Page 83 of 92 FirstFirst ... 73798081828384858687 ... LastLast
Results 821 to 830 of 914

Thread: CYGN-B

  1. #821
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Posts
    581

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by ronhip View Post
    Choreographics was the "mass produced" (a few 10's of units) computer that was the successor to the "Sage" graphics engine used only in the studio. Sage was the successor to the DYNADIG card in the console which was the successor of the DOG card, though all these devices had functions not included in their progeny.

    Choreographics consisted of a nubus-based Mac (we used a Mac IIsi at Morrison Planetarium), a nubus card, and the Choreographics software. The software was queued from a SMPTE track on the ADAT tape players. Choreographics handled basic 2D and 3D animation in real time. Imagery was NOT stored on tape, but was generated live. It was shockingly reliable, so kudos to the team at LII!

    The system on eBay, though rather high priced, is one of these systems plus what looks to be a home-grown ILDA projector (~2 watt RGB). It might be difficult keeping it alive because you'd have to keep it supplied with nubus machines as they lived out their natural lives, and that would be increasingly difficult.

    I do have copies of the Choreographics software, manual, and all the imagery files I could grab on short visits to LII in LA. Should I post the manual for those interested?

    Ron
    The significance of what you just said escaped me the first time I read your post. Yes, if possible, please. I would find the manual very interesting. Triumph of the archive!
    Last edited by Greg; 07-19-2023 at 18:03.

  2. #822
    Join Date
    Feb 2015
    Location
    San Francisco
    Posts
    184

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Greg View Post
    The significance of what you just said escaped me the first time I read your post. Yes, if possible, please. I would find the manual very interesting. Triumph of the archive!

    Well then, Here you go. The Choreographics manual.

    Enjoy!

    Ron

  3. #823
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Posts
    581

    Default

    I looked through the manual, but didn't notice anything that suggested a powerful 3d cycloid generator. Choreographics looks to me like it is about vector art entry, sequencing, and synchronization. The only mention of cycloids I saw was in the attached figure illustrating some other functions. The attached image is from sail away, video viewable on line courtesy of Ron, I believe. Any guesses what was used for the 3d cycloids such as this around the time of Moonrock?
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails choreographics_mention_of_cycloid.png  

    sail_away.jpg  


  4. #824
    Join Date
    Feb 2015
    Location
    San Francisco
    Posts
    184

    Default

    Greg,

    Those grids were probably produced using the SAGE system (a 68000 based computer if I'm not mistaken...) Jon R. was the last to have those hardware remnants, unless they also went to Lumalaser.

    Choreographics did have the ability (if I remember correctly) to warp things like that flat grid around a sphere, cylinder, and cones, and to take flat artwork and rotate them around X, Y, and Z axes (with perspective and distance dimming), so while it MAY not have had the ability to have 3D shapes as basic figures it COULD rotate flat art and SIMULATE 3D art. My memory is fuzzy (it's been 25 years since I sat at the console!) and I don't have time to read the manual right now (working on a couple presentations for the Exploratorium and my Youtube channel...).

    Ron

  5. #825
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Posts
    581

    Default

    Today I had an opportunity following a setup for a show, to record a few bits of ILDA frame based content that was the last laser related work I did prior to my meeting Brian and Ron here on PL.

    lasermaster1977 discussed in another thread recently the formula for an animated analog talking mouth. In the second segment of the video:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiXl6y9mp6Q

    I tried my hand at the analog mouth effect in the robot conversation from The Planets by Tomita. All the imagery in the video except the Vision On logo is cycloids. Attached is my cycloid map for the telephone and the sailboat.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails telephone.jpg  

    VisonOn_2.jpg  

    VisonOn.jpg  

    cycloid_maps.png  


  6. #826
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Colorado USA
    Posts
    793

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Greg View Post
    Today I had an opportunity following a setup for a show, to record a few bits of ILDA frame based content that was the last laser related work I did prior to my meeting Brian and Ron here on PL.

    I tried my hand at the analog mouth effect in the robot conversation from The Planets by Tomita. All the imagery in the video except the Vision On logo is cycloids. Attached is my cycloid map for the telephone and the sailboat.
    Nice "map" representations, Greg! The telephone handset is a new one to me, nice.
    ________________________________
    Everything depends on everything else

  7. #827
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Posts
    581

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by lasermaster1977 View Post
    Nice "map" representations, Greg! The telephone handset is a new one to me, nice.
    The encouragement is appreciated. May I offer a few pages of my ground zero to navigating the domain of cycloids? I notice that the ratios involved in the cycloids in one of the two forms presented are much easer for a human to distinguish that when presented in the other form.

    Also, here is a wobbling bubble and water droplet, and a snap of some interleaved dogloids and spirals.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails spirals_dogloids_interleave.jpg  

    cycloids_page_6_wobble_bubble_pop.png  

    cycloids_page_5.png  

    cycloids_page_4.png  

    cycloids_page_3.png  

    cycloids_page_2.png  

    cycloids_page_1.png  


  8. #828
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Colorado USA
    Posts
    793

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Greg View Post
    The encouragement is appreciated. May I offer a few pages of my ground zero to navigating the domain of cycloids? I notice that the ratios involved in the cycloids in one of the two forms presented are much easer for a human to distinguish that when presented in the other form.

    Also, here is a wobbling bubble and water droplet, and a snap of some interleaved dogloids and spirals.
    A great summary of harmonic ratios. I did the same thing back in the day but memorized them for the most part. The thing that struck me the most were how the cycloid ratios for base circle frequency vs. AM frequency were similar to music semitone ratios, plus how the sum of the ratios equaled the number of inner loops or outer petals. In the harmonographic books of the day and in the London museum of science I posted in one of my early PLF posts that had harmonograph machine examples yielded the same things.
    ________________________________
    Everything depends on everything else

  9. #829
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Posts
    581

    Default

    Two new features have been added. First, a wav file containing imagery can now be substituted on demand for the XY input signals. This bridges the emulated 6b system with other cycloid generating software such as cyc.

    Second feature: The process of iterative editing requires beginning the playback of audio files at some offset, rather that at the first frame. The experts at bela provided a needed fix for this on a dev branch, and after a long winded process of backing up, reinstalling, updating and rebuilding four belas, the laser player is now a convenient tool for creating and editing segments out of longer archived shows.

    The archived shows each require being played through eight times in order to drop in all the default image sources. This is a time consuming part of archival work, something to which I expect Ron can relate.

    Once again, much gratitude to Brian for turning over the materials to me to be restored and archived.

  10. #830
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    St. Louis, MO
    Posts
    1,199

    Default

    It's been fun to watch your progress!
    "There are painters who transform the sun into a yellow spot, but there are others who, with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun." Pablo Picasso

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •