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Ask questions. Share experiences. Outline goals and aspirations.
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956 topics in this forum
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- 1 follower
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Last reply by Tore, -
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- 4 replies
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Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Hi, It is funny how I always come back to AM, even with a few years break, for the simple pleasure of animating. Nothing beats its simplicity. I am using version 18.0p on Win 10. When I do a smartskin I would like to be able to track the movements of individual cp's in the graph window. That way, if there is an odd jerky movement of a cp i could smooth it out. But I can't see any way of bringing them up in the graph window. Is it possible? Kind regards Mike Logan
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 8 replies
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Thanks to Rodney, I was able to enjoy A:M once more for a year. My subscription ended a month ago and I hope to get a permanent version. I contacted sales, and after a while ;-) sales contact me and offered to send me an invoice for the upgrade. I gladly accepted the offer and waited for the invoice, and waited, and waited. Send some more emails, no reply. And waited and waited. :-( At this moment as I am typing, no A:M for my projects. Yes, I am ranting. Rijk
Last reply by rijklau, -
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- 6 replies
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Is there any OTHER reason besides parenting hierarchy why one might not be able to choose a bone applying constraints ? I'm trying to rig a model and the right arm bones are not appearing in the dropdown nor can I apply constraints to them. I have tried moving them around the heirarchy and am pretty certain they are correct, yet I cannot associate anything to them, specifically translate/orient. I am tearing out my hair just trying to get this simple thing done yet I cannot see the bones in the dropdown no matter what I do. What am I overlooking? Please help ! adam
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Hello am trying to install an older version on my PC running OS7. Had it on this machine for years but upgraded and now can't reinstall it. Intstallation seems to run but program doesn't. Any help would be appreciated.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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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, -
- 31 replies
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https://youtu.be/z5nBA45DvRo Andrew Kramer has announced a November release for Video Copilot's Element Version 2. Element is an Adobe After Effects plug-in that offers realtime GPU based 3D rendering, right within the After Effects application. Version 1 was a big hit but had obvious drawbacks in that with realtime GPU you can not generate shadows or reflections... well, with V2 he appears to have jumped those hurdles, and threw in realtime sub-surface-scattering and refraction as well! The shadows, refraction and SSS look pretty nice, and the reflections use a bit of a 'cheat' as realtime raytracing is still unobtainable. It is kind of amazing! Prices and up…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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My annual subscription came due. I have been using both AM18 -32 bit and AM -64 bit systems with no problems. I downloaded the new subscription for AM19 and got an error: The program can't start because api-ms-win-crt-runtime (some symbol here)1-1-0.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem. I then tried to download AM19 32-bit to see if that was the problem. I ran the extract mode again, but it never completed and just hung the system. I tried to contact support@hash.com I got this message: >>> suppor@hash.com (reading BANNER): 554 p3plibsmtp02-10.prod.phx3.secureserver.net bizsmtp 205.219.233.9 h…
Last reply by RS3D, -
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I know practically nothing about 'The Emoji movie' and haven't seen it but I noticed an interesting link that points to something I'd like to see more of happen as it bridges a gap in the creation/production/distribution process. Concerning the movie itself it appears to be Sony's attempt to grab some of that same success shared by Disney's 'Wreck it Ralph' and that franchise's upcoming sequel. Add in a good dose of the general feel of PIXAR's 'Inside Out' and you've got yourself 'The Emoji Movie'. Sony has released an 'The Art of Emoji Movie' as an online website. It seems to me that this approach might not only be emulated and result in more of the same from ot…
Last reply by Simon Edmondson, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
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Hey guys, I want to do something similar to this old Continuums open credit animation. The material and particle FX should be straightforward, but the cutting aspect might be difficult. I'm not a super power user. It looks like the pre-made text fades in so that is not so bad, but what is the best way to make the beam trace out the letters to fake the "cutting"? I'm going to simulate an actual CO2 laser cutting steel and using the red reference beam. The laser will be in some sort of a gimbal apparatus. I can't find any decent tutorials on the techniques. Thanks ahead of time... ftp://ftp.hash.com/pub/movies/continuums.mov
Last reply by KingVidiot, -
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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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I didn't get far in my initial look into this suite of applications. Perhaps others may fair better. http://www.sitexgraphics.com/html/air.html Note: I've bolded a few areas that piqued my interest for any number of reasons. The primary difference between paid and free versions is reportedly texture/image size. Note that Air itself (like Renderman) is command line driven but has applications/plugins associated with it that provide graphical user interfaces. For WIndows and Linux. Sorry Mac users.
