Rodney

It's been a slow process (often stalled even) but... BUF Software released their BViewer for Mac OS X some time ago. It previously was available for Linux. There is a Windows release in the works. https://bufsoftware.com/https://bufsoftware.com/products/bview/ (Note that you may be a (partial) 404 error via this link but it should have a menu that will take you further. The primary site... seems to be broke at the moment.) Info about the viewer and downloading is at the link. I"m not sure you'll gain a lot from use of Bview but it is their first offering. As such usage can encourage them to port and release more of the software in their inventory (Link). General info of the products in the works: Bcreative Suite includes all the tools BUF has built and improved to ease the creative process : A complete 3D pipeline studio from modeling, dynamics, animation to high end rendering, a node-based compositing software, a batch process manager and many more… Bpipeline Suite is the collection of efficient tools creating a coherent pipeline that meets productions biggest challenges in Full CG Animated films and live actions movies especially regarding financial constraints : A production management tool, an asset management tool and many more…

I haven't seen a topic related to this movie and... given the interest in stopmotion around here thought a post might be in order. I saw the film last week and thought it was a 'perfect' movie on many levels. By perfect I mean so carefully crafted and finely detailed that I was completely captivated. I was impressed by it's sense of originality and yet many elements of the familiar as well. The story itself... well crafted. There is a lot to talk about relative to 'Kubo' to include how computer modeling and animation drove their 3D printing) which continues to bring stopmotion into the digital age. A side topic of interest to me is that of the physical aspects of stopmotion that picks up where 2D animation left off after losing it's physical artwork (the hand painted cels that became so collectible) when the process went digital. Do I have any reservations regarding the movie? Always. But it's an impressive production. There are a lot of 'making of Kubo' videos online and all have been well worth watching. All in all 'Kubo and the Two Strings' looks like it was a lot of work and dare I say in this day and age... perhaps even a labor of love. For it's over all presentation, craft and storytelling I think it deserving of many awards and honors. There are a lot of 'making of Kubo' videos online and all have been well worth watching.

I'll take a stab... I'm not sure how to convert them to a 2D vector but the the alpha and gamma settings indicate the degree of the axis for a spline passing through a control point. Gamma states one axis and alpha states the other. If we view the values of bias as residing on a plane we should be able to determine the first (alpha) in terms of depth.and the second (gamma) in terms of breadth. The issue with converting both into a 2D vector would be that they aren't both in the same 2D plane but are perpendicular to each other. Convert the degrees into vectors (but keep the two separate) and then you have your 2D vectors. I'll stop there before I hurt myself. Edit: In re-reading your post it appears you might be talking about the splines found in the channels of the Timeline. If that is case then we'd have all our values confined within a 2D plane.

I haven't had much time to investigate the possibilities but I did conduct a quick inventory of what is in your project file. I'm a firm believer that each project and scene brings to it unique considerations that when considered in part inform the larger whole of the complete project. There is also the theme and general message to consider... .what am I trying to convey... what is the point of the project. Those are just some of the many things I want to consider as I dive into your project.

Thanks Paul. Got it.

That was tough to pick just three! I'm going to guess that is a typo as that date would have been reached last night at midnight.

That'd be great! Hopefully you still have my email address.

I'd say the character himself would be great. (Somewhere I think I have an earlier version of that bear) Are those buildings in the background models? If they are models, I'd say 'yes' to them as well. If it's an image backdrop... probably best to replace it (for our purposes here). The golden rule I'm operating from at present is: - Use A:M only for first order resources (this encompasses the 3D 'purist' view but then goes one step further... if the decal that is used isn't created in A:M via materials or rendered models it's not first order so better left out at the first stage). This relates to efficiency that only exist in the world of A:M and important to consider if we are to fully leverage A:M. - I'm still working on the second and subsequent orders which relates to why I posted my test here but it moves us more fully into the world of imports, exports conversions/translations and compositions.

When I was typing I envisioned a short sequence that includes a backgrond, foreground and middle ground with the various elements involved (all the objects/models) there. This could be a scene that doesn't have any characters in it such as the opening scene. It could also be something that won't appear in the short itself (think of the various film credits that take the audience back through scenes from the film but in a different style than the film itself such as a 3D animated film that has hand drawn scenes recreated for the credits. Barring that the simplest thing would be a model... any type will do to test out the possibilities.

Paul, I wrote a few paragraphs outlining some of the process and potential but in realizing that words won't be adequate I resolve to put something together that can demonstrate the benefits. There is a lot going on in that image of an eye but much of it is a bit esoteric and none of it really relates to that of animating an eye... other than that was the shape that I decided to quickly put together. If you've got a few shots of your 'Papa Bear' project you'd be willing to share perhaps I could put together a small demo that outlines some useful processes related to this. Barring that I'll eventually get there but I don't have any specific projects I'm working on so that's why you see things like strange eyes and such. I often decide to test a process and use whatever I think of at the time that gets me there the quickest.

I'm not sure how this will work on the Mac but... a workaround might be to create a single patch and apply a patch image to that. Lock that down (so it won't interfere with your modeling) and the use that for your rotoscope. This also works well for those rare instances where you need a rotoscope at a specific angle instead of the cardinal directions that normal rotos are restricted to (top, bottom, right, left, front and back). With a patch roto you can also skew the roto Decals also work As a stand-in decal rotos work in instances where warping and distorting are called for... such as with caricatures. They also allow for use of any type of geometry. Or combine patch images with decals... You get the idea. If you haven't tried PNG as Mark suggests then you should definitely try that.

Nice detailing... with great economy of splines.

Very nice. I don't see why not. Other folks want to create cool real world objects too.

