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977 topics in this forum
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This is a growing trend and one we are likely to see a lot more of in the future. Of interest are two primary things: Raw production material for inspiration and study (and as starting point for other production) Looking behind the screen into how a production is planned and produced, studying the assets used and gaining insight into approaches used. A means of increasing value and return of revenue* Many of the assets used in a production will never been seen again and (rather sadly) will often be lost forever (especially in a digital world). Sharing of these assets can be a means to keep the originals intact as well as to maintain interest (current and historical) as…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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http://www.thewrap.com/disney-interactive-closes-disney-infinity/ Surprises me.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I saw a mention of this JPEG standard and thought it of interest because it proposes to address some issues with the current standard. Specifically, the XT flavor seeks to address issues of higher bit compression, HDRI imaging and... the alpha channel. JPEG with Alpha... that's been needed for a very long time now... and using alpha channel with both lossy and lossless processing would be a welcome addition to the format. For more info: https://jpeg.org/jpegxt/ For some open source software that reads and writes the format: https://jpeg.org/jpegxt/software.html On the downside: The JPEG standard itself has some limitations of usage due to patents.
Last reply by Rodney, -
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I'm having issues with a rig i put on a character.... specifically (believe i mirrored bone plugin after using the 2001 rig as a base) my right forearm can rotate in all three axies... however my left forearm can only rotate in the y-axis (or the green circle). I can not figure out how to fix this and really don't want to have to start from scratch. Can anyone give me a hint or clue??? Thanks for your time
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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All are welcome and encouraged to contribute their approaches, best practices... recipes for success... to this topic. May the best days of productivity be ahead of you. I recently moved a bunch of files from my main harddrive to an external drive and it has me thinking about why I had set up that directory in the first place. I want to share my thoughts related to this because I'm trying to learn (mostly from my mistakes) and to move forward to the next stage (whatever that may be). Some time ago I made a change in the way I organized files on my harddrive (as I tend to be a very disorganized person and need structure). A critical change for me was to cre…
Last reply by largento, -
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I recently saw the rumor but it apparently is a done deal... http://deadline.com/2016/04/jeffrey-katzenberg-reaction-dreamworks-animation-sale-comcast-1201746411/
Last reply by Rodney, -
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The Tinkering Gnome clued us in to this site that frequently presents 100% discounts on software. (Thanks John!) On occasion some pretty useful software is shared. I've hesitated in the past to post some of these offerings for a number of reasons but I've found several of the software packages useful for myself so they might be for others as well. The way it (generally) works is that in exchange for your email address and occasionally a request to share the link to the site with others you get an activation code. Sometimes the code is one specifically used with that promotion. Other times its the same as you would receive straight from the software developer. …
Last reply by Rodney, -
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I saw Zootopia on Thursday night. I went in with mixed feelings, but really enjoyed the movie. I was amazed at the number of characters and what it would take to rig them. From a technical aspect I think Disney did a great job. Steve By the way I go to all the 3d animated films, well I did not go see Norm of the North
Last reply by Rodney, -
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For those of you that want to delve into the world of PBR materials and texturing this might aid you in getting that ideal texture onto your model in A:M. Basic workflow would be to export OBJ models from A:M which would then be used as the basis for texturing your spline based models in A:M or to import as Props. This was (apparently) the the primary program used to texture that real time animation recently featured by Unity 3D and according to the hype (and 3D world) is 'this year's best texturing application'.* I note that there is currently a 40% off banner on their site so for those with the $ to splurge it might be worth investigating. Photorealistic text…
Last reply by detbear, -
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Autodesk has gobbled up yet another company. This time the makers of the Arnold renderer, Solid Angle. Here's an interview delving into the decision to sell to Autodesk (the owner and originator of the Arnold renderer) courtesy of MIke Seymour at FXguide: https://www.fxguide.com/featured/autodesk-buys-arnold-2/ Two primary takeaways: - This will be the first time Autodesk has an in house high end renderer (other renderers have been licensed. Ex: Mental Ray/NVidia) - According to the article "Rendering is certainly one of the hottest areas in 3D right now". This no doubt ties in with Autodesk's longer term plans for render in the cloud. Recent deals l…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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I mentioned this briefly in the plugins topic but want to separate it because I think it is one of those 'features' anyone with time and patience can create. There also could be potential benefits in the realm of plausible/physical based rendering/lighting, etc. Furthering the initial questions I find myself wondering if a variant of the spinning light trick, used for global illumination might be shoehorned in such a way as as to create environmental data used for positioning, lighting and... more esoterically... heat. (This even harkens back to a very old posit on albedos... not taken seriously... which interestingly is now at the fore in physically based rendering…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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My apology if the following linked resource has been posted before. There is a lot of misinformation about copyright and fair use out in the wild and I recently read an article that attempted to shed some light on the subject. I haven't vetted the article itself nor examined it for links more appropriate for 3D animation but the article did reference some publications that can and do speak for themselves. One of those publications primarily concerns itself with the plight of the documentary filmmaker, who navigates an increasingly difficult arena of copyright laws and limitations but many aspects of fair usage they claim as self evident cross pollinates into common …
