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Created totally with NewTek's LightWave 3D
modelling and rendering software and NewTek
Video Toasters on Amiga computers, Todd
released this video in the early 1990s, in
support of what was pretty much the only
"hit" single off his album "Second Wind." It
received very little airplay on VH-1. So
little, in fact, that most Rundgren fans have
never seen it. This video was ripped to MPEG
from a very high quality promotional VHS
tape. This video was a monumental
achievement in 3D animation for its time in
the early 1990s and it was done COMPLETELY on
affordable, personal computers. Todd actually
used a stack of ten Amigas (because it would
have taken forever to render this many frames
of 3D animation on a single machine).. and
was sneakernetting SCSI hard drives between
them since Commodore, Amiga's maker, would
not provide him with networking hardware to
make the rendering of the thousands of frames
in this video easier. He did most of the 3D
object modelling and animation scene plotting
himself. So he's not just a singer /
songwriter, but a VERY talented artist and
computer wizard too. He originally intended
the video to be 100% 3D rendering but Warner
Bros. insisted that he appear in it, so he
filmed himself in front of a black backdrop
and then overlayed the film of him singing
the song onto various 3D objects in the final
rendering (the leaf, the sailboat's sail and
so on.. again, all done with NewTek Toasters
in Amiga computers. Amiga World, IDG's former
Amiga magazine, ran a feature story in one of
their final issues about how Todd created
this video. The Amigas were literally stacked
up on his dining room table. NewTek still
sells LightWave 3D but no longer supports the
Amiga, which is, sadly, an orphaned computer
platform. But this video shows what Amiga
computers could do and is an absolutely
gorgeous example of what a very talented
artist and singer/composer could do with 3D
rendering software on personal computers.
Damn good song too.
Later that year, Todd gave a two hour speech
at, of all places, JPL in Pasadena, CA. to an
SRO crowd at the local SIGGRAPH chapter
meeting, showed the video and explained how
he had made it. (I was in the audience..) ..
That speech was later sold on VHS tape. I
have a copy, but it runs over two hours so
it's way too long to digitize and upload.
Enjoy.
Tags : Todd Rundgren Change Myself LightWave 3D NewTek Amiga |
