The biggest disadvantage I can find so far is that the Maya tools for subdivision surfaces really suck. What's up with that? Are subdivision surfaces new? Are they old but not good for much?