Rodney

Hi Rob, I suppose there might be two primary approaches to consider here: Modeling circles and Modifying circles. In the first case of Modeling it helps to us A:M to create the circles because A:M will almost always create a better spline layout than we can on our own. In the case of creating your shape it might be optimum to create a cross-section with extra Control Points (CPs), lathe that into a cylinder or torus shape and then keep only those parts of the shape you need to move forward. In the second case of Modification it'll help to understand how Bias settings help to peak and smooth splines as they pass through Control Points. For instance, selecting a spline and adjusting its Bias properties from say... 100% to 167% can produce a nicely rounded curve whereas the 100% setting will produce a sharper angle which smooths out only nearer the control point. Note also that if you Right Click in a Modeling window and open your Wizards there should be a Primitives plugin that will build some of these shapes automatically for you. Of course, just because the plugin creates a bunch of splines that does mean you have to keep them all. For what it's worth, I usually prefer modeling my own primitives over use of the Primitives plugin because that gives me fuller control on the end results. In looking at your model I see that adjusting the in and out Magnatude would solve much of your curvature problems (I'm liking 133% a lot). The main issue with the model however will be how the holes in the shape connect to the Control Points around the outer edge/cylinder. The presence of multiple splines all going through the same control point creates an illegal patch which will produce the artifacts (the dark rim you mention) at those locations. The most common solution to get around those problem areas might be to use 5 Point patches after extending that area one step further inward so that the inner spline and the holes don't share those same CP nodes. Depending on your goal, the use of Boolean Cutters to place/cut the holes into a solid cylinder would also work. For what it's worth... the Basic Steps: - Lathe your main cylinder and close the top/bottom (If you Lathe with 5 cross sections you can select and close the top and bottom with the 5 point patch tool). - Lathe your holes (they could be copies of your main cylinder assigned to a different bone) - Assign the splines/CPs to at least two bones. - Set the bone assigned to the holes as a Boolean cutter. - Note the results when the shape is rendered. The two things that most people have problems with when using Boolean cutters is enclosing the shapes (Boolean Cutters always work better when the shapes are enclosed) and understanding Specified Booleans; where we can tell A:M what to cut and texture based on the hierarchy of bones.

Very well done!

I'm slow to get the birthday greeting out to you but hope you had a great one Mark. Happy Birthday!

The most likely candidate to my recollection would be Jeff Cantin's "Basic Splinemanship" SIGGRAPH video. Another (less likely?) candidate might be Greg Rostami's video demonstration. Greg's demo isn't particularly humorous but it is certainly an overview. Both are online via A:M Films: http://amfilms.hash.com/video/117/Jeff-Can...IGGRAPH--99--LA http://amfilms.hash.com/video/148/Animatio...emoGreg-Rostami

I haven't looked in on your project since you first started... and you've been busy! Looking very very good. (You should enter these guys in the Mascot contest! Hint Hint)

Thanks Gerry. I confess I haven't had time to do much blogging these days but hope to get back to it. There is a ton of stuff to blog about and thankfully there are many sites that explore the periphery of animation. The blog's real purpose is to explore things that are very loosely connected to animation that other blogs might not have considered or considered briefly but could use more attention. I'd say my own personal favorite posting at this point is probably the Leonardo Davinci as animator posting. He may not have been an animator in the sense that we consider animators today but there is no doubt that he was a student of the art of animation in an old world precursory way. Although I don't plug Animation:Master much there, almost everything can be related to A:M in one way or another and I figure it won't be hard for anyone who follows the blog to discover my interest in A:M. Of course, I should drop a note about the public Beta release! Thanks for reminding me that the blog is still there.

Great news Gerry. It's great to see your work getting out there where more folks can see it. Congratulations!

Hey... wait a second... it seems like I was just wishing you a happy birthday. Time sure does fly quickly these days. Happy (belated) Birthday!

Congratulations on your success with kickstarter Mark! I still plan to throw a few dollars at you but I hope you'll forgive me if I can't get it done this time around. If I can't I'll plan to support a future project of yours. Best of everything to you in this effort.

Interesting... I see Michael Sporn has a kickstarter going for an animated film about... Edgar Allan Poe. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1706789719/poe-project (As of this writing they've achieved just over $5K of their $21,500 goal) Keep this project on the fast track because if the patterns hold there will be a lot more being released related to good ol' Edgar.

Outstanding news. 'Garrett' deserves to get more attention... and a sequel... and a remake... and a live action adaption... and a TV series... and merchandising... and... Congratulations!

Looking good! Glad to see you are still making good progress on this. All of your characters look like they belong in the same world... a very good thing IMO. Looking forward to the next updates!

