Rodney

It'd be great to have you splining with us again Curtis!

It's great to see you in your own Special Topic. You've been fielding some highly entertaining work for a long time now. Here's looking forward to lots and lots more!

It seems more than a few people were taken by surprise when a few weeks ago Apple joined the Alliance for Open Media. They were the big holdout. CNET article (this has some info related to the AV1 format too): https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-online-video-compression-av1/ The first article I saw: https://bitmovin.com/apple-joins-av1-codec-consortium/?utm_source=bitmovin_newsletter&utm_medium=email

hehe! Nice! Silver never looked better.

Looks great Tore! High quality.

Here might be an example... A project consists of one Sphere and two Actions. The first Action controls up/down motion. The second Action controls distance traveled. The Sphere is placed In the Chor. Both Actions are dropped onto the Sphere (and made to overlap... because the second will generally follow after the first when drag/dropped). Both Blend modes are then set to Add. For fun have the up/down Action repeat three or four times. The entire animation occurs over 1 second (or 3 seconds if preferred). The Chor Action is baked. The resulting Baked Action is exported as an Action. Now the Action can be brought back in and used as the basis for more complex and layered action. But... Before proceeding a pass needs to be made to simplify the new Action because it contains too many keyframes and lacks optimized hard and smooth transitions. That's a basic Bouncing Ball setup that initiates from a series of simple overloaded Actions where it would be nice to reduce, round or average the values in all of the resulting channels and... to limit the number of keyframes for easier editing.

I'm trying to refresh my memory. I know that if we select a channel we have the option (via Right Click) to 'Reduce' keyframes. This however isn't practical when there are a whole lot of channels to reduce. I will guess the best way to proceed might be to Bake Action and then increase the Tolerance setting. Is that correct or am I wondering off in the wrong direction?

Hehe. Nicely done. Oh, the suspense!

That wasn't the original intent but now that you mention it... The train is from a story by a kid I know who drew me a tale about a train robbery where two (mostly inept) robbers steal a train and the short mystery involved in finding where they have it hidden. Kids always come up with the best stories... not always the most logical... but always entertaining and enthusiastically told. The sad thing... I am not doing this story justice. But you've got to start somewhere.

Test render Don't ask me why the wheels are white... I thought it was a good idea at the time.

Aaron Blaise runs two live video sessions a week on a range of subjects. (one on Facebook and one via Youtube) Currently he is animating through a short film 'Snow Bear'. For the animator it's always good to learn from a highly trained animator and this is true regardless of whether that animation is hand drawn or computer assisted. Thursdays is Aaron's youtube day. Just a little over 500 people (622 at current count) tune in to these sessions and those interested range from brand new wannabe animators to more seasoned professionals. The wannabes tend to be the ones who ask the questions via live chat. A general rule of thumb... those that want to be an animator need to hang out with other animators. So those wannabes (as well as others tuning in) are getting a great education even if only by osmosis. Aaron's son assists and his business partner moderates the chat. If you miss a session look for the (edited) recording for later viewing. Sessions tend to last from 1 to 1 1/2 hour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJP3scNUAiI&feature=em-lss The focus of the session is 'Inbetweens'. Aaron is using TVPaint but the basic methodologies and principles apply to any software or... no software. Tip just heard: "Timing is subjective." "If it looks good it is good." Another tip regarding animating multiple characters (and animating two or more characters with multiple animators): Animate the primary character first then when the other character takes over transfer back and forth.

Sounds like you've got it going. The one thing that trips people up the most with Bullet Physics would appear to be not setting at least one Bullet constraint onto an object in the Project. Until that constraint is applied the option to Simulate Bullet Physics will be grey'd out and simulation unavailable.

I'm refreshing my memory now and setting up a super basic example of a cloth-type object falling onto another object. The first thing I note is that the default setting has it simulating very stiff. I suspect two things... the stiffness setting and the density of the mesh. So... changing those for the next test. Here's a screen grab of the best frame from the first test: Added: I've gotten distracted by other requirements so will return to this when I can.

