I certainly would! I also agree that it shouldn't be seperated into software sub-sections. If I create an animation in Carrara, or 3DMax, (creating textures in Photoshop,) I then will composite it in Final Cut Pro, then compress for the web with Cleaner or to Flash with Flix. Which sub-catagory would I then put it in? ;> And, I would also like to thank the "Powers-that-be" for this oppurtunity for all of the animators here at R'osity. And a big thanks to Bobasaur for spear-heading this through!

Clint- You are a man above men! I have been VERY frustrated with ALL of the books, magazine articles and tutorials that I read, that don't explain things to the lay-person. Thank you!

A bunch of computers, used together, that speeds up the overall time of rendering by parsing out individual frames, usually used for animations. My questions are: How? Would people have individual accounts on the servers to parse frames to? What software would everyone use? If I'm doing an animation in 3D Max, but the system is setup for Maya, I'm out of luck. Why? What is the incentive for R'osity to purchase, setup, and maintain multiple machines. Never mind the possibility for people to upload viruses. As soon as you are allowing people to do render-farming, you are allowing them to control remote computers at the application level. Far to open for any IT person to sleep well at night. Other then these questions, I would love for someone to setup a free render farm! It would save me thousands of dollars, and be very cool to put on the business card: "Unlimited rendering! Animations done before you ask for them!Peace in our time! All this for less then a phone call! So, call now!" ;>

You could use Amapi to create, (what they tell me,) more organic shapes with its NURBS modeler, then import the models into Carrara, convert to vertex models, and then bring into Poser for ... um... posing. After that, export the files back out of Poser, import into Carrara, and use its better rendering engine. Of course, if you're doing animation, then going into Poser is useless, since you can't import Poser animation into Carrara. :< BUT, C has bones, so you can create your animations in C. :> Either way, GOOD LUCK!

Actually... (looks down sheepishly...) I haven't done the install at all yet! I've been traveling for work, and haven't had a chance to do the uninstall-reinstall thing. But, I remember seeing the procedure mentioned on the web site when I did the download, and thought it might help. Many a time I have upgraded some software, only to find I forgot a step, and now the software dosen't work/serial number is invalid/hard drive is damaged/ the sun is no longer shining/ time has come to a stop/and other nasty things. ;> Hopefully this weekend, I'll have a chance to do my upgrade, but I'll be checking back here first to see if you've had any more luck! Good luck!!

The key to OpenGL and DirectX is that they are the real-time rendering engines, as in what you see on your screen as you're creating an image. They do nothing for the final rendering. For the final render, you use Ray-tracing, Global Illumination, and the like. They are built in to the software, while OpenGL and DirectX are part of the system software. OpenGL is cross-platform, while DirectX is only for Windows. Hope this helps!

Did you do a fresh re-instal before installing the updater? That's what Eovia strongly recommended, and it may be what is affecting you.

We're here with you bobasaur! Animators of the world unite! To the 4th dimension.... and beyond!

It will help with the re-draws while your doing your creation of scenes, but for rendering only the processor speed and amount of RAM make any difference. Your set-up should be fine unless your doing alot of terrain modeling, (a big memory hog.) Also, if your doing alot of texture mapping, and you have your graphics program open at the same time as C, then more SYSTEM memory will help keep you system from swapping memory to disk. (Though, if you use Photoshop, then expect it to use even more then you think. It uses it's own swap file, that is up to 5 times the size of your open files! Again, the memory on the graphics card won't help here much either.) The graphics memory will help for the amount of textures you are trying to display simultaneously, but only at the creation phase. Hope this helps.

Try going into the modeling room in Carrara with the sock. Make a small edit, then undo it. If you then export, I think it will reset the coordinates to where they were in Carrara. Good luck!

You need to set some between crosssections. So, 1 would be your square. 2 would be another square moved to where you want the transition to start to a circle. 3 would be a circle that was rotated so the 4 vertices of the circle lined up with the 4 corners of the square. Make sure your set to view the vertice numbers, and make sure they line up with each other numberwise. Section 4 would be another circle moved to where you want the transition to start to a fluted circle. 5 would be a fluted circle that you have added vertices to for the fluting of the main portion of the column. 6 would be a duplicate of 5, moved to where you want the fluting to end. 7,8 and 9 would be the reverse of 3, 2 and 1 to complete the column. Hope this helps.

What program are you using? They're all different in how they impliment things.

GI also doesn't like the light adding up to more then 100%. There is a great discusion on this from litst from when C2 first came out. Too much lighting will blow-out the highlights VERY quickly. It takes a change in how you look at lighting from doing raytracing. Start with 1 light, and see how it goes from there before going on to adding more. Good luck!

Depends on the software. Usually it is a mathematical description of an object that also includes some form of description of what material/texture/shader makes up the surface of the object. Some software doesn't even use polygons as a way to describe/create an object. (Usually, they revert to a polygon for the rendering process though.) Most of the software can convert between a few differnt kinds of file types to allow interaction between programs. Alot of the programs include animation, rendering, as well as the modeling, but not all. Some programs allow control over machinery that can convert the file description into a physical object, through laser ethcing of a solid, or an ink-jet like building up of layers of resin. A number of manufacturers use this method for rapid prototyping of new items to make. There is also a way to run a pointer like device across an object, or use a camera, and then take the resulting data and turn it into a 3d model, completing the circle.

YOU DA MAN! I have a project in the works that needs a bunch of trees, and I remember a preveiw you did a few months ago, that had a whole stand of trees on a mountainside. Is that something that will work in the new AG2?