Rodney

DL, Looking mighty good... seeing the range of expression really lets us imagine how they will interact with each other. Your 'trademark' way of placing multiple views of your characters together really reminds me of the 2D animation character sheets from the likes of Disney, Warner Bros, etc. Hope you'll post lots more of these character sheets as you go along. One question that I've meant to ask... Are you combining these poses/shots in A:M or another program... I've been doing some tests within A:M for multiple angle single renders... but have found it just as easy (maybe more easy) to combine the shots in a program like IRFANView using it's panaramic combiner. Keep it up!

So.... I take it that is a no... I'd sure like to sit in that chair and read my tech manual... ... watchin the latest A:M DVD... ... splinin... and chattin... etc. etc. etc.

Vern, Is there a shred of truth to the rumors that we'll soon be able to purchase one of these chairs via cafewoodpress? Nice chair!!!

Mark, Very nice. This year is looking mighty good for trees! Now I just have to figure out how to work some into a project!

I believe it has been said that you need two layers / patches to stop the light from passing through. If your wall is one mesh plane I'll bet that is the case with your image. Adding a hidden/second wall behind the first might make it go away...

Hate to just post a "Great... Love it!" post but... that's exactly what I'm gonna do! Excellent! Looks like you are really having fun with this too!

Rich, I'm not smart enough when it comes to rigging so I didn't initially comment. I did have one of those "eureka" moments when I saw and downloaded your project though. Unlike most true "eureka" moments where one then trots off to apply the new knowledge to a project, I remain in a useless state of not being able to anything with the information you've presented. I'm sure others can do that though. So all I can say is "Wow, that is cool!" And I'll leave it at that. Thanks!

OOooops... I sit corrected Bill. Thanks for the clarification... bet if I dug far enough back in the email folder I could find who posted it.... Bill said: Wow... that would be great. Especially for the A:M Keekat collectors!

... and we'll close out this session with a toon render test of the facial expression and body movement test. Toon Render test - on A:M Films

You say you want more Keekat? No problem. Way back when.... the A:M Community got to see a few character tests of Keekat in action. Here is one of them. Facial Animation and Body Movement test - on A:M Films *Creator currently unknown.

More links to Keekat on A:M Films!!! This one I had never seen. An intro to a Christmas special by ReelFX. KeeKat leads the Nieman Marcus Christmas Day Parade - on A:M Films

Now that A:M Films is online, everyone can see exactly what I was referring to concerning the talent put into the Paw Island project. Beautiful stuff! I was truly saddened when I learned the project was terminated. This awesome look at what can be done in Animation:Master still remains though... for that I'm grateful. Paw Island trailer on A:M Films A behind the scenes "making of" may still be available via one of the first SIGGRAPH Pro Series video tapes.

Congrats on the start of your WIP! Looking forward to seeing more as your hints and peeks are most interesting! Bravo! Keep it up. Take good notes for the "making of.... "

Bravo! Encore! Excellent mix of music and action. Now... you've got me hoping you'll put all your animations into one 'combined' animation extravaganza! ;o)

Excellent start! I'd like to see a bit more softening in the transition from dark to light... but 'tis fine! Makes me want to see something like an animated "still life" on A:M Films!!!

Javier, You might check with Ken.... I think your rocket test might be more than elegible for A:M Films!

WOW. That is all.

...of course it is always nice to be able to tell the good guys from the bad... For instance... I'd guess this guy.... may NOT be one of the good guys: For anyone who is watching "My Robot Movie" this guy is the only one who you are likely to see in BOTH projects.

Just as there are more colors than black and white in the world... there are rarely characters that are either purely good or purely evil. This next one is a perfect example: Is he a goodguy or a badguy? Or is he "none of the above". If I remember correctly... He is an update from an earlier hero... His name.... Shattre.

Lest anyone think this thread has disappeared entirely.... I've been sorting through boxes and the like and happened upon a few drawings of characters from the same "superhero" world and stories as the cybergirl. I'll post a few an try to motivate myself to work toward building cybergirl some friends... and of course the enemies. Here is the first: manipulated slightly in a 2d graphics program. For now we'll just call him cyberguy.

Parlo, I'm trying to wrap my brain around just what you are saying in the constraints part of you tutorial. I think I understand what you are saying but since I often use another method my brain has a hard time with the words... There is a way I like to do this that is somewhat "slight of hand/under the table" so to speak. Note: This works only with projects that DO NOT have embedded models. Instead of renaming the shortcut (which sometimes I do by the way) you can just swap the models at the location the shortcut points to. One Example: C:\AMModels\proxymodel.mdl C:\AMModels\beautymodel.mdl C:\AMModels\character.mdl Note: The third model (character.mdl) is the one that the shortcut points to. To begin with it is probably just a copy of proxymodel.mdl renamed to character.mdl. What you do is: A ) Copy the desired model over the top of the character.mdl file. or B ) Create a batchfile or program that will exchange the files for you automatically* *The second option obviously requires some programming knowledge even if it is only MS DOS batch language. An additional plus of this method is that upon going final on a model design you can lock your beauty and proxy models down (read only) and still use them in your production without worry of overwriting, altering or changing the models while you work with them. Sorry if I'm straying a bit from the subject... Love your tutorial!

Sharky, Thanks for the words of encouragement! There is currently no "My Robot Movie" to see outside of the Work In Progress area. In fact, there may never be a "My Robot Movie" at all... but I doubt that... I hope to smash everything together some day and say.... finished. "My Robot Movie" is an area within the A:M Forum to experiment with ideas and features of Animation:Master. Anyone is welcome to contribute as long as they understand that I may not use their ideas in any finished product. There I just admitted it. There 'might' be a finished product some day! If enough elements of the story are put together... there will be part/or parts of the movie on display... Any final format is yet to be determined. Gif movies will be the prevalent means of storytelling in this area, but standard movie files and flash/swf will be experimented with as well. I want to experiment with delivery of the story as well. I will admit that I should be documenting my experiments better. I'll try to do just that! Thanks!

Doug, Thanks for retaining some interest! I do think about My Robot Movie from time to time but don't want to waste anyone time's any more than necessary... I keep hoping to get a day or two to concentrate on both this WIP and the Cybergirl WIP with Javier. I am closing in on a scheduling solution... have to as I haven't been creating much at all. I've never been one to work on parts of a problem... then go back and finish it at a later date. Usually I go for the whole thing in one sitting approach. My Robot Movie is one of my first attempts to break a project down and add to it on a regular basis. I haven't been doing so great at that lately though, have I? Finding that early pic..... and posts like yours are bringing me back! Thanks for that!!!

Sharky, Looks good from here. My only suggestion: Why not have him start from a different pose than arms stretched out (like most model poses). Other than that good job! DIVX may be a problem for many people though.....

I ran across this little gem of a render today while I was formatting a few floppy disks. On one disk there was this picture of a robot... one of my first in 3D... I'm posting it here not because it was done in Animation:Master (it wasn't) but rather because It reminds me that we all have to start this journey into storytelling at some point in life. We wouldn't all be here in the A:M Community if it were otherwise. As I recall I had made my mind up to pursue 3D graphics as a means to tell a story by the time I rendered this. Sad in one way... just cylinders and spheres really. But exciting in another way... I can see I was already on my way. As humbling as it may be... tis my journey to travel. A very uneducated Rodney creates one of his first scenes in CorelDream.