Rodney

Nice job on updating that Intro screen so that it no longer requires the button Fuchur.

I will note that this copying of the master0.lic file is not often required. Here are the steps I prefer: - Install release(s) of A:M Then while A:M is installing... - Via your browser, navigate to the Hash Inc Store, login and retrieve your current activation code* - Launch A:M and enter the code to activate the new installation when prompted (activate both 32bit and 64bit releases using the same code) Done. I only recall one time where I resorted to copying the master0.lic file over to the new installation folder. While any method that works and gets you up and running is good, the activation method may be more intuitive for the average user. Also, it's good to know where your activation codes are should you ever need them. Especially for folks that have more than one code... where keeping track of master0.lic files might get confusing. If the activation process returns an error that states the activation code is invalid then I would copy and paste the master0.lic file. *Skip this step if you already have your activation code.

I'm not Jason (obviously) but if you have the subscriptions all you have to do to move into v18 is install and activate it. Use the same activation code that you used with v17. That's one of the benefits of subscriptions! I have no idea what you are referring to with regard to free life time upgrades. If Hash Inc let you purchase such a thing you'll want to contact them (Jason) directly.

Hehe! I'm like a kid in a candy store. This is awesome. Outstanding work Steffen!

It's great to see you Tom. Love the bighead!

NICE! You always inspire and impress Serg.

I would love to have a copy of the current SDK myself. Steffen Gross is the keeper of the SDK and I believe he maintains a more recent (personal) update of the SDK tailored to his coding practices that he shares upon request. The last official public release SDK is still v13. UPDATE: Since posting this the v18 SDK has been released! Go get it! Animation Master SDK (v18)

Happy Birthday Sebastian! May you always rock the animation scene with your stretchable cartoony characters.

It's great to see you again Arthur. You said: It's in your profile which you can edit via buttons at the top right of the forum but for now I've changed it for you. As for a FBX plugin... lots of folks would love to have such a converter. I for one would just like to know more about using Visual Studio with A:M. I have a few projects I'm researching but its going to take awhile to get educated. Welcome back!

Good point Nancy. I'd have to check what came before again as this last clip is just the tail end of the longer sequence Simon posted before where the character contemplates/ponders for an extended period of time before crouching down to lift the bag. A suggestion back then was to lift one knee off the ground to convey the effort he'll need to lift the bag as well as break up the symmetry/twinning. I generally suggest something once and move on so it's good when others validate these core concerns. Added: Nice quick take Mark! I will say that starting from both knees down with twinning of the legs/etc. on the way up with a robot is considerably more realistic than it would be with a human. A robot might be able to get away with it. Edit: It looks like I was the one that missed a few posts. I'm behind by a few briefs!

Hey, I like that. I don't think I have anything to suggest to... Okay, since this is feedback I'll postulate one thing. If the bag squashes (spreads out) just a little more at the base when it hits the floor my inner crit will be silenced and complete. Perhaps not so much on initial impact but in its final resting place. Kind of a ka-FLUMP to end the scene where the first beat is the first impact and the second the bag is exactly back in it's original place (so you've got a potential for a looping cycle here... very interesting!). Of course, to have it squash too much would suggest it might not over in the first place. I'm pretty happy with that one. But more importantly, what do you think?

Nice. I like! Especially that monkey astonaut guy and the octopus.... cool designs. I edited/repaired your youtube Bulletin Board (BB) code in your post. When posting from youtube the basic code is: [youtube]the video's code only... without the url[/youtube] In your case it will look like: [youtube]lSZqfKnCRAU[/youtube] It's always good to add the direct link as you've done with the full URL just in case the BB code doesn't work. Edit: I see Robert unfixed my fix. I think all three of us were trying to repair simultaneously so... adjusted again.

Thanks for more precise pointing to the reference Nancy. Much appreciated! Here is an excellent (and short) primer on Center of Gravity from the same author behind http://animationphysics.org/ (Alejandro Garcia): zjhRxeR9GXo

Ooooo. Very nice. Despite her pretty looks she is nicely designed to create a feeling of unease. I suppose what I'm trying to say is that you've expertly hinted at the girl's history by suggesting she has not always looked this way.

