SGI: Computer Graphics

I remember this being mentioned in some photoshop tutorial I read back in 1996-97. So, when I finally had the opportunity to pick up a piece of prepress history, I couldn't resist! (forget my complaint about the amount of software postings in the creative category, for now )



Showing an 3500 x 2500 image, running on an 195mhz Indigo w/640mb ram. On the top left you have the raster-tools, vector tools on the bottom. On the right you have the basic navigator, chainable colour correction (showing the "curves" part) and image layers. On top of the image you can also see multiple densitometers showing the before/after values of the curves-correction. A very nice feature, as actually applying the correction will be rather slow on an Indigo2 w/10MBs SCSI...

It supports both TIF and PSD files, but always converts them to the .cvw format before displaying them proper. This is also somewhat slow (again)... but it supports dual (or more ) procs, if you have them... Painting/navigating is actually pretty fast, up to about 22mpx.

Should you find this for sale you'll need a license, locked to the exact CD version and hostid of the workstation. In other words, you'll need the whole original package... Completist should also look for the brush and colour-accelerator boards.. Lesser souls might want to search the "usual suspects" for the media (let's leave it at that).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barco_creator for the detail obsessed... (like me! hehe!)

It'd be interesting to hear from someone who actually used this in the 90s... Like with the Discreet systems, it seems you had to take training classes to get to know it inside out. Tips and tricks would be appreciated!

so that's the infamous barco creator! thanks for showing.
"image manipulation" is so fuzzy a description - is it a decent paint software like photoshop or more of a bunch of color correction tools? i can't spot a palette, brush editor or other painting goodies, that's why i'm asking...

Well it has a decent brush module, though I mostly use it for making mattes/applying corrections with a brush... not exactly painting!

(The matte was inverted in the conversion process... don't ask me why!)



Notice how you can tear off the menus, and place them on your workspace. Also notice the "snap to grid" function of the palettes.. (made for the neurotic in all of us! ).

You can use different brushes and brush textures, or simply create your own.. most settings seem customisable. You can "even" see a dual brush outline with the center/falloff (unlike Photoshop 3!). The "1" "2" "3" etc. simply represent temporary settings, same for the pan-box.

To get a cleaner workspace you'd just hit Ctrl-F9 for fullscreen and TAB to remove all the tools... also known as "guru mode" in PS .

I've been reading through the 200+ page manual for the last couple of days... practicing it will have to wait for a bad-weather day, though... I'll see if I can post some actual tips then, rather than just eye candy!

cool, a real classic.
could you comapre it with studiopaint?

Could you resize the pictures? Thank you!

meh, lack of brush size preview is really a bad joke in PS3. good to hear that barco got it right. what does creator offer in terms of undo-levels? and does it feature something similar to those "i-couldn't-live-without" PS layer blend styles?
the lack of those pisses me off in studiopaint endlessly.

Never used this software but used to use Contex Eclipse 3.1 now Aevermann Eclipse....

You can download the Irix demo at

http://www.aevermann.de/index.php?modul ... nfo&meid=2

Gary

I tried the Eclipse demo, but found it very unintuitive compared to PS et al.

As for undo-levels, I haven't found them yet. Well; actually there is a feature advertised as "unlimited undo", but it's basically a glorified "save". You have to start it manually, and then it only remembers that -one- state. It's not completely useless, but for painting it probably would be. The config file speaks of cache size etc., maybe I'm missing something there.

And no, there aren't any layer blending-modes (if that's what you meant). There might be something equivalent, but I wouldn't know where to look, yet. I'm curious as to what you use blending modes for, though. I only use the "colour" mode for doing despill when the background lighting is too harsh, and that's it.

As for comparing Creator to StudioPaint, I wouldn't really know as I've never used the latter. They are obviously targeted at completely different markets; a Creator workstation would typically be connected to a printing press, while SP was used mostly in connection with PA/Maya for motion pictures or automotive design (or so it seems). If you need stuff like Pantone colours or want to optimize ink usage, I guess your only choice is Creator. If your target is JPG for the web, I'm not sure..

Maybe someone here could expand the Wiki-article on StudioPaint?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alias_StudioPaint

And while I'm at it; you might want to contribute to the articles on;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avid_Matador
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linotype-Hell_DaVinci
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalim_Tango

luchford wrote: I tried the Eclipse demo, but found it very unintuitive compared to PS et al.

Eclipse was also used in prepress, however it helps if you have the training course in order to be able to work out just how to use it!

