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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.
4,161 topics in this forum
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Firstly dose anybody know what "Exception #035" is ? I'm getting it every time I try and bake particles and then A:M locks up. Mac v16b and v17beta. Here's a test project that consistently fails for me, maybe someone could see if it fails for them too. Or am I just doing something wrong again? The zip contains the .prj and the .tag sprite images used in it. Secondly, for speedier rendering I would like to use NetRender. Do I need to bake particles before rendering? Particle_Bake_Problem.zip
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I just recently found my older copy of A:M 10.5 and am trying to install it but have run into 2 problems. 1: it tells me I'm using an unsupported newer version of windows. 2: Once I got past that it is asking me for a serial number which I have no idea where that could be. Thanks for your help Dave
Last reply by Gerry, -
A:M 98
by KJ'd Beast- 5 replies
- 850 views
I purchased a copy of Jeff Paries The Animation: Master Handbook way back when and I'm finally getting around to reading it. I am dabbling with the demo version A:M 98 (V6.??) How much of a difference is there between the version I'm using in the book and the current version as far as the interface is concerned, specifically short cut keys and modeling and animation methods and implementation? I don't want to spend a lot of time relearning the interface if it has changed significantly because I would rather buy the current version if that is the case. Thanks. Keith
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Wikipedia mentions that A:M Version 14 (2007) introduces Ambient Occlusion (AO) and Image-based Lighting (IBL). Can someone explain what those are? Regards, -SB
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I was watching the "Flower Power" tutorial, and noted that the leaves were intentionally not connected via splines to the stem. Rather, they were just positioned adjacent and bones were used to constrain the movement so the leaves would position appropriately. When and when not should you attach various parts of a model to each other by splines? Is there a general principle to use? What are the advantages and disadvantes of attaching vs free floating? -SB
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I haven't been splining since 2006 but recently fired "my" latest copy of AM V15 up and am starting to model again. Never got too deep in the animation part of AM but I had forgotten how much I enjoy modeling and although still learning in the chorwindow I enjoy setting up the image's. Still have some health issue's but I hope to improve my modeling skill's and maybe spend a bit more time catching up here.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Hi, I try to render but when i do it says : Avistreamsetformaterror, most lile caused by a codec compresssor that does not support 24 bit data. I know I have a lot of codes installed, but do i have to install codec into A:M? Or does anyone know what this can be? I could render the scen as tga images but not as avis. Another question is if there is some additional download I should do? I cant find the same assets as i se in the tutorial movies.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I just downloaded and activated v17.0 subscription and the program opened and would let me draw lines, etc but when I tried to open an existing project file from a previous version (v11.0) instead of opening a file from the directory it automatically went to, the program stalled and then crashed. This is the same problem I had with v16.0 last year and never did figure out what was wrong so I went back to my v 11.0 (run as v12.0 with a downloaded patch file from the ftp site awhile back). Unfortunately that option is becoming increasingly difficult as the CD has gotten all scratched up and the Disc repair I tried didn't work. Needless to say, half the time it doesn't even …
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I've probably asked this before and gotten good answers but... I know that CTRL-click is the one-button mac equivalent of a right-click in A:M Is "Command+" still the MacOS equivalent for CTRL+ combinations on a PC? What is the equivalent of holding ALT on a PC to subtract things from a selection?
Last reply by largento, -
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Hi, I'm trying to get my work to buy A:M, we are a training centre for children and i knew about Animation master years a go from the media place i used to work in. I loved it!, think it is fantastic for kids as well. We have PCs and Macs available, I downloaded the trial version for the PC windows 7 but have had a few crashes with it and the display seems to go off sometimes. I would like to trial it on the Mac but i don't think thats possible, i have 8 days left of trial on the PC. My question is, is it better running on the Mac rather than on the PC? If i can convince my work to buy it do i have to choose which platform to buy or can it be used on …
Last reply by markw, -
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(I tried to post this in archive forum to not bother up-to-date users, but forum is readonly.) To any other AM 11 / Windows Vista users: I'm having display problems where the screen doesn't seem to refresh, or partially draws with my Windows Vista Compaq laptop. Particularly, when only one A:M window is open (say, chor or modeling) the background grid does not fully draw. Having two windows open magically makes the grid draw fully in both windows. In a Model window, I'll switch to "shaded" mode and a patch won't render. If I tweak a control point, suddenly it might render. Sometimes while drawing a spline, parts don't draw while making it. …
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Not sure if this is possible or makes sense, but I'm working on a beveled cube example from "A:M A Complete Guide", and I made a beveled cube with straight splines by setting peaking. Now I want to slightly round the bevel, so I want to selectively set some gammas on the bevel splines. But first, I want to set all the alphas to zero and all the magnitudes to 100% just for uniformity. If I "select all" with ctrl-A and then set the bias properties for all, some of the biases on the model do not change, and are still odd-ball values. Is this supposed to work, setting all at once? -SB
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
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Do we have any type of measuring tape feature in am aside from Guides and grids. In other programs you can draw a line between 2 points to measure, thats kind of what im looking for.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Boy, I really wish you could just right click on a pose in the PWS or in the Pose Sliders or in the Relationships Window and select "Duplicate Pose". So many poses have such similar starting points. It sure would be nice to be able to duplicate them easily. Here's a newbe question though. How do I clear out values - restore them to the default position on a pose? I inadvertently set up my pose at 0% instead of 100% and I'd like to get the 0 back to default. Anyone? Anyone??? Bueller??? Anyone???
