Rodney

Congrats Gene. You got that one by a good margin. Be sure to tell us when the next round starts!

Voted! I'm not sure what factors the judges consider so just to hedge the bet I recommend letting the video play all the way through. Who knows, if the voting is close the judges might check to see how many have watched the video all the way through. Have it play in the background while you work. Go Gene!

You should be able to install and run any subscription version of A:M. That should be circa v13 and up. Some folks initially object to the subscription (especially older users because change can be difficult) but once they've subscribed they just get on with using A:M. It is entirely understandable (logical even) that those who are the most unhappy with the subscription will be those who have never subscribed to A:M.

While it won't be of comfort to Elm it's certainly a learning opportunity. Gerry hits on an important distinction in the fact that he has upgraded but has not updated his entire production pipeline as of yet. In the abstract I'd say in a production environment a good update path should run initially at 20/80 (Preproduction), 50/50 at apogee (at the final point before fully committing to Production) and 80/20 at full production and thereafter (there is no looking back at this point barring the very odd exception in Post Production). Difficult shots that rely on new and unproven features get tested early and are scheduled for completion early in the process. You'll note that if this path is followed that toward the end of one production there is a comfortable overlap that will allow the next production to begin within the framework of the next iteration of updates. Note that the update path can and generally should be different than the upgrade path which for most organizations to maximize their return on investment must continuously replace 10-20 percent of their software and equipment. This is that 20 percent seen at the beginning of a production cycle and if this upgrade path is followed the primary variable to focus on then becomes how long a particular budget/production cycle is as dictated by the schedule and funding it receives. It is important not to wait to upgrade because we never want to find ourselves focused on internal issues when the more weighty external forces are at play. Upgrades become the constant while updating remains a variable. Updating will always vary upon the just-in-time needs of the organization while upgrades tend to be refreshed more slowly, cautiously and deliberately. I note that Google is trying to tackle some of these pesky issues in the form of their 'Chrome Canary' release. Through use of the canary, power users can live on the cutting edge if they are willing to accept additional risk. This shortening of the update cycle ultimately increases stability for all users and ushers in more and improved features as the feed back from the canary is recognized and incorporated into the next stable release. This is similar to the upgrade path outlined above that places 10-20 percent of an organization's computers into the higher risk category. When you have only one computer the game certainly changes and it's good to know that we can run multiple versions of A:M simultaneously. Generally, we should not rely on only one computer. It's got to be tough being a studio.

I really like that Marcos! There is something... some small detail that is missing that I can't quite place my finger on. I've been watching the reel over and over in an attempt to find it. Perhaps I can walk away and view it at a later time and I'll see what that is. A few thoughts while I am exploring: 1. Fade (Very Nitpicky!): The fade from decal/drawing to rendering could be a little more subtley faded so as not to pop. By this I mean to say that there is an apparent difference in the height of the drawing versus the final character and this catches the eye. My thought is that perhaps could pop in two frame each of a wireframe and and rig shot instead of a fade. However, I think this might change your intended theme and I'm not sure what that is. (See Number 3 below) 2. Character: I get the feeling this character may not smile a lot BUT it seems to me that you may want to make him smile for the purpose of this demo reel even if out of character. This would accoplish at least two things. 1) It would end the reel on a smile which ties into what you want to accomplish... getting a sponsor inspired (smiling and enjoying your project) enough to support you. When an audience see a character smile they tend to smile. 2) It will provide further progression and a place for the eye to focus while awaiting the presentation of your card. My underlying thought here is to somehow get the viewer to identify or connect with Lau. 3. Theme: It should be clear what this reel is saying to me and yet it isn't quite. While I can assume that you are trying to suggest that you can transform a drawing into a fully articulated character this is not clear to me. Did you do the drawings only and someone else create the model? (I know you did but others will not) This might be resolved simply by adding a few words to tell viewers about it (fading them in/out). This could be during the drawing, at the very end right before or on your card or at the appropriate place (See thoughts from number one) 4. Clarity. There is an old saying "Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them and then tell them what you told them." (I paraphrase). Adding a hint of this might prove useful in your reel. Similarly you could also just tell folks the facts and what you want. An extreme case of this might be to simply narrate the video (in words or text). "Hi I'm Marcos and this is Lau." "We are seeking sponsors for the environmental short film 'Trem do Pantanal'. 'Contact us!' 5. Extending the card. Most of these random thoughts can be eradicated by some further creativity on your part. For instance, if this is card #1 of 3 or a larger series of cards then I think you'd be rockin'! Things seen in this first card could build upon subsequent cards. Who knows, you and your 'Trem do Pantanal' cards might even get an avid following. All of this to say what you've got is already great. I challenge you to make it awesome.

Looking good! She is really starting to shape up. Did you ever send me the latest update of your script? If you did I didn't see it. I'll double check my spam folder.

Welcome back! Right now there aren't any certificates being issued for completion of TaoA:M but that doesn't mean we can't make an exception for you and issue you one anyway if you post your progress here in the forum.

As a workaround, could you possibly just drag the CP back?

Nicely done John. I can see that radar effect as being very useful.

Whoops. VERY GOOD POINT! Sorry Robert, I forgot that was an intrinsic part of 'Rear Window'. For what its's worth, flat planes would still give a mostly 3D effect if *all* of the elements where rendered separately and composited appropriately. (But that sure sounds like a whole lot of work!) With everything going 3D these days that becomes an even more important consideration when using rendered layers and compositing. The cool thing is that if each separate element is a rendering of the original 3D geometry then it should still retain it's 3D look. There are of course a lot of areas where such things become more difficult. For instance a character that begins at the front of the stage/scene and receeds toward the back. One would have to be very careful of plane clipping and such as the image plane recedes. This is where the new Open EXR 2.0 format should help considerably in compositing because it (supposedly) it can store depth information.

