A:M Rendering
Rendering, Compositing and Special Effects
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99 topics in this forum
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Last reply by Elm, -
- 21 replies
- 8.3k views
Let's hook-up to this as an alternate renderer! http://www.animationmagazine.net/vfx/pixar-releases-free-noncommercial-renderman/
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 32 replies
- 8.1k views
Playing with features I had overlooked in the past... I see in the Choreography that I can turn ON Radiosity. A quick forum search turned up nothing (been having bad luck with our search engine... google almost does better...) I remember back in the day Yves put TONS of time and information into this subject on the forum... is it still around? Has Radiosity improved with the newer versions of A:M as far as render times go? Is Radiosity an alternative to or does it work with A:M's lights... raytraced only? Is radiosity whats known in other apps as 'global illumination'? Now that I have NetRender maybe I can take a little more of a hit to my render times if it mea…
Last reply by Roger, -
- 9 replies
- 6.4k views
from a set or TGAs. Was using Adobe's Media Encoder, but the trial ran out. Looks like to only way to get it is to purch one of the Video apps from Creative Cloud at $20/month. Anybody got a better alternative? Thanks, Rich
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 16 replies
- 6.3k views
OK. Having a hard time getting this. Got a good amount of materials, both textured and simple bmps, as well as quite a few tufts of grass/hair. No matter what I try to turn off in the chor window so I can manipulate the grass to be "blown" in the wind, my 8-core, 16gig, 660gtx machine acts as if it can't handle what I'm trying to do. Not sure what I'm doing wrong--how would one be able to manipulate individual "tufts" of grass? Not sure how to get the frame-by-frame rendering down to the barest minimum Thanks, Rich
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 37 replies
- 6.2k views
I was watching one of the videos and it referred to a white render. I like that look but don't know where or how to do it. Anyone?
Last reply by NancyGormezano, -
- 11 replies
- 6k views
Hi guys! I searched the forum and all I got was ancient threads about this feature, which didn't provide any infos on its usability... So I thought I ask again if anybody knows IF this Light map thing works, or maybe even HOW.. Or: does anybody know a (reasonable) workaround for 'baking' light and shadow into dacals / maps / whatever? Greetz, Elm.
Last reply by detbear, -
- 18 replies
- 5.8k views
SO- once again I am exploring IBL... I know that Stian used it quite nicely and had a tut out there showing how to... that I can't find. I have a choreography where I have disabled all of my lights... I bring in an image like the one attached (I have tried many...) and I select IBL in the choreography properties, and assign the image. I get only a black image indicating there is more to it than that... what am I missing?
Last reply by Fuchur, -
- 13 replies
- 5.1k views
Hello, Will helped/pointed me in the right direction to get shadows on a rotoscope image. Grabbed an image from the net, slapped my giraffe on it ... I did a search on the forum, and found a great pic of the settings that robcat2075 added to the forum.... How do I get strong shadows in my images. I played with various settings, and the shadows actually got worse. Is it a ground thing, or is a light thing? confused.
Last reply by detbear, -
- 3 replies
- 4.9k views
Surface Properties have two rarely noticed options: Average Normals, which when ON enables... Normal Weight 0% -100% This seems to control how the surface normal is interpolated from one spline to the next across a patch which affects shading and reflection results. Notice the difference in reflections and specular highlights in these three images. From left to right... Normal Weight 0%, 50 %, 100% OFF and 0% is the A:M default but ON and 50% is the result most like the intended spline shape and will give you smoothest results for most models.
