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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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- 12 replies
- 932 views
As I'm putting certificates together for those that completed The Art of Animation:Master in 2005 I'm reminded of a few of the obstacles that animators have run up against while working through the manual here in the New Users Forum. I can see a few things to help streamline the process of administration/certification on my end too. Everyone's ideas are solicited in an effort to keep TAoA:M fun and educational. If you've completed the exercises online in the forum I'd especially like to hear from you. Some of the things I'm hoping to implement this year include: Collect all the exercises into one user friendly interface on a webpage to launch off from. …
Last reply by Robert-Jank, -
- 1 follower
- 1 reply
- 742 views
I saw this in the contest...what does it mean to be "The Art of A:M" Alum? Edit: Wow, i must have selective sight...i was looking at the stickies but somehow i missed the one that completely explains this. very sorry.
Last reply by forevernameless, -
- 1 reply
- 385 views
Rod, Would you rather we each had our own thread that we placed all out exercises in (Like in the ABC), or (Like I've been doing) putting exercise # 5 in the Exercise # 5 thread with everyone elses #5? I've read people saying to do it both ways. Which would you prefer?
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 2 replies
- 385 views
hi all what are the diferences, advantages and disadvantages of rendering as targa and open EXR.
Last reply by petokosun, -
- 12 replies
- 821 views
Hello - I got this question all the way to the last part, and having trouble there. I am trying to play a 10 second video clip on a object (television) I created. I imported the video clip as a sequence of targa images, and set it as a decal on the (television). That worked great and when I scrolled across the timeline it played the video. The problem is when I pull the TV into a Chor it doesn't show the video when I render it. Not sure what I am doing wrong - is there a setting in the options that I am missing or something? Thank you - Eric
Last reply by MMZ_TimeLord, -
- 1 reply
- 403 views
sorry to annoy you guys yet again, but i have another question... how do you do teardrops on a face and such?
Last reply by Dhar, -
- 2 replies
- 532 views
Hello All, I am just trying how to figure out basic light placement and adjustments. I tried downloading the tech ref manual but I can't seem to download it from its current location. Is there another place where I can download the tech ref manual from? Also, does anyone know of any basic lighting tutorials? Mark.
Last reply by Mark3D, -
- 7 replies
- 1.2k views
Hi there, i continue with my questions: If i understand it right, in V17 i can load .OBJ, and remodell them with the snap to surface function, right? How complex can the .OBJs be? Next question: Even in polygonland, a quad is now the best thing to have. I learned to model with quads only, and where you use a 5 pointer in AM, you have five quads coming together. My question: Is there another way to make such a region appear smooth other than using the porcelain material? Best regards, Heiner
Last reply by Heiner, -
- 1 follower
- 14 replies
- 1.1k views
Hi Everyone, Someday I hope to make my own commercial, and perhaps even a short clip. I know I am WAY ahead of myself, but I am curious.... When creating a clip, do you create 4 or 5 choreography projects and then paste them together? If so, can it be done in A:M or is something else required? What techniques does someone use and has anyone ever made a tutorial or training vid for this. Also, I would someday like to add text in the clip such as subtitles and a tag at the end. Can it be done in A:M or is something else required? What techniques does someone use and has anyone ever made a tutorial or training vid for this. Thanks again, Bob
Last reply by Jentham2000, -
- 1 reply
- 465 views
Where do I find all the techtalk-movies?
Last reply by Fishman, -
- 1 follower
- 11 replies
- 1k views
I am considering purchasing this program to use for a middle school class on animation. Would the users of this program respond as to the ease of use for true beginners in the art of animation. I too will be learning with my students. Should we start smaller. I worry that the task may be daunting for teen animators.
Last reply by Gerry, -
- 2 replies
- 400 views
I am making t he liquid terminator thing from T2 and I was wondering what would be the best material for that.
Last reply by animation man hi, -
- 2 replies
- 479 views
OK here my problem i have created a image to be used with AM's terrain maker and it will successfully load in and build the terrain but when i try and view surfaces AM crashes. i have uploaded the picture listed below my ultimate goal is to have a map that a army or two of robots Can fly , drive.... what ever , so it has to be pretty big but i was sure that my computer should be able to handle that since the cp count shouldn't have been that big land.bmp
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
- 8 replies
- 1.1k views
I've had problems with the terrain plugin before, but now whenever I use it at all my computer comletely crashes! Is it something wrong with my computer or just the program? Can anyone help me?