Last reply by jalih, -
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Okay, this is probably a pass for most people but I see some potential in it and therefore value. Since availability of these offers are of limited time I want to let people know it's currently available. The gist: This is via Shareware on Sale (I've definitely warmed up to this company and their approach although standard disclaimers apply when installing any software) Offer Efficient To Do List (Efficient is the software company) What it does: Creates basic To Do lists and allows organization of those lists Normal cost: approx. $30 Free through SOS offer for the next two (2) days. This program is almost too simple and yet it has a few things…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 2 followers
- 27 replies
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I'm keeping notes my experience using the new v19 for mac. My main problem immediately is still no predictable appearance of rotoscopes. I'm trying to compare my models movements to the rotoscope reference in the background and it can't be done !
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 3 replies
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This should appear as an animated GIF notice... - basic quadruped walk cycle: left back, left front, right back, right front - only brief instants where two feet are both off the ground. - watch either the front pair or the back pair... the trailing foot stays on the ground to push the body forward even after the leading foot has been planted. - overlapping motion of the feet as they fall behind and curl under while they are being pulled forward. - front shoulder visibly sags when it's not supporting weight. - the classic walk up-down motion is more evident in the rear hips which have real ball and socket joints. Cat front legs are just he…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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For those of you that like to composite imagery rendered out of Animation:Master... BlackMagic Fusion 8.0 is out of Beta and available for Mac and PC. (The Linux release is still in development) https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/fusion The program is free for commercial and non-commercial use. The full studio version ($995) adds stereoscopic rendering, project management etc. and has also been released. The manuals are well suited to get you up and running quickly as are the quickstart and introductory tutorials. And of note, many of the features in Fusion are available in Animation:Master but are optimized from the standpoint of an image and ef…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 1 follower
- 9 replies
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Hi, I can't seem to remember a good way to rotate a sphere at a constant speed. I seem to recall that there are several ways...can anyone help? Rusty
Last reply by Elm, -
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- 827 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, -
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Hello I'm looking for new 2d animation software that would suit my needs. More precisely I'm looking for something with the following characteristics: - 2d - easy and intuitive UI - vector or bitmap based, preferably hybrid - free or cheap So far I really came to like the Pencil2d animation software - it's simple, intuitive, supports both bitmap and vector graphics and it's free. The problem is that it's also super buggy at the moment, to the point of being nearly unusable, and it doesn't seem like it's going to get better any time soon. Please Help. Thanks ! I didn't find the right solution from the internet.
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 3 replies
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Hope I'm using the forum correctly. I recently had to refresh Windows 10 because of operation problems. When I tried to reinstall AM, it said that the license had already been used. I contacted support, got the download, and sent the "your host id.txt" file back. That was July 1st, and I've been trying to contact someone since, but have gotten no response. I'm feeling ignored, and was wondering what to do next.
Last reply by JBRountree, -
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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, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
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Hi people , am trying to rig up a RC car steering but am getting no joy - the first bit is easy - but I need to do the other half - so far have tried constrain to / roll / dynamic but havent got it working The selected bone is the driver / main - then there is a bone on the tie rod to the pinion, which goes to the swing arm to another pinion and one bone for the hub Now when I move the main bone which is from the servo steering in a RC car the other bones should work in chain - but I dont know how to set the constraints - can anyone give me some pointers please , would be much appreciated , I'll continue to tinker in the mean time
Last reply by pixelplucker, -
- 4 replies
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I purchased the disks for AM. My PC crashed, now I'm trying to install on a new computer. I get a "activation code already used" message. I sent the "your_host_id.txt" file as requested and along with my Activation Code. I received a codes.txt file and the link to install v17 which I did. I clicked the link and installed. It asks for my activation code and I still get the same message, "already used". What do I do with the codes.txt file? I was told they'd send a new master0.lic file, so I thought I'd have to rename and replace with codes.txt file. I searched and couldn't find a master0.lic. What am I missing? Thanks, Michael
Last reply by Fuchur, -
- 1 follower
- 2 replies
- 2.4k views