It's looking a bit snappier now. Perhaps that is due to cutting those extra seconds out of the sequence. I really stared at (replayed that is) the very end of the sequence where the bag leaves his hands. Something is off there but I can't quite put my finger on it. I'll take a stab at describing it and maybe the lightbulb will go on for me... There is an interesting dynamic going on in your scene because the Center of Gravity (COG) changes as the guy lifts the bag. In short, I believe the COG is lower and farter to the right that where you have it represented, particularly at the time he loses control of the bag. Right now it's as if the guy is flipping the bag up and outward as he loses control of it. Outward is okay. I could see that but upward is problematic because of the weight which you've previously established in the scene. It would be interesting to see where you might draw a series of dots on each frame (or every few frames) to show us where you think the COG is throughout. As with most things there are several approaches you could take to resolve this depending on what you want to finesse. Less work would be to reroute the trajectory of the bag downward earlier. Here the focus would be on weight dropping immediately as he loses control of the bag. Note that this would actually push his hands/arms downward because he is (trying to) lift the bag. His upper arms and body were in control of the majority of the weight but as soon as it shifts forward the forearms can no longer sustain that lift and they go downward even as the upper arm is going up. This is yet another one of those Opposing Directions opportunities in that he is pushing with a force upward but the force (weight) of the bag is going down. I should draw this over your imagery because I'm probably not conveying this correctly. I see that you've got a nice lean backward and the upper arms go upward as well... that works! Keep that! I am of the opinion that the forearms however should be advancing downward under the weight of that really heavy bag. Now there is a second approach that might allow for more lateral movement of the bag (such as you've got it now) and that is if the guy swings back and forth a few times in an attempt to keep balance. If nothing else it would provide a little motivation for the weight of the bag to move out and upward as it is now. There are some really nice tutorials on Center of Gravity online and they are definitely worth checking out: Here's one that doesn't quite catch what I'm after but it comes close: http://animationphysics.org/wp-content/upl...nceTutorial.pdf There are lots of nice examples over at http://animationphysics.org/.

This is a very interesting aspect of USD. On the one hand we see binary files with all the associated speed and compactness and on the other we retain access to the file in a fully human readable form. This is a good omen. OpenEXR has proven itself a worthy format and yet the surface has barely been scratched on its usefulness.

Interesting. My initial thoughts: He should keep one knee down on the ground when beginning to move upward. Think in terms of resistance and push/pull and wait for it... an important principle of animation; Opposing Directions. As the bag is going up (being lifted) his bulk of his effort/weight is going down (if the weight were enough to exceed the tolerance of the floor this force would penetrate the ground). Imagine a wood floorboard here and this might begin to make sense as that floor would naturally bend as it reacts to the weight. As this floor is more solid this give the guy the resistance he needs to lift the weight off the ground. But again... this is important... in order for the bag to go up the guys weight must go down. Keeping his knee in place is one thing you can use to show that he is stable and balanced and ready to continue to lift the bag off the ground. My primary concern as it is right now is that it is very slow with little texture of timing throughout. Think here in terms of Slow/Fast. Steps/Beats 1. Slow. Character takes a moment or two to contempt picking up the bag (2 beats... more if character's performance antic is exaggerated for entertainment value) 2. Fast. Bingo! With his decision made he moves immediately into action (1 beat to lean down and another to initially grab the bag) 3. Slow. Character adjusts to account for the actual weight of the bag (Note that here he is bridging the gap between what he thought he was going to do with an imaginary bag in Step 1 and what reality dictates now that he has contacted the 'real' bag. 4. Fast. Character launches upward using his upper body first until the free movement is delayed or stopped by the actual weight of the bag (this is where the chain reaction of the human body (Successive Breaking of Joints) is observed and it's why at least one knee might still be on the ground) 5. Slow. Character is now fully lifting the weight of the bag. 6. Fast. I don't see this in your current shot but the character's goal is to move or get rid of that that $#&%! heavy bag! 7. Slow. Recovery phase as he accomplishes (or does not accomplish) his task. Added: There is more than one way to approach weight and your shot suggests a shortcut in that if you consider breaking up the Symmetry of his pose (legs and arms... entire body... twinning/mirroring themselves) then the rest of the character's posturing begins to work itself out. At any rate... try to get some texture of slow and fast movement into the animation. Hope that makes sense.

