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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.
4,157 topics in this forum
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- 2 followers
- 13 replies
- 773 views
Hi all, I have a question related to setting up a project. I'm building a set that will be used for three or more animations in different parts of the set.(different camera set ups) What I want to know is would I be better off to copy this choreography several times and set up my cameras for the different animations or just keep building off one timeline? I was debating because copying the three choreography's would add to the project size, but so would adding to one time line. I was also thinking that if I used 3 sets, I could eliminate (or hide) different parts of the set that were not visible to help decrease the render time. Just wondering what the "P…
Last reply by bighop, -
- 1 follower
- 3 replies
- 458 views
Hi I am trying to apply a decal to my model, but every time I bring it in, it appears it appears very pixellated (large pixels). The original photoshop psd file is 7670kb and is very clear and sharp. I have tried saving it as as jpg, bmp and tga files of different sizes and reducing/enlarging them, and varyious resolutions but it always seems to come in to AM the same. I have searched the AM forums for an answer to no avail. I'm sure someone out there knows what I am doing wrong or will know the resolution! Thanks in anticipation Hoggy
Last reply by NancyGormezano, -
- 2 replies
- 362 views
Hello - I created several pose slider - the one for example is "mouth open" - it goes from 0 to 100%. To start the animation I set it at 30% slightly open about 3 seconds later I set it to 50% which is where it stays for about 45 seconds then at 45 seconds I set it to 50% again and then set it to close at around 50 seconds. What I don't understand, and I have noticed this with other pose sliders it doesn't maintain an exact 50% from where I have it set at 3 seconds and then 45 seconds - that time inbetween both setting of 50% it goes to 51% then 53%, etc. It is very frustrating - is this something I am doing wrong?? Thanks for any help.
Last reply by flashawd, -
- 3 replies
- 372 views
Hello - odd problem. When I drop a new object/model into my chor the "cast shadow" from the main light disappears. When I turn the object active "on" the cast shadow disappears - then on the next frame that I make the object active "off" the shadow comes back. The object is far away from the light, so that isn't an issue - has anyone run into this problem? Thanks, Eric
Last reply by flashawd, -
- 1 follower
- 3 replies
- 438 views
Hi all, I have the subscription program and in my textures folder there are .atx files and am unable to open them, so do I need to get a special plugin for them or what? the error message says invalid file type or plugin missing. Where can I get the plugin needed? Thanks
Last reply by agep, -
- 4 replies
- 314 views
Hi - I created a blobbies material/emitter with one attribute w/ a diffuse color of white - for some reason I am getting small black specs that I don't want in there. It is supposed to be teeth shaving from a dental drill. I want them to be white/lite grey. I also have a 90% transparency set. First time I have played around w/ blobbies, so I don't really know what I am doing... but that really isn't anything new. Thanks Eric
Last reply by flashawd, -
- 2 replies
- 338 views
Hi, Set up a project with all 13 actors, a new action for each of them and then dropped a shot audio to each. Then made up a dope sheet seperately for each one adn noticed that only a few generated 'user properties' to move the lips. Surprisingly two that didn't generate teh lipsync were Sir Nigel and teh Skeleton (and I haev used both of these previously with lip-sync). I guess the first question is whether or not the basic set of actors that come with AM can be used with LipSync/DopeSheets - should I haev been able to get lip movement from all the 13 actors within their respective actions? Is there any way of examining an actor's properties (either in t…
Last reply by LensOnLife, -
- 8 replies
- 619 views
this is a bit elimentary. But can any one xplain how i can render a 5 point spline so that the patches can be seen
Last reply by Gerry, -
- 2 replies
- 303 views
ok i made a try with making hair and have wound up with what looks like a decent head made out of tubes with points at the end , my question is what would be the best way to texture the modle to look like hair , preferably a red head deal
Last reply by Master chief, -
- 4 replies
- 340 views
