Rodney

Wow. This scene has really come a long way since you first began! I'm really liking the look you've captured. Impressive! I feel like I could actually walk right into this thumbnail. But... it leads me into a false sense of wanting to go there because I don't think that'd be a very good idea!

I really like that Kat! I've got something of a story to tell with this one... I started opening this sequence while working in several other windows and had minimized the browser window that had your movie. I started typing in the other window when I heard a child screaming. Yikes! It must be the neighbor kids having a bad day! Then I heard it again. This child was screaming is serious distress! Then just as I was beginning to rise from my chair by way of intervention I suddenly realized the sound was coming from my computer. It was your banshee under duress that I was hearing. Yeesh! My heart is still racing at an elevated rate! I really like what you've done in this sequence and the dragon's voice is odd but compelling. It immediately captures me and draws me. Now about that poor banshee... Added: A suggestion, if I may. I'd love to see a layer of (mostly transparent) cloud-like matter (noise/atmospherics?) overlaid on top of this sequence as that would really sell the effect of these characters moving through actual space/flying through the air. It would break the image out of a sense of being projected onto a 2D plane which you have nearly accomplished already. I don't think it would take much to achieve this as you could probably just overlay a scaled up version of the clouds you have elsewhere in the scene.

Nice preview! 2012 is going to be a great year. My suggestion for this post (I seem to have a quota of at least one per episode... it my Epic Gamin' quota thing) would be to have Tech stay closer to the camera. That really enhances the puppet-feel of the character (and will be easier to animate). When you do show him at farther distances away from the camera that'll be something of a treat. I like how you have him up close and personal on/about frame 20. Of course he'll have to be farther back if other folks are sharing the scene with him... Something you'll be able to get away with more with Tech than other character is that Muppet-like lip sync of Open/Close Open/Close without worrying too much about refining the details. Most of the sync you can probably capture in movement of the head to emphasize the dialogue. My thought here would be to animate the phrasing to the head moves alone and then exaggerate the opening and closing of Tech's mouth to gain the key points where (thinking) words are emphasized. Why do I get the feeling that Tech is about to become my favorite character? (Don't tell Gwen I said that!)

I assume you are on two PCs here. These run counter to each other so I'm trying to understand. If you can't get to the point where you type in the activation key then it's an indicator of an installation problem such as Admin rights or other installation incompatibility. If you are able to type in the activation Key then it's an indicator of a conflicting key. Is it possible that you are using the CD key for the non CD install/web subscription and vice versa? To deconflict, I would set aside trying to run Netrender until you've accomplished a successful installation/activation with A:M. Or am I misunderstanding and A:M itself will run but you aren't able to succesfully run Netrender?

Hehe!!! That was great fun! I'm just a little bit afraid of him though... I'm just sayin'. That's some nice character personality you've got showing through there.

Looking very good. I can almost hear the engine running!

Looking very good. I'm really enjoying the updates. I'm not sure what the BMP file is... haven't downloaded it. If you want to share an image the forum will display JPG, PNG and GIF.

Conrad Chow's classic 'Snapshots' from 2002 is now playing at the top of the forum.

Hey, I'm liking Tech 2.0! You may just pull this Tech-Switcherooie off! If you have the time to explore I'd recommend looking at the material used for Keekat's fur or perhaps a velvet material but I'm liking what you've got going on there already. My thought is that he's looking just a little bumpy versus furry.

That was awesome Nancy. Great fun!

With the various posts on modeling vehicles popping up lately I've had vehicles on my mind as well. Of course it's of a slightly more cartoony version (My favorite vehicles are usually the ones seen in the old black and white animated films) but still... With additional emphasis being placed on Tintin pending release of the Spielberg/Jackson movie this has renewed interest in the world the character lives in. For instance, I found this collection of all the vintage vehicles used in the Tintin comic of particular interest: http://dardel.info/tintin/tout.html While these aren't blueprints or schematics it does represent a pretty nice collection of cartoon conveyances. They try to match the view of the vehicle in the comic strip with a similar view with the real vehicle. The image below... a sampling of references/drawings used in the comic strip:

Okay... that should be very useful to me. Of course, don't forget that in order for A:M to save the Pivot settings they need to be part of a Named Group. Thanks for the heads up on this... and for the original Tutorial Jason!

Looks like the judges swayed the vote in the other direction. Where 'Party' was favored x2 by fans the judges' vote dropped the lead to just a few percentage points out of the win. It's not a full win but it was a great showing guys. Congrats for taking it all the way to the final competition.

Kittychan!

She looks great. Very festive! Careful now... remember Wolverine had many of years of fans guessing at his mysterious past before they messed everything up and revealed his 'real' origin.

Charles even acknowledged a relationship with that fella. When I think of the name I cannot help but conjure up images of underwater caustics instead of ancient computing machinery. Oooo look.... so pretty. Happy Birthday Charles!

Outstanding. I particularly like how you emphasize at the end the use of Named Groups! Thanks for a great tutorial.

Awesome! I'm ginning from ear to ear. Suggestion: If you could give them a cute little backpack that the strings attach to so it won't look like the kids are having fun hanging themselves. People are sensitive to such themes and susceptible to applying such interpretations. Edit: And you get extra cool points for posting it as an animated gif.

I didn't know there were other episodes of Dr. Zu! It's like seeing old friends again. Wonderful! Thanks Serg.

Very nice. All my favorite artists are caricaturists and you Sir are a caricaturist.

Serg's Dr. Zu commercial is now playing at the top of the forum. Cartoon character animation at it's very best... in only 25 seconds.

Yes. Plugins compiled for v15 should run fine in 32bit v16. It is my understanding that they need to be ported/recompiled for 64bit.

Rock the Vote! or if you prefer... Country Music the Vote! (and Jubal1 is in your court!) Saw in your earlier post how the judges vote in the three areas of Visual Design, Direction and Originality. Exploring those themes would make for a fun study. Those are pretty broad and interpretive themes though. Let's hear it for the Judges: Danny Walker Singer / Songwriter / Guitarist www.dannywalker.net PJ Palmer Writer, Director, Producer www.imdb.me/pjpalmer Scott Ferguson Composer, Producer, Singer and Guitarist Keely Hawkes Singer, Songwriter George Allen Producer, Songwriter http://www.mtaprod.se Stevie Mack Actor / Comedian http://www.steviemack.com/ Jonathan Solomon Comedian / Writer http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-solomon John O' Day Promoter, Program Director Rich Ferguson Spoken Word Artist Kristia Bonita Professional Dancer Fahtiem Fahtiem Multi-award-winning, internationally renowned, master instructor, performer and choreographer www.Fahtiem.com Shawn Harris Comedian www.myspace.com/shawnharrisbetcomicview Gianni Tiru A&R, Management & Operations Iman Foroutan MakeaStar.com Founder, Chairman & CEO http://www.MakeAStar.com Ned Raggett Music Critic Chris Gonda Heavy Metal Website & Magazine Owner http://www.PureGrainAudio.com Ben Yater Writer Travis Miller Director, Editor

Hey, here in Japan it's Rasikrodri's Birthday! Hope you have a great day. Enjoy!

After all these years he's still the freshest ever (yeah, I had to go there). Happy Birthday Sebastian!