Rodney

I'd call it more of an 'homage'. In which case it would be appropriate to site his inspiration. He may also have simply forgot the original source from which he was inspired. This assuming it's the same Theirry

When last I checked, Holmes was off writing his memiors. His blog (with all of his writings) has recently disappeared. Hope he's doing alright. We do miss him.

(edit: what Robert said!) One way you can determine the orientation of a patch/patch image is to temporarily add an image that points the direction out in an obvious way. Such as this red arrow image: When using Patch Images there are a couple things to watch out for (here's one): - Do you need more than one group on the same area to apply the patch image(s)? Note that it may be best to apply a second image (Bump, Ambiance, etc.) to the same group by Right Clicking the image container and selecting Add Image (as opposed to creating a new Group for each Patch Image). This will help later for organization in reducing the number of Groups you have and have no idea what purpose they serve at a glance. Added: The primary reason to add a new group for Patch Images is to drive different surface settings via that new Group beyond the surface settings of the original Group you've applied an image to.

Nicely rigged Mark! (great sets too)

It looks like inverted normals to me although patches with hooks might also be effecting the surface of those patches. A bit less likely would be five point patches. In considering your general approach to splines/patches I'm leaning toward non-continuous splines (i.e. where you might have intersected more than two splines thereby creating illegal patches). A:M doesn't know what to do with that sort of thing so it just does the best that it can. Can you post a wireframe view from a same/simliar angle?

Thought this link might be of interest to folks who aren't familiar with the feature film the A:M Community put together a few years ago: http://wiki.hash.com/index.php/TWO_Index Sometimes it's a bit hard to navigate through the main wiki so the index page helps to zero in on specific areas of interest. A few random samplings: http://wiki.hash.com/index.php/Characters (The TWO cast of characters starts to shape up) http://wiki.hash.com/index.php/Contact_Sheets (Note: This was more of a test... to my knowledge contact sheets such as these were not used extensively during TWO) http://wiki.hash.com/index.php/Center_Of_Gravity (Some thoughts on Center of Gravity... with play by play revision of the refinement of a sequence not in TWO) (this index link links back into the forum to a progression of Tin Castle from initial proxy models to the final set) http://www.hash.com/r_reynolds/fillet_tute/fillet_tute.htm (Links to a classic tutorial by Rodger Reynolds) http://wiki.hash.com/index.php/Image_Gallery_5 (One of several mini galleries collecting early imagery from the film) http://wiki.hash.com/index.php/Distortion_Cages (Experimentation with distortion cages in A:M)

Happy Birthday! You guys are an inspiration.

You could even be mentored by one of the guys who cut their teeth on computer animation with A:M back in the day. Here are three current mentors that were quite active in the A:M community (they demonstrated a propensity for quality and instruction then as well): Victor Navone Shaun Freeman Dimos Vrysellas Oh dear. There are quite a few A:M Users that have pressed through Animation Mentor aren't there? (if I start listing them I'm sure to miss many... but here's a shout out to Dhar, Teresa, Gary (Abrehart)... in my estimation Animation Mentor took them from having an avid interest in computer animation to being skilled technicians of the art. The majority of us live vicariously through your experiences.

Sweet! That one's an instant classic. Great tank as well!

Man, it's been too long and I miss this guy. He hasn't updated his website in quite awhile: http://sharks.uw.hu/ Hope he's okay. Happy Birthday Sharky!

OKay, where does the little superhero guy come into play?

And there may be the crux of the matter. At the outset Animation Mentor didn't even require 3D software. You could take the course and apply what you learned to hand drawn animation. That... didn't last very long in the face of real world constraints and hand drawn animation became mostly a reference point. They had to make that move to remain relevant as 2D animation jobs went away. It is perhaps this more than anything that opened the gate for competition in a variety of ways as talented classically trained animators saw new opportunities appear. We continuously see Animation Mentor taking steps to reinvent themselves and that is a very good thing. The pay per view lessons they have offered in the past year, for instance, and branching out into VFX... an interesting move in the midst of the ongoing VFX upheaval... but a shrewd business move never-the-less. The animation industry is a better place for having them and I wish them long and continuing success. You know, if you ask nicely, I bet they will.