Last reply by largento, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 2k views
I would like to use dope sheets when animating my character. But as my native language is not english I would like to make my own dictionary in swedish. I think I can just replace the dictionary.dic with a swedish dictionary. But there is a problem: I do not recognize the way the phonemes are written. What phonemic alphabet is used in Animation Master? I can tell it is not the IPA by International Phonetic Association. Does anybody know of any documentation that explains the way phonemes are to be written in the Dictionary.dic to work properly in Animation Masters dope sheet? phoneme 'f/oU/n/i/m phonemicist f/oU/'n/i/m/I/s/I/st phonemicize f/oU/'n/i/m/I/,s/aI/z pho…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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please at first accept my apologies, i don't want to go to blender but export animation done under animation blender TO blender cycles of course .X seems good but i go to find x import in blender and go to animate under animation master someting for demoscene so then ^^^^ kindly regards stéphane
Last reply by stefff285, -
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Hi, I must be missing something VERY basic. How do I create a rendered version of a frame of scene/choreography? I have a choreography, I don't want to render the entire choreography just a single rendered frame from within the choreography Make sense? Oliver
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 5 replies
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Coming back to something I really enjoyed a long time ago. My last foray into AM was with 2005 version. I've created a short animation using Windows Movie Maker. It consists of 13 images with some simple transitions, basically a slideshow. I am using Pazera PS MPEG to AVI converter to get the AVI. I have tried every CODEC available with the converter, but when I attempt import the AVI I just get a dialog box saying "IMPORT NULLOBJECT". What am I doing wrong? Should I be using a particular CODEC? Thanks for any help, glad to be back!
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 5 replies
- 1.9k views
I finally got back into A:M. I originally got the program back in 2001. I was never very successful with it because I am not an artist or animator. It just seemed so overwhelming. Then in 2005 I got a civilian job with the Army as a broadcast producer. I am always trying to improve my skills, but it usually ends up being self taught. In 2006, I pulled out my AM program and started teaching myself how to use it. I was able to create a nice little logo for a news program I was doing. That accomplishment always stuck with me. But, job priorities and work load didn't allow me to spend the time I needed to develop any more skills. Time went by and my skills grew. I …
Last reply by Muff, -
i'm newbie. nice to meet you guys. :clap:
Last reply by Xtaz, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 935 views
Hello, That's it !! I finally bought AM 2021, for 1 year. If in a year I am still going, I will buy the CD version! I thought about it a lot because my main problem is the rendering speed which is not in current standards. As soon as several "complex" parameters are used, the calculation times become disproportionate It is still possible to render with another software like Blender but I don't want to switch from one software to another as needed! When I will test the export plugin to blender I am amazed that the extrusion extrudes all the points, even those "inside" the object !? Is there a specific procedure to have only the "outer points" extruded…
Last reply by createo, -
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Shadow options turned on for ALL objects, camera and lights but no shadows rendering from the camera in the chor. Any help appreciated.
Last reply by svetlik, -
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Hi there. Working more through Fuchur's excellent Tank tutorial project and have completed the second video, which ends with adding boolean holes to the end of the turrets. I noticed an odd thing (well, odd to me, surely familiar to others). If I do an in-program render, the booleans show up fine. However if I render to file, the boolean cutters are rendered. Is this a sign that the boolean isn't calculated in the render, or maybe the cutters have to be set to not render, or...? Not a huge emergency and I'm sure the solution is simple enough. Just call me curious. Here's the shots. One is in-editor, one is the rendered-to-file. Really great tutorial s…
Last reply by Fuchur, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
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Always something with me. Today it's hair. Trying to follow the tech ref manual re hair and most of it works, the grooming tools work well but am trying to achieve color variation along the length of the hairs as in the book but not any details of the numeric settings. Trying to get close to the 2nd enclosed pic. See last pic for my results. Any help appreciated.
