Rodney

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!

Hard to resist putting 2 cents into the pot on this one. I agree that the democrats missed out on an exceptional opportunity by not fully backing Gore. I don't see this from the perspective that he was actually electable though. Hang in with me here k? A large number of people thought Gore should have won against Bush. (thats a given) Even more would consider that he still deserved his shot. But something happened that (I think) has injured the democratic party subtantially. By failing to unite behind their own candidate (the one was perceived to have gotten robbed out of the top job) they sent a message that its not about who is best for the job but that politics and personal interest rules over all. How Hillary even got into the mix is still a mystery to me but its seems clear she sunk Gores ship before it got a chance to leave port. Someone high up decided Hillary was more electible than Gore and others in decision making positions backed that decision up. The end effect is that where the Democrats were moving forward as one now they are multidirectionless. Their main chance to correct their course and send a clear message that all Democrats are fully backing Obama seems scuttled... again by the Hillary Clinton camp. What is going on? I think where the Democrats had an opportunity to sit in the White house for many years to come they've let their personal aspirations erode that to less than an even chance. Its not unlike Sen. McCain's choice for a running mate. (Nothing against her... I speak of the division it seems likely to make in the most conservative minds of Republicans at large) Its a strange thing. Its almost as if both parties have been trying their utmost not to get elected. Meanwhile, Obama pretty much on his own and despite the politics of it all continues to move forward with his eyes continually on the prize. I find that to be the most interesting and compeling aspect of it all. Apparently this was suppose to be Hillary's win but this young upstart has gone and overturned the apple cart. Politics and partisanships aside I think Obama will make a fine President. The real question is... Will the nation rally behind him?

Its great to have you back in action Mark. You weren't gone long but it seemed like ages.

Steve, The walk cycle has some sharpness/popping to it but that second animation is very nice! Smoothing out the curves in the timeline might soften the walk up. I'd say that both the modeling and rigging of your old model worked out quite well.

Wasn't able to get it downloaed with Internet Explorer but got it via Firefox. Very odd... but thanks to Raf for sharing and Jason for hosting!

Hi Guy! Thanks for taking the time to post. Its okay to lurk... really it is. I did that a few years myself. But its oh so much more fun to join in and make you presence known. (as you've just done) If nothing else it reminds everyone here their efforts are appreciated. Every day I log in to the A:M Forum someone gives me more good reasons to continue on. You said it well and I wholeheartedly agree, "You guys rock!"

Historical note of interest: If you follow Caroline's links/suggestions you'll find three names of significance demonstrating their knowledge of lip sync. All cut their teeth lipsyncing in Animation:Master. Gary C. Martin (http://www.garycmartin.com/mouth_shapes.html Keith Lango http://www.keithlango.com/tutorials/old/lipSync.htm Jason Osipa http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047178920...cr_dp_orig_subj Another thought to consider when lipsyncing: Don't neglect to use the eyes/eye brows and body posture/poses to help convey what the character is saying. In some cases you may find you need to use very little lipsync at all. The classic example is the Muppets (and puppetry in general). Few would claim the lipsync with such characters is realistic or particularly articulate yet audiences easily get the message and never complain. I've yet to hear anyone say concerning the Muppets... "Yuck! Just look at that bad lipsync".

Unfortunately TGA isn't the internets main format. I almost wish it was but there are good reasons to use lossy images like JPG. At least the give faster viewing times. Its interesting you bring up decaling a bottle here as I just got done viewing an old video tutorial on just that subject. I'd definitely recommend using cylindrical. Also, you will generally want to hide the parts of the bottle you don't want to have effected by the decal. I'll download your file and see what there is to see. You image makes me think you need to apply the decal to a second group that doesn't have transparency applied to it. If you add it to group with Transparency you get a transparent decal. Make sense?

Thats a very nice model Jody. Nice rendering too BTW. You're a real champ. I was going to ignore this comment from Michael... but cannot. Say what Michael??? Splines are ideal for modeling box shapes as well as organics and creatures. The great thing about modeling box shapes is that once you've modeled a few you can reuse them over and over again to create all manner of new box-shapey-things. You are limited only by your imagination. There's a whole collection of images at http://www.hash.com/stills/ to demonstrate the versatility that artists have in modeling with splines. Of course there is Jody's spaceship example here too that demonstrates A:M's modeling capabilities. Sorry... back to your regularly programmed modeling session.

