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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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- 7 replies
- 938 views
I need some textures for models i am playing around with, if someone could lead me the right way to download some that would be greatly apreciated. Thanks
Last reply by gaber64, -
- 6 followers
- 147 replies
- 13.5k views
It is that time again. Time for upgrading to the latest edition of Animation:Master. As a way of saying thanks for your continued support of the New Users Forum I will again be raffling off a free upgrade here in the New Users Forum. This year the rules have changed a little in order to include more A:M Users and to thank everyone for supporting new users of A:M. The rules: 1) Only legal owners of Animation:Master (any version) are eligible. 2) Hash Inc is not affiliated with this contest and no connection with them should be inferred. 3) A:M Users can enter their names in the contest twice* 3a) A:M Users must post in this thread to indic…
Last reply by dborruso, -
- 1 reply
- 559 views
For Gabe mostly but for everyone else too! Because I know you'll want to use them with your manual! http://www.hash.com/2007web/vm.htm
Last reply by gaber64, -
- 10 replies
- 994 views
Hi all Does anyone know of a free site where I can upload my images for someone to download? I have images round 20MB and are too big to email, is there a way that I can put them somewhere for my publisher to download, so I dont have to keep burning them to CD and couriering them. If there is some way that I can do this on some free site, could someone please point me in the right direction. preferably it must also be password protected. any Ideas will be appreciated thanx Leo
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 5 replies
- 416 views
im trying to render a video of the starship enterprise . it rotates from a black hole towards the camra, when the key frame or counter gets to 12 it freezez. it suppose to goto 14 frames, i did set the counter to stop at 14 frames. some times it stops at 11 or 11:20 or higher some times lower but it wont hit 14. i have a 2 gig.60 prossesor pc. i "had" only 512 ram, so i bought a gig ram, and it still didnt wowk please dont tell me i need a nother gig of ram :s any ideas? thx
Last reply by heyvern, -
Hey guys! I'm back! I just dug out my copy of A:M 2005 - ver. 11.1 to use for my new film, and it won't work! The program loads and stays active for approx. 5 minutes and freezes over and over again. Any ideas? I know that you all are going to tell me to buy the new one, right? Please don't do that to me. What's weird is that when I hit control+alt+delete it just shows that A:M is running fine... Many Thanks, Justin Curfman
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 1 follower
- 12 replies
- 1.2k views
Hey everyone! I'm Ryan and just purchased this software this weekend and I must say the examples of people's work is astounding for what this thing can do! I've always been looking for an affordable piece of software to do 3D, but they all seemed to be way out of my league. This software looks very promising and the work that's been coming out of this community is very impressive. I was wondering for those of you who have learned the program how hard the learning curve was for you? I barely used Maya and I do catch on rather quick to things, but this is pretty much my first 3D program I bought and am very excited to bring some of my ideas to life on scree…
Last reply by Eric2575, -
- 2 replies
- 605 views
hello, i have the following problem: how to change from a reusable action to keyframeanimation without changing the reusable action? e. g. i use the character thom and i drag and drop in the chor "resolute walk" on him. The walk cycle ends at frame 30. then i go to frame 40 and i want him moving his arm. so i change the bicepbone to the place i want to have it. but when i now play the animation the change of the bicepbone affects also the reusable action. i tried also to turn off "hold last key frame" - no results. what do i have to do to be able to use reusable actions together with keyframeanimations without interfeering each other? what i want is a smooth chang…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 2 replies
- 471 views
How do I go from running to easing into a pose. I am not very good at explaining but I will do my best. I have the shaggy running (Using the running action in the library) along a path and am trying to get him to be able to ease into a pose after he slows down. The problem I am having is I can't get him to run and then ease into the pose. Keying the bones after the action in the choreography makes the bones stay in that position when scrubbing through the timeline in the Choreography. Thanks. Here is a render of shaggy running and then slowing down. It is a bit sloppy though. Running.mov
Last reply by J90, -
- 4 replies
- 695 views
My students and I are doing an alien invasion of our school. Question: we want to compose things in After Effects so what we want to do is render out only the aliens and ships in Animation Master. How do we get the front projection maps not to render out but keep the models that pass behind them blocked? For instance, when a ship passes behind our school building, how do we get the render to not show the portion of the ship passing behind the school (our front projection map) without rendering the projection map or it's objects? I've been through these tutorials, Ed explains multiplane rendering but not this particular issue. http://www.hash.com/users/ed/…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 3 replies
- 409 views
I'm in the midst of upgrading from AM:99 to AM2007 and have a question. I can't seem to get one camera to see another camera's front projection. Is that by design? I want to project an image on a sphere with one camera and record it with another. I know it sounds a little strange, but I'm doing this to composite a few different live shots together in 3D. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks, Eric.
Last reply by eameres, -
- 5 replies
- 513 views
I am currently working on an animation project and have run into some serious time issues while working with AM. Long time user, since the days of Playmation and Ive never had these issues before (Took a LONG break w/ AM). Here are my issues: Bias adjustments, If my model has bias set, if I move, rotate or copy any model, the bias adjustments get lost causing TONS of wasted time in re-adjusting. Is there any way to lock down the bias before a copy/paste so I do not need to rebuild everything? Camera coordinates in world space; Im using an orthogonal camera but it is a serious pain in the butt to position the camera where I want. Im after a sim…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 1 reply
- 366 views
I was browsing through the FTP site and came upon models, then skeleton 2000. ? is this missing? I really was looking for a skeleton model. thanks
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 4 replies
- 743 views
Heya! I've been using Hash for years, and still pick up on pretty simple stuff that I've been overlooking from time to time. One thing I've never bothered to look into is how to do a fully seamless decal. That is; usually you decal the front, then decal the back, and you'll get a seam down the side (unless you make the texture line up absolutely 100% perfect by hand). Normally, I've just worked around this, but now I really do need to do it properly. Is there a way to flatten an entire model (not just one side/area)? Could I use alpha channels/transparent backgrounds to "fade" one decal into the other? Thanks a bunch!
Last reply by heyvern, -
- 8 replies
- 866 views
On a Mac, does A:M have to run in full screen? I can't even find a button to minimize it if I want. I'm aware of Command/Tab to get to other stuff, but I'd like to have more control.
Last reply by Gerry, -
- 0 replies
- 457 views
Does any body knows where can i find Fullbod_girl.rpj file to try to animated with Animation Master?
Last reply by seduar, -
- 2 replies
- 452 views
Having initially had problems with sound files ( thankfully fixed due to forum users advice ) I have completed the animation first part of a little project I'm working on and want to fine tune it using the f curves ( ?). I'm not sure if that is the correct term for them ? What I mean is the way of changing the curve that flows through the timeline to affect the interpolation method of the keyframes set. To get a hold, constant speed or the normal spline. I have never done this before and wondered if anyone could point me to the relevant section in the Tech reference/ TAO/ forum archives to try and learn a bit more about it ? I am using V16. Thank y…
Last reply by Simon Edmondson, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 557 views
Hi folks, Could somebody please clarify some "simple" question about texturing for me? -Decaling renders faster then the procedural materials right? So if I would paint ,for instance Tom, in color red in 3D-Painter he would render faster as if I would set his surface property-color from yellow to red, correct? So would I gain some substantial time saving effect in rendertimes in big chors/scenes this way? Would I have this effect as well, if I would use the toonshader? -then ,If I would like to have Tom shiny (reflective) in the painted/decaled version, I would have to make reflection maps for Tom, right? or could I combine the decals with su…
Last reply by zandoriastudios, -
- 4 replies
- 644 views
i made this funny animation for a movie site me and some of my friends are starting http://youtube.com/watch?v=tiBLwYkgr2Q i let me know what you think if this is the wrong place to put it then show me were the right place to put it is
Last reply by the_black_mage, -
- 8 replies
- 1.2k views
is there some sort of function that welds verticies that are near each other?
Last reply by eptigo, -
- 13 replies
- 744 views
Whenever I render something it turns out fuzzy. In the quick render is is crystal clear, but the actual render is pixelated. Any ideas as to why this is happening?
Last reply by MasterFunk, -
- 8 replies
- 777 views
on the exercise fw-190 fighter jet, watching the video and i am trying to understand on how he calculates and draws/traces the tires, he is using advance manipulator to manipulate the pivot then he starts position it and that it has to be in the y-axis. im trying to understand but it is hard, also since the problems with these videos is that the sound and video are way out of sync. with each other. he starts doing this in the second part of the lecture around the 11 minute mark to finishing around 15 minute mark.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 3 replies
- 407 views
I'm working on exercise 10 (FW-190) and whenever I try to rotoscope any image I just get a stupid white box instead of a plane or girrafefeff. I watched the online tutorials and He does it fine. Grrrrr! I hate boxes.Evil White Boxxxx! GHAAAAAA! Please send help before I hang myself. P.S. I am new here. -Harrison
Last reply by de composer, -
- 7 replies
- 752 views
this is in the 3rd video of the FW-190 exercise, around 6 minute mark in the video, the author draws 2 splines to attach to the circular opening in the front of the plane model in order to close it. when going into side view, the 2 splines after deleting the tails, dont show in the exercise, which means they connected to the other control points, but mine do and it means the attachment wasnt completed. he mentions about performing some keyboard Tilda key or mouse shortcuts to make sure they attach but i tried what he says and it doesnt work. please help
Last reply by north, -
- 1 reply
- 417 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, -
- 1 reply
- 567 views
can someone tell me any good 3d game maker? -Free- If yes, Please link me! Thx~
Last reply by pming, -
game modding
by Akai- 12 replies
- 888 views
Hi, I'm new here and just picked up A:M about a week ago; as such still going through the tutorial guide. When I was in school a couple of years back, I had a small team working on a total conversion mod (demo) for UT2004. Back then we were using 3DS MAX... It was on all the lab PCs. I'm looking to start working on it again, soon. Any pointers on workflow, stuff that A:M does well for UT modding or not, cautions and pitfalls are appreciated. Thanks guys!
