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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.
-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.
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-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.
4,166 topics in this forum
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- 3 replies
- 738 views
Hello - basic question, I think - I remember doing something like this a way back - but not sure how I did it. I have a "smoke" emitter in a chor. I turn it "on" at 3 seconds into the chor - and turn it "off" two seconds later - when I watch it in the timeline it works perfect - smoke comes in then fades out and disappears, but when I render it out, smoke comes in then abruptly stops when it hits the frame where I turned it "off". Am I doing something wrong, or is there a way to make it slowy turn "off" with a pose slider or something? Thanks for any help. ;-)
Last reply by flashawd, -
- 1 follower
- 2 replies
- 738 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, -
- 1 follower
- 3 replies
- 737 views
Using the base Porsche model from the disc to start this project, I modified the car, created all of the lighting, made the animation and the rest of the environment. Camera moves are still a little rough but I just started using Animation Master over the summer. I was using this to learn a little more about using lighting and reflections. Check it out below, comments and tips are welcome!
Last reply by Xtaz, -
- 5 replies
- 737 views
ok iv been doing some pretty good materials over the holidays but one still eludes me , which its the water one, the best that i came up with was a ball that had what looked like a liquid form on the bottom and then become encased in it but not flow like water should , can some one post the settings to make water flow as if from a hose please.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 737 views
I really like the look and feel of an AO render and have no problem doing an AO render on a white background (see example below). I would like to be able to carry that look and feel to my final renders. Is it possible to do an AO style render when the model has been textured and it is in a scene with other elements without doing it as a white render? Thanks... Al
Last reply by Paul Forwood, -
- 6 replies
- 736 views
I get an error probably 8 out of 10 times when I try to drag a model from the library to the Choreography window. The error simply says "The Parameter is Incorrect". I am using version 13c. Does anyone know why this is happening? Thanks.
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 8 replies
- 736 views
Hello, hope everyone is good - it's been awhile since I posted, I have working on teeth animations... getting a bit boring. Anyway, I have a new client that wants his logo merging out of some water, kind of as a fountain... I was thinking I could bring his logo in as an .ai file and 3D it - then place it under the fluids fountain - does anyone have any samples they can show me of a fountain they have done w/ fluids, that would give me an idea if my idea is possible - I hadn't had a chance to play w/ fluids much from when it came out in the new version. Thanks for any help. -Eric
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 3 replies
- 736 views
I have recently downloaded V17 and successfully moved my license over and it runs. The issue is, it makes me fill out the Animation Master Registration every time I run the software. Is there some other file I need to bring over from the V16 folder?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 4 replies
- 736 views
Long ago I used to think that decalling was a simple process but then this started happening. I can stamp this image a dozen times and sometimes it ignores different patches randomly.Anyone else ever run across this or is AM picking on me again? Have tried making the patches larger-no effect. Tried applying decal in an Action with all the CPs flattened completely-no effect. Tried a TGA-no effect. Higher rez image-no effect. I've run out of ideas to try. Any help appreciated. LandTest.prj
Last reply by svetlik, -
- 2 replies
- 735 views
How do you delete poses from a model?
Last reply by Julian, -
- 4 replies
- 735 views
First off, I'm using A:M 2002 so this might be a non issue for a more recent release. I plan to upgrade eventually. I'm sure my methods are a bit roundabout, but since I'm currently lacking a decent graphics editing program at the moment, this is how I went about it. 1: Using MS Word 2003, I typed out the text, and formatted it as desired. (Center, italics, etc) 2: "Printed" out to "Microsoft Office Document Image Writer" to produce a TIF file. However, A:M 2002 does not like the TIF file generated this way, so I continue to the next step. 3: I used Paint to convert the TIF file to JPG. Letters look solid and the way I like it. 4: JPG loads in A:M i…
Last reply by Galtrol, -
- 4 replies
- 735 views
I tried this with a nice sunset in the background but it renderd out a bit to big so I had to change it. Am I in line for my certificate now Rodney? flock2.mov
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 4 replies
- 735 views
Hi, I have been away for too long, just upgraded AM2007 and found that am2Flash undesirable, is there a bug fix? This thread not working: Animation:Master HTML Help Files Hey Rodney, I suppose you know best. Thanks. Philip
Last reply by filipmun, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 734 views
I am trying to get the effect of a light shining through a doorway into a very large dark room. The doorway won't be visible, but that seemed like the easiest way to change the light cone's shape from a circle to a rectangle. The problem I'm having is that if I turn volumetric on for the light, then the light rays are visible as they cut through the air in the dark room (which is what I want), but the doorway does not block any of the light. If I turn on shadows for the light, then the doorway blocks the light as I want but now the light cone is no longer visible. How do I get both shadows and volumetrics to work at the same time?
