Rodney

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.

I'm sure this is unrelated but why are some of your patches colored and some not? Is there a reason those patches aren't part of the same group and therefore receiving the same color? Perhaps that is just for your testing purpose?

I resisted the urge to ask about that hand. After reading that the character was already rigged I couldn't help but wonder about that hand. I knew you'd have an explanation. Its fascinating how the introduction of one new character can suggest so many things. You've obviously put a lot of thought into these characters and their design is compelling. Your style has a feeling of familiarity as if we've always known these characters. And yet with each character's uniqueness a curious sense of the unknown remains.

In the off chance that this is graphics card related and you are on a PC... Go to Tools/Options and on the Global Tab change your driver setting from OpenGL to Direct3D. If its set to Direct3D change it to OpenGL. See if that doesn't make a difference. Make sure you are in a Modeling window when you test.

Perry, I edited my earlier post to indicate my results. It most definitely works in v15e. Now we just need to figure out why it doesn't work for you. Until you supply more information we must assume user error. (User error here also encompassing installation and maintenance of your computer system) That's the nature of the beast. We all can sympathize with things not working. Now we just need to get to the root of the thing. Some things that will help us understand better would be a screenshot, information on what operating system you are using, steps that you take in the procedure, etc. "It don't work" doesn't help us with determining much of anything. Especially when we see it working on our end. Please help... so we can help you.

I can confirm this works as intended in v15e. Have you ever used the process before? If not here are the general steps: Select Patch Group Mode (Shift P) Click on a valid patch If you don't click on a valid patch nothing will be selected.

Gene. Gene! Um... GENE!!! That last link says the video was removed. Oh. Nevermind. Its back again. Yee Haa!