Rodney

You betcha. I'm interested!

Gah! You should have re-recorded with that voice! Slacker!!! That would have added a whole other layer to the short. Keep up the great work! Added: (I know you have an artistic vision for this thing so I wasn't going to make suggestions... but this one I thought I should post) Would the poem reverberate more thoroughly if read by Garrett from the first person? Of course that wouldn't necessarily be fully revealed until the very end. Nah... that would probably break the spell of the poem.

That's awesomel John. I just ran across a similar review yesterday and wasn't sure where to post it so I'll add it into the mix. Apparently it's a review from the British animation magazine 'Animator' covering the Playmation version of Animation:Master. How cool would it have been to have access to A:M back in the day. Answer: Very cool. Animator_Magazine____Animation_Master_review.pdf

Hehe. Very nice! You should have him make one of those crazy attempts to smile with braces. Right now he just looks afraid. (which I assume will work well with your animation) Fun character. Added (aplogies if you aren't looking for this type of feedback): Design-wise I think it would be really cool if you could get the A:M banner onto the skateboard. Of course I realize it would be almost impossible to show the wheels and the banner at the same time... Hmmm.... not sure. Perhaps the logo is printed on both sides or the the top side remains a mystery. (except in 3D turnaround which would then reveal it) For an alternative theme (not really suggesting this... just exploring your imagery) You could depict the aftermath of a skateboard crash. Well worn skateboard upright but held with left hand. (a wheel might be missing or show elsewhere on the ground) A:M Logo on the skateboard. Big toothy grin with missing front tooth/teeth. (The Dentist will replace those later) Just another day in the life for this monster/kid. (Note: I would be tempted to shorten the legs just a little bit to ramp up the kid-appeal. Right now there is a little too much symmetry and equal distances in him.) The underlying idea: If seen on the wall in a Dentist office I wouldn't be able to look away from this empathetically fascinating character. With this in mind I'd exaggerate everything I could... little bag with huge toothbrush... impossibly small skateboard... etc. etc. Give the images some interesting eyecandy to read... consider timing yourself as you look around to the various parts of the image. How long does it take you to deplete/exhaust the ideas represented there? Are you left with an urge to reenter the scene and look for something else? Would a kid look forward to seeing this crazy image on repeated visits to the Dentist? As I said... this is a fun image. I look forward to your animation!

Looking good! You've got me intrigued about these characters. To complete the feather-look you may be able to set the Ambiance Color to light blue or grey and then set the Diffuse color to white. Adjusting the Fall Off and Blend would then yield a feathery looking surface color. Of course a little displacement map on the wings indicating the feathers would take it to the next level. The primary reason I suggest the ambiance though is is to keep the wings from getting too dark in shadows. At first for the Batwings I was thinking that Sub Surface Scattering would be ideal but I'm not sure you want the additional render hit. Perhaps for publicity photos you could use that. ayering in some color and a slight feel of translucency via image maps might produce a similar effect. (For speed I'm thinking faking that via layered image maps would be ideal). In other words, render once with SSS and then use that SSS as a decal. Forgive the failed attempt but see the attached for the general direction I was thinking for color. At a distance pure ambient white and pure black would probably work just as well. When in doubt... simple is better.

As Robert suggests, it looks like your Radiosity sampling setting for that light is set too low (not enough samplings). I'm not sure you even meant that setting to be on.

Congrats John. You've expertly demo'd the elusive Peek-a-Boo Principle of Animation.

T h a t w a s A w e s o m e! (Not the bug silly... the video!) All bug reporting videos should be this entertaining. Das iz gut. (I have recently discovered all my favorite animators seem to have something of a gift for learning foreign languages)

Heck no! Back in 2003 that $300 was temporarily put into a bank account. Well... except for $45 of it that was spent to pay an unexpectedly high electricity bill at Hash Inc. James applied $10 of it toward gas for a road trip to California. Heath used $5 for a sandwich at the convention. (James and Jason also split a bottle of water for $2... I think) When the van broke down on the return trip $129 was used to replace a leaking hose that couldn't be patched with tape (the hose only cost $2 but the mechanic works on hourly scale) $125 was used to pay the speeding tickets. Jason bought a (used) book on PHP programming for $1 online (shipping was $14.95) $7 was used to pay the intern programmer (Stevie) who couldn't afford a bus ticket back home after he finished developed fluids for A:M in 2008. The remaining funds ($2 and change?) is being used to develop a slew of really cool new features. Martin swears he never saw a single penny of it. Personally I'd go for the $79 websubscription. Then you won't need to have the CD in the drive when you start up A:M.