I was going to suggest tilting the camera but see that Robert has already got that suggestion into the mix. General aside: If it's an option and you are going for a more stylized look (in animation/movement) you might consider adding the spaceship itself directly in front and constrained to the camera ala the view of a first person shooter. This thought occurred to me when I started to contemplate how to suggest scale during the approach to Jupiter's moon. If the spaceship stays the same size as the camera moves forward that would supply that sense of scale... suggesting these objects are huge. I suspect you are going for a view outside the spaceship window so... no spaceship needed... thus my thoughts for aside #2: Aside #2: You could also throw in some space dust/distortion by placing a moving image that is almost entirely transparent just in front of the camera. My initial thought here would be to create a cube and fill it with a noisy material that is entirely grayscale. The black would suggest space particles the viewer is traveling through. If opting for adding the spaceship the spaceship could actually proceed through this layer (perhaps animate the materials so they accelerate toward the camera). This to suggest the considerable depth of space traveled between Titan and the viewer. This last one is mostly post work so don't let it distract you. Looking good!

In considering the various approaches (and there are many) it occurs to me that you might start by simply taking one frame from a key scene (or one from each major sequence) and manipulate that in photoshop or other graphics program to give yourself a target If you just start lighting without a given goal you'll end up exploring (i.e. wasting a lot of time). It will help also if there is an example of the basic style of rendering/lighting that you can use in the short term to calibrate your eye. Added: a failed attempt to decal the ground from camera view...

One possibility... *after rendering to color* convert the entire thing to grayscale. (Using A:M's Tink Post Effect you can use A:M Composite (or the post effect dropped onto a Camera) to quickly do that) Add noise or film grain (also a Post Effect) but it can also just be a patch/image placed in front of the camera as necessary. This will give the short a early B&W movie/TV feel. If you have more time then you could subtley add in a second color pass that tints the B&W with color. This would suggest someone has taken the time to color an old B&W film. Concerning the lighting... I'm a fan of deleting all the default lights and starting from scratch (this is a bit scary at first because initially everything will be black) First light the most important part of the scene (where you want the audiences eye). Then add more light to fill in secondary objects. (here consider the true sources of any 'in scene' light.... some may not need to be actually lit... it may be sufficient to simply color them white) Add negative lights if necessary to decrease light in areas you need to be darker (be careful here as negative color shadows can result from using negative lights) Finally, after saving to a safe place go in and subtley adjust and enhance the lights. Where possible try to think only in terms of black and white (and grayscale). Afterwords add the color. (like my earlier suggestion to composite color over B&W you can do the same thing with coloring of lights to enhance the mood, create temperature differences and further direct the viewers eye.) My 2 cents. Good luck!

Very nice Steve, I like! I was doodling hands a month or so ago (one of my five minute exercises) and they truly pale in comparison to that!

A subject near and dear to my heart assuming I understand your request.... Unfortnuately there is no direct method currently to achieve what you are after although there are several alternatives. The most promising in the short term is to assign or associate an external bitmap to the file and then have your operating system use that as a thumbnail or icon. If it is the A:M file's internal icon system you wish to access then that is something we would need to code as a utility/program. If I understood more about the code I could do it but several pieces of information still elude me. Here is an old topic where Yves Poissant discusses A:M files internal icon format: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9636 Here is the important part (Yves' response):

Hear! Hear! Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag! Isn't yoda something like... thousands of years old... (Research reveals something of a debate: either just before 900, slightly over 900 or exactly 900 years old.)

Here's my very rough example... (with apologies for the low quality all the dead time that could have been edited out) I'd comment more but am heading out the door. Did I misunderstand your goal? Snap2SurfaceInPose.mp4

This response is from one of the developers to a query about obtaining more information about USD: In the USAF I often asked my troops what they considered to be short and long term (naturally I would be following up with them on their plans for the mid term) and it seems clear that PIXAR's USD approach fills the need for their longer term goals (no surprise there).* Information may be slow to come and that in and of itself provides an opportunity to climb on board while few people have a clear view of the final outcome. This won't apply to everyone but consider... leveraging this information will be useful if you ever plan to work for or with PIXAR. Lot's of folks dream of working for PIXAR but few take the steps necessary to get there. If that is your plan... get into it! As for USD, it's likely to be a slow mover in the short term as PIXAR considers how to best leverage USD with respect to short and long term goals. This translates to an opportunity for some to nibble at easily digestible information (and learn from the mistakes made by early adopters). Regardless of what you do with the information PIXAR provides, it will very likely strengthen your personal workflow *But note, PIXAR isn't about to reveal all of their goals. They will surely be keeping the most important of those Close Hold.