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939 topics in this forum
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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 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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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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From the "If You Want It Done Right, Do It Yourself Dept." The program from a recital I attended last night:
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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This window came up in a browser tab while I was just doing general news reading. The safe way to update Firefox is to do Help>About in the menu bar. After a little checking I found that other people are getting update messages from that same jarolneterra site for Skype, so it is certainly a scam.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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This is a pretty good overview/intro to the concept and process of storyboarding: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQsvhq28sOI It includes some reference work from some well known movies as well as storyboard examples from them. A key statement near the beginning is that artistic talent is not required to work out a storyboard. Often simple words a stick figures can be enough to capture the essentials. Added detail is primarily of importance when others involve themselves in a project.
Last reply by Rodney, -
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For those that haven't seen Disney's new 'Jungle Book', the end credits are quite a treat. I see that the credits are online at The Art of the Title blog. It features an old motif, that of a book opening and pages turning but with some very detailed CG animation. At the beginning the actual book from the original Disney feature can be seen just prior to the credit roll. The practical effect of the book moving around was reportedly accomplished by poking at the book from underneath the table. http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/the-jungle-book-2016/ Well worth checking out as is the entire movie.
Last reply by Rodney, -
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I'm posting this mainly as a reminder to follow up on this. Attached is a comparison of two sound files. On the bottom, the original "I've got a Secret" audio and (above) a quickly edited version that accomplishes a few things: 1) Removal of unwanted noise 2) Adjusted timing 3) Adjusted volume* 4) Separation, removal of sound/sound bytes on a frame by frame basis 5) Keyframe and Spline-based refinement (Free!) *Appeared to work well but need more testing. Not yet explored in any depth but available for use: - Automatic Time Stretching (All or by Selection) - Integration with Papagayo and Magpie Pro Also attached are the original and updated wav…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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<Begin Advertisement> How to Convert 2D Movies to Side-by-Side 3D Movies on PC? If you have 3D glasses that supports Side by Side 3D mode and a 3D TV, you can enjoy the vivid 3D Side by Side video. You never need to worry about the 3D Side-by-Side movie sources, as you could convert 2D movie to 3D Side-by-Side movies. This guide helps you easily convert 2D video to 3D Side by Side movies on your PC. To convert 2D movie to 3D Side-by-Side movies, you need to use 2D to 3D converter. Leawo Video Converter is just what you need to carry out 2D to 3D Side-by-Side movie conversion. Built in with a 2D to 3D video converter, Leawo Video Converter offers high qua…
Last reply by Bellaween, -
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This relates to some previous musing on devices that are 'constantly on'; something that is fairly common now that wasn't all that long ago. The term 'pre-record' can be a little hard to research online because of the use of the terms such as 'prerecorded' which imply video recorded for later viewing. This aspect of pre-record has to do with cameras/sensors that record continuously so they can time travel into the past from the moment where the user of the device first hits the record button to retrieve data. Generally, 30 seconds of video footage can then be recovered prior to the moment the recording was triggered. A downside of this in first generation models is…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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I just saw the Joe Daniel's video walkthrough of VR drawing here: xhttps://vimeo.com/211768999 And thought... hmm... I wonder how close I can get to that basic premise using A:M. After quickly modeling, rigging and animating a swingset like the one in the demo I quickly got to the point of drawing over the animating swing while the sequence was playing. A problem arose where I couldn't get A:M to keep playing while drawing so I used the HAMR viewer instead. Ran into one problem with the HAMR viewer in that it didn't want to recognize the swingset model. Turns out HAMR just needed a Choreography. Cool. While none of this is much to look at... I'm pleased t…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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idea for 3D pantograph contraption DIY 3D Sculpture Pantograph for under $50 This is a bit more mechanized but doesn't have as much 3D angling... Building the 3-D pantograph
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Posting this here mainly so that I can find it later. This has roughly to do with a few thoughts I have related to 'drawing with splines' (as opposed to click/extend) and maintaining curvature (as much as possible) as control points are removed from or added to a spline and of translating/converting raster/bitmap lines into vector lines/splines. https://github.com/ideasman42/curve-fit-nd#origin The guy who adapted this code (Campbell Barton) is well known in Blender/Linux circles. Original code is from Screen Gems, updated with insights from OpenToonz and further enhanced by Barton. The library is described thusly: A (related) command line utility f…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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For those who watch such things... LucasFilm and ILM (read: Disney) have open sourced their MaterialX code. What is it? According to the release: Here's the general spec: https://github.com/materialx/MaterialX/blob/master/documents/Specification/MaterialX.v1.35.Final.pdf It's an interesting read on many levels. The specific areas of interest (to me) include: LIghts, Collections and 'Looks' which relate more to the area where textures/shaders meet geometry. Two focus areas reserved by the specification are 'twosided' and 'matte' which address issues of rendering that are not commonly implemented. Those are welcomed areas of interest. Exam…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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Sketchfab... Artella... Folks that see this will be wanting to make some of their own animated experiences. The biggest news here (besides the successful creation of a 3D VR short film shared online) is that Sketchfab now supports audio. https://artella.lpages.co/artella-lily-snout-giveaway/ The characters (models) are currently available for download. I must assume some other formats besides .ma will be forthcoming. There is a good interview with the team behind 'Lily and Snout' that delves into the creation of the project also online.