Impressive Gene. You are getting really good at this.

Hmmm.... interesting. At first I thought I liked the angel wings but after staring for awhile find the bat wings tend to fit the character. Perhaps there is enough room within your story for both (a way to split this guy into two characters if only temporarily)? Perhaps the feather winged one is his ghostly/angelic persona or they are (somehow) two different characters.

Very cool Mark. I'll be purchasing.

Okay... let's look at this again. Understanding that we are all subscribing to A:M regardless of whether we purchase the download or the CD will help to make better sense in this. It can also help to think in terms of 'extending' versus 'applying' in this particular case. Consider for instance when you'll activate your next subscription. If you do your activating smartly you extend your current subscription by one year from the point (any point) of a new subscription activation. A yearly subscription renewal (CD or download) extends your purchase by one year or by extending CD key-less access to a computer system. Of course, if we let our subscription lapse but have purchased the CD we still have our CD-keyed access to A:M. We simply no longer have CD-keyless access and active subscription support from Hash Inc. To extend that kind of support further once expired we'd have to resubscribe/renew again. The subscription clock doesn't start until we activate the subscription. So either way, download or CD, the duration of active support from Hash Inc is set to one calendar year from activation. So yes, a subscription can be applied to our purchase. It can effectively extend/renew our subscription for up to one year (365 days).

This design makes him a lot more accessible. I like him. Very nice. So, is this an additional character or have you redesigned all the previous characters? They certainly look like they could inhabit the same world.

Hear Hear! Here's to another great year of Mark and those wannabes. Happy Birthday Mark!

That's crazy. Makes for great slice-of-life stories though! The art world seems to thrive on not making sense... and apparently prefers to be unrecognizable.

Alright, first things first, let's get this out of the way... stop being so cheap! The $79 subscription gives us access to A:M (a $299 software product worth a lot more than that) for one year. At an equivalent rate we can subscribe and get new upgrades for the better part of 4 years. ($79x4 is fairly equivalent) The fact that you prefer to go years without updating just makes us (as subscribers) shoulder the burden of your access to the research and development that finds it's way into tomorrows's features. There is no twisting of arms however. No hard feelings. You can simply purchase the CD and realize your dreams that way. Purchase new CDs/subscriptions as needed. Live a life free of leashes. Software isn't owned (read the licensing agreement you accepted when you installed A:M) We don't own A:M. We license it. We lease it (ahem... leash it!) from Hash Inc. I understand with the purchase of the CD comes one free subscription for one year. You can therefore use the version on the CD indefinitely but the subscription (i.e. support) will expire at one year. At that point you will have to upgrade past that hard coded CD version with a new subscription and/or purchase a new CD if you plan to move forward with A:M. The beauty of the CD of course is that you can make your own decision to stay there and still create amazing things with A:M. Just don't expect free support for what you aren't willing to pay for beyond that period. There is an associate price with being cheap; and regardless of the purchase... CD or subscription... we gain access to what we are willing to pay for. I haven't purchased a CD in several years so I cannot independently confirm the free subscription with the CD but I have it on good authority this is the case. (I suspect it's not promoted to us for fear of making us even cheaper. We want everything for free.) My recommendation for those that don't care to support themselves/A:M through the yearly subscription... purchase the CD. I keep thinking I'll do that myself every year but thus far have been content with being on the leash. (I'm cheap... and it saves me money!) I hope that makes sense. Edit: Holmes response (above) is nicely concise and brief. For those that cannot attend a convention however I like to point out some of the benefits of going the $79 subscription route over the CD. Of course there are good reasons also to purchase the CD as well so if you've got the cash to burn, get the best deal you can get... purchase the CD every year. For most users however the subscription remains ideal. Free yourself from the CD and embrace the subscription. Stop drinking Coke/Pepsi for one month and you've paid for it already... and it'll be good for your health.

