Rodney

Looking Good! It's definitely great to see you sharing your imagery with the A:M Community again. Your choice of subject matter is facinating as well. I find it interesting that the masters of animation are confident enough to take on the harder subjects. Example: The Hunchback's assemytrical walk and appearance. I'm sure taking the hard route is sure to be more work but the payoff will be most rewarding. Its great to have you back. Makes me want to smile!

Andrew, I like the background as is. The foreground looks a bit flat... almost as if they are walking across a frozen lake. Adding some detail there might make the difference. Very nice. -Rodney

That looks good! ...and as you say... they do have teeth. It's going to be fun animating characters without arms... but at least you have eyes to get the expressions going. I'm sure you know this but it looks like you'll need to add a roof to Mr. Tooth's mouth as you can see into his insides without one. Oh, and as much as I like toon rendering, I like the full rendering with these characters. It gives them that special teethy gleam.

Very cute Trajce. I guess your teeth don't have teeth? Looking forward to seeing more of your ad.

Sigh... I wish I had a graphic design job to quit.

Hey those are great! Very interesting... I was just now updating some links in the New Users forum concerning the Duplicator wizard. Hash Inc's most recent Tech Talk does a pretty good job of explaining the process. ...and since we are on the subject of the duplicator wizard I'll add the other two in here as well even though they aren't screws/spirals per se. Tech Talk - Duplicator Wizard(33MB) - Ken Baer creates flowers, screws, and staircases Creating Sea Shells with the Duplicator Wizard - by Robcat! Try it... It's Fun! Modeling a wire basket with the Duplicator and Extruder Wizards - by Jon Wofford

That's pretty neat Steve. I like!

Josh, Great explaination! Now add in changes from frame to frame that are designed to be there! I wouldn't recommend testing your action/animated scenes with complex backgrounds. Rather I would suggest maximum simplicity first... then add detail later. Consider compositing the characters over a single background image repeated throughout (as a rotoscope for instance). Even then you'll get differences in each frame but the compression should be much better.

Joel, Thanks for the wireframe. That gives us great insight into your superbly executed image! I'm definitely facinated by the city building techniques/themes.

gre, Wow! Thats sharp. It's hard to comment a lot past that without seeing a few more angles. Please please post more views! It looks a lot like you took a picture of the car and pasted it in from this view. Nice!

Mike (and all), I like your storyboards. I think what is being expressed here helps us understand the difference between 'storyboarding' and 'animatics' and hints at a lot more to consider in producing a short film/animation. Storyboarding can save immense amounts of time and money in a production. Pencils, markers, etc can be used to very quickly break down scenes. Hard to beat that realtime response! Likewise, animatics can further break down shots to save time by testing things out before fully committing to them. Initial animatics are generally very basic... and models need not move with detailed precision... characters don't even have to be characters... they can be a ball... or blocks... anything that moves the production forward and clarifies the story. The more and more you see animatics these days the more you see combinations where the storyboards are compiled into animatics and the individual scenes are then replaced with improved animatics and finally finished scenes. While it might not always be the best way... I'd guess that an important scene might be worth a little extra work and testing... like you have done. If this were a studio production you might have wasted some serious time but as you are the one putting the whole thing together I'd guess putting the storyboards together probably helped you determine what directions you could approach in your final renders. Ultimately, I'd guess you'll make up that lost time later in your project by the exploration you accomplished. Some paradigms of production are changing and others remain the same. Ultimately, the artist is the one that determines the best approach, learns from the experience and adapts for the next project. What I'm writing is nothing new... I just find these discussions interesting. Edit: Minor corrections for clarity (I hope)

steve392 said: Eh? Fingernails on gloves?

Pretty! You really know how to place your chrome. The Link to the Anzovin Sand Razor snuck into the forum way back in September 2003. Some people may have seen the vehicle in the movie GI Joe: Spy Troops! Note: It's contained in a project file so look for it as an embedded model. It was announced via the listserve and transferred into the A:M Forum shortly after it came into existance. See post: Here Now you have one up on the Sand Razor with the texturing now added.

You can... just save out as a MDL file. You can do the same from an action.

Stian, That added a lot to the realism of the render... very nice!

Maybe it could be made to look more like a tail? or give him pants?

Maybe you could give him socks? A lot might depend on what he's going to be doing. For instance... if he skateboarded around... hey... he's a walkin' brain... why can't he skateboard... knee and elbow pads might be neat.

A:M artists never cease to amaze me.... I guess floating eyeballs would be too strange. It'll be a test of your animating abilities to show emotion and character in this guy. Nice thus far!

Noah, That is one awesome mini-tutorial. Great stuff. For anyone interested in about 1 minute Noah gives us some great information on setting up a scene and demonstrates the power of a well designed rig. Thanks for giving us these insights into your projects Noah!

I just had to try a render with v12 Alpha 8. Extra points for anyone that knows what vehicle is sharing the scene with Grubber's Futuristic car. Both models are currently downloadable here in the forum.

Holy... all these great images... and the model too! I love you guys. Maybe a texturing expert can make some suggestions that would fit your awesome car.

Looks like Frank Miller of "Sin City" fame... and Daredevil... and Batman... and Robocop and... You are off to a good start... keep at it!

I must have still been on dialup when you released that... I don't remember seeing all of those shots. You are right in that there doesn't really seem to be a theme (one skill set). Still... I like. More please!

Martian Man?

Chris, I'm not from Nashville... but will still extend a greeting! I assume you've already invested in the Anzovin CDs. If not you might want to look at them. There is nothing like watching others working in A:M. The SIGGRAPH tapes/CDs from Hash Inc are really nice as well. I mention these because you indicated you'd be willing to pay for tutoring. The CDs aren't quite as good as a personal tutor... what is??... but if nothing else they help you master the basics through examples and launch you toward exploration of other aspects of learning A:M. In short... tutoring! Good luck on your search for local users as well. -Rodney