Last reply by Rodney, -
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The current forum banner (over the Latest Info forum) is a single frame from a 500 frame sequence rendered straight out of A:M with one exception; it was resized (to a lower resolution) in an image utility called Irfanview. Where I have the option I prefer to use images rendered directly out of A:M; this is something of a 'purist' view. I would relate this to what most would assume is the approach of PIXAR which is to forego any compositing, post production etc.; what comes directly out of the renderer is what will be used. This is the A game of animation. The ideal environment in which to produce. The B game is what most of us tend to use if for no other reaso…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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I don't really need one of these but I WANT ONE. xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pl7xM6atCQ I don't see an anticipated price yet. Sold only through resellers a this point. 96TB of capacity on the desktop up to 2600MB/s speeds RAID 5/6 Specifically designed for use with data from 4/5/6K cameras. For those with the need you can sign up to win a free one here: http://textseagate.com/nab/signup/
Last reply by Rodney, -
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I'm not sure this is actually news as Apple hasn't supported/updated Quicktime for Windows in a long time but... some folks are even recommending an uninstall to avoid exploits that might take advantage of the static code and critical flaws. Ref: LINK The bigger question becomes one of what format to use instead of .MOV format when that is a primary format for A:M (at least the 32bit version). According to a recent Ruetuers report even the US government has an opinion: The warning does not apply to QuickTime for Apple's Mac computers.
Last reply by Rodney, -
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I just returned from seeing the new movie and... This is an impressive movie on many levels. What perhaps surprises me most is that I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as the original animated version that is such a classic. No spoilers here except to say the film remained faithful is significant ways to the animated film. I was surprised by that too. Two other things that was a bit wary of going in but turned out to be just fine and well executed: - The film intentionally exaggerates scale on and they work that element like it's almost a character itself. As such it enhances the experience in significant ways and enlarges our view of the jungle especi…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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As more and more collaborative teams hit the internet to bring their projects to life small and large services are popping up to address that need. In the past I've mentioned a few and several of those have since had significant upgrades. Shotgun (recently purchased by Autodesk) is one that gets the majority of press because they got a head start on their competition and have invested deeply in the features needed to bring projects through production. Frame.io is another of these services. Will it work well for your next project? Answer: It depends. On the low end (the space which most independent creators occupy) where a team of two or three work on a pro…
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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Go check out this software. It's for special effects, compositing and video editing and it's free for the PC and the Mac today only. http://hitfilm.com/express/free The pro version (which adds 3D and particle effects) is also deeply discounted. Go get it quick!
Last reply by Rodney, -
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Flash plugin users (that's almost everyone) on all platforms should update theirs immediately because of a new serious bug discovery that has been discovered. Adobe releases patch for major Flash vulnerability heres how to download it See post #7
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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TED Talks presents a talk with PIXAR's Danielle Feinberg on Lighting in PIXAR films. Well worth the watch (especially for those that had their dreams of being artists crushed as young children): LINK Note that is you see a download link that allows subtitles don't opt for the subtitles as the download appears to fail. Download without subtitles instead or simply stream the playback.
Last reply by Rodney, -
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I have this old reference Keyboard shortcuts are they all still the same in V18
Last reply by Maniac, -
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I've been testing out various aspects of A:M that I don't use much and this is one. It's interesting that Chuck Gram mentioned 'Arnold' in another topic and I was wondering if he was watching what I was rendering while he posted! Here's a random STL file downloaded from Thingverse (I had visited there due to Paul Harris's post about 3D printing an animatronic eye setup). The background image (and environment map) is also a random image from the internet. It's from an abandoned theme park (one of Disney's as I recall). Initial chrome Material is from the A:M Library. About the only things that are my own are the lighting and the red eyes which is a little lathed s…
Last reply by blixien, -
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Anyone tried out the newly released Vivaldi 1.0 browser? It has some nice features: https://vivaldi.com/features/ I've just now downloaded but not spend much time looking into it. So far so good. The webpanels and moving back and forth in time should be quite useful.