When you say this I'm not sure what you are seeing. You'd have to point me to the evidence. You may have more information on that than me but I can only respond to what I've seen. If you are talking of the forum headings that's probably my fault. Someone at Hash Inc hasn't yet stepped away from numbering so I use both when creating new forum headings. Every year I'm surprised to see that the version is still retained. The yearly designation has always been of significance with A:M. Once could argue that (for installation purposes) the version has been as well. When I started using A:M, the year was prominently displayed and emphasized (remember the huge '98 on the 'Meltdown' CD)? It's easy to remember the year that CD was released... but I always tend to mis-recall the version for that year. I do recall the confusion with similar CDs that followed shortly thereafter when the year was not prominently displayed on CDs. The yearly dues thing is intrinsically connected with the idea of a continuing subscription which historically has been sync'd to two events; the roll over of the calendar year and an official release at mid year (i.e. at SIGGRAPH). I don't see the subscription model going away but I perceive version-ing as a fatally flawed concept at best. Versions by their very nature suggest a terminal sequence whereas we are quite likely to continue into the new year... every year. At a guess I'd say the primary reason the version-ing nomenclature is still with us is that Steffen inherited the A:M Reporting system which has tracked code changes that way since v11. Yes, if the version designation disappeared tomorrow it'd be okay with me.

You would have been the first. I'm not aware of anyone else I've swayed. At least you gave the flyer a try. That's the important thing. I suspect they'll at least draw inspiration from it if/when they create one. Edit: In reading back it looks like they may have already used elements of your flyer.

Thanks Will. If I understand the curriculum of each school I think you got the better instruction in that deal.

To which it may be proper to simply answer... "One year from the date of purchase... December 2011"? Yes, I'm try to make things easy when we have a basic human need for the extremely complicated. I'd almost take that bet on principle alone. As A:M versions technically ended a few years ago I may have already won that bet. I equate that form of futuristic thinking similarly to betting against the troops that work for me. If you bet for them you at least have a chance of winning and their success will be worth seeing. If you bet against them you'll always lose because it's a bet that was never worth winning in the first place. In the olden days the version-ing of A:M was especially problematic because Hash Inc might deliver several versions in the space of one year (v11, v11.5 and v12 for instance). You'd think A:M Users might show their appreciation for that kind of return on their investment. If we were to see another upgrade in 2011 I certainly wouldn't turn it down. I'd gladly celebrate and get my pennies ready for another year. It makes good sense to limit the things you need to update every year. I suspect this is as true with A:M window labels as it is with flyers... which brings us back to the primary reason to avoid where possible references to v16 or even the year 2011. In this way anyone who picks up the flyer just reads and absorbs the (current) information that is there. That is a good example of the marketing system and how Apple escaped (at least temporarily) the numbered versioning system. I'm not sure I'm much of a fan of that method... but haven't really taken the time to stare at it. I think I understand why they decided to market it that way. I suppose I should comment on this for completeness sake. Corel definitely tried to move away from the numbering system with "Painter X". Perhaps they returned to the numbering because the X confused too many people? They did the same thing with other products and still are with CorelDraw X5 (now isn't it so much cooler to buy that than v15? Someone in marketing must think so). The CS in Adobe products is still a mystery to me. It always makes me think there is a fuller version out there that I wouldn't be getting if I purchased the CS version. I loath hobble-ware. Firefox, we'll have to wait and see. Usually the problem doesn't sink in until after v3. It's like comic book numbering where the first issue sells very well and the second often plummets. The third issue usually recovers if there is still interest. After that sales usually plateau and/or slowly decay until some incentive calls attention to it once again. Software of course isn't a serialized comic book and after several versions the user may find themselves fully content. Price is also a major differentiation.

