Open Forum
Don't know where to ask your question? Post it here and it'll find a proper home
Open Forum Rules
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.
There is one rule: Be kind.
Posts that violate this rule are subject to removal.
977 topics in this forum
-
- 0 replies
- 605 views
from the Too Many Times to the Well department... 'Toy Story 4' coming from Pixar in June 2017
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 0 replies
- 558 views
How is it that no one noticed this before? Escher’s impossible stairs inspired by high school stairwell
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 0 replies
- 1.1k views
Source: Numberphile I've always like Tony DeRose and here he discusses the process of subdivision, averaging and such that they've used in computer animation. At the end he discusses the weighting that allows for smooth curvature by identifying the limit that can be used in smoothing that just happens to be an equivalent to smoothing to infinity. There is to be a follow up video but I don't think it's been posted yet.
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 0 replies
- 816 views
Here's an interesting (hand drawn) flour sack animation by Ron Zorman. The aspect I like best is perhaps the transitions of weight throughout with the flour sack interacting with those various objects. Not that it's high-falutin' awesome or anything but that it's subtle-like. There are a few inconsistencies (the typical continuity problems that exist in most stories) such as when flour sack feels obvious pain in his foot during one sequence but is oblivious to that pain later (when we are set to anticipate it). Ron Zorman is a character animator on Ren and Stimpy and many Pixar movies.
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 0 replies
- 547 views
The folks over at 'Taught by a Pro' have a new video lesson by Reuben Aquino that focuses on use of Center of Gravity in animation. At $10 I'd say it's well worth the prince of admission. http://taughtbyapro.com/course/animation-fundamentals-center-gravity/ Some of his credits include: “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” 1982 (clean-up inbetweener) “Black Cauldron” 1985 (animator) “Great Mouse Detective” 1986 (animator) “Oilspot & Lipstick” 1987 (CG short, animator) “Oliver & Company” 1988 (supervising animator, worked mostly on Francis the Bulldog) “The Little Mermaid” (1989; supervising animator, Ursula the Seawitch) “Rescuers Down Under” (1990; supervising ani…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 0 replies
- 515 views
For those of you who got new portable gadgets, to run A:M on perhaps, here is the current best practices for maximizing your battery's lifespan. It's addressed to smartphone users but all Lithium-Ion batteries should benefit from this... How To Take Care of Your Smartphone Battery the Right Way
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 0 replies
- 568 views
Last reply by johnl3d, -
tiny utility for ImageMagick users (Convert PNG sequence to Gif animation w/ transparency)
by Rodney- 0 replies
- 668 views
For PC users... If you use ImageMagick (or have it installed on your system) I created a little utility program to convert a directory full of PNG images into a GIF animation. It's pretty no frills but has the following features: - Converts a directory of PNG images into a GIF animation - Preserves transparency (most gif converters do not) - Works if setup properly from the Tools/Customize menu in A:M (so converting renders from A:M to gif is a quick process). - Allows user to enter a name for the converted gif animation (pressing the enter key results in only the date/time stamp being retained as filename) -- If entered, the name will be added in front of …
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 0 replies
- 720 views
Video Blocks has been around for awhile... long enough to spam my email account for quite awhile. I'm not sure how this fits... but for those who might make a few pennies on creative works it might be worth a look... or at least pay for the video blocks subscription if you have one of those? Video Blocks' Members Only Marketplace let's creators retain 100% of the fees brought in from those who purchase their content. They can do this because their primary source of income isn't from the content itself but from the subscriptions they sell that let's others access the content. While I can't speak to the amount of money this might generate (it could easily be nothi…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 0 replies
- 806 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 594 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, -
- 0 replies
- 857 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 531 views
You are now free to sing "Happy Birthday" and use it in your movies without paying royalties. The rigorously enforced copyright, which all the facts indicated was invalid, has been declared invalid by a Federal Court. This one has actually been all they way to the Supreme Court before with a win for the copyright claimants, but now that is over... for now. ‘Happy Birthday to You’ copyright thrown outand ‘Happy Birthday’ Copyright Invalidated by Judgealso... Old Colbert Report on "Happy Birthday"
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 0 replies
- 759 views
If you aren't following the Animated Spirit blog... you might want to add it to your list of resources. There have been quite a few useful and interesting posts there since James Chiang first launched the blog back in June. James is a 17 year veteran of animation. In the latest post James analyses a shot from Pixar's 'Ratatouille' where he delves into how the audience is directed right to the place you want them as well as what that means relative to characters /elements in the shot. There's too much to summarize here so go see for yourself. Amongst other topics James emphasizes that "Forces begin internally" and that "Understanding forces is the key to belie…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 0 replies
- 743 views
Here's a brief but good article from the Animated Spirit Blog: http://www.animatedspirit.com/the-five-phases-of-work/ Overview: Phase One: Beginnings Phase Two: Preparation and Planning Phase Three: Doing the work Phase Four: Struggle Phase Five: Completion This process is not unlike any good story-telling worth being told. I can easily see overlap between the phases that suggests similarity between the three (and often four) act structures of theater/film production. And (because things in collections of 5s seem to be important) don't forget to read James Chiang's five part review of the book 'Five Cs of Cinematography'. It's very well worth th…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 0 replies
- 1.3k views
Bottom line up front: Everyone needs some type of video capture software. There are a lot of screen capture programs and utilities out there and each one has it'd pros and cons. There are so many in fact that I've debated running something of a comparison in order to highlight some of the options. But... since such a comparison will take considerable time and a lot of information is already available via a quick google... for now I'll just point to yet another of the options. Atomi Active Presenter is a program that I don't recall highlighting and it is one of the more powerful ones out there because in addition to screen/video capture it also has some basic vi…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 0 replies
- 3.2k views
This may be of interest to those who need more realistic characters... of a variety of body types. It was previously reported that Adobe had acquired Maximo and the latest news shows plans moving ahead to provide Fuse software with Adobe CC. Fuse is a bipedal set of tools used with Maximo (and other software) used to create characters. It's similar in many ways to MakeHuman and other software. For geometry the characters can be exported as OBJ. For animation the preferred format is FBX. In something that reminds me much of Hash Inc's earlier ground work with segmented models, the highlights of Fuse are the quick modification of modular characters (those …
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 0 replies
- 836 views
For those of you wanting to move your A:M work into the communal online world and perhaps eventually make a few $ in the process here's a platform that is in early stage of fielding and yet considerably mature underneath the hood. https://www.otakhi.com/pages/overview Here's a current look at the repository: https://www.otakhi.com/pages/home.php This would be for those of you that like to use code as a key component is three.js (javascript) but the platform states that writing javascript is "purely optional**" as the modular approach is designed to be drag and drop. My guess would be that a trip through a program such as Blender would be required to get y…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 1 follower
- 0 replies
- 1.3k views
http://monocle.com/film/culture/new-generation-animators/
Last reply by Tore, -
- 1 follower
- 0 replies
- 796 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 2.3k views
*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, -
- 0 replies
- 1.2k views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 829 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 733 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 796 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 921 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 725 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 941 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 1.3k views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 1.2k views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 1.4k views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 1.5k views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 1.3k views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 3k views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 1.5k views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 961 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 4.2k views
<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, -
- 0 replies
- 585 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 2.7k views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 680 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 840 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 952 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 923 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 1k views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 871 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 1k views
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
Last reply by largento, -
New website
by Tore- 1 follower
- 0 replies
- 765 views
--
Last reply by Tore, -
- 0 replies
- 1k views
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
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 0 replies
- 893 views
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, -
- 0 replies
- 903 views
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,
