Rodney

Animation:Master is still the best there is for rigging characters. Raf, Billy, Mark and David and Holmes (among others) are acknowledged masters in this area. They've provided complex freely available yet flexible rigs (TSM, Squetch, 2008, LiteRig) but in some cases you may be satisfied with more simple rigging.

Jeffrey was an early adopter of Displacement Maps: (Terrain all created with image maps)

Gene... that guy is a machine... he's created what... 18 animated shorts since he purchased A:M last year? Obviously ease of use and a smooth learning curve are features!

Of course A:M excells at Character Animation: (Extra points to anyone who can name all the artists represented here! No cheating... don't look at the film credits.)

Of course some of us are just here to learn and enjoy the computer animation experience. Projects like 'Tin Woodman of Oz' and its sequel 'Scarecrow of Oz' are available: Here is an early rendering from the TWO film by Will:

And there are those legendary folks like Jeff and Victor that used A:M to help launch their feature animation careers:

Darklimit (his Mom named him Robert) uses A:M to follow his rather artistic imagination: Hi DL!

Stian has a thing for highly detailed photorealistic compositing and rendering:

Product Information: Malcolm likes the modeling and texturing features: Garry (Serg2... nobody knows him around here as Garry!) likes to use just about every feature: (Hair, Reflections, Ambiant Occlusion, Sub Surface Scattering...)

The simple answer is to ask you a similar question. What do you need A:M to do for you? Chances are A:M has what it takes to deliver. For a sample of what A:M offers check out: A:M Stills Everything you see there (and more) can be made with the $79 subscription to A:M. Mark used A:M recently to create this Arctic scene: Noah created some realistic images and anime: Kricket preferred Toon Anime: Dusan went for a classic stop motion look: The list of what A:M offers goes on and on and on... ...and A:M offers more than just the ability to create still imagery. It is called Animation:Master after all. A:M Films

That's a sweet ride you've got there Gene.

Looking good Gerry. Looking very very good! Those storyboards sure help you focus on what is important don't they.

Jason, There are generally two requirements for beginning a Poll here in the forum: 1) You must be in a forum area that allows Polls 2) You must belong to a Group that has permission to initiate a Poll Your Group allows Polls. However, the Newbies Forum doesn't allow Polls. So, you have one of two obstacles cleared. The Off Topic forum does allow polls. If you start a topic there you should be able to initiate a Poll. Its been a while since I looked but after initiating the Poll you should see options for entering questions. You may find it easier to just ask the question though. If you are interested in launching your own special topic in the WIP section just say the word.

I don't think Steffen Gross has implemented the Questionnaire plugin yet. I'm not sure the settings are implemented for everyone, it's probably turned on in some forum areas. Normally it is accomplished by starting a Poll. The Questions are then added from there. Can you be a little more specific? If you aren't talking about the forum then... Google is our friend.

Holmes's Tutorials are currently collected under one heading: Featured Tutorials Hand Constraints... I think you'll find some good tutes on that in the Rigging and Relationships Forum.

Another very useful tutorial Eric!

Mark, One of the most enjoyable aspects of your strip is that I have no idea whats coming up next (well... besides monkeys and general silliness of course). With most strip storylines I'll tend to think 'I saw that one coming.' Not so with yours. The artwork is compeling but its the episodic storytelling and not knowing whats about to occur that keeps me coming back for more.

Congratulations! I look forward to seeing your adventures in animation.

This won't be anything you don't know but... Wow. That's some great detail! Very nice.

Wow Myron. This is great stuff. Looking Good!

I spent a little time trying to make Magnet Mode go away on my end and the only thing I could do to make it go away was turn on Mirror Mode at the same time. On my computer at least... with Mirror Mode on, Magnet Mode will tend to temporarily go away. If I toogle Mirror Mode off and adjust my view or select another area the Magnet Mode manipulators return. Not sure if this will be of any assistance but thought I'd toss the thought your way. To narrow down the variables a little you might try to use Magnet Mode from a Front View only to begin with. I seem to recall my graphics card on earlier computer wasn't friendly with Mirror Mode from Bird's Eye and other random views.

I can speak to Windows... With 'Named Groups' you can save your Custom Pallet with your Model. You have to play around a little with the Color Dialogue to get a feel for it. Select a box in the Custom Color area Then click on a color (I had more success picking from the long thin vertical gradient on the right after selecting the primary color from the field on the left) Click the 'Add to Custom Color' button *Don't forget to save your Model* When you go to select another group the Custom Pallet should still be there to select from.

As has been mentioned you get a lot of things for free when you have Multipass on. Once Multipass kicks in and does its required calculations its all about moving the numbers it's stored around in its little virtual world. So adding additional options doesn't effect render times much. Here is what Greg Rostami had to say about it a long time ago: ...and no... short of Xtas's MOOFUF spinning geometry lighting tricks I'm still not sure what Greg meant by 'every spline can be a light'. I did run into this quote from Raf Anzovin which makes me wonder about Motion Blur: So, what to take from all of this? I'd say, make sure you have some good motion to blur.

That was a fun tutorial Malo!

Very cool indeed.