Last reply by Akai, -
- 8 replies
- 828 views
Is A:M good for game modeling/animation?
Last reply by Paul Forwood, -
- 11 replies
- 2.1k views
I'm using the stock Gas Pump model from the A:M supplemental DVD. It has a skeleton on the hose so it can be manipulated. My problem: I can't seem to manipulate it gracefully. My reasoning tells me I should be able to put some kind of constraint on the handle so it stays in my character's hand, but it never seems to work right. So I'm stuck with this hose that is constantly flying around, twisting my handle during inbetween frames, and generally giving me a headache. I actually finished a whole shot doing the nozzle frame-by-frame. It just feels wrong. What's the answer?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 19 replies
- 2.2k views
Greetings AM'ers, Before asking this, I did a search on the forums and found a tutorial on generating trees in AM, but I didn't find the Treez plug-in in AM; at least not on the mac. I have an old version of carrara on the HD. It generates trees. I rendered a tree with an alpha channel, and imported the image into AM. I moved them around, scaled them, etc. Anyway, I think this will work for now ... my plan is to use AM to do comics; with other software naturally. But sooner or later, I may want to get into animation, and may need characters to interact with trees. For you Mac-heads, how do YOU generate trees in AM?
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 1 follower
- 9 replies
- 1k views
What are the chances of an Animation Master get together in the Dallas,Texas area?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 0 replies
- 319 views
Hey guys. So I have created a live webcam chat room. If you have a webcam and mic you can grab a cam slot and chat, otherwise it doubles as a text chat room. It can be found at http://www.stickam.com/profile/animation It should be up most all the time, note you have to register (free) with stickam.com to use the cam slots. See you there! Oh, and it is called Animation Station.
Last reply by Heath_Naylor, -
- 7 replies
- 700 views
ok this would be easyer to explain to some one who has played the game "Sword of the stars" one of the playable races called the "liir" ( or as i like to call "Space fishy") anyways there ships have a unique way of moving in such that they teleport forward bit by bit hundereds of times a minute giving a flickering effect , i was woundering if there is a way to make a model flicker in and out like that with out having to set its transperancey every .5 of a frame.
Last reply by heyvern, -
- 9 replies
- 1.1k views
Hey Gang! I am going to get a PC to run AM. Anyone know what specs I should get? Is it possible to get something for $500 or less? I am currently running a Mac with 10.6 and I've heard that AM (currently) runs better on Windows 7. Any input would be wonderful. Thanks in advance! Shawn
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
- 10 replies
- 1.7k views
Alright, kinda fundamental modeling question here. Typically, when modeling something round that needs to be capped off smoothly (and no hole/point from lathing), I'll do something like this: Unfortunately, this always seems to create creases - particularly in the three-point patches - that no amount of bias tweaking gets rid of: I've included the model in the screenshot; it's just a 2-second deal with no polish or anything. round_cap.mdl Is this just a fundamentally bad way to model stuff, or is there a way to get rid of these creases? Thanks!
Last reply by Malo, -
- 49 replies
- 4.4k views
Hi there, I've decided to give A:M anouther go after several years of it sitting on my self. I used to love animating but could never understand how modelling worked in the program. I completed most of the tutorials in the A:M book (Giraffe,plane etc) but always hit the same problems when modelling. I remember now this is why I left A:M for such a long time. However such great work was being completed in the community. The concept I could never understand has how to fill in the space between control points as it always seemed hit and miss to me. See the quick test model I made below. Why don't the open control points 'Fill' to make it gray. Is there a button …
Last reply by a.quaihoi, -
- 2 replies
- 461 views
Would it be better to wait until the new year (and presumably a new version) or purchase my subscription now? Thanks, Bubba
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 7 replies
- 810 views
I am getting restarted with AM and wish to use my mac pro lap tops . Can you tell me if am works best on vista ? or on the current mac operating sytem? Also -i have a hard time keeping track of my old account info and I wish to renew my subscription early this year . Is there a wayto retrieve info on customers other than the original registration number ? Comment You guys are still my favorite for 3d animation since Maya has all those expensive ever changing plug ins -it is just not friendly to the solo animator , Cheers and thanks for a response . Bruce ps 1 I can not wait to get restarted esapecially with the online tutorials . p…
Last reply by Gerry, -
- 11 replies
- 1.3k views
Hello, Any time there are four points that are comprised of two splines, a face is created. Some of these faces I don't want. Now, I know that I can get rid of them by adding a fifth vertex, but this creates a good deal of complication as the fifth vertex breaks the adjacent face (which I want to keep), which I have to deal with by adding more vertices, and creating more polys than I wanted to. so, to make a long story short, is there any way to make a face go away? For example, select it with the face selection tool, and then _do something_ to disable it ? Thanks!
