Last modified: 20:14 Feb 17, 1999
You will not be required to use any particular software packages, but you will probably want to use some in the course of this class. If you have access to other software and/or hardware in other places, you are free to use it instead of what we are providing.
Maya is a high-end animation package that runs on Windows NT and SGIs.
Maya is a very complete system, and is targetted towards professional users. The user interface is designed to be useful for someone who uses it a lot, and is not necessarily designed to be easy to learn.
Maya has a huge manual set, most of which (I believe) is online). The best place to get started is the "Learning Maya" book, which you can see hidden away in the Maya directory. I have made some of these web pages into PDF files to make them a little easier to print (I just hit "print" from netscape).
There is a Maya demos/example CD-ROM that has been placed on-line in the Maya directory on AFS.
There are approximately 18 Windows NT licenses for Maya available for campus users. (that is, up to 18 people can run Maya at once). Maya for NT requires a fast Pentium II processor, a graphics acelerator card, and lots of memory. It is available on the machines in 1351.
Note: that when you run Maya, you will get a cryptic error message saying that it can't write the preferences file. Specify a directory in your own space, and it will all work fine. It will forget next time you run it, so you'll have to remind it where you put your stuff.
Adobe Premiere is a "mid-range" (that is, its a really good program targetted at advanced users, but not something designed to be all singing and all dancing) video editing package. For this class, this will be the primary "post-production" tool we have. For example, you would use premiere to turn a series of images into an animation, to edit clips of animation together, to put transitions between clips, to make titles, to mix sound into your animation, ... It is also the tool that will drive the video output cards.
While Premiere is "easy to use," you probably can't just sit down in front of it if you have never used video editing software before.
There are 3 licenses for Adobe Premiere for Windows NT that can be run on any of the machines in 1351. (That is, up to 3 people can use premiere at once). 2 copies of the documentation are available for loan in the CSL.
I have a very basic tutorial that will explain how to do assignment 2 with Premiere.
Renderman is a renderer (a program that takes a description of a 3D scene and outputs a picture) that is generally regarded as one of the best, although, it doesn't have all the fanciest features.
The renderman program takes its input from a text file that describes the scene geometry. You usually create this file by writing a program. Renderman includes a library of function calls that you can link into your C or C++ program, but these functions effectively are print statements.
Renderman only runs on Suns and SGIs. It should be available on all Sun workstations in the department.
3D Studio MAX is a very complete 3D animation system for Windows NT. It is difficult to compare it with Maya - except to note that MAX is an order of magnitude less expensive than Maya. Maya has a more "industrial strength" pedigree, does better at doing complex operations on curved surfaces, some fancier features, and a more highly evolved user interface. On the other hand, 3D Studio MAX seems easier to learn, and since it is so popular, there are lots of books and tutorials available for it.
If you are interested in using MAX rather than Maya, we may be able to make it available to you on the computer in the graphics lab. 3D Studio MAX will not be made widely available.
3D Studio MAX and Maya are expensive tools targetted at professionals. For making simple films for a class, cheaper tools have the advantage that they are cheaper, and are generally easier to learn and use (since they are targetted at a less experienced audience).
The biggest deficiency in most of the "low-end" tools is that they often do not support features that make it easy to connect them with your own programming projects.