Rodney

Animation Master allowed me to make my own Star Wars movie. Sounds like that'd be a pretty good endorsement! Downloading Now!

Wow! Excellent update! I can't help but think the client is going to be happy with the work you are producing. *All you potential city builder's BETTER be taking notes!

Looks good enough to drink! Excellent progress DL, I'm takin' notes myself...

Did you rig him yourself or use TSM, 2001, Cogs, etc? Also, the shading effect looks a lot like pencil, Did you use Toonnation plugin material settings? I love those!

Mike, Thanks for your detailed response! The work that you put into KeeKat was inspirational to me at the time I was just getting to know Animation Master. Truly inspired. It's not hard to imagine how you might refine some of the techniques into your current Cog system. I'd love to hear more about that. I understand there was more than one KeeKat model. Both low resolution and high resolution models. What, pray tell, is the benefit to having two models and how would they best be used effectively in Animation Master?

Shaun, Wow! Inspirational as ever. Can't wait until the day we can say "Another fine short done in Animaiton Master" For now though... We can say... an AWESOME display of what Animation Master can allow an artist to do. Keep it up!

BUMP Nerrazi, How goes the hand... and the rest of the superhero?

Very nice! I especially like your economy of splines. Looks to be a very low patch count model!

I'm thinkin' you should get bored more often! Looking good, really good!

Is that hair for the grass?

Mike, I didn't know that! I am learning a lot about the character by studying available information. I'd love to have your insight into a few of the areas you mentioned. You hit a few interesting subjects in your reply, such as: How different was reworking the mesh in the days before stitching versus now? What is your take on the value of smartskinning? What joys and pains are there in lipsync? How did work on KeeKat influence your current work/rigging? In short: What lessons did you learn from Keekat? Feel free to post on any part of your experience with Keekat. * There is, however, no pressure to respond. * I hope to point to a few tutorials along the way but am mainly just collecting information (mostly already on the internet) here. That way new users may gain an appreciation of some of the work that goes into the 'carefully' planned and executed creation of a model. Additional input from any of the creators would certainly be nice though!

By way of initial introduction to the Keekat model found in Excercise 1 of the Art of Animation Master manual I'd like to point out some basic information about the model. The Keecat model was created by Bill Young of recent Animation:Master Model A Face With Bill Young fame. I believe he is still lead modeller and technical director for Anzovin Studios. For more information on Bill's activities check out this link: Animation:Master Model A Face with Bill Young The character itself is the product of and copyright 2002 by Paw Island Entertainment Inc. Visit their site: http://www.pawisland.com/ for a further look at KeeKat and friends! Of particular interest to artists might be the 'How to Draw' section of the web site. Behind the wonderful simplicity of the 3D Keekat is a basic design that lends itself readily to 3D. See "How to Draw Keekat Here"! Artist Steve Vitale (Loosetoon) lays claim to designing Keekat for Paw Island Entertainment. His work should look familiar to you if you investigate his site. He's contributed to Cartoon Network, PBS and more!

For those who were involved in, modeling, rigging and animating KeeCat and others that have used KeeCat in animation tests and/or experiments... What can new users learn from KeeCat? Would anyone care to post their thoughts concerning the KeeKat Character?

Whoa... I had never thought of that... Now THAT is a scary thought... Everyone in the entire world is crazy EXCEPT Vern? He is the ONLY sane person in a world of Billions... It may take me a while to absorb the ramifications...

You may have to post a few more pictures/angles... maybe a wireframe so everyone can get a good look.

I hope you have A LOOOOOOOT of money!

Standard Disclaimer Follows: I am not now nor have I ever been a Hash employee. I have no affiliation with Hash Inc. other than the deepest respect for their efforts and product: Animation Master. My appointment as moderator of the New Users Forum allows for only my 2 cent inputs from time to time. I'm not paid to do this. I do this, as many others on the list do as well, out of a strange facination with Animation Master and (at least for me) an underlying belief that Animation Master is the best product on the market at the best price! It simply rocks! I'm really just a new user myself as I don't know half of what Animation Master has to offer. Thanks to the Animation Master forum I find new techniques, features and applications every day! I see glimpses, from the newest user to the oldest of what Animation Master (and Hash Inc.) has enabled the artists of the world to achieve... and that really excites me! Wow! Now I even have the opportunity to mingle with these artists in a Forum moderated by me. I look forward to the challenges ahead. Rodney

