Rodney

Hi Philip! I'm not sure what is going on in your case because without something to test against there are too many variables. Just in case you aren't doing this... here's a simple way to reduce those variations: Immediately after opening an older project (model, action, etc) in a current release it is good practice to save the file again. Under a new name of course as you don't want to overwrite the original. What this does is update all the various bits and bytes that have been optimized or changed. It would be good to resolve what is happening in your specific case of course but you may not have the time or inclination to resolve problems that technically no longer exist. Projects from v13 should have no problem rendering in v18. So the first things I would do after opening the v13 project in v18 would be to save it back out again under a new name (example: 'thisoldproject(v18update).prj) If that doesn't get it to render then at least it narrows down the possibilities to more specific areas.

Lumion has some very nice aspects to it. I suppose it all depends on the purpose it is to be used for and it certainly excels at that architectural flavor of rendering. As such I can see it being used to create/populate backgrounds which in turn could be used with A:M. It does implement some things that would save a lot of time if setup in A:M (creating a Chor setup or Project that allows the user to set a time of day and have the lighting adjust accordingly). That's more about optimizing settings and sharing them with the community than anything else however. The HDR assets are readily available and waiting to be exploited. We (collectively) just don't use them as often as we should. There is a free version for non-commercial use so everyone can use Lumion to some extent. The free version contains a watermark. The next tiers cost $299, $1499 and $2999 respectively. http://lumion3d.com/free/ Note: The free version is 3.2 but 4.0 is about to be released. I'm not sure if the free version lags behind or if both free and paid releases stay in sync. At this point I assume they stay in sync. Disclaimer: Lumion doesn't run on my current system. It fails to pass the initial benchmark test that runs when first loading. I'm not sure if this is a hardware issue, a RAM issue or perhaps both but some sort of graceful exit would be ideal. After all that's the whole point of running the benchmark. Here's the minimum requirements: My current system fails in at least two areas.

A whole lot of folks celebrating their big day today! Mr. Jaqe(25), Newbert_Zero(25), mschoenhals(46), Davoid(56), jason1025(35), Shelton(52), AZ3(42) Happy Birthday one and all! And here's a special shout out to Steve Shelton who is making great progress on his short awhile keeping us updated via the "Cupid's Sick Day" special topic: Cupid's Sick Day (I always enjoy those looks behind the scenes) Have a very happy birthday!

One of the neat things mentioned in the interview was how the artist was able to see the cycling even while creating the art. This has direct implications for the creation of animated art today beyond the element of color cycling. By this I mean to say that one could create a 3D mask (a shape in 3D space) where things either move or do not move (i.e. toggle the mask to be either negative or positive). Outside of this mask the assigned effect would not apply. In other words, the cycling of data would be defined to allow movement/animation of objects (or surfaces of objects) to be visible (or not visible) anywhere in 3D space in realtime. Shades of Boolean cutters anyone? Why would this would work better now than in the past? Because technology such as deep pixels didn't exist back then and the cycling of pixel states is no longer confined to the pixels stored on 2D planes (i.e. linear). This surely must be related in some bit-wise way to the tech that is coming online that allows objects to be removed from video without effecting other content. Seam Carving itself follows the general outline expressed by the artist when he describes how he used a template to limit his view when drawing the path of rain or snow in his color cycling drawings. Okay... I had better stop there before I hurt myself.

While very impressive its still a bit sad in a way because the underlying imagery requires 30 year old software no longer available. According to the write up those image where still created by Deluxe Paint although translated for use in modern day browsers. The orginal imagery being translated to JSON for use in HTML. Very impressive though. Added: It's interesting to note that the author has improved on the original technology by producing what he terms BlendShift Cycling. He explains it thusly: This in my estimation is why old tech needs to be revisited often because things can always be improved upon later.

I was commenting the other day to someone offline that there are many little things from back in the DOS days that current programs don't take advantage of. Color cycling is certainly one of them. It may be that these methods are used but mostly used behind the scenes and not through the interface by current users. Color cycling surely must be leveraged in game engines for instance. This may be one of the downsides of the overpowering (and useful) technologies introduced such as the Alpha Channel. When those came along there wasn't much use for the tricks/workarounds used to overcome the limits of 8bit graphics.