Last reply by Wildsided, -
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- 2.3k views
Hey Hashers, Didn’t think I would be back so soon with another question (s). I tell ya, I was doing just fine breezing through this book until I got to Action Basics. This is deceptively the shortest chapter in the tome, yet it’s the one that’s caused the most head scratching. Ok, so I tried to scan the part of the book that's befuddling me and upload it here, but that's just not working out for me. I will retype it: “Each driver has it’s own setting for it’s default interpolation, located in the PWS next to the name of the driver. There are actually three pull-down menus located under that image, the first and last of which look ghosted out and are for …
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 5 replies
- 778 views
Hello, Here in France I have a few days of vacation to accelerate my exploration of AM which I find brilliant, only the rather long calculation times bother me. The rest of the program is fine with me. In the tutorial : at 8:57 the user clicks on a bone and duplicates it with the control key. I can not reproduce this action !? I do not understand why ? Do you have another example please? I don't have any examples of how to use smartskins, do you have any? This is what animation master lacks. These are simple examples of simple situations. When I understand the basics of AM better, I will try to find time for many very simple examples. This can help…
Last reply by createo, -
- 5 replies
- 837 views
Greetings. I've had a question pop up in my head while going through tutorials, looking at others' work and so on. I notice some projects set lathe cross-sections to 4, others to 6, or to 8. I saw one using 12. And I wonder "how would I know how many to use in my projects?" So, I decided to stop trying to figure it out myself, and just ask. What a concept! Is there a certain method used to work this out? Is it "pick one and adjust as you go?". Are there specific factors to determine this? Is it something where it's "okay" to choose too many or too few and adjust later as needed? Thanks!
Last reply by Fuchur, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 940 views
What did I do??? See attached pic. NOTHING in the prj. was changed. Open it up today and all my chrome is gone. Environment map worked fine 3 yrs. ago so what has changed and how do i get my chrome back?? I'm sure I'm missing some small detail but can't get the env. map to work like it did before. Any help appreciated. Checked the image used and it seems fine.
Last reply by svetlik, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 916 views
Working in a chor, hit "H" to hide but now all other objects are GONE. Still listed in the PWS but not visible. Anyone heard of this? Can't send the PRJ too complex referencing millions of outside items and haven't been able to reproduce it but can't see all but the object i had on when hitting "H" Only want to salvage many hrs. of work. Any help appreciated.
Last reply by svetlik, -
- 5 replies
- 716 views
Messed up a pose and can't delete it. What am I not seeing? Any help appreciated. Apologies if I've asked this before.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 5 replies
- 603 views
HI A:M community! Just want a quick intro. My name is Matt I am a 46 year old cg boomer (darn kids and their zbrushes and material nodes!), I have been doing 3d on and off for over 20 years now I am a 2d artist by trade but 3d is my passion hobby. Turns out doing what you love as a job really kills your love of that thing. So I will never do 3d for money haha. Animation Master was the first program I learned 3d on. I got the millennium edition in 2001ish. Still have my big fat instruction book and cd after that I jumped to 3dsmax as I was dabbling in game modding in Unreal 2004 then moved onto Softimage XSI. But I always dipped back to this wonderful program. e…
Last reply by Shelton, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 748 views
Boy these quirks just KEEP finding me. When copying a Prj from Computer 1 (System 7) to Computer 2 (System 10) the Prj files refuse to update. Have tried re-naming the Prj files-no effect, tried closing AM down before transfer-no effect. This involves 3 Material effector objects. When the transferred Prj file is opened on machine 2 the objects are in the Object list but will NOT show up in the Chor and with none of the animation that was saved. Have tried to replicate this with smaller sample Prj files without success. Also had this problem with Lights and Models not showing up when transferred. Anybody else run into this? Have run out of ideas to try. Any …
Last reply by svetlik, -
- 5 replies
- 698 views
Why don't the two "four-siders" in the selected group ("problem") form patches? It is not a problem of back-facing normals. What am I missing? Try it... HandProblem.mdl
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 5 replies
- 588 views
How's my Jabba model. Feedback tips all is welcome! Editing is also helpful to. jabba 2024.mdl
Last reply by Roger, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 249 views
I selected the hand bone and used the Ctrl Scale icon (top toolbar) to scale the hand and all its children finger bones. That worked but then all dem finger bonz disappeared from the pose window even tho they're turned on in the model view. Then I saw that there was a "Hidden" channel added to ALL those frickin' finger bonz in the relationship window. I had to delete that Hidden channel from all the finger bonz one at a time to make them reappear. So, my question is: Did I cause that to happen using the Ctrl-scale function? and is there a way to turn them all off easily?
