Rodney

Yay! It's working. Thanks Jason.

Nice. Very painterly too.

This somewhat relates to the current subject of 'contests' so I'll add it here. While I'm not convinced it can support it, our community is in need of more frequent opportunity to create and explore in similar ways that contests afford. An issue with contests is that a considerable framework must exist in order to support it, voting must be managed, prizes issued... etc. etc. A downside of the image contests is that they aren't generally related to animation... which is something we must assume most are interested in pursuing. Community Projects don't have the element of voting and prizes... so those do have those going for them and they often do add the element of animation. The downside of most community projects is that they are invariably large... too large... in scope. What both of these (Contests and Community Projects) do provide is a common purpose... a target to hit... a goal to reach... a focus. I'd like to see in our community expand the Work In Progress area of the forum in such a way as to include an ongoing projects of (very) limited scope which everyone can contribute to and grab elements from in order to launch similar projects or experiment of their own. The primary challenge would be that of scaling the project down to it's most simplified form (i.e. a tight budget that others are welcome to expand on their own). The executor of a shot would then be free to add whatever level of detail they deemed appropriate. Initial projects opened for the community would be of an extremely limited scope (i.e. with very little character animation**) with more complex character performance projects added as experience and interests rise or as inserts and enhancements to the original project. Projects would run continuously with deadlines being both 'daily' and monthly. The dailies being people turning their projects in as they are at any given time and the monthly being the issuing of new 'shots'. At the core I am mostly talking about 'animation' here... so a basic palette of colors would likely be promoted for use by the animators with little emphasis placed on texture and lighting. An optional (but separate) track could then open for those interested in taking an entire sequences through to full texturing and lighting. And those with an interest in audio might enjoy the chance to experiment and perfect their skill with the art of foley, scoring and soundtracks. Rigging would likely be of the most basic form (simple articulation) but could expand to resolve specific project related issues and to optimize models for specific storytelling purposes. Monthly and/or quarterly contests are great... we need those to keep raising the bar of quality but their frequency generates too little opportunity for experimenting with optimal workflow, contributing to external projects and of meeting deadlines... especially as related to animation. And these contests can be misleading... every day is a contest where the primary challenge is to produce better work than we did on our last project. And that can be hard to do if we aren't engaged in a project. *Note that I am certainly not excluding character animation from the possibilities of community projects but a major obstacles to character animation can be that of designing, modeling, rigging characters before we begin to animate... a considerable obstacle in any project. As such, projects with characters should likely start with fully articulate characters made available for that purpose. The primary reason to forgo character animation at the initial level isn't complexity however but rather to encourage participation and to learn and regularly exercise basic skills in animation. There are many forms of animated motion that can be experienced and expressed besides that of fully formed character animation. The project might start with a very basic script: Shot 1: Spaceship enters scene and moves into distance past planet Shot 2: Spaceship descends to planet surface, extending its landing gear Shot 3: Reveal of where the spaceship has landed Total length of sequence likely not more than 30 seconds It would be up to the creative team to refine the script and settle on the final details (and/or alternatives). For instance, if participation was high in the project the spaceship could be shown to land at many different locations (with ever increasing suspense, humor... whatever). (This latter scope might be similar to 'Bus Stop' community project) There is no limit to what could be created with this form of very basic script. The gist of it being like a typical joke with setup, anticipation and delivery/twist. (A three act play if you will) The underlying goal is to keep the budget (of production time and effort required) as low as possible because the end game isn't that of creating a high quality short film... it's to get involved with the project and exercise a skillset. If someone wants to take the assets of the project and refine it to the nth degree... change it... break it... let them. Have some fun while pushing the limits of A:M. And here's where we meet with the end game... If we can produce simple projects such as these over and over again with limited time and with limited budgets we can reasonably be expected to finish larger projects as well.

Jason, Can you please recheck Community access. I note an A:M report was recently generated related to not being able to access the Community window and I don't know of anyone that has been able to gain access (i.e. since your notification that all was as it was before no one has confirmed access).

Are you positive of that? It will often look that way as it is black shadow on a "perceived black" alpha channel.* Some programs use a checkerboard pattern to avoid this problem. An easy way to tell would be to temporarily bring the image back in to A:M as a rotoscope. *The alpha channel has to be something so many programs display it as black.

Ha! I was going to ask what the slot in the top of the head was for and now I know... the 'real' hair.

I'm not sure I would have guessed that except that your exacting detail made a stylistic choice of of larger hands unlikely so pondered it a bit. Who knows... if it'd been someone else's character I might have said, "Hey, I really like those hands! Lots of character there." Looking very good! That guy might be able to double as a 'Planet of the Apes' chimpanzee too. He kind of reminds me of the one they start they story out with in Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes'.

Sounds like a good decision to me.

I had to check their site just to confirm that was a real offering... The use of the title 'amateur' makes that one of the strangest marketing names I've seen in 3D programs. I suppose it might be good for more than a few purchases of the pro version as folks consider whether they prefer to be a professional or an amateur. I note the amateur version does not allow use for commercial purposes.

I haven't forgotten about this Paul... still pondering the possibilities and off being sidetracked. I'm pretty sure it eventually leads back to here. I can definitely see that!

Glad to see you alive and kickin'... and writing... and modeling... ) I thought of your grocery store-y the other day because it fits so well into my away fom the forum life. Oh, the stories that could be told there. Craziness ensues daily.

Not to steal any of Sean's thunder if he's waiting to re-present this short film later this month but I happened upon it and see it was released back in April. It continues the story of Jack and his many adventures. xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx6tZjWoJ0c Fun stuff Sean. Keep up the great work!

