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GENERAL FORUM GUIDELINES
The A:M Forum is for technical support and the sharing of tips and ideas between users/prospective users of Hash software. It is moderated constantly by technical support representatives.
DO'S!
-Ask questions about the software.
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-Share resources; tutorials, models, textures, tips and techniques (link to useful websites).
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User Led Forum Considerations
Firstly and foremostly, please remember this is Martin Hash's forum and that it is every A:M User's primary resource for information about A:M. In order to remain relevant we need everyone's continuing support and interest.
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Related to the second, is purchasing, customer service and other areas outside the purview of the common user who may have no interest in such things; subjects relating to money exchanging hands are beyond the scope of the A:M Forum and often can lead to conflicts of interest between users and/or Hash Inc. (If Hash Inc cuts you a deal on volume purchasing it's really no one else's business). Likewise, individual complaints about a product or service are best remedied by going direct with Hash Inc representatives empowered to make decisions. Please allow them them the time necessary to resolve your specific issue and consider the cost of customized solutions.
This last area is likely the source of much confusion because many see the A:M Forum as the official outlet for Hash Inc... and it is. But the forum is not designed for conducting business and private matters best resolved by going to Hash Inc directly. Similarly, bug reports are best resolved by entering them directly into the A:M Reporting system.
Many problems can be easily addressed at the user level just by asking fellow users in the forum. If someone at Hash Inc suggests the forum as a source, it is very likely a problem can be easily resolved. For tougher issues there is even more reason to take the issue directly to the source... you don't want the issue discussed... you want it resolved quickly.
Finally, remember that we want to pass this forum on to future moderators and generations of A:M Users in the absolute best condition possible. A:M is just that good a program and is worthy of our consideration.
Thanks for making the A:M Forum a great community.
4,155 topics in this forum
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- 4 replies
- 1.3k views
So , lets suppose the big bad gods took away all your own characters and you were left with choosing only one library actor. Who would it be? I am asking because I am still working on learning modeling and do hope hope to create my own characters someday but in the meantime I need to also work on learning animation techniques and just wondered what some of your thoughts would be on that. Thanks.
Last reply by Vertexspline, -
- 1 follower
- 9 replies
- 2.1k views
I found these on Safe Harbor ,was just wondering if anyone has bought them or have heard anything about them be it good or bad.
Last reply by livewiresrus, -
- 16 replies
- 3.6k views
Hey everyone. I read that it is possible to run more than one instance for a second render if you have more than one core on your processor. How can you do this without slowwing down the other render? If I simply open the program twice and run the same render, the second render is much slower and seems to bog the firstdown too.....SO I figure there must be some other method of opening the software......OR is that just how it works. Are all renders(3-4) slower than just running 1 single render. That seems to defeat a multi-instance render. How do you set this up properly on a multi-core Vista or XP machine?? William
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 1 follower
- 8 replies
- 1.3k views
Im new to all of this and everthing im working with is old v12 and all old tutorials,im hoping to scrape up the money to get $79 sub,and should I (since im just learning) better off getting the newest version or is most of the program the same ,and if i get to know v12 ill still know whats going on in v16.In a nutshell what has changed or is that too much to get into with me just starting out?Are there alot of plugins that were separate from A:M now a part of A:M and does set up machine still work in the newer versions,if you could point me in the right direction I would be very grateful.
Last reply by mouseman, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 1k views
You know how we flatten models in a pose so that we can evenly distribute the decal. Well I cant remember how you actually apply the decal after you flatten the model in the pose.
Last reply by Vertexspline, -
- 1 follower
- 10 replies
- 768 views
SO I got my 2 new computers. I own AM V16 both Web and CD. I cant get AM to launch at all. I coppied my master lic but no help. I put in the code from the cd but no help. I also can not run the messengers for net render. Any ideas?
Last reply by jason1025, -
- 10 replies
- 1.2k views
Casting shadow but not seeing the object. I need to make an object cast a shadow but it need to be invisible. I did it in the past for composite scene but I am overlooking something.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 3 replies
- 645 views
Hi, I'm trying to do a rack focus and I keep getting these bubbles around the objects. In the example image I've uploaded, thats suppose to be an X Wing Fighter! You can see the X Wing but these bubbles appear around it. I've set up the render in the options panel to "Use Settings From the Camera." I've tried to turn on and off motion blur, Reflections, and shadows. Anyone else have this difficulty?
