Rodney

Sure. You can even call me 'Fred' if that's what you want. I think the only way you won't get that redundancy is with 'real time' applications. WebHAMR is about as close as you'll get there with A:M but that won't help you much now. Yes, cheats like grids, rotoscopes and such will still rerender images but with less redundancy. Excellent.

Hi Dave! Welcome to the A:M Community. From one guy in dusty uniform to another much respect goes out to you for your service. It sounds like you've got quite a project ahead of you. Good luck and let us know if there is anything you need. There are several pilots running around this forum (I'm NOT one of them). But Martin Hash certainly is. Again... welcome! Rodney (A belated welcome to Spitts and El Wire too!)

20 seconds per frame is pretty good! The terms Preproduction, Compositing and Planning immediately spring to mind. In traditional (feature film) and even limited animation (classic TV shows) they have historically approached the problem from the same angle. The emphasis is usually in diffferent places however. What you are trying to set up (your final results) would dictate what approach you would need to take. The following might provide a starting point: - Isolate* those elements in your shots that don't move at all. - Isolate* those elements in your shots that move very little. - Isolate* those elements in your shots that move a lot. *Isolate them on paper first. Write it out... Sketch it out... stick figure it out... Keep it simple. Once you have a workable plan you can investigate techniques that can help you put the plan together in A:M. Because your resolution is fairly low you might be able to get away with some tricks to make your rendering go faster. Some off the wall suggestions follow: Option 1 (you'll need to remove those areas that you don't want in another program) Place a rotoscope of those areas that will never change on the camera and switch it to 'On Top'. This will create a mask through which the camera should be able to see through to changes below/behind and therefore not render the elements in front/above. Option 2 (this assumes you are using images made outside of A:M, which you are) Create 2 or 3 grids - Create 1 grid you'll apply the image sequence to as a decal. It hold the image that never changes. - Create 1 grid will hold the image sequence with elements that rarely change via decal. - Optionally, create 1 grid that will hold those elements that will change a lot. Remove those grid areas where no change occurs or make them transparent. There are several ways to do this part... Option 3 Something else Again... 20 seconds per frame... pretty good. I can't help but here Yves Poissant's voice in my head saying, "Just render it and save yourself some time". Unless you are in it for the education just rendering it will probably be easier.

I've been a bit behind the power curve and am just now getting caught up. Outstanding work!

Others have already answered the basic question and I wholeheartedly agree. Here are some things you'll want to watch out for though. If you just want to use A:M as a line tester so you can view your drawn animation it'll work great. For more complicated uses you get more complex answers. When using any sequential images (.TGA, .JPG etc.) you'll want to use the same size image or run the risk of terminating the sequence prematurely. This can be problematic if you draw and then scan your images into your computer quickly without consideration for the variations that might be introduced to an image, its alignment, line quality etc. If you draw on a graphics tablet via your computer it may be less of an issue if you start with the same size image but registration/alignment of the images will still be a consideration. There are many effective ways to adjust drawn images for use with A:M. A:M is a great tool for compositing images but it works best with images that have been created with compositing in mind. A drawn image on a piece of paper generally will have to be prepared in some way to gain the benefit of compositing. Placing a drawn background or a photograph in back of a character is common but if that character drawn on paper hasn't been prepared correctly you'll just see the white paper behind the character and not the background. A:M does not have a Chromakey feature. It does have a Key Color feature that works similarly at a one color level. With Key Color A:M will drop out sections of your image with that color to let what lies behind it show through. Generally, A:M doesn't need Chromakey as images created within A:M can easily and automatically be masked when created. For more information on this aspect investigate Alpha Channels. With v15 A:M has gained some new and very useful Non Linear editing tools that will serve traditional animators and CG artists well. Once you have your animated sequence of images in A:M you can retime your animation, add titles and credits, create transitions and special effects... the list goes on and on. All this to say... with the proper planning and understanding of the tools available A:M is a great program for hand drawn animation.

Now that was fun! It looked like everyone was having a great time. Some nice character for your characters are in those voices too. When I closed my eyes and imagined the voices coming from onscreen characters... a chill ran up my spine. (Thats a very good thing I think) A very nice sampler. Keep it up!