Just a note to say that today I resubscribed and reactivated. This wouldn't be worthy of noting except that reactivation couldn't have fallen at a worse time for me (I had expected to be able to reactivate before my internet connectivity was cut off). On the positive side, the timing served as something of a test from the perspective of a disconnect user who has trouble gaining access to the internet. Results: From time of purchase to activation of both 32bit and 64bit took less than 15 minutes. The time included reinstallation of both versions. Although I didn't need to do that, I tend to like clean/full installations to clear out any old cobwebs. All I would have had to do is move the old master.lic file somewhere else and I estimate full reactivation (including purchase) could have been easily accomplished in less than 5 minutes without reinstallation. General observations: - I am so looking forward to the days when internet connectivity is freely available everywhere without seeking out local 'hotspots'. - We don't have to reinstall A:M to reactivate... just move the master.lic file (see above) - Don't have Netrender Messenger running in the background or some files will not be able to reinstall until you close Netrender down (files in use cannot be replaced while in use by the Windows OS). - Um... let's see... what else? Oh, yeah. Hash Rocks! Keep on keepin' on!

Arriving at the party late as usual... Hope it's been a happy one Jason!

That's looking really impressive Fuchur. Love the colors! It looks backward (sideways?) to me. If it is just the angle we are seeing it from then I would suggest sticking that 'arm' straight out and then bending the bear's left elbow backward. This would serve several purposes one of which is to place a little weight down on the left front leg. Right now it doesn't seem to me that any of his weight is bearing down on his legs. (pun intended!) (I'll be glad to draw it if I'm not being clear) Right now it seems there is a hint of this polar bear being a toy and I can only guess that it's the leg that is creating that perception. Impressive hair Robert.

I just got a chance to see Robert's video. Not only is it a great explanation of spline continuity (very important) iIt's also a great example of what posting part or all of a model can reveal when someone can look at it up close and personal. From the images alone I wouldn't have guessed that the continuity of the spline wrapped all the way around the table like it did. Excellent demonstration Robert!

What a difference a few years make! I've always imagined that you set all of these up like the railroad hobbyists do and send their trains down the tracks in endless circling. Do you set these up in a similar a way as the scale railroads virtually or do you keep them separated for the purpose of rendering the individual scenes and/or to facilitate the creation of products for real world railroad sets? (I'm not looking for you to reveal any trade secrets here but have always been curious)

I agree with your assessment Walter. Even if freely available elsewhere having a collection of Robert's video tutorials available for purchase would be a great way to financially support his effort and get the information out there. I would imagine the real trick (difficulty) would be to set it up in such a way that most of the funds actually get to Robert rather than disbursed to a distributor/middleman. Someday, someone will crack this whole distribution thing and people will be able to deal directly with the creators without the pain of current distribution methods. The middleman will still be there but the technology will only require a nominal maintenance fee to be paid (micropennies on the dollar). That will certainly be better than a fifty percent distribution fee off the top before a deal is even made.

Glad to see you are still plugging away at this David. Just a few hours ago I saw a bouncing ball exercise and it made me think of you. Downloading your latest but don't know when I'll be able to get a chance to look at them.

Yes, something ain't right. Now we've got to find out exactly what that something is. I just installed with 32bit and 64bit versions and reactivated without any issues. Assuming you have the rights on your computer, when you install are you Right Clicking and selecting 'Run As Administrator'? While not always necessary I've gotten use to doing that with every installation I want to make sure sinks all the way in. Also, still not sure if you are on a Mac or PC as your profile says you use both. ...and make sure you have downloaded (the latest version (v16b))

If your negative reviews are reading like that... you are definitely on the right track. I can almost see a silly ad that uses these quotes (although one could wish they applied to 'Wannabe Pirates' because it'd fit Flemm perfectly). I can even see a show where Paunk is reading and reacting to the reviews. (This is comedy...make those 'negative' reviews work for you too!) I could only hope to receive such reviews.

Can you give us a little more information on where you are having problems? Have you got to the point where you have entered your activation code yet? I'm about to resubscribe myself as my sub is expiring and I'm planning to record the process and turn it into a small tutorial (that way people can point to a location and say... this is where I get stuck... but that video won't be made for another few days. The basic steps: Download and Install current version. Grab activation code from your email or the Hash Inc store and enter that into A:M when it prompts you for code. (my memory says I always Control C/Copy and Control V/Paste the activation code as that prevents accidental mistakes in typing it in manually. Not all programs allow this.) Make sure you are connected to the internet so that the subscription can be activated. A:M should notify you that your subscription has been activated. There is another step most people perform and that is make a backup copy of the 'master0.lic' in your Hash Inc directory. I confess that while I now copy it out of habit but as far as I can tell I have never used it. I just install and activate. I've only had one glitch in the whole time I've been installing and activating and in that case I just started again from scratch and I installed. At a guess I'd say that was due to a faulty internet connection but I'm not sure about that. Please let us know where you are in the process of installation as that'll help us know where you are at. Forgive my ignorance here but I assume that avast has something to do with antivirus or Macs? When you say: I assume you mean that you haven't heard back from them? Support will always help you. It's possible they haven't seen your distress call yet.

You just did. Usually, if your profile settings are correct you can edit the title of a post by editing your first post in a topic. The title should be up near the top of the page.

Did Holmes have another birthday already??? (Hope this one was even greater than the one yesterday)

That's pretty slick. It certainly makes me look forward to what lies ahead. Note: I can't seem to get the trailer to play here in the forum but it plays upon clicking through.