Rodney

Oooo.... Good Idea! There have been so many Star Wars/Sci Fi models donated to the community over the years we may have to do something about getting them out into the public again. I'm not sure if we are up to another Extra CD/DVD but something along that line of thought might be workable.

Thought I had better post something! All my ideas thus far have been of the Star Wars... guy ball defeats the evil villian ball and rescues the girl ball epic proportion size. So I decided to counter that craziness by doing something simpler. The most important thing being to move that ball!!! So here's a red ball in fog to get me started. RedRollingBall.mov

If you want to create the ball yourself, Mark's comic pages will walk you through it. First you make a Circle: Then use the Circle to create a Sphere: Hope the images aren't too large. For more on the basics of modeling with splines check out Mark's other comic pages. Thanks Mark!

Booleans won't deform the mesh. They are implemented at render time only. I'd think translating these objects to real world creations you'd either get the collected shapes combined or a really real mess.

I'm with Rusty on this. Whether in cartoon or realistically it may be better to lathe a disk or decal a patch and represent the spinning of the props that way versus actually rotating the blades. One of the reasons this tends to be a better solution is that rotating objects tend to create a false sense of turning due to their symmetry. This is best demonstrated with the example of a character walking past a fence where all the fence planks are exactly the same. The lack of difference in the planks (or helicopter blades) can give the illusion that nothing has moved as the sequence plays. Having said that there are approaches to this that can work with actual spinning. Those renderings can even be used to get the nice images you'd need to 'cheat' the effect. I did notice that almost one year ago to this date the answer to your question was answered. I'm not sure you got a chance to read the responses then as you were more interested in the orientation of the blades. Looks like everyone anticipated your question by approximately one year. Check it out and see if this doesn't lead you to the solutions you are looking for. I see about four different approaches here and there, Euler Rotation, Expressions, MUFOOF and imagery. Regarding the strobing phenomenon: One of the issues we face when rendering a spin in 3D is that the images will be rendered onto a 2D plane; the screen. Something that looks like its rotating in 3D space may not convey the same movement within that plane. In some cases the rotation may appear to reverse or (something to avoid) not rotate at all. This is fairly easy to address with objects that we can change to create differences and avoid symmetry. In the fence example we might remove a fence plank or tilt one or two in a different direction. This is harder to do with objects such as rotor blades which have an expectation of being the same. Regarding Euler Rotations. This was my approach when I created my first rotor animation. Simple math will get it done and its almost as straightfoward as entering the number of rotations; 1, 2, 3 and so on. Just enter the numbers in increments of 360; a full rotation. 360=1 rotation 720=2 rotations 1080=3 rotations etc. If you need to rotate in increments of a full rotation (to make sure the spin looks right to the viewer) you can work in thirds/halves etc.: 480= 1 1/3 rotation 540=1 1/2 rotation etc. Here's your previous 'Rotor Fix' topic which may already have the solution you need.

Hey Al, Its great to see you again. I've been wondering where you've been and what you've been up to. Welcome back!

Hey! That was a pretty decent turn out. More would make it more better of course.

Any updates on the festival response to 'Chicory and Coffee'?

Don't forget that with reflective materials you must have something in the scene to reflect. If you are getting no reflection it is quite likely there is nothing there to reflect.

Hee Hee! That's the stuff! You are on to something great here. A little more face time with these characters especially as they quickly pop in and out of view could do wonders. Just a little more time... just enough to read the faces... nothing more. The principle of (playing) peak-a-boo is a strong element of comedy but I perceive the image must remain on screen long enough to register with the audience to be fully effective. When characters pop in and out of camera its inherently funny. But don't steal the payoff away from the audience too quickly. Refine the movement/moments to heighten that sense of comedy. Especially if you can get the audience's eye on these silly character's faces.

Don't forget to sign your work!

Looks like you really nailed the details I was interested in. Nice! I know you are heading for final render but I hope your final changes incorporate a little of the subtle lighting effect that you have on the rocks on the chair. If you've got that element of lighting incorporated into the final render I can gladly doff my C&C cap and say, "well done"! I like the use of color and negative space as well as the way your composition directs the eye around and into the image and keeps our attention there. This is very effective in how it directs the viewer to drink in the details. Very nice. Very very nice.

...and don't forget to throw CP weighting into the mix!

Perhaps you've accomplished most of your goals with this one? Short of adding a Martin character adventuring through the jungle and Kong up close and personal I'm not sure what else you would add to the scene. You could always consolidate the project and save it for a rainy day. One never knows when inspiration will strike. Perhaps this is where we can help out. I assume the target reference would be Kong and not gorillas in general? Perhaps the rerigging part could be a challenge someone could take on under your artistic direction? Who would be fool enough to pass that opportunity up? Anything you post on the subject will be of interest to us. Posting a quick summary (with a favorite image!) will signal to us that its time to adventure on. Here's an encapsulated view of the adventure thus far: Kong

There was a time that the Mac could only have 6 plugins active at any given time. I seem to recall this was fixed circa v13. That's easy enough to test. Temporarily move all but six plugin files to a temporary folder. Then restart A:M. More likely the issue you could be facing is TSM2 not be compatible with current versions of the Mac.

I'll say! I like this composition much better. The silhouetted rocks are nice. (although it'd be nice if you could find a place or two to hint at their texture very subtly. Admittedly this'll be hard to pull off and still maintain the pluses you've gained via silhouette. If you are going for ultra-real I think its important not to have anything completely black. The chair is an interesting thing to consider. My instinct is to suggest placing the chair buried into the sand/broken in such a way as to suggest nature is reclaiming this area. That would give an interesting sense to the image in that we see such a beautiful scene but its lost on those whose lives have taken them elsewhere. Something like that anyway. The torch of detailed environmental scenes has been passed. May you carry it well.

That definitely changes the effect from the diorama look to a film look. Much more dynamic, close up (relatively) and personal. They definitely seem gigantic. I'm not sure if its more to my liking than the others you've posted. I like them all so far!

I continue to be fascinated with each post. Perhaps you could throw another Trex into the background whose already been trounced. I'm posting an image manipulation of your last scene that I think helped clue me in to what helps create that diorama effect. The Point of View (POV) of the camera seems to have a lot to do with it. I can't change the camera in your scene so I did the next best thing and brought the image into A:M as a Layer and rotated it considerably. I adjusted the Ambiance color of the Layers surface too as an extra tidbit for those looking in. We can adjust a whole lot in the images right there in A:M. The point here about POV being that in most of these images the camera's view is at the same level as the creatures, maybe even slightly above? This adds more to the illusion that this is all on a small set and we are the ones that are huge. Lowering the camera and bringing it up and under the creatures might add to the illusion that they are indeed huge. Of course you might loose a lot of the backround if you do this too. The trick there then would be to move the camera back and close in the focus to grab everything in the scene. This might require hiding the ground plane. Keep on posting those images. Edit: Forgot to mention. In the attached I cropped the image pretty high from the bottom. The reason was that Kongs legs looked too tall and a bit silly. It looked a lot like a man wearing a gorilla suit. This was mostly a result of tilting the image but might hint that the legs are a little too long or too man-like? Kind of hard to believe these are the same images, no?

Looking good. Looking good.

Hang in there. While animating is a lifetime experience learning the basics of Animation:Master should take you about one month. The key is to draw on the combined experiences of others. As an introduction to that experience you'll find the manual gets right into it. It looks like you've already found that out. Asking questions and seeking feedback here in the forum will get your through the rough spots. Like a moth to flame... looks like you've got the animation bug. Welcome to the A:M Forums!

You've really been pushing all the buttons Mark. Bringing back memories. From the old black and white stop motion film look to modern day cg graphics. Now this latest one has a look of one of those miniature dioramas with the painted backgrounds. Reminds me of some of the dioramas someone was always setting up in the public library when I was a kid. As Paul states, this last image creates an interesting effect of a dimunitively smaller Kong. Perhaps that is because there is nothing else in the environment besides the TRex for comparing the scale? Interestingly though the TRex still seems to feel 'in scale'. Edit: That last one could pass for one of those ViewMaster setups as well. The ones where they photographed models on a set and you saw them through the ViewMaster in 3D.

She's looking good! One of the first things I would check would be your Normals. Have you checked those to see if any are pointing inwards? As something of a follow up to what Vern said... If you have an area that is particularly problematic you may want to delete that area and reconnect the splines again. If the splines aren't continuous or go a direction you weren't aware of this will allow you to correct it. Where possible let A:M correct it. One way to get a smoother mesh might be to use the Y key to get a CP created right in the middle of a spline versus the angle/orientation you may have moved it to manually. Then connect your other spline to that CP in the middle of the spline. (Try holding down the Shift Key as you connect the CPs to maintain curvature of the spline) Keeping patches roughly the same size may be of extra benefit when you go to decal the mesh later.