I can tell you that it can do the same things that Barco Creator can do.

Did you get your system off Ebay? I remember seeing a Barco Creator system on Ebay a few months ago.


Gary

I used the system in the 90s along with quantel paintbox When running my own retouching company years later it was a must have despite the fact I was a photoshop fan and beta tester. I had it first on an Indy and then the windows version on a 4 processor SGI 540 - worst mistake I ever made was getting rid of it. The warp tools ate second to none Even if I only used it once a year I wish I still had it

So I installed version 7.2

But how do I launch this application???

EDIT: The executables are in /bg/gen/local/com/
./cre7_2

well it does not like my TIFFs:


It doesn't read any of my TIF-files...

Barco is an interesting company. Always a nice touch when your computer monitor has an hour counter like an airplane :)

I worked with Barco software and hardware at a few different companies. It was always client/server with the server being huge DEC VMS refrigerator sized multiprocessor giants and the clients being SGI workstations with special video cards and accelerator cards and huge beautiful Barco monitors. I'll dig up some photos if anyone wants to see. Sometimes the files were stored on yet another server often a huge AIX machine. We also used a NeXT cube with a huge gray scale monitor only to preview PostScript images, it had no other function in the shop.

When you started work you would log into the server and push X for the application you want to run. These were rock solid systems and did amazing work. The vector art system we used was developed for GIS data and had no problems dealing with the huge documents we were working on. Macs would crash trying to open them.

I really enjoyed working in these high end environments and got out just as windows was starting to appear there.

webweave wrote: I worked with Barco software and hardware at a few different companies. It was always client/server with the server being huge DEC VMS refrigerator sized multiprocessor giants and the clients being SGI workstations with special video cards and accelerator cards and huge beautiful Barco monitors. I'll dig up some photos if anyone wants to see. Sometimes the files were stored on yet another server often a huge AIX machine. We also used a NeXT cube with a huge gray scale monitor only to preview PostScript images, it had no other function in the shop.

When you started work you would log into the server and push X for the application you want to run. These were rock solid systems and did amazing work. The vector art system we used was developed for GIS data and had no problems dealing with the huge documents we were working on. Macs would crash trying to open them.

I really enjoyed working in these high end environments and got out just as windows was starting to appear there.

Wow, please share some pictures.

These photos show my office with the then brand new Mac TiBook running an early version of OSX before the shop converted.
On the desk you can see a copy of Barco STRIKE!, looks like version 2.1 Strike! is the vector art companion to Barco Creator, we just called it Brix or lwbrix.



In the second shot you can see the front of the Octane, they didn't come with video cards and this one had been upgraded to a huge Barco video card to run that huge Barco monitor, it also had one accelerator card. The Octane ran stand alone applications as this was my development/pilot system. The O2's ran client/server from the VMS server. That Octane was every bit as heavy as the monitor beside it and that isn't even the biggest monitor, just look at how sturdy my desk is, it was made for hardware like this! The down side was I had to get someone to help if I needed to move it, did SGI make these things from cast iron? I think I've got a Duke Nukem window open on the Octane.

Octane with a Barco Calibrator screen -- cool! I have never seen that before! Thanks for digging these photos out/ scanning them and upload!

But hey: now we have got an expert here so how to open a tiff file with Creator then? *grin* I always get the aforementioned "error submitting job"

Thanks, the photos are from 2002 and were some of the earliest I had in iPhoto so they were taken with a digital camera, it says a Kodak digital camera but I don't remember, I was documenting the shop before some renovations and just happened to snap them.

You can't open anything? I don't remember the little details but they weren't too friendly to differing formats, you had to stick pretty close to the book with these. Try to save the same file with many different settings and see if you can get one open. If not you're likely missing some libraries or links.

I got a friend who I gave all my Barco stuff to when we shut down, he's built quite the Barco Graphic museum so he might have an idea. He ran a couple of Barco Rotogravure shops.

He recommends the same thing I did, "do other tiffs work? do other formats work (EPS, non-layered PSDs)?"

I tried several TIFFs from different sources - no success at all.

But I'm gonna try both EPS- and Photoshop 2.5 formats: perhaps that will work..

Thanks for the advice!

Do you know anyone who has service information for the Reference Calibrator?
I have one that was unfortunately damaged by a noisy RGB input, and now reports "Malfunction: ELT Down".

ELT: Extra Low Voltage?? I don't know. It could also be "Limit Threshold" or something.