New Users Home --- The Art of Animation:Master--- A:M Films --- Useful Searches Forum Search Technical Manual Search for Tutorials on the A.R.M. Just change the last word after = in the URL and you can find other useful resources Example#2: Search for "Rigging" on the A.R.M. Search for an Author on the A.R.M.: Colin Freeman Character Tutorials and More William Sutton UV Editor and More Jeff Cantin Basic Splinemanship, Font/AI Wizards and More Google Rules! A search for "Animation:Master materials" at www.google.com HASH INC Support and Services Always maintain the most current release of your subcription to Animation Master. Updates are Free! Upgrades are just $99! Hash Inc: Contact Information Information and Training Resources A:M Resource Matrix (A.R.M.) Sherwoods Forest *lots of dead links folks. It's an older site replaced by the A.R.M. Sam Buntrock's Useful Threads New Users Introductory Information HASH online training videos *Do these first! You'll be glad you did. Video Tutorials Video Tutorials from A:M Films Not yet operational Exercises from TAOA:M and more Additional Tutorials and How Tos Basic Texturing Tutorial by LarryB Creating Alpha Channels with Photoshop - by Wade Sacca Multiple Decal Images Basic Cloth Tutorial Selecting/Unselecting Groups and Making them Pickable/Unpickable - by Various Authors Learn how to delete Pose Sliders! Duplicator Wizard - Making Sea Shells - A mini tutorial by Robcat *FUN!* Additional tutorials for beginners at the A:M Resource Matrix (A.R.M.) Jim Talbot Tutorials: Flatten Tutorial (Zip file) Features Tutorial (Zip file) Eyebrow Details Tutorial (Zip file) Eyelashes Details Tutorial (Zip file) How to set up a scene with pure white background New Features New Dynamics Settings That little Green Tick Mark in v11? Locks of Hair Don't forget to hold the shift key down to create v10.5 locks of hair when creating your material. Interface Playrange Settings Startup Choreography & changing default Choreography Keyboard Shortcuts Adjusting the Rotate Manipulator (Incremental settings) Customizing - CP Size and Color Use this example to learn more about customizing Animation The Reusable Motion Forum Reusable Motion Information, Projects and Examples Cameras Multiple cameras - Camera changing Infinite Scale Camera Matching - Controlling a camera via Pose Lighting Radiosity Forum Lighting (Radiosity) Tutorial by Yves Poissant Modelling Numeric CP positioning - "Show Manipulator Properties" Aligning CPs Scaling, Rotating or Moving CPs with Bones Deleting a spline and attached CPs Selecting and Unselecting Groups and Making them Pickable/Unpickable - by Various Authors Advanced Lathing Methodologies Porcelain Adding CPs to a Distortion Cage (Basic) Rendering Render sizes for print Converting Sequential TGAs to an AVI/MOV file Rendering with sequential numbering (Options) The Best Rendering Codecs *Partial discussion - Note the relation to rendering to TGA. Getting rid of the 'fringies' Rigging Rigging with the 2001 Eggington rig (includes Rigging your own tutorial) Search for rigging tutorials on the A.R.M. More of Dem Bones by Raf Anzovin (Note: Link to Dem Bones is broke on the A.R.M.) A:M Bones Notes by Joseph Firestine 3D Animation & Design Constraints Applying Constraints to a model - Poses Texturing Flattening *To prepare for decaling Skin/Eye Texture Maps and Decaling Applying multiple images to the same Decal Textures vs materials vs decals vs image maps (Distinctions) Import / Export Importing 3DS files Smartsaga's Plugin List Sound and Music Music Makers (Software and More) A:M specific Software, Hardware and Computer Information Hash Inc's Graphics Card - 3D Marks page Keyboard Shortcuts Lots and lots of Information on A:M Libraries Dig deep and you'll eventually see something you find useful! A:M Forum Areas A:M Forums Index (Front Page) Animation:Master Forum (Main) Troubleshooting / Solutions Terrain Wizard - Watch that Mesh Density! Foot Twisting / Possible Problem with Nulls, Constraints etc. with Library Characters

Yeah, right... sure it is. Thanks for the info! I'm sure you'll get requests for a full tutorial soon. ...and you think you don't have enough time now! The pictures, as posted, didn't look like Photoshop so I had assumed maybe you used color dies or even some mixed media/marker combination on paper. The line color also is a great effect. It reminded me of way back when I used color pencils in the days of paper... (Note for the Kids: Paper is what was used for drawing before digital drawing made the use of paper obsolete At any rate or by any method... nice!