I'm having to refresh my memory myself so I'm not going to be of much help. If you haven't exhausted the information here, you should check that out: http://www.sgross.com/bullet/index.html The section on soft bodies... won't be of much help but in general I'd say the setup is roughly the same as the other types just with some objects being constrained as 'soft body'. And that is the key to all Bullet Physics in A:M... in order to simulate... at least one object needs to have a bullet constraint. The soft bodies should allow for things like cloth but it's not meant to replace cloth simulation. It will help if there is a specific target you are after rather than anything that can include soft body simulation. Do you have anything more specific in mind?

Looks like I need to spend some time again with Bullet Physics! i had some initial success with it that was very promising.

Thanks Chris! In looking back to this topic... Previously detbear said: For a few uses of the Terrain Wizard I screen captured the little grayscale image in the dialogue box and used that as a starting place to layer in other images. Image utilities such as Irfanview or XNview are handy for cropping those screen captures to the right size to reapply as decals. Once captured the grayscale image itself an also be used as a displacement map... foregoing the creation of the rest of the Terrain WIzard. This approach is useful where using topology other than a grid pattern is desired. For instance, the image is painted in the Terrain Wizard and captured, cropped and brought back into A:M as a rotoscope from which to draw (in splines) contour lines delineating the terrain. Additional iines are stitched in to create the mesh (or the Connect wizard is used to stitch the splines where they intersect). The image is then used to displace that mesh. The outline method tends to be superior to that of the grid terrain method where more control of the falloff of terrain is desired or when a grid pattern terrain would be too dense. The thing I always found intriquing about the terrain wizard is that with it the user can paint directly into a window inside A:M. Pause for a moment to let that thought sink in a little. The user can paint directly into a windows inside Animation:Master. Now that is something that should also be leveraged for use with decals. Paint and project. It wouldn't be anything fancy... neither is the Terrain Wizard. But if it was enough to get a basic paint job done that'd be sweet and that'd be enough to take the decal onward into 3Dpaint or some other application.

Nice. Great idea. You know I'll be here in the audience. I've a feeling westerns are due for a comeback soon so you may be ahead of the power curve.

Very impressive.

Very nice! That's great stuff. Here's your gif animation back at you with a character added so someone can enjoy the tree in person. Hope you are staying warm way up there in the far north.

Which given the constraints involved makes the success of such a scheme by the little guys rather unlikely. This is a bit like a new A:M user arriving on scene with great passion, energy and enthusiasm but the desire to create the next 'Star Wars' in a few months. It's hard to convince them to refactor and refocus on a one minute commercial but the success of that shorter endeavor is considerably more likely. Building up an inventory of shorts is a near equivalent to targeting 'Star Wars' as the content without acknowledging that well over one thousand highly creative (and often well paid) people's creativity touched that product. How long is one of those (local) theater advertisements? 30 seconds? Less? The ads I saw ahead of the last movie I attended included one for the local college... and a couple really lame ones for major automotive companies... what is wrong with THOSE guys!!! The basic (local) ads consisted of still images set to music. No CG or animation. A simple animation of a young girls walking screen left to screen right... stopping... sitting at a desk... doing something interesting... moving on.. receiving a diploma. This could be a still image but it could also be animated. Such a thing would convey the experience of successfully getting a degree at that college. Vary the character.. the activity... and then strengthen the message through repetition. Get the audience to say... 'heck, I can do that' or 'hey I really want to do that! Sell the ad to the client by tailoring their message to engage their core audience... all while entertaining those who are not. How much might a small studio reasonably charge for a 15 second animation? Usually, the answer to that will depend a lot on a projection of the size of the (potential) audience. But before the digital ink has dried the local studio with their ability to rapidly produce animation and imagery with A:M is already putting the finishing touches on the next project. Eventually, this may produce an inventory but in advertisement looking back should be reserved for reference and nostalgia. The focus of effort needs to be on a timely turn around of personalized content with a keen eye for what is relevant in the current market.

