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A:M Forum Rules
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.
-Assist other users... everyone was new at this once.
-Inform people of your version/platform when asking for help.
-Share resources; tutorials, models, textures, tips and techniques (link to useful websites).
-Post links to your work, or where your art is being used online (on websites, in games, toons', etc.)
-Search the A:M Forum and FAQ. The question you are about to ask may have already been answered.
-Organize and inform others about user groups, IRC chats, image and animation contests, job opportunities, etc.
-Discuss what you are working on and let everyone know about magazine reviews and articles that relate to your projects.
DON'TS!
-Do Not be rude or disrespectful or mean to other forum members in any way. Personal attacks will be removed.
-Do Not post bug/crash reports to the list (send bug/crash reports to http://www.hash.com/reports.
-Do Not complain about forum content. Complaints or suggestions can be sent directly to hash@hash.com
-Do Not reprimand other forum members for violating forum rules, that's the moderators job, which (unless you are a moderator) you are not.
-No complaining or whining on the forum or distribution of misinformation.
-No flames of any kind.
-No Off Topic posts. (Posts in the Off Topics section should be related to A:M in some form or fashion or benefit the A:M community as a whole).
-No soliciting of any kind without prior approval.
-No threads or comparisons related to other 3D Applications.
-No "Wish list" or feature requests, they should be sent to www.hash.com/reports for categorizing and prioritization (User requests define the future development of the software).
-No "me too!" posts
-No discussion of Hash Internal Affairs (finances, advertising, PR.)
-No posting of private email to the forum unless permission of the author is granted. (Private correspondence should remain private)
-No very general questions like: "how do I make a good 3D model" make your questions as complete and concise as possible.
If you have questions as to whether it's appropriate, send it to: support@hash.com, We'll be happy to let you know whether it is, or is not appropriate.
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.
Secondly, understand there is a distinction between A:M (the program) and the A:M forum. There are some topics and issues that are outside the scope of this forum and most can be deduced by reading through the forum guidelines. These include such things as Hash Inc internal policies, business practices, trade secrets, and specific plans for the future not yet publicly released. Each of these would be fascinating topics of their own but are better reserved for private communications with a representative of Hash Inc.
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.
4,160 topics in this forum
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- 3 replies
- 489 views
I am looking for two things, I would have expected to be simple in 3D: 1. It ocurred, that I needed an animation rendered backwards, so I thought maybe just setting in render the frames to start from frame 30 and end frame 0 for example, BUT..... that´s not accepted. 2. I just want to flip the cameraview, so that the chara doesnt run left right but right left. Thought about scaling the x value to minus something, BUT.... there is no scaling for camera. I know , both this could be done in post, but my question is, is there an easy way to do this in AM, that I have overlooked?
Last reply by jakerupert, -
- 1 follower
- 10 replies
- 781 views
ok, it seems all the tutorials here assume that EVERYONE wants to animate video games and dancing aliens... im just wanting to generate some primitive shapes - boxes lines and arrows. but need to do it with some precision and elegance... can anyone point me to some tutorials for basic modeling and not dancing bunnies???
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 5 replies
- 637 views
A small problem with hair or leaves in this case. I render the tree and the top comes in lighter then the rest of the tree. How do I fix it? Also I need to render this out as a image/decal with the background as transparency. What would be your approach?
Last reply by DJBREIT, -
- 4 replies
- 542 views
Hello I'm newbie in A:M. I'm learning the soft using the tutorials. In Take a Wlalk, my rabbit stops wlalking on the path at about 20% of the line. I see something like separate vectors in the path line.The path is a straight line builded with only two points. Where am I wrong? Rémy
Last reply by urbssenator, -
- 3 replies
- 601 views
Ich made a character, that walks with a laptop into the scene. I made it a reusable action with an action object. now I want the character to put down the laptop on a table. But if I kill the constraint that attaches the laptop to the hand, it destroys the rest of the action. how can I prevent that? I also tried to change the laptop to a real objekt in the choreography by making it transparent but it doesn't work in comic render mode. Then I tried the ON/OFF property to switch from one laptop to the other but the laptop disappeared in the previous choreography action and reappeared in the short action where the character moved the hand to the table with the Laptop still…
Last reply by Darkwing, -
- 3 replies
- 596 views
I imported an action file to a character in my chor, that is a facial action. please how can i configure my action to work with model in the chor, help me out please.
