Rodney

Run (don't walk) to the nearest mouse click and view JohnL3D's tutorial on converting sequential TGAs to AVI and MOV. Thats not all you can do with 'Save As Animation' but its an important start. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20996 The direct link to John's WMV file is: http://johnl.inform.net/images/convert.wmv This 'Save As Animation' functionality replaced the old way of doing thing via camera rotoscope. The downside of this outstanding (but apparently secret) timesaving feature? Knowledge of creating movies via camera rotoscope has been almost entirely lost! Luckily for all of us camera rotoscopes are right along the path to understanding the power of Alpha Channels in A:M where we can get a great view of them too.

You deserve some serious compliments for your work. I don't have time right now to go back through the animation and pick out favorite parts but I encourage animators here in the forum to do just that. Try to spot the gestures and movement that are subtle and smooth. There is a reason I suspected mo cap but what I was seeing defied that paradigm so I had to ask. You've expertly captured the nuances of human gesture in animated form. "Doing this kind of animation for less than a year" says he. "B R A V O !" says me.

I'd suggest again exporting/rendering to TGA (for similar reason as we've discussed above). Then when all is completed convert the TGA sequence to AVI or MOV in A:M. You'll have your TGA images as backup then too. I had considered your Step 3 but didn't think that option would appeal to you. I'd be a quick post processing solution if it meets your needs however. It sounds like something I'd do so that automatically makes it suspect. I use CorelDraw and CorelPhotopaint for that type of quick fix. As epiphanies go... that's a pretty good one. It probably would but... one problem not all the resources on the DVD are compatible with v12. I believe many still are though.

I like him. Great job! Have you rigged him yet?

Wowsa. I'll bet that was a tough thing to cut. I'll have to go back and look but I like where she steps over the railing. My memory says this is something I didn't catch in the other version. Thanks for sharing your cut scene. That gives interesting insight into your work. That has got to be motion capture in most of the character action right? Not that it looks like what we've come to know as mo cap but there is some really sweet subtlety in gestures etc. (I'm trying to say... great job!) This is fun stuff!

Its out! Hash Inc is mailing it with new updates. Those that have missed it should visit a Hash Inc booth at a tradeshow near you and get yours. I'm hoping mine will arrive on monday.

All good points Yves. When it comes to deadlines in this vein (Tutorials and how Tos) my utilimate goal would be the one page tutorial. When you reach the end of the page.... done. Obviously some subjects would be broken down into multiple pages covering various aspects.

Animation Pitstop has been shut down for well over two years now. I believe its operator's bad health was the reason it could no longer be maintained. You'll be glad to know that many (but not all) of the resources once found on the site are now included on the Extra DVD. A few resources I just couldn't track down... the dinosaurs in particular if I recall correctly. I haven't given up though! Lucky for you that you are going to sleep. Here's a post for the technocenti. I admit I haven't read it (just skimmed). I'm told there are actually people out there that understand this stuff! In other words... I don't expect many to be interested at this level but its here for completeness sake. http://grail.cs.washington.edu/theses/ChuangPhd.pdf If I can find it I'll post the link to Ray Alfee and Ed Catmull's documents related to Alpha Channels here later. To keep this in the real of utility here is a use of Alpha Channels for decals. Yves mentioned he using them for that process and in the following tutorial Frank Silas does too. He demonstrates an alternative to rendering hair. http://www.franksilas.com/Hair.htm

I'm revisiting some resources of the past before taking time to create new resources. It's always a good idea to inventory the resources at your disposal before expending time and effort reproducing possibly inferior results. Heres a great tutorial from the past by Darrin Mossor. Thanks to him for keeping it alive on his site! In his tutorials he explores the world of layers (see text on multiplane above) using images painted in a graphics program. For imagery created within A:M the effect can be even more seamless. Layers in A:M by Darrin Mossor

Very nice quality on those two versions. I've got to say I'm really jealous of the talent on display with they sequential shorts. I have a long term project that I'd love to be able to render with the style and quality I see in your work. If only... Color me very impressed. Its amazing to me when projects like this appear (seemingly out of nowhere). Chris should step in here and take a bow. The animation is nice. Very subtle details in a lot of places. The lighting and yes... the sound... really contribute a lot too.

Amen! The trouble I have absorbing this is in finding that moment when we call our effort 'done'. In my experience, this moment almost never occurs (perhaps its when we die?). As such I find I always get to a point where I must finally say, "good enough". At any rate, a little more on Alpha Channels as we haven't quite hit that point of 'good enough'. The following is from the Tech Ref on compositing (multiplane): Note my emphasis added. I smiled when I read the words 'flexibility' and 'power'. Makes me think we are on the right track.

Then mission accomplished I would say. Regarding the sound. I didn't notice anything amiss so I'd say it was just fine on my end.

Yves, This is where we reveal the levels from which we are both operating. I think Phillip can appreciate the full spectrum. I exist at the primordial level. I grasp at just about any solution I can find. You are known to work at a level of excellence honed by your experiece. The results speak for themselves. Your work demonstrates the highest quality, a more thorough understanding and a greater sophistication than I can comfortably aspire to. It takes time, commitment and experience to achieve that level of expertise. This is important distinction and should be considered by new users of A:M. Do we set the standard at perfection? Is good enough ever... good enough? Again I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle. When adding titles or credits to a movie who immediately thinks of Compositing? I know I do. There is a lot to explore in Animation:Master!

To my eye this is very much like a comic book... only animated. As a fan of comics and animation I wanna know more about this story, the characters... and production!

Niels... my general conclusion is that if I could animate like that I'd quit my day job!!! If I could nitpick it would be that I don't fully follow the story. In the larger context it might make more sense.