Last reply by strato, -
- 3 replies
- 4.8k views
Hey all, has anyone seen the following errors when starting renderMess? followed by this one after hitting OK RenderServer is on Win10--both PCs I'm gettting this error constantly are Win7--the Win8 PC I also get it on but a restart will ofttimes fix it. It's been some time sine I ran Server/Mess, but I could've sworn that I was still running 10, but I'm not certain. Thanks, Rich
Last reply by Dylan Perry, -
- 1 reply
- 4.7k views
Anyone else get these unusual render frames... I left my PC(nothing else running) to render overnight and saw I have some frames that take unusually long... 5 hours 34 minutes when the frame before was 2min20??? A:M V18.0G 64 bit... using SSS hair.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 10 replies
- 4.6k views
I'm moving an object towards the camera through a waterfall. I want it to emerge through the waterfall. What I've been doing is using a green wall that I key out later. This leaves just the object as it passes through. Is there another/ better way to "Clip" an object in A:M so that I can bi-pass the green screen wall??? William
Last reply by detbear, -
- 17 replies
- 4.5k views
Hey Everyone. I was watching a demonstration on Marmoset Toolbag where game professionals drive SSS in their characters using a Translucency Map. Basically the "Greyscale" map controls how much or how little SSS effects specific areas. That way, you can have more SSS in areas like ear lobes, etc. I wonder if A:M could do this via one of the Map types in the decal selections. OR if a new Map type could be created to control this in A:M. Kevin
Last reply by detbear, -
- 1 follower
- 17 replies
- 4.2k views
Hello, I'm back with the questions and stuff. Okay ... is it possible to rip this (see link) style of rendering and reproduce it in AM? http://www.orderindebris.com/ When I asked how he did it (heh ... always asking), he sent me a pic of his settings in maya. I'm thinking toon and some tweeking of lights and stuff...
Last reply by zandoriastudios, -
- 3 replies
- 4.2k views
A:M has a camera post effect that will "burn" the current frame timecode into the rendered image, but on Mac you can't set the size of the effect. Here is a simple integer image sequence of 000-719 that may be added to a camera as a rotoscope if frame numbering other than what the "burn" effect can do is needed. It can be resized and moved to anywhere in the frame. I'll note that having an animated rotoscope in the frame seems to slow down real-time performance so you may want to turn it off until you render. counterTGAs.zip
Last reply by markw, -
- 20 replies
- 4.1k views
How do you implement MatCaps again? I thought I knew how... just went to try it... drew a blank! I THOUGHT it was in an available option under a groups properties in the Diffuse Render Shader- Specular Render Shader - Ambiance Render Shader lists, but I don't see matcaps as an option anymore... is it a shader I need to install? I am on latest V 18.0N 64bit.
Last reply by johnl3d, -
- 5 replies
- 4k views
Saw a post on here a couple of months ago about converting TGA files into an AVI movie using AM 10.3 and up...the process described won't work for me...there is no option under the file drop down menu to import any image files.Running AM 13.0....??????Anybody used this before????If AM will do it don't want to spend money on a new utility progam for this.... TNX
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 13 replies
- 4k views
Not sure what else to call it ....... I would like to have an effect for the exhaust section on my jet engine to have that heat wave like effect, not really smoke or very little smoke and maybe it would extend out 10 feet or so from the exhaust , maybe a translucent sprite effect with a fast end life or a material effect? never was good at understanding animated materials. ... or some other method? I always have h hard time getting the look I want with sprites, due to my limitation not the sprite sys. I will go abouts working on ideas..if you have any! ..... sound like a job for "TinkeringGnome" hope I spelled that correctly....John Mike C
Last reply by Kamikaze, -
- 26 replies
- 3.8k views
I remember doing the AM render benchmark test, and I came upon 5 minutes to do the VGA example. I was thinking of it now I have a short animation with rather a lot of particles. When I first did the render, a rising thinderbird into the sky, my minimum render time for a frame on VGA became at highest 3 minutes. So for a 8 second animation I could get away with 6 houres rendering. After some sessions I decided to give it some more sprite emitters for smoke and explosion. Then I realized this quotum would be rather high: three flame throwers - three smoke paths - three explosion sprites and three smoke bursters. It look well, I had all moments set to give the sprite e…
Last reply by Madfox, -
- 3 replies
- 3.5k views
Since I have always constructed texture UV maps, I find myself in unsure waters with baking things. If I have a few darktree materials on a model and I bake textures. What will that do to the darktree textures. Will it form a decal. Will it do some other magical task. What's in it for the Baker William
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 12 replies
- 3.5k views
I stumbled acrosst an old character and a cool animation- I decided to throw some new features on the render and see how it looks... (SSS and AO)
Last reply by stefff285, -
- 7 replies
- 3.5k views
I am trying to get a spotlight (klieg) to have it's shadow lessen with distance... and I forget the trick! See image for illustration of what I am going after... should I use a regular bulb type light? is it the penumbra feature? How does one get this? (I recreated the effect I want in Photoshop here...)
