A:M Rendering
Rendering, Compositing and Special Effects
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99 topics in this forum
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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, -
- 1 follower
- 3 replies
- 1.6k views
I was setting a test render with v18a and netrender. Simple spin animation and I trying to set/tell netrender to use plugin shaders. However, there is no selection for the shaders. Has this always been the case or am I missing something. Steve
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 8 replies
- 485 views
My new computer (thanks, Steve Shelton!) has an Intel Core i7-12700K with 12 cores, with a base frequency of 3.6 GHz and "boost" up to 5 GHz. Eight of the 12 cores are high-power "performance" cores and four are low-power "efficiency"cores. The performance cores can be Hyperthreaded to behave as two cores for up to 20 total cores. I've been giving it a workout with NetRender and testing to see how much extra work gets done with each additional core. This chart shows the relative thoughput of completed frames as the number of cores allotted to the render increases. The productivity of one core alone is treated as a baseline of 1.00, so we can loo…
Last reply by Fuchur, -
- 1 follower
- 8 replies
- 324 views
Still trying to get this "thread" effect to work. Robcat's clever animated gradient material almost worked but didn't get the "end of the snake" of the thread I needed to follow the moving thread. (see attached) Tried adding two animated gradient materials but couldn't get that to work. i then reverted back to animating them with booleans but they caused a buttload of problems in the chor. so now i'm trying to animate a regular decal along the length of the threads (which are then reshaped in the chor.) and cannot get anything to happen. So my question at this point is How can I animate a decal's position along a model? Have tried doing it in Action but nothing …
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 4 replies
- 1.4k views
Hi all, Working on a scene where some action has to happen, then a parcel of boulders have to fall onto a character. Having used newton sim in the past, I noticed that, no matter where I wanted the gravity sim to start, it always starts at frame 0. I've tried turning the falling objects off until I want them to fall, but always get a "Unsolvable Problem with shortcut to.." etc. error. I figure I'm missing something in the sim settings, but darned if I can figure where. Any help or pointers in the right direction would be appreciated. Thanks, Rich
Last reply by Darthlister, -
- 6 replies
- 1.9k 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, -
- 19 replies
- 1.7k 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, -
- 12 replies
- 2.7k 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, -
- 5 replies
- 1.7k 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, -
- 2 replies
- 1.1k views
Is there a way to achieve the "perspective" view of a model or scene in a choreography like one achieves by pressing the number pad 9 key in the modeling window?
Last reply by cribbidaj, -
- 4 replies
- 859 views
I may not be asking this in the appropriate place, If sO I apologise. I have spent a long time rendering out .tga files from my current project. They were rendered at 1920 x 1060 and I am now trying to compile the frames in Final Cut Pro into the finished piece. Can anyone advise as to what video Codec to use to get the best quality at full registration ? The still frames rendered have no visual banding but, when I compile them in FCP, even in uncompressed form, ( all 508Mb for 3 seconds worth ) then banding is very noticeable. Is there acny way around this ? If I am asking in the wrong place, can anyone advise as to where to ask ? sincere…
Last reply by Darkwing, -
- 1 reply
- 1.4k views
This is from a production design commentary on one the the Mad Men DVDs, a series I'm only now getting around to watching. Their premise is that the series is set in the early 60's so they want period furniture on their sets. They found these secretarial desks and ordered them in beige because they wanted them to appear not too extravagant. To make the beige panels photograph more interestingly, however, they put a larger than normal desktop on them so it would extend over the sides and cast a shadow (two really ifyou look close), breaking up the color without explicitly adding another color to the object. I also think the overhanging shadow gives a depth c…
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 1 follower
- 17 replies
- 3.2k 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, -
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- 1.5k views
Hi Guest Returning User, The death of Quicktime is a problem. One solution is to render to an image sequence of TGA or JPG and use an 3rd party video editing tool to compress that to a video format like MPG. In Render to file settings click to the far right of "Format" to get the drop down list of available formats you can save in. AVI is a video format you can still render to in A:M but it is poor and I don't recommend it. If you merely need to watch your animation you can still load image sequences into A:M and it will play them if you have enough RAM.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 32 replies
- 5.1k 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, -
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- 1.7k 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, -
- 26 replies
- 2.6k 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
- 809 views
I am rendering a scene and want to render every third or fourth frame. Right now I'm just entering the frame numbers with commas between each in the custom frame options dialog box when rendering, but I feel that there was an easier method that I am forgetting. Is there a way to set a render so that it renders only every other frame or however you want? Also, as my reason for rendering this way is to get a choppy, "stop-motion" look to the animation, is it possible to accomplish this in a choreography when there are camera movements and I want the camera movement to be smooth while the models I am animating have the jerky stop-motion look?
