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Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: orb85750 on December 12, 2008, 11:10:52 PM

Title: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: orb85750 on December 12, 2008, 11:10:52 PM
Hey, check out this low blow against Amiga animation in the news today.  Pretty funny.

"...this week also brings us Delgo, which could be a candidate for worst film of the year. A fantasy adventure film from a studio you've never heard of, Delgo tells a story of some lizard looking thing as he goes to stop a conflict between some other strange looking creatures. Some recognizable names have been grabbed for the voice cast, including Freddie Prinze Jr., Val Kilmer, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Chris Kattan (among others), but that appears to be the extent of the budget for the film. The animation looks like something created on an Amiga and the characters themselves are pretty unattractive. All of these factors add up to a major bomb in the works, with about $2 million being probable for its first weekend."
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: taunusand on December 12, 2008, 11:19:56 PM
I want to know where he who wrote that lives :madashell: :furious:
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: Crom00 on December 12, 2008, 11:24:34 PM
What they're trying to say is that the graphics look dated.
And using a computer made by a manufacturer that went out of buisness 14 years ago as an example of dated graphics is good way to do it...

if the statment read "The graphics look like they were made on a Mac" That would not have driven then point across becuase you can actually buy a new Mac, in a real store (not ebay).

I'd still rather have produced 3d graphcis on lightwave 3.5 on my A2000 then Strata studio on a mac, any day...

But I can garuntee the person who penned that review hasn't used either.
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: recidivist on December 12, 2008, 11:30:32 PM
I might be wrong but are the graphics of Family Guy,South Park or ? Hill state of the art ?

 I think they look pretty crude but they made millions  and not 14 years ago.
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: Sig999 on December 12, 2008, 11:38:25 PM
So this delgo thingy must look even worse than the family guy or south park...

hahhahha

Sorry, but I think the quote was pretty funny...
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: taunusand on December 12, 2008, 11:47:17 PM
@CromOO
Quote
But I can garuntee the person who penned that review hasn't used either.

I think you are right about that.

But still, it does not sound good!

In Denmark we have a new shop - www.retro-computer.dk - he does a good job, I bought from him once, really good and fast service. :-)
Then TV discovered him, and made an interview at his home. He told about Amiga, C64 and other computers. (the shop is for computers and extras from 1977 to the mid. 1990'ies) but I, and a few others I know that saw it, think they made a joke out of it. Never have a female journalist tell about Amiga...
The point is, it is something harmless that we like, we don't hurt anybody. I hate when someone make such a joke about it. :-(

Maybe I should just ignore it...
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: JimS on December 12, 2008, 11:52:17 PM
Maybe the guy should have said the Commodore 64 or the Atari 800. I've used animation software on the latter, and it was pretty crude, by today's standards. Still, it was quite the thrill at the time. Besides, nobody in his target audience knows what an Amiga is anyway... well not many at least.

Back in the day, I had the good fortune to see one of the "International Animation Festivals" in an "art house" theater. I remember "Dance of the Stumblers" made in a guy's bedroom on an A500 with Dpaint getting a bigger reaction that the Cray stuff... so it's not the tool, it's the wielder. (Of course, I noticed quite a few members of the local Amiga user group in the audience, and I'm sure that didn't hurt.  :-D  :-D  :-D
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: Sig999 on December 12, 2008, 11:57:14 PM
On the upside - when was the last time you heard anything being compared to an Atari ST?

At least the machine made a big enough impact in its day to be used as a reference for something to be dated.....


...I don't see many computers of yesteryear getting that.

Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: recidivist on December 13, 2008, 12:02:17 AM
Another remembrance,wasn't part of the later Star Trek spinoffs done with Amiga?

NOT using stock A500 I'm sure!
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: JimS on December 13, 2008, 12:10:38 AM
Quote

recidivist wrote:
Another remembrance,wasn't part of the later Star Trek spinoffs done with Amiga?

NOT using stock A500 I'm sure!


The first season or so of Babylon 5 was done with Lightwave on Amiga hardware. Lots of them I'd guess. ;-)

Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: Hans_ on December 13, 2008, 02:05:33 AM
The reviewer probably doesn't realize that the Amiga was used for professional effects in TV series. Why don't people watch the trailer of Dildo and then have a look at the graphics of some graphic adventure games (not Amiga, but The legend of Sherwood springs to mind). I do see some similarities, particularly with regard to the backgrounds.

Hans
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: Crom00 on December 13, 2008, 02:19:56 AM
Star Trek and the Amiga...
(rolls eyes in disgust...)

