Rodney

What Chris said but also... at the bottom of any post you create or open there should be a button that says 'Use Full Editor'. If you select that you'll be given morer fullerer editing powers. I believe we could make that the default... I think it was the default in the old forum... as often as I use links and such I use the full editor a lot. Quick response is just for um... er... quick responses.

Thanks for getting us here Jason. I dunno. I like dark but the black chrome leaves a bit to be desired...

Here's the problem from a different angle (as mentioned above). Here I've set two of the three tree leaves images to Cookie Cut but note that the renderer has the transparency cut through the branches (obj file itself). The one in the middle I left alone. (In case it's not obvious, all three trees are Action Objects rendered from an Action Window) Added: The problem with changing to TGA, etc. is that unless you can do that in the originating application Prop textures and such are hardcoded into the Prop as far as A:M is concerned so unless I am mistaken, changing the image format isn't an option. The second image provides a better view of the cookie cutter issue (we need to leverage that to cut things out of scenes!):

Okay... what I suggested before works but... it is also cutting through the background/ground plane. More investigation required. Come to think of it though... if controllable, this might yield a very cool feature.

There are a couple of approaches... Perhaps the easiest would be to change the Type from Color to Cookie Cut *in the Chor*. Note that the setting will be there to change in the Chor but not under the Prop properties themselves. It's strange also that keycolor is not an option under the image itself but I assume that is because the png has an alpha transparency. At any rate, try that in a Chor.

I want to note this as well... There are some features of the new board that you can't access unless you use the full editor when posting. An example of this (I believe) is tags which you cannot add to a post unless you are in the full editor. With tagging that should dramatically improve looking up similar topics and resources.

Sure can. Look for the mobile theme in the drop down menu lower left corner of the forum. To switch back there is a 'Full Version' button at the bottom of the mobile theme. (This post was made using the mobile theme on standard PC screen) Well, I didn't change any settings for you or your group. If you look in your post above you'll see that Mr. Glob Studios does indeed like your post.

Try again. I didn't see anything related to 'like'ing but made one change that might allow you to get that done. If that works for you I'll know what needs to be done for the rest of the forum. I'm not sure about the search problem but make sure that you change the setting from 'this forum' to 'all forums' or whatever equivalent is there. We'll have to see if we where we can change that default.

I believe it was javascript.

We'll try to get a couple different themes posted for forum members to choose from and one will surely be darker, probably in the vein of standard interfaces seem these days. If quoted text maintained the box that it has in the editor window that might be nice. Edit: Quotes are working here. What you are seeing is all default stuff so optimization will commence shortly. Thanks Jason for getting us moved into this shiny new space.

More tips: The way to manipulate lights in the scene is to add a light or lights into a Model. In order to be able to see that light (in order to be able to select and manipulate it) you really need to create a small piece of mesh/geometry (that is assuming the Model is otherwise empty). Then you can select it, then position and turn the light by moving/turning the model as needed. From my initial tests the viewer doesn't seem to care for Action Objects.

Similar to movement in A:M the following keys control the view: The following number keys can be used to change the view just like in A:M as listed: - '1' or 'C' camera view - '2' front view - '4' left view - '5' top view - '6' right view - '7' birds eye view - '8' back view - '0' bottom view After any of these mode movements, the user can return to the original "camera view" by pressing the '1' key on the keyboard, either above the letter keys or in the numeric keypad. Some standard navigation/interface instructions: Moveable- If turned "On" allows the WebHAMR user to left click on the object and drab it around in the scene in the ground plane or shift-left click to drag it around in the screen plane. Turnable- If turned "On" allows the WebHAMR user in "Turn mode" to left click on the object and rotate it in any direction or shift-left click to rotate it around its axis. Zoomable- If turned "On" allows the WebHAMR user in "Zoom mode" to left click on the object and zoom it or scale it relative to the rest of the scene. Poseable- If turned "On" allows the WebHAMR user in "Move mode" to click and pose bones in a model. If the bone is part of an IK chain, the bone will be translated with IK constraints applied. If the bone is not part of an IK chain, the bone will be rotated. If CTRL-left click, IK chain end translation or bone shaft rotation occurs. If Alt-left click, IK chain pivot translation or bone roll rotation is applied. Yeah, this is a bit confusing but play with it a bit to get a feel for it. WOOOHOOOO! It works!!! Life is sweet.

I was kind of hoping all the A:M programmers who have ever worked on A:M (to include plugins!) might come together for a 25th anniversary summer of code but... perhaps we'll have to wait for the 30th anniversary.

I learn something new every day. Thanks Mark!

Very nice Jason! Once it goes live it may even classify as 'awesome'.

