[Radiance-general] animation

[Carsten Bauer]

Hi all !

I think two aspects have to be separately kept in mind concerning the
whole matter, to avoid useless work or disappointment.

The Radiance ambient treatment is somewhat awkward to handle, and I've
noticed that people without a sound scientific background have
difficulties with the overwhelming features and parameters and all the
thinking behind it, which is a pity as it appears rather often that
designers or architects are not computer specialists or scientists as
well (which shouldn't be misinterpreted now, I do not mean this as
offence, simply an observation).

On the other hand, Radiance, esp. the ambient calculation, simply is a
fantastic thing which allows to create images with superior quality
which outscore everything else. And I readily agree with the opinion
that 2D postprocessing or some other tricks and workarounds never can
replace this adequately and a more promising way is to optimize the
method within itself. Besides, lighting visualisation is a complex
matter, and it is common sense that there is no easy way for
accomplishing difficult tasks.

Of course, Radiance is aimed very much at realistic image generation,
and it would be nice to have more "artistic freedom" in using it. This
is a totally different matter. Within the first stages of a creative
progress scientific exactness does not count that much, and so all kinds
of tricks are welcome as long as they help to produce an impression,
something which can convey ideas. One may compare this to the deliberate
abstraction and individual styles employed in "old-fashioned" techniques
like oil-painting for example. And opening Radiance for these kinds of -
maybe "freaky" - applications certainly is interesting, as then all
stages of a design process could be covered in a better way as it is
possible right now. Of course it then is important to keep track of 
what is art, what is trick, what is scientifically exact, etc, so in the
end everything will be even more complex. But complexity makes life
interesting, who wants to be bored ?

-- Carsten