I need a new computer! (a pic, questions and a little bragging)

[ZombieNixon]

Well, not a new computer in the sense of "to replace this one," but more of a *second* computer in the sense of "in addition to this one." Why? you ask. Well, I submit to you this picture:



Looks good, no? Yes, yes, very good. My foray into real character animation, not the half-assed crap I did for class. That is one of 121 frames of a four-second walk cycle animation. Four seconds doesn't sound like much, until you start to render the full thing.

Currently, after three hours, it has completed four (4) frames of one hundred twenty-one (121). This means I have an ETA for this clip of THREE DAYS. THREE (3) DAYS (that is seventy-two (72) hours) for a FOUR (4) SECOND CLIP!! During this time, I cannot shut down the machine and my computing power is basically limited to word processing and posting on DU. Anything else will skyrocket the time until the rendering finishes. x(

Oh, by the way, did I mention that I'm doing this to build a portfolio, which will require a number of completed movies of at least a minute in length, meaning I'll have to do at least fifteen more clips like this one. Fortunately, not all of them will have so much stuff in the background, but some might have more. I need a machine I can set to render and then come back to a finished product days later.

Final verdict: I need a second computer. And a file server. I would dearly like to get my hands on one of the new Intel Macs, and I seem to remember that some people here have bought one for themselves, so...are they good? Also, how are they with running older applications (OS 9 things like resource editors that you can't find anymore)? And...is the dual core processing notably faster? Do most application that ran on the Motorola chips run well on the Intel chips or do you have to get upgrades/patches? And price, of course. It could be a while before I get one, so I might end up getting a refurb from the Apple store.

That is all. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Lounge.

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. Her boobs look fake...

:hide:

[miss_american_pie]

2. and lopsided

:hide:

[ZombieNixon]

5. I think that's because of the camera angle.

Which I still don't get given that characters are all constructed with automatic symmetry. It's a problem I've run into repeatedly and is rather frustrating. x( Oh, well, though. If I have a new computer I won't have to sacrifice good modelling for time constraints. :hi:

[Xipe Totec]

3. And the body shapes are kind of odd too...

:rofl:

[ZombieNixon]

4. Well, so is her face.

And his feet.

And...everything.

;)

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. They look cute together though!

:)

[RevolutionaryActs]

6. That's because Nix is lonely.

So very lonely. :evilfrown:


:evilgrin: :rofl:



He kill me now.
:hide:

[ScreamingMeemie]

7. ...and Rev is silly...

so very, very silly... :hug:

[Deja Q]

9. They look bigger than his...

and it looks like he ain't got none... :wow: :rofl:

[politicat]

10. to answer the questions:

Intel macs are great. They don't seem to have too many problems running older software (mine's doing just fine).

The dual core is NOTABLY faster, but max out the RAM. We benchmarked computing pi to a million places on my G4 1 GHz with 1 GB RAM with this one (2.0 GHz dual core with 2 GB RAM) and it was about 140% faster.

Are you looking for desktop or laptop? We do only laptops these days because I hate getting tied to a desk.