Nice update Ernest! Way to keep the suspense going. I see you've added two Trailers as well. The downside of this of all this of course is that it takes a lot less time to consume/view an episode than to make one. That's the reality. The effort you are putting into it sure makes it worth the wait though. You've still got me hooked. Thoughts for the future: Don't got all commercial on me here but... if you offer a 'Subject 99' TShirt one of these days and I'll purchase one to show my support. "A free coffee pot with every episode"... now why didn't I think of that marketing strategy. You are making this too fun. Much success to you in the effort.

You've already got the grass effect looking great. Very nice.

Myron, What is it that you are trying to do? (any specific tutorials you need translated?) If you have Photopaint you already have the tools and ease of use you need. Knowing how straightforward photopaint is and how similar it is to these other programs mentioned I think investing in another program will defeat your purpose here. Once you've learned one program much of what you've learned will easily translate to other programs too. Folks around here will be glad to help you through the rough spots. (See how many responded here!) Learning curve? You don't need one of those. Skip the learning curve!

Wonderful imagery. With story and music to match this is sure to garner some wonderful reviews from the festival circuit. Two years more to wait so see the film??? Yikes. Looks like we need to visit a film festival. Good luck at the festivals Dusan!

If anyone knows an A:M User from Tailand... that's where Klum is from. Besides the tutorials and assistance we can get here...there's really nothing like having someone local. Anyone else from Tailand besides Klum around here?

What can we say except... 'We are all a Work In Progress'.

My thought (silly I know) When I first saw your hand Mark I couldn't help but wonder if there was a way to have these hands completely detached from the body as fully functional yet separate components. Obviously this would work better with some characters moreso than with others (a cartoon gloved character comes to mind) but the idea would be to attach the hands as needed rather than to have them as an integral part of the whole.

Some people do their best work when they find themselves way down in the dumps. Its not always fun but its almost always motivational. The great thing about being down is that you know sooner or later things are going to look up again. The first thing to do is remember to look up! Have you ever used proxy models before? Some of the best animation starts with simple crudely built box models. Once you get the animation right... just substitute in the higher quality models.

Vern was remarkably restrained in his reply. A lot of folks would take a harsher view of such requests. You may not realize it but 'Make me a movie' is a considerable request. Most people will gladly help someone who is willing to help themself. Few are interested in working for free when they have their own projects to work on. Since this is a Work In Progress topic... why not take the time to model that one spaceship? You'll be amazed at your own abilities. Once they see your effort others may get enthused and join in your project too. Thats what 'Work In Progress' is all about. All it takes is the desire to begin.

It definitely helps to read the script.

I know you are looking for critiques so you can make the shot better... but I just want to say... Looks great! I confess I'm not that familiar with the pace of Super Mario's stylistic gameplay but I don't think you want the walk cycles and actions to be any more realistic. This is a great project to exaggerate on. Personally, I think it looks great. Very nice. The pace 'reads' like he is going to the bathroom stall because he knows there is a message there waiting for him. If that is the intent... I think you've nailed the pace.

Ooooo... nice tip Luuk! It should be noted that you must recreate your Path constraint after altering your Path. (Unless I'm missing something else here) To test this out I recommend dragging and dropping an object from your library... say... a sphere... or Thom onto a newly created path. Go into Modeling mode (while still in the Chor) and Add... then Delete a spline at the end of the Path you want the Model to move toward. Delete the old Model as necessary. Drag and Drop the model onto the path again... and you should see the Model follow the path in the opposite direction. Thanks for the tip Luuk. I've added it to my collection.

I've attached a basic test and project file to illustrate. My CPs aren't showing up in this one but the numbers should help identify where they are. All paths in this case are created in the same Model. Three splines/paths in all. The spline/path on top was created left to right. Two CPs. The spline/path under it was created right to left. Two CPs. The bottom spline/path was created with three CPs... bottom left... top center... bottom right. The arrows indicate the direction of the paths. In each case the sphere follows the spline/path as in the order in which it was originally designed. PathOfSpline000.mov DirectionOfPath.prj