Rodney

All are welcome and encouraged to contribute their approaches, best practices... recipes for success... to this topic. May the best days of productivity be ahead of you. I recently moved a bunch of files from my main harddrive to an external drive and it has me thinking about why I had set up that directory in the first place. I want to share my thoughts related to this because I'm trying to learn (mostly from my mistakes) and to move forward to the next stage (whatever that may be). Some time ago I made a change in the way I organized files on my harddrive (as I tend to be a very disorganized person and need structure). A critical change for me was to create a directory on my Desktop named 'AMtv'. I often use another directory construct named 'Renderfolder' or 'RF' if I'm feeling lazy but more on that later. I wanted to structure the directory almost like a diary... dailies... a running collection of each days production related activities (related to A:M in some way... as almost everything is)... regardless of how frivolous or trivial they might be. I think this is the fourth time I've moved this directory off of my desktop and it feels nice to have a new empty directory to begin the process all over again. Out with the old. In with the new. Time marches on. Etc. *But I can go back and revisit those old 'classics' if necessary. And that's kind of the whole premise of AMtv (on my desktop) in that it is my equivalent of actually watching TV, and my primary source of entertainments but in a participatory way; I interact with things in/on AMtv. Into it goes the goings on of this forum... cool projects posted (great stuff!)... tips and tricks (hey I never knew that!)... and occasionally I even plop some of my own 'shows' (mostly banners and such rendered or otherwise) but also related tests inspired by other things on the screen; all the various things that help fulfill the creative urge in me I guess what I'm saying is that creating that AMtv directory dramatically increased my productivity and helps me work through a ton of useful distractions along the way. And every time I change the channel (by moving the contents of AMtv to another location), I feel I'm preparing to set the next stage. What approaches do you take to organizing and publishing your work? How has that approach impacted your enjoyment of the process, your creativity and productivity?

This seems to be more of an acknowledgement that their efforts to move into more mature markets hasn't worked so their focus is now on children's entertainment. This relates to why Dreamworks targeted the purchase Awesomeness TV and the young teenager and preteen market it represents. This places them more into the market than Disney as Disney slants toward a slightly more mature market these days (although trying to be all-ages). This is even more true with the recent addition of Marvel and Star Wars franchises. Dreamworks was struggling to compete in this arena. Most of Dreamworks efforts to hit that same all-ages market fell very short of being profitable (especially in terms of short term profits) and its those short term profits they seek to be able to build their empire. This is underscored by other players getting into the game and making that same mature field online difficult as well. I think we'll see the occasional foray into the more mature arena (ala Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and the Dragons franchises) but although enjoyed by the masses those are very franchises that are increasingly showing their age. As such even the Netflix reincarnations/continuations of those stories skews toward a slightly younger audience. This use of specifically targeted words might be included more in answer to and to please shareholders (or the suitors that were seeking to purchase Dreamworks) than to suggest actual content produced by Dreamworks but from the time of 'Home' onward decisions being made do appear to target young children and pre-teen audiences consistently. These decisions (such as choosing the age of a protagonist in a film) are made very intentionally so they are certainly targeting that younger age and the parents whose purchasing power pays their way.

Linking external images into the forum often (and almost inevitably) results in those image links breaking. Where possible I'd recommend uploading the images to the forum. The allotted upload quotas for forum members should be more than adequate for the attachments. And that way the linked imagery will be retained. I've taken to saving externally linked images any time I see them in the forum so that I have a copy to replace the originals when they eventually turn up missing. The problem with that approach is that I very likely won't be able to locate that image months or years later. That is an impressive composite Marcos!

Elm, You should be familiar with the concept of MUFOOF (although you can be forgiven for not recognizing that name ) because you used something similar to get the surface/skin of your characters in your recent short (the one about phoning in orders for food).

I recently saw the rumor but it apparently is a done deal... http://deadline.com/2016/04/jeffrey-katzenberg-reaction-dreamworks-animation-sale-comcast-1201746411/

Awesome. Now THAT would be truly awesome. A:M is ideally suited for quick turnarounds like these.

