Conference hydra::amiga_v1

1561.0. "Forms in Flight from M Magic" by ANT::JANZEN (Tom 296-5421 LMO2/O23) Mon Jul 25 1988 13:29

I bought Forms in Flight at Software Shop for $62 including tax.  That makes it
$120 cheaper than the two leading animation programs.  So it doesn't do as much.
It is not my impression that it can save IFF files, but maybe it does.  I has
no varying surfaces; everything looks like back-lit plastic.  It has no
capability of making good spheres or cylinders.  It can make a 2D curve
(spline through 3 points) but rotating this around makes a chunky surface,
not a smooth one, around the equator.  It can extrude and rotate to build
3-D images.  You can draw equalateral or freehand polygons, or the spline.
It has an alphabet library (simple letters UC and LC, and numbers) and
a space shuttle.
That's it.  That's all the drawing capability.  No freehand curves, no
real painting.  You can color the objects you make; you can look at them
wireframe, or you can look at them in red/blue stereo, which is pretty
effective, but no glasses are provided (I had some from LTX, a chip tester
maker, who had them for a convention exhibit).  Only wire frame is available
for stereo.  I don't remember whether stereo can be animated.
It can color the background.  It can have chunky shading from ca. 8 
positionable light sources.  All light sources are white.  It does not 
cast shadows.  You can have screens of 2,4,8,16 colors, and 32 for animation.

Animation: Objects can be defined in heirarchal trees.  They can
rotate, roll, turn, move along lines.  You can also move the camera.
That's it.  This is not for animating
subtly changing drawings, such as free-hand drawings of a horse galloping:
forget it.  However, I made a nice rotating sign (like a Shell sign)
for local cable tv.  That's why it's called Forms in Flight and not
Forms Alive.  One good point: it does store the calculated images
on a disk unnattended, and can play them back.  My little sign could
spin around pretty fast in real time (40 pictures, about 1/second, but
according to the program I was using about 20 frames/second, so I guess
that's skipping stuff).  I was using 16 colors.  I guess it uses the
blitter.  Playing the animation is done with FastFlight, which can
be distributed with your animations so they can be viewed.

This program does not seem capable of making the juggling clown by
any stretch of the imagination.
I don't think it knows about HAM.  It's on about the level of that 20-year
old Scientific American article on computer graphics.
I don't think it'll run out of my DF1:.  I don't think the backup will
run, but I could try again.  The docs didn't say it was protected.
I don't know whether to recommend it.  Depends on your money/expectations.
Tom

    Wow Tom,
    Congratulations,
    	That was about the most restrained negative review of a product
    I've ever seen.
 
    If I found the program to be even more limited than the dollar value
    I paid then I guess I would be kicking & screaming. Then again S/W
    is an inordinant part of the Amiga budget here 
    (i.e US Vendor Profit + Shipping + Duty + Australian Vendor Profit
    	+ Australian retailer profit = TOO EXPENSIVE!!!!)
    You ought to see the cost when Commodore here distribute it, and
    their supposed to be on our-side.
    
	John,
    Who sometimes wishes we were the 52nd State so I get cheap S/W

    Micro Magic sent me a letter, as I am a registered Forms-in-Flight
    user, anouncing an improved version , F-I-F 2.  The upgrade is $25
    (tax in CA).  The suggested retail is now $119.
    
    Features:
    Surface patches (smoothing facets)
    Spline Curves
    Phong shading (smooth shading on curves)
    Texture mapping (from IFF)
    Save as IFF
    Fast Flight 2 player program
    Library objects
    Hierarchical animations using paths
    UNDO
    Extrusions 
    copy
    move camera
    IFF fore/back grounds
    overscan/pal support
    1 to 4 views at the same time
    2d/3d modes
    snap
    axes visible on screen
    .
    Note that FIF is numerically exact if you want, or freehand.
    The demo is $8, full-featured but with limited complexity for objects.

    Maybe I'll get it.  I have made a rotating sign (like a Shell gas
    station sign) for a local cable TV outlet.  The amiga played it in 
    real time.  But I am not an artist
    and haven't used it much since.  Also, remember that FIF doesn't
    seem to do organically shape-changing animation, just moving objects,
    but it does that pretty well.
        Tom