Accelerate Your Mac! Review of Infini-D 4.5 by Bill Reising

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Accelerate Your Mac!
3D Corner
Review by Bill Reising
7/24/98


	XLR8YOURMAC.COM

	Review of Infini-D 4.5

	By: Bill Reising

		Introduction

Infini-D 4.5 is MetaCreations' second release of Infini-D since acquiring Specular International. The release is full of new features and UI tweaks. However, the bug fixes and speed improvements are the main focus of the upgrade. The 4.0 and 4.0.1 releases by MetaCreations left many users cold because they were slow and buggy due to the addition of so many new features and a new UI. Version 4.5 on the other hand has precious few bugs and is very fast, making it the penultimate upgrade for Infini-D users.

MetaCreations says Infini-D is geared towards Video professionals looking to add 3D to their projects. However this is more a response to separating MetaCreations' 2, 3D applications, Ray-Dream and Infini-D, than one to Infini-D's capabilities. The only thing that is preventing Infini-D from becoming a real contender with the top 3D programs is the lack of NURBS style modeling and Inverse Kinematics, the two features necessary for good character animation. Infini-D also lacks true Boolean modeling, the process used to 'carve' space out of an object. If Infini-D were to get these essential features, it would be in line with applications such as Electric Image and Lightwave, but at a significantly lower price and with a dramatically superior UI. As it is, Infini-D is a solid, easy to understand and use application that will fulfill most users 3D needs.

The best example of what Infini-D is capable of is BIM. BIM, which stands for "Big Infini-D Movie" and is located at http://www.eatel.net/~ipc1/BIM, is a collection of 2-4 second shorts done by users of Infini-D. Each segment is different, but each one segues into the next creating one long movie. Each person takes the last frames of the previous movie to start their own movie. The important thing about BIM is how it started and is maintained. Infini-D has a strong following of dedicated, intelligent and helpful users. There are several Infini-D forums, but many users congregate on the Infini-D mailing list located on the University of Arkansas servers at LISTSERV@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU. This list is a perfect example of why mailing lists were created. It is a civil forum where lots of questions are asked and all are answered. I have had many previously unsolvable problems solved in no time by members of this list. This is the kind of online resource that makes or breaks a project.


	Modeling

When first launched, Infini-D presents you with the 4 views of your scene (figure 2). This is the area where the arranging of scenes and animations is done. The 4 views are TOP, RIGHT, LEFT and CAMERA. You can add BOTTOM and extra CAMERAS if you like. This arrangement lends itself very well to the assembly of simple as well as very complex models. It is about the most intuitive basic interface you could possibly have for a 3D application. The bar at the top gives you access to basic shapes and commands. The pallet on the left side is a tabbed inspector for all aspects of an object, light, particle system, or window characteristics. In fact, this pallet controls every aspect of an object except position and actual shape. Position is controlled by actually moving the object in one of the windows or by entering values in a floating pallet at the bottom of the screen and object shape is edited in one of the workshops.

Infini-D has two methods of modeling, spline based and vertex based. A spline-based model can be turned into a vertex model, but a vertex model cannot be turned into a spline model. Both methods have their distinct advantages and disadvantages. However, most modeling is done in the spline form workshop (figure 3). A spline form is an object defined by cross-sections and outlines. The spiral in figure 3 is a simple circle extruded along a spiral path. Defining a profile and spinning that profile around its center axis creates a wineglass.

Infini-D 4.0 brought about the vertex modeler (figure 4). You enter this workshop by converting an object into a mesh object, which defines the object with polygons. You can then push or pull those polygons' points. This is how you create organic objects in Infini-D 4.5.




	Figure 3 - Spline Workshop


	Rendering


		Figure 2 - Main Windows



	Figure 4 - Vertex Workshop

Infini-D 4.5 has a very nice rendering setup interface. Once your scene or animation is all set up you select all of the rendering option in one tabbed window (figure 5). Infini-D has the usual assortment of rendering options, shading, Phong, Ray-Trace, Quickdraw 3D. Phong shading received the most attention in 4.5. It is significantly faster that previous versions and is adaptive, meaning it will Ray-Trace those objects that need reflections or transparency. For the moment, Phong produces better results than Ray-Trace. This is due to one bug in the Ray-Tracer that produces jaggy lines, even on High Anti-Alias renders. However, this will hopefully be fixed in an update soon.

Once your rendering options are set in the Rendering Window, Infini-D sends the render off to a mini-application that does the rendering while giving you statistics on the render. This is significant because this is also how Infini-D deals with network renders. The Infini-D 4.5 CD-ROM, which by the way has both the Macintosh and Windows version, has the network render engine on it. All you have to do is buy serial numbers from MetaCreations, install the engines on your other Macs (Windows can't do network renders yet) and render away. Infini-D splits each frame up and sends different pieces to different engines to be reassembled later




	Figure 5 - Render Setup


	Animation

	Animation is controlled from the Sequencer (figure 6). Each object has it's own line and it's position, rotation, surface color, size, anything that can change, is controlled by event markers. If a ball needs to move from one side of the screen to the other, its first position is set at frame one then the world marker is moved to frame 60. This signals that Infini-D is 'at' frame 60, the ball moved to its new location and Infini-D fills in the rest. The objects velocity can be tweaked in a window selected from the object menu. The Sequencer is very intuitive, but limited when working with complex models in large scenes. Infini-D has no way to link objects other than a simple hierarchy with constraints on rotation and position. Having to work with each object can get tedious after a while. That is the price you pay for simplicity and ease of use.

	Support




	Figure 6 - Sequencer

Infini-D ships with a good manual and a decent tutorial. MetaCreations had free tech support, but it is not a 1-800 number. They do however, have people who are very knowledgeable about Infini-D and who can answer your questions.

MetaCreations' upgrade policy is pretty standard. The 4.5 upgrade is $199 for users of pre 4.0 versions and $99 for 4.0 users. Buying Direct from MetaCreations is both very easy and very fast.

There are also many online support resources. The Infini-D Resource Page, located a http://www.zutroy.com/Infini-D, is a great place to start if you are looking for tutorials, models or textures. There are also some awesome Tutorials by Mike Nibeck at www.wwug.com/site/articles/articles_nibeck.html. These include the best tutorial for using Infini-D's cool particle systems to create believable fire available, www.wwug.com/site/articles/nibeck_mike/nibeck7/flames.html. The ListServe that was mentioned above is the best place to get specific questions answered very quickly.


	Conclusion

	Infini-D is not a perfect program. There are many features that I would like to see added, such as a more precise way of applying texture maps to an object, and it would be nice to see MetaCreations incorporate it into the MetaCreations World of 3D products. What Infini-D really needs is a plug-in architecture to allow for the addition of support for more file formats and "High-End" features. However, Infini-D is one of the best examples of what a well though out interface can do for a type of application that many people find complicated and confusing. Infini-D is a program that you can actually use to learn 3D. It presents 3D modeling and animation in a way that might not be the most conducive to rapid development, but is conducive to learning and understanding. You will figure out what you want to do in Infini-D. Precious little of the program is tucked away in arcane windows and modal dialogs. Add to that the fantastic online community and you have an application that anyone can use, understand and enjoy.
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