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 871 views
Fluid Is it me or is there no mention of the settings in the tech ref?
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 1 follower
- 6 replies
- 606 views
In the tools tips Curved mode by selecting an object and hitting c or shift c. I cant find out what it does. Cant find it in the tech ref.
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 15 replies
- 1k views
Hello ,new to the forum and fairly new to A:M i boughta copy on ebay v12 looking for plugins mainly sweeper for now ,found a place to download it but i dont have a key # to activate it,wish i had v13 i guess its part on A:M now.Can anyone help me out?
Last reply by livewiresrus, -
- 3 replies
- 469 views
I am hitting the "render to screen" button (the one immediately to the left of the render lock button) and am not getting any output to the screen - it renders like it normally does but then never shows the image on the screen. Render lock seems to work normally. Anyone have any ideas what may be going on?
Last reply by mouseman, -
- 3 replies
- 541 views
I remember a discussion recently about using bias handles; I think this post (Straighten a spline ring) was part of what I was thinking, but I vaguely remember there being more discussion on bias handles recently. Anyways, I'm starting to come to the conclusion that if I'm making a lot of bias handle changes, especially involving increase of the magnitude, the real problem is that I don't have enough geometry (splines and CPs) to support the structure that the model needs. For example, if I have rings of 4-CPs on the arms and am changing the bias handles to make them the right shape, I probably need 6- or 8-CP spline rings for the arm. Would you agree or disagr…
Last reply by mouseman, -
- 1 follower
- 1 reply
- 596 views
What exactly does the World Space button do? I pressed it but didn't notice anything happen.
Last reply by jason1025, -
- 15 replies
- 1.6k views
Hello and here is my scenario: I have developed MANY detailed models in A.M., V15 - that I want to have plastic Injection Molds made from. The Models are to Exact Scale because threaded Inserts will be needed and holes will need to be lined up and they need to interact with other components in the "Industry Standard" size. I am trying to convert one of the many files with little success. My Problems: 1. AM's MDL files are not supported except in Wings 3d (Old version). 2. When I export the model into a *.OBJ or *.DXF File - I lose my curved surfaces. I must have curved surfaces (I thought DXF supported that? No? How do Autocad users get their smooth model…
Last reply by Wildsided, -
- 4 replies
- 653 views
I may just be trying to run too many things simultaneously but I don't recall experiencing this before. When I start a render and then open another window (such as for browsing the forum) A:M appears to stop rendering and waits until I return to start rendering again. Looking closer, the renderer doesn't seem to be completely stopping but seems to slow down considerably. I'd guess I've told Windows somewhere to give the active window full priority but... not sure where and when I would have set that. Any leads will be appreciated.
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 5 replies
- 766 views
Hello, Have a spline ring selected and some of the points on that ring are not as even as I would like them to be. Tried selecting the whole ring and then setting Y and Z values to 0 in the Properties for the Y and Z translate values, but that doesn't seem to have done anything. Did I do something wrong? I guess it is not critical that they be perfect, I can eyeball them and get something acceptable but it seems like there should be a better way to do this.
Last reply by Roger, -
- 12 replies
- 1.1k views
I tried searching the forum but decided the quickest way was to just post a question. I'm doing a second Simcloth skirt on my dancing girl (some new steps), just resaved the chor with the original skirt animated and deleted the splines folder. But when I go to do the simulation, her skirt just falls through the floor. I know this has been brought up (probably by me!) but I can't find an answer and I recollect that it was a simple fix. EDIT: Got the skirt to stay attached but now the simulation isn't happening. The skirt stays rigid. Awhile back I downloaded and watched the video tute on cloth made from a scene in TWO, however I lost it when my external drive went bel…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 7 replies
- 604 views
I was making my archery bow and had some materials applied. When I opened my project today, the materials were still in the PWS but non of them are showing up on the bow?!?!?!? I made a new project just to see if they worked there and they did. Not really sure what got changed to where non of the materials are visible on my model. Thoughts?
Last reply by thumperness, -
- 2 replies
- 631 views
I have put a character on a path every moves fine but the arms. In my action window arms move but not in the choreograph. What am I doing wrong. Thanks.