Last reply by RoyBU, -
- 4 replies
- 734 views
Hi-- I just upgraded to v12 and am trying to weather a model. The online help says to right-click the model and a weathering dialog box will appear, but I'm seeing no such thing. What am I missing? Thanks for any help. I'm sure more stupid questions will follow!
Last reply by Gorf, -
- 5 replies
- 734 views
It seems like such an easy thing considering i have already made myself a nice rendition of a small airlane. Now I have been tasked with producing some teaching aids for a map reading course and I was simply taking a contour map image of a hill, rotorscoping it, then applying what I rotoscoped as a decal. Well it doesn't seem to like that. I did a test with a photo just for practice and it worked fine. But now that I am trying to actually do what I thought I could, no luck. The decal just disappears. I am using A:M 11.1
Last reply by bulpup, -
- 4 replies
- 734 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, -
- 2 replies
- 734 views
Hello - I searched the forum for 64 bit info- and found a few posts from the beginning of the year. I am planning on getting a new computer and considering 64 bit w/ windows 7 - I have read a lot of info from the internet - and saw that in general there are no issues w/ running 32 bit software on a 64 bit system... I did read someone saying - some 32 bit software tends to run a little slower on a 64 bit system? Is there currently anyone running A:M on a 64 bit system w/ windows 7 that I can get some input from good or bad. I am aware of the hardware issues w/ 64 bit, but that doesn't effect the A:M software, just my 15 year old scanner. ;-) Thanks - Eric
Last reply by flashawd, -
- 9 replies
- 734 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, -
- 5 replies
- 734 views
im having some trouble with my lipsync i was making this animation, and revised many of my mouth poses when i checked the animation, half of my mouth poses were missing the mouth poses in the actions, the dopesheets seem ok, i can view the character talking in there, and the lipsync looks fine in a new choreography it just doesnt seem to want to work in the old choreography where the rest of my animation is tried refreshing with space bar no avail im wondering if some of the keys in the animation are somehow conflicting with some of the dopesheet keys or something not sure what to do and im hoping that i wont have to rebuild all of my dope…
Last reply by Meowx, -
- 5 replies
- 734 views
Composite confoooses moi. I have 2 images - the depth buffer.png, and a color image.png I then want to combine these 2 images in A:M using the post effect fakeao, without always having to rerender, in order to try out the fakeao properties/settings. Is it possible to do this in ver16beta5 pc? using composite? some other way? Does composite only work on exr? I have read Holmes tutorial on Compositing Light Buffers - I believe I almost actually did the tut at some point in my life. I believe I got it to work. Somewhat. I could be lying. Or I was probably confused at that time as well. Here's what I have - how do I get the images into a compos…
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 3 replies
- 733 views
Hello, I'm trying to do an orthographic projection in choreography mode, but I can't figure out how to configure the camera. I don't see any options on the camera settings to do this. Can it be done? What I trying to do is to create some flat textures to apply to my models. For example, I created a riveted wall model, then I'm going to shoot it in choreography mode to generate a rivet-wall texture that I can apply to my other models. So far, using the default camera options I'm getting some stretching of my model toward the outer edges, and I'm hoping an ortho projection would correct this. Thanks!
Last reply by KNBits, -
- 1 follower
- 3 replies
- 733 views
Not sure where I should post this, there are sssoooo many places. I did a search but got a million hits. I am probably over looking something simple, but for some reason I am unable to make splines. I hit the "a" key and get the cursor and the "+" but no splines. I have saved and closed, shut down and still no splines. I did open a fresh project and was able to create splines there, reopen my orginal project...no splines. At this point there are no decals, colors or any thing else. I have version 12t. I am creating a StarTrek look-a-like space ship. I have built 3 tubes, and was trying to creat the saucer. Any ideas or do I need to provide more info. Many thanks in …
Last reply by KenH, -
- 7 replies
- 733 views
My husband purchased A:M from a "Comdex" show back in "03/04". He never had the time to put into learning A:M so it sat in its box on the shelf till last week when we gave it to my son. I would like to update it using the downloadable updates on the Hash site. So my silly question is... Being that the version we have is from 03/04 should I download all update versions from 04-06? Will downloading Animation:Master v12.0v contain everything in previous updates? Thanks for your patience, Kayellen
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 5 replies
- 733 views
Hi Everyone, Attached is my first render of an idea that I am working on. The House and Thom were modeled by others. My portion is the Letterbox Chor, and my first time using a video editor to place the text in the bottom corner. For a newbie, I am happy so far. Not satisfied, just happy to make somehting useful. My question is, how do I add a textured background or clouds to this shot? I looked in Camera 1 but it looks like you can only change the color. Also, would anyone know how to extend the grass/sidewalk on the right and left sides of the house. Thanks again for help.... Regards,Bob Comm1.mpg
Last reply by Jentham2000, -
- 11 replies
- 733 views
Hello Everyone! I've tried to extrude this IL file in AM, but AM doesn't like it. I know you have to save it as an IL 8 file, and so I did, but AM still doesn't like it. I've zipped both files. Anyone care to take a crack at it? Thanks 2_illustrator_files.zip
Last reply by new guy, -
- 5 replies
- 732 views
Why does AM keep on making that annoying Windows "dong!" sound when I run it? It seems to happen randomly, every minute or two. Any suggestions? Thanks, Sruli
Last reply by Tralfaz, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 732 views
I'm modeling the fighter from the toturial, i have all the pictures in and locked, but I can't seem to make splines... is there a button I need to press?
