Moel Posted April 11, 2011 Posted April 11, 2011 Hi y'all! I hope, my thread won't get deleted, i dont mean this offensive, just out of curiosity. Animation:Master was my first love in the 3D World... Well, actually the third after Ray Dream 3D and Softimage 3D on the SGI Workstation of my father... But i always loved the ease of use of A:M, but have since moved on to Blender and a little App for the Mac called Cheetah 3d. I haven't heard much of A:M on the other Boards or in 3D circles in general. The Website isnt very informative either. A lot of Message Boards are dead silent which saddens me a lot espcecially, since i already thought about maybe buying a subscription. I think A:M has still a lot of good things about it but it doesnt seem to be very present anymore. But thanks to the great community, you might give me an update What has happened since 2008? Cool new features? A new movie? Hope you're all well and cheers to you! Quote
Fuchur Posted April 11, 2011 Posted April 11, 2011 Hi Moel, we are still here . A:M v16 will be launched in the next few weeks, with great stability-updates and netrenderer, an advanced network-rendering-tool with many great features included. A:M is now available in 64bit and 32bit, and has quite a few features more, so I don't know which once have been added especially since 2008. Did you have SSS and AO then? At least FastAO is newer and there are other features as well like Fluids (can't remember when they where implemented neighter... have to be the last 3 years so) and so on. Renderingspeed has improved A LOT (about 100% per core from v15 to v16) and A:M can, with the help of netrenderer take full advantage of up to 32 cores, if you have that many . You can see a few of the (from my perspective) greatest images in my signature so not all of them are new, a few are, etc. Bus Stop was the last Community-Project over here and there are many other examples created in the meanwhile. A:M v16 is very very clearly worth the money for a subscription! Hope to see you more often here soon Best wishes *Fuchur* Quote
detbear Posted April 11, 2011 Posted April 11, 2011 Moel, Welcome.... Thank you for asking. I used Hash to create a 1/2 hour children's video. I attracted some animaters who had been working professionally in other Apps. They were very impressed and pleased by the easy learning curve. (This was done in V.15) V.16 is even faster with the 64bit option. You can view the trailer of my video here: www.wybooproductions.com ALSO SOME INCREDIBLE NEW Improvements and features for those of us who blend Hash into a pipeline: 1.The .obj pluggin has undergone great improvements which allow for import and export with really good results. So if you love modeling in Hash with it's elegant spline modelling tools and want to export....You will find it very useful. The new improvements allow for importing UV maps also, which saves a bunch of time. 2. One of the brand new features that make rendering realistic lighting JET SPEED.....is the new Fake Ambient Occlussion Plugin.....This comes in a Free and Pro version. I have gotten the same and sometimes better results than using the regular AO in Hash. I literally did the same render in 1min. that actuallly was taking 1hour with normal AO. The above are just a few improvements...There are a bunch more. Most important, there are friendly users here on the forum that excell in helping with issues and "know how." Cheers, William Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 11, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted April 11, 2011 A:M works great and there are many knowledgeable people on the forum to help when you have a question. Softimage 3D on the SGI Workstation of my father hey, just out of curiosity, do you recall what the cost of the workstation and the SGI license were? Was that in the 90's? Quote
John Bigboote Posted April 11, 2011 Posted April 11, 2011 Fabulous software... wonderful helpful people, right here. Not going away. Subscription for 15 soon to be 16 is well worth the cost. Hope to see you back soon. Quote
Moel Posted April 11, 2011 Author Posted April 11, 2011 Ooh well sounds great! I guess i really have to look into v16 then! Too bad that none of this is visible on the hash frontpage... I really think a product page with all the new goodies listed would be helpful and attracting new or returning users like me! Think about it, Hash hey, just out of curiosity, do you recall what the cost of the workstation and the SGI license were? Was that in the 90's? Not so sure anymore, but i think it was around 100'000 $ For the Workstation and 50'000 for the Software, which was considered a bargain back then. Plus some expenses for three days of training. A represantive of Softimage would come by and train you on IRIX and Softimage itself. I think they bought their first Workstation in the 80's, when Softimage just came out. Then a few years after that it was two Indigo 2's and a newer Release of Softimage, when it was owned by Microsoft. But the Windows NT Version apparently stank 2. One of the brand new features that make rendering realistic lighting JET SPEED.....is the new Fake Ambient Occlussion Plugin.....This comes in a Free and Pro version. Sounds nice! Is there any list, where you can see all current features? I understand, there are some new rigs! Has the old 2001 finally served its purpose? The squetch one looks really nice! If i buy a subscription today, will i get automatically a V16? I've got a fast Computer with 25 Gigs of Ram and an Intel i7 980X, but a lousy Graphics Card... Hopefully it'll work anyways Would be fun to play around in A:M again! Thanks for the great answers! Its really a very nice community. Great that you guys keep the product alive! Quote
