Show us your set up.

hello. Here is my current windows machine screengrab from the desktop. Not exactly "set up" per se, , but its somethin. When I get a chance, I can take pictures of the AV booth that I "work" at at church, a 2 cam live broadcasting station. Anyway, here is a wip view of my desktop sofar, updates to come.
[image=http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/4935/osxsetup1zg9.jpg]
Bruce

 

It takes alot of patience to build a model to look "clean". It's very easy to want to rush through so that you can display it, but it usually ends up looking bad. I am currently building a TIE fighter, and if I was really sloppy with it, I could probably have it built inside a day, but I am taking my time with it, so that it will look nice.

 

Ha! I did that for quite a few months before I got my first Mac In fact, I may have posted it in this very thread, feel free to take a trip down memory lane (have to go back two years).

 

Hey, making a model look clean, well, imho, simple, you follow the instructions.
Pixel magic, also, yes, your model rocks the house and yes, the same as makin movies, you must have patience with model building!!!

But the main thing is to add the wear and tear. One thing I have learned from years of building models is if you take water based black paint, Literally brush it over a portion of your model at a time, so it doesnt dry too quickly, and take soft toilet paper, get it wet, squeeze to your dezire, and wipe away the black water based paint gently, you will leave the black paint in all the nooks and cranny's giving your model an extremely good used universe look. Thats the hard part, adding wear and tear to your model kits so they actually look dated. Painting clean is easy.

Then, with a hard brush, dip it into some silver, and sporadically stroke the side of the brush along the hard edges to give a paint chip effect to it. Makes it VERY photo real if you can do it right, and only takes a few minutes!!!

I am gonna make a video tutorial for detail painting that anybody can do within a few hours for the cost of a $3.00

But overall, your model is VERY nice.

Also, I am gonna put up a tutorial on how to build a model from scratch outta various cardboard that will rival any $40 or $50 model kit revel will sell you.

Back on topic, I am currently trying to download a dual monitor driver for my computers edit bay.

But look for the detail model VT on here. I think I will use the Enterprise as a base platform so you can see what you can do from scratch for only half the price.

 

If anyone happens to want to sell an LCD monitor to me for a decent price, I'm interested. Seeing as how you guys are constantly updating your setups and all.

 

Well, they seem to be. All I get to do is dream about it. I only have a dual-monitor setup because my g/f's mom had a spare in her basement she wasn't using for anything.

Hardly top of the line.

-Vaportrail

 

My friend just picked up a 24" Soyo from Office Max for $300 today (on sale until Saturday). Not too shabby either, but I don't know if I'd recommend it for someone needing to do lots of color correction, like many o' folk around here. I told my dad he should get one, but as usual, he said I should buy it for him...sometimes it's annoying making more money than my parents (income:bills ratio that is)

 

The picture: Crimsus One

The stats:
Operating System: Windows XP Pro x64 Edition
Case: Thermaltake Eureka Silver
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz
CPU Heatsink: ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition
Memory: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Video: Two eVGA 7950GT 512MB KO in SLI-Mode
Power Supply: Thermaltake W0131RU ATX12V / EPS12V 850W Power Supply
Storage: Four WD Cavier 160GB 7200RPM HDD in RAID5
Sound: SoundBlaster Xtreme-Music
Monitor: Samsung 226BW 22" Widescreen LCD
Color Calibrator: Spyder 2 Suite

That's the meat and potatoe's of the hardware. I wanted to post the stats the way I did so if someone is interested in building a system they can get an idea of what works well. This system had no problems when I built it and it is still running strong. None of it is overclocked (OC'ing ain't worth it in my opinion).

It will run anything you throw at it. I can pull off 55fps in Battlefield 2/2142 with details turned up full blast using 1680x1050 resolution. 3DS Max and AE suffer a little bit but that's only because the cards I'm using aren't geared towards post-pro, just mostly gaming. They still do a nice job though.

And here's the most important detail: The total cost to build the system was $1642.31!