I sure am glad I'm not that guy! He's gonna be one very busy moderator... Thanks Ken! (I think) I look forward to seeing everyone exercise their talents via the Art of Animation:Master tutorials. All you old timers feel free to re-experience what it's like to be a new user too! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Users Home --- The Art of Animation:Master--- A:M Films --- Useful Links and Tips --- Search Welcome to the New Users Forum. In the New Users Forum those who are new to Animation:Master can expect to recieve help and support in learning the basics of Animation:Master and 3D animation. New users are welcome to post to any of the forums, but this is the place to ask basic questions. It is suggested that you work your way through the The Art of Animation:Master tutorials first to get going in the right direction. Completing the exercises early on has led to dramatic progress in understanding the world of 3D animation. Not convinced? Find someone who has completed the exercises themselves and ask them! Everyone here started out as a beginner, so don't be shy. You will soon see how amazing the A:M community is. We encourage you to post your Works-In-Progress (WIP) from these tutorials to this forum. You will learn a lot from the feedback you get. We encourage everyone to pitch in and give encouragment to new users. It's always exciting to see artists emerge from being a beginner, to next hotshot animator. Welcome to Animation:Master and the A:M Community. You've definitely come to the right place!

I did envision a samurai-type cybersword! ...To the exclusion of all other options. Thanks for showing me the error of my ways. The only sword I had really 'fully' ruled out was the standard barbarian-type sword. Which, of course, can still be a prop in an armory scene where she tries several swords on for size and rejects the more clumsy, uncivilized types for a... samurai-type sword! Anyone want to know what happens to the samurai sword she chooses and why she goes back to her original rapier? The sword, as you've designed it looks too be her original sword, designed specifically for her at the time her leggings were created... would you not agree they seem cut from the same cloth... er, metal? I'm developing something of a back story as we progress as I'm sure you are too. For the record: The back story now has NOTHING to do with my original concept of 10 years ago! I'll not retreat there again unless specifically asked... it really wasn't planned very far, trust me. As the opportunity arises we can drop more hints of the back story along the way... A three day break from *MY* work is in my immediate future, Yaaaay!

I got the chance to see you're latest color work in bright color (as opposed to broken dark monitor) and WOW! I like the bright MUCH better!!! Same here! It seems everytime I sit down to model something I have to stop. That and my digital camera refusing to let go of my zoo pictures is very frustrating... more on that later in the "My Robot Movie" zone... I've been falling asleep at the keyboard a lot lately... reminds me of the good ol' days! As far as modeling goes... take your time... I have a feeling the Forum will let you know if you fall behind schedule! Also: If/When/As you find the time... can you post any information on your penciling and coloring techniques. Marker? Paint? Digital? Others (and I) want to know a little about the methods are you using as shown here. As always, Thanks!

Have to admit your gauntlet/rapier surprised me! I just returned from imagining the various possibilities and I like what I saw... It would certainly fits the character! The juxtaposition of hard metal versus soft skin and smooth curves is turning out nicer than I could ever have imagined. The other day I did a mental test of what I thought she might look like swinging a sword and how the swinging of (Keith Fay's) sword might flow and what the setup might be to achieve sword arcs in a choreography... a fun exercise! The stuff I came up with would probably work best with two heavy swords one in each hand though... The kind of sword she would select will say a lot about her character. In this capacity I REALLY like what the rapier says about her! The gauntlet/rapier adds a whole new layer of possibilities and opportunities for finese for a character that, as originally concieved, probably couldn't ever have. I say go with the rapier! The other sword(s) can go in the package with the action figure too. Bravo, Javier!

Yes, please more light. From what I could see it looked very interesting!

Truly evil! It's a good thing you came clean... I was to having myself committed... either that or become conspiracy freaks like vern... and aaver(n) So do we get to know what the project is/was? Or are you under one of those (conspiratory) non-disclosure agreements... If'n they are watching over your shoulder it may be best to reply in code... I'll decipher as I get the time...