Last reply by Luuk Steitner, -
- 11 replies
- 1.5k views
so my motherboard went bad. they sent me another. i installed and all seemed to work well. i just installed the new AM update and got the error above. i saw some threads on this and did a search and there must be at 200 files with different dates. am i screwed here. do i have to re-format? mike
Last reply by Jason Simonds, -
- 3 replies
- 575 views
I've already sent emails to sales and support departments regarding this and asking for assistance, so I hope I did the right thing. I had to reinstall Windows through a partial system recovery that enabled me to keep my original installation directories, plus all the models and related files I've since created with the software. Unfortunately, although I have my original installation CD (version 13 with the Yeti), and I have the only book that shipped with the product at that time (TAoAM), I haven't been able to locate the serial number anywhere, which presumably was on a small card or piece of paper I've since lost after 4 years. I'm hoping that I at least re…
Last reply by Jason Simonds, -
- 3 replies
- 624 views
I tried to make a hand animation today but I was not able too use the fingers. I used the included model fo Eddie und switched the show hands off. After that the bones for all the fingers where shown but only one bone for each finger. How can I move every segment of the finger? I like to make an animation, where a hand sticks a plug into a socket. I have to move alle parts of the fingers to accomplish that.
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 3 replies
- 585 views
I made a simple book model and now I want to use it in an animation. I created 2 bones for both sides so I can open and close it. But now the book bones need to be constrained to rotate only in one direction - I need to prevent the bones to rotate up or down. How do I have to do that? For characters I uses the hash 2001 skeleton, where these constraints are already set. How can I create such constraints for my own? I haven't found a tutorial for that in the manual. Buch.mdl
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
- 1 follower
- 6 replies
- 771 views
While making an original character speak, I have tried creating a separate pose for each phoneme, but find that in an action the frames between one mouth pose to the next are unmanageable. My solution so far has been to create poses for phrases, each phoneme pose set at, say, increments of 5% in a percentage pose. Is there a less tedious approach that allows you to use a set of phoneme poses and animate between them smoothly?
Last reply by higginsdj, -
Help! Help!
by MJL- 6 replies
- 583 views
I made a post in another thread that consisted of this: I have a friend who wants to see the video, but isn't on the internet (Oh, the horror!) but he's not that stone-age, he has a big screen TV. I want to burn a DVD to take to him, but I need to convert the file. I have an AVS Video conversion program, but I'm not up on specs enough to know what to convert it to. Here is a shot of the settings as they are. What do I change them to for: A: A Big screen TV B: A Big Screen HD TV If there is a difference. Could one of you amazing A:M Forum Technophiles help me get a clue? Thanks Thought I'd try a fresh thread.
Last reply by Darkwing, -
- 3 replies
- 591 views
never mind. cheers!
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 7 replies
- 837 views
I have created a simple snake model, with a chain of bones in his body. When I move the model to an action window, the body of the snake is distorted. I do not have any constraints or "relationships" assigned to the bones. Can anyone help with correcting this problem? The model "baby snake" is in this project titled Kitty. kittyyyyyyy.prj
Last reply by steve392, -
- 9 replies
- 1.2k views
Hi there! Yesterday I tried the cloth tutorial. Now I had the idea to use the cloth simulation to create primitive Hair for a simple character. But the results where not appropriate. At least I do not know If i should assign the points of the hair to the head bone or if they should stay with the main bone of the character. But if I do the last thing, they won't move with the head. Any ideas? I try to attach the project file Modulvorspann2.prj
Last reply by Florian80, -
- 1 follower
- 1 reply
- 365 views
When I scale down the person model down to size to match everything else for my animation animation master either crashes or the bones don't stick to the model then a bunch of errors pop up when I try to fix it (in the choreograph window) Pirate_Animation.prj ERROR_PAGE.doc
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 5 replies
- 855 views
Hey! I'm new here, and trying to make the leap from 2D animator to 3D with A:M. So I looked around but i couldn't find a tutorial where I saw somebody build a character from scratch. I think watching someone do it with a little commentary is the best way to learn. I must have overlooked it so I hope someone can help me with this .
