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Electric Image Animation SystemThe Electric Image Animation System (EIAS; also known for a time as Universe) is a 3D computer graphics package published by EI Technology Group. It currently runs on the Mac OS X, Windows, and Solaris platforms. History When it debuted in the early 1990s on the Macintosh platform, it was lauded for its exceptionally fast rendering engine and crisp image quality (especially suited to "hard," "industrial," or otherwise non-organic models and scenes). Because it was capable of film-quality output on commodity hardware, EIAS was popular in the movie and television industries throughout the decade. However, EIAS stagnated in the late 1990s and so lost market share to competitors such as Alias|Wavefront's (now Alias Systems) Maya, Avid's Softimage XSI, Newtek's Lightwave, and discreet's 3D Studio Max. The situation became worse when Play Inc. purchased Electric Image, Inc. in November of 1998 and allowed EIAS to further stagnate, developing only relatively minor updates. On September 19, 2000, Electric Image, Inc. again became an independent company after a management buy-out led by Dwight Parscale, together with original Electric Image founders Markus Houy and Jay Roth. The company reintroduced EIAS as a package called Universe and sought to recapture the package's former dominance, but by this time studios which had previously been EIAS strongholds—notably Industrial Light & Magic—had by then mostly moved on to Softimage|XSI, Maya, and other competitors. However, small groups in several companies continue to take advantage of EIAS, especially for certain scenes with which its renderer works particularly well. Universe was developed up to version 5.0 before being renamed the "Electric Image Animation System," in-line with its historical name. Components The Electric Image Animation System is not a single program, but rather a suite of several programs designed to work together. Each of the primary programs handles a particular part of the production workflow: Modeler Modeler is the EIAS modeling program. Finished projects are exported in Electric Image's "FACT" file format for importing into Animator (see below). It supports ACIS modeling, "uberNURBS" (EIAS' subdivision surfaces modeling technology), LAWS (based on parametric formulas) as well as boolean operations and other modern modeling tools. Animator Animator is the EIAS animation program. It imports projects directly from Modeler in FACT format or, through Transporter (see below), other programs and allows for their animation. It is also where preparation for rendering takes place. It efficiently supports the animation of very geometrically complex projects. Camera Camera is the EIAS rendering program, known for its speed and image quality. It supports ray tracing, Phong shading, scanline rendering, antialiasing, motion blur, caustics, and other features. It supports Radiosity via an included EIAS program of the same name. Renderama Renderama/Renderama Slave is the EIAS network slave program, which allows for the rendering of a project to be distributed over a network's computers (i.e., for the formation of a render farm). It supports both single and multiprocessor computers, taking advantage of all available processors to distribute the workload. It also supports rendering across platforms (e.g., Windows, Mac OS 9, and Mac OS X). Transporter Transporter allows for the import of models and scenes from other programs, namely Lightwave Object (LWOB), Alias Object (OBJ), Autocad DXF, and 3D Studio Max files. It can also import entire Lightwave 5.5 and 5.6 scene files. This permits the usage of EIAS solely for its animation and rendering programs while relying on other programs for modeling. External links
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