I almost hesitate to share this because I'm a firm believer that you shouldn't go into any major expenditure unprepared... so this only applies to you if you are already prepared. Animation Mentor is currently offering a 'one time only' discount on their Animation Basics course. Some caveats (in my opinion): *If* you already versed in Maya at least to the point where you can find your way around easily, or... *If* you've already taken a course in Maya (preferrably the intro to Maya course at Animation Mentor), and... *If* you have a lot of free time in your schedule, and... *If* you've currenty got the spare cash on hand, or... *If* you were planning to attend a local college/course that would cost nearly the same, or... *If* you were already planning to enroll in Animation Mentor at sometime in the future anyway... ... then enrollment by 9 March could save you almost $1,300. Several considerations: - One time only deals are never to be trusted. They will likely offer the same or even better deal sometime in the future. One time deals are often a sign of short term desperation and/or wheels turning to resolve a short term internal crisis (i.e. not enough new folks enrolling to fulfill the available schedule*). - Once bitten by the Maya bug you may be infected for life... not necessarily a negative... but it will likely affect your enjoyment of 3D software in general. - Once in Animation Mentor you'll be more likely to spend additional thousands of dollars for the other courses available... the cheaper intro courses are there to indoctrinate... again, not necessarily a bad thing. --------------------------------------------- The primary purpose of attending Animation Mentor and most of the other online schools (in my opinion) is one of access and connectivity(networking). Gaining access to: experienced instructors... limited characters/rigs... exclusive pipelines... these are some of the major selling points of . Now, lest it seem as if I'm not a fan of Animation Mentor let me confess I am a fan and that I would love to attend any and all classes available... not that I could ever afford them. (For the record I currently rank the top three online schools as; Animation Mentor, iAnimate and Animschool... although there are many other high quality (and lower quality) alternatives giving them some tough competition... another excellent reason to discount) At any rate, the results you get out of any endeavor will be proportional to the investment you put in. So, if you commit to Animation Mentor be ready to fully devote your time to it. And that's enough of me trying to sit here on this fence. Their website: http://www.animationmentor.com/ *Smaller class size can be a very good thing as students will get more one-on-one attention.

Oh oh. That's less competition for Marcos!

Hey! She's really shaping up nicely.

Looking good Steve!

Here's a space to post notices of upcoming chats. If you are logged in to the A:M Community chat room and primed and ready to chat, post a note here and others will join the chat. If there is a regular time you login to chat please feel free to post that! Upcoming events: The Secrets of A:M

"Galoop, Critter, Spikey, Flim Flam, Sally, Gurgle Glug, Billy, Ted, Professor, Tea Lady, Prinsess, Gent". Note that these character (or at least the majority of them) were updated and are available with the 2001 rig added to them in the Extra CD. These files can be found via the Hash Inc FTP as well as ***HERE***. So what I'm suggesting is that the vast majority of A:M Users will have more success animating with the updated versions of these characters. Here's where most people get lost in the Extra CD menu:

This one looks close. Mask.mdl

Awesome Character Nancy! That guy would make a great A:M Mascot. (Sorry... press on. Press on!)

Which scene are you referring to? The one that no one can find with 'Cool Guy' in it? But not important enough to make the attempt to contact the creator of the file who might be able and willing to provide a copy of the file directly from the source.

Calm thyself Drama. You are stating the obvious. Nancy was simply pointing out a lead to the creator of the model who might have posted it in the contest (but did not). When in doubt you could always query the artist: http://www.richlovato.com/ (Disclaimer: I'm not 100% sure this is the same Rich Lovato. I believe it is... if so he goes by 'richlll' in other forums)

That was a good guess Nancy. I see from the wayback machine though that Lovato's contest entry included multiple Thom models on a chess board. https://web.archive.org/web/20060624072123/...an01gallery.asp Note that some of the project files are still accessible via the wayback machine but I recommend a Right Click/Save As or else it may appear not to access the file. I don't recall that particular model being shared with the community. I'm sure it was shared with someone though.

Depending on your setup you might also be able to export your multiple models from a Chor (creating a new model with combined mesh and bones). Then with the new model you'll be free to assign bones to any mesh you want. The biggest problem I've had in that arena is with same-name bones which A:M now at least attempts to rename. Edit: My memory says that most constraints don't make the transition out of a Chor back to a Model... I assume it is because Models do not in and of themselves contain Actions or Constraints. So with this in mind one could create multiple models, combine them in a Chor, export them out as a new model and then apply new contraints, actions to that combined model in a New Chor. Hope that makes sense.

Just played with your Project file. Awesome. Everyone in the world should have a copy of A:M just so they can play with files like this. There's nothing like realtime spline animation... except perhaps realtime spline anmation mixed with spline based effects!