Vanishing Point (www.vanishingpoint.biz) and Gunpoint (www.gunpoint-3d.com) are proud to announce that from Tuesday 1 March 2005, Vanishing Point has acquired the rights to all the Poser and Vue versions of the Gunpoint catalogue.

Vanishing Point will be releasing the entire catalogue as available on Gunpoint, but as a bonus to Poser users, for almost every commercial product released there will be a free item released as well. Some parts of the free item will require the original model, such as free alternate textures, but other parts will be stand alone and could be used on other models.

On Tuesday Vanishing Point will be releasing the first three models (and three free add-on packs), and one of these will be a free Poser version of the JagdPanther tank destroyer. And as a further bonus for Poser users, this is the first tank that features fully animatable tank tracks. This tank uses some parts of the system developed by VK (http://www.atlantis23.com/erc_download.html) and some parts altered and modified by Helgard. The tank tracks are controlled by three dials, one turning both forward and backward, and one for each track individually. These three dials then also control all twenty wheels, making it an animators dream. All tanks and tracked vehicles released by Vanishing Point will feature this.

I will leave the discussions of the marketplace items for the launch day and the appropriate forums. Poser users are invited by Gunpoint to have a look at their site, and Vanishing Point will be having polls and votes where the users will decide which models they would like next. So to start the ball rolling, go to the Vanishing Point Forum and place your vote for the next freebie:
http://www.vanishingpoint.biz/forummsg.asp?ForumID=0&ForumMsgID=306

Further press releases will follow about the other site we are currently negotiating with, as well as the new modellers that will be joining Vanishing Point.

I would also like to thank VK, Ockham, Dr Geep and lwanmtr for their help in solving the eternal problem of tank tracks. And to McLean, Lesbentley and others whose forum posts and tutorials helped get this working. And for those of you who are going to make their own models with posable tracks, study the code I made, and learn how to do it, dont just copy and paste the code wholesale. I have found many ways of improving the code further, but I ran out of time before my March 1st deadline for release. So hopefully I will have even better code in the next tank model. And the free model will also include, especially for animators, the formulas and methods to use to calculate the speed of your vehicles, so that you dont have tanks driving at 300km/h, or jet aircraft flying at 30 km/h, and so that you can animate tanks without the tracks ice-skating or spinning in place.

Attached Link: http://www.vanishingpoint.biz/forummsg.asp?ForumID=0&ForumMsgID=306

Go to this link to vote for the next freebie.

The conversions are total conversions to Poser, meaning that the meshes have been optimised, in some cases untriangulated (lower polygon counts), and the textures have been done from scratch to make more efficient use of the way that Poser textures a model.
I will put up more information later, but on this tank all the hatches can open, the 88mm gun and the machine gun can elevate and traverse, the periscopes and sights can rotate, and the props, like the spade, hammer, etc, can be moved individually. There will be a free western front (camouflage) and eastern front (winter snow) texture available for this model, as well as a free German armour refeulling kit, consisting of jerrycans, oil drums and the pump to fill the tank with fuel. Some other freebies for this coming as well, but I won't spoil the suprize.

Message edited on: 02/25/2005 19:34

Re: post #2

Both your model and render are excellent !!!

Dang near a photograph.

cheers,
dr geep
;=]

P.S. When I told NaySayGuy I was going to get a tank, he asked if he could put his topical fish in it.

He did have some tropical fish but they didn't live very long (for some strange reason). ;=[

His topical fish will live forever cuz the Doc made 'em in Poser. When NSG kills one of 'em, Doc just loads another one from the Props Library. Gotta keep NSG happy - have you ever heard him cry? ... Ya don't need an air-raid siren when NSG wails. ;=]

Great news

Oh My. I do believe I have a use for that right now.... >:D

very nice been waiting for a tank track that move for awile .cant wait

I am going to look very carefully at the jerrycans, since I'd knocked up a low-poly one, last year, as a background prop. The main differences between manufacturers are in the pressed ribs on the sides.

Is it tuesday yet?