Rodney

And here is a shot from inside the Decal Editor/Viewer. Note that the grid lines (or rather the spaces within the grids) are saved by the snapshot tool as part of the alpha channel transparency and it probably would have been wise for me to flatten the image before painting. Another alternative would be to turn off the gridlines within A:M.

Then going in and painting on that decal/snapshot takes it to the next stage: (Example here is with only the front snapshot applied)

Thanks Gerald, you've provided an excellent addition to this exploration of the snapshot tool... and outlined it clearly and concisely too! Folks may use this more than they do the standard method of applying a decal. I find that having a setting of 1.0 creates a perfectly aligned decal (of the same/screen view). Here's a shot of what it looks like in the Right Click menu:

Thanks Nancy, There are a lot of benefits to using that approach. I'll have to run a few tests and see what I can see. A downside is that using the image swatches I can use any external program. The downside of the image swatches of course are many but there are a few benefits. I'll have to see if I can duplicate them (or similate something similar) with materials. I do wish that the transfer process from surface could take multiple patch surface colors and patch images with it. This recalls to mind Anzovin's old tool 'NodeCloner' as it allowed the copying of Attributes from one Material to another. My long term thought is that it might be worthwhile to create an external program for viewing materials (and or Libraries) but it may be better to set everything up in one instance of A:M and use that to drive changes to things going on in another. Hmmm.... you've given me a lot to consider.

It's been quite awhile since I had the book out of the box but my memory says that the first edition has a little more A:M-centric examples (in the book and on the accompanying CD). Both editions cover the same basic information and you won't go wrong with either.

We made an initial attempt to collect Hair materials to put in the A:M Libary but it didn't go anywhere. Perhaps particle hair was too new and everyone too shy to post their efforts. (The forum didn't accept .mat files back then as uploads either... and it does now) If there is interest we have a dedicated forum for Materials (The Materials Laboratory) so we could shake off the dust and start posting our hair materials there. It goes without saying of course that there are quite a few gems to be found searching through The Materials Lab Hair section.

Manuel, Most Definitely! If the rig is set up right we can move controllers around in real time to layer in any animated movement. The one thing that isn't evident on the video is some sort of menu that the animator is looking at to recall what motions and screen locations control what aspect of animation. Most of these type of controllers in A:M use Nulls as the means to move around an area of the screen to manipulate the character. Also, to facilitate realtime playback most of the menus are created using splines rather than images. For the film 'Tin Woodman of Oz' and 'Scarecrow of Oz' the characters were rigged with a facial rig that allowed such movement but mouse motion wasn't used as far as I know. The animators just worked the controls over time. If you haven't picked it up much of these techniques are based on Jason Osipa's facial animation techniques which he developed while using A:M. He later went on to adapt those techniques to other software. IMO Jason's book "Stop Staring: The Art of Facial Animation" is a must have for character animators. Here's a review of (I believe) the second edition: http://www.parkablogs.com/content/book-rev...tion-done-right There are several Face Rigs featured in the Rigging and Constraints forum. Well worth investigating!

Very impressive Steve.

Now that is entirely too cool. You always amaze Mark. Are you planning to drive it via a force? I could see how a force might push it initially but not sure how it'd reset unless the direction of the force's direction and/or intesity was animated as well. Too bad we didn't have that idea for TWO. That contraption would have been great for Ku Klip's workshop.

If you save a few basic shag materials in the Libary you don't have to mess with the Shift/Creation of Shag Hair. I think all of the default 'Hair' materials in the library are still Shag materials.

Thanks Gerald, I'll keep looking. I have a vague recollection that the values are stored a file within the installation folder that isn't directly accessible. There'd only be one or two files that could be. Over the years I've moved toward using my own system of color swatches but would like to use the Surface properties if I can. The difficulty in maintaining custom colors was one of the reasons I moved away from that.

Thanks everyone. I had a very nice birthday. I think we've started a new tradition this year... on my birthday I buy things for everyone in the family... It's rather amazing how that works.

Does anyone know where A:M stores the Custom Colors from a Model's Surface Properties? Thanks!

Thanks guys, I'm having a great day thus far.

If the hair doesn't add something specific to the final product it may be best to use something else. Specifically what I'm talking about here is that if you look at the thumbnails of both images in the first post there isn't much difference. Would there be much difference if the bear were animated? I don't think so. It may be worth the effort to add hair for close up/hero shots but in this case an alternative might work just as well. My first thought would be to investigate a material such as that used on Keekat. There also use to be a Velvet (or Felt?) material that creates a nice furry look. One version of Keekat had that as well. And... with Keekat the sense of hair (at all resolutions) is further enhanced by the judicious use of geometry (chest hair, facial hair, etc.). Of course since you are experimenting... experiment on! Hair can be used for many things that will be useful.