Yves, What you state (in your post above) is an important consideration in making the decision to use Alpha Channels. I'm surprised to hear that you don't use compositing! There are extremes in all cases. Some A:M Users want to create one really big, gigantic, really huge Choreography that contains everything they need to complete the next feature film/movie. Some break everything down into the most minute pieces they can to get absolute control at every level of production. Somewhere in the middle then is the power of Alpha Channels. The key usage, I'll guess, is in compositing. For those who have no interest in compositing images the Alpha Channel will be of little use. Its all about manipulating imagery in Post Production. Now if we are going to composite images... any images... we must master the use of Alpha Channels. Luckily with Animation:Master this is really straightforward. - Render images (or animation!) with Alpha Channels - Composite - Adjust as needed - Finish the job With the advent of EXR format in A:M even greater options are made available as lighting and effects can be adjusted 'on the fly'. This is especially advantageous when working with other people. When the Art Director says, "That area over there is too dark", or "Lets move him a little farther to the right there" we immediately feel the pain of not using composited imagery. It can take a long time to rerender those scenes. In my estimation compositing is a sophisticated hack. Its a tool providing the means to an end. The question then becomes one of where to use composting to full advantage. It'll remain a hack but one that puts powerful options in the hands of the artist.

Hey Dion, thats pretty cool! I hope you'll keep working on that and submit it for the upcoming Mini Movie contest. Thanks for providing the screenshot and movie. Not only are you animating in A:M... it looks like you are having fun!

Um... WOW! I sure wasn't expecting that. Outstanding! Give everyone a little while to view this and then come back and tell us more about it. (or else!)

While I can't speak for Steve it is entirely possible that your image may have given the impression that it wasn't created in A:M. That's a long shot I admit but looking at your image I can see photo reference but not the tell tale signs of a 3D rendered image. That combined with the new face (yours... as a relative unknown to the A:M Community) might have been enough to make the entry questionable. ALL SPECULATION HERE.

Dion, Quite the contrary. Newbies are ENCOURAGED to enter the contests. Did you get a confirmaiton email from Steve telling you he had recieved it? I fear its too late for this contest. Outstanding image!

Yves, Up a few posts you'll see we discussed that aspect. That is definitely the easiest, most direct way. Phil wants to explore Alpha Channels (see topic title) so... here we are. Rendering to TGA alone wouldn't be sufficient to explore the power of Alpha Channels. Do you have any projects laying around that clearly demonstrate the benefits of Alpha Channels? The sooner we get it covered the sooner we move on to other subjects of interest. Thanks in advance.

A basic project with minimal assets assigned. As we get deeper into the exploration we'd add more to it. I broke my Alpha Channel project so will recreate it and post it here. I should email Steve Sappington to see if he still has his Layers project. That'd be a good one to experiment with.

Hello and Welcome to the New Users forum! Our goal here is to provide help and support for those working their way through Hash Inc's manual; The Art of Animation:Master . Animator Tony White stated in his recently published book; From Pencils to Pixels: We encourage everyone to take advantage of the resources at your disposal. Post your exericises in the TaoA:M forum. You'll learn from the experience and feedback you get. You'll have a whole lot of fun! The entire community of A:M users is here for you. They'll guide and encourage you as you explore the world of animation as only they can. Remember we are all in this learning process together. Everyone starts out as a beginner, so don't be shy. You'll soon see how amazing the A:M Community really is. In case you didn't already know: After completing the exercises online you will recieve a TaoA:M Certificate You can further explore the principles of animation in Animation Bootcamp. Now you can even work on a fully animated movie production; Tin Woodsman of Oz! So what are you waiting for? Don't spend your life lurking! Introduce or reintroduce yourself to the A:M Community and find out why purchasing Animation:Master was such a really great idea. Welcome to the A:M Community! You've definitely come to the right place. (These introductions continued from December 2006)

Sorry, my keyboard failed on me there. Rough times in the world of computer for me these days. I'm back now though. As I often say...with computers... 99% of the time its a connection. If you are willing (and able timewise) I'd like to suggest we conduct an experiment. It might go something like this: We set up a scene and share it. Then only one of us renders objects while the other only renders (composited) images. Eventually we'd update and share this scene as we move on to more complex considerations. If this sounds like something you'd care to try then you are welcome to pick your preference. If we share a common file it'll help us to attack and explore the same things. I've got a super easy setup that we could start with. Although it may not be complex enough its easy to make it more complex once we start adding in images with alpha channels.

Let me tackle the easy stuff first. It doesn't. Just put the date that you either post them or as close as you can remember to completing them. The important date (for your certificate) is the date you finish them all. Now to attempt the harder questions. This is indeed where things get complicated and using Alpha Channels may not be in your best interest if you can just render the whole thing out at once. Here's an idea to consider... If there are only a few frames where the reflections are in the window you need only render *those frames* with everything turned on. Render each time to a different folder (one for separated elements and one for complete scene) with the frame filename targetted and then replace only those frames you need. Its a bit more logistically complicated but might work in some instances. You could also render the window and car together and composite that in with the scene but you'd probably have to 'disappear' the window from the scene first. This is yet another reason to render to TGA (or at least individual images). This is also where our discusion could turn to EXR format but we won't yet. It sounds like you have a pretty good grasp on TGAs and Alpha Channels if you are already rendering out separate elements. Hopefully the models you are testing this out with are fairly simple... proxy models... standins... the mo simple.... the mo better. Once you find something that works you can then set up your scene with the desired resources. I'm not trying to hold you back so keep testing and exploring. I think a video tutorial would probably work best to demo all of this but my computer isn't set up for video recording right now. I am working it though. Rodney