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 24 replies
- 3.4k views
I have a question about sound in TARGA sequences. After rendering a choreography as .tga there is one more file - .tga.sinfo. I am guessing that this is the sound information. When I import the sequences in Quicktime 7, only the video images are imported. If I import the sequences back into A:M and then "Save Animation As ..." and select .mov the sound again is left out. What do I need to do. Thanks.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 9 replies
- 3.2k views
hey! for all you people out there favouring The Dark Side over any christmas any time, here is a little seasonal treat: Vampire Vampire allows you to change the Diffuse Color and the Transparency of a material when seen in a mirror. Just set the Opacity, Color and Tint percentage you want to have in the mirror, drop the material on your vampire and you are done. http://www.kci-group.com/z/vampire.htm also check out keekat's new cool vampire teeth! Vampire is Freeware. have fun + post some pics using it here!
Last reply by nino banano, -
- 4 replies
- 3.1k views
Hey all, Been away for a few months and seem to have completely forgotten how to create a gradient. I read the Tech Ref, but I'm not clear: When the techref mentions "measuring from the pivot", does that mean the center? Also, is it the center of the example sphere or the patch where the mat will be placed? For example, if I have a line of patches approx 50cm tall that I want to split between two textures, would the gradient read: Start X 0cm Y -25cm z 0cm End x 0cm y 25cm z 0cm This is kinda puzzling me. I've successfully created these in the past, but I winged it, and I'm trying to gain greater control over them. …
Last reply by Darthlister, -
Hello Everyone, I am having a problem with rendering a scene at the correct length. I have a scene that is 14400 frames long, and I am rendering at 24 Frames Per Second. But I am getting a file that is a little over 8 minutes long when it should be 10 minutes. Does anyone have any experience in which render options I should choose to have the file rendered at the correct length? I have a clock in this scene, so it is important that it is the right length. Thanks in advance to all those who help. Andrew
Last reply by Andrew, -
- 12 replies
- 3k views
Toon Render Animation Master’s Toon Render has a lot to offer. This topic is dedicated to providing the Animation Master Community with an in depth examination of Toon Rendering. Of the many properties for surfaces, Toon Lines and Toon Shading control how surfaces render when Toon Render is ON in the Rendering Options window. To turn Toon Render ON, click Tools on the menu bar and select Options, or press Ctrl+P to bring up the Options window. Click on the Rendering tab, make sure that Advance is checked, and click on the OFF next to Toon Render to turn it to ON. If you open up the Toon Render menu, you will see thre…
Last reply by MattWBradbury, -
- 1 follower
- 7 replies
- 2.8k views
im trying to do a flyin with a ribbon waving. i was curious about the "wave" plug. are there any tuts on it?
Last reply by jason1025, -
- 7 replies
- 2.8k views
Hi all, Remember those toons where the fade to black was an iris? How would you recommend achieving that in AM? My only idea is to use an unlit black flat piece of geometry with a circle in it and I move and scale the circle to suit. Cheers
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 7 replies
- 2.8k views
Hey Everyone. I'm in V18 and trying to get the SSS on a character to render without it looking black/ dark. It looks similar to when you try to render transparency with real AO and the "transparent AO" set to "Off" Anyone know how to get the SSS on without looking like black wax?