Please send my congratulations to Nephtali ‘Nep’ Leal for assuming the role of Artist and Art Director for 'The Revenge of Red Riding Hood'. It looks like you've made a great choice. ...and I look forward to seeing more of his work!

You really left us in suspense on that last one Satyajit. I hope the final auditions turn out great for you. Its interesting that you just posted your update. I had just plugged Celtx in the Off Topic forum. I hope to check it out again as I find time. Thanks for keeping us up to date on your project. Do you have preliminary sketches/concept sketches yet?

Its great to see you here again Pengy. You've been missed!

I agree with Fuchur here. Sweeper is what you are after. The Duplicator Wizard is great for instances where you can plot trajectories via pitch, roll etc. Sweeper can be used to do the same thing but follow along a spline path of your choosing. If you already have the rope Eric's suggestion is a great one. This would allow you to animate it too if that is ever needed.

hehe... I said some would make a million $. I didn't say who would get to keep the majority of all that $ though. Making money is a good thing... it pays the bills, puts food on the table and lets us buy new and fancy things. But I've heard there are much more important things than these. All this could be just rumor though. If only life were as simple as TaoA:M Exercise 1.

You are in Bob!

We have to create it first but "Yes" I think it will. I have a similar experience with moving my computer to the front room from a few years ago from the guest bedroom. I think my family forgot who I was. Now... they seem to have gotten over that and they just send me to the basement. I have learned a lot along the way though. For instance, "Papa, Mama says come to dinner" means "Right now...or you won't eat anything!" I have very little interest in being a starving animator ya' know.

Thats exactly what I mean. Its more as an introduction to the possibilities than anything... a break from the work if you will. If you ever get stuck... ever get frustrated... break away and explore A:M a bit. Right Click on everything... break stuff! Then you'll be ready to come back to 'the work' again. The same applies outside A:M as well of course. Keep friends and family close. Engage yourself in other non-A:M related activities. Explore the outside world. But... you knew all this stuff already right? I'm the one thats still learning. Added: There is a sub-exercise I'd like to add to Exercise 1 that introduces some simple lighting and textures manipulation. Its not so much about setting these up as exploring all the buttons, bells and whistles that are already there! There is a whole lot to discover in A:M.

Your topic certainly wasn't terrible. Not by any means. I do reword topic titles from time to time in the Newbies forum. I try not to take too much liberty with the poster's words and my additions can usually be found in the subtitle in brackets "( )". Where there is already a subtitle I try to incorporate it into the title first. For those interested in why I bother to do this in the Newbies forum read on (apologies to all others for straying off topic) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Everyone's time is valuable and where the Topic Title tells the reader at a glance what can be found once a topic is open less time is wasted and (more importantly) answers to questions can be found. When searching the forum it also helps target key words. I have a few informal rules for editing topic titles; when and when not to edit. Here is a 'golden rule': If the original poster acknowledges a solution I consider placing the solution in the topic subtitle to signal closure to other viewers. The original poster getting an appropriate answer (customer's satisfaction with the solution) is the rule. Where the original poster fails to acknowledge the solution there is little anyone can do. So... my appreciation goes out to all those take the time to thank those who offer advice, suggest solutions and spend their valueable time answering questions. Accurate topic titles help others help you. Lest anyone think I wish to complain about topic titles... quite the contrary. Someone may not know enough about a particular subject to formulate the questions accurately... they are the ones looking for answers after all. But... once a solution is known and the original author of the post satisfied with that solution... its time to share that solution with others and see exactly what we've learned. Editing the topic title is my attempt to close the loop and highlight solutions. Hopefully the information can then be more easily accessed by others via forum search or even when just wandering through. So.. all this to say... Keep on asking and answering those questions! I'll try not to take too many liberties with your words. Where I do we'll make the appropriate adjustments. P.S. Others are always welcome to post examples of what they've learned to extend the discussion even more!

gnarayan, Welcome to the A:M forum and Animation:Master! Let the fun begin. Yours is an interesting situation. If you apply the end state of your recent experience in Maya toward A:M you'll easily excell with A:M. The good news... you should make the transition easily. As you already know (you bought the program after all) A:M is an all-in-one animation solution. Apply what you've learned and chart your goals and make yourself at home here in the forum. The bad news... A:M isn't like other programs (this is good news if you gain mastery of the difference). If you try to use it like other programs you'll find frustration at every turn. Set yourself up for success from the beginning and don't wander too far off course. Remember the goal... stick to it! One of the surest ways to set yourself up for success is to learn A:M's optimal workflow. The best way to do that is to work through the TaoA:M manual. After working with Maya this will seem TOO EASY... but stay with it. You'll be glad you did and you're work will quickly show it. Again... welcome! You've definitely come to the right place. Apologies for where my words sound more like advertisement/preaching to the choir. I don't know much about your experience and goals up to this point. Its meant to be encouragement.