Well, be careful here. If you have keyframes that are in sync with dialogue or music this could knock it out of sync for you. You don't just want to stretch out everything when stretching out specific problem areas will do. The following is something most people would be better served to do in a dedicated application designed for editing movies but something we can also do in A:M: We can retime a movie by bringing it back into A:M as a patch image, decal or rotoscope. We can stretch out shots and sequences, reduce them, even reverse and repeat parts of the movie. We can retime specific actions of individual characters if they are rendered out separately so that they in effect deliver a different performance. You would do this via the frame option underneath the image you want to retime in the movie.

The link is working fine here Rodger. I'm not sure whether it's your browser, browser cache, or something else but this appears to be something going on at your end. I seem to recall Internet Explorer truncating some links so perhaps your browser is just truncating Robert's link. That would explain the forum specific error that is usually generated after an invalid search or link. Do you get the same thing from this link: Full Link

Thank you! I didn't know myself until you asked the question and we started investigating.

At the risk of igniting the old discussion about DPI again, here's a DPI to PPI calculator what has quite a few displays precalcuated. Just click on the display type and the data is displayed in the calculator: http://members.ping.de/~sven/dpi.html Note: This calculator assumes square pixels which may be a relevant factor in many cases.

Here's a quick down and dirty video that scratches the surface of the tech going on behind the scenes: This second one goes into what Nancy referred to regarding screen viewing distance (which with the Retina display is assumed to be 10 inches away): and another that focuses on Pixels Per Inch (PPI) and viewing distance: and the scoop from the guy himself, Steve Jobs: Steve implies that the name Retina for these displays comes from the retina's upper threshold of being able to view no more than 300PPI at a distance of 10 to 12 inches. With Retina displays at 326 PPI Steve says they are "comfortably over that threshold". So, extrapolating from that I begin to assume that images should target this 300PPI threshold or risk not being optimal on Retina displays. I'm not convinced this is the case but its a starting point. REF: Emphasis added. Source: Wikipedia Perhaps yet another reason to target 300PPI.

That camera angle works much better!

It may be a good thing that I didn't know you as a kid. For sure that'd be fodder for a nightmare. Here's the scenario for the movie chronicling my adventures: Little Rodney is sleeping Enters JohnL3D induced sleep cycle Screams and wakes up Mom says, "There. There. It's okay. Can you tell me what happened in your dream?" Wide-eyed little Rodney says, "I-I-I had another T-T-Tinkering Gnome nightmare! The... The... Gate!".

It's funny you mention Yves. I just ran across this:

Some of the variation might be due to A:M knowing where the UV CPs originated from. In my movie for instance a simple click reattached two out of three CPs on the same UV patch. If it was just a little bit more accurately placed I'm sure the third would also have attached. As it wasn't I had to separately attached that. I guess the important thing is that whether attached or unattached the decal is still going to show up on those patches. Attaching simply facilitates moving those patches around. Added: Some of the difference in what we are seeing may be due to the fact that you are using a mouse while I am tapping with my finger on that little rectangular square on my laptop. I'm certainly satisfied. Although DARN IT!!! just now I realized I should have included ROTATION and SCALING of some patches. Maybe next video.

Coming at you as soon as I can upload it. See attached! Like I said you'll have to trust that I am using the proper keys. Maybe I could record my fingers strokes with a webcamera and have someone certify that both video streams were in fact conducted simultaneously. I believe that at the time I indicate I am using the Ctrl Alt Click method you can observe that I am not using your Select Move Click method to do the attaching. Note that I have not watched this myself except to add the captions so I'm not sure how well it gonna play out. Edit: Could have been better but not bad. I probably should have noted that the decal is that gray square otherwise some folks might not know what we are looking at. DecalViewEnhancements.mov

Thanks Nancy! I'd love to get that locked down because, unless you've redefined those keys, they should be attachin'.

Congratulations Gene. Here's a new vote!

Yes, but at least now I can type in a name for the group before I crash. As soon as he fixes that bug then I won't. In other words, I don't think we are suppose to name UV Groups... yet. As of this moment there is nowhere in the PWS for UV named groups to show up. I'd appreciate it if someone could confirm this. I believe that anyone who attempts to open the Property panel, select a group of CPs in the UV Editor and name the resulting Group will soon wish they had saved their project.

What Nancy said here. I don't recall anything in your tutorial that won't still work here. It's interesting to note that I thought I saw a place to name the UV Groups but if it's there I don't think it's fully implemented yet. It looked like I named the group in the properties panel but it didn't take and I couldn't find a trace of it after it closed. Edit: Tried it again and as soon as I named it I dropped to the desktop. So, I don't think that works.

Nancy, You've been misreading me or else I typo'd something. It's not Alt Click that attaches CPs. Alt Click is a documented method for removing/detaching entire patches. That is the reason I said keep doing that if you want to remove patches. It is working exactly as it should. The keys I've been using for attaching CPs is Ctrl+Alt+Click. I'd upload a video but you'd have to trust that I was actually Control Alt Clicking. Will I haven't forgotten you... we are all simultaneously posting. Gonna make you a believer if I hafta come to your house! This is exactly what I thought I already had everyone believing a day or so ago. It's like I suddenly walked through a strange 'CtrlAltClick doesn't work in anyone but Rodney's dimension' portal. Am I really the only one that sees Ctrl+Alt+Click working?