That's the theme called 'Anything Goes'. A theme is a prompt that gives creative types a target. It is up to them to hit it or... select a different target. Entries don't have to follow the theme although that's probably wise since voting will take that them into consideration. An issue with *contests* that don't have a theme is that voting gets harder where no target is defined. If there is no theme then what might we vote for? Best quality? No, I'd say that's already inherent in the voting process. I can be easily swayed one way or another... my desire being to assist the A:M Community in achieving what it needs/wants. People are working on personal projects all of the time and yet many don't enter elements of those projects into contests. I'm not entirly sure why we do or do not. I suspect the reasons are as many as their are individual artists. Speaking for myself I can only say that I've been using the contests as excuses to create stuff... and as much as is possible... wrangle that work into the theme of the contest. There are many weighting devices I use in voting in the 'Mascot' contest, or any other contest. While of course there are many other criteria a few are: quality, storytelling, composition, adherence to theme, clarity, color, etc. All this and more but the primary weighting leans toward: what image do I want to see pop up on my screen every time I launch A:M until the next Mascot contest.

It is interesting to note that recently a Nobel Prize went to three men involved in research related to real world topology. On the surface (pun intended) this might seem somewhat unrelated to our concerns with 3D but of interest is how 'holes' form in complex shapes and what that implies relative to our need to use 3 and 5 point patches and exotic shapes in our efforts to model in the virtual world. Their research is more specifically related to quantum mechanic properties (entanglements) and electric conductivity in order to create new materials. My interest is where the theory applies (or does not apply) to extraordinary vertices (i.e. to my way of thinking anything that is not a four point patch). As this seems to be an area where computer technology and the real world converge I can easily imagine that some of the folks at PIXAR deeply interested in such matters of topology are paying attention.

Very impressive real world application Arthur. It's great to see A:M Track getting some usage too!

Computational Thermoforming is an old technology (paints applied via immersion in water) modernized an applied to 3D printing with impressive results: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFkVxurKeAs More closely aligned to the older methodology, hyrodgraphy is highly useful as well. Both approaches are familar to those who texture models in Animation:Master and other programs. The trick being to do the texturing as precisely as possible with minimal passes to achieve the desired results. That (wet method) can be seen in a more modern form here: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlUhPrAqiY0 There are quite a few youtube videos that demonstrate the hydrographic application of texturing and color. The ones I recall seeing most recently were examples used with street art and for quickly applying complicated graphics to metal (ala customized motorcycles). Whereas hydrographic techniques tend to be better suited to unique application Computational Thermoforming appears to apply more to mass production. Also related: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZZtYEh7-Zw

I highly value your insight into these things so I'm curious as to when you think another contest might be ideal to run. My own preference would be to always have a contest active, especially where folks can gain a free subscription (or gift certificate as the case may be) to keep folks creating great stuff with A:M. Such a contest would remain open and active with a tentative deadline until enough entries are received to consider the voting to be launched, then the final deadline is emphasized/extended and the theme refined as required. Jason, As for your suggested theme/title, I think simply calling it 'winter' would be ideal. While creative minds can always get beyond such things, 'Winter is coming' might narrow the field of entries unnecessarily. 'Winter' leave it open to much interpretation. The issue with running a contest now is that technically there are two general contest time frames pending... the first would be the holidays.... the second the new year. The former would suggest a deadline at or around 1 December (almost too soon) and the second would be too late to catch the holidays. This may be what Robert refers to with regard to a contest being 'too soon'... the timing is not entirely optimal. In these things one must consider the availability of folks that have to set up and actually run the contest (that'd be you Jason!) If pressed for deadline dates I'd say the approaching opportunities are... 31 October..... 1 December... 1 January.... as a general target, basically the end/beginning of each month. Note that this does not necessarily imply a monthly contest... the 'themes' tend to run monthly. The voting...which is the contest... might be quarterly. My take on most contests relates to how many cartoonists approach freelance work. They know there are certain cyclic seasons that will continually occur and those generate themes they can target. Halloween is one of these events that is immediately pending. Artwork will be generated related to this 'event' regardless of whether or not there is a contest. And THAT my friends is what might be referred to a creative timing. So... to recap... my own opinion... I don't think there should ever be a time in our community where a contest is not running.

Congratulations Arthur, Dusan and Matt! Great entries all around everyone! I thought I had a chance... until I saw the other entries in the contest that is... And look at Matt... in a tie with himself! You so crazy. Be forewarned, I shall have to up my game for the next contest!

Very nice and great idea! That's one of those 'I wish I'd thought of that' characters. Looking forward to what you do with him. P.S. Too bad he didn't get into the mascot contest. I can't help but think he might have been the winner. P.P.S. Will I be considered rude if I tell him his hands look huge?

Yay! I can confirm this is a missing file from v19 Beta 32bit release. It is not a problem with the 64bit release. Downloading the missing file (or installing Visual Basic) resolves the problem.

Are you using the new beta? It'd be very odd for v18 to suddenly start giving you that message so something has recently changed.

The primary location to find it would be to use the Plugin dialog to bring up the .MOT import/export. There are several places this import is available. One is via Action. More specifically to the Camera, A:M can import Inferno .RAW files. That can be accessed via Right Click plugin on a camera. There is also KFM (Keyframe) data that can be exported/imported which I need to check out. (That can be seen in the first image above the .MOT option) Disclaimer: I've not used these plugins beyond simple tests to see if the data imports and exports.

Need a bit more info John... What is it you are doing when you get this message? Without knowing more the solution should be on the order of 'replace the missing file'.

That option is not available to everyone. Only Alpha/Beta testers? The latest reports section most of us have access to is v18.

I think that'd be good for generating some very interesting textures.