Rodney

Simon, Have you downloaded and installed the latest release (v17a)? There is at least one report of a fix related to lights that may address the changes you are seeing. (I'm a bit doubtful on this but it might make the difference) When in doubt you can always install the new release into a new folder (and not install over the top of the previous version). Then you can then have access to v17 and v17a.

I watched some videos that suggest that with Open Subdiv, animators are finally getting to enjoy the ease of moving animated 'meshes' in the same way that A:M Users have been doing for... well, since this is v17... over 17 years. There are some things that can be done more effectively with splines and some with polygons but this should allow more flexibility with poly surfaces while also allowing the animator to more directly see the results of their changes. Before it was largely guesswork. Approaching from the other angle what it means to me is that due to the iterative nature of Subdividing, polygons systems are now approaching more closely to 'real patches'. They can at least share a closer relationship. The real benefit appears to be that Pixar can now use a more common language between models, animation and renderings whereas before they could only do that through translation. This is the realization of some goals that Pixar, Ed Catmul, etc. have had for over 25 years and it takes time to build things that aren't invented yet. It's interesting to note that much of that Martin Hash picked up on early on, which lead to where A:M is today. Pixar is closer to their original vision than they've ever been. One could hope this signals a significant move to evolve polygons... actually, we don't have to hope... that's what they claim when they state they have returned to the old ideas of Catmul and Clark from over twenty five years ago. Where this really pays off is in real time rendering. That's some of the potential I see. (Secretly I hope that Yves Poissant and the Hash boys being let loose into the wild had something to do with this.)

I see the keynote speech at SIGGRAPH 2012 by Cory Doctorow covers the problem of copyright... and to a degree, monetizing the internet.

This will mainly be of interest to programmers... and if you are into such things you likely know about this already but just in case... Pixar has released Open Subdiv as Open Source. What does that mean? I'm not a programmer so I really don't know. http://graphics.pixar.com/ http://graphics.pixar.com/opensubdiv

The Animation:Master Users Group Forum will be getting reorganized shortly. Keep your eye on this space! http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showforum=27

Membership has it's privileges so I don't see why not. (Of course you have to make the mailer pretty... pretty awesome that is!) It should be fairly easy to even target folks in your local neighborhood. (is anything ever really that easy though?) What do you want to call your group in the interim? (You can change it any time you want to)

The greatest successes often seem insignificant at the beginning and usually start small. I have high hopes for User Groups but logistics (distance and scheduling especially) is a problem. My 'core' thought, if I can even call it that, would be to set up a virtual User Group that caters to the primary members/leaders of the global User Groups. But there are some potential problems with this sort of scheme that we'd want to avoid. We want to be inclusive and not exclusive. We want to include all A:M Users not segregate them in private affairs and cliques. Having said that I think the cliques form themselves based on interest so there is that. Some User Groups may be based on location but surely not all... For instance, why could there not be a v13 User Group*? The core interest for them would be to maximize usage of v13 to the benefit of all. (Yes, there would always be a little pressure to upgrade/subscribe and support the current release of A:M from any officially sanctioned User Group but that's a given... upgrade when you can... until you can, use what you've already bought.) There is not much of a difference between a User Group and a Community Project. Each has a reason for existing be that having fun, working hard, maximizing usage and/or sharing knowledge. Ultimately it's up to each User Group (independently) to decide what to focus on. Can you have a User Group of one? No. Not really. But if that User Group is virtually connected to the Leaders of other User Groups and maintains a local chapter that won't be a problem. When the word gets out, people will find them. And whenever and wherever interests diverge new leaders arise to charter new hubs. *This may seem to be a bad example but I want to illustrate the full potential that A:M User Groups have. An A:M user subscribing to v17 can also use v13 without any problem.

Oustanding! Unless you say otherwise we'll call this one resolved.

If by 'strong shadows' you mean a crisper outline if you lower the width setting of the Light the shadow should appear harder. Klieg lights are often used for softer shadows (especially for raytracing) so you might change the Light type to Bulb or Sun. A lighting expert will be along shortly to shine the light on us.

There are a whole lot of things folks can do in person. (Because we sit behind a computer we may not do that as often as we should) My own thought about User Groups is that its a place to specialize or focus on things at a higher level than can be accomplished online over a broader spectrum of time. It's amazing what can be learned just by looking over the shoulder of someone. It's a place to share exclusive things that one cannot generally share online. It's a place to share with a small group what cannot be shared with larger groups online (Here I'm thinking fair use copyrighted works) It's a place where people can review and critique and provide feedback in person prior to a release out into the wild. It's a place to view early drafts of tutorials and projects before they are perfected and other exclusive stuff that can't be released to the public. The lists goes on and on... But mostly its a place to meet people of the same interests and to share and broaden experiences that cannot be accomplished online.

The Dopesheet definitely can be used to create basic movement; drum beats would be a great one. But anything we can get into a pose will also work. There are a few tricks in getting non dictionary phonemes/poses working in a Dopesheet however. The key is to trick A:M into bypassing the dictionary (where it will define single phonemes for you). One way to do this is to just quickly add numbers instead of letters in the creation of a new sentence. Then go back and redefine those numbers as whatever you need them to be. After that it's mostly just a matter of selecting poses from the dropdown menu.

