Rodney

Congratulations!

The man, the myth and the legend all rolled up into one great guy. Happy Birthday Dhar! Hope it's the happiest until next year.

Don't give up until you cross the finish line... you never know when you might get a visit from someone with tons of spare cash. Pledge increased.

On this page it appears Alonso used 8 sections: http://www.hash.com/amtutes/Bootcamp/one.html

WOW! Very impressive Marcos! When I first read 'wood stove' I couldn't help but think... "Hey, I don't see any wood textures on that stove." Well, Duh! The wood goes into the stove dummy.

That tutorial was put together by Alonso Soriano who probably won't see your query here. If you can elaborate on the parts of the tutorial where you are confused others will be able to assist you though.

Yes perhaps... but I seem to recall that you put together what is now consider THE CLASSIC tutorial on using Layers with A:M. At least to a newbie like me it was inspirational.

Here's a trick that worked for me... (However, please note I haven't thoroughly tested it out) For some reason A:M's motion blur tends to perform better blurring when dealing with imagery rather than geometry. What this requires then is for you to render the scene out without blur and then... ...bring that rendered sequence back into A:M as a Roto or patch image and then render again with Multipass and motion blur on. I use to have some examples laying around but they are long buried. However, it's pretty straightforward to test this out by rendering some simple geometry. A classic setup for this might be to have three objects (balls or cylinders) that start and stop at the same locations but animating their breakdowns positions (anticipation and slow in/slow) out differently which results in different motions for each playing out. When re-rendered with Motion Blur the faster movement should have more and more effective motion blur. To maximize motion blur effects it might pay to render out still objects in one pass and then composite the moving objects over that. The still objects wouldn't need to be re-rendered and blurred which would save over all rendering time and allow further (manual) manipulation of the blur effect.

This one is for the Mac users amongst us primarily those that use Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, or Compressor 4. http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1396

Lloyd, Watch this movie with an eye not toward character design (which is considerable) but toward color: (Note: Most of what you want to see regarding color is near the end of the movie) [vimeo]56892177[/vimeo] We should be able to create the entire movie in grey tones (these tones will then in turn facilitate better color). The grayscale is important primarily for contrast. I have a technique (several actually) I'd like to share but we'll hold off on that for now. At this point in development the important thing is to think primarily in terms of black and white, concepts of On/Off, and of exploiting exaggeration and contrast. Note that I'm not suggesting no color be used in the early stages of making the movie. It's important to experiment with that. I'm more suggesting to create a workflow where FINAL color (and lighting) is a completely separate workflow track.

I thought as much. That's why it's useful to have a storyboard/animatic... so we don't have guys like me asking silly questions. Yes, but when last I checked the house itself was not very large. This room is as large as the original house. That's where I got my first image of what it might look like inside. The sound you hear is me adjusting. I hear you. Trust your impression. I'm in one of those odd positions of defending a vision that I didn't start out with. I recall campaigning for -slightly- larger house. Mild concern: This room suggests we are no longer in a house but a mansion. As far as isolation goes... is Latimer really isolated at this point? Or is he stiffled, cramped and forced to fit into the structure his parents have built? Don't get me wrong... it will play well to have them even more wealthy. They do have a butler so it'd be easy to assign them more staff. Even as I'm typing I feel like I'm not coming across correctly so that is why I'm over explaining myself. Whether big/small/otherwise doesn't particularly matter to me as much as pressing forward toward the mark. We'll adjust where necessary and everything will all work out. One concern I do have about this bigger house is how it will scale in comparison to the architecture we see later in the film. I can see where a comparison between his real house and Cleo's would signal unwanted architecture for Latimer. Or actually it might be an enticement to him because he's familiar with that large scale ritzy environment. (why live with Death, Edgar and Nora in squalor when he can stay in the big house!) With this line of thought, we could better contrast Latimer with Nora who is really poor, miserable and unwanted (contrasted with Latimer who thought he was). It is through Nora (and Death and Edgar) that Latimer then begins to better understand and appreciate the life that he once had. This also would play in well with Cleo's enticement of Latimer's parents. They are in a much smaller house in TLotD... but Cleo has promised them she will help move up, into a better place with neighbors that are much more of their type and social structure. Of note: Architecture is important to the story especially because it's a stated interest of Latimer's. This won't be as important in the short term to audiences but folks looking back at the movie many years from now will find that layering in of detail particularly fascinating. As the rough designs begin to go final, the relative scales will all work themselves out; Latimer's house, The Raven, Nora's Hideout, Old Widows House, Cleo's Castle, etc.are all set to be strikingly different environments.

Looking good! Is that white around the eyes undecaled area or is it a spill over effect from the white in the eyes? Edit: It almost looks like the SSS is reversing the color of the skin decal which I assume to be darker around the eyes. That's be an easy test. If you put some white color around the eyes on the decal does the final appear black? Also, a suggestion: I don't know the style of that day but it seems to me that Father's neck would more closely touch the collar of his shirt. You could get that by either tightening his collar or fattening his neck.