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 6 replies
- 975 views
I'm a high school teacher and my students are about to start The Art of Animaiton Master. This is my second attempt with a class - last year we got a little frustrated but we are giving it another try! After showing them the demo, they were really excited. Before we get started on the exercises, I'd like to let them create and animate the vase they saw in the demo. Are there any instructions for this? I've seen the demo done in person and it sold me on the simplicity of the software. However, after trying it myself - nothing works and suddenly it does not seem so simple! I understand the importance of doing the exercises in the book - this just seems like a good…
Last reply by THS, -
- 15 replies
- 1.2k 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, -
- 2 replies
- 882 views
Welcome to the A:M Forum! I'm Rodney, your host as moderator of the Newbies Forum. I'm a user of A:M too! The priorities I've set for myself in the forum are as follows: - Help New Users transition into Animation:Master as smoothly as possible. - Assist A:M Users as they work through The Art of Animation:Master (TaoA:M) - Encourage everyone to learn while doing through participation in a full length feature film! (For an example see Hash Inc Film projects such as 'Tin Woodman of Oz') For over 20 years Hash Inc has been producing the best in software, service and assistance to computer artists. They know the heart of the animator and have provided u…
Last reply by johnl3d, -
- 1 follower
- 2 replies
- 729 views
I've animated tanks in Carrara, but this one is a first in A:M. I'm thinking that I should arrange one whole track [treads. drive wheels, armor. etc.] as a named group, animate a full cycle where each track-plate goes all the way around once, and save that Action to the Library. Then duplicate it, flip it on the Z-axis and drop the Action onto the new tread. Is there a better way? [in Carrara this was not difficult, but it was tedious. So before I launch in...] Secondly, in Carrara, there was a way to select groups of key-frame markers, and, [if I recall correctly, by holding down the Alt key] drag the markers out proportionally, thereby slowing the action, or compre…
Last reply by cstanton, -
- 1 follower
- 16 replies
- 1.5k views
I bought animation master from a guy off the internet. it was version 11.5. im gonna buy version 14 bt i need the activation code. The guy neve gave me the activation code for it is it somewhere on the disc?
Last reply by DJBREIT, -
- 2 replies
- 1.7k views
Working on a model, part of the models points are now a light blue/gray, and I can't pick/choose them, did I lock them, somehow?
Last reply by ovni1, -
- 3 replies
- 427 views
double edit: *Nose hello, im trying to attach the giraffe nose to the head in exercise 11. am i extending all the splines from the head to attach to the 5 nose splines? I have 5 splines making up the nose. do the top and bottom splines attach to the very top and bottom of the nose splines and then i should have 6 inner splines with each pair attaching to the corresponding nose spline? If im not making sense let me know and i will try again I searched this and didnt see what i was looking for. edit: is there a trick to attaching the splines without spinning around and moving until you finally get them to connect? thanks in ad…
Last reply by necromancer120, -
- 53 replies
- 5.2k views
Been a looong time since I've been here, folks... And almost as long since I've messed with AM, sorry to say... I'm still in V14.0c Okay that's established. I've modeled a brain. Primitive really... but sufficient for my needs. I've cut Dex's head off... sorry Dex, really... but I just needed your head. I have saved my brain as "brain.mdl" clever that, no? And I've saved Dex's head alone as "dexhead.mdl" (equally clever, I think) Now... I've tried to import dexhead.mdl into brain.mdl. and positioned good ol' Dex's head around the brain, which seems to work just fine... Well, the brain doesn't work... Dex's just pretty.. no smarts, you see....…
Last reply by oakchas, -
- 8 replies
- 799 views
Hey Hashers! So I've been trying to get this glass look on a Coke bottle, but it's pretty darn hard. Anyone have a clue as to how this can be achieved? I've zipped the model and mats. Anyone wanna give it a try? Thanks in advance! GlassCokeBotlle.zip
Last reply by new guy, -
Glass Dome
by bubba- 6 replies
- 1.2k views
How do I make a glass dome, like on an anniversary clock? Thanks.
Last reply by bubba, -
- 1 follower
- 13 replies
- 1.8k views
planning stage: what's a smart way to have jewels reflect light? i'll be making crowns, they have different kinds of stones in/on them. the light won't be that of the sun or lamp, cheats are sort of built in. i'll be compositing excessively, no problem to add a layer or three. but how to think/plan/execute?
Last reply by dblhelix,
