Rodney

The world has changed a lot since I first started moving toward 'cartooning'. Where I grew up there was interest in such things but only from the perspective of a consumer. Children really got into that drawing thing but set it aside as they advanced toward more mature pursuits. Even among those who had a vested interest (comic book collectors, writers, etc.) few were motivated to actually produce the work. Contrast that to now and at the local level much still remains much the same. I ask folks who seem interested in such things if there is anyone locally interested in create comics/cartoons/animation and I get the typical blank stare in return... as if to say, "you mean ACTUALLY produce a product?". I suppose that the difference is that the internet at times makes it seem as if everyone you know (and don't know) is producing artwork in some form or fashion. As has been mentioned before here in the forum, this is both good and bad in that (Good) there is a lot of creativity flowing (Bad) it's hard to get your work noticed... much less have someone be willing to pay for it. I'm hoping to take advantage of some educational opportunities in the near future but I confess that when I look at the options I'm a bit less than enthusiastic. Going to school does have the advantage of assigning tasks and deadlines that require you to produce... something... anything... and that ability to finish a project... to be productive... may be what is most lacking amongst the 'unschooled'.

I'm liking the new website Mark. The suggestion I have would be to try to decrease the unused space around the edges (the blue area mostly). Perhaps that extra space is necessary for mobile viewing? Diminishing the extra space around the edges also allow the comic strip panels to be slightly larger.

Not to be outdone by the Tinkering Gnome, Fuchur has decided to have one of those birthdays of his own too! Happy Birthday Gerald!

Impressive. I love the side to side motion of that last one.

This will be making the rounds... Don't Go to Art School: Why Traditional Art Schools are Failing Us by Noah Bradley. He outlines the issues and provides some resources to help address the problem. Here's a brief snippet of Noah's recommendations: His main point is that the debt incurred in attending a traditional art school is not worth the cost (a concept most will readily agree with). Agree or disagree (like most folks his solutions align fairly close with his proximity to those solutions), Noah has many interesting and thought provoking things to say and considerations to contemplate on his blog. Like this article entitled, "Start often, finish well"

I just noticed your free asphalt material. Very nice! This is two years late but... Thanks!

Yet another birthday to celebrate with the Tinkering Gnome. Happy Birthday John!

EnxhMtnc6t0 A thought provoking seven minute story by Fujio Tanabe. Told with no dialogue.

sjDehib8YRM Here's another gem that few folks have seen. Textures in Photoshop. Composed in After Effects. Everything else created in Animation:Master. I love the style. It's a rarer but often used anime style often seen in illustrated Japanese brochures.

I think you are going to want to use decals (or even Materials) rather than Patch images for something like blue jeans. If you haven't seen Robert's introductory video to Texturing it's a great place to start: If using procedural materials for texturing you can Bake the textures into an image so that the procedural calculations don't bog down rendering. Edit: I read back to your first post and saw this: There are several approaches and it'd be good to see more of what you are working on before suggesting any specific approach. It's hard to beat using a photo image of the texture of a real object as a Decal for a base from which to work.

Nice! I like it.

I grabbed your texture and made a similar one to test... Note that depending on how you create your model/mesh the applied images will (or will not) be oriented correctly. If you can get core A:M tools to create the shape then the odds of textures matching increases significantly. Lathing is one of the safest ways to make sure textures align.

In this case I believe you'll need to select the patch/patches and rotate them. A less useful approach would be to apply another image that is rotated. Using the Select Patch tool with the Shift key will allow you to quickly grab and Right Click/Rotate the images. P.S. I replaced your BMP image with a JPG image because Bitmaps are not browser friendly.

If I get credited with cool new stuff who am I to argue... (This may be John's way of suggesting I get back to work streamlining and updating the forum. Sneaky.... very sneaky.)

Disclaimer: The following video contains a bit of cartoon nudity [vimeo]68229816[/vimeo] http://vimeo.com/68229816

Hehe. Very cute John.

Looking VERY good Rodger! (I keep thinking Hopper's painting could have used my home town's square as a reference... it's that close in style to the buildings there.)

Eh? Forum prize... does not compute. Oh.. wait... I see the question: There is currently an asterix given to all prize winners (I still need to add one for David Higgin's last win). These show up under the winners avatar. I'll research to see if we can change the asterix to an image (maybe a trophy or somethin'). Update: David now has his (first?) winners asterix! I could almost swear that he's won a (still image) contest before.

Impressive work! There is something about the eyes of both characters that I'm wishing would slightly change at optimum moments to keep the feeling of life in the characters. I don't think I'd add blinks as this seems to be almost a staring contest but some minor drifting or shifting of the eyes as the man's attention moves from plate to cat and back again might do the trick. I'd say the same for the cat but perhaps only with a slight narrowing of the eye lids to continue the idea of that he thinks... he knows... he is above eating that sort of thing. Edit: You've got lots of good eye movement and blink in the man up to the point of seeing the cat. It's after that the eyes freeze (purposefully no doubt). Just a subtle movement, even in only one eye/eyelid would IMO improve upon that. My thinking is that even if mostly unconscious underneath the frozen exterior of the face is a settling of the muscles that relaxes (or tightens) the jaw and eyelid(s) which helps to reveal (or anticipate) the emotion within.

Yes, I'd add some activity by the goat at the end even if it is only to turn and walk away. Shaking of the head would work as well.

I believe it was back in 2007 with the update of the webpage and consolidation of servers that the online html documentation went away. It might still be online but not accessible via the old urls. Note that the html documentation that was online is also on your old A:M installation disks. (Mark's conversion of the documentation from pdf to html turned out better than mine. I'm sure he's using a current version of Adobe Acrobat)

Happy Birthday Luuk! Hope it was a happy one. (very cool 'copter videos... too much fun)

Happy Birthday Paul! Have an awesome one.

It seems like only yesterday we were celebrating the Grand Poobah's last birthday. Have a happy one Martin! (Please share some of the cake)

Very nice. These images blur the line between the real and imaginary in a convincing way.