I can identify with that. For probably the better part of a year I visited a store in Japan that had A:M on the shelf and what was written on the box really intrigued me. Although I knew I wanted A:M at the time I had a seriously hard time believing it could be all it said it was on the package for the price. I was use to getting a small percentage of features after a boat-load of promises from other companies. Needless to say that A:M package was well read. Yeah, you are stuck in the world of legacy thinking. I don't fault you for it. It's hard to break free. I base my interest in the downplaying the version-ing for a number of reasons, one of which came from a discussion with Martin Hash. The other was seeing how Microsoft and other companies were dealing with those things. At that time I believed (and still believe) version-ing is a waste of resources within a subscription based framework. In a true subscription system I suspect all 'versions' would be available or could be dialed back to as needed. Such a system is always on and available. Nothing (no code) wasted. Of course as long as variations/versions are available it's rather hard to transcend them isn't it? Support for past versions supports old and/or obsolete ideas. In coding terms I understand the difficulty in stepping away from iterations. Someone must track the code changes or risk breaking things. In a perfect world earlier versions of features might still be there but they would be transparent to the user unless needed. If you want to fix a bad installation you'd simply reinstall the current version or revert a feature as needed. If someone came to the forum saying, "I'm using the 2011 rc1" or even "2011 release (version c)" that would make a lot more sense to me than v15. It immediately conveys meaning. If we were to reread most of these queries I'd guess they state, "I think I bought it three years ago" or "I bought it in 2008". Rarer is the individual who tracks version releases. By itself v15 or v16 conveys little meaning, we must match that designation with a specific time period (wasn't v16 released in 2011?) and therein lies confusion. People often don't know so they wander around for awhile and/or guess at it. Ideally, there is the current release and (if needed for specific reasons) earlier legacy releases. I suppose they could start with version 100 and when they get to the perfection in version 1 just stop releasing. Anyway... a bit too theoretical for the purpose of a flyer but thought you'd get a kick out of my view on it. Version-ing is (in a forward looking way) an obsolete construct for me. I'm off to track down a coke (classic) but I having trouble remembering what year that was released. I seem to vaguely recall version 120005 tasted best.

Late to the party... where's the cake??? Happy Birthday Matt! Couldn't happen to a greater guy... well... umm.... err... you know what I mean. Enjoy your day!

I'm not sure they did. Perhaps it's like the Preston Blair books... I'm sure they send some business in the current publishers direction. I don't recall seeing any link to the FAS school. I have seen some for the current Preston Blair compilation. Steve Worth is pretty savvy so he should be aware. He's familiar with the struggle between owned properties, fair use and the historical record.

(Rather than add a play by play I'll just present my suggested changes. I'm trying to keep fairly close to Robert's original intent so I've backed off of my 'kill everything' approach to preserve this.) What do people do with Animation:Master? Everything! School assignments, fan films, greeting cards, visual effects, dialog tests, award-winning shorts, broadcast commercials, network graphics, zoetropes, architechural studies, dinosaurs, superheroes, bug-eyed monsters, viral internet memes, music videos, anime OAVs, cool cars, web comics and yes… even animated features. What is Animation:Master? Animation:Master is a... Included with your purchase of A:M: “The Art of Animation:Master”, a collection of video tutorials to get you started. “A:M Technical Reference”, the details and descriptions of A:M’s large feature set. “A:M Data", an archive of models, examples, projects, tutorials and demonstrations. (These resources are available both in hard copy and online) The A:M Forum: Stuck on a tutorial? Baffled by a feature? Need feedback on your project? Beginning to think it, “It can’t be done”? Log onto the most helpful user-forum in CG-dom and an A:M user will point you in the right direction. The A:M Forum contains a bounty of free tutorials, videos, projects, and examples to help you learn A:M. What’s new in 2011? A:M is now 64bit ...and 32-bit! 64-bit A:M harnesses the greater power of RAM capacity of 64-bit Windows while 32-bit A:M retains compatibility with older processors and legacy plugins. You can even install both 32-bit and 64-bit and use them together. A:M is faster! New optimizations for modern CPUs make rendering in 64-bit v16 for Windows over 40% faster. Mac rendering is six times faster! Netrender is back and now included with A:M! Operate a small render farm on your multi-core computer or extend your distributed rendering out to 50 render nodes across your LAN. Netrender’s batch rendering and multiple job-queing facility will be useful even to single core users. Other recent additions: - Enhanced Selection Flilters aid in quickly isolating any user-defined set of elements for key framing and film editing. Want to focus on just “left fingers”, “right toes” and “middle tentacle”? You can filter for that! - OpenEXR file format, the industry standard for HDR imagery and advanced compositing needs. Composite images and add a variety of Post Effects into your scenes. - The Jenpy Screen Space Ambient Occlusion plugin produces dramatically faster AO lighting effects. Download the free version from the A:M Forum. - Render Setting and Stability enhancements What can you create with A:M? See A:M User’s images and movies from beginner to advanced at : www.hash.com/stills (and) amfilms.hash.com. Follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/animationmaster Minimum system requirements How can you get all this and more in 2011 for only $79! Subscribe to A:M!