Rodney

Slowly... ever so slowly.... The Animation Collaborative is sharing a few resources. There isn't a lot to see here but here's a few short videos from approx. two years ago... xhttps://vimeo.com/animationcollaborative

There are a ton of video capture programs out there and here's yet another one (PC only... sorry mac guys/gals). http://www.screentogif.com/ Source code is available as well. This is definitely a progam to check out because it has most of the tools that standard screeen capture software doesn't have. A few quick pluses: - Capture to GIF animation, image sequences, avi (mp4 and other formats via FFmpeg tab) - A basic frame editor - Basic drawing on screen (or board recording) - Webcam recording - Lots of other stuff I'm forgetting such as text, cropping, basic transitions, etc) - It's free (donations to the creator welcome!) - Actively developed (last update was 10 days ago) The downside I saw was that the program seemed to operate pretty slowly. I haven't had much time to look into that. The program does require Net Framework 4.6.1 be installed (which I believe the program's installer will install for you). It does or else I already had it installed on my system because it ran fine after install.

.It could be used in addition to... but not exclusively for webcam/streaming. I haven't looked in to the full paid version and any additional features that might be reserved for that. I mainly look for tools that everyone can use. I don't think he's parted ways with them so much as embraced in person instructional sessions they (the crew at Animation Collaborative) achieve on site rather than online. He doesn't tour as much as some of his teaching buddies. For what it's worth I perceive that the folks at Animation Collaborative are trying to move toward online training but haven't yet created the necessary infrastructure nor found the ideal platform. Specifically, I'm talking about the sharing of lectures, demonstrations, etc. that are taped by them but only available for viewing in their facility. If they could find a way to release those resources without them instantly being shared with everyone in the world I think they'd do it. It is interesting to note that most (many?) of the animation schools were headed/staffed by instructors who taught a class or two at Animation Mentor but wanted to explore a different approach. Several specifically stated the high cost of training as a reason for offering their own courses; Mike Gallagher (Animschool) and Jason Ryan (iAnimate) in particular have tried to open the doors a little wider and in turn have encouraged Animation Mentor to consider additional training options. But most of this is very old news. Relating to the topic of collaboration tools I note that at least one of the creators of RGBnotes (Eriks Vitolins) is a current instructor at Animschool.

Yes, Animschool, The Animation Collaborative (where Victor Navone has been teaching), Academy of Art, Ringling School of Arts as well as many others. Of course that isn't to say they don't use other tools as well but I'm sure they standardize on one product as much as possible. It does make sense that each of these schools would gravitate toward their own form of collaboration and review software. Artella for instance, is attached to Animation Mentor. Added: I see that RGBNotes also claims AnimSchool as a client. I suppose they could be using both... letting instructors use the tools they prefer. Or... perhaps Animschool has recently shifted emphasis from one to the other.

Yet another online collaboration and review tool has appeared. The drawing tools are basic but adequate to communicate the reviewers intent. The free tier should satisfy basic requirements for a quick review but likely won't meet the needs of projects in full production. It's interesting to see where these online collaborative tools are heading. Worth checking out. https://syncsketch.com/#features I've lost track of similar products in circulation but a few of those include: RGBNotes Frame.io Artella While these services all have much to offer I think these may all be surpassed and eclipsed by what I'm seeing referred to as Web 3.0 (with a little of what is called edge computing thrown in for good measure). This looks to bring peer to peer sharing of resources to everyone who owns a personal computing device and brings real time collaboration to everyone's desktop/browser by largely cutting out the middle man in the process. The edge computing part would be that of the services targeting the user at the time and place where they require the service or product.. The peer to peer aspect might best be demonstrated by a project (currently in beta) called keybase. With a setup such as keybase, review of projects (say, with A:M) would be made easier because collaborators could be working in real time on iterations of the same project. :

That's exciting news. Like a phoenix from the ashes!