I'm with you... your first paragraph is key... now we need the door. Here are the difficult areas: This element is the riskiest part for all involved and to the one purchasing the subscription a potential deal breaker. You hit on why in the next element: This inventory of products is what takes time and commitment. This is doable and commercials are a viable product. It may be that the first sale(s) would have to be a one off. The idea being to approach the companies that advertise in these theaters (or wherever) and sell them on a product. Note that I'm not talking the big guys here... although that would tend toward higher return on investment. I'm talking about the small mom and pop shops that would never dream they could have a high quality commercial because of the cost. The cost is already problematic though because time on the screen may very well cost more than the production of the commercial. I'm not privy to current prices in advertisement spots on television, in theaters, etc.

It isn't that complicated but there is a lot of misinformation out there that makes it seem to be. For instance: There is only one 'version' in this respect. There isn't a different installer for this that or the other thing. It is the license (and it's various flavors which allows one year or permanency. No CD. (You can download and put the installer on a CD but... that'd be strange... don't do that) There is just an installer for Windows and an equivalent installer for the Mac. The program is not different for a subscriber vs trial vs perpetual license (it's the same program). The license just allows a few days (trail license), one year (annual subscription) or permanent use (perpetual license). Installation-wise... The installer has to be run in order for the program to run. The license file (master0.lic) must be placed in the same folder as the program for it to run. If the license file isn't in the installation directory A:M will ask for an activation code (in order to create the license file). The activation code is obtained at time of purchase (through Hash Inc). Troubleshooting-wise If the installer isn't run the program won't work If the license file isn't in the program directory the program won't run The license file is linked to the specific computer it is activated on so will not work on other hardware. In the case of hardware update (new computer, etc.) Hash Inc will need to issue a new activation code to update the license.

A fun subject to be sure. I thought about starting a topic related to just that thing although from a slightly different vantage point than many. My take on that is the question of reliably monetizing content made in A:M, very generally speaking, is that content made in A:M can be monetized in the same way another other content is monetized. That may seem to be something of a question dodge but I think it rings true. A:M is the all important conduit through which we, as A:M users, create that content. Specifically speaking to the software, there is a certain efficiency gained through use of A:M just as there would be with other software. A:M's strengths are well pretty well known and those should fact into the 'reliabilty+monetization' equation. Spline patch modeling can't be done anyplace else like it can in A:M and that is why we all hang out here. I can't speak too deeply from experience with regard to monetizing creative content so... reliably doing that is even more of a stretch. My questions related to that relate mostly to supply and demand elements such as: If I needed a model created and rigged from a set of drawing... 1. Where would I contact a modeler/rigger in order to get that process started? 2. How much (on average) would a basic (humanoid) model cost to model and rig? I'm talking of modeling and rigging with A:M of course. Having the model converted for use in Blender or Maya is another consideration and one that others would reasonably pay money for in derivative product. And a bit back on topic... When Is Robert scheduled to release his Animation:Master Masterclass?

Thanks for the review (and cautionary notes). Ron Howard's course is still slated to arrive in the future and as the primary one of interest to me personally is my excuse to hold off for now. It would be cool to be in the first wave to take the course as a tagline does state he will be responding to a few select questions. I would imagine most of the masterclasses have minimal real time interaction with the masters, if any. I agree that opting for the annual pass would be the economical path. Conversely, I suppose it could be argued that someone laser focused on only one course will put more time and energy into that course. I did run through almost all of the preview material and outlines for all of the course... even those that didn't immediately catch my attention. Not all of the course... especially those not yet released... have course outlines but most do. The masterclass concept is a good one and it makes me pause for a moment to consider somewhat related thoughts. It wasn't that many years ago where people were scratching their heads wondering how they could monetize the internet. Broadly speaking, we've come a long way in that regard.

That's cause for celebration! Here's to another great year.