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This is an open forum for discussing Animation:Master and discussions should relate to A:M in some capacity.
Ask questions. Share experiences. Outline goals and aspirations.
Discuss what you hope to accomplish with A:M and projects you are working on.
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977 topics in this forum
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I don't recall seeing John Lasseter's Cal Arts video before. It's a fun little... at 5:25 minutes actually a rather lengthy... piece. xhttps://vimeo.com/86365423 There are many things that could be said of the short film but one is that... like everyone else who gets the itch to dive into animation... you've got to start somewhere. The prevalent thing on display in the short from my perspective is John's ability to imbue inanimate objects with character followed with a knack for putting those characters into a story with multiple emotional payoffs. Yet another is his extensive use of repetition. In this short... repetition is a major element handled ma…
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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Things I've just noticed in the Quicktime TOS. Even if you have the "Pro" version you can't be "pro" with it. Professional use of the important codecs isn't allowed without an additional license from the patent holders. It is even a violation if you watch some commercial content made by someone who doesn't have the additional license to do it.
Last reply by largento, -
I've decided the best way to make progress is to try small projects, not necessarily related to my main film, to at least keep my skills up. The kind of thing that could be completed in a night or weekend. Hence, a fishbowl. I was curious: how would the rest of you go about handling water inside the bowl? Model it as a separate object, or try and use the fluid feature? Or some combo? I'm going to post my fishbowl model by midnight CST, if anyone is interested. At least the glass part.
Last reply by Roger, -
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- 598 views
http://www.cgtextures.com/
Last reply by johnl3d, -
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I purchased the latest update for A:M and ran the installer program. Hash sent me the access code after they processed the payment. The installer appeared to do something because the settings got set to the default conditions. I expected that the program would ask for the access code and do some process to renew the license, but that has not happened and now the system says that the license expired. What am I missing? It is probably something pretty basic because I have updated the system in prior years without any problem. Does anyone have have an idea of what I should do?
Last reply by RS3D, -
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Hi! I tried an action with my overly complex character models last night and the action worked differently in the chor. The Torso control bone key frame gets dropped. There are no key frames on this bone in the chor. Can you think of anything I'm missing or anything I can check? Thanks, Rusty PS: Note the head is attached in the chor.
Last reply by rusty, -
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http://www.digitalproducer.com/pages/explosions_in__animationmaster_.htm
Last reply by johnl3d, -
- 16 replies
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My daughter is interested in going to college. She wants to learn character design and level design for games. I am just a novist designer for cg animation. I would like advice from people in the biz. (I'm going to teach her what I can. She's already getting better than me. I feel like Yoda in "Return of the Jedi".)
Last reply by DZ4, -
- 1 follower
- 10 replies
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Hi, I have a head model (the way I do things, this is the character), a hair cap model (what hair-do I want to use) and a body model (what 'wardrobe' is needed). Currently I constrain the hair cap to the head model in an action (the hair cap being the action item) so I can just drop the action on the head in the chor and then I constrain the head to the body in the chor (involves 6 constraints). I'd like to use an action to do this however, if I do, either the body model or the head model would be an action item and of course I need to be able to select the head and body models in the chor to animate them (and perhaps I can somehow select an action item in the chor to…
Last reply by rusty, -
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I took the plunge and decided to install the Windows 10 preview. Just prior to installation I tweaked a few settings, cleaned up a few things and moved important things to an external drive. As I was installing an uneasy feeling crept over me... what if this doesn't work out so well? My primary concern in updating Windows being how well A:M will run (of course!). While installation moved along it seemed to stall at about 2/3rds through so I browsed and continued to organize files on my other monitor (which I'd thought to turn back on and make sure was working prior to install. Still stalled at the same location for entirely too long I bit my tongue and initiat…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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Pixar has teamed up with Khan Academy to offer a free course on how animated movies are produced. Introduction: https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/pixar/start/introduction Course page: https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/pixar The folks at Pixar can now point aspiring creators to the Khan Academy when they ask those inevitable questions about CG animation. The basic breakdown of course material: Environment modeling Explore how blades of grass in Brave were created using parabolic arcs. Modeling grass with parabolas Calculating parabolas Character modeling Explore how clay models are transformed into digital characters using weighted averages. …
Last reply by Rodney, -
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I have decaled quite a bit with good results, but today I encountered a new problem. I used a 32 bit TGA as the decal on a character that I made using the decal as a rotoscope. (In other words, the figure fits fairly well with the decal.) When I apply, I see actual holes in the model. It looks as if the picture has worn through with ragged edges. I'm using Version 18j (64 bit). There are no holes in the model before the decal is applied. I have attached a picture of the model below. I'm interested in how to avoid the problem and how to fix it. Thanks.