An alternative program with similar licensing is WWise. Tutorials from one application are largely transferrable to the other. Audiokinetic Wwise

For those into game development... which is the primary purpose of FMod... you may find this video tutorial of interest, especially with regard to integrating with Unity 3D: ImTzouwFC4w

One of the interesting aspects of FMod Studio is the 3D Panner which you can quickly adjust to position of sound within your 3D scene. Here's a video tutorial that discusses some of the thought, theory and application of 3D sound: CJ3rpZGrHh0 Note that many of the video tutorials in the FMod series discuss the concepts behind the tools which will be useful even if not using FMod.

The realtime looping and editing capabilities are pretty sweet. I didn't see a direct export to .wav or .midi but there is an 'open in external audio editor' option which opened a copy of edited sounds in Audacity. Various Tutorials can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/user/FMODTV

For both PC and Mac... I don't know a lot about this so wont comment much except to say I'll put in a recommendation to check this out. (translation: Go get it!) Especially for those of you included toward music, foley and audio effects. What's the skinny? Unless your budget is $100K or more you can now use these tools for free. If over $100K then you'll need to license. Note: FMod was free for non-commericial projects before but now it is officially free for independent commercial projects. http://www.fmod.org http://www.fmod.org/download/ The pitch here is more toward realtime audio for development of games but this can be leveraged by the small studio and independent animator. I don't know the details but also note that due to this release several other audio software/services have expanded their services to independent artists. Added: The software comes with example music and sound effects that will be well worth your time to download as well.

Okay, who is this Robcat guy and who authorized him to have a birthday? Robert, What can be said... you are an inspiration. Happy Birthday!

You are a success story if I ever saw one Teresa. The school certainly helped but your relentless and continual drive to be an animator was surely the critical element that brought about your success. It was easy to see that you had what it took to reach the goal even before I met you at the Hash Bash way back when. I must say though that your Dad played a pivotal role as well. As I recall he was your greatest ally in the effort. *Sniff* (pardon me while I get emotional here) We are very proud of you.

I like it!

That appears to be your ground plane. Perhaps it, or your snow model are animated to move up or down somewhere in the animation? Otherwise I'd say perhaps you have another model in the scene that you haven't accounted for.

I agree with your assessment of the look of current CG films. Very astute. (I can't view your new shot at present but will soon!)

Yes, a bit unfortunately there is too much information to sift through these days. But I sure wouldn't change that, I clearly recall when I couldn't find any information about animation, spent time looking for it, and still came up short. And if you could find it it was rare and expensive... so I couldn't afford to know.

Haha! Very nice!

Outstanding episode Robert. You cover a whole lot of territory in this one! There are so many areas of interest you cover in this video that it's hard to refer to just one but EVERYONE should watch it. The intro to A:M Composite alone will be enlightening because that feature is so seldom invoked. You explored one thing I have never even glanced at before... because I didn't think I had a use for it... but you have expertly demonstrated how shortsighted my thinking was. That was your use of the Repeat Interpolation. Whoa... why haven't I been using THAT one! You delved deeply into some other areas that I've only scratched at as well and it's always good to see that exploration validated. One of the things I note is that you run into the problem of the default color of the ground plane being white. If it were a mid grey I believe you wouldn't have had to intially adjust your light because the ground plane was too bright. Turning down the illumination was a proper solution but darkening the ground plane would work well also, especially if only wanting to change the effect of the light on the ground. When you move into the arena of glow there is one area that will pay off big dividends and that is Lens Flares There are some attribute of Lens flares that have not yet been leveraged to good effect in Animation:Master but are there to be exploited by anyone with sufficient time and curiosity. (Tip: When in doubt get rid of everything except the part of the Flare you want). ThankyouThankyouThankyouThankyou for this series of video tutorials. A W E S O M E !

Whoa Mark, that's awesome. Very nice. That is going to be one happy girl on her birthday.

