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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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- 4 replies
- 568 views
Hi, does anyone know how to render in 48 bit color in AM? To get the really loooooong gray scales Redgards KG Holmqvist
Last reply by Karl Gunnar Holmqvist, -
- 1 follower
- 13 replies
- 1.3k views
Help!!! I've seen on the forum that quicktime with sorenson 3 is great, but when I render the .mov its all black. What do I need to change? Also I read that only newbies render directly to quicktime. What is a good step by step process for rendering. I also see that everyone recommends rendering to .tga , why? How do you use it after its rendered to .tga? I know its a lot of questions, but I want professional results, and I'm not getting them yet. A:M 11
Last reply by lkwebb21, -
- 6 replies
- 681 views
What's up with this? http://homepage.mac.com/somniac/.Pictures/s02swerve.mov
Last reply by danf, -
- 1 follower
- 6 replies
- 767 views
The issue occurs when I use the render mode and depending on the detail involved, it will cause the program to show a 'not responding' message at the top of AM program's title bar (where the project name is listed). This issue also occurs in renderring lock mode, however, it works perfectly fine when renderring to a file. Working with AM v15.0 I disabled desktop composition. System Alienware Custom M17 Notebook Video/Graphics Card: Dual 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870 - CrossFireX™ Enabled! Processor: Intel® Core™2 P8400 2.26GHz (3MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB) Chassis: 17-Inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD (1200p) with Clearview Technology Operatin…
Last reply by Paul Forwood, -
- 21 replies
- 1.5k views
This model has rendered fine in the past. Now certain patches do not render in some frames, creating a flickering effect. I've uploaded a .mov file so you can see what's happening. I've also uploaded an image that I rendered previously. You can see that it rendered fine. I've been using A:M for years and this is the first time I've seen this happen. Any insight is much appreciated. Thanks
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 3 replies
- 573 views
Hello, Somehow I solved the problem of the character not mouthing the words from my previous post. I'm not sure what worked but the character now does mouth the words from the voice action. However, when I render the clip which is about 11 seconds long a couple of things are not right. First I have a picture in the camera shot which I imported. When I move through the frames in A:M the image is visible when I want and not visible as I've set the active option in the properties. However, in the AVI render the image does not appear. Also in the rendered AVI the dialog is greatly speeded up. Probably at least three times normal speed. But when flipping through t…
Last reply by greg, -
- 6 replies
- 682 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, -
- 1 reply
- 372 views
I have a couple minutes of animation, by my estimate, about a week's worth of rendering, and I'm going away for the weekend. Is there a way I can set my computer up to just "go!" while I'm away?
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 7 replies
- 1.5k views
hi all i go make my cartoon right now but i don't understand the use of render server and render slave - how to export a project to theses programs ? - if i understood, i export so to render server which makes run render slave ? under wine on linux i canno't directly run render slave thanx a lot for all, you are gentle people and i like it regards stéphane
Last reply by stefff285, -
- 5 replies
- 736 views
i was just curious, should i change any of the render settings to make a picture look more realistic (of a human with a pretty good mapping semi real looking) -hisako
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 779 views
I don't have the, preset settings in the render to file dialog, Is there any way to get them back?
Last reply by WillP, -
- 15 replies
- 1.2k views
last week i rendered a 5 mins work, i cant believe that i was 203mb, wat could have cause this and how can i reduced the seize of my rendered file
Last reply by Fuchur, -
- 3 replies
- 484 views
Hi All, I started doing the exercises in the TAoA:M book last night and was wondering if the render time I got on "A Chorus Line" was typical. I did a render to a Quicktime file and it took over 4 hours (using whatever the default settings are). I'm running a 1 GHz G4 MAC Powerbook with 1 GB ram, OSX Tiger, and AM version 12. Any insight would be helpful. Thanks, Keith
Last reply by kkessler, -
Render Times
by danf- 12 replies
- 1.1k views
What are the factors that influence render times?
Last reply by danf, -
- 1 follower
- 14 replies
- 1.5k views
Hi sorry to ask probably a silly question. But I have just finished a short film that is about 1minute long and it took 22hours to render is this normal or could it have anything to do with that fact I used an extra light and so created two lots of shadows. I'm using a MacBook with AM v15. Any help or advise will be great thanks.
