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This was the first animation where I tried the "Load from Scene" command. Cool! I can see how that is a super method for initially loading, checking and then re-loading lip synchronization. I also played with loading a blank motion file into an object, which was very nifty, because the result still had a ton of animation occuring from bones and metamorphosis, which are unrelated to motion files. Bones moved the "neck" and metamorphosis created lip movements. So THAT'S how they do it.

That pencil was all over the place, going through the glass and down through the desk. The "glass" renders as opaque in the Layout module, making animating the pencil's s turns and shimmies a little tricky. One solution I resorted to -- creating a half-glass, so that I could better see the pencil's position in Layout. And then replacing it for rendering with the whole one. Duh! Increasingly, if I am having trouble with an object, I just remodel and replace it. Things seem to go a lot faster.

Does anybody else out there think stereoscopic 3D is cool? LIGHTWAVE apparently does, because they include a Stereoscopic default in the camera panel for INSPIRE. If you cross your eyes for the above pair (as long as your screen is set as wide as it can go), the third image that appears in the middle will be "in 3D." The Tri-illuminati view 3D this way as easily as blink, but if you've never tried it, I would probably start with your index fingers and making the magic "floating finger" appear first.

I have to have mixed feelings about IMAX 3D personally because I haved loved strong 3D cinema so much for so long -- you put too much energy into one area, it starts to get embarrassing and a little heretical. I have put some notes on 3-D here. 3D is like color, a bundle of headaches in a magnificent bouquet; you can shoot a story with it in a straightforward way, much like the pencil examples above which would make purist stereophiles (like me) shudder, or pay attention to every brushstroke as Technicolor did. The military has apparently made a number of 3D documentaries, but until recently there have not been 3D media available to documentarists, so there isn't much of a body of work to refer to. My personal impression is that the medium DEMANDS more of its stories by virtue of its intensity. If form and content are generally NEAR balance in fine art, then the content should verge on Scripture, ways to be independently wealthy in five years, and first dates.

Do we make a cartoon because we know how to sell it to sponsors and investors and merchants, or because we feel that with God's help, we can raise the art form and benefit the lives of viewers?

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