Last reply by svetlik, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 411 views
ok some of my models have goten really complex so i was wondering if groups can be merged as i have like 200 on this one model and all there for is 5 differant colors
Last reply by phatso, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 923 views
Well, I've decided to get A:M. Even though I will post here again, I just wanna say thanks to you guys, these forums have been very helpfull with my decision making. So, I'm going to buy it in about three months or so, until then I'll make a good old fasioned analog effects mafia movie, and put off my fan film until I get A:M. Thanks again!
Last reply by Tacku, -
- 4 replies
- 743 views
i have been trying to post some pics and movies as attachments and it works up until it finishes loading then its like i never loaded it in the first place and help on this?
Last reply by Odog2020, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 834 views
Okay, I am this far on this tutorial. I have tried this tutorial a number of times since I first received A:M v11.1. [attachmentid=12934] Anywho, my question is this. I am about to start adding splines around the brow and cheeks, as it sais in the book, but do I do this like it was done in the Plane tutorial???? Or do I just click add, and just start from an exsisting CP. Thanks
Last reply by Odog2020, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 699 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
- 655 views
All the advice I've been getting is starting to bear fruit. The fish is attached to its own path, and an Action has been applied, and he swims and move his fins. But...it's this damned fog! I want some, but when he swims to the back of the circular loop, he disappears. I only have one camera, and I found the Fog settings. I punched in numbers repeatedly and nothing changed. Then I enabled IGNORE FOG. [ON] No change. Then I turned fog itself to OFF. No change. So...where's this fog coming from? [Thanks].[attachmentid=13144]
Last reply by Kelley, -
- 4 replies
- 584 views
Although I'm not exactly a new user, I think these questions fit in here nicely. 1. When a cp is selected and the turn manipulator is used in conjunction with the Ctrl key, the rotation is constrained to the vertical (I think it's the vertical). Is there another key to constrain a turn in the horizontal? 2. Is it possible to make and apply a cookie cut decal to a single patch, where the decal is smaller than the circumference of the patch, without making the edges that are outside the decal disappear? So far I have been unable to do that, but it may be the way I am making the decal with alpha and all. So far, when I apply a decal like that, say just a simpl…
Last reply by Eric2575, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 786 views
I have a group of students working on 30 sec animations in groups. Each person is working on diferent parts. My question is can you put 2 choreographys together in one project. The effect they are looking for is almost like a change of scenes. Is there a better way to do this? Andy
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 4 replies
- 527 views
Like a tire and rim that's speeding down the street, or in my case, the prop of a small airplane. I've got the prop boned, but I want the prop to look like it's going 5000rpm. How do I achieve that look?
Last reply by Eric2575, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 762 views
Is there a UK distributor now? I aks as more and more people are being charged crazy ammounts for software import duty from the states. e.g another app that costs the same cost another £70 ($124) just for import duty on top of the vat etc already paid. Cheers Mike R
Last reply by Stuart Rogers, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 704 views
Hi, I went to duplicate something in a simple model of a pegboard/coat rack kind of thing I need for a wall. I wanted to duplicate the pegs at certain intervals, but right clicking and going into the Wizards folder only revealed Extruder, Grid, Font, and AI. I created an HXT backup folder and stuck the Font Wizard in there temporarily, but then that only left the Grid and Extruder wizards as choices when I restarted the program. Is the Duplicator Wizard now unavailable in the Mac versions? I'm running Tiger here. Can I get it to work? At least to show up in the menu? Seana
Last reply by sbk, -
- 4 replies
- 607 views
I'm trying to create some 2D props with my scene. I have a pic of a tree with an alpha saved as a 32 bit TGA. I would like to apply this to either a plane or box and have just the pic of the tree visible. I've tried the decal feature but this still shows the geometery of the box it is stamped on. How to I set the transperancy so that only the tree is visible? While I'm at it, is there some place to get a detailed reference on the functions in AM? The manual that came with the software isn't very informative beyond it's tutorials.
Last reply by vealti, -
- 4 replies
- 674 views
Dose anyone know if there is a way to make a water mark on AM? if so plez let me know by emailing me
Last reply by Stuntmunky90, -
- 4 replies
- 697 views
I started to build another pseudo-WWI tank. The lower hull uses a stamped steel pattern. Each section is a closed six-sided box. Each side of each box has been individually selected and all other CP's hidden, and the steel pattened decaled on. All twelve sides should look alike. The project has been saved many times. However, upon re-starting A:M and opening the project, or, sometimes after a freeze-up and re-start, some sides will look smeared...as though the decal had been applied to one side without hiding the rest of the box. On this example, the side of the lower box is smeared fore and aft, while the bottom is smeared left to right. The other side. and the front and…
Last reply by Slipin Lizard, -
- 4 replies
- 822 views
hey anyone know of the best way to make animal fur/hair?? im tryin to make fur for my squirrel model
Last reply by the_black_mage,