Last reply by Gorf, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 418 views
Greetings, Animators! I'm not yet a newbie but will likely be in short order. I just discovered AM last night, and I'm about to part with some cash! It looks like the tool I've been searching for! But I have a few questions first... I'm using a recent Intel Mac and I'm wondering about AM's render speed being how it doesn't (yet?) the dual processors on recent Macs. Any Mac users out there care to share your experience with rendering? Any other Mac-specific info you care to share would also be appreciated! Oh yeah, on more thing... Any Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) issues encountered with AM? Thanks for the help! -Steve
Last reply by Shotster, -
- 2 replies
- 456 views
Hello all, sorry if this might have been asked before, I searched for a while, and couldn't find an answer. What I am trying to do is model objects that I want to render into single frame animations. I need the backgrounds to be transparent, or at least one solid color. The goal is to say model a tree or rock outcropping that I could render into a 2d image and paste it as a "billboard" on a plain in DarkBasic Pro. What I have done so far is to eliminate the ground in the chor and eliminate all unnecessary lighting. However, I can't seem to get the background color to a uniform color. If anyone has used AM for gaming apps, any ideas or methods would be greatly appreciat…
Last reply by mshihrer, -
- 16 replies
- 2.2k views
Why is the background to my choreography different when I render-to-file than when I am working with the choreography? This is my working screen. This is the rendered file. Walking_Lower_Body_F1.mov
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 6 replies
- 755 views
Hello, recently I discovered that while working with A:M for a while, and rendering things using a few of the different pre-set options, all of a sudden the pre-set rendering options started to dissappear! (see the picture below) Can anyone tell me if there is an easy solution to this? If it helps, I am using A:M 2006, and using a MacBook.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 2 replies
- 599 views
Hello, Is there any way to render an image so that the background is transparent in Photoshop. For example, say I have a character, but I don't want the background to be rendered. When I render the image the background shows up as transparent after I bring the image into Photoshop. Or do you have to render the image and then clip out the character like any normal photo. I was just wondering because I see cut out (clipped) 3D images and type used everywhere in graphic design layouts, but I don't know how they get those images into the layouts. I know Photoshop can simulate some 3D type effects, but the stuff I see seems more complicated than Photoshop simulated 3…
Last reply by Moonshine, -
- 3 replies
- 565 views
I am hitting the "render to screen" button (the one immediately to the left of the render lock button) and am not getting any output to the screen - it renders like it normally does but then never shows the image on the screen. Render lock seems to work normally. Anyone have any ideas what may be going on?
Last reply by mouseman, -
- 8 replies
- 487 views
ok quick question i have made a map in inchs that i would like to render for printing in real life to be in inchs as well , what is the best way to do this ( ie i want to have the grind that is 1 inch spaced to be 1 ince spaced when printed out)
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
- 1 reply
- 318 views
ok futhering my work on trying to make my dark matter effects i found that one basic once can be created by using toon lines, but this seams to be a full on off aspect. is there a way to render one object with toons on while the rest of the sceen stays normal?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 3 replies
- 316 views
I am working on a new character and was doing a quick render and the render came out w/ a black line around the eye - I haven't changed anything in the advanced options - it almost looks like a toon render, but toon render is off - anyone know what I am doing wrong?
Last reply by flashawd, -
- 1 follower
- 15 replies
- 983 views
Hi A:M users and specialists, I 've converted a logo from 2D to 3D by A:M and made it rotating. Now I wanted to render this rotating logo with "transparent" background. Is it possible by A:M to create an object surrounded by "transparency"? I hope it will be clear what is my problem. Thank You in advance for any help. Regards, Womil
Last reply by womil, -
- 6 replies
- 643 views
When I render to file a choreography that I have not touched except for placing a model in it, I get a different background color depending upon the file type I have chosen. Tga get me gray; mov gets black and jpeg is green Any one know why?
