Rodney

Shouldn't be Win 10 related. I'm running A:M with audio in Win 10 with no issues.

PM/feedback sent. Thanks David!

The shadows can definitely be seen there. I rarely think shadows are too light (usually I think they are too dark) but that may be the case here as they can barely be seen. As these are shadows created by the sun and not some other light I'd think there would be more of a contrast. If on the other hand there are lots of clouds in the sky to diffuse that light... then disregard. In this lastest image the angle of the shadow suggests the sun is at a high position (closer to noon than morning or evening) and yet the darkness of the shadows suggests more of a twilight. Pending further clarification, I will assume that screen left is west which suggests the sun is going down rather than rising in the sky. As I said, if other effects such as clouds, fog, rain, etc. will be added then things are looking fine. I can't help but wonder if you've colored the side walls of houses/garages a darker color because those areas don't seem to match with the shadows... in fact their darkness appears to be about right. If in the evening (or early morning) the sun will be shining it's light at a steep angle which will produce longer shadows. Here's what I tend to do with lighting: 1. Remove all of the default lights (as everything should render black now I know what I'm working with in the scene - and I can see what surfaces are emitting their own (ambient) light. 2. Add one sun light and angle (rotate) it appropriately for the effect (or timing of day) the scene calls for. 3. Add additional lights as necessary - usually this is driven by 'real' light locations such as lamps, car lights, etc. Start with primary lights and move on to other 'missing' lights (lighting of windows, etc. at night) 4. Add additional lights/color to bring out subtle detail in areas with too little light. (5) An optional step is to dampen down a too brightly lit scene with negative lights. It's best to turn off shadows with negative lights as those will render in reverse...i.e. badly) Your mileage may vary but it can be useful to think of lights as characters in their own right. What is their purpose in the scene? With respect to the story, how are they directing/enlightening us?

I like the look of that. I see that Robert already mentioned this but I'll guess that you don't have shadows turned on as there doesn't appear to be any. This is where having an external program/utility like Fusion can come in handy as various render sizes/resolutions can be combined. In that way you don't have to rerender frames which consumes our lives... er... a lot of our time. Rendering is time consuming but necessary. However, in some states and municipalities re-rendering may be considered a crime.

You are currently in the Channel/Spline Mode in the Timeline Make sure you turn on the Dopesheet/Keyframe Mode.

And while its usually best to edit audio in an application designed for such, cropping the audio to only include that part that you need is as easy as grabbing the ends of the audo and making it smaller...

Here's an animated example of moving the audio in realtime while the sound is playing...

Hi Oliver, Yes, all we have to do is change the Start Time in the Properties of the Audio. You may need to click on something else to get the screen to refresh and show the new/adjusted time. Once the audio is in the Timeline it can be dragged left or right to the appropriate time as well. Edit: LIke Simon Said.

Nice info/approach Robert!

Just what every heroine needs, a power mad squirrel as an arch enemy! It might just be on my end but Super Mega Fox's reaction to the door opening seems a little behind with regard to the sound. That's a minor thing of course especially as I'm sure this has a lead in and follow to bookend. Now you've got me wanting to do some stuff with superheroes...

Very nice John!

I'm interested in how this workflow works for you. Please keep us posted!

Yes, thanks to you everyone can now share Library files via the forum!

If you copy the attached .lbr (text file) into your Library directory all should be normal again. Deleting library shortcuts doesn't delete the resources... just the library's shortcuts to those resources. The location for the default library file should be something like: C:\Program Files\Hash Inc\v18.0o\Libraries I had to zip the file up because the forum doesn't allow files with the .lbr extension. I should remedy that so we can share library files. Just unzip the Hash Library.lbr from Hash Library.zip in the Library directory and refresh your view of the Library by clicking All Libraries and then back to Hash Library. Disregard. I've added .lbr as an acceptable text file format for uploading to the forum, similar to .mdl, .act and other A:M files. Just save that .lbr file to your Library directory (and make sure your operating system doesn't change the file's .lbr extension). Hash Library.lbr

I don't recall Libraries doing that (showing empty folders) but it sure looks that way. Be careful about deleting those as that will remove them from their 'real' Library! A workaround would be to create a folder at the top level in the Library (as you have done with your 'My Materials' folder and then work your directory structure down from there once you are in that folder then you won't see the other (empty) folders. I'll look into this more to see if there is a fix on our end. I'm trying to recall if this behavior showed up around the time A:M split into 32bit and 64bit versions. There was something that changed with Libraries at that time but my memory is foggy.

