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ANIMATION TOOLWORKS' LUNCHBOX SYNC
Sometimes in your search for the most powerful and easy-to-use
animation tools, you come across familiar reliable titles, and
that's precisely what happened to me with LunchBox Sync. If you
know how to operate a VCR, then you can master using all the LunchBox
tools and features in less than 30 minutes. I just hooked the
LunchBox to a simple video color camera mounted on an animation
stand and to a VCR with S Video input and immediatly began to
create a pencil test. Adding and deleting frames to get the desired
pace in your animation is quite simple. Since most traditional
animators are familiar with pencil tests, they can easily work
on this portable technological wonder. In addition, it cuts down
a few of the steps involved in pencil test creation and offers
more control for animators. You can store up to five minutes of
single frames or 11 minutes of two frames in a LunchBox.
Good News: If you are a beginner in traditional animation,
then you will find LunchBox Sync a great learning tool, especially
because you don't need to learn any operating systems or software.
If you use a high-end camera or VHS recorder, you may well be
on your way to creating short animation spots for local cable
or industrial video productions.
Wish List: Lower educational prices with the option of
upgrading to a commercial version of LunchBox Sync makes this
tool more affordable for younger students. The 3000N model, which
stores 5.5 minutes of animation, is priced at $2,995. Quantity
discounts are also available.
The Bottom Line: Professional animators, educators and
students of animation should consider investing in LunchBox Sync.
Web Address: www.animationtoolworks.com
Final Score: *****
Animation Magazine's Seal of Excellence
Ease of Use: *****
Ease of modification and Maintenance: *****
Power: *****
Expandability: ****
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Matrox
Parhelia
Not even in my wildest dreams could I imagine that one day I could
run 3D software on three screens simultaneously. I couldn't even
think about doing it a year ago. Now I am sitting in front of
my triple flat panel monitors, and I have 3DS Max material editor
and rendering menus on the first screen, camera view port on the
second and MAX create panel on the third. This means that I don't
have to waste a good deal of my time opening and closing menus
and view ports due to lack of screen space. Another advantage
of working on three screens is that you can really see what you're
doing. I owe this miracle to Matrox Parhelia, a $399 graphic card.
I installed the Matrox Parhelia on a Dell Precision 530, a P4
dual 2.2 with 512 Gig of RAM. The installation process was fast
and easy. Parhelia's on-screen tools help you use or change your
configurations for single, dual or triple monitors. I used Parhelia
with 3DSMAX 5, Adobe Photoshop 7, AfterEffects 5.5, Softimage
XSI and Avid XpressDV 3.5. When it comes to 3D animation packages,
Parhelia may not be as fast as some high-end graphic cards on
the market, but its performance comes pretty close. Parhelia has
no competitor when it comes to dealing with non-linear video editing.
Running XpressDV 3.5. with Parhelia, I expanded my timeline on
two monitors, kept all the needed menus open and used the third
screen for a full-screen video display. Before Parhelia, I had
to quality check the DVD's using a DVD player, but Parhelia matches
the quality and the performance of consumer DVD players.
Good News: Parhelia allows you to use any combinations
of analog and digital monitors as well as having a NTSC or PAL
display for your third monitor. A driver for 3DS MAX could render
the MAX animation to a video monitor.
Wish List: Matrox should come up with Parhelia drivers
for Alias/Wavefront Maya in the near future.
The Bottom Line: Matrox Parhelia with 128 MB of RAM and
powerful, stable drivers, is the only card in the market that
can hook up to three monitors with a combined resolution of 3840
x 1024.
Web address: www.matrox.com/mga
Final Score: *****
Animation Magazine's Seal of Excellence
Ease
of Use: *****
Ease of modification and Maintenance: *****
Power: ****
Expandability: *****
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KAYDARA'S MOTIONBUILDER
What keeps traditional animators from using their valuable knowledge
to create digital character animation is the sophistication of
the 3D character animation tools and their steep learning curve.
Kaydara's MOTIONBUILDER 4.0 could be a useful solution to this
problem. MOTIONBUILDER follows a logical process, and once you
spend enough time to learn its operational methods you won't need
to refer to its help files anymore.
Setting up the character skeletons (a real pain in most of the
3D packages) is automated in MOTIONBUILDER. It's only a matter
of dragging the actor tool and dropping it over your 3D character
in the view port. The real time 3D view port of MB allows you
to animate your character by using the character control tools
and view the results as you go on animating. This means you don't
have play the guessing game as you sit and wait for your animation
scene to render. MB character tools are very intelligent, and
when you get to the animation process by using either IK or FK
the results are quite realistic. Using MB, I re-targeted the poses
from one character to the others. What makes me admire MB is the
fact that it allows you to deal with all the processes and steps
of character animation visually.
Good News: MOTIONBUILDER is a complete character animation
package; therefore, it comes with powerful facial animation and
lip syncing tools.
Wish List: I wish Kaydara could reduce the price of the
MOTIONBUILDER ($3495Éouch!) in order to make it more affordable
to independent animators.
The Bottom Line: Kaydara MOTIONBUILDER supports all the
major 3D animation packages: Our tests for sending files back
and forth between MB and Softimage XSI, 3DS MAX, Light Wave 3D
and Maya went quite smoothly. Animators should definitely give
MOTIONBUILDER a spin.
Web Address: www.kaydara.com
Final Score: *****
Animation Magazine's Seal of Excellence
Ease of Use: ****
Interface: *****
Power of Tools: *****
Quality and Depth: *****
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