Hello - I have a decal on an object (tooth) the tooth has a gradient decal image I created applied to it. I created a pose slider that I want to be able to have at 0 with the decal percentage set at 0 and then at 100 have the decal percentage at 100. So it would fade the decal in and out when moving back and forth. What it is doing is making the whole tooth transparent when you slide it to 0 - but it is the "decal" image that I am appying the percentage to - does anyone know what I am doing wrong and what it doing it to the whole tooth and not just the decal? Thanks for any help - Eric
Last reply by flashawd, -
- 2 replies
- 288 views
I first bought AM in 1999. Upgaded in 2002 (v9 ?). Ran on various PCs. Took a break for a few years but ready to start again. Bought subscription for v15 and installed on a Vaio VGC-RA830G. running great and getting reaquainted. Now for a few questions: 1. I have a Mac notebook. I tried to install v9 using my CD but it won't install. Since I originally installed it on a PC is that license only good on PC's? 2. Assuming I need to buy another subscription, how will the performance be. It is a MacBook (not pro) 2.2 ghz Intel Core 2 duo processor. 2GB memory with 4 MB L2 cache. Is this adequate or is performance going to be agonizing? Thanx, looking for…
Last reply by planecrazy, -
- 9 replies
- 508 views
Hi - I have a dentist client that wants an animation of the process of Veneers being put on. I need to illustrate a dental drill shaving down the tooth a bit. I am guessing a "blobbies" particle material or something? I would love any suggestions or samples of something someone might have done similiar to the effect I am trying to achieve. I have delt w/ smoke and fire before, but not w/ blobbies. Thanks for any help, Eric
Last reply by flashawd, -
- 13 replies
- 602 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, -
- 2 followers
- 7 replies
- 411 views
I'm new to AM and really have no desire to design or model, I primarilly do this as a hobby, my interest is animation using existing models and characters. I started out using Daz and found its animation tools were limited, switched to Poser and again found it also had its limitations and frustrations. My goal was to create a DVD intro for my home theater hobby. I wish to create short animations that would describe the genre of the movie that would be playing i,e. adventure, horror, sci fi etc. Since I've collected many different theme models and scene's made by Daz, poser and 3dmax, I'm now wondering if these models can be inported into AM for animation. After many …
Last reply by sumthinwong, -
- 5 replies
- 405 views
Hi all, Can anyone tell me what determines the start of a path? I'm working on a SO shot and I have a crow constrained to a path that I had to modify by adding a few splines and now It's starting at the end of the path. I know I could use ease to make it work but I just want to understand how it works. So what controls where the start of a path for a model is. I need to get the crow on the other end of the path spline. George
Last reply by Jeetman, -
- 7 replies
- 562 views
I have a question about this splines whether or not it will work, and if there will be any issue during an animatiion. CHEERS!
Last reply by StormedFX, -
- 2 replies
- 289 views
ok i have a model ripped from a game and unfortunatly its in poly mode and as most of you have told me just rebuold it from scratch , so this s what im going to do , one thing i would like is to be able to take the polygon model and lock it in place so i can see it but cant click on it or select it , any one know how to do this as im sure its going to bea real easy but i cant find out how to do it right know
Last reply by Master chief, -
- 2 replies
- 378 views
Hi, I have used the standard Eddie character, set up an action for him, added some voice and then added a dope sheet. Adjusted the widths to sync lips with voice, everything worked fine but the lip movement is far too large for what I want - in fact it looks totally unrealistic. I went in and adjusted the percentage for each phoneme at each change in the timeline, so that action looks OK, but it will be very cumbersome if I have to do this every time I do lip syncing and I am sure there must a cleaner way around this problem. Maybe I was dreaming, but I seem to remember a slider that could be used to change the range for an action - as I said maybe I was dream…
Last reply by LensOnLife, -
- 1 reply
- 490 views
Quick question... I am having trouble finding an answer to. I am saving an animation as an image sequence. Those images are .bmp's, although the same problem occurres with .png and .tga When I then import these images into A:M as a layer, they are like 90% transparent. What am doing wrong when I save as image sequence???