Last reply by Pitcher, -
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- 786 views
I've noticed ever since we switched to the new forum, it seems laggy as all get-out. I'm on a Core Duo system with 2gb RAM and while I realize that that level system is getting a bit long in the tooth, it isn't hopelessly obsolete. Just wondering what accounts for the slowness. Does the new forum software use a bunch of Flash?
Last reply by Fuchur, -
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- 737 views
My major complaint about Youtube for animation is that you couldn't step thru something frame-by-frame to study the motion. But now you can, at this site (and Vimeos too) http://anilyzer.com/ I'm not sure it's frame accurate but it seems to get most of them
Last reply by fae_alba, -
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The oldest versions of AM I have are the hold MH:3D version 3 and AM version 5. Version 5 is probably the oldest version I would consider the modern version we all know and love. I'm trying to remember if v3 was a win 3.1 release or if it was the first to require 95. I know v5 was 95/98/NT. Anyone out there know?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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- 560 views
My subscription ran out, I'm low on cash and can't afford to update right now. Are there any problems with AM 2006 on Windows 7 with the latest update?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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This is pretty neat technology that will have many applications. In a way it's not unlike a very different technology 'seam stitching' but from a very different approach with different applications. Article: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/05/429720274/obstructions-vanish-from-images-treated-with-new-software-from-mit-google Video: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoyNiatRIh4 Of specific interest (and a bit scary... although sure to be useful to reveal who took a picture/video) is the ability to pull the obstruction out of the image as a separate Alpha Matte. For those that recall the movie's look at technology.... shades of Bladerunne…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 1 follower
- 8 replies
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We live in a wonderful time where we have access to great information about the process of animation. I'm not trying to sell you anything but.. if you've got a spare $50 laying around... do yourself a favor and buy this. At regular price of $129 this'd still be a good deal but at $49... the only reason not to buy is if you've got a dial-up internet phone connection. Aaron Blaise is someone I've posted links to before (see his 'Aaron's Art Tips) and he's recently released a 'complete course' in animation. He takes his experience as a Disney animator and outlines the principles of animation and walks through the process step by step. I've just now purchased…
Last reply by fae_alba, -
- 3 replies
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Lately I was working with a simple model, where I tried to add the 2001 skeleton rig. In the manual is said to make a new bone subdirectory in the new model and drag the root boon of the rig model into it. After done so, I can attach the bones to the model and use it as the 2001 skeleton rig. The advantage of this is that I have all properties of the rig model. After doing this for some time I experienced a strange loss of these advantages. Sometimes the hip model movements loose the attachement of the feet's gravity. I seem to have a model that moves the same way I would move the root bone. I tried to understand what makes these null pointers keep the feet …
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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In the process of upgrading on same machine to 64 bit ..had installed 7 32bit originally but machine is 64bit so replaced windows to 7 64 bit and will upgrade to 10 soon I will then download latest AM 64 bit but wonder if new license will be necessary since same machine but ....
Last reply by johnl3d, -
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For any of you Android phone users. from NPR... Major Flaw In Android Phones Would Let Hackers In With Just A Text
Last reply by robcat2075, -
Hello everyone, I haven't been on this animation:master software as membership for last couple years ago. The last time i used this Hash3D, version 16.0. Now, I'm back. I was trying to make a movie that do magic way of this tablecloth itself flowing toward this old fashion round table. While I was working on Simcloth. I noticed there are two ways of doing simcloth? Not same way as it was in version 16.0. I noticed that every times i clicked on "cloth wizard" on group box and the yellow box disappeared and appeared at different location ( mostly on ground). After I tried to make adjustment to make this cloth to become smoothy flow but somehow it just went cr…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Hiya! I've recently purchased MODO Indi (to give it a serious look see to see if I want to save up to buy a full-on version of MODO), and so far I'm rather impressed. It hasn't crashed once on me, and it's work flow and my brain flow seem to be more or less on the same page. Anyway... ...I was fartin' around on their site looking for any of the extra stuff for MODO that I don't get with MODO Indi (mainly the scripting and plugins stuff), and came across something called "ACS 2 Kit" ("Automatic Character Setup 2 Kit"). One thing that instantly popped out at me was just how similar it seemed to be to a lot of the built-in stuff we have here in A:M. One thing in …
Last reply by Rodney, -
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- 593 views
On another forum someone asked how to "study" a shot Here was my response... At AnimationMentor they told us it's better to study live action shots than to study animated shots. You don't want to be re-creating other animators' mannerisms if you can help it. None-the-less there are some things you can ask yourself about any shot, live or animated... -What is the goal of the character? What are you seeing getting done that advances the story? -How does the character visibly change to show thought or action? -What are the main poses and changes of appearance the character goes through to show you what he is thinking or doing? When a character comes to a hol…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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From the folks behind Animation Mentor (Bobby Beck, Shawn Kelly and Carlos Beana) comes a new online collaboration platform; Artella. There's not a lot of info at present but the Artella FAQs suggest the goal is to make it something of a GITHUB for creative projects. One of the primary motivations appears to be that many folks want to get involved in creative projects but not everyone can do that for a living (i.e. there are only so many paying jobs to go around). What do you do with all that knowledge and experience? How do you keep from losing motivation? What exactly do you do with your talent? Additional info: - Creators maintain all rights to their project…
Last reply by fae_alba, -
- 1 reply
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I am a little confused about how to use images in the forum. When I start a new thread, then there is the uploader and I can add a attachment. When I reply to a topic, even in a thread I started myself, I can not add atachments any more. How can I add images in this case? Regards Heiner
Last reply by Heiner, -
- 2 followers
- 70 replies
- 10.2k views
Just imagine... ...A:M would have polygons and OpenSubDiv.... ...and alembic support.... ...and support of integrated 3rd-party renderers in the API / SDK... with that, A:M could be a serious competitor to all the major 3d-applications out there... A:M has the best data management, animation and rigging features that i ever seen in all the other major 3d-applications. but the lack of not having polygons makes it really, really hard to interact with the other 3d products...
