Rodney

Very interesting style/texturing. Not claymation as much as maybe those stop motion shorts made with dolls and/or toys... miniatures. The clothing definitely has that felt/cloth feel to it. I like! Rodney

I was experimenting with multiple weathered decal stamps and liked the results I was getting. What I was doing was rendering one at 25% (almost imperceptable), 50% perceptable, 75% weathered and 100% heavy weathering. You can then activate/inactivate each one and adjust the transparency/effect of the one you want to use. Initial tests were promising although the lack of difference between some made me think of just using %50 and %100 to keep it simple. The fact that weather images are TGA images behind the scenes is significant as well. Ed, Please share your wagon wheel imagery with the forum. I'm sure we would all like to see it. Edit: I see it now. Nice! Rodney

I echo the amazement... 30 minutes!!! You obviously have mastered the simplicity of splines. Beautiful render as well. Bravo! Edit: How the heck did I miss the last few updates of this?? Rodney

Yeah right... like we are gonna believe that is a CG Coke bottle. Outstanding work Rodger! Wow. Added: The shadow does give away the trick I think... there are clearly two shadow shapes there. I'm not sure what could be done to blend/soften that shadow unless it would be to render the shadow in a second pass and add a Blur Post Effect. I assume that the shadow would render correctly if the bottle was unibody in type. Hmm... could it be possible that flipping normals on the inner bottle might help.

Interesting you should mention that. Just a few weeks ago I started to collect some information and images for a Weathering Tutorial. A week or less ago I tried weathering a model... boom. desktop. I tried with your Conestoga Wagon last night... boom. desktop. I thought your wagon would be a great candidate for it. Something appears to have changed recently. Weathering is one of those features that *I hear* a lot of A:M Users don't use. I was going to work the Tutorial to show everyone what a great little feature it was. I'll obviously be testing more and probably see you in A:M Reports. Note that I did remove all the Simcloth and materials from your model when I was troubleshooting so it doesn't appear to be Simcloth/material related. Rodney

John, You probably know without me saying what I think of your Hero models. I want you to finish all your Kapsule work but I REALLY am looking forward to seeing more of your Heroes. Glad to see you occasionally get distracted. Best, Rodney

This will seem contrarian... bear with me. I love your models. The wireframe really lets us know the detail you've put into them. Impressive! The rendering though... It looks like old CG work to me. You know what I mean? That look like it *is* CG? I'd love to see your models rendered with some of the skylights or setups in A:M. I can't help but think it would bring out the details more and give a more realistic feel to them. You could always use the backgrounds generated by Bryce and other programs. Now, if on the other hand, the CG look is exactly what you were going for... ...Disregard. Pretty stuff either way. Rodney

Awesome model... and renders (final and wireframe)! A really cool critter. ...and you look like you are having fun too. That is of extreme importance. I've downloaded... Thanks for the movie and project file! I was looking foward to seeing it move. Rodney

Michael, This might be an excellent application for dust effects. Like the one outlined in Exercise 15: Eat My Dust Rodney

That's a beauty! You might tone down the red a bit as it is a bit stark to my eye. That would make it seem more like paint. Thanks for the model too! That one is going in my collection. Simcoth eh... nice. Rodney

Eric, Hope you find the solution you are looking for. I think you will be pleased with Animation:Master. My attempt to answer your questions: No. You do not need the CD in to render. But... you will want to make sure any project you are working on does not require resources that are on the CD (e.g. Characters, actions, textures, etc). Easy fix if they are there though... just make sure you copy them to harddrive before you take out the CD. Note: When installing A:M an option will present itself to copy the CD Data to harddrive. I (almost always) check that! Yes! Yes (I think). I don't know specifics about serial numbers but I'm reasonably sure you will use the same one. Contact Hash Inc for more information. Not enough info to answer. The short answer is "Yes" you can. Any imagery you make with Animation:Master can be used on a website. You may need additional software to optimize your web developing of course as Animation:Master isn't a web development solution. You'll see some great things in the future on the interactive side of things with A:M though! I use a laptop... I can't say about Tablet PCs. I have often used a stylus pen. You'll probably want a keyboard for all the shortcuts that you can use. I prefer a full fledged desktop but my laptop works fine. Thats my take on it. Rodney

Odds of Will Sutton's Kong model finding its way onto your WTC model=100% Very nice.

Thanks Roughy!

Trine, Maybe post a message in this or the main Animation:Master forum area with "Wanting to buy from Norway" as the title. There are more than a few A:M Users in that part of the world that should be able to answer your purchasing questions. Rodney

Working sorta in reverse order here... There already is a new manual for 2005. There is scheduled to be a newer manual for 2006. The next manual probably isn't going to go to press until mid 2006 but... I don't know. For an official answer send an email to: steve@hash.com Staying the course. If you are like me you will get distracted too much. Develop a plan and stick to it! Keep things simple always... get more complicated with each effort. Yes. Once you render an image you can use them in flash or any other of a host of graphics programs. Yes! Yes! A:M Supports PNG and JPG formats that are web friendly. I often convert animations to GIF which is not natively supported by A:M. There are many freeware and comercial ways to make the conversion. Wow... well... there must be literally millions of limitations. Where to start. The biggest limitation you'll run into is that of incompatibility with polygon modelers. If you don't need polygon modelers this isn't a limitation. For example... it isn't for me. Rodney

A belated "Greetings" to Kai and Adontech! Sorry I thought I'd already welcomed you. Trine, You are right, programs will almost always claim they are the best. Except... Except... Except... Animation:Master! I don't think Hash Inc claims that. They do claim to be "Software that even an artist can afford". They do claim to be "a complete 3D animation program. Everything you need." They do claim to "sell more copies of Animation:Master than ALL OTHER 3D applications COMBINED." ... and the list goes on. I have heard Hash Inc tell people that their software wasn't for some people. Yeah.. sounded strange to me too at first. Its truth though. Its hard to make purchasing decisions (for good reason!) but see what is there... understand that Hash Inc is committed to the task... try A:M and see for yourself. You not only won't regret it... you will be one very happy A:M User. Regardless of your choice I wish you the best of luck in your decision. Rodney Note: Text in quotes above is not verbatim... just from memory.