Last reply by Rodney, -
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LIteManager Pro is another one of those free offers from Shareware On Sale that might be useful. I figure at this time if the folks at SOS want to take over my computer they've already got enough software on my systems to do that so... what the heck. There are many benefits to having a remote control application such as LiteManager. This application is in the same general category as others such as Team Viewer which allow another person access (of various types) to another computer. That access can be limited to simply viewing, projecting a demonstration, transferring files and taking over full control. Scary stuff no? This is the type of software that is usef…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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When I look at old shows (and most movies) from the 60s they look very flat and dull. It's like they had given up trying. Television looks a lot different today. I think it had to. Flat and dull wasn't going to sell anymore. This article has broad level discussion of doing better lighting, for non-white skin tones and just to not look like 60s TV. Keeping ‘Insecure’ lit: HBO cinematographer Ava Berkofsky on properly lighting black faces "...the secret to making television resemble film is providing different levels of light to the scene. “[in sitcoms], everything is the same level of brightness. That’s what I’m trying to avoid,” she said. “The trick is keepi…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Got these links in my email today: You can download a bunch of different LUTs here for free: 35 free LUTs And this page on using LUTs and color grading: Color Grading 101
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New website
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Some of you may recall Jeffrey Dates 'Day Off the Dead' short from many years ago when he was an avid A:M user. Like many others Jeff used his time with A:M to move into the animation industry and is still quite active in animation. He has been working for The Mill of late and their efforts at The Mill to promote real time character animation has recently made the news https://www.cartoonbrew.com/vfx/how-the-mill-is-embracing-real-time-for-character-animation-157603.html
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This question came up in Live Answer Time today and I thought I would post the official word from Hash (link is to store page): Can A:M use multiple cores? A:M is currently not fully multi-core-optimized. However A:M is able through Netrender (included for free in v16.0 and up) to use multiple cores for rendering. OpenMP is used to utilize multiple cores for several operations. More operations are altered to use multiple cores in each update. Since A:M is a rendering application, it is recommended to use a CPU as fast as possible to decrease rendering time. So if you have an 8 core system, base AM may not make full use of all 8 cores however …
Last reply by Roger, -
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There's a lunar eclipse going on now. Go out and look at the eclipse but remember to wear your moonglasses. https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/usa/dallas
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Famous Disney Nine-Old-Man Ward Kimball made this objet d'art for... Mother's Day?... his mother?... mothers in general?... I dont' know. I thought it was a pipe organ when i first saw it.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Since there are some people on here that have a casual or not-so casual interest in the nuts and bolts of CG, I thought I would post this Computer Graphics bundle from Humble Bundle. There are several good books in the bundle, easily worth the $15 price to get all of them: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/computer-graphics-crc-press-books?hmb_source=navbar&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=tile_index_5
Last reply by Roger, -
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Not to distract from the current C++ studies but those not engaged in that might wish to lean forward even further and explore the world of quantum computing. Microsoft and Google/Alphabet are hosting a free course. For details and registration of the online course: https://brilliant.org/courses/quantum-computing/
Last reply by Rodney, -
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Pretty sure everyone needs this: http://djv.sourceforge.net/ Some pluses: - Actively developed - Open Source (view the code on either sourceforge or github) - Cross platform (Win, Mac, Linux) - OpenEXR support (see Layers menu) - Distro'd with ffmpeg (presumably includes a build of ffmpeg that is compatible with BSD license) - easily convert files/sequences to other formats - Multithreaded raster processing/playback (using OpenGL 4.1 apparently) - etc. - etc. See: Documentation The latest release (which is the one you want to have) is a Beta release.