Last reply by Tralfaz, -
- 3 replies
- 433 views
Hello, An observation on subdivision. It seems that subdivision by 1/2, is not very compatible with the topology of AM. There are better results by 1/3. For the follow examples, I use the SplitPatch plugin that use subdivision by 1/2.(thank you Yoda for all yours plugins!) The subdivision by 1/3 has been done by hand. Some hooks can cause problems. (because it is not possible to stick more than three hooks per segments) So prefer to use the third solution.
Last reply by higginsdj, -
- 12 replies
- 2k views
Hi Everyone! I've attached the project to a certain look I'm trying to get. Also attached a jpeg as to the look I'm trying to get. Looks like reflections from the ground and sky, but I tried that and it just didn't work. Sucks being a newbie. I've tried numerous things and nothing seems to work. If anyone has time and wants to take a crack at it, please do so. You guys can use these files for anything you like. In fact, I insist. The project has the models and chor with movements already in place, just need to figure out the "glossy-reflective" look. Thanks in advance! glossy_reflections.zip
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 30 replies
- 2.4k views
Hi all, I have a weird problem: I have downloaded a demo version of AM but cannot get it started before I fill out "username" and "organisation" in a registration window that appears when I open the application. Should I register at Hash's web page somewhere first?
Last reply by Darkwing, -
- 4 replies
- 543 views
I was rendering a long set of jpeg. and A:M had a problem. The last frame rendered was 979 I would like to start the render on 980. There is nothing spacial with the animation that I need to worry about I just need to restart it where it left off.
Last reply by DJBREIT, -
- 8 replies
- 1.1k views
Hello, I'm new to A:M (Well in fact I used ist 10 years ago - but the times they are changing...) I have a very easy question but somehow I don't get it. I want to make some simple animation, with a black figure on a white ground. So the figure is black and everything around her is white. but of course I want to see the schadows of the figure. So I made a plane for the Figure to walk on answitched the camera to white background. but always is something wrong. sometimes the plane is not perfectly white, but the shadows are there or, the plane is white but the shadow disapears. I used bulbs as lights I tried also flat shaded and riecive shadows, with shadow…
Last reply by Florian80, -
- 5 replies
- 811 views
I still have problems when I combine some cctions together. For example if a character walks into a scene I can use a walk action already there. Then the character stops and does something else. For that i use the choreography action. Maybe I want to move the arm of the character. But when I change something after the other acrion there is always an animation created from the begining untill the point where i first move the charcters arm. This always distorts the walk action. What is the usual workflow when combining choreography actions with reusable actions?? I didn't get it right. Thanks for your help!
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
- 5 replies
- 654 views
I'm starting to learn the Treez plugin to make my bonsai tree for my vase. I downloaded the Treez plugin into the hxt folder in my AM folder. How do I install it into AM?
Last reply by mtpeak2, -
- 4 replies
- 623 views
I am working on the Cooper face project and am having some trouble with valid patches. I have looked over the Giraffe project and think i am starting to have a better understanding. However, I am running into a few patches that are not working and I am not sure why. If anyone can explain it would be a big help.
Last reply by Darkwing, -
- 1 follower
- 1 reply
- 398 views
This is a nice treat. Although this is live action CG has the same abilities in repeatable camera moves that we take for granted. I recommend this tutorial for anyone interested in advanced spfx. http://www.cameracontrol.com/reels.html
Last reply by jimd, -
- 3 replies
- 577 views
I cannot detect any difference between " toon with falloff" and "toon with multiple lights" tested in a chor with the default chor lights and some toonmodels. So what is the difference supposed to look like?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 reply
- 412 views
What would possibly be the best and least rendertimeexpensive way to create a rocket engines jetstream matching the TOON WITH FALLOFF? style? (I am experimenting with some glowing transparent shapes at the moment.) Lensflare,streaks maybe? Has anybody by chance final working examples for this topic? Any FX matching with toonshading would be great...
