Rodney

Kyle, Not just unlikely... but no way! The most current version of A:M (now v15) is available for only $49... think about that for a second. While its pretty common for all of us to expect everything for free these days most of us spend $49 for a good dinner. That's about 50 trips to the Coke machine. Asking Hash Inc to buy the latest version of A:M for us is a bit much don't you think? Save your pennies. Saving a dollar a day would have you into v15 next month. What do you think our answer will be? Hint: v14 was much better than 13.

Kyle, I think you are experiencing why many have found the $49 websubscription fits their needs better than having the CD... no more CD to lose, break or have stolen! Unless you have insured your CD there is little that can be done to replace it outside of purchasing a new one. With the websubscription all the worrying about 'what ifs' goes away. I like it enough I now have three websubscriptions!

Get your rest. We'll still be here looking forward to your next tutorial. Perhaps you can enlist of few of us to help pinch hit or assist from time to time. It can't be easy to produce high quality tuts on a weekly schedule.

Mike, Its always a bummer when anyone experiences problems BUT... There is so much to be learned in the process. If you hadn't posted who knows when I would have learned to check for the tag Steffen mentioned. I don't know if that has been added in recent years but I know I've never encountered it before. Now I know better what to look for. Good luck with your model and good luck with your Mascot entry! Waitasecond... didn't you win the contest last month??? Perhaps I should rephrase that 'good luck' thing.

Update: The first two models appear to only contain: antlers, teeth and hooves. All appear to be present in the third model. I'll update the zip file to include what I recovered from all three models.

Mike, Thus far I haven't been able to get the original models to open but got one to import into another (empty) model. The error I get is a 'realtime rendering' error that may have something to do with your rotoscopes. As none of your images are included in the zip that may be contributing to my inability to get the files open. I'll keep trying and post whatever I can get. Nothing looked amiss initially upon looking at the files in a text editor but I haven't looked too deeply. I'm proceding with a hunch that the error is tied in with you images. There is a considerable size difference between the first two files (77kb) and the third (292kb). Its the third file I was able to recover the deer from. I suspect the first two don't have enough data. I've attached the (partially recovered?) models here. Kamikaze.zip

Now I see. I was assuming the lines where part of the inside material of the ornament. As you hadn't pointed to the shadows via arrow I assumed that brushed metal effect was desired in the render. The same effect is indeed very clear in the shadows. It does appear to be something in the lighting setup. Eric and John may be on to something here. If you have any materials in the model (especially brushed metal!) check there as well.

I must not have a very discerning eye... I don't see any artifacts where your arrows are pointing. What are we suppose to be seeing? Its hard to tell by your wireframe but just to check... make sure your objects are closed to get the best effects with booleans.

There are sure to be several reasons but I suspect its mostly because that was the nearest download to grab once the topic got bumped up. In my browser Michel's post is also at the top of the page. This hides previous posts from view. I can't really speak for others but I downloaded Michel's because I was curious about what he was doing with your rig. I suspect that may be what some others did too. Two people just now discovered this topic. New people are discovering your rig! I wouldn't read too much into the download numbers. Those numbers will lie to you. For instance? I haven't even had time to open Michel's file yet. At least I opened yours!

Looking good thus far. More please!

Pocket rig? You sure are meticulous David! I'd say that's a successful test.

Other benefits of the forum over chat include: - More permanent record (the chat cache must be cleared from time to time) - The forum is searchable - Everyone can benefit from the information posted in the forum (you don't even have to be logged in to read)

A:M can always use more highly motivated Users Groups. Good luck in the endeavor! As others have suggested A:M does have a chatroom. New users can often be found there. I do wonder what becomes of the members of this proposed group when they are no longer new users. Do they scurry over to the house thats made of sticks to work through their manuals? Will they eventually join in the brick and mortar animatin' going on at Practical Pig's studio and create a feature film? I haven't read ahead enough in the story to know. It is true, sometimes the best help a new user will get is from other new users. No one knows new users like new users. Just make sure that crazy wolf don't eat you. He's hungry to animate! Keep blowin' down the houses ya big 'ol bad 'ol wolf you!

Welcome Nigel! Your experience will serve you well! I'd love to here more of your experience. As far as making a mistake using your real name... I understand the difficulties involved there but encourage the use of real names. There are legitimate reasons for using pseudo-names of course just as there are reasons to avoid anonymity. Even then its not a bad idea to go with perhaps just a first name or a variation of it (provided its not taken). If anyone needs to change their login name contact Will Pickering (willp at hash.com) and he'll get you straight. (Don't everyone flood him today... wait a month! Then flood him! ) I hope so too. It has been for many years!

You've got some nice subtle movement in there. Very successful I'd say. I feel like I'm still years away from understanding enough of rigging to utilize it correctly but you give me hope Mark. Thanks! (I'm going to buy A:M Track this month!)

