Rodney

The Link from the Hash website is the good one. http://wikiold.hash.com/amfeatures/published/HomePage I believe the only change is that the address now has the word 'old' after 'wiki'.

Martin doesn't beg like the average person does he?

Just thought I'd drop in and complement your work. Very nice! You are off to a great start. The photo comic has got my attention. What fun!

For the basics you'll want to check out the Walk and Wheel Cycle tutorial under 'Misc' on the video tutorials page (Look for it near the bottom) http://www.hash.com/vm/ For more advanced look into Mark Skodecek's wheel rig. It uses the ground plane to control the wheels rotation as a vehicle moves across the terrain. Its all crazy contraint stuff that I don't yet understand as I haven't yet looked into it. But fairly simple from the way Mark relates it. The rig is used for the carts in the TWO movie. BTW - I think you guys may want to post in the Newbies section. It's not as bad being a Newbie as one would think.

Alf, Its quite likely that if you've started a project in v11 you'll want to see it through to the end in v11. Thats just the nature of keeping things locked down and avoiding feature creep. There is also the matter of a file format change between v11 and v13. Just as you can't take a file back easily from v11 to v8.5p++ you won't be able to go from v13 back to v11. Consider any move forward in production very carefully. Personally, I think moving to v13/v14 would be a really good thing. But all that aside, there is a subtle point that many are missing. Use whatever version you need to get the job done but consider how upgrading will support Hash Inc too. If A:M (v8,v9,v10, v11... whatever) has been successful in your projects its a testament to how well Hash Inc has supported you with great software. But if you've gone years without upgrading think how far it'll go in saying 'Thanks' to Hash Inc. I continue to work on Martin to restore his faith in us as A:M Users. This has been a tough sell. As artists we tend to find our tools and stick with them. Especially when they really work well. This creates a weird problem for Hash Inc. The better they make their software the fewer that are likely to upgrade. It should be the other way around right? From the business side of things Martin is certainly right. Our record as A:M Users isn't so good. When paying programmers and determining satisfaction in his product he can only count on those that support them financially and reward them for their work. He's counting on your upgrade to show the level of your support and satisfaction. It sets expectations for the future. Investment must come first before anything can be returned. But somehow we've got this system all backward. We look for new features first... then upgrade. But $99 can only go so far after the fact. Invest it early and it'll have more impact. But this isn't all about supporting Hash Inc. Its about supporting yourself too. The best thing about upgrading is not just that it sends your signal of support to Hash Inc. You get really great software! And its going to get even better. Here's a look at what Hash Inc has delivered in previous versions. http://www.hash.com/am2007/ http://www.hash.com/am2006/ http://www.hash.com/am2005/ http://www.hash.com/am2004/ http://www.hash.com/am2003/ ...and now the wheels are turning toward 2008 and v15. The future of A:M won't be the same without you.

Dennis, Looks very cool. For some reason I can't download the MOV files. Probably something on my end. Keep up the experimenting.

Humor always has a way of taking the edge off of tough areas of discussion. Not to run this off topic but its really sad to know that programmers that had been with Hash Inc for almost 20 years left because they couldn't get the recognition they deserved for their work. I'm not sure many people know that they've even moved on. We aren't the most 'in the know' group of software users. Too deep a discussion for here I'm sure but its still a sad statement of fact. I'm glad they are doing well and getting satisfaction where they are now. I was just thinking how great a program A:M has been through the years. A work of art in bits and bytes programmed and maintained by people who know and love what they are doing. And now you say two people at Hash Inc don't even get paid for thier work at Hash Inc? I knew about you but who else... that's unbelievable. How did things come to this? Here's hoping you all stick with us Martin. You're service and support, your outstanding product and your love for computer animation, is well worth my $99 for many years to come. Tell Steve and the guys they can have my shoes. I'm planning to sit behind my computer learning to animate with A:M anyway so probably won't be needing them much. They aren't the most comfortable but they are sure to be less worn and holey than theirs. Most importantly, be sure to thank them for all the hard work they've been doing there at Hash Inc. Their efforts really are appreciated. I'm tired now so I think I'll go dream a little while I sleep. Maybe the world will be set right in the morning? No, not much chance of that, but at least I've still got dreaming. Somebody turn out the lights and walk that dang dog.

Another angle to approach from isn't 'Does A:M have this?' but rather "What I'm trying to do is ...." What is it that you are trying to accomplish via projected surfaces and curves? It sounds like something Simcloth or one of Steffen Gross's plugins (like Newton Dynamics) should be able to do. As it seems like you are already moving in that direction dDefinitely look into Simcloth.

Not sure what an AMV is Mr. C. I'm going to guess that peoples schedules are pretty tied up but if you ask (and you are asking) there may be interest. Just understand that between image and animation contests, TaoA:M exercises, ongoing challenges and current projects in the forum already underway... not to mention Tin Woodman of Oz interest may not be very strong until you post some examples yourself. I'd encourage new users to complete TaoA:M first before anything else. It may not sound like the most exciting project to tackle but its the best way I know to ensure success with A:M. Once you've completed TaoA:M... game on!

Posting here is fine. (Sorry I can't answer at the moment though. Gots ta go!) Great to see you back.

Shaun, Sorry you had to do that by hand (Pose sliders or otherwise) but I gotta say... that looks really nice.

There are probably a few options available to you. Hash Inc can point you in the right direction based on your specific needs. http://www.hash.com/2007web/contact.htm Contacting them via phone seems to be the most direct route.

Vern, I think the A.R.M. itself was (and is) the draw. Yeah the content is king but you made that content look so good with your skills. No suggestion from me for a change. (I've got them too though) I just wanted to say 'thanks'.

