Rodney

Save that thing for when you are famous. Hopefully it'll still be edible.

Its great to have you back! Back in the day we didn't have a forum to work through some of the issues you had. With the forum the stage is set for success. You may not find answers to every problem but I imagine you'll come close! If you have any problems don't hesitate to ask.

That is quite innovative. That technique will be quite useful to me. Thanks! My present to you... a custom emoticon created on the spot just for you: *

This is a little unrelated to what you are investigating but for those focused on the end results more than the math they may want to consider: A means to counter the illusory effect that Robert mentions regarding movement and timing is to introduce reference points where the eye can track the perceived speed of the object. For instance, if a square block, building or other object is placed in the scene the viewer automatically perceives the reference of speed related to the moving object. Then it becomes a matter of adjusting the effect to your particular needs. Without the reference point the eye is often confused. Just as it can be in the real world. You can recreate reality to a large extent in CG but if a shortcut will do just as well...

I'm not sure if you are looking for suggestions here but... I'll offer them anyway. If you are gonna do Cannabalistic Rabbits you might as well do them right. Keep in mind that final decisions are always up to the artist. Feel free to ignore. Looking at your image I immediately become distracted by the word balloon and the horizon. This takes my eye away from the image (which is what word balloons do) but isn't easy to read. Level/straighten the words out so they are horizontal and it'll help your story 'read' better (literally!). Then and consider the horizon. What to do with that? How far would you like to take this image? Looking for composition tips? Lighting tips? Just posting for the fun of it? There is a story in there even if its only captured in one image. I'd like to see you push this one to its limits. (Well, maybe not so much the cannabalistic part!) Its your story... run with it!

Sure seems like a lot of work just to get your Menu back. I understand your frustration though. Is there any way that it is just pushed off the visible screen area? I ask as pushing the menu off the screen was the only way I could get the menu to disappear for me. Now I'm off to try to find a way to get it back myself. Edit: It took me awhile to get the menu back and I'm not sure what specifically did it. I changed the Icons to large... shut down A:M... restarted and saw a sliver of the menu down at the bottom of the screen. Grabbed that and I was back in business. I'm not sure that is your problem but just in case...

Stian, Thats the ticket. That's spot on. When I saw your earlier render I was instantly transported back to an airfield near Tokyo Japan. The location I was transported to wasn't ideal as it had your aircraft flying down to the runway at the wrong angle! Maybe thats where the idea of crashing this thing transported me? My point here... your images immediately transport the viewer into your scenes. That is a rare quality. This one is no exception. If looking to maximize this particular render as a still image I'll suggest giving the aircraft a little more 'noseroom' in the frame. That would allow for perception of additional space for the plane to fly into. I'm making piddly suggestions here because I ran out of superlatives long ago!

Stick with solutions #3 then.

You could make the material into a decal and that may be the easiest solution at this point. Especially if you've got the stripes just as you want them. The correct answer however is to go back into the material and exchange the horizontal settings of your stripes for verticle ones. If you post the material here in the forum (you may have to zip it) others can look at it for you.

There are two primary things to check when importing sequential images: 1) Naming Convention The filenames need to be sequential or else the import will terminate prematurely. For example, if a sequence is as follows: filename.jpg filename01.jpg filename03.jpg You will only get the first file imported. If the second first filename was 'filename00.jpg' you'd get two images but the sequence would stop as there is no 'filename02.jpg'. Are you with me so far? Its generally best to stick with something simple to ensure A:M and other programs recognize the sequence. I like naming things 'filename000.jpg' as then A:M will fill the sequence for me up to 1000 images sequentially. Okay, maybe thats not your problem. Another thing to check is that you are telling A:M to import an image sequence. If you just choose 'Import Image' without checking the box that specifies you want sequential images you will get only one image. Both of these two aren't your problem? With A:M's NLE settings you generally will need to set an image frame. You can find this under the Timing settings. Select a frame number at frame 1 then move to the end of your animation and set another. If you aren't sure how many frames are in your animation you can check several different ways OR you can just scroll the frame number up until you get to the last frame. Watch closely as the image will repeat same after you've reached the last image. This third area seems to be your likely problem but there may be others. Different size images for instance can terminate a sequence. Please let us know if any of these are related to your problem as I'm sure others will have similar questions.

I put together a semi-tutorial that covers some of your options but... Quicktime refuses to export it. Strange. As soon as I get it packaged up I'll upload it.

Very nice. You are already too close to perfection for me. If you are trying to press it further, which I assume you are, can you bounce some color from the ground up to break up the black under the aircraft?

You may want to investigate the topic 1 post from yours in the forum: Making a model appear out of nowhere P.S. Your Swallow animation is strangely like an animation I made two days ago. Poor seahorse!

Transparency may be the better way to dissapear an object. Note that this is a bit off topic as Master Funk would be better served by animating Transparency. I got some odd results as I put the attached movie together to demonstrate but the Active attribute can be animated over time. The most important aspects of animating the Active option is to use Dopesheet Mode (the timeline graph won't show the keyframes) and to ensure you've changed the Attribute to 'Time Based'. The attached is not so much a 'How to' as it is proof that the option exists. Scroll through frame by frame as its not in real time. ActiveOnOff.mov

Glad you finally found the forum! Hopefully we can spread the word further in 2008. There are a lot of A:M Users out there I know could benefit from being here. You are going to want to spend some time with the Timeline. I'm not sure how familiar you are with it. Robert Holmen has some video examples of working in a timeline posted here in the forum. We need to connect you with them. Perhaps more importantly, we need to see what you are seeing. Anything you can do to help us in that regard will help us help you. Do you know how to capture a screen using the PrintScreen function on your keyboard? Nice little animation. It shows that Keekat really shouldn't drink!

Let me be the first to welcome you then Luis! You are in.

Right click on the option and make sure it is set to time based. If its set to 'Constant' or something other it won't animate over time.

Yes. See here for more information: v15 Websubscription

Welcome back! A:M v8.5 might work fairly well under Vista but... there are some basic (and important) improvements to A:M that you'd be missing out on. For instance, the ability to stitch splines together is invaluable! The old way I could never go back to. You are dusting A:M off at the right time. $49 will get you upgraded to 2008! I echo Roberts suggestion. Study Nancy Gormezano. (Heck... someone needs to watch her carefully!) And look around the forums and A:M Stills for more inspiration. There is considerable talent on display here.

Every time I open a post here in the forum I learn something new. Very nice effect.

You keep outdoing yourself Stian. Beautiful work.

Take some of the best lessons of TaoA:M and incorporated them into a music video and what do you get? Payton's First Music Video! Favorite Moment/Sequence): Shaggy at the Door (Nice timing and reveal) Suggestions for improvement: Work that camera to vary your shots Consider more closeups and mid range shots Zoom in the camera and feature the characters a bit more Regarding Youtube... If the resource is available and helps get your work out into the public eye... Use it!

No Caroline... Thank You!

I *could* lead you on in an effort to encourage you to adopt the new way of things but... The third raffle is open to *all* A:M Users. The New Users forum (i.e. little ol' moderator me) is just the sponsor. While you *should* be a current subscription holder that isn't required either. I'm an inclusive kind of guy. Thats the long way of saying... "Chris, you are in!"

Marcos, That you are my friend. Raffle Note: Where the winner of the raffle already has the prize in their possession an alternate prize will be offered. The end goal: Raffle winner satisfaction guaranteed.