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 8 replies
- 2.7k views
Hi Everyone, I seem to have run into a problem with texturing a seamless texture onto a model. I've made a seamless texture that I would like to apply to a model. I understand by selecting all patches and dropping the image on it will put the image on each patch. This is great, but it looks like it changes the direction on some of the patches... making the model look like it has lines on it because it breaks that seamless texture due to direction. I was wondering if there was a way I can apply my texture and have it stitch it without rotating the seamless texture. basically it's a base seamless texture I'm using for a pair of jeans for examp…
Last reply by Kombowz, -
- 3 replies
- 2.6k views
I'm toon rendering a model in a simple choreography with the character walking along the ground. How do I get the character's shadow to render on the ground plane? The character's "toon" settings are: Line color: dark gray line size: .8 Toon bias: 2 The ground's "toon" settings are: Line color: white line size: .8 Toon bias: 20 "shadows" are enabled in render settings.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 2 replies
- 2.6k views
Hello - I'm got a relatively simple humanoid character model that I want to render as basically flat black with some white specularity reflections, but I want it to have a more "matte" rendered look without the glossy look that specularity normally gives to the model. Any ideas how to accomplish this?
Last reply by cribbidaj, -
- 4 replies
- 2.6k views
Hi Guys! I'm adjusting the fog distance in my chor's camera (including setting keyframes for both "start" and "end" distance). When trying to render via the netrender Server, these settings get ignored - the standard 200cm for start and 800cm for end appear. Is this a bug? I tried with v 16 and 18. Greetz, Elm.
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 14 replies
- 2.5k views
I'm having difficulty getting cloth to work - at all - in 16.0a. Simulation always creates infinite collisions, no matter how low I have the threshold set. Loading the same project in v15 makes the cloth simulate perfectly fine. Submitted an AM:Report, anyone else having this issue?
Last reply by Walter Baker, -
- 5 replies
- 2.5k views
Hey. Stian has posted about how to apply HDRI lighting. On Stian's HDRI image site, there doesn't seem to be any light probe images to be used along with the HDRI's. I have a question. Is there a way to create a light probe(ball) image from an HDRI. Normally the "Light Probe" exists first and then an HDRI image is made from the light probe. BUT what if there is no light probe image but just an HDRI image. Without the light probe (ball) image, and the matching HDRI image, the lighting won't be accurate. Thanks, William
Last reply by detbear, -
- 6 replies
- 2.5k views
Is there a good tut out there that points out the differences in usage in the inherent glow (when turned on) of an object vs. the glow caused by lens flares. Looking at a "beam" type glow from the eyes of a character. I created this effect initially with a couple of bone/Cp-driven bolts eminating from the eyes. Looks good, but I'm thinking there should be a way to duplicate the "late night headlight" effect without the normal circular "lens flare effect. As always, any advice is appreciated. Rich EDITED: "good" instead of "food"
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 6 replies
- 2.4k views
Say a model has two different but interchangeable image textures (using the same stamp/UV map). Is there a way to animate a shift (either gradually or abrupt) between the two textures?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 15 replies
- 2.4k views
Hello- Playing with sprite smoke and wanted to ask two questions. 1) Is it possible to achieve an effect like the one in the still image from a 2D Disney cartoon whereby smoke is underlit to give a dramatic effect? Sprites don't seem to be affected by lights and if you colored the individual small graphic (which makes up the smoke ) to be underlit, then the underlit effect would be over the entire smoke cloud and not isolated as it would be in a dramatic setting... 2) I have been trying to get a very slow (almost hypnotic) effect with smoke rising using sprites. Can't seem to slow the smoke down enough to get that effect. I tried playing with the "ini…
Last reply by Tom, -
- 6 replies
- 2.4k views
I have a scene with several motions ,sea ,ship rocking etc. when I apply MB will it effect those motions or only fast motions I specifically what MB applied to, some motions I have are not slow but I do not want MB on those.