NancyGormezano Posted April 11, 2011 Posted April 11, 2011 it was around 100'000 $ For the Workstation and 50'000 for the Software, ..... Sounds nice! Is there any list, where you can see all current features? I understand, there are some new rigs! Has the old 2001 finally served its purpose? The squetch one looks really nice! If i buy a subscription today, will i get automatically a V16? I've got a fast Computer with 25 Gigs of Ram and an Intel i7 980X, but a lousy Graphics Card... Hopefully it'll work anyways Would be fun to play around in A:M again! Thanks for the great answers! Its really a very nice community. Great that you guys keep the product alive! Uh....A:M is $79.00 (not $79,000) for a 1 year subscription/license per computer (expires). Or if you need to own it forever - it's $299 for a CD (which acts like a "dongle", and you can use it on any computer, forever). Yes you will be able to download v16, for either choice (but it's not officially released yet) Your computer should work beautifully with A:M, you'll probably get better results than what that $150,000 workstation got. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 11, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted April 11, 2011 That Softimage price sounds crazy but I remember we had SGI machine where I worked with "Alias Power Animator" on it for probably around the same price. It was many tens of thousands of dollar, I know. I spent some time looking at it but concluded there just wasn't anything it was doing that my $300 A:M wasn't doing easier. Quote
Fuchur Posted April 11, 2011 Posted April 11, 2011 ... (spoiler) There will be a new webpage for v16. It will at least have a few more informations about A:M than the current one... See you *Fuchur* Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 11, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted April 11, 2011 feature list-like forum posts http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=318285 http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=338289 Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 11, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted April 11, 2011 What has happened since 2008? Cool new features? A new movie? btw, TWO went to a festival and was well received and don't miss BUS STOP our most recent collaboration project. Quote
Moel Posted April 11, 2011 Author Posted April 11, 2011 @ robcat2075: Thanks for all the info! I'll look into it! Yeah, prices were crazy then, but it was a different time. Softimage was and still is a great software, always focused on character animation just like A:M unlike 3d Studio which was probably more focused on Architectural Vizualisations. But of course, not payable for the near mortal user. I just had luck, that my fathers studio were early on with 3D Animation and as it seems had the money to buy that stuff... But Softimage was a cool Program and i remember the old IRIX OS, which even then had a lot of features that Windows still hasn't today. Sad that SGI ended the way it did but oh well... I remember watching this tape and how blown away we were: Sometimes i miss these old days, were computer animation software could impress you with such limited features Quote
John Bigboote Posted April 12, 2011 Posted April 12, 2011 ... (spoiler) There will be a new webpage for v16. It will at least have a few more informations about A:M than the current one... See you *Fuchur* HEY! GOOD NEWS! Can't wait to see it, you Rock Fuchur! Quote
jakerupert Posted April 12, 2011 Posted April 12, 2011 >Ooh well sounds great! I guess i really have to look into v16 then! Too bad that none of this is visible on the hash frontpage... I really think a product page with all the new goodies listed would be helpful and attracting new or returning users like me! Think about it, Hash please give it a less amateurish and more clean professional look like Modo or C4D for instance. (I Know, AM is not meant mainly for pros, but why not invite some also, to give it a try.) Quote
Fuchur Posted April 12, 2011 Posted April 12, 2011 >Ooh well sounds great! I guess i really have to look into v16 then! Too bad that none of this is visible on the hash frontpage... I really think a product page with all the new goodies listed would be helpful and attracting new or returning users like me! Think about it, Hash please give it a less amateurish and more clean professional look like Modo or C4D for instance. (I Know, AM is not meant mainly for pros, but why not invite some also, to give it a try.) It will be less, lets call it "playfull", than the one available now, don't worry, but it is still not looking that clean, that non-pro-users will be forced away. I think we found a nice compromise and it is anyway a great improvement compared to the webpage available now - both optical and from the informative point of view. One of the most useful features is, that it is much easier to extend and refresh from time to time. It is nearly complete, so when A:M v16 final reaches daylight, the new webpage will be brought online too. Please be patient. See you *Fuchur* Quote
Fuchur Posted April 12, 2011 Posted April 12, 2011 >I think we found a nice compromise Yes, I have been involved in the new website. So you can hit me, if it isn't good enough . See you *Fuchur* Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.