Rodney

There has been some great progress lately with water effects in A:M... some courtesy of AAVER! Rock on! I remember Will Sutton donating a zipped file of his water (SFX) from the Miss Castaway movie. I'm not sure if the link still works as I'm behind a firewall that say... thou shalt not. I think it should though. Check here: Will Sutton's water effects

I was going to just edit my last post but I want to clarify just a bit and hopefully encourage you to press on with your project... it really has a lot of potential. It should be noted that I would never suggest you do things harder... just smarter. If using other apps is smarter than go to it! I think areas you think are easier in other applications may be good for backgrounds and the like. Editing is a good example too. You can edit an entire film in A:M, but if it takes a lot longer to produce the same results that needs to be factored into the equation. I think more and more people are realizing that they can harness the power of A:M in ways they never thought possible. It may look harder at the beginning but the end result and knowledge you gain sets you up for even more success in the future. When producing episode after episode that may mean something. -Rodney

I like it. A completed story with the basics needed to make it work. I'd definitely go through and edit shots and/or create new shots to make it work even better. I do have to ask... maybe it's just expected of me these days Why not just do it all in Animation:Master? There was nothing I saw that couldn't be done in A:M. The big reason I think it would be in your favor to do it that way is the streamlined workflow that you could expect; and essential for episodic film. Just my view. Compression was a bit rough looking but you've got me wanting to see more! -Rodney

Congrats to you and your wife! Glad to hear freelancing has been going so well for you too. Looking forward to more updates on Dysthymia but we'll wait as long as it takes! -Rodney

Just wanted to say that little things like Smudge's suggestion really go a long way. Such a simple change and yet it makes all the difference. Nice. Love your continuation on the theme too Jeff! -Rodney

Good Grief! Glad to you are back in action.

It's interesting to note (for me) that what really brought home the importance of animatics and the computers role in expediting the completion and lowering the costs of production came from nowhere else but STAR WARS: The Phantom Menace. Thier use of computer animatics (made with freeware no less) seemed to say to me... This is how you can do it too! I've been a big fan of animatics from that day.

They aren't shawdows are they? What object is moving?

Glad you explained that... my brain was working hard to figure that one out!

Wow... I just got to reexperience seeing your Robin (modified Cooper) model almost as if for the first time. Looking at it on a ViewSonic LCD screen (not mine unfortunately) is so much clearer than mine. Nice!

Yes Sir... that's it. What do you think? Is one better/smooother than the other to your eye?

Yep... that's the one. I'm not asking you to delete it for eternity however... only to save your model... delete the spline... and observe what it does. In v11 adjusting the biases to get edge roundness or beveling can work wonders too. Deleting the spline *may* let the natural flow of the spline work to your advantage. Experiment! SAVE FIRST! If you don't like what you see... close the project and reopen the good one. -Rodney

Wow! Looks even better. The slight imprefections in the skin really add to the realism. What did you use for that?

Very Nice! And here I thought you were almost done already. He keeps looking better and better. Can't help but think he'd look good with some spiffy yellow tennisshoes!

Kyle you can do the multiplane scenery shifting in A:M you just need to plan it out. I used CorelPaint to mask off the areas of Christina's drawing so that they could be on separate levels of the scene. This was necessary because I only had the original image she posted to work from. The process (of masking) can be done in A:M as well. Think of creating a model/series of patches to block parts of an image from being seen by the camera. If you choose a solid but unused color it'll turn transparent when brought back into A:M for compositing. This is the one time (and probably only time) where you'll find me suggesting the use of key color to mask out images in A:M. If you have access to Photoshop or another App with masking/alpha channel cababilities that works great too. If a project is planned with this in mind it's a lot easier as you'll no doubt build the levels in A:M with alpha channels built in. All you need to do then is import the images back in and place them where you need them. Christina's style lends itself to the technique easily and produces great results! Best, Rodney

Hehe... I like him! Looks like you have him devolving from happy nature loving humanoid to stressed out salaryman. I sure hope you entered Pzu in the 2005 CD Mascot contest! He's got storiesl... I can just tell.

That would be neat. I can imagine more than a few new people being inspired by that to create transforming poses for their characters too based on what they'd learn from yours. Sounds like fun too!

And since we are looking at some of Muybridges work... Here are 196 GIF animations of Muybridges by Katarina Jerinic and Gary Drake UCR / California Museum of Photography. http://photo.ucr.edu/photographers/muybridge/ For those of you with popup blockers... the Gallery is shown in a popup window so do that Ctrl Click thing or whatever you do.

It's been awhile... This site is a good one for those contemplating the human figure in animation. http://www.figuredrawings.com/ Remember... it's not work... it's research! There is a lot of information there to include the bulk of Eadweard Muybridge's classic works. Some are in animated imagery (gifs) as well. Warning... artistic nudity ahead. Remember... it's not gawking... it's research! http://www.figuredrawings.com/Animation.html

The 5 pointers should stay intact... it's that center spline that might either be scaled out a bit or deleted to allow smoothness all the way around. Hopefully we are talking about the same spline.

I embossed/blurred your Cingular Dude and turned him into an avatar if you want to use it for that purpose.

You may want to do that PAGE UP/PAGE DOWN resolution thing we were chatting about... the image looks like it isn't as smooth as it could be. Another thing you might try (after saving of course) would be to delete that middle spline that we where talking about that sandwiches the two halves together. If you want the head to be circular you'll want to move the poles of the sphere up and down slightly to keep away from the football shape. Getting better each time I see it! I guess I need to see what the original Cingular Dude looks like to really make any suggestions no?

What!? They cancelled that thing... what's it called.... school too! Best of luck in your endeavors!

Christina, My apologies... I just had to experiment with your background. I really couldn't resist. I had to see those clouds move! I think I should have made them blown the other direction keep the scene balanced though. My scene is too short too... only 4 frames. I'm not sure you'll have the time to do such things and/or if it's in keeping with your style but I think you should try to exploit A:M's multiplane capabilities in the backgrounds where possible. All this... for what it's worth. Love your work. Keep those dailies/weeklies going! -Rodney *Note: The movement isn't meant to be realistic... just to demonstrate the movement of the separate planes.

! ! I hope you don't have a day job.