Nigel, Robert is correct. There is no demo for Animation:Master. At $49 and a money back guarantee there is little need for one. Take some time to read through this forum. Check out A:M Stills and A:M Films. That will help inform your purchasing decision. If you choose to purchase A:M you'll find a receptive community here.

Gorf, Your Judge Dredd was immediately recognizable. A bit more work on texturing and lighting and that scene would be over the top! I hope you'll return to that project and finish it off.

You'll want to investigate the Targa format (or any other format that maintains an Alpha Channel/Transparency layer). I would guess that Flash will import that. The final product you produce can be JPEG format. Once you set your rendering format to Targa you can turn the Alpha Channel buffer on in the Render Panel. There is quite a lot of information on Alpha Channels here in the forum. A workaround for when you absolutely cannot use an image with Alpha Channels would be to render the background with a color not used in the part of the image you need (hot pink!) then have the program you use mask out that color. Alpha Channels are definitely the way to go when compositing. For your second issue there are several possibilities. We need a little more information. At first thought it sounds like your Choreography isn't set to the correct length.

I learned something new by you posting this interesting problem. THANKS! Glad to see you got it solved.

Can you post a screen shot of your entire work area w/ the A:M interface showing?

Sure thing! He'a the creator of the Font and AI wizards as well. Its good to see you too!

Myron, If you are anything like me (which granted may not be much) you need some clear goals to work toward. When considering what you want to do with any program don't think too broadly. Narrow your options just as you have (wisely) done here. Its important to keep learning fun or you'll get bogged down quickly. For this reason I suggest 'doubling up'. For instance, I know you have some story ideas in mind for the future. What elements of those ideas can you test relatively quickly? What parts of your long term projects can be applied in the near term? Can you Modify existing resources to help eradicate the learning curve? Without rereading your posts I assume the primary reason for use of a digital paint program is to texture your models. So... locate a model you like and explore what is there already. Open a decal image in Photopaint and change it. Delete stuff. Alter stuff. Explore stuff. Make as many mistakes as you can. Then when you are working on your own creations you will recall the experience. As you have Coreldraw might I suggest you start something of a personal production journal? One of the coolest things you can do is render out objects with Alpha Channels in A:M and place them anywhere you need them on the page. Need to add text to elaborate more on the image? Add that too. Save the document out as a PDF file... create your own newsletter... learn what you want to learn... and do what YOU want to do. Share the results with a friend. Start a Work In Progress in the WIP forum and invite others to learn along with you. You'll be amazed at the response you get. When something doesn't work as you think it should ask and get other's perspectives. Learn from others' experience. The feedback you'll get here in the forum is very important. Of course you don't have to do anything I'm suggesting here but I'm telling you what I wish I'd done when I first started out with A:M. Lurking and just reading others posts is not good for us creatively when there is so much to learn. To maximize return on our investment in the near term we must get creatively involved with like minded people and use the software for all its worth. Just as we are doing (collectively) here. Enough from me. I've been too long winded. In case you can't tell... I'm excited about your future.

Hey Andy, that looks really sharp! A perfect use for 3D animation. General thoughts... You could slow down the animation even more so the viewer/students would have more time to see the process and/or add some even closer shots of the spikes going in. Or perhaps after showing the process from the distance you have it run through again with a tight shot on a spike. That'd really drive the point home. I'm not sure how relevant this suggestion is as I don't know what lead in information you've got to go with the information. I'd say the film should progress at the speed you would talk through the process. Will you have narrative audio included? Very nice animation.

Xtas (Marcos) mentioned PNG before. A:M definitely renders PNG with transparency... if... and only if you turn on the Alpha Channel buffer in the Render Panel. I've never seen a utility that will convert PNGs with transparency into animated PNGs with transparency. I'm sure there is one out there somewhere... just haven't seen one yet. Sorry... no screen shot of the Render panel here. I tested on another computer not connected to the internet. This one is about to get an A:M subscription.

The problem you are sure to run into with many converters is that they will strip the Alpha Channel out of the image as it gets converted to GIF format. That makes it pretty useless for your purpose. One way around this problem with many conversion utilities is to make the background a particular color not elsewhere in the image (say hot pink) and tell the utility to make that the 'transparent' color. When you save the GIF animation out then everything pink will be transparent. A:M by itself will not render to GIF format so another utility is required. There are quite a few freeware and reasonably priced applications that'll get the job done. You might also consider using the PNG format. That has gained a lot in popularity. You can render PNGs with transparency directly out of A:M. You can only render still images/frames only so once again you'll need another utility to smash them together. (If we can render to animated PNG someone please correct me. I've never made the attempt.) Doh! Caroline... you snuck a post in on me during my reply. You are fast and thorough!