Last reply by AJS007, -
- 5 replies
- 732 views
I appologize if this question is in the wrong place, but I couldnt find the info through several searches. I currently use version 12, and am seriously considering upgrading to 13. I was just curious what the new features are in 13 and if you guys thought it was worth the money to upgrade??
Last reply by KenH, -
- 2 followers
- 4 replies
- 732 views
Hello, Can anyone help me with info on how I can load the Animation Master 2006 onto my Mac G3 blue tower with Panther? I keep getting the error message that says I need Tiger or Leopard and I don't want to spend another $100 bucks to upgrade. They told me at Fryes that it would work on Panther using a patch from Hash??? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Scoonie
Last reply by scoony2, -
- 7 replies
- 732 views
Hey all, making a piano - up to the keys, is there a quick way to align and distribute the keys ? Eg - like align & illustrator . . . I'm taking notes for required stuff in AM which I'll yell about to Steve once the AM Reports section is back on line . . .
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
- 1 follower
- 2 replies
- 731 views
Any thoughts on how to achieve SSS and ambient occlusion effects on skin? Are there any recommended skin material settings or techniques that have become most useful in AM? All the best to AMasters, Michael Angelo
Last reply by noah brewer, -
- 3 replies
- 731 views
hello. i was wondering could anyone point to a tute which addresses how i can model or animate an actor who has to either put on or take off clothing? for example, if i were to do a Superman model and i wanted him to do his famous "rip open shirt to expose the "S" shield", how is this done? or how about if he was fighting a villain who had on a helmet and was taking it off? thanks.
Last reply by urthmaan, -
- 5 replies
- 731 views
I would like to know if it's normal not to have sound when rendering from the choreography mode? I have been able to get sound with the Action mode.
Last reply by Duke, -
- 1 follower
- 10 replies
- 731 views
Hi - I am playing around creating an animated fan character and I am getting these weird distortions when I render the image in different areas of the model - Here is a pic of the back of the fan - I have the distortion circled. Thanks
Last reply by zandoriastudios, -
- 2 followers
- 6 replies
- 731 views
Hello, I was trying to follow this tutorial: http://hash.com/lib/mac.html and I'm not having much luck. I'm using a Macintosh, and I wanted my libraries to all show up in my library file. So I tried this, the HASH library shows, but mine and the one on the extra CD does not. Anyone ever try this? Thanks Andy
Last reply by bighop, -
- 4 replies
- 731 views
Dear All A:M user. I 'm trying to use A:M by V11 ( illicitly version ) for a while to make a decision on purshaing software. I founde that it's very attractive program. Even if I try on C4D,Lightwave but I chose fantastic A:M. I just need to have advise on the way what I will go with A:M is not the wrong path to made me more confident. I plan to have my own game business ( character desing only ) , childrend book , childrend CD learning in Thailand. Please advise and sorry for my rusty Enlish. Regards,
Last reply by phatso, -
- 2 replies
- 731 views
I have an object that has a decal applied to it. I would like to know if it is possible to make it fade away over a period of time. should i use an action? Should i set that up in the choregraphy? I am kind of lost on this one. Any help pointing me in the right direction would be appreciated. Thanks. Pierre
Last reply by pierrotsc, -
- 5 replies
- 730 views
I'm trying to work my way through some texturing and I'm getting stuck on two things. As a basic excercise, I'm trying to make an animated Photo Cube. To start, I am simply using the Hash Cube primitive and I am going to assign some named groups that I can use for both the frame and the picture faces. The Hash Cube is not just 8 CPs, it is 6 major faces with a nice bevel at the corners. The patches that make up the bevel are the 'frame' The first thing that I have encountered is that it is really easy to accidently distort the model when you're spinning it around and trying to select all of the faces. Is there any way to lock the geometry, but still allow th…
Last reply by AndyDavis, -
- 5 replies
- 730 views
I have some old models that were built by John Markus years ago (unfortunately it seems his website has disappeared). They have some rudimentary mouth poses, but are not built with the Preston Blair phoneme set. I customized several new characters using one of his models as a starting point, so they all have the same mesh, skeletal rigging, and pose sets. Since attempting phonemes and dopesheets recently, I'm now wondering... if I build a set of Blair phonemes for one model, can I copy/paste those poses into the other models, and will they then work? Or is it going to be less simple than that? Here's a sample of what I originally did with them, back…
Last reply by paradymx, -
Data Folder
by bubba- 4 replies
- 730 views
Does this folder "need" to be here? I cannot see anyway that A:M looks inside automatically. So, can it be moved somewhere else?