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 5 replies
- 1.9k views
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, -
- 3 replies
- 659 views
Im having big probs when i render.. i made a model with small yet amazing detail but when i render it, its hardly visable. how (when i render) do i get it to look more realistic. its really hard for me to explain this
Last reply by oakchas, -
When I render a scene and I add a bloom post effect, after rendering I get two windows...... One with the basic image and other with the bloom effect added..... now when I try to save the image with the bloom effect within A:M it saves it as a COMPOSITE.cmp file..... but I can't access it.....can't save it as a JPG..... I want the image with my bloom effect... any help would be great.......
Last reply by DarkLimit, -
- 4 replies
- 550 views
Hi i am new when it comes to animation master and was wonder if i can speed up the rendering process? I take me like 5 hours to do a 15 second clip but when i saw demonstrations it took them 30 seconds to rendering. I love the program ans everything works fine, I just want to know if i can speed it up.
Last reply by king braska, -
- 14 replies
- 1.5k views
I posted earlier that I haven't been yet able to try this software, so I have silly questions. I do hope I'm not testing any of your patience. I'm guessing there is a lot to animation, more than I'm aware of, and perhaps rendering is the least of it. I'm looking at A:M and Houdini Escape as options, and with a workstation ATI card in my laptop, Houdini renders faster than the other software I've tried(GPU rendering). Yet... A:M's TAO technical manual says that the patch exports take under a hundred patches and turn into thousands on a single character. Does this patch modeling and painting make rendering any faster? My processor is only an i5 in my laptop and fr…
Last reply by southpawami, -
- 4 replies
- 503 views
Hi Everyone, What is the best way to get a quick sample clip when Rendering? Are any of the video formats faster? I have just been choosing "LOW" for the resolution which seems to be quicker. Regards, Bob
Last reply by Jentham2000, -
- 1 reply
- 282 views
This is odd, and it happened once before, but it was awhile back and I forgot the fix. I am rendering a 5 second animation and have it set at 320x240, but it rendering the animation at around 150x120 with a black background filling up the additional space. Was this something to do w/ a camera setting, that I have set wrong?
Last reply by KenH, -
- 1 follower
- 3 replies
- 584 views
Ok, I'm building my house in AM, and needless the say the file size is growing and growing. As I build walls, I put the molding, light switches, vents etc, on that wall model. Now I'm wondering if I should put every model separate so when I render I can turn off the unneeded models. So....does AM only render what is is the camera view? Will I save render times if I turn off other models? If this is so, I'm going to have to do some rebuilding.....bummer.
Last reply by jimd, -
- 5 replies
- 786 views
Hi everyone, I was wondering if it was possible to render a spline as a line. The image below is where I would like AM to draw the line, but I'm not sure if I can get it to: Can I get AM to draw a line on a spline? Thanx everyone.
Last reply by johnl3d, -
- 3 replies
- 551 views
Hello, I've been experimenting with Ambient Occlusion and notice that it takes a lot of time at higher sample rates. I'd like to render AO at a lower rate (15%-20%) and then use the "denoise" post-effect to smooth out the dithered look. I've attempted to find the definitive way to do this in the forums, but have only gotten spotty information. Can anyone lead me to a tutorial that shows how to render and SAVE images that have been processed by the "denoise" (or other) post effects? Thanks a lot! Tim
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
- 4 replies
- 625 views
How do I solve this problem?