Definitely looks interesting. I need to keep PixPlant in mind for realisticly rendered projects. The call to realism is ever present but for the most part I continue to resist it. I have never liked long render times and targeting realism easily multiplies the time it takes to complete a task by five (a conservative estimate). Refining my workflow would certainly help but as of yet I'm not that organized.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm excited by the stats because they validate that our forum is meeting the needs of its members. Of course there is always room for improvement. Hardly! The list continues downward, Papa bear made the first page! So you and anyone who sees themselves represented should consider themselves as being near the top. To say it another way, consider that if the list had every forum and subforum listed it would have well over one hundred entries. And that is a conservative estimate. If we include the forums that are direct links to other areas (such as the Quick Links at the bottom of the main forum) there are technically over 400 forums. I find the SDK's placement very telling. People genuinely are interested in contributing to the A:M ecosystem, building bridges, enhancing features, etc. Of course, if one considers views in isolation we might get a false impression. There are a certain amount of views generated simply by someone posting into a topic. Subsequent views are largely that of other forum members simply doing their due diligence, checking out the new post to see if (or how) that post might apply to their current or anticipated interests. One must take care not to create a direct correlation where none might exist. I realized this a few years ago when I noticed that some topic or forum I was posting in was getting a lot of views but as I considered it I realized that the views were mostly being generated by the fact that I was posting new content for others to view. Taking this into consideration we might have to weight these stats a little to account for new releases'. In the case of the SDK forum I have no doubt that some of the popularity directly relates to the fact that some guy named Nemyax was diligently posting updates about work on a plugin that enabled Blender to A:M (and vice versa). Even if there is no direct interest to a forum member that member might check out the post to keep up with what is going on. I recall a lot of interest in Malo's postings over the past few years also. The subject matter was genuinely interesting... relevant... even to those that will never open the SDK or write a single line of code. We should also account for the fact that I personally read every post so... the number of views (per topic) should probably start its count one point lower times the number of posts. I'm not trying to bring lofty thoughts of relevance down but am trying to keep out collective expectations grounded. We aren't a huge group of people but every forum member is important. I must say though that I'm pretty pumped that if we were to compare this forum to one like Blender's going back to their opening (which is largely the same timeframe), the number of posts and views here in the A:M Forum is considerably higher. This shouldn't be the case considering the vast number of users that Blender is reported to have in tow. This also isn't an entirely full picture of course as there are several Blender forums and I'm only considering the primary forum. All this to say, keep up the great work. You may think that no one cares or that no one is reading your post but... people are watching!

Random warping of space and time (if such things can truly be called random)...

Jason Hess said: Welcome back Jason! You've been missed too!

Very cute. The irony that I'm over in another topic posting of bullet holes and flesh wounds and you are upping the ante on niceness is not lost on me. We need balance so keep it up!

Not at all. I thought of making a few variations on this theme that demonstrate different approaches and (as always) the situation will dictate what approaches will work best. Some of those variations might be: - To make the tears in the pants more like grazing cuts than holes. The thought behind the current holes was that the skin isn't penetrated by the bullet because as everyone knows.... werewolves are only vulnerable to silver bullets. So the scenerio would be: werewolf gets shot multiple times where holes in pants and shirt demonstrate his invulnerability to bullets. Werewolf snarls in defiance. Camera shifts to girl with gun who places silver bullet into gun, then smiles. Camera back to Werewolf who receives shot to the chest which has obvious effect. - Setup a scene where holes are shot out of a brick or concrete wall (I've had many scenes like this show up in my artwork over the years and have tested this out a little in 3D). In many cases with walls the ideal approach to creating bullet holes would be to use Boolean Cutters where the models used to remove the wall are textured spheres or similar shapes that texture the wall even as they cut out parts of it. Additonal debri would then be introduced to suggest parts of the wall fragmenting. A lot will depend on the style we would be aiming for. But back to the question. Perhaps the easiest way to add a sense of torn flesh or holes in the legs would be to apply a decal to those 'squib' models; a short series of animated images might work best and allow for dialing in different effects. Similar approaches would be used to create blood splatter etc. although the blood splatter would of course be coming out of the back of the leg. Small entry point. Large exit wound. Etc. (Ah, the joys of ballistics)

I left off plugging Aaron's Art Tips for a couple reasons. The primary one being that I didn't want to be seen as trying to sell products. BUT the fact remains that Aaron's online presence is an essential stop for animators. Aaron has added a lot of videos and courses since I last posted a link to him. Of possible interest, he offers an all you can eat annual membership that grants access to everything he has released. (Disclaimer: I haven't yet opted for that) Of late Aaron has started twice weekly Live Sessions (one via Facebook and one via Youtube) where he covers a variety of art and animation related techniques. Here's a relatively old video on lipsync (which I don't think I posted before). It's quick, interesting and entertaining. xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8OAlOy6QNU

