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I was nearing the end of my third and final year in Illustration when my teacher approached me with a volunteer assignment outside the usual class projects. In Oakville, there was a summer festival that took place in the 1990s and early 2000s called the Oakville Waterfront Festival. It was a major event at the time, featuring live music, games, food, and craft shows. The previous year, my teacher’s studio had illustrated the festival poster, which featured a 3D rendering of an ice cream cone. Having seen what I was capable of modeling in A:M, he asked for my help in creating a 3D version of the festival’s beloved mascot, "Jake from the Lake." Over the next few weeks, I modeled Jake and his buddy, Fishy, and the rest is history. Below, you can see a screenshot of the final poster, along with the Photoshop revisions my teacher made, including the addition of the ice cream cone from the previous year. It was such an exciting time I had never seen my work in print like that before. The poster was displayed all over the city, featured in newspaper articles, and even printed large scale for bus shelter ads.

Hey yall! I've had some trouble uploading images to the forum and finally got around to starting my own html page on neocities: yopachi.neocities.org they give you 1gb of free website and it's super fun to make a simple page using LLM as a helper for the code. The site is just one page for now but I'll be adding my worthy splines are as I go. I even made an animated favicon! did you know you can animate favicons?

I realized that this month is the 26th year of owning and using AM. I bought my first copy in 1999 from CompUSA. From the 6th grade I have always wanted to do animations. I have been around computers since 1977 in High School, and once I got to college I saw that a computer could help me create an animation. I have had Maya, Studio 3d, Infini D, RayDream, Lexicor and one I can not remember from the Silicon Graphics days. But I have always come back to AM. I am hoping once we get moved in the next couple of months I will get back to that dream of creating an animation project. It is funny, as I have been cleaning out for the move I found a render I did of all the characters in Cupids Sick Day and the Coffee Shop. It is crazy how many splines I had on some of the characters. one of the female characters had over 9k patches. Anyway, All of them are my creations except for three which I got off the extra dvd. And I only used parts of those characters. I still have another 20 not shown in the pic that are still being finished. Over the years of had created some 50 +/- characters with AM. Many are not rigged while others are partially rigged. I have about 15 with full rigs and weighted. I have many rigs installed. From Zundle Rig, Holmes Bryan Rig (LiteRig), Mark Skodacek (2008 Rig), David Simmons (squetch Rig), Mack Chappelle's Saucy Rig, my own rig, and of course TSM 2.0. Thank you to all the people who have commented on all the characters through the years and given me inspiration to continue by quest. I will be uploading shortly a continuation of an animation that began many months ago. Thank you Robert Holmen and Chris Daily for pushing me forward and out of my comfort zone. I have learned a great deal about AM and about myself through this process of creating. Happy 26th anniversary to me!!

Lately, I've been seeing some posts on here and on other forums showing vintage CG stuff, it got me looking through some of my old projects, reminiscing about my first experiences with 3D and starting my career in 3D graphics. I figured maybe this is a good space to share some old works that I never posted on the forum before maybe some of you will recognize some of the stuff. I got into 3D in the early to mid-'90s in high school and college. I didn't quite understand how 3D graphics were made in high school and used programs like DeluxePaint Animation to try and create my own. I even did a few projects for teachers, animating the high school logo. Then, I eventually learned about POV-Ray and tried every free 3D modeler available at the time that worked with it but it was never satisfying. I eventually started using 3ds for DOS and was able to get somewhere. I used it to create a 3D gallery for my uncle’s website, showcasing his paintings, drawings, and sculptures. I switched to Ray Dream Designer but it wasn't until college that I found out about Martin Hash's 3D Animation Pro, or A:M 4.0. With A:M, I was able to model organic shapes that I had been struggling to make in other programs. I used A:M for my computer class projects while taking Illustration at Sheridan College and because of what I was able to do with it got hired by my computer teacher at his design studio in Toronto. Below is one of the first projects I did for my computer class using A:M 4.0 I'll be posting more as I sort through my files