Last reply by Masna, -
- 3 replies
- 444 views
OK heres the deal i have constructed a terrain in the form of a grid. there is a part that i want to flatten that contains around 25 cps . is there a easy way to make them rise/fall to the same selected level other than attaching a bone to each cp and modifying manually
Last reply by Fuchur, -
- 1 reply
- 449 views
Hey guys. I am making a sort of hilly / desert terrain. I want to use a displacement map for it. Can someone coach and refresh my memory about this. Thanks, Justin
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 8 replies
- 538 views
ok workign on my stuff i have come to realize that most of my current terrains look like a flat plane with parts pushed up , bt then i heard about the terrain tool , unfortunatly i know nothing about how to use it , any help
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 2 replies
- 529 views
I figured I would post this to show, I've working on walks, and doing some jumps, i decided to see if I could make a character just stand there and be believable as opposed to the static frozen pose. I've had AM for a week and half.
Last reply by Lee, -
For now I'm stuck with the 2002 version of this software, and I need to make some text. It would be tedious to model each letter from scratch, not to mention challenging, so I hoped there was a text option somewhere. There isn't. I've heard about some Wizard Font plug-in that provides text, so I looked it up on Google, hoping it was freeware I could download....no luck. Can somebody help me out?
Last reply by Distress, -
- 1 follower
- 1 reply
- 319 views
How do you create text in animation master v13 I need really cool text.
Last reply by Caroline, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 687 views
I am looking to purchase a 3D animation program and will need to use it for text animation as well as modeling. I do not see much about text animation on the hash website and I can't seem to find a demo verison to test it out. Is AM limited as far as text is concerned?
Last reply by higginsdj, -
- 2 replies
- 371 views
Could anyone tell me how i could animate text?
Last reply by johnl3d, -
- 2 followers
- 3 replies
- 625 views
Hi All, I figure I should start by way of introduction as this is my first post. I have never animated anything in my life. However, that did not stop me from picking up a copy of Animation Master at NAB 2006 after watching the demonstration a couple of times. Kudos to the demonstrator for a very lively demo and for knowing the product well enough to make EVERYTHING look easy! That being said, part of the demostration showed how one of the 'Tak' commercials was donw using objects layered in the camera's view. Something that stood out was that there was a card (for lack of a better term) off to the side that the camera panned over to that had the logo and inform…
Last reply by scottl, -
OK...I think i'm missing something here...Where is the text tool? I want to create text in my animations, but can't find the font wizard or anything? Thanks. Steven
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 3 replies
- 399 views
Ok my models or more presisly my terrain in a movie im makeing has gotten to the point where i can no longer rely on color to show what i want to that end i have aquired a 500X500 pixel image of sand that i wish to use only problem is that only 1/10 of the ground area will be sean at any one time. to that end i need to know how to "tile" this image on my terrain model so that when close up it looks like sand. ( if youve play supream commander youll know what i mean)
Last reply by Eric2575, -
- 9 replies
- 870 views
ok trying textures for a bit to reduce rendering times and have run into a problem here is a pic of the rendered image , you can see a belt of circut like textures surounded by a distortion of the rest . when in normal mode it looks like its fully covered by the circut texture part2.bmp here is a copy of the model i used Model9.mdl
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 13 replies
- 1.2k views
OK hopefully simple answer to a irritating problem . is there a way i can change the texture on one surface to that of another. OK what I'm trying to do is sort of a nanite eruption. theres a grass filled valley that gets hit with a missile of sorts, from the missile metallic lines radiate out wards eventually turning the entire valley into a metallic version. i already have the mats/textures for it i just have yet to find a application method. i know that Boolean cutters can create a new texture into what ever they cut in but i need something that mearly changes it not remove it out right
Last reply by Master chief, -
- 1 reply
- 397 views
OK iv heard in many post that one can use a texture map to make different types of materials , say I'm looking to make a material of hexagons with a small white area in between them is this what texture mapping can do ?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 4 replies
- 597 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, -
- 1 follower
- 2 replies
- 1.5k views
I am sitting in a Maya class (No fights intended, just part of my degree) For texture mapping, you take the model, cut it into parts, make a seam, and unfold it flat so you can add the texture. What is the equivalent in A:M? Do we have a way of flattening?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 13 replies
- 6.3k views
After very carefully placing the second decal, I realized that my targa file somehow did not keep the transparency mask I made for it in photoshop, so the "transparent" mapped white over my previous decal. I have a feeling the answer might lie in the "spherical" decal application method, but since I don't know how that works, I figure it can be part of the same question if it's the answer.