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 2 replies
- 853 views
Hello- Simple question (but it has me stumped)... When you drag a decal into the model window, the decal can be scaled...but can it be rotated? In the past I have always just rotated the image before I import it into AM..but it would be nice if the decal could be rotated in the model window.. Is this possible? Thanks for any info.. Tom
Last reply by Tom, -
- 15 replies
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Microsoft explains what you’ll lose by upgrading to Windows 10 Apparently you can't play "Hearts" anymore. I will admit I never understood that game anyway. Also... no floppies, no DVD player included.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 9 replies
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Hi Last week I lost the ability to open v17 and v18 in mac Mavrik and mac Yosomite the problem started after taking a break and relaunching (up until then no problems) I can use v16 but v16 will not render any files even though it says render complete (to clarify the render issue v16 goes through the render process says complete but I cannot locate the files anywere I suspect the the master0.lic thats my only guess and I'm not do to expire until 2-2016 I did the usual disk management on my drives and tried moving the master0.lik to v17 v18 but they fail and crash on load I did send an email to tech support but as of yet no and, so I'm here Thank…
Last reply by jimd, -
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As about the lifetime license. An annual subscription not a favorable investment for the personal purposes. I would like to have possibility of 1 times to pay and use software.
Last reply by Fuchur, -
- 1 follower
- 17 replies
- 1.9k views
It's been a year but my M3D micro 3D printer arrived yesterday and I finally got a chance to get it a try. The two initial runs didn't work so great, so recalibrated... created much simpler test models... and am seeing better success now. I just put in a print of Thom to test the yellow 3Dink but (at 9% complete) it looks like his neck broke off in the process and the printer head melded it into his hip... Abort! Abort! Abort! It looks like most of my models will need to be set to print with higher quality... i.e. more solid. I'll post something if and when I get something worth posting.
Last reply by jakerupert, -
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I invite our numerous graphic art talented forum members to submit design concepts for a medal that would be awarded to the winner of image contests. Don't post any proposals here, contact me privately for the particular design considerations.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 reply
- 737 views
Hey all, is there any resource out there concerning texture creation including how the "pattern" on the graphic is translated to the model (for instance, if I'm creating a human skin texture and I put a single age spot in the dead center, how will that be displayed on the model?) Is a texture just a glorified decal that's repeated over and over? Thanks, Rich
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 6 replies
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This is news to me... Reportedly... The 3MF file format is being developed to avoid pitfalls of previous formats used in 3D printing. Microsoft is pushing the format for use with Windows 10 because all other formats fell short.. Code/specs are freely available on github. Etc. http://3mf.io http://3mf.io/what-is-3mf/ https://github.com/3mfconsortium http://3mf.io/what-is-3mf/3mf-specification/ They certainly aren't escaping 'triangles' with this implementation (more akin to embracing them) but it just might provide some useful information regarding conduit to/through a new 'universal' format.
