Rodney

Nice detail!

Looks more like a painting of a lightsaber to me. Clone, While I won't ever claim this is a decent saber look I think you could realize what you are after by using several dome capped cylinders with varying transparency and specular color. You could then modify the splines of that cylinder as you need. The most important factor to remember I think however would be that the effect is usually done in post production where the artists control the elements completely. That way the backgrounds and other objects in the scene only effect the saber blades if the artist wants them to. In still imagery (such as Dark Jedi posted) additional effects have been added such as lens flare too. You can do this all within A:M.

Yep. Information on the Knight and his knee injuries can be found there. That and a link to a knight without the problem.

I like that much better. Nice bright lighting. Feels like desert.

Very nice John. Clear and concise.

It's pretty basic but Irfanview (freeware at www.irfanview.com) will create a screensaver/slideshow of images in .exe/.scr format. Nothing fancy but if you created several similar images it would almost look like animation... um... maybe... (actually the refresh rate probably wouldn't work for that now that I think about it). Perhaps best just to use WinXP's built in slideshow... Desktop / Screensaver Contest. Great Idea! That should be the next Hash Inc still image contest. Great imagery Colin.

I think WIP would work but since its not a WIP I think maybe Showcase would be better. I like it. I'd like to see the transition be even more of a snap/instant transition but... nice. If I had my druthers (what ever those are) I would suggest repositioning/resizing the text a bit for maximum effect (you know... to really draw people into the center of the effect) but perhaps you got it right after all. Well done!

Outstanding explanation Paula! We'll try to get more specific information out about this. Here is the suggested trajectory for successfully learning Animation:Master: - Complete The Art of Animation:Master (TAoAM). Get TAoAM certified. - Graduate Animation BootCamp (ABC). Create a Demo Reel demonstrating your mastery of the principles of animation. - Enter the Mentorship Program. The premier mentorship program in the A:M community is the Tin Woodman of Oz (TWO) movie. When you join TWO you'll work under an Art/Animation Director in a full production movie. TWO is a Martin Hash production and officially sanctioned by Hash Inc. The Mentorship Program is headed by David (he wrote the book) Rogers. At any given time there may be other mentoring opportunities made available through other production houses or individual mentors. Official mentoring opportunities will be announced as they are become available in the forum. Added for Bob: If you are officially enrolled in this process for the purpose of participating in TWO (and you are!) you are qualified as 'involved in TWO'. Make sure you are on Martin's list and hope to see you at Hash Bash 2006!

Shootin'! Or will there be a horse race.

Michael, Let me say this... You are joining the Animation:Master Community at an opportune time. Not only is Animation:Master at its peak in terms of performance, features, price and support but the A:M Community is involved in a host of projects that provide a rewarding and accelerated learning opportunity for everyone with an interest. Everyone is busy these days. The fact that you've searched out and selected A:M tells me a lot about you. It sounds like you have plenty to keep you busy but I hope you'll find time to get involved here in the forum. You can gain insight into A:M from community projects like 'The Tin Woodsman of Oz' movie. Closely related to your current work you'll find the community has recently launched a TWO related game to complement the movie. With your background and experience I know you'd be a welcome addition to either team in any capacity. You said: You definitely should get involved in TWO. Even though you are sure to see a lot of TWO related projects in the future that isn't all there is to do in the forum. To get new users up to speed quickly there is the manual; The Art of Animation:Master (TAoAM). The exercises coupled with free online video and live assistance from others in the forum is a great way to learn the basics while meeting other up and coming animators, modelers and technical directors. Looking beyond the manual you can expand into the Animation BootCamp (ABC) which provides a thorough path toward mastery of 3D animation and technique. ABC walks animators through the creation of a Demo Reel demonstrating the 12 Principles of Animation and beyond! Its hard work but really rewarding. I highly recommend it. As Hash Inc has often stated; people are Animation:Master's greatest asset. The community is a great place to collaborate with others. For those apt to teach there are opportunities to take what you learn to the next level through teaching. There is a Mentoring program (now operating within the TWO project) and the Tutorials forum is relatively new but is finally starting to take shape. With new technology like Wikis and A:M's collaboration features the time has never been better to get involved with other artists. What you learn working with others can help make your own projects a reality. Not enough you say? There are contests to enter (both still imagery and animation) or you start a Work in Progress (WIP) and get critique and commentary on your work. There is the Extra CD project, the Hash Fellows, Software development and programming and more. Even if you just want to sit back and enjoy... there is always something fun going on in the forum. Welcome to the A:M Community. It's great to have you with us. Rodney

Go Dennis! (and go Herbie!)