Nice! Love that MUFOOF style. (I'm needing to use that for some blurs and stretches on cartoony movement)

Jamie, It is so good to see you here and I'm thankful that you have made the effort to reach out and more importantly to continue the work of your mother. I think she'd be very pleased to know that her characters and stories are still moving forward. 'Just a Wooden Sword' may have life outside of the realm of 3D animation and that is evidenced by Kat's work with dolls... her books... recordings... there is a much larger world to which those characters and stories belong. Short of hiring an agent and having them pursue some form of licensing I'm not sure what to suggest with regard to Kat's characters and stories. If continuing to refine the work she was doing here in the forum is an avenue of interest to you it's an easy thing to assign Kat's special topic to you. There are several who helped model characters for Kat's tale that currently don't frequent the forum. I'd like to think they might find their way back and help you pick up the torch. I (personally) try to keep most of my efforts in the public arena and encourage others to do the same but understand that might not be the ideal way forward for you. I wish you all the best in your endeavors. Just know that, as I know your mother understood, you don't have to go it alone. P.S. At some point I'll likely move these posts to another location. Perhaps as a topic in the 'Just a Wooden Sword' forum. If it seems to have disappeared look for it there!

Ah, good news. v1.02 of OpenToonz has been released and it addresses several major issues facing potential users. The greatest of these was very likely the need to save files in multiple places which is now covered by the Save All command. The other major updates are mostly those captured in the various nightly builds that primarily restore the Toonz Harlequin features that were set aside to optimize workflow for Studio Ghibli. https://github.com/opentoonz/opentoonz/releases

Whoops. Looks like when I posted the images I dropped the model. I've added it into the post now. Sorry 'bout that! I hope he (and others) will! It's too bad we don't have an annual reunion or something like that. Folks could get together online and in their local community and talk all things A:M.

Now this is an interesting model... rigging especially. It might even be the precursor to Joe Williamson's famous model with dynamic jigglings. The model looks like it could have been used as a starting point. In the rigging/pose sliders there are poses for breathing and oppai movement ('breasts' in Japanese). This is the first instance of anime eye rigging I've investigated and the eye closing and mouth smile sliders... the facial rigging... is pretty neat! I need to look further into how all this was done. I don't have much info on the model or creator. The file says it was created by Hasagawa Junnji. It was created in the v8.5 timeframe and if I can brush up on my nihongo reading skill I might be able to discover more via translation. Edit: Added slightly better (final) rendering. Sotai2v18.mdl

The Tinkering Gnome clued us in to this site that frequently presents 100% discounts on software. (Thanks John!) On occasion some pretty useful software is shared. I've hesitated in the past to post some of these offerings for a number of reasons but I've found several of the software packages useful for myself so they might be for others as well. The way it (generally) works is that in exchange for your email address and occasionally a request to share the link to the site with others you get an activation code. Sometimes the code is one specifically used with that promotion. Other times its the same as you would receive straight from the software developer. Of course, there are also the other discounted software packages that aren't 100% off but I tend to stick to the freebies. One that showed today might be of interest to those wanting to setup a server. The software is syncplify.me server and I've ran through the basic installation quickly and without any hiccups. I set up the virtual server on an external hardrive. This software states its regular price as $399 for a regular license so may be well worth the look if you are considering server use already. As for me... I suppose I'm mostly investigating why I might need a server in the first place. I.... think I need one. The related offering is the same software with free updates and support for $119. Here's the link: http://sharewareonsale.com/s/syncplify-me-server-giveaway-coupon-sale The jury is still out for me on the Shareware for Sale site and their approach to software sales. I must say that thus far it seems that they have an interesting business model and if all legit may find themselves with considerable success. As I see other useful software mentioned from this site I'll post it in this topic and please feel free to do the same.

Another plug has been posted on the Axanar blog, after Alex Peters got a chance to see Mark's new short: http://www.axanarproductions.com/captains-log-april-22nd-2016/ And it got me to watch the short again.