A recap: Trevor (Disco Fish), Dhar, Mike Stamm and Strohbehn discuss setting bones to hidden/unhidden in a pose. Question: How do you set bones to be hidden or visible in poses? Strohbehn Answers: I think this will do it for you. Make sure you have "show more than drivers" icon clicked on your shortcut to model in the action relationship. 1. With your on/off relationship window open, go down to Action>Relationship:shortcut to model>shortcut to model>Bones>bone you want to hide or shown. 2. With your show/hide pose ON, click the eye icon twice next to the bone you want shown/hidden to set a key for it. 3. Turn the show/hide pose OFF and click the eye icon to turn off (hide) the bone. 4. Test the show/hide pose by turning it on and off to see that you have the bone shown or hidden correctly based on how you named your show/hide pose. 5. Close the relationship window go have lunch. Hope this helps

Gustavo, Most impressive! Thank you for making these available to everyone... spanish speaking or otherwise. Muchos Gracias! Rodney

Thanks for bumping dhartman's bike chain project back up Mike! It works pretty well in realtime via the HA:MR Viewer if I do say so myself.

The A:M Community is full of talented people... but you knew this already right? Over the years many A:M Users have contributed their models to the community. Here is a sampling of what is available if you take the time to look: ...and a lot more where they came from! Here are a few links to these valuable resources both past and present: 2005 Extra CD (Volume I) Actors: Anime Caricatures Cartoon Proxy Characters (2001 Rig) Sci Fi Actors Semi Real Characters Animals: Aquatic (More to come... check the index!) Props: Buildings (Modern) Vehicles: Land Project Files/Scenes: Sci Fi / Fantasy (Image Contest) Note: More to come... others can be found via the index on the site. You can also download the entire CD contents HERE! (Warning - Over 230MB Zipfile) 2005 A:M CD -(Not currently listed) You have this one in your CD Drive right!?!? 2004 (The old Freemodels pages from Hash Inc web site) Characters Animals Props Vehicles Scenes Note: The majority of these models (but not all) can be downloaded in one file HERE! (Warning Large Zip File) 2003 and before Models donated to the community before 2003 can often be found on the Hash Inc FTP site. I'll post a few links here to get you started. Beware of possible missing links/graphics). 2001 Model Catalog 2000 Extras Note: The older the model the more likely that it will not be rigged and/or smartskinned. You'll probably need to edit these models a bit. If anyone updates any of these to current standards please let us know. They would be great additions to future Extra CD volumes. Update: Most of the content identified above can now be found on the 2007 Extra DVD: The 2007 Extra DVD lets you explore over 3.5 Gigabytes of tutorials, projects, sets, models, actions, materials and more. The DVD is distributed with your 2007 upgrade so look for it there. See an exploratory walkthrough of the content HERE. Thanks! Rodney

I just wanna say... MUFOOF is awesome stuff! Keep it up guys as this is MORE THAN USEFUL information. Thanks to all who are exploring and posting their work here. This is the kind of stuff that this Tutorials Forum is made for. Rodney

Georgia, While I would imagine you might find requests for more detailed solutions to modeling and animating in Animation:Master here in the forum I think the real untapped market in bookstores across the nation is an introductory book on 3D animation. This could perhaps extend internationally too but I can't really say for sure as I have no way of knowing. What I mean is that there is a big interest in Japanese Anime, Comics (less so than Anime these days) and drawing. This is escpecially true of the "How to" variety. One thing that is sorely missing from the racks though is the same basic "How to" book on 3D animation for everyone. Animation:Master provides a piece of this puzzle that other software simply cannot. Obviously a book of this type wouldl be mostly of use to those that own Animation:Master which can be problematic for off the shelf sales I would think. Since it will most likely be the first time the reader has heard of Animation:Master they probably have limited access to any 3D program. The key to success here might be to keep the 'Lessons' simple enough that they can apply to all 3D applications and even be used without any 3D application at all. In other words... a book that teaches the basics of 3D modeling, texturing and animation but that just happens to use Martin Hash's Animation:Master to get the job done. Perhaps you could convince Hash Inc to provide their recently released realtime 3D viewer and some free models. That'd be fun! I imagine your authors may already have something in mind so I say... more power to you and best of luck in your endeavors. Rodney

Very Nice! I remember this guy.

Email sent! (Looking forward to seeing your other models)

Wegg, Per our previous discussion back in #hash3d I once said I hadn't bought any models yet because I just didn't need them. I now have a problem... I need this one. Now I have to do the 'wife vs cost' analysis and make my decision. Do I get a discount on the Desert Landscape if I buy today/tomorrow? Rodney