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
- 3 replies
- 1.3k views
I find it interesting that the Rendering of light 'through' geometry (ie windows/doorways) is different between a Final Render in AM and a Final Render in Netrender (Netrender gets it right). In AM, the light pentrates the geometry. In Netrender it is properly blocked by Geometry. (17g 64bit) Cheers
Last reply by Fuchur, -
- 8 replies
- 1.3k views
http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...mp;hl=propellor Ok Gang, I have an idea for the new forum project and need to get the above (MUFOOF) info to work. I have worked on this for several days and when I go to render all seems to be fine and the window says 2-3 hours. After 5 hours I go on to bed and in the morning it is still rendering.....stop it This morning started it with new settings at 7am just got home at 5:30 same results, ran all day still rendering....stop it The object is to have a model spin around blurring then stopping for something else here is the project Hopefully one you folks can look at it and see where I hav…
Last reply by Walter Baker, -
- 4 replies
- 891 views
Here's a current job running. Is this common? Instance 0 got started first and is doing something but Render Server doesn't seem to know. But instance 1 appears to be reporting in correctly.
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
- 4 replies
- 1.5k views
Is it possible to implement a model render on a transparent background in hash am?
Last reply by Userdelete, -
- 1 reply
- 1.2k views
Anyone using AM on Windows 8? I installed it on my crappy little Acer i5 2.1ghz with 4gb RAM and it is rendering 3 time faster than my Windows 7 Toshiba Qosmio i7 1.8ghz with 8gb RAM. I wouldn't have thought that the extra 0.3ghz processor speed would have made that much difference..... Cheers
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 6 replies
- 1.2k views
Have been having this issue for a while now and not sure how to get rid of the problem. Basically you see striations in every gradient, particularly bad in areas of extreme contrast. Not sure if its a rendering option, a card issue, or what. No matter what card, amount of memory, or processor I have used over the past, and they are varied, I get the same results no matter what. Info on PC is an Intel Duel core 2.6 G, 2 gigs of ram, 1.9 T hard drive space. Also have tried a variety of passes and between 2 passes and a 100 absolutely no difference. Again if anyone can help me I really would appreciate it. Also side note, when doing alpha layer rendering, I notic…
Last reply by jimd, -
- 21 replies
- 4.5k 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, -
- 5 replies
- 819 views
I did some more testrendering for a project of mine. Format Full HD with quite a few big models in it with shadow, reflections, toonrender on. I know I should use singlefile format, but just for a general test , if it would work at all, I choose Quicktime with high quality. So what happens with my scenes they render quite o.k. with times from 5 to 15 minutes till all of a sudden from one frame to another the rendertime rise exceptionally to 40 minutes or higher, seems like it is stalled somehow. Can I forget and quit this now or does it make sense to show some more patience? What might be the reason? Not enough ram maybe? Would this happen with…
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
- 0 replies
- 765 views
Is it possible to copy the settings from one of my older projects into a new project Have a new project where that was tracked in PFHoe and, I could not get the ground to have shadows on it. I imported a 4x4 grid that I used many times before but still can not get shadows. So I found one older proj. that does work, Thus my question. Can the Grid settings from the old Proj., or Chor., be imported to the new grid?