Last reply by Kimberly, -
- 1 follower
- 20 replies
- 1.5k views
So as I am gradually tinkering with more and more aspects of AM , the idea of starting to focus all my work towards a project idea has come to the forefront. If there is one single thing that I have learned here is planning is so important. It is just such a huge time saver. (what surprised me more than anything was the need to plan modeling) Anyhow, so when you guys are working on a relatively small project (say 30 -60 secs) do you keep everything in one project file? All the different scenes and chors kept and saved in the one project? I guess I was wondering if there are any issues with AM bogging down if you start having…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 2 replies
- 595 views
i'm working with a modified Gala. did something to her hair, it suddenly displayed double layers intricately woven into the geometry. decided that the fastest way to solve this was to make new hair model from the original Gala by deleting all but the hair. dragged the new hair model onto Gala v. 6 in a model window, styled it and of course it didn't work. in chor, the hair model now trails 20 cms behind Gala 5cms to the side. due to many versions, opened the original to compare with current Gala, both are positioned the same. opened current new hair model to compare its position to hair placement on original and current Gala, no problems. …
Last reply by dblhelix, -
- 4 replies
- 788 views
Hey guys, got hired to do a custom 3D deep fryer basket for a patent application. I'm rendering the final model and I noticed that the camera (as camera's will do) is sort of warping the edges of the model. The further out from the center of the camera lens the more the perspective changes slightly. Is there any way to get a flat perspective so I can render this model like it was a drawing on a piece of paper? Any help is as always much appreciated. You probably know what I mean but image attached just the same.
Last reply by Rob_T, -
- 3 replies
- 547 views
Campaign for a less wild transit. tapir. also means idiot or a person who disrupts traffic.
Last reply by Vertexspline, -
- 6 replies
- 753 views
I have worked through the tutorial in TAoAM on how to install the 2001 rig. and applied it to a simple model I have built. At the end of the tutorial it says " You may have to assign ~CP's to finger bones" but it doesn't explain how or where to look to find how to do that ? There is an earlier reference using the rabbit model to how to use the hand controls of the 2001 rig but I didn't see an explanation of how to assign points to the elaborate controls. I am probably missing something that is very obvious here but, could somebody point me to an explanation or tutorial on how to assign CP's to the hands in the 20001 rig ? I've got around it before …
Last reply by Simon Edmondson, -
- 4 replies
- 651 views
I have followed exercise 5 "Take a Walk" and everything works fine. I made walk action for Rabbit and then used it after creating a path for rabbit to walk on and everything was fine. I even used a 'stock' action and still everything was fine. As I experimented with actions using a path I chose a new ground (the ground that is slightly hilly that comes with AM) and then applied the path and Rabbit (as well as other actors) to the path with a walk action, his feet are in the ground and NOT on the serface of the ground. I have tried constraining rabbit to the surface of the ground; I have tried constraining the path to the ground but I cannot get rabbit to follow the path A…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 17 replies
- 1k views
So I have mastered modeling a vase (pronounced Voz) and wanted to move on to something a little more complicated. This is also somewhat of a test for me to see if I have embedded everything into my project so it can all be downloaded by you guys. There should be 2 rotoscopes and 1 spline in this project. The handle of the bow should be approx. 15cm tall/high. The question is: What would be my best approach to modeling at least the handle of this thing? I'm not necessarily looking for someone to just do it for me, but I'd like some instruction as to how to approach this thing. I'm guessing there should be some extrusion involved, but I do not have a top vi…
Last reply by thumperness, -
- 1 follower
- 2 replies
- 751 views
was there some smart solution to rendering cloth in stills? once again i know i've read something about this on a couple of occasions and now can't find anything in searches. something about preroll, how not to render animation and use the last tga, but a different solution? i'm just dreaming?
Last reply by dblhelix, -
- 7 replies
- 697 views
I'm trying to select just the points that make up the right half of the spline ring where the leg starts. However, when I do that the point right in the middle that I have circled in red keeps getting selected. If I try to deselect it, I also lose the point that is directly to the right of it. Any ideas what I am doing wrong here? I need to get my weighting identical to what it is on the other side.