New versions automatically install in their own directory. You should be aware of the file format difference between v12 and v13. Projects saved in v13 will NOT be backward compatible to v12. Keep your v12 project files separated/in duplicate and it won't be a problem. We'll try to get you linked to some of the tutorials. A really nice Sweeper tutorial (several actually) can be found on its creators site. Check out Mosca Films (Emilio here in the forum). Anyone have the link handy? Newton Physics has some outstanding tutorials by it's creator (Stefen Gross). He goes by Yoda64 (or some number like that). Outstanding programming by both of these talented guys.

Wow. Great Mom! Welcome to the Animation:Master Community.

Your second question requires a more technical answer so I'll punt that on down the field for someone else to catch. To change the spline color you need to go into TOOLS/CUSTOMIZE and on the last tab change to splines in the drop down menu. Then change the color. You can change other things like background color, CP size and more there.

Love it! Really Outstanding. Great personality being built into your models.

Wow! Really outstanding work.

Only if you are building your model in a Choreography window. Try this and you'll see what I mean: - Create a simple model - Save the model - Drag and drop the model from the Project Workspace listing to a new Choreography window - Drag and drop the model a few more times in the Chor to create more instances of the same model - Arrange them as you see fit - Now... edit the original model. You will observe that the change you make in the original effects all instances of the model in the choreography. Some people like to build their complex models in Choreographies just for such reasons as this. When you get the model as you like it you can export the Choreography to a model by Right Clicking and Save As Model. Hope that makes sense.

Great News. Congrats to Momentum Studios too!*

When you say 'higher set' do you mean one that you created?

This old Air Force guy would have guessed wrong on the AF Emblem. Thanks for the images Racreel. More pics Ed!

Serg, You sir are a talented guy. Nice work!

Wow. You are speedy. You've been busy. That angle change worked even better than I had imagined. No suggestions for now. I'll just sit back and enjoy. Keep up the experimentation!

I've been hoping some A:M users would take some elements of the exercises and expand on them. You definitely are. It'll probably be best to research and find a way to blur the props but there are ways to fake the effect too. There is a great tutorial series by XTAS in the Tutorials forum that will probably get exactly the effect you want in one frame. The technique uses Multipass to combine the props. The cheat would be to remove (or temporarily hide) the props and place a lathed disc in its place. You can experiment with color, transparency and more to get the desired effect. For an even better look you might have both the props and the disc showing with varied transparency. You might want to experiment with adjusting the angle of the horizon to give a more dramatic aerial effect. In othe words having the horizon high on the left and low on the right with the planes in much the same place as they are. Hope that isn't to confusing... Nice work thus far!

You are making some tough decisions and I think you are heading in the right direction. Its hard to do that sometimes. You last image for a moment led me to believe you had cut back on the number of lights but I see some are just hidden by the new columns. You may want to experiment with cutting a few of them out to better control the light in your scene. Just a spur of the moment thought. A really well lit dungeon works against what you are trying to achieve perhaps. Removing or spreading out the lights might work to your advantage. Is there light behind the camera for instance? I'll suggest removing the middle four lights and keeping the outer four. Then adding two more off screen behind the camera. I like the way the wood is starting to look. nice shadow effects being thrown on the wood from the foreward lamps. Added: While it may work against your purpose I'll suggest you might adjust the camera angle so that you see just slightly more of the right wall than the left. The near perfect symmetry from your current angle adds a little to the modern/perfect look whereas offsetting would help work against that. It would also help in the composition and allow some more detail to be seen on the door and columns that otherwise gets missed. I love the new grainy look in this last image. Its nice! It looks a little like an image that could be found in a print (pulp paper) magazine. One more suggestion in the symmetry area. Please disregard as you see fit. Almost everything is symmetrical in the image. Lights perfectly aligned and distributed. Evil red skull pefectly centered... etc. I think if you pushed the door frame closer to the first column on the right or at least adjusted its position the composition would improve. This would be even more evident with the above camera adjustment and some recentering of the fewer lights. Again... just suggestions. This is not my image and its looking nice as you have it designed now. Keep it up!

Very nice additions. Keep it up!