Last reply by Kamikaze, -
- 13 replies
- 2.4k views
I'm creating an explosion and I wanted to have some sprites change from yellow to red over their lifetime, i.e., from the center of the explosion to the periphery. I've been playing with settings but can't seem to find a way, or even just coloring them one color throughout. Can this be done? Or does it need to be an animated sprite?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 19 replies
- 2.4k views
Hi all, I am creating a scene in which I need an object clips out the rendering of other objects. So if the clipping object is in the foreground, it will alpha out anything behind it. I imagine there is a way to do this using compositing layers and other software. But it there way to simply designate an object so that it can do this? Thanks, -Adam
Last reply by NancyGormezano, -
- 1 follower
- 2 replies
- 2.4k views
I am slightly confused. I am trying to get to grips with ambiance lighting and occlusion in A:M rendering. The problem isn’t abscense of options but the opposite: there is so many different places ambience parameters can be set, and it is not clear (to me anyhow) which of the similar labeled functions does what and what cancels each other out. Below is a collection of the possible settings I have found ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––- Camera: Global Ambiance (%) Camera/Render Options: Ambiance Occlusion (On/Off) Occlusion Sampling (%) Transparent AO (On/Off) Camera/Render Options: Plugin Shaders (On/Off) Ambiance Render Shader (shade…
Last reply by Tore, -
- 7 replies
- 2.3k views
Have any of you seen the recent Jose Cuervo ads on TV and have suggestions on how to light and render models in A:M in the choreography to simulate that look? It seems to be a 2-color (red/black) psuedo toon render in 3d, with the shadows being black. I write "psuedo" toon render because it seems like there is depth to the scorpion model though it is only two colors.
Last reply by cribbidaj, -
- 5 replies
- 2.3k views
I'm using A:M 18.0p SE3 on a Mac running OS 10.11.6 with an nVidia Geforce GT 750M. When rendering a choreography at Super35 res I'm able to render one frame at a time successfully, but while attempting to render multiple frames A:M consistently crashes. I've stopped many of the background processes on the computer to allocate as much processing power to A:M as I can, but the crashes still consistently occur (only when attempting to render multiple frames - the software successfully renders to first frame I've selected, then crashes). My current workaround is to stay at the computer and render one frame at a time, which does not cause the software to crash. Any idea w…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 5 replies
- 2.3k views
Hey all, Looked for this in the techref, but couldn't find it. Can you specify a gravity point (the point where particles are attracted to in the gravity attribute), or does that attribute automatically just send particles along the Y axis? Thanks, Rich
Last reply by Darthlister, -
- 6 replies
- 2.2k views
Hello, I recently returned to AM. I'm working my way through TAOAM. I am also just digging around and pressing buttons and just getting to know the program. Question - How do I add a background image? I'd like to create charcaters, etc. but also use backgrounds; like cityscapes, or the inside of rooms, or environments created in other programs, and render my charcaters on or ontop of the background. Thanks!
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 4 replies
- 2.2k views
Hey all, has anyone seen anything like this? Did a search, but the closest thing I could find was material displacement, and I don't think this is that, but you judge. Below is the view from the camera Whereas, this is the actual render Having a hard time figuring out why the "wall" is further out in the render than in the camera preview. Using "use camera settings" in Tools/Options/render. Any ideas? Thanks, Rich
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 1 reply
- 2.1k views
A:M has a format for importing/exporting camera data. For what it's worth, it seems to work like this... It is a text file that appears like this 30 16 1 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3.72529e-009 1 12 -0 100 0 0 2 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 -1.11022e-016 3.72529e-009 1 12 8.33262 100 0 0 3 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 -1.66533e-016 3.72529e-009 1 12 17.0863 100 0 0 4 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 -2.77556e-016 3.72529e-009 1 12 26.1848 100 0 0 5 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 -2.22045e-016 3.72529e-009 1 12 35.5286 100 0 0 6 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 -2.22045e-016 3.72529e-009 1 12 45 100 0 0 7 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 -1.11022e-016 3.72529e-009 1 12 54.4714 100 0 0 8 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3.72529e-009 1 12 63.8152 100 0 0 9 1 2 3 0 0…
Last reply by 3DArtZ,