Rather than add to the other topic that focuses on Phonemes I'll start a new topic where I hope others will feel free to explore A:M's Dopesheet. The Dopesheet has gained a bad name over the years and that is unfortunate because it can be used to do a lot of laborious work quickly. It can be used to block out stories, set up scenes and pose characters rapidly and without much effort. Folks see A:M's Dopesheet as only being good for Lipsync but perhaps it can do more than that...

A picture is worth a thousand words. Thanks Nancy! Added: Heres a follow up on the Magpie export to A:M: From Magpie documentation regarding export of animation: I'm learning lots today... I didn't know that Victor Navone used Magpie Pro for lipsync in 'Alien Song'. Shows what I know!

I can't recall what if any changes there were since v15 but if nothing is showing (after you dig down deep) consider going to the Menu and unders Tools on the Global Tab select "Show more than Drivers". You might not need that but it won't hurt if you are digging deeply into the depths of the PWS. Someone correct me where I am wrong.

I think the issue you are having is that you are looking for keyframes where there are no keyframes, only Poses in the Timeline. The Poses store the default Pose Slider setting and will only show keyframes if you create them otherwise. I'm trying to figure out the best way to demo this but if you want to edit the actual phoneme/pose you want to edit the original relationship in the Model. If you are using a dopesheet you can just replace the phoneme with a different phoneme (Selected from the drop down menu as I recall). For more extensive use of poses/phonemes with the added benefit of keyframing you just have to create those keyframes yourself by adjusting the Pose in the Timeline. You'll think it's easy once you get into it... so try it!

When you say the Timeline goes crazy on you... that's were you lose me. As I said, Poses don't automatically set keyframes in the same way moving Bones or Control Points do. There are there but you have to find them. I could probably tell you from memory but I confess that I haven't used the Dopesheet for awhile myself. Yes, people have used it with A:M and because it is specifically designed for Lipsync it has some nice bells and whistles. But it won't do the job for you. (I started to go by memory... best not to do that!) I can't help but think the cost is going to be prohibitive for you. The primary thing you'll gain is the speech recognition. Edit: I see it still supports exporting animation to A:M! Note that I am assuming you are using the Dopesheet here. That may not be the case. Also know that you can just manipulate the phonemes directly in the Timeline. I would first like to know what you mean by 'the timeline goes crazy'. We should address that first before moving on. It seems to me that you just can't see channel curves.

Don't be silly. Of course there is an easier way to do that. Robert has hit on the full functioning answer but here's more to the phoneme aspect... When using the Dopesheet to automate the animation of phonemes its good to understand that what you are doing is simply animating Pose Sliders. The phoneme's are just Poses that have stored up an action. Aside: You don't have to automate lipsync... you can control any automate any Pose driven action via the Dopesheet but... the dictionary will control the interpretation of that. So whatever you assign to "Ah" will produce that action. Whatever you assign to "Oo" will provide that action etc. etc. So how do you edit a curve on the Timeline from a Pose? You edit the same way on the Timeline as you would for a Dopesheet'd phoneme action. I'll see if I can grab a screen shot to demo some of that. Sometimes we need to trick a Pose into revealing its (channel) spline curves.

Hang in there Mark. You've got what it takes to break into the big time. Added: Just how does one deal with people that want the experience but don't want to buy-in? That is the question of the century.

I'm going to try to meet with Den Dotson one of these days. He hasn't been actively pursuing 3D of late... he's been preoccupied with getting his Masters degree! He's in the local area and I hope to meet up with him soon. If you read this Den... Salute!

Oh yeah. Looking good!

Thanks. I've messed around with it a little, primarily before it was fully operational. I stepped away from it after it was temporarily broken during an update and haven't returned to it. At the time I was interested in the Frame properties for animating images but knew I'd have to also deal with the audio.

Thanks. I've messed around with it a little, primarily before it was fully operational. I stepped away from it after it was temporarily broken during an update and haven't returned to it. At the time I was interested in the Frame properties for animating images but knew I'd have to also deal with the audio.

This is the process that I believe I will have to pursue. There is a video out there that briefly covers cropping of audio. (I so need to organize my tutorials... I can't find anything these days!) Perhaps that was something you produced?

This is just a placemarker and a reminder for me to investigate the TaoA:M exercise(s) that deal with Lipsync. At the core of my exploration is a desire to determine what effect having the complete dialogue as one audio file might have on the experience. The dialogue is: "I've got a secret. Can you keep a secret? Didn't think so." The problem: The dialogue length is set. There is no way (in A:M) to adjust the timing/pacing or to adjust the delivery of the performance for the character in the sequence due to the audio file's fixed length. Questions: Could separating the one audio file into three separate audio files resolve the issue? Is there anything in A:M already that can address the issue? (i.e. referencing the same audio file three times and/or cropping the audio) If so, how user-friendly? Can the exercise be updated to focus enhance understanding of timing/pacing/phrasing in animation (but still using the example of lipsync)?