I am posting this because it might be of interest to some users. I have been helped so much over the years by these expert forum comments that I feel I need to give something back. I don't use AM frequently (not my day job and all that) but when I do I go to town. This is basically about my efforts in creating a character with a highly detailed face but with minimal effort. The word lazy might jump to mind but I prefer the "work smart not hard" adage. I tried 2 workflows: ZBrush and Crazytalk back to AM vs. Zbrush through to IClone. The idea was to discover which produced the best output and which gave me the least work to do. A very interesting road so far but a mil…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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- 765 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, -
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Hi Folks, I've an issues with AM and I'm not quite sure where to start looking for a fix. It's has been 4~5 possible more years that I had to set AM aside for other projects, hobbies and other time consuming things like family... A lot has changed, AM has it's share of updates as well as my own system OS & hardware. I'll be using my training wheels again to familiarize myself with AM again, but got an annoying selection issue to deal with first. Running on Win10, 64Bits OS, GTX 980ti Both AM32 and AM64 version 17g are installed and both have the issue. Only with the 32bit version there is an render option for Direct3D v8, that fixes the issue, but bind me to…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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- 502 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, -
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- 2k views
Computational Thermoforming is an old technology (paints applied via immersion in water) modernized an applied to 3D printing with impressive results: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFkVxurKeAs More closely aligned to the older methodology, hyrodgraphy is highly useful as well. Both approaches are familar to those who texture models in Animation:Master and other programs. The trick being to do the texturing as precisely as possible with minimal passes to achieve the desired results. That (wet method) can be seen in a more modern form here: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlUhPrAqiY0 There are quite a few youtube videos that demonstrate the h…
Last reply by EmilyBrown, -
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Hmm. Thought I posted this last nite, but don't see it. I've made about 1,000 models in A:M, but only now started to animate. I must be doing something wrong: A:M loses things. About every 5 minutes I get a real time render error message, so I save, and when I re-open the project, patches and decals are missing. Also, even more of a problem, in the timeline the lines and keyframes show up...and then they don't. Dunno what I'm doing to cause this, they just disappear, and they don't even wait for a save/reopen to do it. I click on a group and see the lines, click on another group, then come back to the first group and the timeline is blank. Along the same …
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 0 replies
- 607 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, -
- 1 reply
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Free until July. I don't know much about it but if you think you might want to get into gaming you should download. The Pro version is free through some time in July ($75 subscription otherwise). Personal version likely free thereafter. I was able to import Rabbit with textures... otherwise I didn't get through much of the workflow. Couldn't see a direct means to render. Features: http://xenko.com/features/ Of interest: PBR materials Compositor Cocumentation: http://doc.xenko.com/2.0/ Download: http://xenko.com/
Last reply by pixelplucker, -
- 2 replies
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http://aescripts.com/aftercodecs/ I figure these guys are going to make a million dollars, then lose it all to an Apple lawsuit. For the last 5+ years, Apple's Pro-Res Quicktime compression has been the standard in video playback and delivery in the pro world. And Apple being Apple- they made it so that Windows users could read, but not write Pro-Res files. Which has been a royal pain to Windows users (most just keep an old Apple around for conversions)... 3rd party solutions have come and gone, most simply don't work, or were too complicated command line stuff. An article I read explained that Apple had tied part of the conversion to something inherant in Apple h…
Last reply by KNBits, -
- 7 replies
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There are a ton of video capture programs out there and here's yet another one (PC only... sorry mac guys/gals). http://www.screentogif.com/ Source code is available as well. This is definitely a progam to check out because it has most of the tools that standard screeen capture software doesn't have. A few quick pluses: - Capture to GIF animation, image sequences, avi (mp4 and other formats via FFmpeg tab) - A basic frame editor - Basic drawing on screen (or board recording) - Webcam recording - Lots of other stuff I'm forgetting such as text, cropping, basic transitions, etc) - It's free (donations to the creator welcome!) - Actively developed (las…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 5 replies
- 1.7k views
Yet another online collaboration and review tool has appeared. The drawing tools are basic but adequate to communicate the reviewers intent. The free tier should satisfy basic requirements for a quick review but likely won't meet the needs of projects in full production. It's interesting to see where these online collaborative tools are heading. Worth checking out. https://syncsketch.com/#features I've lost track of similar products in circulation but a few of those include: RGBNotes Frame.io Artella While these services all have much to offer I think these may all be surpassed and eclipsed by what I'm seeing referred to as Web 3.0 (with a litt…
Last reply by Rodney, -
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- 1.9k views
Is there a way to use DarkTree materials on a Mac yet?
