Flashback 1995-1996

#1

Back in the mid 1990’s the computer animation industry was going through a massive expansion phase. Electric Image was in its prime and was producing imagery that was far ahead for its time. I still possess a number of the old “Image Electric” disks that were published and sent out to all EI users to help promote the package and highlight what users were doing with EI.

I’m going to start by posting some images from the Image Electric disk #3. These images were created around 1995 by some of the pioneers of the EI community. They may or may not be with us any more, but their work should seen for all to appreciate. All credits for these images are posted on each individual picture and copyrights belong to each individual artist.

I’ll be posting additional images from Image Electric disks #4 and #5 in the near future.

#2

Additional pictures.

#3

Additional images

#4

Hmm 1995.

Do you remember the Intel Inside Flying Logo Ad,

Rendered on a Mac in EIAS :wink:

#5

Cool stuff !, all this was before my time, thanks for sharing :slight_smile:

#6

I wonder how EI was used in the Pegasus Prime game production, was EI modeler around in 95-96 ?

Reuben

#7

This reminds me how sad it is that Jim Ludtke’s no longer with us.

The work seems unbelieveably impressive, given what desktop computers were capable of at the time. I had a state-of-the-art PowerMac which ran at a blistering 120 MHz: one-twentieth of the processing capacity of one of the two CPUs in my current dual 2.5 G5.

As I recall, we spent a LOT of time looking at the little “watch” icon back then.

GM

#8

Hi Ruben,

Hmm… my memory isn’t so great… but I think maybe like '98 for Modeler. Someone else jump in and correct me. Form*Z was kind of the default modelers folks were using at the time.

It is amazing the stuff that was produced. And, they looked really great in that glossy EI product packet they sent out. They don’t look nearly as great on my screen… though maybe I’m just being nostalgic. Still, the quality is superb and what really sold me on EIAS (and the fact that I could approach it myself).

Here is one of my images that I did in the mid - late 90’s… long before ray-tracing or any of the fancy stuff we have today. In fact, I did this within about 2 months of starting with EI and little previous 3D experience. It was one of the first serious things I did with the package.
Mid - Late 90’s images by me…

-Steve

#9

Steve, i remember looking at those images around the time i started with EI (v3), i didn’t think they were that old !

Reuben

#10

I’ve still got some promotional material from when I ran the Boston Electric Image User’s Group way back in the day. If you want anything from The Image Electric #2 then sing out and let me know. And then there’s that cool flip book that EI produced…

It’s hard to believe that it was 12 years ago that I got my seat of version 2 to run on an 8100AV.

#11

Hmm… I’ll have to try and figure out some way to date it. It was done in v2.8 (a month or two after it was released) as far as I can remember. It was modeled in Ashlar’s Vellum Solids** (models are mine as well) as part of a large architectural project. If you look around my site, you will see that lamp on the side of the overall house models. It was more of a challenge to myself at the time, but also before I learned I didn’t need that much detail in a larger scene… LOL. (that house scene, if memory serves, was between 2 and 3 million polys).

**Side note that I now use CSi’s Concepts Unlimited for modeling (Concepts 3D should be fine for most 3D users). Long story, but as far as I’m concerned, it is the true successor to Vellum Solids (Ashlar retains their branch of the product line… but CSi is the originator).

-Steve

#12

Hunting out all the old versions in the office i found that the our first copy that came complete with Modeler was 2.9 in 1999.

Interestingly, and just to remind us of how great Play were, page 1 line one of the Modeler manual has a grammar mistake.

!!
Ian

#13

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