Please do. If you skip one we get all confused. My suggestion for additional credit/experience with Exercise 1 is to experiment and explore the various rendering settings. While you'll get into these later in the TaoA:M manual there it'll help to know what to look for. Don't be afraid to test out the possibilities! (but... um... keep focused) Most of all... have fun. Animation may be work but fun is what this is all about. Whether you make a million $ working at Pixar or stick to your own creations, don't ever...Ever...EVER... forget that.

As others have suggested you'll get lots of good info simply by posting your work in progress here in the forum. Do that! As others suggested as well... I highly recommend Barry Zundel's DVDs too. Barry takes you from CP and spline to patch on to animation friendly character model and he points out the pitfalls and important stuff as you do. While there are other great resources out there, as far as I know there is no other resource available covering modeling in A:M as thoroughly. I also recommend complementing the "Modeling" DVD with the other two DVDs in the series; "Rigging" and "Animation" too. So... you can do what many of us do and forage for the freestuff. Or... you can get off and running quickly. If I had to do it all over again I know what I would do. (Both!)

Closing down the Aero aspects of Vista seems to be the interim fix for most people. The older the program the more oddness I seem to find in a variety of programs I use on Vista. One of the oddest things I've encountered in Vista with A:M is where A:M rendered or saved files to a specific directory but Vista refused to acknowledge they were there. This could be a very bad problem if Vista doesn't really write them to disk. I haven't seen that specific problem again but refreshing file folders to get accurate file listings for me is still the norm. If I had Windows XP on the road I'd probably use that. But... Vista works. I still need to turn all the bloat-ware off. All the programs HP installed at the factory take entirely too much memory. I keep searching for updated drivers for my graphics card as I find the time but the best has yet to be found. I'm using an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950. The driver for 945 works better. When refresh problems persist a switch from OpenGL to Direct3D and back or vice versa (Within TOOLS/OPTIONS on the Global tab) generally works. Of possible interest also: Vista was placing A:M and the ~E5000* file in what is termed 'virtualization' mode automatically. When I removed that setting I got better performance. You can find this setting by going to the processes (Ctrl/Alt/Delete) and right clicking on the process. Note: ~E5000* is not the name of that process but should be fairly close (I can't recall the proper name right now). Its a process that keep A:M running stable. If you terminate the process A:M immediately will go *POOF*. Good to know if you ever need to terminate A:M immediately I suppose.

You must realise... this makes you A:M royalty by bloodline alone? Any cousin of PF_Mark (or aspiring animator for that matter) is most welcome here. Let the fun (and animation!) begin! Welcome!

Go Dhar! He's really looking great. He'll be a lot of fun to animate.

Yup. Dat link no workie. There be a copy o' them there A:M Features pages on de ol' Extra DVD ifn you be'a hav'n dat.

I'll be looking forward to that. (My daughters are quite artistic too but I think they get that more from their Mom)

Hehe... too bad I don't know your address. But... James you are in... and Mr. 'Fae Alba' too. The next raffle (whenever it happens to be raffled) will include 'old users' too. So... anyone can win the last prize. For those still interested, since the title says, "2007", it'll probably be NLT 31 Dec.

Paul Harris! I thought I had seen your name popping up again in the forum. Its great to see you attacking animation again. Very cool that your daughter has aspirations in animation too BTW. Shhh... don't tell anybody but there is still time to get involved in 'Tin Woodman of Oz'! It would be perfect for a father/daughter team. Working on TWO would also let her know if that's really the path she wants to pursue in the future. (but you didn't hear any of that from me... Shhh.) Edit: I changed 'attack A:M' to 'attack animation'. Didn't want you to get accused of anything illegal.