Last reply by largento, -
- 1 follower
- 4 replies
- 1.8k views
Standard Disclaimer: Installing software from Shareware on Sale (SoS) can be detrimental to the performance of your system. Pay close attention to information you share and the installation process. Filter Forge is a node based texture and effects editor with plugin for Adobe Photoshop, Corel Photopaint, etc. Filters created with FF can even be used in freeware programs such as Irfanview. Normal pricing is $250 but in teaming with Shareware on Sale a 100% discount is available for the next two days. I pass along this notification because I've found Filter Forge filters to be useful in the past and access to the filter editor is recommended for those that use such filter…
Last reply by pixelplucker, -
- 1 follower
- 35 replies
- 3.4k views
I'd love some advice, other than reading Jeremy Birn's book (which I have somewhere, lost in the move and separation... ugh), about how you would go about achieving lighting as in the attached sample. The character is well lit, seeing all features, and even the underside of his cheeks, while there's still a nice soft shadow being cast by the brim of his hat. I've been playing in a .cho all day tryint to get something similar. I built a psych w/ my character on it, and I probably had about 18 lights in there trying to achieve this effect and still wasn't even close. The sample came out of 3DS Max - it's by a tremendous 3D cartoon artist in Paris, Julien Trom…
Last reply by largento, -
- 1 follower
- 9 replies
- 1.8k views
There are are few Games out that brag about 3D Scanned models exact within in 1 mm Like iRacing they brag how exact the Car and tracks are right down to cracks in pavement iRacing is a True Race Simulator very high tech Simulator is this the kind of stuff they would have used. I was just woundering How many models in games are created like this now. https://www.goscan3d.com/en?gclid=Cj0KEQjwxPbHBRCdxJLF3qen3dYBEiQAMRyxS_Gt6x9Yn0nLOZ4ml1SycZFWFETW1CAwhXzCUzt_h_AaAoxQ8P8HAQ
Last reply by KingVidiot, -
- 1 follower
- 1 reply
- 1.1k views
Hi all, FYI finally got some time to get back onto setting up AM after going through a learning curve to install Windows 7 on the old Mac Pro 2008 3,1 - finally did this, installed and new subscription and am happy to report, AM now works Flawlessly ! The old mac with a quadro fx 4800 card is no slouch and makes a damn good PC with the dual xeon processors and heaps of ram, now I am super happy and can get on with work, and possibly even get a new mac and have a great PC to run AM on it stable which happens to also be a mac he he, I have tested both ATI and Nvidia cards and they both work fine with no texture or rotoscope glitches at all. Exxxceellleent !
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 9 replies
- 2.2k views
Hi Guys, just noticed that importing images seems not working, I have a FX4800 using the Nvidia drivers and after update to 18p its not importing images, I'll try the mac native driver now and let you know . . . anyone come across this ? Before when it was buggy I found that if I toggle the open GL settings in options it would kick in but now . . hmmm . . let me have another crack
Last reply by a.quaihoi, -
- 1 follower
- 7 replies
- 2.6k views
Okey Doeky, went and got myself a Radeon HD 6850 3D card for mac and swapped it with the quadro that was in there, now AM is behaving good, except the last project I was working on is crashing on opening, there is a model in there which I did not save out, I think because I had the project setup with 4 windows for the views, AM boots, loads the files, then draws the windows and crashes . . . is there a way to reset this on the project file to one window or extract the model file ? . . . next step . . . install windows 7
Last reply by a.quaihoi, -
- 1 follower
- 1 reply
- 875 views
Hi guys, I finally got windows running on 2008 mac and installed AM 18 64 on it, I was going through the process with Jason to transfer my Mac since over to windows and have left it a bit late, so I just bought a new subscription now, I removed the old license file and put in the new activation code and it tells me the code is invalid - am I doing anything wrong - or has the procedure changed ? I have uninstalled and reinstalled from a fresh download and still the same - I did notice that when the panel containing the company names etc. comes up it has the test name I used for Company Name / User Name / Email ect. Can anyone tell me how to completely reset AM - e…
Last reply by a.quaihoi, -
- 8 replies
- 9.5k views
https://sketchfab.com/maniacgraphics I just found this site still figuring things out Thought I would share my find
Last reply by Maniac, -
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Hey all, checking out v18 and started modeling again and maybe it's me, but I seem to remember not having to use keys to move CPs around and have them go haywire. For example, I used to move CPs around with the mouse and could move them into desired position. Now with v18, I move a CP around and it shoots all over the place (moving in different axis). I'm using keys (1, 2, 3) with mouse movement to move CPs around and it's so not intuitive. Is there a setting? I checked in Options and there is an "Use old compensate mode" option, but, that doesn't seem to help. This used to be quite easy to move CPs without the extra keys. Any suggestions? Thank you.
Last reply by ernesttx, -
- 1 follower
- 6 replies
- 4.1k views
A friend of mine still had an old Dark Tree on His PC. As a Mac user I hadn't given it much thought but now I have access to PC for animation. Can this be made available again? That material generator looked like a hoot! thanks, Adam
Last reply by Wildsided, -
- 2 replies
- 2.7k views
I thought I would play with sounds in A.M and I hear nothing tried i got a secret sound and hear nothing see it in time line scrub no sound what am I doing wrong
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 2 followers
- 22 replies
- 7.1k views
I'm toying with giving the Body Mechanics Boot Camp another try after the holidays. It would be a free class where you learn some basic character animation essentials. The curriculum might be something like -Bouncing Ball -Broad Jump -Weight shift -Side Step -Generic Walk It would need about three or four interested people who have the spare time to work on the exercises and who could all meet once a week at the same time on Skype.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 0 replies
- 2.6k 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, -
- 1 reply
- 3.8k views
I had this on my Back up hard drive.this was on one of the old A.M cds forgot I had this . Render 3 Pass 45min 3 Passes 47min.avi
Last reply by Rodney,