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 729 views
Hi! I seem to have successfully made a QT file that imports and can be placed on my object, but I can't make it animate in the choreography. Are there any tutorials or threads that can help guide through the process of adding a QT Movie decal to an object? Thanks! T
Last reply by Laconic, -
- 7 replies
- 729 views
I am an Animation teacher that has been using Animation Master in my classroom for 10 years. Recently my tech support department helped me to upgrade from Animation Master 98 to the 2008 version 15.5. It's a tremendous leap, that has left virtually all of my old classroom assignments and tutorials (with step by step instruction) completely obsolete. I too have found that I completely lack the understanding of the software to properly teach my students anything beyond basic model building. My problem has always been simple, our network configuration using a HASP driver has never allowed me or my students to access the basic libraries and help menus. I would love…
Last reply by Gerry, -
- 4 replies
- 729 views
So I'm trying to do something incredibly simple. Rotate an object more than 180 degrees. But I am having terrible difficulty. After 6 years of using A:M, this is one area that I cannot figure out. Since I know it's a rage-inducing process. For years, I've simply avoided rotating anything more than 180 degrees since I knew that A:M really does not want to you do this. But now I have to, and after many searches, the answer I need simply is not there. I click on my bone - go to the properties panel. Go to rotation. Right click on that. And at this point, I'm supposed to see a way to change the driver. But I don't. I just see "New Relationship" and "Edit Expression" neither…
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
- 6 replies
- 729 views
I'm still learning the basic's and am experimenting a lot by simply modeling and running in to problems and learning from those. Trying to build a Mad Cat (aka Timber Wolf), a battlemech robot. It has a lot of square,cylinder, octangle shaped elements in its design. out of a square shaped cube, like this missile pod, where missiles are sticking out. It took me a good deal of time of patch up the front (rendered as lines) but with all the patching I had the task of, trying to reduce the cp's and trying to reduce them. and this really gave me a headache, ran in to a lot of odd looking patches when making hooks. So i'm wondering if I could eliminate…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 5 replies
- 728 views
i made a simple model and tried to make a whole by making the face transparent, unfortunately, when it renders, it renders with cross lines where the face should be transparent. attached is the mdl im having trouble with helmet.mdl
Last reply by C-grid, -
- 5 replies
- 728 views
Hi all, I've had AM since v8.5 and have always marvelled at how easy it is to assign cps to bones, add fan bones, smartskin, etc... My question is why can't you do it the same way in a poly program (C4D, LW, etc...)? I am just curious here, trying to understand. It seems that it would be so much easier to lasso select a bunch of points in a poly program and assign it to a bone. The problem would of course be subdivisions (right?). But wouldn't it be feasible to say use the model in "isoparm" mode (less subdivision). assign the points to the bones and then subdivide after. The software would then extrapolate the extra points from subdividing with reasonable results. Jus…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 2 replies
- 728 views
Hi, I'm having a little trouble with my model. I have 2 copies of A:M, snce I upgraded once. So I keep the new one(2006) in my desktop, and the old one(2004 CD with update for 2005) in my laptop. But now I have the problem because I need to work on my model on my laptop, but it won't work with older versions of the program. Does anyone know how I can transfer it, I tried exporting it to another format but it messed up the bone structure and I lost my pose sliders. If not, does anyone know how I can use version 13 on both computers without moving the CD back and forth?
Last reply by C-grid, -
- 1 follower
- 6 replies
- 728 views
I'm trying to get a character to do a somersault and or a back flip. When I turn IK off everything seems to move for the somersault, but having the character return to IK on for walking does not seem to work. (legs fold) I'm using the shaggy character, and it does the same thing as my character that I rigged with the 2001 rig. Would the set up machine help with this? or Version 15? I'm on 13 now.
Last reply by bighop, -
- 6 replies
- 728 views
I had purchased AM twice in the past, and the last time was Animation Master 2000, v8.5 I had taken up animation as a hobby, and completed all the examples in the book. Fast-forward to 2009: I would like to get back into animation and character modeling, and was looking at the following free products: * Blender: best free product, but difficult to use * Alice: fun, but more for kids * POV-Ray: nice, but not as intuitive as AM * 3D Studio Max: too expensive... * Maya: ... likewise But I still love AM, am would consider getting an upgrade: * the Hash website has an unversioned product (posted 2007?) for $299 * SafeHarbor (sharbor.com) has…
Last reply by mouseman,