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[bamman62]

I've always though of obj as the universal export format...

[CowTail]

The Wavefront OBJ format was and still is a popular format for static meshes with limited shader information. There's virtually no polygon limit and there's no triangulation, and the UVs are preserved. Coupled with material .mtl files, it's pretty powerful for swapping between programs.

HOWEVER, the .obj format is low-level compared to .dae or .fbx. If you haven't heard of those format yet then you're behind the times and you need to start looking it up. http://www.khronos.org/collada/ and http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=8224901

What these files contain is almost everything: Geometry, Shaders and File Dependencies, animation data, etc.

You'd be able to export animations or scenes in Anim8or and import it into other 3d packages or game engines that support the format, and more than likely for the software that doesn't support it, there'd be a way to convert it (versus our current option for Anim8or which is almost non-existent).

Quote from wikipedia (regarding Collada, the same nearly applies to FBX):

COLLADA was intended originally as an intermediate format for transporting data from one digital content creation (DCC) tool to another. Applications exist to support that usage for several DCCs, including Maya (using ColladaMaya); 3ds Max (using ColladaMax); LightWave 3D (version 9.5); Maxon|Cinema 4D R11; Softimage|XSI; Side Effect's Houdini; MeshLab; SketchUp, Blender and modo. COLLADA .dae files can be used in Adobe Photoshop software since version CS3. Game engines, such as Unreal engine, have also adopted this format.

And it goes without saying that importing the format is a large bonus as well.

[bamman62]

I have heard of them, I never really thought of them as important filetypes though.

[xalener]

May I suggest volumetric fog "boxes"?

Like an object that would contain a fog effect inside it?

It would be very helpful for keeping fog in one room, or atmosphere, and anything like that.

[doctorb5]

Ok, I'll add my suggestion too . (It seems to me that this would be easy to code since most of the necessary functions are already written in the current program). How about having the ability to use a "server" version of Anim8or where you could send scenes and animations to be rendered? Here's how it would work: You could gather 3 or 4 old PC's running Windows and connect them via a cheap mini-switch to form a tiny network. Then you would start Anim8or in "server" mode on all those PC's. On your usual machine (where you do the modeling, etc.) you would start Anim8or in "client" mode and point it to the "servers". Now every time you need to render a scene or an animation, your "client" sends a copy of the file to the servers and immediately returns the control to you. The servers do the rendering in the background while you keep working on your models/scenes. When the rendering is done, your "client" gets notified and you can view the results. This would amount to a small render farm like the pros have.

If that feature is already part of Anim8or, I appologize in advance...

[thecolclough]

May I suggest volumetric fog "boxes"?

Like an object that would contain a fog effect inside it?

i really like this one

i had a similar thought a while back, just never posted it here: how about a material attribute or something, which will give your object a fog-type appearance, whatever its shape?  on reconsideration, though, it would be good if it was implemented in a way that would work in renderers other than ART, which i guess wouldn't be possible with material attributes (right?)

- colclough

[Kubajzz]

Fog that is only in a specified area can be easily done with dielectric materials! Look at the image below. There's a cube with fog inside and a gray frame to show the shape.

The fog material must be dielectric and:
IOR must be 1.0,
Transparency must be 0,
specular must be 0.

That's all. I thought I should write a tutorial about this, but it would probably be the shortest tutorial ever...

[lynn22]

I couldn't find it in the manual so here's another suggestion : short cut keys for adding extra frame(s) within the time line.

It takes 3 clicks to insert one frame and at times this can add up to a lot of clicks. I prefer to use the keyboard for repetitive actions 

[xalener]

Well, the dielectric method is good for now, but what i you want the camera inside it? (also) the volumetric fog box (can't think of any better name) can also be good for glowing objects, and solve a lot of previous creative problems for anim8ors.

[Kubajzz]

Well, the dielectric method is good for now, but what i you want the camera inside it?

You mean if it will work with the camera inside? No and yes.

If you put the camera inside a dielectric mesh, it won't work. But it will work if the camera will be inside a little "unfoggy bubble" - you have to create one more object with the same dielectric material and flipped normals. Add it to the scene, make the camera parent of this object and place it "around" the camera. Then you can move the camera into the fog and it will work.

[xalener]

That's good...

But the fog is always going to be dark.
I messed with the settings a lot and couldn't fid a way to make the "glow" effect with dieletrics.

[Kubajzz]

The fog will always have the color of the material - if you create a white or light yellow material, set transparency to 0 and make it dielectric, it should make a very light glow effect or fog...

[VBSmiles]

Ok, guess I'll add my hit-list, though sure it will blow right past Steven's eyes anyway.

First, I'd like to see what is refered to as translumanace (sp) in the attributes.
Along with this I would like to be able to add more than one attribute to a material.
Example would be translumanince AND dielectric.

While I am thinking about those 2, true light refractions,reflection, ect.(terminology ?)would be wonderful, particularly with the new dielectric.
( closest I've seen to this idea I came across by mistake by placing a bottle on a semi-mirrored table

Self illuminating objects would be very cool. Though havent yet tried playing with emissive with lower global light values.....

Visual representation of Fog values. I hate guessing, only to figure out that I'm nowhere close to what I wanted! Blocking out the scene doesn't help either

Senario: you create this mega creature from hell and render it. then decide you want to work on it more, but  realize your meshes poly count is already in the billions. Perhaps there could be a way to reduce the polys by a deturmined percentage. Something to think about if nothing else...

Give me time and I'm sure I could think of more

[VBSmiles]

You forgot something quite important

UnitDistance can do a hella job on the material all by itself.

[hihosilver]

reducing the polys by a certain percentage is available in the latest version of terranim8or currently.  That could be helpful to you VBSmiles