Yes, Kat (Katherine) was definitely working in that style. Here's a link to her Special Projects area: LINK

Hmmm... I may not be much help. When I render frames 2 and 3 the toon lines turn out the same. I'm uploading a modified project file that removes a few models/objects that don't appear to be related to the problem. The project should only render frames 2 and 3. Try this project and see if you get the same (that is to say wrong) results. Modified Scene 06C.prj

I confess that much of my work tends to avoid the solid computer generated look (read: realistically rendered) This may be because of my focus more on a 'comic book' abstracted style with an emphasize on linework over surface and shading. Having said that, when I see the results of the solid rendering style I can't help but like it! The specific area that I like seems to be that where the objects take on the look of plastic but I imagine the same thing could be said about other surfaces. We just happen to be looking at a plastic looking surface at the moment. It's great that Animation:Master can accommodate so many styles.

Awesome results Mark! Truly fantastic. For negative lights I turn the shadows off or else they produce negative lights. Not sure if you did that or not. ...and hehe... 'speculation'. hehe... That must be the secret sauce.

'Sci Fi High School' by Courtney Bell (known as Paradymx here in the forum) was another (mostly) flat shaded project that had fun characters and great potential. It also had going for it an anime style. http://www.scifihighanimation.webs.com/ The basic premise reminds me of another flat shaded project that you may recall from way way back in Hash time, 'Nosferatu' which was (I believe) by Tony Lower-Basch (also of the Dojo Project fame**). He recompiled the individual weekly episodes together into two larger episodes. Great stuff! Download the episodes here: http://www.museoffire.com/Nosferatu/index.html Neither of these are/were as polished as 'Stolen Smells' but they were headed in that direction. **Precursor to 2001 rig, etc. etc.

Here's an overview of the video editing process: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTuvpin_z_M

Here's an overview of color correction and color grading: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d0UwctJuQo

More reasons to check out Davinci Resolve... One addition is that of creating 3D sound by placing sound into audio space. Face tracking? It's got that. The public beta has been released for Resolve Studio and Resolve free. The free version is still available. The Studio version that was $999 is now $299. (I"m hoping this trend will echo in their Fusion product so that their studio version of Fusion will drop to that price point). Here's a walkthrough of some of the recent enhancements. http://nofilmschool.com/2017/07/in-depth-blackmagic-davinci-resolve-14-nab-2017 Davinci Resolve is very likely overkill for many hobbyists but leaning into it with the free version at least gets you familiar with high end video editing. It's likely too complex for me but it's nice to have it available if I ever need it. To get Davinci Resolve: LINK

Okay, so the current solution is Action Objects. The two bullet holes/rips in pants are separate objects that are simply turned on/off as necessary. A project file is attached. Wolfshots.prj

Thanks Terry! This post comes with a question. If I can't figure it out I'll likely bring it to a Live Answer Session and see what the experts have to say about it. In short, there are two 'holes' in the pants of this monster's legs. What I'm wanting to do is have them appear/disappear as needed like bullet holes, squibs in a movie might not be present in one frame but them present in the next. It should be noted that both the fabric and the flesh of the holes is a separate mesh so it should be easy just to make them transparent. However, I find that because of the way I've grouped and colored them they turn white if I modify the surface transparency rather than disappear. I suppose I could set the transparency to 100% in all pertinent groups (torn pants part, skin overlay and new transparency group) but it should be easier... I'm surely missing something because I know I've done things like this before. Any takers? One option might be to make the holes Action Objects and then simply turn them on/off. Apologies if this is too small and spinning too fast to see the detail of the holes. Basic project file to follow.

There was a topic posted on this just a week or so ago. To answer the question though: No, not directly. You'd have to render out the material via PC and then use the resulting image as a decal. Currently Darktee isn't even selling their product as they have entered a research and development phase in anticipation of determining where their product might go. Added: Just so no one thinks they can't use Darktrees at all.. The darksim materials and such are still available for downloading via the site. It's the full Darksim package sales that currently isn't available. Here's the other topic: LINK

I remember that one although it surely wasn't at the time you released it. The snake... hmmm... that one sounds familiar too. Heck, back then I barely had a dial up modem. That's quite a project for a Pentium 300. Color me impressed.