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 4 replies
- 517 views
Can someone please help? Ive been watching A:M tutorials for past few months, even read the manual online. I now have a new computer running win 7 and brand new A:M. Both 2 days old YAY! Ive used Maya and Bryce for years and dying to get into A:M now. For some reason my render Bounding Box shows solid (or last rendered pic underneath) when i drag a box. This also happens when selecting splines or points. I looked thru tools/options but couldnt find anything. I also tried running A:M in XP mode 32 bit and had same solid bounding box. Can anyone help? Thank you Michael
Last reply by mikeydee, -
- 1 follower
- 7 replies
- 1.2k views
My new computer has Microsoft VISTA. When I open the giraffe file, I either get the giraffe without the graph stage or just a white box without the giraffe. How can this be fixed?
Last reply by mikeydee, -
- 22 replies
- 1.2k views
I've been taking another run at bump maps. I made a bump stencil and put blur on it in Corel. I put it on as a bump map on the model and did a render lock on the model and it looked fine, but when I did a render to file it barely showed as a shadow trace on the surface. Is it because I have a material on the Vase? Why would it render one way in render lock and another in render to file?
Last reply by Darkwing, -
- 1 follower
- 10 replies
- 1k views
This is certainly a case of a guy who left Animation:Master for years and came back... For the record, I'm still running with Animation 2006 here - that was the version I'd upgraded to before I gave it up in despair because my old computer used to crash it. I've now upgraded to a brand new "Windows 7 Home" machine, which runs it very nicely. Anyway, to the subject of my problem. My hare Danbuster's kilt is an essential part of his quirky personality, but not to the point of absurdity I wouldn't have thought. I just tried attaching a SimCloth material to the ring-splines that make up his kilt below the belt, using the defaults from the "Waving the Flag" tutori…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 5 replies
- 587 views
Is it possible to have a light in a lightlist so that the light itself only affect one model, but still have that model cast a shadow on other objects? How would I do this?
Last reply by Marcus, -
- 2 replies
- 531 views
Hello All, I am just trying how to figure out basic light placement and adjustments. I tried downloading the tech ref manual but I can't seem to download it from its current location. Is there another place where I can download the tech ref manual from? Also, does anyone know of any basic lighting tutorials? Mark.
Last reply by Mark3D, -
CP Weighting
by TNT- 1 follower
- 6 replies
- 705 views
I just changed to AM v15i. I have the 2008 Rig partially installed but have not mirrored the bones yet. I don't have a lot of experience weighting models but I don't recall this happening before. When I weight a CP between two bones in an action, the CP is moving as I change the balance of the weighting. The two pics show the position of the CP with a 90/10 favoring the Pelvis and a 90/10 favoring the Hip. Note the position change of the CP. Is this supposed to happen? I thought that since the model was in its default pose, nothing should visually change. If I'm doing something wrong I want to fix it before I mess up my model and rigging. Thanks,
Last reply by mtpeak2, -
- 3 replies
- 586 views
I was work on coping a bunch of group pivots to there material. After two hours of mind numbing work I hit some keys and the groups I was working on had there pivots numbers copied to the materials translate. I wish I new what keys I hit because it saved me a boat load of work. If You know something about this please post.
Last reply by DJBREIT, -
- 5 replies
- 511 views
Hey Gang! I'm trying to map some Quicktime files onto the green and blue screens, but unfortunately, AM keeps crashing on me. Should I be using a certain codec? Does AM like Quicktime files with alfas? Should I use some pic sequence such as a targa instead of a Quicktime movie? Also, I wanted to add some people (green screen and keyed with alfa) onto the middle stage. Can I place them there without having to map onto a grid/wall? Can they stand alone away from the wall right up to the railing or do I have to map them onto a solid grid/wall? Thanks in advance.