Last reply by Ganthofer, -
- 14 replies
- 1k views
Hello AM'ers.... been away for awhile, now I'm back. I've been having a problem for some time and haven't seen a forum that addresses this, there are so many to look through. When I'm posing a model periodically the figure will appear to stop moving (except a small area) and I have to click off the figure to regain control of the mouse, meanwhile the figure will have moved. It's difficult to control the posing when you can't see where you're moving something to. I've tried posing in wireframe, shaded, both and the problem still happens. It comes and goes as I'm moving bones about. Any suggestions would be most appreciated. Kevin
Last reply by playerktw, -
- 1 follower
- 21 replies
- 1.3k views
i made another face; i think this one is less flat. How does it look? Still not my final production; sorry i lied in that other forum saying i wouldn't post again, but now i think i need to so i can learn more.
Last reply by phatso, -
- 5 replies
- 650 views
suppose im working on a project and its got or some obscene number like 200 models in the coreography is their a way to organize the models in the coreography, like group them together, or place them into folders?
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 7 replies
- 500 views
Newbie here. THe knight pitch chapter was hard I hope it gets easier! Definitely is fast to do though and provides outstanding results. This program was worth the money.
Last reply by grymmjack, -
- 1 follower
- 17 replies
- 1.1k views
Hey all, I just purchased A:M and got done installing it. The installation process seemed to go okay(although the status bars were a bit quirky). But after I got the 'installation complete' sign and hit finished I tried to open the thing. And it never opened. I uninstalled and reinstalled but I keep getting this 'Please insert the correct CD-ROM(HASH), select OK and restart application' error... I don't really get it, considering I can be running the DIAG application off the CD and still get this error. Any help please?
Last reply by jup, -
- 5 replies
- 590 views
Hi I am really inspired to make a superhero movie with animtion master. So does anyone have a batman model. I know there is the russian batman but I need a regular one please. oh an maybe a iron man and a Joker.
Last reply by animation man hi, -
- 1 follower
- 7 replies
- 733 views
i exported a wav file from adobe sound booth, and tried to import it into Animation Master, but AM doesnt seem to like my audio file for some reason. what kind of prerequesits must my audio files need in order for AM to accept them?
Last reply by eptigo, -
- 2 replies
- 368 views
I have a character with a skirt and I have applied smartskin to it. However, somehow I put in a couple extra keys in where they shouldn't be. How to I remove them?
Last reply by MasterFunk, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 582 views
please could anyone explain how newton physics is applied to animation master
Last reply by mouseman, -
- 16 replies
- 1.3k views
my mom is an artist (on paper no 3D for her), and i can draw a little, but i'm not remarkable. my question is - are any of you who use this program are remarkable artists? can you sculpt things out of clay and draw realistically? my mom thinks i should use modeling clay to sculpt a face before i model one in A:M. did any of you do anything like that? i don't want to model photo real looking people, but people that are slightly realistic (anime-ish) i'll give you a picture of this doll; just slightly realistic like her.
Last reply by phatso, -
- 2 replies
- 334 views
When I apply two bones to a mesh setting cp's bone weight and I bend or rotate one of the bones, the model getting thinner. I am trying to use bone weight function to my model's joint like knees and elbows so I want it to keep the same thickness. I know I can do it using fan bones with constraints, but I want to do it with bone weight because I want use my model in my 3D games and so I want my models to be simple as much as possible. Does anyone can advise me how I avoid my model getting thinner with bone weights? Thanks,
Last reply by gedo831, -
- 2 followers
- 13 replies
- 743 views
Hello to all, I'm new, just bought the program from the demonstrators at Comic-con San Diego. This looks like fun and not too hard to get started. Don't know if I'll end up doing something great but I'll have fun trying. I hope to meet new friends along the way.
