Rodney

George, I remember wondering that same thing many years ago. Problem is... I forgot what I discovered then. I believe the general rule is: The first CP you place determines where the spline will begin. The second CP placement determines the orientation and direction of the spline (path) created. The end of the path that is modified last will be considered the last position. Easy enough to test that theory. Where things can get confusing is where you don't necessarily know which CP was created first or second. Its easy to lose orientation in 3D space. Edited the general rule to include Luuk's tip (see below).

One of my favorite tutorials of all time. Now well represented in comic book format.

Bill, Its only a guess here but I'd say yes, you probably animated the props by mistake. Make sure you've saved your Project then go in and look at your Actions. If you have any keyframes set that aren't horizontal... that'd be your culprit. Its hard to say without seeing your project but look first at any keyframes not on frame zero. Also... once you get everything perfectly placed you may want to Export your Choreography as a Model. Then you won't have to worry about your objects moving at all. It seems like this method might work for you well as you could easily set up various scenes as different models for use/reuse later. Regarding the photo-look you are trying to avoid... Computers tend to render things too perfect. Since you are drawing elements of this anyway you might consider drawing over the top of your rendered lines. Perhaps render to grey and use that as the outline? That would definitely lose that effect you don't want as the lines would be all yours. Regarding cheating your other buildings... elements that you know for a fact you will not see from another perspective (say above or behind) you can model as partial objects... or... render those elements out and bring them back in as rotoscopes or layers. Here it might help to have a more specific target to attack. I notice the color here on these renders. Are you moving to color comics or is this just a stage before they get converted?

Very nice animation. Nice touch with the ending. Take the following with a large dose of 'only suggestion... do whatya wanna do with em'. Find ways to get the character to focus... putting attention on and into the act he is performing. Sometimes this is best accomplished by having the character lean into or toward the object of his attention. Have the character look at the object of interest... then look away if necessary. This helps the viewer see what the character is seeing. Subconsciously, the audience can then say 'Ah, I see' even though they really don't. Where this might apply to your meercat animation... If he could crouch down a bit that'd put tension in his body. A slight lean forward would let us know he expects to feel a little resistance from the bag. A slight reaction after he hits the bag might let us know he felt the impact. When Meerkat punches the bag from the side that's a good opportunity to have him look... then turn away. This telegraphs the upcoming punch for us. (Something you don't want to have real actors do in live action but something you really want to do in animation) We look at the bag with Meerkat. When he looks away... we look with him. When the punch goes to the bag... the circle of interest for us is completed. Now at the end Meerkat can lose his leaning toward the bag and this subconsiously sets both him and us up for the gag. The focus is no longer on the bag... we've lost interest in it... so we get hit with it too. This enhances the final shot even more as we almost feel as if we might have thrown the boot. Meerkat isn't there so... in a way... we did. Hopefully this makes sense to you. If it seems a bit touchy feely thats because it is. You want the audience to see and feel and react along with the characters. A little added emphasis in the look and the lean and the body tension of the character would do this. You've got wonderful work on view at your site... great interface/presentation too.

Here's an example of what the Folders might look like. Note that you aren't restricted to organizing Models. You can collect and organize all your resources both in the Choreography as well as other locations in the Project Workspace. Another relatively new feature is the ability to Group Models in the Choreography (see Groups at very bottom of the image). While the Groups cannot be moved up to the higher order Folders you see above they can be organized within the Groups Folder as needed. Note: When organizing large groups of resources in the PWS... save often. If you put a lot of work into organization and you push too hard you can find yourself staring at the desktop. When experimenting with something new... at least until you get a good feel for the options... save often.

Hey Ernest, Don't we all get that way from time to time? We all go from strength to strength... day by day. Hang in there. You've got a built in support group here... more than a few fans of 'Subject 99' too! As you get more and more episodes put together I hope you'll consider extracting shots out of each episode to form something of a trailer...teaser... something for fans new or old. I don't want to distract you from your mission of putting out new episodes but sometime you have to look back and enjoy the progress already made. ...and I say.. so far... so good!

You've selected a great little short sequence and gag to go with it. (It has special resonance here in the A:M Forum too!) A one... two... three... punch... little ditty I'm confident will be well worth your effort to refine. Such is the stuff of great storytelling. I agree that the crits you've got here are great. Love the video crit/suggestions Bruce! Way to go guys. I don't really want to suggest altering your ending but will just a bit. There seems to be an opportunity for yet another storytelling beat. As the Knight 'TADAs!'... perhaps the rabbit could take a bow? Its extra... but might be worth the effort.