Initially, I wanted to pursue illustration to become a book illustrator. Some of my favorite artists at the time were fantasy illustrators like Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, the Hildebrandt Brothers, and Keith Parkinson. I thought studying interpretive illustration would set me on the right path, but I found that many illustration teachers in the ’90s were jaded about the industry’s direction. With Photoshop taking over many traditional illustration jobs, photographers could now do work that had once been the domain of illustrators. Maybe that’s why computer class was one of my favorites, the teachers were excited and enthusiastic about this new field. Many of the skills I learned in those classes, like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, are tools I still use today. This was one of my projects for computer class. I believe the assignment was to create something using Photoshop, and of course, I used it as an excuse to do something in A:M, using Photoshop mainly for creating textures and final touch-ups. I was also experimenting with achieving soft shadows in ray tracing by creating a small cluster of bulb lights.

I got "Mario" and "Scrabble" working and "Change"

I didn't know we still had that! That is left-over from long ago. 😮 If you click and drag, it will make a two-point spline. Back in the dark ages, "A" would get you just that two-point spline behavior and you had to SHIFT-A ("lock mode") to get the continuing spline-making that "A" gets you today. I think you can ignore "lock mode" today.

The y key. Normally it adds a CP between two CPs, but if you select a CP by clicking just beyond the end of a spline it extends the spline by one CP.

thanks to Robcat was up and tinkering again whatsup2a.prj

robcat2075, very cool video tutorial! The result is excellent!

Wow! Outstanding. That's a lot of characters. I hadn't realized just how many characters you've created.

That's a very impressive set of characters you've created, Steve. And it doesn't even include the cavemen and knights and goblins!

I have been working on getting ready to move. As a part of that I was looking at computers. I pulled up Cindy from Cupid Sick day. I modeled her 15 years ago. It is hard to believe. In 2012 I re rigged her and the rig holds up nicely.

MONADA3_207_AlCHEM.mp4

I hope everyone had a great Holiday, and will have a happy new year! Windows: Windows 32Bit Windows 64Bit SDK: v19.5 SDK Change Log: Fixed 0007283: Action lost on PRJ Save Fixed 0007279: Splitpatch gone? Fixed 0007286: Can't select target for Group Constraint Fixed 0007281: DarkTree/Symbiont Materials render blank Fixed 0007285: Importing MDL files will result in "No Name" as the name of the model Fixed 0007280: Imported Materials have no name Fixed 0007209: Texture Sequence as a Decal: Image > Timing > Frame is ignored by final renderer

Getting in the spirit of Halloween, so played around with an older model and some lighting.

Thing found while looking on my hard drive for some other thing... a bit of unused character animation for TWO. This would have come near the end of Woot's verse in "We're Off, We're Gone". These renders are shaded previews with no backgrounds.

HI Mike! I'm in DFW. But did you know we do Live Answer Time every Saturday? You should drop by! But to your question... try this...

Hi Guys, I'm happy to share an animation I've been working on the past few months, I'll try to make a long story short... Since all this Covid 19 stuff things have been different, previously most of my spare time was spent working on fine art projects a lot of work I did preparing for art shows was put on hold and like many people it's been a stressful time. I guess psychologically the best way I've been able to deal with it has been to tap into my silly side and rekindle some of the things that inspired me in my younger years. Using Animation Master was one of those things, it was the first app that got me seriously into 3D and actually helped land me my first job out of college. I made a friend on this forum over 20 years ago (Bud) Mike Lium, we eventually lost touch and reconnected on Facebook even though I wasn't using A:M much or posted 3d stuff he was always a friend... always encouraged me and my art. These past couple months while working on this animation I couldn't wait to surprise him with it. Sadly I didn't finish it in time, and found out he passed away a few weeks ago. So I dedicate this to Bud. Mike https://vimeo.com/417019628