-Crimsus

 

Nice system. Would rather use the money for an imac and a camera, but hey, whatever works.

So here is a picture of the live broadcasting mixer I use at church.
[image=http://www.beelectronicgroup.biz/uploads/20050927102800_440v.jpg]
Inputs:
2 cameras (Sony DSR-PDX10)
1 dvd player
Computer(for words, ect)

The mixer I use is the V-440HD Mixer.

Outputs:
DVD/HDD/DV recorder(with firewire out, when I use my laptop)
VHS Recorder
Sanctuary projectors(if I ever need to show what I am mixing to the people in the main sanctuary)
Fellowship Hall projector(the main reason for this, an extra room since we dont have enough space for everyone, what I mix directly goes to them

And here is a picture from the setup(the monitors on the left are the two cameras, the third is the final preview monitor

[image=http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g308/brucem91/mixer_setup.jpg]

Bruce

 

Ahhh, Church-goers's donations hard at work

 

Well, as a product of a "series of unfortunate events", my current workstation has now said thank you and good bye. As this happened, it will mean a lack of video tutorials in the near future, but enough pimping. Here's the current system I've ordered, as well as the salvaged parts. (sorry crimsus for stealing your list setup)

The stats:
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate x64 OEM Edition
Case: Thermaltake Kandalf Black (salvaged)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4GHz)
CPU Heatsink: Stock
Motherboard: Asus Maximus Formula X38, Socket 775
Memory: TwinMOS DDR2 Twister PC6400 4096MB KIT (Got two of these, so I'll have an 8GB total)
Video: Two XFX GeForce 8800GT XXX Alpha Dog Edition in SLI-Mode
Power Supply: NorthQ Giant Reactor, 1000W
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 7200, 500GB SATA2, Seagate Barracuda 7200, 160GB ATA, Seagate Barracuda 7200, 300GB ATA
Sound: SoundBlaster X-FI Fatal1ty Pro (Salvaged)
Monitor: Samsung 226BW 22" Widescreen LCD (Recently bought, I'll be keeping it)


New system seems to be a good one, but time will tell. I went with the 64bit version of vista instead of xp because I'm already buying such a powerful system, I see no reason to use the old XP, as it will phase out pretty soon, and Vista ain't too bad, if you've got powerful enough hardware.

I couldn't get a QuadroFX card here, so I decided to run two 88GT's in SLi mode instead, and I know it's got nothing on the QFX, but it just might be as close as it gets, without having to spend $2000 on GFX card alone.

Total cost of new parts comes to a smashing $2000, but this is including a Broadband router and a copy of Vista Ultimate 64 OEM.

Any comments on this?
Pictures will be posted once I get the system set up properly.

EDIT: typos :/

 

I highly suggest that if you're going with Vista (personally I'd wait another year) that you go with a retail version. Microsoft tech support does not support OEM copies of their OS and the OEM, regardless of who it is, will have very little Vista training and will be of no help whatsoever. This is from a guy who did Windows 95 and 98 tech support for 3 years and then went on to do Dell Dimension PC tech support... me. At Dell if your Dell OEM copy of Windows was hosed... so were you. Dell only supports clean reinstalls that format your HD.

 

I've used Vista for two months already, and I don't need tech support Should something go wrong, I just format. That's what I always do. Just make sure to have the OS on a separate partition.

 

I don't call tech support either but... if it weren't for the fact that I have the corporate version of XP Pro I would have had to call tech support every time I changed out 2 or more pieces of hardware (lame) because of the activation key crap. Yes I know there's a workaround to that but it's a hassle. Thus why I have the corporate edition. Also I am not fond of formatting (too much data to backup to any other medium). I can do a clean install without formatting to the same directory Windows WAS in without formatting.