Last reply by Blue, -
- 1 follower
- 2 replies
- 445 views
i can make eyes, and now a decent mouth; but my weakness (besides connecting a face) is making a good nose. i can make one without nostrils, but since i'm aiming for semi-real, i do want the characters to have nostrils. i've tried drawing the nose from a profile view, i've tried drawing the bottom of the nose and extruding it upwards (it works but the bottom turns out flat and the nostrils don't show) and i've tried drawing it flat and then bringing it outwards. That one worked the best, but the nostrils end too big (which might be okay for some noses but not all) i need to know do any of you have any other tricks or techniques for making a nose?
Last reply by phatso, -
- 5 replies
- 559 views
Hi. I've just purchased a subscription to AM and I'm trying to work through the Tank tutorial. I have downloaded the Zevel plugin and placed it in the Hash/V15/hxt directory but am unable to load it within AM. I have checked the Tools/Options/Folders and this directory is listed. I have also tried putting Zevel in an AM Plugin directory and adding this to the Tools/Folder list but it still won't load. BTW, I also notice that the only plugins available to me when I click on Wizards/Plugins are Terrain/Font/Grid/AI and Extruder. The other plugins originally installed with AM(eg. Treez) are not available. I would appreciate any ideas on how to solve this p…
Last reply by mal, -
- 2 replies
- 317 views
There are several things I was wondering, the first thing I was wondering was that how do you make a liquid concentrated, like goop, but it falls like slime or drool (I use 200 for the Viscosity... yet the liquid stays suspended in the air, it doesn't ooze to the ground like I want it to)? If this option isn't available, maybe a future request for an ability like that? Another question is, how do I reduce the speed in which the liquid is shot out? For example... I want the liquid to come out slowly, yet it is shot out as if it were going 200 mph. Any info would be helpful, Rav
Last reply by photoman, -
- 5 replies
- 382 views
Hello - I am making a walk cycle for a new character I created and I am trying to "copy" and "paste mirrored" frames, but for some reason it isn't copying and pasting part of it - from the "hip bone" up - so Hips, head, back, and back 2. Any ideas on why? Thanks - Eric
Last reply by flashawd, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 400 views
I have made an walk cycle for an character of mine. This action is repeated approximately ten times in the chor. However, in the middle of the walk I need the character to do some other movements whit his hands, head and torso, while still walking. What is the best approach to set up this? blending in some other action?
Last reply by Jeetman, -
- 1 follower
- 14 replies
- 733 views
i'm still working on that same head from another topic, but i've deleted most of so i could start over. I added two rings around the eyes and one around the mouth ( i was told to do that in another forum). but know i'm not sure how to go about connecting the eyes nose and mouth. i managed to connect them earlier but the face wasn't smooth and the lips didn't come out quite right. First- how do i connect the parts? Second- how do i make the lips protrude naturally? thanks if you can help ~Hisako
Last reply by Jeetman, -
- 1 follower
- 8 replies
- 655 views
So, I had an urge to do a simple model that quickly grew into a serious monster... I wanted to model a simple stick of RAM for a computer. The first step was to scan both sides of it so I'd have a good reference. Then I thought, I could make this ultra simple and just made a model the same shape as the main circuit board of the stick of RAM and apply the image of the front for a decal and I'm done. (Patch count at this point 51) Well, when I rendered it, it looked good, but very 'flat' to me. So, I figured, Well, I can extrude it, clean it up some and then apply the image of the front and back to ... well, the front and back and see if that helps. (Pat…
Last reply by MMZ_TimeLord, -
- 1 follower
- 3 replies
- 450 views
hey everyone, here's the deal. We bought this software couple of years ago, and never did anything with it. Now the boss man has "asked" that i learn it....i am a video production guy, NOT an artist. I need some help learning this stuff...i can walk through tutorials, but when i start building things on my own i just can't get it to work. Any suggestions, thoughts, videos, that will help me. thanx jay
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 3 replies
- 498 views
ok thankts to help from you guys ive been able to extact a model from a game and then import it to 3ds max remove unneeded models and export to AM , thing is when importing it asks for a testuxe file and i point it to where it is , it than says its not a valid file and fails to load the textures and the entire model is plasted in grey, any thoughs
Last reply by StormedFX, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 577 views
I set up a character (Eddie) to look like he is swimming under water by kicking his feet. I have three frames setup so that his feet look like they would be constantly moving. Eddie lives in a workd that is about 12 seconds long. The three keys I made for his feet kicking is about 24 frames long. Any suggestions to sorta "copy and Paste" the 3 keyframes to the animation line for the full 12 seconds? I'm only on TAOA:M lesson 6 and don't remember coming across this. Thanks all. SMC
Last reply by El-manchego, -
- 3 replies
- 402 views
Hello everyone, this is my first post since I have only been using the program for a few hours. I'm understanding everything so far from the tutorials (no problem). My question is, How can I make my personal videos (from video camera) as the backround to my animations? I just bought this program this week at a convention, and the demonstrator showed us an example that you can do it with this program. Thanks for the help...