Last reply by new guy, -
- 9 replies
- 686 views
I'm sure I'm probably doing something wrong here but I'm out of ideas so I thought I'd ask. I've pulled in an older model from the Extras disc as a starting point for something I want to make. While I was at it I upgraded to 15i as my 1 year is about up. Now I'm grouping CP's (and selecting them individually) and I can't get bias handles to show up (I clicked off it and back on again) or the yellow (I"m not sure this is the right term) bounding box around multiple CP's. I've tried selecting the different manipulators and that box just isn't showing up. Although, I can still move the CP's.... I just can't see the box or any of the controls that it gives me…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 4 replies
- 617 views
I read some place, that when you use let`s say 3 instances of AM to render a scene you can put the first instance to render every 1, next every second, third every third frame. Somehow it escapes me, what the great advantage of this procedure would be compared to leting the first render the first 50 frames, the second the next 50 and the third the last fifty. Is there any advantage and if what is it?
Last reply by Paul Forwood, -
- 4 replies
- 647 views
So yeah, is this model workable with or should i start from scratch again? It's not finished yet keep in mind just curious if i'm on track -the point of this model is the main character in my animation short -He's going to be a skier going through a freestyle course basically Thanks in advance for any feedback skierv3.mdl
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 0 replies
- 348 views
Is there a way to scale a light bigger especially the bone in order to get a better grip and handling on it in big chors
Last reply by jakerupert, -
- 7 replies
- 612 views
For various reasons I am slowly moving over to using Macs instead of PC's, wherein I discovered a problem today and wondered if anyone might have a solution ? I have set up and tested the animation on a Mac then, while I prepare the next part, was going to get the old PC to render the stills to the best quality because it doesn't matter how long it takes ( relatively ) as I'm preparing the next part. I've tried to keep the same file structure on both platforms but, when I came to rendering on the PC the project file had 'remembered' the destination as being the Mac HD and, although I tried repeatedly, it would not allow me to change the drive ID to suit the …
Last reply by Simon Edmondson, -
- 17 replies
- 1.3k views
Hello All, I was just attempting to complete the fighter plane tutorial and had a few questions about A:M performance issues. Basically, A:M has been running very smooth with every tutorial until the fighter one. I am having terrible performance issues making A:M completely unusable. Here are some of the issues and steps I've taken to resolve them: - When loading the fighter project that I have been working on it takes over a minute to load. - Once the project loads I am trying to put the back fin on and when I click a node there is a delay of over 30 seconds for it to select. (spinning colour wheel of doom entertains me while I wait) - Once the node f…
Last reply by Mark3D, -
NEW 2 HASH
by oliver- 4 replies
- 568 views
new animation artist. the best in my class.
Last reply by Xtaz, -
I just started with A:M. My goal is to just make simple boxes and color them. Actually, I want to create 3-D engines and eventually use A:M to render street rods. BTW, I am a master draftsman (figure drawing) and have been a traditional animation and graphic design instructor and a professional illustrator for over 40 years. I have the drawing skills. I just don't have the 3-D modeling skills. Thanks. Dennis
Last reply by Xtaz, -
NEW TWO HASH
by chuy- 12 replies
- 1k views
BEST IN MY CLASS ANIMATION MASTER. IF U NEED HELP TELL ME IM A TEACHER
Last reply by Eric2575, -
- 9 replies
- 947 views
I was modeling a jacket and in the fever of splination I inadvertantly hit a key or combination of keys that turned my view from shaded to shaded wireframe with no CP"s. The wireframe is the same color as the model. To repeat in a redundant fashion: What did I do? How can I undo it? How can I do it again? Thanks.
Last reply by MJL, -
- 2 replies
- 504 views
I am trying to work on the face exercise but when I extrude the first set of splines they end up back in the models skull or right in front of his face instead of along the front of the face. I am sure I am doing something silly wrong, but I just cant figure out what.
Last reply by Timekiller, -
- 4 replies
- 597 views
i need help . please . i'd like to create an "anime . " that'd be nice . thankyouverymuch . -matcha .
Last reply by holaachelsea, -
- 1 follower
- 7 replies
- 825 views
Hi Matt Can you tell me how you got that perfect gloss on the top of the globe?
Last reply by John Bigboote,
