Rodney

Too much fun!

simply awesome. Makes me what to watch the show again. So... were you happy with the DOF effect?

David, Sometimes it can look like we aren't paying attention... but we are! I always look forward to your incremental updates and what everyone is up to.

Well... just a thought... you could change the characters and make them your own.

Honto ni sugoi desu! Please consider entering your characters in the A:M Mascot contest (hint hint). You have some especially nice anime sci-fi and character elements that I wish we saw more of in anime these days. If they did I'd be watching a lot more anime! Well done!

Well... good news. you can (to both of those). But in a strict sense of the words you have used we can't. You need a basic understanding of how to model in a Choreography window first. For that you'll want to investigate Modeling Mode (F5 is the shortcut key) and Muscle Mode (F7) If you are in Modeling Mode the original model will be changed but if you are in Muscle mode the change will only be effected as an Choreography Action. (To save the changes you'll likely want to export the model via Right Click/Export as Mdl.) For the second wish you state: (I wish I could) hold down one side while scaling the other. You don't have to hold down the one side. When you don't hold something down but select another part of the mesh/model in Modeling or Muscle modes only the selected part will translate, scale or rotate. Now when you get to copy/paste in a Chor you may have some problems but there are easy ways around this. One way would be to have the Model window open and either have them both in view and/or move back and forth between the two. ...and with the new Modeling wizards added to v16... there are some new really powerful tools for modeling in a Chor! Create a simple patch or spline and extrude it while in Modeling Mode. Right Click/Wizards/SplitPatch to add density to your mesh. It's not copy/paste but it is pretty cool! Not to distract you further but the Sweeper, Duplicator and Extruder Plugins can also be used to copy/paste meshes (and groups of meshes!) in the Chor.

BTW - I read your topic title as 'Cloth Attacks Groups' and thought, "Too Cool!" Now you've got me wondering what you are up to...

I would definitely do what Robert has recommended. Drop your cell into the Choreography multiple times and create your Prison there. If for some reason you want to save the whole prison (most likely unnecessary) all you have to do is Right Click and Export as a New model. There is another topic that is currently discussing building models in Actions but for repetition such as you are after I'd do it in a Chor. One handy tip that someone passed on to me a long time ago was how we can scale a model -100% in the Chor to get a mirror image of a Model. This could be of use if you have a cell that is slightly assymetrical. In that way there will appear to be more differences between cells. You can also export sequential models based on an animation too. Say you have a cell with a bed in it but want each cell to have the bed and/or other objects in different locations in each one. Animate the bed or other objects moving over time and then export the Model as sequences (ideally moving one cell to the location of the next cell down the row as you do. When you Import all of those sequential models into the Chor they'll drop right into place with all of the variations in the room. (as long as you've moved them to the correct place in the animation of course) At any rate... that's all experimental stuff. The simple way is to keep dropping cells into the Chor until you have them all in place. For precision placement you can type in their location in the Translate Properties in the Project Workspace listing.

Here are a few other quick variations created by adjusting the settings of the Model's Surface Properties and Decals. In this case I've moved away from using displacement. Changes like these might be driven by the mood you are trying to create. Note that I haven't attempted to change the color of what is beyond the bars in the cell. For that you should again consider the effects of Mood, Light and Layering.

Here is a quick example of what I'm talking about. What I did here was use your image to create the cell bars to apply a Decal image to. After applying the Decal I then added a few more instances of the same image and set their property randomly to Displacement, Color or Diffuse. Changing the percentage of the Property in each will yield a different look. Adding different decal images of course and changing each of their percentages will allow you to adjust the look. It should be noted that Displacement in this example is primarily added to create the effect of aged or corroded metal. You may not want that in your version. As Decals will override the underlying color of the model I will often add small color swatches (red, green, blue and yellow) as decals. By changing the percentage of those colors you can then create whatever color you want. For speed you can make these color images/swatches really really REALLY small. You can replace them later with larger images, textures or whatever you want to use. Layering is the secret here. You can layer in Rust, Color, Lighting, Texture... There is no end to the effects you can produce.