Nicely executed Simon! Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday to the following people: (Zeeesh. Some of you are REALLY old!) itsjustme(101), NancyGormezano(101), hashlister(11), ptiversen(57), steveb(7), robertalove(76), cfree68f(7), bubba(68), Mechadelphia(100), Sonic84(30), Bruce Del Porte(59), noah brewer(36), kuep(105), Moden(6), Epoch(106), stinkyu111(44), Kusakabe.Q(104), mouseman(100), DanCBradbury(106), PlinyTheElder(57), alano(106), Pygmy(106), asphalt maker(104), freecandyman(28), TheSpleen(54), headofrealestate(48), Code D(104), TD3D(6), Beach Bum Larry(101) Note: I assume these appear because no birthday is set in your forum profile. Happy 2014!

Mark, Thanks for the reminder of those resources. They are outstanding!

Gah... I got it to partially work but as a transparency. I'm headed out the door so can't finish it up at the moment. I'll be back later tonight.

Steve, I'm going to go back to your original post because you said some things that help to understand your goals: One of the best approaches to learning A:M is to work through the manual "The Art of Animation:Master (TaoA:M)". It has short exercises designed to get you up to speed quickly and comfortable with with the interface, modeling, rigging and animation workflow. In my experience those who have worked through the manual (even those who don't do every exercise) are the most successful. Then their hardest challenge becomes what to do with what they've learned. TaoA:M consists of video tutorials and the manual (hardcover or PDF) if you don't have the book readily available you should! There is also the Technical Reference to refer to: ToaA:M Video Tutorials The Art of Animation:Master and The Technical Reference Some folks find the manual too easy and some find it too hard. Most find it supplies a nice way to quickly digest otherwise complicated subjects. You mentioned an interest in modeling and the most useful method I can suggest to learn modeling is to open up some models and explore them. Tweak them. Modify them. Break them. You'll gain valuable insight into how other folks model.

You should be able to just turn the background off in Flash and draw over a transparent background. Any rotoscope you'd use would then be another layer on top of the background but under your drawing layer. Note that a roto can be on top of your drawing layer if it is set to not being pickable or editable. As I recall, converting to .MOV will remove transparency as that format does not store Alpha Channels. AVI does but that probably won't help you here. Trying to save time often wastes time. If you are in a pinch and there is a sequence of images you need converted to have a transparent background perhaps you can post a link to the files and someone (like me) can remove the background for you. If you go this route zip up any sequential files so they can be downloaded in one file. Added: To troubleshoot the setup you have in A:M perhaps you could share the project. It may be something simple such as the key color not being key'd correctly so it only works on the first frame of the animation.

Nice test! A problem with using key color is that any shift to another color will cause the transparency not to work. A question though... Are you using a .MOV file or sequence of images? I believe you'll have more success with an image sequence. Added: If keying out a background that you are creating yourself it can be useful to create the background as a solid color such as pink... or some other color that isn't close to anything else in the image. Even better though... You should be able to create a transparency (Alpha Channel) background via Flash. Again, you might have to save out as a sequence of images. I can't think of a time where it would be better to create a false background that will be removed when you can remove it from the very beginning.

One of the reasons we don't see a lot of A:M specific information for lighting is that lighting and rendering concepts largely apply across the board. If for instance you know how to light a scene in the real world it's easier to adapt those approaches to the digital world. Concepts of lighting in other software can be adapted as well. As there is an internet full of information available on rendering and lighting those areas tend to be set aside in favor of those areas that are not the same accross platforms and software; primary spline technology and how that can be best put to use. While there are endless resources in the lighting and rendering arena, the go to book on lighting and rendering is still Jeremy Brin's 'Digital Lighting and Rendering'. Keep an eye out for it and you can find some copies on the cheap, especially the earlier editions. Jeremy has some short and sweet articles on lighting and rendering that are must reads: http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2165641 Here are most of the articles your find via that link: Top Ten Tips for More Convincing Lighting and Rendering *Hot off the presses! (13 Dec 2013) Lighting Environments and Architecture in Animation (26 Nov 2013) How to Create Realistic 3D Shadows (18 Aug 2006) Lighting Your Imagery (Aug 2001) These articles are short... which makes them even more useful. Note that this last one has a tip that transformed my understanding of lighting and rendering and that is to... 'Start in Darkness'. While it may be useful to setup and test with default lighting in any given program you really want to get rid of the defaults and create your own for your final rendering. Having said that, A:M does provide a nice starting place with a three light setup. My advise however would be when going for the final image delete those default lights and start in darkness. Then start to consider where the 'real' light and heat and emotion is coming from in your scene's specific environment. Another tip worth noting when adjusting lights is, "When you begin adjusting a light, the first step is to solo the light." Turn off all the lights except the one you are adjusting and see how it is effecting your scene. In some cases you may find the light you are adjusting isn't contributing as you thought and in some cases can even be deleted. A third tip which I don't recall seeing from Jeremy Brin is to consider shading all models in neutral grey while testing to avoid having the surfaces of objects trick you into thinking you are seeing effects from the lighting when it is the effect of the surface (often not yet optimized for rendering) instead.

...and with v18 Snapshot we've gained a nice new layout and analytic tool.

Discovering more... I'm finding I need to deliberately click in the window prior to taking a snapshot or else I will (more often than not) get a snapshot of the previous settings. In other news: I love that the snapshot captures the guidelines too. Tres... cool!