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In article <59728@mimsy.umd.edu> folta@cs.umd.edu (Wayne Folta) writes:

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   From: folta@cs.umd.edu (Wayne Folta)
   Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
   Date: 18 Aug 92 00:09:54 GMT
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   > Also, alphamaps are now used which I know nothing about, so don't ask me.

   I believe ID 2.0 supports an Alpha channel, which is like the Red/Green/Blue
   channels that give an object color, except that it provides transparency.

   For example, say you rendering an animation of a flying logo as it zoomed
   across a static background. You could render the background once and save it
   off, then render the logo with no background, saving a lot of time. The Alpha
   channel would let you then merge the two. You couldn't simply assume that, say,
   black in the logo corresponded to empty background, since the logo could
   contain black. (Background-color is not the same as Empty.)

   Another use for Alpha would be to render a building and then insert it into
   different location photographs.
   -- 


   Wayne Folta          (folta@cs.umd.edu  128.8.128.8)

Exactly right.  It's also significant to note that anti-aliasing information
generated by Infini-D 2.0 is stored in the alpha channel, so that when you
paste a rendered image in a program like PhotoShop, the image will not only
appear smooth around the edges, the edges will actually blend with whatever
you paste the image onto.

2.0 can also use alpha channel information in pictures that are imported into
the program, which allows you to create some very nice composed surfaces.

Finally, the original poster stated in his review that Infini-D 2.0 is not a
spline-based modeler.  While this is true in the strictest sense (shapes are
not represented internally as splines by Infini-D), version 2.0 can use splines
(bezier curves, in particular) to create 3D models, either by importing them
as Illustrator or FreeHand format EPS, or by subscribing to them directly from
either Illustrator or FreeHand.  I think that the subscribe option is
particularly appealing, because it lets you use the very well implemented
bezier-editing tools in FreeHand or Illustrator, rather than having
yet-another-non-standard-bezier-curve-tool in Infini-D.  Of course, I
implemented the EPS features in 2.0, so I'm biased... :-)

								-Peter
--
/-------------------- Peter E. Lee, Software Conductor ----------------------\
|                       Specular International, Inc.                         |
|                    lee@cs.umass.edu or (413) 256-1329                      |
\-------- Beauty is 24 bits deep, plus eight bits of alpha channel ----------/