Rodney

***Warning Graphics Intensive - Loading Images... *** Alright, time to get serious. Here is what I plan to keep my focus on for the immediate future. The parameters leave me a lot of room to experiment and learn how to put together a movie. Not to mention experiment with a full spectrum of modeling, action, fx, and testing, testing, testing... At it's core is the germ of an idea: John Henderson said he liked it so... It's got to be worth pursuing I'm thinking. Tentatively my overarching title is simply: My Robot Movie This forum is the inspiration. I'll try to credit where credit is due... and learn from my mistakes. Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it!

John, When animated your newly lighted scene may be just right but as a still frame it's too dark. Of course I'm sure that is the effect your going for. I know you've got the big picture in your head and know it'll turn out just perfect but... I like the detail of the first Lab. Nothing a little sound and camerat movement won't fix Maybe a little more light up in the rafters. I expect you already have plans to light the stage as well. Here's a poor attempt at what I'm talking at:

You can tweak your images of smoke in a stove and I won't complain. Thanks for that info though... might have kept me from spending hours trying to recreate in A:M! The only time I lean toward total purity in standalone A:M use is in my efforts to conform to the monthly contest criteria. I'm so use to using other programs on the images I create in A:M that it is not easy for me to do everything in A:M only. CorelDraw is my biggest stumblingblock to living completely inside A:M... although I use it more in a plugin fashion I'd consider it a bit of a cheat if I used it in a contest. Whether for pre or post tweaking. Not about to give up these other programs as they make my work in A:M much simpler though and are complimentary to it. I doubt we'll see you give up Photoshop anytime soon, right?

Smashed a couple of your WIPs into one file because some of the changes are hard to follow as you scroll down the page. Hope I got them in roughly the right order: I'll keep the graphic up as long as possible and edit the link to another graphic if you say the word. Lookin' Good. I know you may not be there yet but I'd like to see her with some hair... something about bald women...

Incredible! Just when I think you can't get it any better... Has the look of a portraiture painting. You even have smoke wafting into the air... curse you!

Jim the recently posted update with the new 'tuft' of hair at the front looks a bit off to me... Like I qualify to critique your work While the gentleman can direct his barber to perform as he will, the length of hair in the back might be lengthened as well to keep the hair somewhat uniform. Looks a little like the barber didn't know what to do with the front. I get the same thing with my widow's peak all the time

Ah... good grief! Now John's doin' background scenes. Grrrr. The only consolation is that he's coming up with better ideas that I can... so mine WILL be different. (Some consolation, eh?) Inspiring as usual, John! Do you generally leave your models white, gray or some other basic color until you are ready for detail? Or is this skycast set to render in grays? Kinda curious.

Hey look... the conch is channeling the voice of Yves Poissant! ...and waxing poetic about materials to boot. " Plastic is the easiest type of material to do. Just set your specular color to white. Now that is a mini-toot! from the conch if I ever saw one.

I still have a lot of these shorts on a Hash video tape I purchased at a Las Vegas trade show some 10(?) years ago. Yeah, 1994. I can almost credit Animation Master for curing me of addiction to gambling as, at that time, I didn't think I could afford even the tradeshow discount because I wasn't very good at budgeting in those days. Ahem... Anyway... I watched those shorts over and over again until I couldn't resist the call. Now I have another addiction: Animation Master Night Out (Frankenstein) was also on that videotape too. Balls and Blocks, the alien truckers, and more... All the old, truly jawdropping animation, that still hold up even in todays 'high tech' world. Please bring them back Ken. This you've got to do!

Really enjoyed your updates concerning decaling, splining and boning. Sounds like the Setup Machine while not perfectly suited to the task was easy enough to adjust. Really looking forward to the final product. Hope to see more updates until then. Keep up the great work.

I like. Well Done. Care to share any secrets on how you put it together? How you matched the sound with the movement?

If your gonna add the shark teeth I suggest taking it all the way around the front. Having it stop on the side abrubtly like that is... a little awkward. You might add just a tad of transparency to the decal as well to help blend it in. (I like the decaled flames!)

Thanks for the individual shots: In the group foto there was no way to tell the object(?) on top of Mack's head was a nijamonkey. Now we know. Cute little guy... You may want to move your post over to the WIP area as many may not post any comments while it is in the Showcase area. Perhaps steve@hash.com would move it there for you. Look forward to seeing more!