Last reply by Rodney, -
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Here's a site that let you play back youtube video frame by frame and at various speeds. I'm guessing there are some other sites that do the same or similar but this one caught my attention. I'll link with a video to one of Robert Holmen's animations because it's well worth reviewing. Note that linking into the video with frame and timing set is by the parameters added at the end of the link. In this case Time (t) and Speed (s) added as &t=0&s=0.25. http://rowvid.com/?v=pDqKABYtDB0&t=0&s=0.25
Last reply by Rodney, -
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Their 'realtime' render hardware is surely more advanced than mine but... Here's the latest and greatest from Unity 3D who is demo'ing their latest beta via a short video titled 'Adam': http://unity3d.com/pages/adam
Last reply by detbear, -
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I've brought a wav audio file into choreography for lip-syncing and have synced the actions to the file, but when I play the action the sound plays faster than the wav file I've synced the actions to. The time code/frame tells me the wav file is 72 frames in length, but on playback, the sound does not sync with the frame count. It plays much faster. How can I sync the syncs?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Very interesting. xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d59O6cfaM0 Kudos to the demo team at Microsoft research who thought of excellent ways to show off the potential while adding new 'features' all the way to the end of the video. I can think of several downsides to such technology but it's hard to deny the potential.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Hi there, every once in a while (mostly in my holidays) I return to A:M and try to make it really work for me. Still dreaming of an animators career, doh. However, one point where I still have huge problems with are Normal and Displacement maps. While mighty and powerfull I was never able to make them really work for me. When I render in A:M I only get unpredictable results, which by far not what I expect. Therefore it woud be nice, if you could tell me what to look for when using this kind of maps. Info about where you do the maps, how you export, what type of Normal adn Displacement maps you us would be also cool! Thanks in advance!
Last reply by Fuchur, -
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Well worth the watch but set aside some time as the interview runs approx. 1 hour and 45 minutes, including a fairly long intro outlining the 'Design by Hand' project headed up by Cooper Hewitt. Part 1 xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00hDSOCQy4s Part 2 xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmUzwM89Fdw John Lasseter, twice fired from Disney Studios recounts the history of animation which culminates in him leading the Disney Studio into the current age of computer animation.
Last reply by Rodney, -
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Long time forum member and A:M user Mark Largent (Largento) is prominently interviewed about his A:M production "Stalled Trek: Amutt Time" for "Fan Film Friday" on the Axanar Productions blog. Give it a read! Interview Part 1 Interview Part 2 (includes discussion of A:M!)
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Introductory pricing for 48 hours... $39 vs $60. Aaron continues to put together some of the most direct, accessible and... reasonably priced material on drawing and animation available. This time he tackles human anatomy. https://creatureartteacher.com/product/drawing-human-anatomy/ Here's the promo video: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOcrsSbYteA The primary reason I think Aaron's approach is superior to many available is his experience with a variety of art mediums but specifically his foundation in animation which brings it all together. Description of content from his site: In this comprehensive 9.5 Hour video course, animator, dir…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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Got this program free from SharewareOnSale Thought it might be on interest Called AbstractCurves
Last reply by johnl3d, -
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*Some corrections updates have been applied to this topic since first posting* This is kind of a 'yikes' for me... I've reported on the project management solution known as 'Tactic' by Southpaw Technologies and even explored it a little as I thought it was well worth looking into. In recent times Southpaw had been pushing a tailor made VFX setup of Tactic designed with filmmaking in mind. The 'yikes' of this post is that I just saw the news that Toonboom Animation Inc. has purchased Southpaw** and is rolling out their own version of Project Management named Toon Boom Manager. https://www.toonboom.com/products/manager news release: https://www.toonboo…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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Nothing to do with A:M - not even CGI, but a beautifully made and inspiring stop motion short by estian artist Anu-Laura Tuttelberg. Partly done in wet clay, thus the main character had to be completely re-modeled for every frame. No lamps were used in the shooting, only the existing daylight coming through the windows in the studio. https://vimeo.com/89515712
Last reply by Simon Edmondson, -
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I don't know enough to suggest how useful this may be to those who are interested in the gaming aspect of 3D but it's newsworthy so... In short, Amazon has recently released their Lumberyard gaming engine for free. It's based on Cryengine (and will diverge further as times goes on But let's let others more knowledgeable delve into the details: https://www.fxguide.com/quicktakes/lumberyard-free-is-the-new-black/ I saw that the FBX plugin is expected to be updated in short order and that may provide a path for A:M Users to move assets toward Lumberyard, moreso than what is currently available. If you are into game development it should be of interest if for no other re…