Last reply by pixelplucker, -
- 3 replies
- 1.3k views
Hey Guys, got back into AM because I needed to visualise this game pad case I have been developing to communicate with the mechanical / electronic engineers and AM was the tool I tuned to, why ? Because I love it and did not want to learn another app because AM is so good. I was reading about the polygon thread and some of that applied here, but from experience and from this example, I would like to point out that AM is very powerful and with the bonus of now outputting STL files it fills in a huge requirement I had back in the days. From working on this I found somethings which I would love to have implemented - mainly being able to control patches / splines much…
Last reply by pixelplucker, -
- 4 replies
- 802 views
Adobe has been steadily moving toward 3D content for some time now and continues to do so. Announcement: https://blogs.adobe.com/creativecloud/unlocking-the-power-of-3d-for-the-creative-community/ Site: https://www.mixamo.com/
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 6 replies
- 994 views
hmmm . .. when I add a diffuse colour to a selection it shows up on only some patches when I toggle the decal it shows it properly but then the decals disappear - when I render it shows it as above on only some of the patches is this a bug report or am I not doing something Im supposed to ??
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 4 replies
- 709 views
Hey Guys just wanted to know if Boolean cutting is now working with geometry or we still doing it the old way with bones and showing only when its rendering ? What I mean by geometry is that can objects be subtracted with boolean cutter and the patches get cut by AM - so its a solid cut and not faux via render only - would be really good for STL and 3D printing . . .
Last reply by a.quaihoi, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 799 views
Hello all, I'm looking at getting a new keyboard, and I've narrowed it down to 2 similar models, one with numerical keypad and one without. I don't do a lot of number-crunching/spreadsheet stuff, but I've noticed when I do it is nice to have the numerical keypad. I don't recall using it much with AM, but before I lock in my decision I want to make sure I'm not missing anything with regard to some super-productive modeling method (or other feature) that relies on the numerical keypad. What is your opinion? Do you use the numerical keypad much with AM? Thanks in advance, Roger
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 3 replies
- 725 views
Hey Guys, how do I reset the window positions on mac, for instance the library keeps on opening up an when I add tools to the menu bar on restarting AM or after a crash the old windows opens up and the tools which I activated in options I have reactivate them again, do I have to delete a preference file or something so the app windows go back to default - then how do I set my window workflow to keep on opening up the same all the time ?? Driving me nuts to reset up my windows and tools how I like everytime I use Am
Last reply by a.quaihoi, -
- 1 reply
- 786 views
Recently someone posted (facebook) an animation serie called spookiz, there are 2 characters exactly the same JohnArtBox's Kapsules... check it. https://youtu.be/SH_RwE6N2bk
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 2 replies
- 868 views
I bring this up again, but I am very much opposed to the subscription model which was introduced some years ago. It is not the monetary outlay, but the principle of dependency which irks me to no end. I also find this protectionist attitude to be the greatest hindrance of proliferating this software and its qualities, and it will be the ultimate cause of its demise. I do have a couple of subscriptions and I will let them expire with no plans to renew in spite of my great affinity to this program. I also find that most improvements since V12 are simple window dressing, or entirely useless inclusions of open source libraries for fluids and cloth etc., but coupled to a…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 12 replies
- 1.5k views
(This topic moved from original topic by request. For more info see original topic) Although a little off topic, the folks at DIsney have an interesting paper that (very loosely) relates to this: http://www.disneyresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/Sketch-Based-Generation-and-Editing-of-Quad-Meshes-Paper.pdf
Last reply by nemyax, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 912 views
Mark Mayerson (of Mayerson on Animation blog-fame) has a video "Don't Pitch a Buyer, Pitch the Audience!" that is making the rounds that covers a good bit of territory of topics of interest to creators. The video is just short of one hour in length but will be well worth your time. xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQQmmbvmGc It's a great summary on topics that have been gaining ground, especially as more creative types vie for the attention (and money) to support their projects.
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 7 replies
- 1.4k views
How can you make a decal slide over the surface of a model? I've tried animating the translate x and y in the decals section under the choreography but it won't budge. Any help please.
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 1 reply
- 767 views
A brief interview where Brad Bird reveals he is writing and will direct Incredibles 2 as his next project https://youtu.be/uU4LMmBQp6U
Last reply by Dpendleton77, -
- 1 reply
- 800 views
Hey guys when I have a shape which I have drawn out like so . . . And I want to attach another splines to it, the curve gets " disturbed " - is there any key etc. that I need to hold down so it keeps the existing curve on the second spline / object ?? Been a while but I remember it used to do this before too ?? Spline drawing would be awesome if it worked like illustrator . . . hmmmm . . . Just remembered that you can import AI into AM - but trying to create a surface by joining the shapes to create a mesh did the same thing last time I was building a model . . . please shed some light on this anyone ! Thanks in advance.
Last reply by a.quaihoi, -
- 1 follower
- 1 reply
- 653 views
I love animated movies. And in every movie there is a scene that captures me. I was rewatching The Croods tonight and the top of the tree scene captured me.
Last reply by johnl3d, -
- 3 replies
- 956 views
I have forgot its been a long time and can't find it in my notes any where . . . is there an object / node align feature in AM now ??
Last reply by a.quaihoi,