Excellent! I've been waiting for someone to post another group shot. Interesting characters; the wood character (in the middle) really has me intrigued... Now that you've satisified my need for a group shot how about closeups of each of the characters? What stories/movies do you have them in or have planned for them?

I'd suggest work on the part where he jumps up into the air. That seems to me where you'll get the most bang for your bucks and efforts. Add some indicators of weight into the action. Example: His entire body should lower back on his hind legs in anticipation of the jump. Once lowered the legs can act as springs to catapult him into the air. The wings need to suggest that they are an important part of getting him up into the air. Perhaps have the wings go so low to the ground that they have to bend upward then go as high as possible to grab as much air as they can. Think about an action like pulling yourself up on two bars on either side of you without use of your legs. It takes an effort to get your body up. As robcat suggests a more sweeping movement with the wings (throughout the scene but especially during the jump) will make this a beautiful shot. Followthrough in arcs is what I call it. Looks good though. Inspirational! When I first saw it I said to myself, "Cool!"

Ken (I believe) posted this yesterday in the What's New area at www.hash.com. http://www.hash.com/users/milos/schlitzy3.mov WoW! These guys need to do more together. Hic!

Simply fantastic work! Really like the detail in the Mom. You make all this look (relatively) easy. There is a reason I stick to cartoony work... realism is hard to achieve. (at least for me) Looking forward to more... Rodney

Mike, I'm trying to formulate a question here... but... can't. I'll just say... dreaming (and nightmares) are interesting things for sure. Rodney

(Still holding the conch. Daring someone... anyone... to take it.) Points to a link to an oft repeated method for lathing a semi-perfect sphere. A:M Screen - Now Playing: Lathing a semi-perfect sphere

(Grabs the conch and holds it up to the mike) A voice from out of the conch says: "...how do I make my decals start showing the black parts of them? And where do I find these alpha channels?" Another voice replies: "I dont think its alpha channels, it sounds like you need to change the images key colour. It's default is black so just change it to something not in your image map" Yet another voice states: "A more sure-fire way is to right click the key colour and select 'not set'. That way you don't need to worry about picking a key colour." The voices go silent... a note of satisfaction still lingering in the air.

If you aren't already winning in these contests you're well on your way! I especially like your secondary actions (i.e. the antenae). All you shading guru's should offer a few shading/texturing tips to WOW 'em for the next contest. Unless of course the rules are only basic textures... Rodney

Try dropping the refection on this and the robo should stick out appropriately. If you have time maybe you could experiment with subtle shades of color... I'm thinking red. Rodney

And... Don't forget to put a junk yard filled with old batteries somewhere on your world. Either that or a recycling factory to cover what he does after driving all over the place, running out of battery power. This will build nicely into the robos excitment when he opens his shiny new ultrapower "rechargable" hydrocel batteries during the Christmas TV Special! Rodney

Yeah... what Dearmad said then! The black is too stark. While it does help to bring focus to the robo it is at the expense of seeing the vehicle. I wouldn't go back to the chrome though. Perhaps a dull gray. Or once you've decided the back story on how the robo acquired the car you can search the internet for car ads and borrow from their look. His inclination toward speed might be served by a glossy red too. I like the dirt you had on it before... that seems to be an indication that the robo doesn't take the time to clean the car... indicating (perhaps) he's got better things to do than clean his car. Like drive... vrroooooooom! If you go for the ultra clean look maybe he spends a lot of his time driving... cleaning... driving... cleaning... (I don't know just going with the flow here) The direction you've been heading seems to indicate he doesn't like to stop too much though. So the "lived in" dented and used look seems best to me. That would also leave room for the sequel when he eyes "the new car"... best, Rodney

(Secures Conch shell) Can't get any simpler than this, but is a must know powertool in windows: When you want to document your progress (ala WIP) simply press the Print Scrn Key and what ever is on the screen is copied to the Windows clipboard. From there you can paste into any program that will accept bitmap graphics. Holding the Alt key down while pressing Print Scrn will copy only the active window. Mac users, your mileage may vary. (Rodney extends the conch shell to the awaiting masses)