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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I'm nowhere near ready to render anything for my movie, but I have been trying to figure out what makes the most sense for a renderfarm: raw performance or performance per watt? Hypothetical renderfarm 1: Xeon-based renderfarm with high GHz high-dollar Xeon cpus (say, 4 8-core Xeons on a quad socket motherboard). Total cost: Probably in the range of $3000-$4500 Hypothetical renderfarm 2: Lower performance AMD cpus with a much lower power requirement (the 25w Kabini quad core at 2ghz comes to mind) --- for an equivalent number of cores, you could do 8 motherboards each with one 25w cpu for a total of 200 watts, compared to 500 watts for the Xeon system (mini…
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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They make this sound like a bit more of a caper than it really is (I'm not sure that the shape of the bust of Nefertiti was a big secret) but now you can get her in inconvenient polygon form, ripe for your retopology experimenting. Artists Covertly Scan Bust of Nefertiti and Release the Data for Free Online
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 1 follower
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Do anybody know the story behind the small animations running next to the abort button when rendering in A:M? Some very nice animation in all of them. Are they made by the same person, are they made specifically for the render window, etc.?
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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Net Render draws lens flares with other settings than set in scene. The error has been reported to Mantis, but as usual it is not possible to upload pictures/files, so this post is primarily to upload the attached picture.
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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tried loading a sound into project even tried one from data it does not play ....windows 10 issue?
Last reply by Rodney, -
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I am running Version 18n 64 bit on a computer with 8GB of RAM and an i7 64 bit processor. Sometimes, it takes 10 to 14 hours to save my work. I work in wireframe and sometimes stop and render along the way so that I can see what the patches look like. I am wondering if there is a way to shorten the saving time, or is there a way to know when rendering time for a frame is going to exceed 7 minutes or so, before I press the render button. What happens when I render sometimes is that the computer buffers (twirls) and twirls indefinitely. I try to abort, and the rendering program seems to abort but twirling continues, and I cannot get back to where I can start the 10 to 14 h…
Last reply by Pitcher, -
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Long-ago forum member Zachary Brewster-Geisz's acting career continues to edge upward. Behold, a very favorable mention in the Washington Post review of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Zach, seen reclining below...
Last reply by itsjustme, -
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xhttps://vimeo.com/93206523 Watch this Was linked to the free FutureLearn animation course
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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While cleaning out the storage are of the theater room, I found an old PC. Not being sure about the PC, I placed a monitor and power cable on it and started it up. It is an XP box and much to my suprise I found several acts and scenes from TWO. After investigating the machine it is one that I set up for Steve Sappington to use Web Render on. It was fun seeing some of the TWO files. Steve
Last reply by Shelton, -
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I'm posting this here not so much to plug the kickstarter but to highlight one of the interviews/demonstrations that relates to it. Over on the Traditionalanimation.com site, Lavalle Lee conducts an interview with Don Bluth, then one with Gary Goldman and then raps up with a few question with both that dovetails into the announcement of the kickstarter. The main event however is saved for last and that is an animation demonstration by Don Bluth with him breaking down a simple animation of DIrk the Daring swinging his sword. A few highlights of the video include: Don demonstrates the traditional art of animation Don uses an exposure sheet and metronome as an aid…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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Anyone that is interested in having a 2D animation program, may want to check this link out: http://digicel.net/SpecialOffer.htm The Lite version is only $20 right now and the Studio version is $89.99. They are offering the educational discount to everyone, I'm not sure how long this will last, so if you're interested you better go grab it now.
Last reply by detbear, -
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Last reply by Tore, -
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http://monocle.com/film/culture/new-generation-animators/
Last reply by Tore, -
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Steve Jobs was pretty good at presenting. Most corporate heads are not. Wanna see a painfully long stretch of mirrored posing and mechanical delivery? Skip ahead to 2:00 and watch the CEO of General Motors talk to a crowd... Mary Barra CES Keynote Speech
Last reply by robcat2075,