Last reply by mtpeak2, -
- 3 replies
- 753 views
Hey, I had to uninstall Animation Master on my Windows 7 64 bit PC. I went through the normal windows uninstaller and then downloaded the 64 bit web subscription version of AM to reinstall. I went through the re-install with no problems but when I went to register using my same registration # I got the following error. "Bad return data from webserver (no status) (-134) "No such file or directory (error:2)" Can anyone lead me in the right direction to what this means and what I can do to get my version registered ? I know my Registration # is valid as it worked for my initial install on the same PC. Sorry if this is in the wrong forum section …
Last reply by Pinballwzd, -
- 9 replies
- 776 views
When exactly do you want to use an action? I have a bit of confusion as to when you would want to use them. I am guessing something like walk or run cycles would best be handled by an action, while blinks, winks or hand clenches could be driven by pose sliders. Am I correct in assuming that most animation you are (in general) going to want to do pose-to-pose in the choreography?
Last reply by Fuchur, -
- 3 replies
- 407 views
On my iMac, I have opened the model 'Kid.mdl' from the extras DVD and I want to save it to my hard drive so I can give him some speech pose sliders. When I right click on kid in the objects section of the PWS, I get the option to 'Save As..' I choose that and the window opens for choosing where to save it. It does not let me select ANY different location to save on my computer. Am I missing a step?
Last reply by thumperness, -
- 11 replies
- 842 views
I can quickly get overwhelmed by wanting to know how to do everything in A:M. So I have finally decided to study modeling. I am by no means an artist, but that is no reason not to know how everything works as far as splinemanship et al. This focus will also include creating phonems(sp) for speech. I have some models, from the extras DVD, with which I really want to do some lip. sinc. I guess I'll start with making my set of primatives, how to make holes in things, etc...So you are gonna see alot of examples and questions of how to do it better. I'm going back to Jeff Canton's tutorials and then moving on to whatever else I can find. I want to make frie…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 5 replies
- 485 views
Ok, so I successfully made my smartskin, but now I have a strange kink in the spline running down the middle of the neck, and also the middle spline is bulging out on the righthand side (if looking at the penguin, lefthand from the penguin's point of view). Not sure what I did that this happened, and I'm trying to figure out how to fix it. May need to delete the smartskin and redo it.
Last reply by Roger, -
- 2 replies
- 481 views
So I am working on smartskin to adjust the area where my penguins flippers connect to her body. I am selecting the torso bone and doing New > smartskin. Problem is when it jumps to the 90 degree rotation. I understand this is normal, however, I can't see the bone to move it back and it seems to *really* distort the model. Should I keep my model in shaded wireframe mode while doing this, or would just wireframe make seeing the bone easier?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 2 replies
- 512 views
So I am going through all my "pre-flight" checks (so to speak) before starting trying to animate with this thing. I was looking at the bones that make up the spine and were a little concerned that they all seemed to be rotated just a few degrees off-center of the y-axis. Is this cause for concern? I have managed to get them more or less squared up, except for one. It still looks a little off to me. I took a screen grab looking up from the bottom. The pelvis and first spine bone look absolutely square, the 2nd spine bone and head look like they are still off a little bit.
Last reply by Roger, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 869 views
Hello everyone! I have a question, does anyone why whenever I use a translate and a orient constraint object on another object in a choreography file, but once you import that choregraphy file onto another, you have to constrain the object again? Another question I have is that I just added a translate and orient contraints from an object to a hand of a character and now the objects aren't attached to the hand. is there a way I can fix them without re-constraining them? thanks, J.w.
Last reply by Gerry, -
- 7 replies
- 727 views
This is my first time dealing with dynamic constraints. I applied a few dynamic constraints, put my model into a new choreography and I was pleased to see them working as I moved my model around in preview mode. But when I moved my model into a second new choreography, the dynamic constraints stopped working. What am I doing wrong? I'm using A:M v16.0a.
Last reply by gwinkelman, -
- 8 replies
- 1.1k views
I keep seeing mention of stuff not being beveled or being beveled as if beveling were a good thing. I'm assuming that it is desired to have bevels in your models of things like buildings or boxes. I did a little searching but have not been able to find good instruction on the whys or hows. I remember seeing a tutorial somewhere that even talked about doing the bevel(s) first before the rest of the model.