Had a Commodore person tell me about how the Amiga was supposed to be used as the LCARS displays on Star Trek the NEXT generation. Was told Paramount called commodore and Commodore just never followed up on the matter. Paramount went to apple who happily supplied them with the support needed to create the LCARS (Library computer) digital video graphics on set displays and output the graphics to expensive Beta Tape playback machines...

Originally...

They wanted to use Amigas since they were compatible with NTSC video out of the box, but the big C= couldn't be bothered...

Even unti the last Star Trek TV show (Enterprise) the mac was still used to do the on set displays. They were G4 Cubes connected to Flatscreens.

The same workflow was used on the Paramount show Threshold, but by that time they used Mac Mini's.

Back to the amiga though...
Amigas were used towards the end of the Next Generation to do some paintbox FX using toaster paint.

Also Voyager was modeled in Lightwave on Amigas and SGI's running lightwave by Amblin Imaging.

The instant lightwave was available to run on Intel other platforms the amiga was dropped in favor of those more mainstream systems.

Historically you can't ignore the AMIGA contribution to CGI.

Does anyone remember how much an SGI cost back in the day?
Compare that cost to a fully loaded Amiga2000/4000 toaster with lightwave and adpro....

The SGI, despite it's sky high price tag still crashed...!

The Amiga crashed now and then, but I can at least play a game, run Mac software and buy software at reasonable prices.

At School of Visual Arts there was a complete and utter disdain for the platform. When the Mac was a single task black and white system educators actually called the Ami archaic and outdated...yet had never used one.

Adobe's embracing of the mac as THE print production platform of choice sealed Amiga's fate.

The Amiga could have been an AI contruct with dual holographic displays the size of a shoebox and it would'nt have mattered to the graphics community.

 Even then Apple's ability to "spin" was a force to be reckoned with.

How do I know all this? Worked on "Star Trek" related projects for 5 years...
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: weirdami on December 13, 2008, 02:44:59 AM
One thing about these stories about Commodore and Star Trek where the Star Trek folks used Macs instead: Couldn't they have just bought one instead of getting all pissy about not being able to get a free Amiga out of Commodore?
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: Crom00 on December 13, 2008, 03:08:47 AM
The street cred gained by having a major cultural franchise attached to the Commodore Amiga brand was worth the cost of having one or two CATS or special products division guys onboard full time with paramount for a couple of months to get them started.

A modern day example of this...Today...NewTek flies folks all over the country and demos their Tricaster to get the box into the major Networks. It's a proven strategy. The result? Most every Major network uses Tricaster for online content delivery. Tricaster is a market leader. Granted it's a niche market, but it's the leader, despite the "Video Toaster" and the "oh...yea...I remember that company" stigma you often hear when you metnion NewTek in industry circles.

Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: Crom00 on December 13, 2008, 03:20:19 AM
Also, Avid was adopted as the non linear edit system for Trek becuase Avid emulated Paramounts tape loggin system in a digital workflow.

 Avid realized having a popluar "evergreen" Show like Star Trek on board as a client was great for credibility.

The Amiga was used under the radar for other takss too, on other shows. I remember a fellow sold me his sunrize 12bit soundcard, he told me how he worked on the set of Cheers recording on set audio directly into an Amiga 3000. He was able to multitask and cut the audio on set where his competitors couldn't touch him in terms of speed.

Told me how the stars were amazed how he was able to clean up the onset vocal audio so well.

Wasn't unitl the late 90's that pc's caught up (in his opinion) for this one special task. He told me there were no latency issues or lag with the Amiga, where the PC wasn't able to reliably handle the task... Until then (late 90's) he hadn't thought about replacing his 3000.

Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: Vlabguy1 on December 13, 2008, 05:45:08 AM
I disagree ..If they really wanted to drive it home that the graphics look dated then they should have said
"the graphics look like they were made on a Atari"..hehehe..

now that would have really sent the message home.

Rich
ny



Quote

Crom00 wrote:
What they're trying to say is that the graphics look dated.
And using a computer made by a manufacturer that went out of buisness 14 years ago as an example of dated graphics is good way to do it...

if the statment read "The graphics look like they were made on a Mac" That would not have driven then point across becuase you can actually buy a new Mac, in a real store (not ebay).

I'd still rather have produced 3d graphcis on lightwave 3.5 on my A2000 then Strata studio on a mac, any day...

But I can garuntee the person who penned that review hasn't used either.
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: Crom00 on December 13, 2008, 07:42:10 AM
Quote

Vlabguy1 wrote:
I disagree ..If they really wanted to drive it home that the graphics look dated then they should have said
"the graphics look like they were made on a Atari"..hehehe..



Quote



LOL! Yep, but as we're aware, some folks like to bash the Amiga. Atari has a soft spot with pop culture...