 

I'm Ok with Vista, I like how I can replace a windows installation on a drive without loosing data (although that means copying the previous windows' folders to a new directory which wastes space). But it does have bugs. Recently mine crashed for no good reason, it just kept restarting and then gave a registry corruption error so I had to reinstall. Plus for some reason it doesn't like my IDE hard drives and sometimes those would disappear, plus the games soon to become buggy, and Itunes stopped burning CD's. But when I first installed it everything worked fine.

Good setup though Vidina, those Graphics cards might not be tops, but I've heard lots of good things about the new 8800GT's. And you've got lots of power. Which reminds me, the memory I have in my computer right now is 2 sticks of 2GB and it went down in price a lot so now it's only like $100 so I can max out my RAM for just a little bit of money and it should help a lot.

 

These day's you need it. Sad as it is church's need to use technology to the fullest if they don't want declining attendance, let alone trying to grow a church. I wish I had more time, if I did I would love to work for my church's crew, their set up is extraordinary. They have a giant sound booth next to a full fledged tv production studio backstage. I wish I had a picture. You could see a little bit of the final product at the end of the video on the main page here.

Ok maybe a shameless plug, but I can never resist. And yes I know it's the message that count's and my chruch has really got that down with great leadership. The whole philosophy is to make everything relevant to people today to reach them for Christ.

 

hey, since we're on the topic of live mixers, could someone mind telling me where this is on the mixer hierarchy?
[image=http://www.creativevideo.co.uk/public/product_images/altimage/30%2005%202007ross_synergy100_1.jpg]
I don't really know much about mixers and I was curious about how good/bad ours is. BTW, this is the one we have at school.

Thanks guys and nice set-ups!

 

I posted this in the social thread, but I might aswell post it here.
I have plans to buy a new set up. I am on a very tight and limited budget, which is on aproximately $640. I have picked out a few parts here. So tell me, is this a good enough set up for film and Vfx? The links are linked to pictures.

Case: Cooler Master Centurion 534
Motherboard: Asus M2A-VM HDMI, AMD 690G+SB600, HDMI, Socket-AM2,m-ATX,DDR2,Firewire,PCI-Ex16
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ 2.1GHz Socket AM2 1MB, BOXED
RAM: Crucial DDR2 PC5300 2048MB CL5 Kit w/two matched DDR2 PC5300 1024MB CL5
Graphics card: EVGA GeForce 8500GT 256MB DDR2, PCI-Express, DVI/Tv-Out/HDCP
PSU: NorthQ 4001EXT, Silent ATX 400W, 140mm Fan, 12-17dBA, 2xSATA, PCI-E, 20/24pin
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB IDE ATA/100 16MB 7200RPM

I already have an external DVD-rom so I don't need an internal one yet.

 

Get yourself a cheap-ass case instead of the Centurion and use the money to upgrade that proc or get a much better, full-size mobo.
That mATX one you chose only has 2 SATA ports, which isn't nearly enough.
And you could go for a much cheaper Video Card if you aren't going to game. (Not that an 8500GT will let you game anyway)
That money could also go toward one of the two things i mentioned above.

Also, It'd be great if you could have posted the link to the specs of some of that stuff instead of just pictures. (Some of us are lazy you know!)

EDIT:

Oops, I just looked up that mobo, and I guess it actually does have 4 SATA ports, my bad.

 

Thanks for the tips. Yeah, I never game on PC anyway. And sorry for not posting links to the specs, but the specs are all in norwegian. So unless you understand that And, I'll look into some other cheaper cases.

 

I gave you a similiar response as well. I neglected to see it was Micro ATX, good catch on that one.

 

Ha, I just replied to it

 

I WANT YOUR GRAPHICS CARD!
I'm stuck with a 7300, which isn't all to bad, but isn't good enough for me + Gears Of War.

 

I WANT YOUR GRAPHICS CARD!
I'm stuck with a 7300, which isn't all to bad, but isn't good enough for me + Gears Of War.
[/quote]
So, a 8500 you notice, but my 2x 8800GT's just slip right past you?

 

Man... I still haven't taken pictures of mine since it was completed. I'll have to get around to it... sometime.