Last reply by ypoissant, -
- 14 replies
- 1k views
Hello I am not really sure what the yellow dot is done at the bottom near the origin and between the feet. I wonder if it is the model bone, but it doesn't seem to have any scale to it and if I rotate around it it appears to be a singel point. It has the name of a previous project ( think I opened that project and save it with a new name) and if I right-click it and choose delete my entire penguin disappears (which leads me to think it is the model bone but I thought normally those aren't visible?). Also when it is selected all the points on the left-hand side (right if you are looking at the model) are selected. Any ideas as to what the heck this might be?
Last reply by Vertexspline, -
- 1 reply
- 499 views
Was curious to learn how many folks have found this to be a useful resource. I know it has lots of models etc but wondered how many folks use things from it or not. I was contemplating purchasing it but was not sure.
Last reply by mouseman, -
- 8 replies
- 1.4k views
Hello, I am getting very frustrated trying to figure out how to get a flag animated using SimCloth. I believe I have followed all the steps correctly but my flag keeps flying away. I tried this on my own model as well as the model in the tutorial. This is what I have done ( hope you can follow ) I created a Flag and Pole model. Created a group for attached and another for the flag. Created a bone for the mast and applied all CP to the bone. Set attached to on for the attached group ( both in Model mode and Choreography mode ) Created the Force and Turbulence as outlined in the Tutorial. Created the Spring System by selecting the flag group i…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 11 replies
- 1.5k views
I have a character model with a 24-frame walk cycle that I rendered as a .tga image sequence that I want to use as a decal on another model. How do I get the walk-cycle image sequence to repeat as a decal on the other model within a choreography?
Last reply by Gerry, -
- 9 replies
- 949 views
How I can add video clips made by camera into AM V13.0 ?
Last reply by Rodney, -
I know it's been awhile. Bruce and Ken have been helping me with a little project I've got in the works and I've been a little busy as well. I drove across America and I now live in San Diego. I'm going to school at Platt College San Diego and I'm learning Graphic Design (for an A.A.S.) and either animation or video compositing (for a B.A. which will bring my college degree count to 4). I love Animation but the siren call of After Effects is pretty hard to resist. Fortunately I'll be taking at least some of both. After that I have to decide which one I want to specialize in. I've actually shown some of the stuff I've done in A:M to some of the 3D professors an…
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
Face Camera
by JohnP- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 933 views
Where are the instructions for adding a camera to point to a model's face? The manual that comes with AM 2006 talkes about using multiple camers but I cannot find any instructions to accomplish placing a face camera. Can someone help get started or point me to a place with instructions? Thanks.
Last reply by JohnP, -
- 1 follower
- 19 replies
- 2k views
why would I want to do 1, or 2 or 4 or 7 passes?
Last reply by Vertexspline, -
- 1 reply
- 450 views
Will importing a saved model file from your local disk screw up a project, such that you get the problems with prior versions losing their changes? I thought this only happened if you saved something from the project as a model file. So I am assuming it goes the other way as well? Or am I wrong here? Because I just imported an eyeball model from the extras, it turned my entire penguin orange (not sure why but it looks like it applied the beak color to the entire body) and then when I went back a version the penguin was also orange. The version before that is ok, and I didn't lose much in the way of work but this makes things difficult. I guess I will have to…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 12 replies
- 903 views
So I am working on cleaning up the penguin - I am redoing the patch coloring after doing my CFA. Is there an easy way to choose additional adjacent patches to have the color I want, or should I just create a new group and reapply the material? The only reason I am not doing that is I have a ton of groups as it is and probably should start deleting them. I'm not even sure what some of them are. I don't know how I ended up with so many groups, it looks like they are copies of the existing groups I have (numbered 2-7).
Last reply by Roger, -
- 6 replies
- 784 views
not urgent, just curious. if doing a close-up real close up, something makes the model partly disappear. parts closest to camera just vanish. i first thought it's about the FOV tool in camera - that anything between that line and camera didn't render. but no. moving that line didn't help. then i thought maybe patches actually interfered with "camera", so i moved the camera. no change. too close was too close. i read stuff back to 2004 and found a solution, change the camera view to match another view, so you can do the pose wherever it works. (haven't tested yet.) but does anyone know what's behind all this?
Last reply by dblhelix,