Last reply by Dascurf, -
- 4 replies
- 572 views
It used to be that A:M would do the "real time render" and show decals in shaded mode. But now I have to go to render mode to see that decals. Even on previous work? Anyone know what happened, and how I could change it back? Thanks, Myron
Last reply by TheSpleen, -
- 2 replies
- 586 views
Hey, guys-- I'm trying out A:M for a logo design that has decaled typewriter keys followed by 2-D panels with type set up to be cookie-cutter panels. It all renders fine as a standard rendering, but I was hoping to get a toon line version as well. The problem is, when I render it as toon lines, the "panels" holding the cookie-cutter type render only as rhomboid panels, and the decaling and cookie cutting render not at all. Furthermore, the decals don't render. I figger I could get around this by recoloring everything white (the bg color) and rendering it with flat shading, so the labels show up, but I was wondering if there is a way to get toon line rend…
Last reply by someawfulbridge, -
- 5 replies
- 831 views
Hey all. Having a real nightmare with this. I'm under the gun to get a banner done for a convention next week and I need to get the finished file off to the printer but A:M isn't cooperating. I've attached an image of the error I'm getting as well as the project file (I embedded all) I am working with and I'll attach the images I'm using as decals as well. There are two .tga files for one of the models and since this forum doesn't allow for the upload of .tga files I uploaded them at my forum. Here are the links since, there's not point in rendering the file for me if it doesn't look right. http://forum.remedialcomics.com/index.php?...98.0;attach=323 h…
Last reply by rasikrodri, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 620 views
Hi everyone, I've modeled a city. Floating over this city there is an objet which casts a shadow over the city. The shape of this shadow is changed by the geometry of the city, of course. I'd like to render the city in a pass and then hide the city and render only the floating object and its shadow but if I simply turn inactive the city, the shape of the shadow changes because it doesn't reach any surface but the ground and I'd like to preserve this shape in order to composite both render in postproduction... How can I do this? I've tried to include the city in the object's render but making the city to be flat white the same as the background in order to r…
Last reply by loserem, -
- 1 reply
- 371 views
I was making the pumpkin tutorial and made a mouth that I can't seem to "close to make rendering surfaces", as the tutorial states. I added a picture, any help would be greatly appreciated since all my previous attempts ended up with some grotesquely weird results. I really hope someone can help. Thanks for your time.
Last reply by Eric2575, -
- 0 replies
- 464 views
I have put together a long scene and I'm having issues rendering it. The clip is 57 seconds long. When I render 10 second clips of it, it turns out okay. But, when I render the whole thing, using final render settings, the image becomes a negative and the top and bottom are swapped (kind of like the old TVs with the "rolling" picture, only locked into a half roll). The preview screen as it renders is okay, as I check it periodically throughout the day. I am rendering uncompressed. Is there a specific setting combination known to render this kind of result?
Last reply by Dale_The_Bold, -
- 4 replies
- 554 views
I am currently rendering a test movie of a model I made, and have successfully rendered it into a "Final" format. However, when I try to render into a Wireframe or Shaded Format, I get the error message.... "Failed InitBoundRenderInfo" Does anyone know what settings that need to be set in order to render as such? Much Thanks...
Last reply by Neonomical22, -
- 2 replies
- 380 views
ok i set a 6 point crystal to render as lines but fo some reasion its still rendering the surface as well s the lines is there a way to turn this off.
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 2 replies
- 404 views
Just a question is there a way to render textures in not final mode , im trying to get texture to move/line up and it would work faster if it didnt take 5 mins to render one frame
Last reply by Fuchur, -
- 7 replies
- 732 views
Hello, I am working on a short character animation that will be imported into Flash as a sequence of jpeg images. Ideally these should be the images of the character only without the backgrouds (ground, light) so it can be incorporated with the existing Flash scene . I found that I can remove the default ground from the PWS but do not know how to get rid of the sky/light (whatever it is?) that is rendered together with the model. I know that A:M can do that (Merlin the assistant is a good example, it floats and fits to the scene) - any suggestions? Another issue I am struggling with is the combining two animation sequences. In this particular case I have a 1. charact…
Last reply by Yossi, -
- 2 replies
- 370 views
Is it possible to render an animation that begins in negative time?
Last reply by Desert Academy, -
- 1 follower
- 2 replies
- 367 views
Hi All, New-user here with a first-time post. I'm having a problem with rendering in AM. It used to work fine, but then I lost some of the presets (I only have multipass, sterophonic, and real time left). Then it started locking up the whole program with a blank window when I hit render. Now, it renders in under a second and without the same quality despite being set on "final". Is there a way to reset the render presets, or do I need to reinstall the whole program. Or, any other ideas? Thanks, Pete
Last reply by Pete-NY, -
- 1 follower
- 1 reply
- 483 views
I cannot figure out how to render my projects to where they run smoothly. They play as if they are a ticking clock. Stop,go,stop,go,stop,go. This even happens after the file has been completely loaded and played several times. How do I stop this?
Last reply by Rodney,