Pace yourself Mr. C.

...and this is where I say "Just in the nick of time". The final raffle is only days away. Mr. Wilkens? Are you out there? I still need to get ahold of you as I don't know what decision you've made.

The missing links are one of the reasons I'm happy to see tutorials moving toward the Extra CD/DVD. At least then those old tutorials of old won't disappear completely. I definitely don't have those two saved anywhere. As far as smoke and flame following trails I think using the tutorial from the manual... BUT... applying the emitter to a path would work well for you. JohnL3D not only has some examples... he's got project files too. Look those up. This is somewhat unrelated but definitely a classic. I tripped over it while trying to find your missing tutorials. Jeff Lew's Killer Bean Bullet Time Effect - The Tutorial Edit: Ken may be refering to Shaun Freeman's particle sprite tutorial. The other Freeman (Colin) has one too and posted a heck of a lot of sprite images for our use. Those also should be on the Extra CD/DVD. BTW - I haven't taken the time in your topic to say it so will say it here. Great models!

Mr. C, Don't forget to review the video tutorials! Hopefully you've see those. http://www.hash.com/vm/ The A key is the shortcut key that'll start a spline. Or you can use the icon designated for that on the right. Congrats on taking the plunge into the world of A:M. Once you use the basic tools of stitching, lathing and extruding you'll see everything start to fit. The video tutorial for modeling the fighter starts here: part1 (25MB) part2 (22MB) part3 (20MB) part4 (30MB) But you may want to download them all first: zip (93MB)

Just make it 1 trillion and one. Hash Inc is very responsive to reports entered into A:M Reports. Who knows... they might be working on filter enhancements as we speak. Bottom line: A:M Reports works. At least you know Hash Inc has it on file if you report it. Take care Ramon.

Simon, That walk cycle with Stone Elemental... TOO COOL. Thats beautiful stuff.

Ramon, One of the reasons you'll see me default to available solutions is... well... thats what we have to work with. Everything else is wishful thinking and workaround. At least the current Filter feature works -and- a few workarounds are available to extend functionality. The textfile nature and SDK suggest other ways of extending the Filter's functionality too. By all means launch a new feature request in A:M Reports. What you are describing would be useful to others. As long as you understand the difficulties involved. There is no such thing as a 'simple addition' when you are working in the core A:M code. For your idea to work Filters would have to be rewritten. To maintain permanency Filters would have to be stored in DLLs or files in the A:M directory... no longer in the files themselves. But to keep from angering long time users the old method would have to be maintained too right? So now we have two methods of Filtering? One permanent? One tied to the Project? This isn't getting more simple.... its getting more complex. Understand also (and I know you do) that Hash Inc works through priorities then finds the time to add these new features into new releases. Add in the other features everyone thinks would be 'cool' and we start to see how long the wait could be. Its good also to realise that implementing this feature (any feature for that matter) will bump something else from the list. Is this the most important thing to you at the moment? If it is... life sure is good. Permanent filters, which is a good idea, takes a few moments to workaround via the current implementation, and can work as you envision when reusing the same project file. Balance that against against other feature requests for things not currently available and we begin to see where our feature requests fall in the list of priorities. Again... submit these to A:M Reports. It's not likely to be implemented otherwise. This looks like an excellent opportunity for 3rd Party intervention. Through the SDK and file format searching (these files are XML compatible doncha know) other solutions can be explored. Then users would have the core functionality still in place and the extension power of permanent filters available too. Those discussing this thread before you were trying to understand how Filtering works. Extending current functionality is fodder for new features. The nature of feature requests in the forum are such that they soon can get out of hand. Which is why they run afowl of the forum guidelines. Post those puppies to A:M Reports! Rodney

Filters can be saved with Projects. If you save a default project with the filters already in it you can reuse those over and over again. There is a checkbox to save the filter in the current project. I see you mentioned that. Definitely check it or filters won't be saved at all. The assumption being that you only needed it for that specific search. I'd imagine a filter utility could be created to add and remove filters on demand. Hash Inc doesn't encourage brute force methods of working with the file format but I'd guess the SDK has hooks for filtering too. In the Project File a simple Filter filtering for models would look like this: <FILTER> Name=Models <FILTERLIST> Model </FILTERLIST> </FILTER> a filter looking for models named 'dragon': <FILTER> Name=Models SearchString=dragon <FILTERLIST> Model </FILTERLIST></FILTER> Filters can be created easily and are seldom used in dissimilar projects. Do you really want to save all your filters in every project?

Its been awhile since playing with flocking but if you are only getting 2 blades of grass perhaps your falloff distance is too little? Experiment with your Fall Off and Minimum Distance settings. Edit: Ooo... Ooo! And don't forget Preroll. That is essential. Also: Ken is spot on about suggesting hair instead of flocking for grass.

I believe I've sent my intial greetings to Roger elsewhere so Lloyd... this one goes out to you. Welcome to the A:M Forum. If you are still struggling in any way please know that there are others just like you struggling too. Its usually not because the information isn't available trust me. Ask those questions... get those answers. In the process it'll help a whole new generation of newbies. Everyone of us was a newbie at one time or another. Some of us still are. The difference between the old and new is that newbies these days have no good reason to lurk in the background of the forum. The resources available in TaoA:M, ABC, Tin Woodman of Oz and more... just discussing solutions here in the forum will get you through the rough spots. You've discovered A:M now show us what you can do with it. More power to the newbies!

Simon, Thats one of those "Why didn't I think of that" models. Simply wonderful. Great stuff. More! More!

Good grief! I blinked and missed the Beta release? Interesting effect John.... I could almost feel waves of heat.