Yet another classic character from the past. This time it's Dojobot (which I believe was created by Tony Lower-Basch, who is the creator of one of my all time favorite animated series created with A:M; 'Nosferatu'. It's a tale I think would sell well in today's age of teenage vampires, monsters, ninjas etc. Dojobot and DojobotLite have an interesting aspect to them which just might explain why such rigs as those created with The Setup Machine had constraints that had to be turned on before they would work. In Dojobot's case, he has a pose slider that needs to be turned OFF before animating in a typical fashion. I don't recall every seeing THAT approach before! That might explain why other (later) rigs would default to constraints being off by default however. DojoBot.mdl DBotLite.mdl

Seeing the topic asking about some of the A:M users of the past had me running a few searches and this model (which I don't ever recall seeing before) turned up. What is interesting is that although the model is quite old it opened in A:M v18 without issues. It's also a really nice setup. Note that this is not the Stooly of 'Boids of a Feather' nor is it Schlitzy the eighth dwarf... so don't let the character name fool ya. A description of the model reads as follows: I need to inspect this rig to see how it may inform my current efforts in control point driven controllers. Senior Stool v18.prj

I thought this was pretty cool.... puppetry imitating 3D animation... xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oN6SN_TnFY Zootopia... Wreck It Ralph... etc. etc.

Looking good.

Yes, I'm more than a little curious about how that subject matter came to be. Looking good thus far!

Not to give weight to negativity or give you reason to dwell on criticism but... do you know what is it that was hated? Jokes not funny enough? Your turn around time too slow? It didn't meet their expectation for parodies of Axanar? Members of the cast and crew? Employees of CBS or Paramount? Not fans of satire? I can hardly even spell Reddit so I wouldn't even know where to look.

Nancy, As you surely know, John is still running top secret tests of video formats, codecs and such.. It's all hush hush classified stuff that only his grandkids get to see. but... seriously... just when I think I've got every possible angle covered in viewing video online John posts a tinkering that I can't see. I've found that the VLC player usually does best in deciphering them. John, For some reason this monster looks like he came out of a garden to me. Maybe the multiple eyes are evolved to better spot vegetarians who arrive basket in hand trying to eat him.

The link to Jonathan Lane's article on your collaboration showed up in my email (I subscribed to the Anaxar Productions Fan Film Friday blog after your last Stalled Trek episode was featured there. Here's the article: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1543ecb032af85a5 Fun stuff.

For those of you that want to delve into the world of PBR materials and texturing this might aid you in getting that ideal texture onto your model in A:M. Basic workflow would be to export OBJ models from A:M which would then be used as the basis for texturing your spline based models in A:M or to import as Props. This was (apparently) the the primary program used to texture that real time animation recently featured by Unity 3D and according to the hype (and 3D world) is 'this year's best texturing application'.* I note that there is currently a 40% off banner on their site so for those with the $ to splurge it might be worth investigating. Photorealistic textures are the major contributor to realistic scenes and access to collections of materials to use as the basis for building up detail is an important consideration. Illumination itself is like-wise important but can only reveal the forms whose textures are in place to receive light and shadow. Of particular interest is the smart materials that allow (through image mapping) additional materials to automatically be effected by edges of forms. This will be primarily for users of Photoshop. Link to Promo video: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1boM1MRPXxs Link: http://quixel.se/ Here's a demo of some of the normal map tools in NDO Painter: xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTy-uyUcBRA *I will assume this is for 2015.