Last reply by NancyGormezano, -
- 1 follower
- 22 replies
- 966 views
Ok i know this is going to sound like a compleatly dumb question but iv have some how managed to lose my manual , ok how do i take a image file say a jpeg of sand and import it into AM
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 36 replies
- 2.6k views
I've read through the manual, but it seems it's nothing more than a textual version of the video tutorials, and doesn't seem to explain materials and textures very well... So I have this model of a small simple building. I'm trying to get an image of bricks applied to it, but on a single object, the texture displays every which way, and doesn't appear consistent across a single surface. Here's a screen shot. The texture in question was applied, but even on a single wall it's quite wonky... SO what am I missing here? Why do I have this sneaky suspicion that the way the texture lies on the object depends heavily on how the object itself was built... Please te…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 977 views
I find that if a texture is applied 'planar', it looks as it ought to. [unless stretched over a large area] But if textures are applied spherically, or cylindrically, [even if the bounding box area is reduced to fit] they want to look blurry, or smeared across the object. Has anyone else had this problem?
Last reply by Eric2575, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 438 views
ok iv finished a few models but theres currently a little grey, know i have found quite a few mat files that have some cool effects though it seams to take 3-5 mns just to render a singal frame , my question is is there any way to speed this up so that say 5 mins of film dose not take 3 years to render
Last reply by largento, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 555 views
question, is there a way to tweak the gold, in the a.m. libraries to look like this picture? i want to have the gold render with the lines in it like this picture, its more realistic looking, or do i have to find a gold texture? thx
Last reply by Xtaz, -
- 7 replies
- 834 views
Hello everyone What is the one best method of texturing models in AM? I know there's Decals and Stamps, and I've seen the various videos on this topic @zandoriastudiosvideo on YouTube was a big help Although it seems the process might be a little too involved? Or has it changed in recent versions of AM? Is there a video tutorial that explains the process of taking a model to texturing and decaling and baking for export? Thanks!
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 reply
- 371 views
Im having a heck of a time with this one. Im working on a planet shot of SATURN and the globe itself is fine but doing the rings is killing me. Found some MAPs for transperancy as well as a separate one's for color. Nothing I cant duplicate my self but the problem is that it is just a cross section of the disk. Basically when you look at it, its just bands of various color or lines contained in a rectangular framed picture ( if you can figure out that discription). I have no idea on how to get the one stamp to repeat itself around a selected axis so that when it renders you get bands of transperancy around the disk. Does that make any sense? I have been beating my …
Last reply by NancyGormezano, -
- 1 follower
- 1 reply
- 314 views
I am trying to find tutorial on how to texture clothing. Not just simple textures but fine details and patterns.No luck so far.
Last reply by itsjustme, -
- 3 replies
- 1.2k views
Hi, I am currently running on the trial version and I am making a game for Panda3d. So Far I love AM for it's modelling and animation capabilities but now i'm wondering how I can get that data over to Panda3d. They use a egg format but i think I can do .x to .egg with their converter. If decals are how we apply textures how does that map to UVs? I would really love to just decal my models and have it come over some how but maybe there is another way? Sorry if this is covered already i just couldn't find it with search. Thanks! Aetheria
Last reply by Fuchur, -
- 5 replies
- 715 views
Anyone know of anything I can use to convert TGA files to PNG fast like a batch converter that will actually keep the alpha channels? I've tried a bunch of converters, but they all ignore the alpha and I end up with an image that has a black background instead... Thanx guys.
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 2 replies
- 675 views
Thank you to everyone for there help these past few weeks. and a happy New Year. simonMessage.mov
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
- 1 reply
- 505 views
Hello Luckbat, Thank you for giving the correct answer in your second reply. Niels. ps. If others are wondering, look here ps2. There are unfortunatly alot of people who read one or more sentence's with their own anger, beware don't let this happen to you.
Last reply by luckbat, -
- 8 replies
- 976 views
Just wanted to a. say thanx to Robocat for all the help. And here's a little of my work. I know its very very rough but for 4 months and no back ground I am proud:) http://www.youtube.com/user/Hazard6211#pla...l/1/23Wx9i24P9o
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 912 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, -
- 5 replies
- 810 views
Hey Rodney! I just want to thank you for your never-ending efforts to cheer on the new users who come to A:M. Thank you for using your powers for good and not for evil. Continue cheering for truth, justice and the A:Merican way! If only a certain former cheerleader were more like you...
Last reply by Rodney, -
I'm still new at all this, but to all you that have helped me and all you that probably will in the future (haha), a big heartfelt thanks to all the information you guys have given me. Hope all your holidays are great! Steven
Last reply by flashawd, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 911 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, -
- 12 replies
- 1k views
How would you go about making the abyss from the movie the abyss.
Last reply by thefreshestever, -
- 10 replies
- 1.1k views
Has anyone out there used the AI plug in that comes with Animation Master? I am trying to bring in a logo from an illustrator file and I can locate the file no problem, the option dialogue box comes up, but when I hit "ok" nothing happens. The model window just sits empty. Anyone actually been able to create a 3D logo with the AI plug in?
Last reply by ArfGraf,