Last reply by Rodney, -
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Did someone here send me a fruit basket? I got one over the holidays but i don't know who it is from. 🤔
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I remember back in the day Hash inc. sold t-shirts. Any chance they would ever again? I used to have the H*A*S*H beige one and one that said. "say no to polygons". that was always a good conversation starter when out in public.
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May 30 was Mel Blanc's 112th birthday. Hear the "Man of a Thousand Voices" do eight different characters in "Birds Anonymous" (1957)
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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December 6 , 1931. The New York Times offers an only slightly smirking explanation of the cartoon process. Intro... Full article. Click to enlarge...
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Much like how we do textures in CG, vinyl "wood" flooring is really just an image applied to a surface. But carefully chosen texture names can go a long way to suggesting the allure of natural, organic substances Vinyl samples seen on Craigslist...
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Well, now having used the replacement Animation Master v15 DVD since last February, I am hoping to get the offered non-expiring, Animation Master ver. 19 at the trade show price of $99.99 , as you offered last Jan.-February. Is there now a version 20 or is that included in the non-expiring terms? I have unable to build a new machine in 2020. If I install it on the old laptop and later uninstall it and install on the new machine, will that work or is it one machine per life? The old laptop uses a software version of OpenGL, will that work for now? It works (slowly) on other software. What do I need to do to get Ver. 19 at the offered price. An email was sent earlie…
Last reply by VRMAN, -
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If you like long articles with narrow focus, NY Times has one about the sudden influence of Japanese style in the 19th century How Japonisme Forever Changed the Course of Western Design Although it is not covered in this article I imagine the graphic flatness and clarity of Japanese drawing was some influence in moving newspaper cartooning away from the over-detailed and over-rendered style of a Thomas Nast in the later 19th Century to the simplicity of a George "Krazy Kat" Herriman in the early 20th.
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A lengthy Bloomberg article about the recent trend to flatten and simplify corporate graphics, for better and for worse. For instance... Debranding Is the New Branding
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I thought 10 was the end, but now it looks like there will be an 11... https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/16/tech/windows-11-leak/index.html
Last reply by robcat2075, -
We went to see Disney's Encanto this evening. While I thought the story was charming and thought it lacked something. There were several things that caught my eye. First was the cloth simulations. Each character had multiple layers of clothing. The characters interacted with their clothing. In one of the dance scenes the main character was grabbing her skirt as she moved through the scene. I think it was one of the best cloth scenes I have seen. I soon forgot she was an animated character and enjoyed her dance moves. Second was the hair of the characters. The dynamics and look and feel was spot on. Third was the lighting of the scenes. I felt like I …
Last reply by Shelton, -
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In yet another sign of the Apocalypse, someone has invented a shape that can be tiled with itself, but will not create repeating patterns. Elusive ‘Einstein’ Solves a Longstanding Math Problem
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Just wanted to know if anyone is using Intel Arc cards in their rigs, if so, does it work well with AM. ?
Last reply by a.quaihoi, -
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Some of you are wrestling with storyboarding your animation projects. Here are some real production storyboards from the Hanna Barbera series "Cow & Chicken." They look quite different from the storyboards that one might make to present an idea to non-film-makers, such as the clients of an ad agency who want a commercial to advertise their product. Here the artist has drawn just enough to identify the setting, the characters, the camera angle, the action. These are for creatives to talk to creatives. But LOTs of drawings. Each one might account for only a small slice of screen time. The whole 150 drawings might cover three minutes? While each dra…
Last reply by robcat2075,
