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Alias|Wavefront Software

Description

ARSC has a suite of Alias|Wavefront software packages for modeling, animation, compositing, and rendering installed for use on its SGI systems.

Maya - integrated modeling, animation, rendering
Advanced Visualizer - 3D animation
Kinemation - 3D character motion
Dynamation - interactive dynamicsand animation
Composer - compositing for video and digital movies
3Design - NURBS bases 3D modeling
Model - 3D modeling
StudioPaint3D - 3D paint application
Alias Renderer - rendering
Director - centralized graphical user interface for Alias|Wavefront packages

Location

  /usr/aw

Usage

Alias|Wavefront software is installed with floating run-time licenses to enable system-wide access on ARSC's SGI machines. Users need to set their LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable and setup their execution environment in order to run Alias|Wavefront applications.

   local>  setenv LM_LICENSE_FILE /var/flexlm/license_server.dat:/var/flexlm/license.dat:/var/flexlm/aw_server.dat
   local>  alias tavshell "setenv AW_ENV TAV_SHELL; source ~/.AW_tav_env &"
   local>  if ($?AW_ENV) source $HOME/.AW_tav_env
   local>  source /usr/aw/COM/setup/awsetup
   local>  setenv WF_COMPOSER_TMP_DIRS /scratch

This setup procedure is best done in the user's .cshrc or .profile file.

The Director application is a graphical user interface that allows point-and-click access to the suite of Alias|Wavefront applications. To run Director:

   local>  director

Individual applications can be run from the Director interface by double clicking on the application icons.

It is also advisable to set up a project hierarchy when using Alias|Wavefront sofware. Projects are defined by the ProjectSetup > Directories menu item from the Director application. Use the default subdirectories and name your project, for example, projectName. This will set up a directory heirarchy that will allow all of the Alias|Wavefront programs to access the required files for the project. If you run the programs independently, you will not be able to locate files created with one program when running another. The default project directory contents are listed below.

projectName/

scenes/
objects/
cad/
images/
lights/
textures/
shaders/
atmospheres/
traj/
cfg/
colors.mtl

To run a program using data from a project, first click on the appropriate project in the Projects window.

Features

state-of-the-art modeling, rendering and animation capabilities
images can be rendered directly to Betacam-SP videotape (Composer)

More Information

Online Help: Each Alias|Wavefront package has an online help facility available throught the GUI (pull down menus).
WWW Site: Alias|Wavefront maintains a corporate web site: http://www.alias.com/
Usenet News: comp.graphics.apps.alias, comp.graphics.apps.wavefront
Hardcopy Documentation: Alias|Wavefront manuals are located in the ARSC Library, room 105 of the WRRB on the UAF campus.
Contact User Support.
Vendor Information

Alias|Wavefront, Inc.
210 King Street East
Toronto, Ontario
Canada, M5A 1J7
Toll Free: 800-447-2542
Fax: 416-369-6140
Phone: 416-362-9181
WWW: http://www.alias.com/

Arctic Region Supercomputing Center
PO Box 756020, Fairbanks, AK 99775 | voice: 907-450-8600 | email: