Rodney

I'll guess that by 'drivers' what is meant is 'relationships'. Do the models you save that gain a driver file have poses or something else that creates a permanent 'relationship'? Since poses are the only real 'action'-type data attached to otherwise static models that would be my guess.

Congratulations Mark. That's a well deserved spotlight on your work.

Sorry to say... A:M's boolean cutters are the type that are only implemented at render time.** Therefore they don't actually alter any physical geometry (it only looks like it is altered). There are some things that can and do export well such as displacement maps. **If we consider the infinite resolution of surfaces (patches) made with minimal splines with boolean cutting methodology this is really the only way that can work. This doesn't preclude exporting objects created in A:M out and using other programs to execute physical changes via solid modeling but there the resulting mesh will no longer have the benefits of A:M's minimal splines and patches defining the surfaces. The shapes themselves (both those that will be cut and those that will do the cutting) will export just fine of course. In the other program you then just define which objects are the solids and which are the cutters.

Meshlab is opensource. (I think the program Ken refers to is under a different name?) In addition to the downloadable release Meshlabs has an online javascript implementation: http://www.meshlabjs.net/ It might take awhile to learn it's various options but there are a lot of them to include making meshes water tight etc. For the Meshlab site see: http://www.meshlab.net

Hi Mike, I won't be of much help here as but the short answer is 'Yes'. There is some voodoo magic we have to do to make sure we can see the CPs in order to select them and I think it might be best to create a Pose in order to activate things appropriately. Basically we can edit/animate/monitor any CP that is part of a Relationship and one of the easiest ways I know to create that Relationship is via a Pose. Regarding the voodoo settings... Make sure you have 'Show Advanced Properties' and 'Show Property Triangle' checked on the Global settings tab under Tools/Options. This will allow you to drill down to the Spline and CP level in the Channel Editor and Timeline views. A few other useful things will be to toggle on the 'Show Manipulator Properties' icon so that when we select a CP the CP number will display easily for us to use. The second thing here then might be to use a Filter Search with that CP number as the text to find so that it can easily be found (as the listing of CPs likely wont be sorted numerically... it is sorted by splines assignment. A third thing then might be to Pin the CP in your Timeline so that when you select something else it will stay there in the timeline for you to view. You can forego using the Timeline if you use the PWS Channel Editor. Of course, all of this will be clear as mud so please feel free to ask questions and I'll try to be more specific. And a final caveat...! There may be an easier way to do this via Smartskin but it's been so long since I've used smartskin that I need to brush up on that myself! Bottom line: Yes, it should be possible.

Aye mateys.... I miss those guys. In a perfect world, someone would see the potential in 'The Wannabe Pirates' and offer you so much money to franchise them that you could not refuse. Of course, then we'd all be sad that we couldn't afford all the cool toys. etc.

Yes, confirmed that something is definitely wrong there. ftp://ftp.hash.com/pub/updates/windows/ And... I confirm that the 64bit release is working well. It is so very good to have 6793 corrected. That feels so good to have back.

It occurs to me that I am one of those A:M Users that wants to see more contests and have stated exactly that over the years. If I don't get an entry in for this contest then that isn't speaking well concerning my interest in having more contests. So... I do plan on entering I just need to get to splinin' and refinin'.

Nice! That's a great approach.

It's not looking good for my entry... but there's still a little hope. A lot will depend on if I can make a energetic sprint toward the finish line during the... very... last 24 hours. I thought I was off to a pretty good start, then procrastinated entirely too much over the past month. I'm reading that deadline as midnight on the 18th of September... so hope that is right. I seem to take that old saying 'a task will expand to fill the allotted time' a bit too literal.

Thanks Harun. I haven't had a chance to check out the latest release so I always appreciate when others post their experience. There are a lot of video editors that can get the job done but for those that need higher end video editing tools I sense it going to be hard to beat DaVinci Resolve. I'm still waiting for the latest release of Blackmagic Designs Fusion to stabilize because I will very likely purchase the Studio release and it should be highly integrated with Resolve. The free releases of both Fusion and Resolve then pave the way for scaling up production. If the software tools currently available would have been available back when 'Tin Woodsman of Oz' was in production I've no doubt they would have been put to good use.

Robert Holmen is not splining everything from scratch?!??! Scandalous I tell ya! Where's a news reporter when you need one... That is a great model to borrow from and I recall some superb animations being created with him. My favorite is probably from the animated card where he was stuck in the middle of a snowstorm shivering in the cold. Makes me cold now just thinking about that. Brrrr,,,,

Time to kick this into high gear!

I gotta admit, It is an improvement over the mohawk.

Steve, Turn off the 'Save before Render' option in Tools/Options which is on by default in v19. There is an issue with that feature regarding when the saving occurs that doesn't account for the completion of longer calculations (which I must assume would include hair, etc.). I submitted a report on that and Steffen submitted a fix in a recent (pending) update. Try that and see if that doesn't solve the problem.

Most excellent.

Like I said. unfortunate and frustrating. Don't read too much into that post Fuchur. Read between the lines and know that the underlying issue isn't about you. I wonder if the powers that be (Jason? Martin?) would approve a different system for distribution of associated files and executables? Perhaps even target those items that never change as being separate from the primary installation to streamline updates even more. And yes, I'm talking github here. Post a disclaimer on the download page that tells users to 'Use at own risk' and then... off we go. Jason? Martin? (And of course... all of this would also depend on what Steffen is willing and able to do)

Hang in there. You raise valid points and we (collectively) do need to look at options going forward to prevent the bottlenecks.that can occur I think Fuchur is as frustrated as you and was winking because he thinks v19b will likely arrive before v19a... most unfortunate and frustrating. But also nothing that is under his control. I'm hanging with you here eagerly awaiting the next release too.

That file is what is created upon activation... which hasn't yet happened for your v19 install. BUT... copy that master0.lic file from your other folder into the v19 and (all other things working as required) it will run and v19 will then be activated/licensed. The problem I see is that your program itself doesn't appear to be working (i.e. that DLL thing) so you've got (perhaps) two problems only one of which relates to activation/licensing. But take care of that license file first and as long as it is a current license you'll be fine.

Yes, of course, that is the whole point of subscription renewal. We can use any version of A:M with the license going back to v15 as I recall (side by side/simultaneously too) The important thing is to have a -current- license file in the installation directory of whatever version you have installed. The missing dll is a bit of head scratcher but indicates that another program may have overwritten or removed the dll that A:M needs to use.

Piracy App turnarounds: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUnVr6x93d8 It's somewhat reassuring when you see a turnaround from Sony that has a passthrough. Disclaimer: Some of these youtube videos are unlisted so... probably shouldn't be directly sharing them. Sorry Sony!

I know practically nothing about 'The Emoji movie' and haven't seen it but I noticed an interesting link that points to something I'd like to see more of happen as it bridges a gap in the creation/production/distribution process. Concerning the movie itself it appears to be Sony's attempt to grab some of that same success shared by Disney's 'Wreck it Ralph' and that franchise's upcoming sequel. Add in a good dose of the general feel of PIXAR's 'Inside Out' and you've got yourself 'The Emoji Movie'. Sony has released an 'The Art of Emoji Movie' as an online website. It seems to me that this approach might not only be emulated and result in more of the same from other production house but it also provides important insights into the process of animation production. This isn't to say nothing of similar approach hasn't been published onllne before but Sony is on the right track here. I've often thought (back in the day) that it would have been wise for theaters to offer for sale books and videos related to the movies audiences where attending in the lobby of the theater but recognized some of the problems with that idea (the first of which was that video tape was being eradicated by CDs) but I was thrilled to experience some of that in Japanese theaters where they sold movie books and merchandise related to films in their lobbies. It became a family tradition to purchase the book that accompanied the movies we saw that contained insights into the production. The angle here seems to be that of a similar approach where audiences with smart phones can now take home some of their movie going experience with them... relieve the experience... spread the word about the movie... and I"m sure... purchase merchandise. The important element for me is that insight into production. I always enjoy getting a deeper look into those. Sony's 'The Art of Emoji Movie' contains a look at the artists involved, color scripts, production artwork, progression reels, etc. Of course there is some cross-pollinisation in that many of the resources can be found elsewhere (online and presumably in other venues) Here's an example in the form of the progression reel of a scene which accessible via the Art of Book with the same exact video being available via youtube: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Udqs0zZc1ps Or this character turn around: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3a7iUN4nqY Link to the Art of site: http://sites.sonypictures.com/emojimovie/artoftheemojimovie/

LIteManager Pro is another one of those free offers from Shareware On Sale that might be useful. I figure at this time if the folks at SOS want to take over my computer they've already got enough software on my systems to do that so... what the heck. There are many benefits to having a remote control application such as LiteManager. This application is in the same general category as others such as Team Viewer which allow another person access (of various types) to another computer. That access can be limited to simply viewing, projecting a demonstration, transferring files and taking over full control. Scary stuff no? This is the type of software that is useful for teachers who wish to monitor students, computer gurus given access to solve software/hardware problem remotely and general file transfer. With LiteManager Pro there are two applications; Server and Viewer. Server is the application users pay for and must register and it's the application that must run on the computer that will grant access to the remote viewer. Viewer therefore can be installed on any computer and take advantage of whatever access has been granted on the Server. Not that there is much need for such but A:M can be run over these types of connections with a minimum of discomfort. For any schools using a network of A:M clients a teacher (even from afar) could step in and perform.a demonstration, fix a problem or otherwise direct the student. Icons showing all available connections allow for quick movement from one computer to the next. For those on a network or running Rendernodes it can be useful to remotely log onto the rendering computers to adjust settings and troubleshoot. For those worried about security there are many security features but in the end if someone wants to own your computer they already own it.so don't let that be the deciding factor on whether you should consider use of enabling technologies. Just understand the risks and take appropriate precautions. If you miss this offer it's definitely not the end of the world. Other (free) programs that perform similarly can be found such as Team Viewer. The primary difficulty I encountered The offer from SOS can be found here: https://sharewareonsale.com/s/free-litemanager-pro-100-discount It states the offer is good for the next 2 days which has it expiring on 8/18/2017. Here's a random vase with entirely too many cross sections I lathed remotely: I am not convinced at this point that remote lathing is a major technological enabler but I did watch Martin Hash's 'Telepresence' movie so perhaps aliens could use A:M remotely from billions of light years away to lathe their vases too. The time from initial download to final lathed vase was approx. 1 hour.even with a few fits and starts on getting my computers initially to connect. The main problem with working with A:M remotely was a slight lag and finickiness when resizing windows as the cursor didn't always want to show. If I just trusted that the cursor was in the right spot I could adjust and move on. There is likely a setting that lets the user better control the cursor but I haven't looked for it. Technically remote computing qualifies as a 'revolutionary' innovation as it provides a bridge to shorten spans of time and space. So, while I don't have much of a plan to use it in this fashion it is on my radar.

You mention you are rigging the character. Is there a specific rig you are using or are you creating your own from scratch?

Nice. He'd fit in really well with Rabbit and Shaggy.