Rodney

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.

Looking good Gene!

I probably should add... If you are serious about computer graphics you should look into purchasing Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw or some other fully featured vector program. Not only will they give you AI export capability they'll provide a weath of other options and capabilities. You can go a long way for free these days but sometimes we save a few $ by spending a few judiciously.

I'd say knowing absolutely everything there is to know about the .SVG format would be ideal. http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/ If looking at the format for Input purposes perhaps it might be wise to explore the likelyhood of Export to the format as well. In that way A:M would then be able to read and write recursively via that vector format. My initial thought is that SVG won't be able to be shoehorned into such a compatibility but A:M's splines are still the best thing going and might supply the magic ingredient going forward. So...that would be big picture and in the realm of near impossibility. A smaller project might be to examine in detail the requirements of the current Font and AI wizards and then apply the constraints of the SVG format to a new SVG Wizard. I would imagine (emphasis on imagining) the real power in a fully formed SVG wizard would be in it's XML/CSS compatibility. If taking the time to build a new and powerful utility the benefits of moving beyond the current capabilities should at least be explored. (Consider for instance that we can currently export to the .DXF format... which is perhaps closer to the .AI format than most). Exporting to .SVG would be a new capability and perhaps easier to code than importing(?)... not sure. What I'm suggesting here is that if coding an exporter would be easier than that might be tackled first to understand better how to program an importer... By way of an example of other extensions, consider that currently the Font and AI wizards simply import/convert vectors to splines at the 0/0/0 coordinate (facing forward). What if there were variables that allowed the Text/Objects to be placed anywhere in 3D space (and rotated)? What if there was an option to access a textfile with the desired text and orientation instructions? What if in addition to SVG the scripting could import and orient A:M models also? There are also additional limitations of the current AI/Font wizards that keep things simple but could be extended with new variables. One such variable might be to specify the Depth of the object converted. Currently the depth isn't variable and must be adjusted manually. A new effort might not have these various options available in the first version but it should have some extensibility in mind so the utility could be extended in the future. (Random thoughts for what its worth)

From what I can tell you've mostly been away since late 2007 or early 2008. In case I haven't already said it, it's great to have you back with us! At a guess I'm going to say you left off with v12? If this is the case... yes indeed, a whole lot has changed since then and a feature list, while providing a good starting point, won't tell the tale. This is why I ask what your primary area of interest is as that will narrow down the focus. You could almost say 'everything has changed' in those three/four years. But... "The more things change the more they remain the same." It's not unlike the changes you witnessed between v1 and v12. I know you will!

As has been mentioned the commission rate of most sites can cancel the effectiveness (read: profitability) of distribution through those venues. Except in the case where high quality models might return a fair return on the investment foryou I'm not sure what to suggest to you. After you figure out the backend and distribution you could always drop an announcement in the Jobs Board or Off Topic here in the forum to let others know what you've released. The same goes for proferring hiring opportunities. I believe the key is to keep release notes short and sweet (i.e an announcement rather than a solicitation) then build a reputation for reliability.

Is there a particular area of interest or feature you are looking for? This forum is one big Feature list that outlines all features accumulated over the past 16 versions. With the exception of those features deemed obsolete or supplanted by newer technologies, we get them all in v16. While there is a lot going on behind the scenes with v16 the major advances in the latest release is 64-bit/muticore optimization and Netrendering. For detailed specifics refer to the release notes in the Latest Information forum and A:M Reports. Something of a current feature listing (with tutorials) can be perused in the fiftieth forum: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showforum=50

Tom! I hadn't made the connection but sure should have. Great to see you again. That's a spiffy looking turnaround Mark! Very nice.

He's great Mark! Nicely done. I think you've found a new calling in converting/homaging other webcomics creators work. If these were cards they'd be collectors items for sure.

Nicely done! The true test of any model is whether it is recognizable and you really captured this one. Not only well executed... but nicely caricatured! Your Capital building and White House are just like that too. Instantly recognizable.

Really nice! Great modeling. Those ambient decals and lights really sell it in the details.

David Simmons said: Good eye David! We'll have to classify that as the 'A few details, like the windshield wiper is still missing.' Stian mentioned.

Congratulations Stian! All that hard work has paid off. I know you backup your files but... Backup. Backup. Backup! Looking forward to the beauty renders.

What I think? I think the top two images are photos. Not sure how you did the gray images/lines over the photos in the bottom two images though... Incredible work as always Stian. Impressive.

Awesome! I love how you are taking this out of the look of CG and into the Stopmotion realm. If I have any suggestion it would be to really target any area that looks CG and replace that, obsure it or otherwise blur it in. The measure that comes to mind is that if someone doesn't think it's made out of some physical material that has been painted over by you, something else should be added into area to suggest that. (example: a protruding wire or something that could be interpreted as a imperfectly manufactured or overlooked defect) It looks like this is already your plan. I thoroughly enjoyed the behind-the-scenes on your blog!

Nicely done Mark. Very cute characters. I like the idea of cross pollination and sharing your talent with others in webcomics. A talented artist such as yourself has some skills and ways of approaching characters the original artist likely won't. The good will goes a long way and will be appreciated.

Very nice!

Targa files (.TGA) don't display in web browsers natively. (They never have) To share .TGA files they can be compressed and uploaded. (The forum will accept .zip files) When the .TGA files are part of an A:M Project file they can be compress with A:M via the 'Consolidate' command or the images can be compressed using a compression utility (for PC the most popular is probably WinZip). For displaying directly in the forum you'd have to use a converter to convert the .TGA image to a browser friendly format such as .PNG, .JPG or .PNG. All of those image formats will upload and display in the forum. Note: Some browsers now have plugins that will allow viewing of inline .TGA images but its not a good idea to use .TGAs as their file size (especially at high quality) generally is not well suited for browsing and very few will have those plugins installed in their browsers..

Very cool image. I'd say you made the seats just so you could sit those guys down like that. They look like they are ready for the show to begin.

Thanks Gene. Proof 4: Fart jokes can stand (and characters fail to stand) on their own.