I may not fully understand your question... The layering of Decal images is a good way to effect color change. While all parts of the cell may have the same basic images applied through changing the percentages of each of the individual decals on each cell they can look entirely different.

I'd suggest closing down your project and restarting your computer. It's been too long since you did that.

Love the mini-tutorial on car rigging Mark. Too much fun!

D'oh! Can't believe I missed that. Very nicely done.

Congrats Mark. Very nice work. I predict they will approach you to do more animation... eventually with some damaged vehicles. Better get to practicing JohnL3D's Explode plugin workflow and Robcat's distortion map methodology.

Ralph, I'm very interested in the problems you are having and would like to work on specific solutions tailored to your needs. TaoA:M is sure to be refined in the future and it's important we take your needs into consideration. User to User we are in the business of providing solutions for each other. There are several ways to get this done but your needs may dictate which approach you want to take. You can have A:M open a default project. or You can have the students open a folder filled with shortcuts that each open a specific project. or You can have the students open up a webpage and click on a link to open a specific project. Lets try one? You can recreate a shortcut to Animation:Master and in the shortcut add the project you want A:M to open with. Example: "C:\Program Files\Hash Inc\V16.0\Master_64.exe" G:\AMFiles\Projects\ThomSetup.prj When clicking on the shortcut A:M will open with a project on the network drive G: in the folder AMFiles\Projects named ThomSetup.prj Once you've got that shortcut created you can move it to a specific folder or link it into a local webpage and your students are off and running. When considering files that may have gotten overwritten and making the files read only isn't an option you might consider the shortcut running a batch file that copies the original files over the files the students will open. Then it doesn't matter if the students change them or not... the files they open will be freshly copied. Of course the students should be directed to save their creations to their own private folder or else they will be overwritten. I'm not a fan of using read-only files as that can cause problems when the system tries to write to them.

I'm glad I waited to post my comments until after you added the sound. Perfecto. Very nice. I really enjoyed seeing your wireframe also. Thanks for that. You've got a really nice economy of splines.

Way to project-test out the v16 Netrender in a real world production environment! Go Mouseman!

Kat, I hope you didn't read me wrong there. I'm not suggesting you animate the water at all if you could add the sound effect. Either way... having the water there is already a nice detail. My thought is that the sound effect would make it 'real' even if heard off screen. Of course a ripple could possibly do that as well. The problem with adding new imagery is that it may not cancel out a need for a sound effect. You are doing great work here. I'm just related my first impressions.

Stian, I was about to launch my usual praise but then my ten year old daughter jumped in with a critique. She exclaimed, "What's wrong with his mouth?" In looking... I confess it does look a little strange. Almost as if it should be indented versus sticking out? My thought was that it almost looks like a tongue. She refuses to comment further. Sigh. Everyone is a critic these days.

Sorry... I was going from memory. (Original post corrected) No slight to the pretty faerie intended!

Wow Kat. You've got a lot of nice detail in that sequence. Regarding the pine needles... good grief! Your effort and attention to detail are paying off. Your attentiveness goes even further and I'm inspired by what you've been able to get into this shot. The water the faerie is resting her feet in for instance at the end. Very nice. Add a little foley of a slight water splash while off screen and you'll have convinced me its real water. A secondary detail I would target for refinement if time will allow would be the third faerie's head near the end of the sequence. It looks like she is tracking Bree(?) as she flies in but then freezes... looking at where she entered as Bree overlaps/obsures her in the shot. If the camera could pan slightly to the right at the end and track Bree with all three character's faces in the shot I'd call that a near perfect pan from start to finish. If not in the budget... if able to adjust in post you may be able to simple flip her head from left to right with a little transparency applied to soften the turn? You are getting better and better with this with every shot.

Hear! Hear! Happy Birthday Chris!

Masterful as always Nancy!

In the realm of Maybes, Mr. Gross can do everything. Mr. Trickey, who originally created the Font and AI wizards through magic of his own, appears all powerful too. But until the fancy catches, fond wishes and dreams will have to carry us through. ...and if wishes were fishes we'd snack on a few of those also. Translation: Anyone with the time, talent in programming and inclination could modify the AI wizard. For most, it just isn't a priority.