I missed your earlier posts... must have been in transition. Congratulations to you on completing production of 'Gone'. Have you any thoughts to share regarding distribution of your short? (Apologies if you mentioned this and I missed it)

Sure is. As a matter of fact, there are several ways to approach projects of this magnitude. The approach you take will depend on the end results you need. (case by case basis so we would have to know more about your project to narrow down options) You can create folders within your Choreography where you can organize your models. For instance, you could create a folder named "Actors" where all your characters could be collected. Another folder might be "Props" or "Buildings". One of the the tried and true methods is to use Proxy models in place of the actual models that will be in the final chor. For instance, lets say you have a city scene where 100s of buildings are in a shot. You expect to have to see the buildings from every angle so cannot use standard cheats like rendered backdrops and cutouts. You can build the scene with models consisting of only rectangles and simple shapes to help you set up the scene. then replace each of those Proxy models with the final models as necessary. A favorite suggestion for me would be to create a group of folders (on your harddrive not in your Choreography) to contain your models. Example: Active - Contains all the models that A:M will use Proxy - Simple models with little detail Final - Contains all the models in final detail Empty - This last folder is still experimental for me. The contents mirror the contens of the Proxy/Final folders but... the models are empty. This way you can selectively 'disappear' models as needed for selective rendering of shots without adjusting shortcuts in A:M. How does this setup work? Copy the models you need from one or all of the folders into the Active directory. A:M will then use only those resources you tell it to delivering the models you need to the specified locations. Eventually I'm confident we'll see a utility created to move these resources as needed but it'll take years for me to program such a thing. Coming soon... in the year 2020! Other methods... keep things simple despite the complexity of your scene. If you don't really need 200 models... don't use them. If you can hide some and render groups of your models as separate layers that might work better for you. Let us know more about your project and I'm sure you'll find a suitable solution. Until then... Divide and conquer!

Mark, I agree that adding some displaced water at the base of the ship would do great things for this shot. The thing that seems rather odd to me however is the shadow of the ship. The origin of the light seems low and close to the ship juding by how the shadow changes along with the camera move. This gives the effect that all this activity is taking place on a stage... or a very small world... which, if that is the intent... I think you've nailed it. If you were going for the stage look that might even let you exaggerate the style of the waves even more. In other words... if you aren't going for realism in your characters and props... why go for it with the water? Maybe some very stylisticly drawn waves instead of the similated computer style waves would look better? Just thinkin' out loud here. Looks great!

I like your solution for the bookshelf. I've made a mental note about that as I'm sure your method will be of use to me in the future. I like simple solutions... the more simple the solution... the better. It'll be easier to file in memory. I haven't had time to read back far on 'Rhapsodies' but I've got your strip bookmarked! Keep up the great work. Edit: Are you acquainted with John Aquino (nyahkitty on most forums)? I see he's done video work with Cartoonists Northwest.

Robert, I don't think I'd use that as a good example of spline modeling. A noble effort... but sure to cause some problems. There are too many places where 5 splines connect at one point. In particular the cheek and brow. (but all over the place) That'd work for polygon modeling but not for Hash splines. Porportion-wise it might be useful but...

This site is pretty old but it still has some really good information: http://www.pixelburg.com/am_glossary/ We should contact Wolfram and get his permission to update that thing someday. Don't forget there is the A:M Tech Reference too: ftp://ftp.hash.com/pub/docs/TECHREF.pdf

Here is a quick test with Specified Booleans demonstrating the technique. Really basic here... just three cylinders (one boned as a boolean cutter). Add a bit of texture and the right models and the particle effects and it might work. removeface000.mov

Very nice chompers. Hmmm... if the teeth are enclosed I think Boolean cutters would work well. You might even be able to use the 'specified boolean' options to reveal progressive layers (with different color/texture) underneath. I'm not sure how much time you have to experiment.

I'm really looking forward to that! Thats pretty amazing. I might have considered that it was all you at the very beginning but as the webisode went on I settled in with the idea that you had brought in other voice talent. I've read various thoughts on the time to be allotted to various stages of filmmaking and it seems most fall in favor of 80/20 ratio with 80 percent of the effort going into preproduction and 20 percent production. Most of us get that backwards and try to jump right into production. That is likely why we fail to produce anything. I'm not sure how the time stacked up for you but there you are... three episodes into your production. A nice thing about your webisode format/schedule, which you've commented on already, is that you get to refresh the whole process with each episode. What a wonderful way to stay motivated too. While very different in content your effort reminds me of Tony Lower Basch's 'Nosferatu'. It was really a treat to see his story come together little by little back in 2000-2002. Tony has moved on from 'Nosferatu' but you can tell he learned a lot from the experience. It was a wonderful 'little story' which I think should be made into a film we could see in our local theaters. http://www.museoffire.com/Nosferatu/index.html While very different in many ways from Tony's effort... 'Subject 99' has the same feel of substance and underlying quality.