I like the third lighting best as well. I have some suggested modifications but I it's really too early in the game for me to suggest them. Keep at it. A few thoughts that come to mind in considering what you have already. This set presents a situation where Latimer can see his Father already sitting at the table. This is quite different than how I saw the scene playing out in my head and it could be useful in seeing how uncomfortable Latimer is and (as we move over to Father) how stern and solid he he. That'd make for a nice contrast in characters and really help play up their relationship. The stairs seem a bit too grand in scale. It appear a bit rich for Latimer's parents (although I know they are wealthly). I like the sense of isolation the scale gives to Latimer but I think having the larger should be saved until later in the film; especially Cleo's palace etc. Unless there is really good reason for it I don't think you'll want to actually animate Latimer actually walking down these stairs. That seems like too much effort and unnecessary frames. It should be enough for Latimer to move past his Mother and then the camera cuts to him emerging from the stairs. Now... there is a way you could do this with the basic set you have in mind but I'll hold off on that until I see more of what you have in mind for the sequence. You've got some gold with which to make a fine jewel of a scene here. In thinking of how they might have built the house originally it might have been designed so that two people could pass as they were going up/down the stairs. I seem to recall you saying they've lived in this house for a long time and as Father became more successful he built on to it incrementally. If that is the case then I'd definitely go for the smaller scale. I have a thought regarding the cinematography of this scene that I'll try to put into imagery based on this set... I had envisioned a very tight/even cramped hallway emerging into a larger dining room. In the meantime here is a quick view of the widest I would make the stairs (note: There would be a wall at the right of the stairs and the railing on the wall side would be straight (as opposed to the other side which opens out into the room (one of the changes that Mother likely requested Father make when he had the stairs rebuilt): I am impressed with your level of productivity of late!

Thanks Jason!

The blue screen with the building. At the bottom click the button that opens the menu in a web browser and then click on the modeling link. It'll look like the attached. If you've gotten rid of this menu you'd have to reset A:M to get it back (or simply navigate directly to the video menu which is at http://www.hash.com/startup/).

There is a brand new patch modeling tutorial currently linked from the startup screen by the ever talented Fuchur.

We do want to maintain a community that isn't afraid to try new ideas. Paul is an excellent example of someone who might have bitten off a bit more than he could chew at the time but he's still here with us in the forum and in time I have no doubt he'll give a different project another try. My greater concern is for those who might bite off more than they can chew (that's everyone at one time or another) and then for any number of reasons fade into the shadows. Sometimes this is because they feel they've let others in the community down... sometimes they feel it was the community that let them down... etc. etc. We would like to avoid this in community projects. An important aspect of any community project is learning from the experience and we can't learn unless we share our experiences, both the good and the bad. Just be considerate of the other people who (like you) gave their best for the project when delivering the bad.

A new topic right here in the main A:M forum would work well. We can always move it to a more appropriate place later (if necessary).

You'll get a lot of different ideas on this. I'll offer one... or ten. I like the first phrasing. The head, eyes and mouth all seem to work well. At the word "Wow"... although this seems to be said sarcastically it still has an accented spike to it and that doesn't come across in his eyes/face. At the end I'd delay the initiation of the smile just a little bit more so that there is a revelation of Picard's emotions appearing on his face for the grand finale. As irony seems to be his intention a slight micro expression of anger/superiority might work well just before going into the final expression. (I'm thinking primarily of his brows furrowing slightly here) I would be tempted to have Picards arms go behind his body as well to get some shoulder motion into the scene. Added: The most important part of dialogue isn't lipsync but rather body orientation. Consider how Picard might be rocking back and forth on the heels of his feet while pontificating. My over all suggestion would be to play with the body more (put on your Milt Kahl cap here. Milt was a master of using all available screen real estate). Consider that Picard might be slightly turned or leaning one way at the beginning, then turn slightly away from camera and then finally press in for the final phrase back on camera. Over all that is a nice take!

I believe this is one of the reasons the Special Topics were initiated.. Of course, another is to showcase cool stuff. In this way workable ideas quickly spin up into production. In almost every case the initiator of an idea is its greatest champion.

Nicely done! You are on to something here.

I'm not sure if we fully established what Chors save that Projects do not. I know we did establish that Project files were unnecessary as long as the Chor file was saved.

Any external file that is introduced to the project file later can be expected to be unembedded. This is why we can safely have some files embedded while others are not embedded. I think we are chasing tails here. But I don't want to leave this variable dangling. As suggested before it isn't necessary to embed everything. I was simply suggesting that if your desire is to embed everything then you should be sure to 'Embed All' just prior to saving. The process of fully embedding files in a Project is easily tested: Create New Project Create New Model Embed All Import (different) Model Save Note the little disk shaped icon that is on the imported Model that isn't present on the created (embedded) Model. This indicates that the file is saved externally and therefore NOT embedded. Now do the same test but embed just prior to saving: Create New Project Create New Model Import (different) Model Embed All Save Note that no Models are external (there is no disk shaped icon on the Model in the PWS). All files are now embedded This may not resolve your constraint problem but it is a better workflow if you expect all files to be embedded. There aren't more steps in this workflow you simply don't have to Embed All at the beginning (which is an unneccessary step)... do that just prior to saving instead. If you have any external files that are constrained to internal files and the external file is not located where the constraint expects it to be that constraint will fail. In fact, it has to fail because the target is no longer there. Again, I am not suggesting this is the case with your situation and perhaps addressing a different problem while ruling out an important variable for this case. This is especially true if you cannot see any reason to Embed All just prior to saving. If you do not intend to embed everything in your Project then performing an Embed All just prior to saving wouldn't be desireable because it will embed files that you desire to remain external.

Nice interior shot!

Here's to another year of animated creativity! Happy Birthday Gerry!