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 9 replies
- 837 views
Any tips on importing a video rotoscope into the action window? Only the first frame appears and I can't seem to find any explanations on how to set the properties - length, crop, range - in the technical manual.
Last reply by PaulX, -
- 1 follower
- 10 replies
- 702 views
Hi - I am practicing w/ hair and was trying duplicating the orange hair sample at the bottom of this page http://www.hash.com/Technical_Reference/v110/Hair.htm I get everything, but the issue that I am having now and awhile back is the hair is not taking it's color from the underlying surface's color (CellTurb conbiner) it is white. Is there some setting on am not doing? Thanks for any help.
Last reply by flashawd, -
- 3 followers
- 12 replies
- 1.2k views
Hey I had AM a year or so back and got busy and ended up giving it up and now am considering coming back to it. My question does anyone know about any decent and affordable motion capture suits that are compatible with AM as well as maybe some tutorials for it. Thank you all for your time and I am sorry if this has already been posted.
Last reply by Alejandro Munoz, -
- 2 replies
- 376 views
Hi - I am having an issue w/ hair on my model, so I created a new hair material and didn't change any of the settings and applied it to a half circle from the library. I applied the exact same hair material to a part of my model and the hair is coming out odd... very large on the model - does this look familiar to anyone? Not sure why it is doing this. The first image is the hair material on part of my model - the second is on the half circle. They are around the same size to 6" Thanks, Eric
Last reply by flashawd, -
- 11 replies
- 845 views
does any body else use open GL as the graphics card with A:M? if so does your rotoscope work? in another forum i was told to use Direct X, but the version i had was old so i was told to update it to a newer version. i did, and when i went into A:M options and choose direct X; it gave me an error message. I still can't use my rotoscope which is VERY limiting to me. does anybody have any other suggestions? (the direct X i downloaded was Microsoft Direct X SDK March 2008) thank u Hisako
Last reply by Jeetman, -
- 1 reply
- 423 views
ok i need a sort of psi-fi bolt for a gun im doing and so far i eather get some thing that looks like a greay blob of something that dose not render at all , any ideas or suggestions
Last reply by clonewar12345, -
- 2 followers
- 3 replies
- 407 views
Ok been working a lot of the tutorials off the web site and even purchased the training videos form 2005, have a problem. A lot of the keyboard shortcuts don't seem to apply to the new version 15.0c So my question since I don't have the hard copy of the manual, just the .pdf from the web site where can I find a list of the newest shortcuts. It seems to me that the shortcuts are the key to most of the modeling which is what i want to learn, gotta have a character before you can make it move!
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 1 follower
- 9 replies
- 446 views
Alright, this is my first time making my own skeleton and I need help. I don't know how to get the target to bend the legs like on the 2001 skeleton and it is really frustrating me. I am uploading the skeleton to see if anyone could help. Add or remove bone and targets if needed. It is for a Super Battle droid so I have no finger bones or toe bones to worry about, but if you need to add any type of bone for the toes or legs or in any other place, be my guest. Feel free to mess around with the skeleton. Please tell me if someone has any progress. And if it wouldn't be too much, could you explain the steps in order (that's an option if you choose to help) Thanks for any o…
Last reply by captainrex,