"The graphics look like they were made on an Atari2600"

was always a good jab when dissing graphics.
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: Trev on December 13, 2008, 08:06:56 AM
Doesn't look too bad up against other recent films, e.g. Toonz Animation's horrid attempt at Dragons of Autumn Twilight. Evidence: Caramon ogling Tika's breasts. WTF? They essentially produced an animated version of "Dude, Where's My Dragonlance?" After Jackson's Lord of the Rings adaptation, though, bringing Dragonlance to the big screen looks an awful lot like an also ran. (Actually, it still does. Ralph Bakshi's animated Lord of the Rings kicks all kinds of ass, despite having to listen to "The Greatest Adventure" more times than I care to remember. Got to thank South Park for Lemmiwinks, although that was more of a Hobbit satire.) Wizards should have gone with Dragonlance when they produced the bomb that was Dungeons and Dragons.

In their defense, though, not everyone has the talent and budget of Disney/Pixar.
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: AeroMan on December 13, 2008, 09:43:22 AM
Quote

JimS wrote:
Quote

recidivist wrote:
Another remembrance,wasn't part of the later Star Trek spinoffs done with Amiga?

NOT using stock A500 I'm sure!


The first season or so of Babylon 5 was done with Lightwave on Amiga hardware. Lots of them I'd guess. ;-)



The jet fighters sequence on Goldeneye was done on the Amiga also. I think it is quite impressive, but most people would not associate that with CGI
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: dammy on December 13, 2008, 10:52:53 AM
Quote
The first season or so of Babylon 5 was done with Lightwave on Amiga hardware.


IIRC, an Amiga did the space backdrop scenes.  I think it was replaced after the first season or second season.  Still that was 1994 which was fourteen years ago.  I would highly doubt any significant studio could afford to use an Amiga today, just too slow.

Dammy
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: stefcep2 on December 13, 2008, 01:09:16 PM
i have used lightwave version 9 for PC.  man it is so complicated.  So i use lightwave 5 on Amiga under Winuae.  Fast. Easy to use, great-looking pics, what more do you want
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: foleyjo on December 13, 2008, 02:14:54 PM
Wow I just watched the trailer and am impressed that the guy things 1 amiga could do all that
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: J-Golden on December 13, 2008, 04:16:08 PM
Quote

foleyjo wrote:
Wow I just watched the trailer and am impressed that the guy things 1 amiga could do all that


Agreed.  It's isn't Pixar but it DOES look cool.

As for the reviewer, I think this is a case of a little fish trying to make a name for himself.  The film won several (5) awards and nominations around the globe!

nuff said!
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: persia on December 13, 2008, 11:17:43 PM
I think he was simply trying to say the graphics looked so 90's.  The company that produced Amiga has been dead for 15 years and he figured it was a good machine to represent the 90's genre...
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: taunusand on December 13, 2008, 11:41:17 PM
Quote

foleyjo wrote:
Wow I just watched the trailer and am impressed that the guy things 1 amiga could do all that


Where? :-D
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: T3000 on December 14, 2008, 06:24:54 AM
Critics are just that. Critics. They criticize.
A link to the article would have been nice.
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: asymetrix on December 14, 2008, 03:07:50 PM
done

Reagen Sulewski article on boxofficeprophets.com

Quote strats from 2nd paragraph under - Advertisement -
link (http://www.boxofficeprophets.com/column/index.cfm?columnID=11176)
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: Hammer on December 16, 2008, 11:29:55 AM
Quote

orb85750 wrote:
Hey, check out this low blow against Amiga animation in the news today.  Pretty funny.

"...this week also brings us Delgo, which could be a candidate for worst film of the year. A fantasy adventure film from a studio you've never heard of, Delgo tells a story of some lizard looking thing as he goes to stop a conflict between some other strange looking creatures. Some recognizable names have been grabbed for the voice cast, including Freddie Prinze Jr., Val Kilmer, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Chris Kattan (among others), but that appears to be the extent of the budget for the film. The animation looks like something created on an Amiga and the characters themselves are pretty unattractive. All of these factors add up to a major bomb in the works, with about $2 million being probable for its first weekend."


Refer to http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/38145/135/
For less than 199 USD, Radeon HD 4850 can raytrace the Transformers movie trailers in real time.


Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: Crom00 on December 16, 2008, 03:40:39 PM
The clunky characater designs are the real crime here. Looks like something that'd be cool back in 2000/2001 when the project was started.

The character designs look like their creators weren't even sure what they were designing.
Title: Re: OK, Amiga animation is not state-of-the-art
Post by: Amiga_Nut on January 08, 2009, 07:48:24 PM
Well the Star Wars Clone Wars TV episodes look like something done with a PC in the mid 90s....so if crap looking graphics are OK for George Lucas they are certainly OK for everybody else haha