I am assuming Sebastian's version might be a progression and as such be the one going forward... if not... please redirect. Three things things I note that need to be addressed on Sebastian's version: 1 The right mascot (anteater) on the front of the flyer is out of porportion (on the other card he's in better proportion) if you make the image slightly shorter I believe he'll be closer. 2. The back of the flyer doesn't appear to follow the guide for placement. I don't know that this is an issue because folks shouldn't be mailing this as they do a standard postcard but then again most postcards don't have full color on the front and back. I get the sense that the back is suppose to be grayscale (as indicated on the guide layer. Silly freelancers... check the specs first. Jason has clarified the spec. 3. Color correction (as mentioned before) some of the color is clashing a bit which is why I suggested ghosted imagery (This allows some of the background color to influence the images/text. The images could also bleed off the page rather than be isolated on islands although that is obviously just one approach and the isolated imagery works. More specifically I'd say to have the pink colors of the A:M Logo shift move more toward the red spectrum. I do like the movement toward more simple design and less text... it can never be simple enough. Razzledazzle them with more complex imagery and subject matter once they get to www.hash.com but even then keep them pointed toward the store. If they don't bite and purchase they can't... and won't... get the chance to enjoy A:M. Rock on A:M gurus!

I believe more than just the sharing of bears esolc is suggesting that everyone should be better trained and more knowledgeable about how to create bears in A:M. I confess that I don't have an answer to this dilemma short of a step by step tutorial that walks everyone through the creation of a teddy bear. But then... what type of bear? What style of bear? Cartoony? Do the eyes need to be buttons? Can they be cloth patches? And what of the fur? Does that need to be particle based? What will constitute success? My vote for a teddy bear to share would be TWO's Straw Bear, the unrigged version of which can be found in the very last post HERE. He (or a modification of him) deserves more time in the spotlight. I once used him for for a Frazetta-ish test which I called, "the bearbarian".

The wheels have to be seriously turning at Getty and I see this move as only a bit player in a more strategic view. There are a lot of moving parts to this so it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. I see this mostly as a means to redefine the current playing field because there is a lot at stake. They have no doubt seen their revenues drop significantly over the days before digital technology and yet they know they need to press even more deeply into digital in order to remain relevant. This strikes me more as a preemptive move on the fringe of a much deeper strategy. In other words... the article from the BBC says, "They've given up"... "They accept defeat" but that is a considerable oversimplification. This move isn't an act of someone giving up anything but more accurately just trying to reorient to the real world environment wherein they are trying to operate. Let's examine this a little. Another move they could have made would have been to lower the price of their imagery but this would seriously impact future revenue and do little or nothing to stop current hemorrhaging. In other words they don't want to put a tiny bandage on a catastrophic injury. It won't resolve anything. And of course there is the future of higher def imagery and video that is to be considered waiting in the wings. How can they possibly hope to maintain a revenue stream if they can't even maintain their position with legacy imagery. In this light it becomes entirely practical to change tack; to leverage html technology to have everyone embed their imagery in their webpages. A side effect of this is that it also gives them a significant means to track usage; who is legitimately referencing their images. Note here that I assume the proscribed embedding will be the only authorized way to legally share Getty images short of a commercial license. This effectively and further narrows the definition (and playing field) for derivative works because one cannot embed an image into most things other than html. So, any image not embedded can therefore be considered inside the commercial realm. The difficulty with this is that embedding is a very narrow field although HTML5 and CSS do provide some means of extensive usage. This is a long way of saying that this announcement doesn't impact A:M Users very much, especially in the short term, but the effect over all (and movement by Getty's competition) can impact pixel pushers in ways yet to be seen. **It isn't always clear where the legal line is drawn for definitions of derivative works and that appears to still be an area of much contention... the Getty release is not concerned with derivative works so much as usage of the original image or copies of the same.

I can see why they are doing this but... The BBC reports that Getty images is releasing 35 million photos from its collection for use by bloggers, etc. but will still charge for commercial use of the photographs. There are some prid pro quos and caviets attached. http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-26463886 The plan is to have those using the images embed them with code through which they may eventually be able to generate revenue. Although not likely to dissuade pirates and producers of derivative works at least that part of the plan is innovative. Providing a means for everyone to legitimately reference their image collection is a good idea. Here's a direct link to Getty's embed tool page: http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/Creative/Frontdoor/embed

This perhaps more than anything is the reason A:M has a Library. Although currently the A:M Library does lack a sufficient quantity of teddy bears. This is one of the purposes of the A:M Exchange area as it's goal is to amass a collection of characters and objects that will be sufficient for every beginner or student of modeling or animation... or at least provide a solid foundation from which to begin. With those assets collected anyone with an interest will be able to drag, drop and animate to their hearts content. It should be noted that A:M Exchange is in the early stage of its existence. The community defines and continually redefines where it is headed.