Not impressed you say. Here's something of an essential non-hack that extends v18's capabilities with the HAMRviewer to allow specific objects in a scene to have interaction that other objects don't. In this video I'm just testing that the kettle and fire haven't been released to move/rotate whereas Keekat has. I'll have to check to see how best to lock down an entire scene to avoid unintended movement (i.e. the kettle and fire can be moved if the entire set is move... but note that Keekat moves too). Keekat should also be poseable (!) but I don't think the viewer was ever coded for that while the webviewer was. Note that (to my knowledge) the webviewer isn't compatible with any modern browser... bummer... so I'm only playing with the standalone viewer. At any rate, the way to get this additional functionality into v18 is to copy/paste the HAMR.hxt file (which is found in the HAMR installation folder) into the v18 hxt folder. This exposes objects to additional options in a similar way/location as the Newton plugin. There are four elements this exposes (Moveable, Turnable, Scaleable and Poseable of which the latter two appear to be limited in the standalone viewer) And while I haven't delved deeply, technically you don't need to set those special attributes for the viewer in A:M. You could add them with a text editor just prior the the end of the desired bone: ModelMoveable=TRUE ModelTurnable=TRUE ModelScaleable=TRUE ModelPoseable=TRUE Properties> Or set them to FALSE as appropriate. Extending_v18_functionality.mp4

Very nice Chris! You mention in your breakdown of After Effects cheats that you could have done some of the effects in A:M and I find this to be a great point. The underlying question being how much time can you budget to the effect and what are you most comfortable with in getting that shot done. A lot of time can be wasted... yes wasted... in picking the wrong option. Thanks for the insight into your process. You've got some really nice behind the scenes CG shots in there. I hope they'll do a future episode where the alien morphs into another character/object... that'd be fun!

A:M animation in other applications/browsers in realtime. What a great technology. Somewhat unfortunately... way ahead of its time. HAMRminitour004_projectfile.mp4

A lot more simple if the current HAMR code is compatible with that. I recall being very impressed with HAMR's ability to render particles in real time. The one in particular I recall was one with magic pixie dust but... I can't find that one.. so here's the basic TaoA:M Smoke, Wind and Fire setup: HAMRminitour3_particles.mp4

A lot might depend on the ability to release code. I'm not sure if the API/SDK still supports the HAMR elements as that may not have been an area that Steffen was involved. Is the code available... is it not... I dunno. Here's another mini tour of the standalone viewer moving around a few scenes from the Extra CD. Note that the error messages pop up are for textures that aren't supported by HAMR (those messages could be suppressed by default) Of interest... HAMR does display particles quite well, to include spriticle images and particle hair. I would say that given some of A:M's current capabities HAMR is even more powerful than it was when first released. HAMRminitour002.mp4

Background HAMR (Hash Animation:Master Realtime) and WebHAMR (HAMR for browsers) was an effort of several years ago (2009) to press A:M content out to new platforms. From the basic write up: The ultimate goal of HAMR was of course to push A:M content to web browsers but the API allowed other access as well (as demonstrated in the standalone HAMRviewer). Some general thoughts: - HAMR tech still works quite well although I don't know the extent of whether the API is used by anyone and some connectivity has been depricated over the ensuing years. - HAMR tech didn't get out of the initial development phase (as such it didn't get to the Mac port phase) - The Mac port and some modern updated features notwithstanding... the standalone viewer (PC only) still works great and as it is now could be included with the current distro as an alternate means to view Projects/Models outside of A:M. (barring that it is still available via the Hash Inc FTP so can be added to your toolbox and even given to other PC users who may not have access to A:M to view A:M content) With interest in development for A:M continuing I'm wondering if the powers that be would consider releasing some of the HAMR code so that a new generation of developers can take a crack at it. Now, some folks might point out that A:M dropped the compressed format .PRJB (a zipped/binary version of a project file which was used with HAMR) from it's menu several versions ago but I would counter with the fact that HAMR viewers can just as easily use uncompressed .PRJ files and even load individual models and actions. In fact, without even launching A:M one can populate a scene, play back canned actions and freely roam around. To sum this up... HAMR is dead. Long live HAMR. REF: Direct link to HAMRviewer exe on the Hash Inc FTP (yes this is an .exe so standard downloading rules apply... when in doubt download first and then scan it) HAMRminitour001.mp4

Happy Birthday Gerald! Thanks for all you do behind the scenes. Very much appreciated!

Yes indeed. And as confirmation I see v15 was the first official release with a link to a web subscription. (and of course it should be noted there was a transitional period circa v15 where both websubs and CDs were available)

I believe you are right... and I've corrected my post above to reflect such. I have no idea why I've got v13 and above locked deeply into my brain. Perhaps I was using both CD and subscription versions back then but I don't think I was. Thanks for setting me straight Robert. Some weird stuff is going on with my posting (edits reverting to earlier versions) so I think I will stop at that. The issue with installing prior websubscriptions to v15 is that I don't see any AMweb (i.e. websubscription) installers.

Jason, I'm noticing some admin permission issues (i.e. can't see all of the forums). This shouldn't be an issue for you as you are likely operating at the root but want you to be aware just in case that matters. For what it's worth I can see more forums via the new forum/server so additional permissiond must be granted there. As no one else has complained, this may not be effecting anyone else.