Sorry to hear that Mal. I had assumed that Zevel might still work in v15 but have never used it in any version. Purhaps someone that has will validate whether it still works for them. Generally if I need beveling I either adjust Bias Magnatudes or stitch them in.

Hey Mal... welcome to the A:M Forum! Plugins within A:M are context sensitive. This means that they generally will only activate if proper conditions are met. This helps tremendously as it keeps us from clicking on things that wouldn't work if they were there to select but not in the appropriate places. I'm not familar enough with the 'Tank tutorial' or Zevel to specifically address those. But if everything is where it should be the plugins should just work. A slight diversion... as an example? The Treez plugin is a good example of how plugins are context sensitive. I just posted a link to information on Treez in another post. You can find that info here: http://www.hash.com/TreeeZ/ The important thing to know there is that you must be in an Action window to invoke the Treez plugin. In order to work... you have to select and name your tree's base (its outline) as 'base'. In order to grow the base must have a target. The target doesn't need to be named in order to work but you should name it anyway. This makes removing the target outline really easy later.

Mr. Grymmjack, Thats my bust. I really should be doing more to promote and distribute information about TaoA:M. At the beginning of the year I set out to do just that... so far I haven't been very successful. I am just as committed now as I've ever been to helping others help themselves. As you've already discovered though... with no help from me... working through TaoA:M is a great way to do just that. Its not entirely clear from your description but you may be looking at the phenomenon known as 'Gimbal Lock'. Not sure so I won't guess further. Generally it will serve you well enough to adjust your view (you can have several views open at the same time) and adjust the rotation as needed. Without seeing more its hard to tell. As far as the video tutorials go... you aren't the first to discover them a bit late. Some like the videos... some prefer the book... use both whenever and whereever you can! ...and don't forget to post your work! If you don't post it here in the forum... seek feedback from elsewhere. ...AND... WELCOME TO THE A:M FORUM!

Blue, You've just said the magic words. With an attitude like that you are sure to go far. 'Hope to meet new friends'... consider that done. Welcome to the A:M Forum!

There is one problem with Gif animations these days. Some browsers apparently have animated Gifs turned off by default. So... the viewer only sees the first image. At least that was reported after I posted a few animated Gifs here in the forum. I'm still a big fan of the format though.

Mark, There is no way for you to know it but so many times you have pushed all the right creative buttons with me. Now you produce Gif ad banners with movie content. I have always been a fan of that format and apparently (with your refresher... still am!). I love Gif animation... never pretensious.... easily accessible... brilliantly executed in your case. You are living the life I always wanted to live. Exploring. Creating. Connecting. But.. importantly... you are doing it oh so much better than me. Rock on Wannabes.

Jody, That really is impressive. Thanks so much for sharing the project file too. I'm stunned by your generosity but sure am proud to have that in my collection. I really admire all of you guys/gals with the patience to model all those details. I'd be more like... gak... sputter... gah... and never get it done. And the lesson... lets not forget to comment on that. Very nice comparison. I agree that in many instances the viewer won't see a bit of difference. The ultra level of detail isn't going to be needed. You are a master.

Jay, While there are more than a few resources available to get you up to speed quickly in my opinion you'd be hard pressed to get any training material more capable than Barry Zundel's DVDs: http://bzundel.googlepages.com/animation%3...ter2005training These aren't cheap however. So unless your boss is going to buy them... The best thing you can do is stake a claim right here in the forum and learn from the interaction you get. Start a topic and run with it. Ask questions... seek clarification. Not only will you learn quickly... you'll learn from the best there is in A:M. Right here. It goes without saying (but I must repeat it!) there is no better way to get into the heart of A:M than to follow the exercises found in 'The Art of Animation:Master' (TaoA:M). Everyone I know that has completed it has gone on to see success. This is easy because they've learned how A:M was intended to be used. Animation, Workflow, Modeling, Rigging, Decaling... etc etc. all the basic basics are there. If you don't have the manual... perhaps its been misplaced? Download it! Work through it! Don't procrastinate. http://www.hash.com/2007web/reference.htm There is an entire forum devoted to working through the manual and achieving success. TaoA:M Forum Once you've completed the manual then you can chart your own course.

I've only seen the following method fail approx. 1 in 1000 times. (Assuming I didn't make a mistake and try to select an invalid area to assign as a 5 point patch): Once the 5 Control Points are selected whack the Period key. Then whack the Period key a second time. What this does is deselect the 5 points and then reselect them (apparently in the correct order required?) Works (almost) every time.