ABSTRACT
If you look through any of the personal computer magazines on sale you might be forgiven for thinking that it is now possible to create broadcastquality special effects on your desktop computer. The magazines are full of advertisements for the latest versions of image manipulation software that suggest the ease and power of such programmes. The situation is exacerbated by the hype which can surround a television science fiction series like Babylon 5. This might lead the naïve consumer to believe that the Amiga computers used to generate the special effects for Babylon 5 are the same machines that can be bought off the shelf. Both software and hardware producers have an obvious motive for promoting such myths, but the advances made in personal computing in terms of both power and speed do mean that it is possible to produce special effects similar to those used by film-makers and television producers. However, they are still a long way from the type of work stations used in the film industry, where machines such as those produced by Silicon Graphics and software such as NewTek’s LightWave 3D and AliasWavefront’s PowerAnimator dominate. While it is true that the cost of hardware continues to decrease, the software costs remain too high for most home users. For example, the new Maya software that supersedes PowerAnimator costs a minimum of £1,000 per copy per year.