For those of you with a high interest in rendering you will learn much from studying the workflow of other renderers and this can and will inform your use of A:M's renderer (in both positive and negative ways). In many (most?) cases A:M can meet the needs of its users in rendering but as with other renderers what comes out of the renderer depends on what gets put in. I am constantly amazed by the number of folks who see 'high end' rendering on the internet and wonder 'why can't we do that in A:M?" In many cases... certainly not all... we can render an equivalent in A:M but it still takes knowledge and experience to set up a good rendering. This is underscored by the number of tutorials and classes (most of them paid instruction) that others put into the field to walk people carefully through the arcane steps of setting up lights and rays and bounces and backdrops and whatever else is required to ensure our results will appear on the screen as anticipated. There are other aspects of chasing after the perfect renderer to consider as well. Unless I am mistaken, Arnold is (of itself) a command line renderer that interfaces with other programs through plugins. These other programs are generally not free and most are are not cheap. If you've purchased them you already know this. So there is additional cost beyond the render software itself to consider in the equation. Rendering with Arnold may only set you back $8 a day (one pricing scenario with minimum of $350*) but if you forget to include at least one seat of the software required to put a user friendly interface on top of it you've done yourself a disservice. This also doesn't preclude the need for high quality models and additonal time dedicated to setting up the scene that will be rendered. And, don't forget, the expectation is that within any project at least YOU will want to receive some form of compensation; even if only the accolades of your friends, family and peers. Now, my suggestion to the bottom feeders (that'd be most of the folks who hang with us here like you and me) is to learn everything you can from these other rendering solutions and those that tirelessly seek the perfect rendering and apply what you learn from that to what you will setup and render in A:M. If folks did this we might be further amazed at what A:M is capable of rendering. Researching other renderers is certainly not a requirement. Only a suggestion. There is much to be learned in rendering. But when doing so, I hope we can consider how best to accomplish a reasonable equivalent right here in A:M *I suppose this might make $350 the base price for one image rendered out of Arnold (of any type and quality) not including cost of software used as as the preferred interface. As renderers go that's not entirely bad. Using the same factoring, A:M's cost for that first image (of any type and quality) would be $79.

For what Kevin refers to and to see what so-called high end renderers tend to cost here is a link: https://www.solidangle.com/arnold/buy/ $8 a day might be a pretty good deal.* I must assume it is especially so for clients with high expectations. A lot of things factor into evaluation and I'm not sure I have much of an opinion one way or the other (related to renderer expense). Whether something is expensive or not directly relates to added value plus perceived value minus long term reflection minus anticipation of what is imminently to be released. This is why some folks wait as long as they can to upgrade... maybe something will be added to the product that will make my purchasing dollars even more valuable! As I don't have a lot of content to render I don't have much of a reference point from which to calculate value. As with most renderers I'm sure much of Arnold's results follow a garbage in/garbage out train which suggests that it's important what is fed to any renderer. Surely one of the reasons Solid Angle kept a tight reign on who used their product in the past related to the level of quality they wanted to see presented from that renderer; real and perceived value to be maintained. How will this change as more folks gain access to Arnold that aren't able to input the quality into the renderer? That remains to be seen. Ultimately, I see this as a good (if not someone inevitable) move that will be good for rendering in general. There is a lot of talk of CPU vs GPU and the pros and cons of each. Will Arnold move to the GPU? That seems unlikely. While there is little doubt the gems of code will be extracted to improve other Autodesk products and services a likely scenario would be for Arnold to take it's place in the rented renderer space (ref: cloud rendering/Zync) where it can munch through pixels behind the scenes without needing to be installed on the local machine. Why does this scenario appear likely? Because Autodesk leadership is committed to moving to the cloud and such a path helps maintain and manage real value.

Wow. As impressive as it is biting (in satire and social commentary). Timely too! I saw the announcement over at Axanar about other productions being asked to shut down by CBS. It seems somewhat reasonable given that CBS is trying to launch a series themselves based on the original Trek series. The sad thing of course is that Star Trek itself wouldn't very likely be where it is today if not for the fans that rallied around the series in the first place. On the other hand, I can see why the corporate heads might be concerned. I was watching some of the other Trek fan films online and some of those are almost more 'Star Trek' than the original series! This does fully relate to comments I posted in the copyright topic just yesterday. Some provision should be allowed for products that add value to the original product and most of what I've seen from the Star Trek fan-film community does exactly that; add value. But to the here and now: Impressive work Mark, especially given your turn around time!