Nope. 2d shapes with shaded fill. I'll try not to leave you hanging too long but will wait to see if anyone else cares to guess. There isn't a whole lot more to guess.

This may be sacrilege so 3D purists... please forgive. (I used pure A:M for my contest entries. I don't think I even used any externally generated decals! (see my previous post also for a look at a render out of A:M that is purely A:M with nothing else in the mix) I confess that when I see the lines between 2D and 3D blur I feel a tinge of excitement. Both 2D and 3D are great on their own but when combined together seamlessly they can be pretty special. Here is an example of a simple mesh created in A:M being used in a 2D animation program. For those of you that have been following my blog you'll recognize the program. Of interest though is that of determining what parts are 2D and what are 3D. It's a simple animation. Does anyone care to guess what is what? You'll likely have to click on the image to view the animation. Aside: I'm currently troubleshooting an issue with the rendering of gif transparency so that is why the animated gif has a white background.

I see this on facebook: https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/1102521_561284133908789_1672239286_o.jpg

One of the things I enjoyed while in Japan was discovering books and magazine devoted to Animation:Master. I think I once told the (rather humorous) story about how my family was on vacation and my father in law and I stepped into a bookstore and because it turned out to be an 'adult' bookstore I didn't really find much of anything worth buying except a few random kids books but once back on the road he revealed he had purchased a video. Curious to see what he had purchased I inquired and immediately went into shock upon seeing the cover of the video... he'd purchased the Haruwo video by Shao Guee that I had a (small) part in subtitling/translating into English (I was even thanked in the credits)! Whoa! Out of all of the videos he might randomly select... crazy. Here's another treasure I happened upon by accident. It's a book that covers all the various aspects of A:M from modeling, to texturing, to lighting, to rigging, to animating... my thought was... now why don't they have more books like this for A:M in english! If I'm not breaking any laws I might share some of the internals from this book as the pictures alone are well worth 'reading'. I know of at least one other Japanese book covering A:M that I was never able to track down while in Japan. I saw it online for a bit more $ than I thought reasonable. It's still on my list and who knows... perhaps someday I will retrieve it.

That is an awesome model jirard! Seriously. Wow.

Blur along direction eh? Very interesting. Looking very good.

We saved some cake for you. It's a bit... mmmm..... actually it's still quite tasty..

My characters from 'Doodle Time' (Time Travelers) are hesitant to assist. They think I might actually place in this contest if no one else has entered. That was two of them in the car entry that I misplaced. So... no Doodle Time entry made the cut... and THEY are timetravelers. Go figure.

I'm sorry I've offended. Certainly not my intention.

I'm not quite sure whether to be happy or sad. Without an entry from you the rest of us stand a better chance of placing. But... without an entry from you... um... okay... color me sad. Hope you'll share the results as you finalize it. (Then I can be happy again)

I rarely have that problem (lack of words) It's hard to accept this and even harder to hear it said when we are experiencing problems but... more than 90% of the time it's the user, not the software. That's just the way it is. We are, more often than not, the source of our own problems. Having said that... quite often the software can help guide the user to a solution they would otherwise not see. But computers only do what we tell them to do. Some of that is coded in software while some of it is the user not understanding how to use that software. In the case of the mysteriously moving object, the movement is very likely directed by something you have set. With regard to the rotating sphere.... is it rotating in the model (less likely) or an Action or Choreography (more likely)? If in the Model window... does the model have any poses set up? Models can't change on their own as the data is static so if something is changing then we can look to a pose (relationship) or action. There are two types of Action, standalone and choreography. If in an Action or Chor then you've very likely but unintentionally animated the object. So we'd need to crack open the timeline and look at that aspect. As Robert suggests, seeing the project file would tell the tale. In the latter case of the ball straying off the path my first guess would be that you've placed your bone correctly from the front view but if looking from the side might not be placed at 0 on the Z axis. If not this then it could very well be a constraint that isn't set up correctly (this is actually more likely but it's easy to check for bone placement first) To know more about this we'd need to know more about how you set your object to follow the path. We have to guess what you are doing because we don't know. One of the best ways to resolve a problem is to record a video of the issue and share that.(such as Robert is doing that demonstrates how he sets up a project). There are many video capture software but currently (on the free side) I'm recommending Open Broadcast Software (LINK). Get the Studio version not the classic. On the paid side it's really hard to beat Camtasia (LINK). The video approach works best because it captures exact steps used in a process. This can not only resolve a problem but lead to suggestions that improve workflow and better usage of the software. The next best approach to solving a problem is to share an example of the problem in a project. This can either be the actual project itself or another setup specifically to demonstrate the problem. The latter is usually best in cases where, for one reason or another, the user can't share parts of the project. For instance, when they are working with someone else's files and don't have permission to share the files. The downside of sharing files is that care must be given to share all of the pertinent files. Since A:M doesn't automatically save files into a Project these can inadvertently be left out. Software can't always anticipate/guess what we want. These two methods (video capture and sharing of (embedded) project files is also the ideal way to submit bug reports for those rarer instances when the problem isn't on the part of the user but fully in the realm of the software. One of the reasons I rarely have frustrating problems with A:M (or any other software) is that my first thought is to never blame the software. Once I've ruled out user error (my own or someone elses) then I can better see the shortfalls of the software. And in most cases there is a reasonable workaround.

Welp... found that one! Now I remember why I set that entry aside and didn't dive into the last 10% polishing. I really wanted to get a 'bursting through your screen' effect but got off to a bad start on achieving that. The reason for misplacing the file? I cleaned off my desktop and pushed the files it into a temporary folder named "AMData". These two guys are related to the story with the (greenish) cat. They are time and space traveling.