WHAT IS IGOR?

The Short Version

Igor™ is a computer animation and three-dimensional modeling program

IgorImage™ is an image manipulation program.

Igor™ lets you construct and manipulate moving shapes in real time, on the web. Igor's almost-patented (pending) mathematical approach lets you make 3D models in sleek little files which are easy to create and use on a desktop computer.

Igor™ and IgorImage™ exist to make life easier for artisits, animators, game designers, modelers, and math teachers. They were spawned by a collision of art, mathematics, and computer science that could only be the product of the sort of minds that would name a program after a mad scientist's lab assistant.

Igor™ and IgorImage™ are available for Macintosh computers with the OS X 10.5 or later operating system. Other versions are under development.

The Long Version

Igor is a multiuse 3D computer animation and modeling and mathematical modeling program written by Richard Garfinkle. It's artisanal software.

What's special about Igor?

Igor uses a wholly new approach to the creation, control, and transformation of computer models in order to create animations and games that are nearly impossible from a conventional approach. At its technical roots, Igor uses mathematical functions for every aspect of modeling, coloration, and movement, efficiently and elegantly. Igor files are minuscule compared to other computer modeling programs.

Artistically, Igor is more like painting -- an art practiced in large strokes producing broad effects -- than conventional animation, which more resembles drawing in its point-by-point focus. Yet Igor produces finely detailed shapes that are completely mobile and transformable in nearly any fashion imaginable.

Igor easily and simply generates shapes using functions which can be changed at every level . Every part of an Igor model is always accessible. Files are small and fast-loading, so no part of them ever needs to be discarded to save space. You can always reach into any part of an Igor model.

Because of the ability to reach inside and transform all Igor models, Igor naturally lends itself to animation using the ideas and principles of puppetry. In Igor, models can be controlled by a combination of automated scipts and hands-inside puppetry that allows animators to be as close to their work as they need to be. This same ability allows Igor-based games to give unparalleled control to the players.

Igor models can be employed inside Igor or exported in DXF format for use in conventional animations, although the model once exported will lose all the Igor-only capabilities. The speed of modeling in Igor makes it a valauble tool for conventional animation.

At the moment Igor is available for Macintosh computers with the OS X 10.5 or later operating system. Other versions are under development.

WHAT IS IGORIMAGE?

™

IgorImage is an image manipulation program which uses the same underlying software as Igor to apply mathematical principles to flat images. It has all of the optical properties and functions from Igor with more specialized, image-oriented features.

With IgorImage you can take any digital image and manipulate every aspect of color, shading, transparency, etc. in a myriad of useful and occasionally mad ways. The underlying numbers that make up digital images are easy for IgorImage to twist and distort for your amusement. In constructing new images, you can layer and combine images, changing each part individually.

IgorImage is excellent with pre-existing images. It also has the capacity to generate new images using the same underlying functions that Igor uses to create shapes and the opticals that color those shapes. Images so created easily combine in a myriad of ways with preexisting images.

IgorImage pictures can be used in Igor, and Igor optics can be used in IgorImage. IgorImage's image manipulation tools are more sophisticated than Igor's, so even if you have Igor there are advanges in having IgorImage as well.

Plus it's a lot of fun.

At the moment IgorImage is available for Macintosh computers with the OS X 10.5 or later operating system. Other versions are under development.