Last reply by Walter Baker, -
- 2 replies
- 1.6k views
In the "Heat Distortion" Thread I posted a sample project that uses a Material effector to change the refraction value of a small portion of a lumpy transparent tube. HeatDistortion.zip The idea is that where the refraction is greater than 1.0 the lumps will bend the light and distort the background seen through the object, creating something like the wavy distortion you seen in the air above a very hot object. You may also recall a similar tactic used by Jeff Lew in "Killer Bean 2" to make the "trail" of a bullet in the air visible. However the effect only appears properly in Progressive render, not Final renders. Steffen Gross has looked at the pr…
Last reply by johnl3d, -
- 3 replies
- 598 views
After importing Smoke2 as a Sprite it goes Material>Smoke2>Sprite Emitter>Sprite Emitter (2). Why are their two? I could not find an explanation in the Tech Manual.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 0 replies
- 931 views
Hey Folks I have an old model that I build a ways back in v14c of a c-130 aircraft ....... I'm trying to get it to leave a smoke trail as it goes along a path in a chor. I had it working in 14c back in the day but I am having problems in 64b AM 16b on windows 7 64 bit......when I put it in a new chor alone on a path it works fine but when I bring it into another chor..to be specific the chor used in the "rear window" group project started by robcat ..it does not emit sprites... I want to use this c 130 in a flyover scene .....with the smoke trail behind it...now for more detail.....the 4 engines on the c 130 are brought into the chor as action objects ...... and firs…
Last reply by Kamikaze, -
- 15 replies
- 1.8k 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, -
- 17 replies
- 3k 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, -
- 0 replies
- 1.2k views
Staging and Composition probably should have a forum area of its own but perhaps a separate forum isn't strictly needed. Discussion of these two themes is certainly encouraged and insight into them by practitioners of the craft is always appreciated. There are a lot of similar concepts in 3D staging and composition to photography, filmmaking, illustration... carpentry.... flower arrangement... Staging and Composition can be found everywhere. And what can be applied appropriately can enhance what we produce in CG. Here is an article from Videomaker.com that proposes to set up standing sets for use with live action filmmaking. The concepts found in these fiv…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 5 replies
- 1.9k 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, -
- 1 reply
- 3k 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, -
- 7 replies
- 2.1k 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, -
- 1 follower
- 6 replies
- 1.9k 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, -
- 1 reply
- 830 views
Hey, all, delving into texturing and I've created a Color texture. I'm wondering since I've created this texture, would it be possible to create a displacement texture using the UV that was created for the Color texture? I say this as when I created the Color texture, I did a test and run kind of method (flatten, apply Decal for Color, not save Action). So, I'm almost done with the character and started to wonder about other possible decal textures - displacement, bump, etc. I'm wondering if there is a way to utilize what I've already done or would I have to start all over again and just create more decal images (one for all I suppose because, how would I determine how ma…
Last reply by ernesttx, -
- 24 replies
- 2.4k 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, -
- 5 replies
- 3.5k 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, -
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, -
- 7 replies
- 2.2k 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, -
- 12 replies
- 2.3k 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, -
- 3 replies
- 2.1k 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
- 363 views
Mod note: this topic has been split off from a Live Answer Time discussion. Very cool class today! Here is a project addressing a possible refraction bug with two identical glass balls on a table with a decal. The glass materials are identical except one has refraction set to 1 and the other has refraction set to 1.5. The material with refraction at 1.5 is black... Not sure why that is happening... Is this a bug? Image for PRJ: RefractionTest.prj
Last reply by Tom, -
- 3 replies
- 736 views
I know a number of apps can load OpenEXR files but what current apps can load them and give individual access to the various buffers that one file might contain, such as the depth or normal or light buffers, much as the composite feature of A:M does Does anyone have After Effects CS3? Does it do that sort of thing? If there aren't apps that do that, is there a way to extract these buffers into separate files?
Last reply by MattWBradbury, -
- 9 replies
- 2.5k 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, -
- 1 follower
- 7 replies
- 1.9k 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, -
- 2 replies
- 1.1k views
Is it normal for A:M to grind to a crawl when working in a Chor using particle sprites? I'm not be able to scrub through the Chor timeline as normal in order to see how they are looking or how the animation timing is for the emitted particle sprites. I can step through the Chor a frame at a time but I have to wait for a couple of minutes before the each frame is displayed. This is happening with my old nemesis, the Rear Window set! I have deactivated most of the set and character to try and speed things up, which has at least got the wait between frames down from 4 minutes! As soon as I turn off "Show Particles/Hair" I can scrub through normally again. I don't t…
Last reply by markw,
