A Vote to Achim.
I am a newcomer to TD community.
Greg triggered me again when he last visit Tokyo to support Richie (Plastikman.)
For instance, please take a look at this. Enjoy!
youtube.com/kakamakura
In the last weekend I had a little struggle to setup TD077 FTE environment on both iMac(late2009) for me and MacBook(late2008, alumi) for my son, like this:
- Backing up user data and environment of Mac OS environment using TimeMachine.
- Backing up user data and environment of Win7 and delete partition of exisiting bootcamp + Win7 environment to save memory (4GB available on both Mac.)
- Recreating Mac OS partition and recovered the whole original environment using TimeMachine.
- Assigning a new partition for bootcamp + WinXP.
- Restoring user data and MS Office etc… on Win XP with the latest sp3 patches. (very time consuming)
- Downloading TD077 FTE latest build and requesting key. (no key were sent per email so I had to logged on to Derivative web site and had to push it to send key per email.)
- Tetsu (who posted some art pieces in this BBS) gave me a few pieces of .toe files. I copied it on desktop and double click them, but nothing happened. This was because Japanese Windows/Mac OS use two bytes characters which TD077 FTE does not support. I copied them under c: directory and, finally, it worked fine on the low end built-in GeForce video card with 256MB main memory shared, which apparently falls short the minimum requirements described in this BBS.
- After that, I had to solved many more small issues such as copying my iTunes libraries to WinXP environment, hooking up Apple genuine bluetooth mouse, hooking up USB type 3G wireless network adaptor, VPN setup to my office network etc … for both XP/Mac OS environments.
I had a strong drive to get my own TD077 FTE environments, so I planned and did the time-consuming procedures but I assume newcomers would say good bye in the 6 - 7th steps, or, just read minimum requirement of hardware resources and would never come back again.
I assume preparations before starting up TD077 FTE is very time-consuming and requires a bit technical backgrounds so I guess Derivative should take some notes on:
- An affordable choice of specific target machine configuration from time to time for new comers (I suppose they should be college students.)
For the target users I strongly recommend MacBook Alumi, MacBook Pro, New MacBook Air(11-13") for 2011.
It’s rumored that Sandy Bridge would be built-in for those affordable MacBook line-ups instead of GeForece, so I do hope Derivative to study OpenGL compatibilities of the new architecture by borrowing prototype from Intel and/or Apple.
The beauty of Apple is to support box, drivers, OS (incl. Windows) and related
input/output gadgets (ie. iPhone/iPad) in consistency.
Over 90% of target users of TD might use Mac/iPad as MIDI sequencer and
authoring platforms with Max/MSP and KORG iELECTRIBE/iMS-20 etc…
so I do hope Derivative should get one Apple and be prepared for. at least,
WinXP/7 on both bootcamp and VMWare fusion together with Sandy Bridge
for 2011. ideally, a port to Mac OS X would be the best but I guess it is not
realistic with the current resources.
- Write quick start-up guide with a specific target machines for beginners in details.
- Add more 5 min. Vimeo Tutorials with sample .toe/.tox files. (Visuals are better than scripting in the first place.) They should not be fake ones.
- With the limitation of resources at Derivative, I do hope ya’ll, TD advanced evangelists and enthusiasts, to post a bunch of cool & small art pieces (cos it must be running on low-end GeForce) for students togetherwith 5 min. Vimeo Tutorials with it and encourage beginners to play with for fun. This would accelerate rapid increase of the number of “critical mass (registered users).” They would carry their MacBook + TD077 FTE with small art pieces at a small party and VJ events and would rapidly let the rest of the world know the unbeatable authoring and playing tools on words-of-mouth basis.
- A half of the “mass” group want to be more creative in a few weeks.
Then, Derivative encourage them to begin with “drag & drop” things, say,
- Live video in (using built-in cam)
- Audio file load
- Image/movie file load as texture on a simple polygons/primitive
- Interactivity using mouse gesture + audio file
etc … be more 2D focused with minimum 3D in order not to scare beginners.
A vote to Achim, again.
I guess 10% out of the half of “mass” group would like to step up procedural 3D to become a big guy like Richie, then, give them pre-set 3D animation template (.toe/.tox) and encourage to hook it up with motion control device like iPhone/Touch OSC preset.
I recall, in mid-1980s, when Namco and SEGA bought a bunch of Prisms for production of Ridge-racer on a 3D focused arcade game box, we made a fake “how to make Ridge Racer” demo/tutorials for new comers.
1)Draw a spline curve
2)Copy cross section of highway along the spline curve
3)Skin it to create procedural 3D highway model
4)Place a cube primitive and add motion along the spline curve
5)After motion editing set, replace the cube with a realistic racing car model import from a 3D model libraries (we did not force customer to learn procedurism to create car/character.)
6)Fine tune a spline curve in 1). and everything changed in harmony with the beauty of procedurism.
We need a story like this to attract and tutor beginners.
Thank you for reading.