After setting the file format as Robert discribes then change the Frame Range to the desired Start and End frame that you wish to render. The Step setting allows us to skip frames (step 2 for instance will render every other frame). Or change the Frame Range setting to Custom Range and enter the frame or series of frames you want to render. There are several options for selecting Custom Frame ranges. Some examples: 0 Will render only the first frame 1 Will render frame 1 3 Will render frame 3 1-5 (one dash five) will render frames 1 through 5 5-1 (will render frames 1 though 5 as if entered as 1-5) 1-3, 5-10, 4, 0 (will render frames 1 through 3 then frames 5 through 10, then frame 4 and finally frame zero. (could be especially handy if we need to borrow a rendered image - or part of an image- from another part of a sequence) 5,4,3,2,1 (we could use something like this to render a sequence in reverse order (however! the resulting images will be named in regular order). For a still image just enter the number of the frame you desire to render. For sequences, it's almost always a good idea to 'pad' filenames with zeroes which helps operating systems and most programs sort the files correctly. Example: imageout000.png (three zero after the filename) will render out imageout000.png, imageout001.png, imageout002... imageout010.png, etc. whereas imageout.png will render imageout1.png... imageout10.png, etc. In this latter case most operating systems will sort the 1's first which will break the proper continuity of the filenames. I tend to use three zeros because it's very unlikely that any of my sequences will be longer than 999 frames.

You can tell almost as much from what folks don't say as what they do. If those two things were what caught their attention then I'd say you have done quite good. A larger head would be a stylistic choice that would certainly make the whole show more cartoony. As such the style would lend itself to additional suspension of believe that a boy could dance with a teddy bear, assuming that fact alone isn't enough to get us there. As for the tight pajamas that seems to be another stylistic choice. I've seen pajamas that tight and I've seen pajamas a lot looser. I'm somewhat relieved you didn't go with the typical pajamas seen in most cartoons; the one with the door at the back region.

I too wonder what has become of Zack (the Taich... not the Brewster-Geisz). Way back in the day I told him once he got past his infatuation with animation he'd probably go on to be a lawyer. Edit: Okay... maybe not a lawyer but still... Physiology & Neuroscience.

Much easier to imagine than implement. Export gets revisited from time to time but exporters are usually plugins. These usually require external development. Someone with the need usually develops the solution. An example of this is Arthur Waselec (and others) who have coded exporters. At one time Arthur offered to assist others with updating his plugins. I'm not sure if the offer still stands or if anyone took him up on the offer. Testing takes additional time... has to be factored into development. It's hard to predict the future. Just when we think we see it clearly... off in some other direction it goes. Yes, quality and variety can always be improved. No not just opinion. Thus far I believe you have posted facts and expressed your desires. It seems to me that we need experts who work with those other programs to gravitate toward developing plugins for A:M. It's harder for folks who don't have the need, access, interest, etc. to break through that gap. I'd say it's like someone breaking through a wall that requires 20% effort versus someone on the other side who would require 80% (or simply lacks the manpower or tool). The ideal solution would appear to be that of pairing someone with the knowledge from both sides of the wall and have them communicate and explore optimal solutions to breaking through. Offers have been made in the past but usually interest fades quickly as soon as the idea meets up with real world resistance of almost any magnitude. I spend an inordinate amount of time imagining things that A:M can have. How much would that be worth to us? I'd be more than willing to pay another $20 a year... bumping A:M's annual price back to $99 a year but I can't speak for others. For many/most, $79 a year is too much. And I recognize that $20 is not enough to fund development of even one of these exporters. I'm not sure what the solution is. Perhaps we can run a campaign, "Show some love for A:M" and see how many folks will subscribe for a year to send a loud and clear message that we all want to see A:M step up the pace in development and are willing to financially support that effort? Perhaps Jason could make sure the Hash Inc store won't refund additional funds paid at time of purchase and folks could pay more than the minimum amount? Or perhaps a second option to purchase A:M for $99 could be added to the store and folks could choose between the cheaper and more expensive to let Hash Inc know the development interest is for the future. Aside: I had best state why I talk about money here so that my intent doesn't get misconstrued. Moneys primary function in this capacity is to shorten the time of development. Without specific funds to pay a programmer to write code, new lines of code tend to flow at a slower, natural pace. When funds are set aside for specific purposes then those purposes can receive focused time and attention. Money isn't the full solution either however because of stipulations often attached to those funds. Example: I'd pay $200 more for A:M if it had . $200 more of imaginary funding will only buy me $200 more of imaginary development. There are logical steps we can take that meet with reality and yet drive solutions. One of the simplest steps is to add a Feature request into A:M Reports. But most of us (I'm talking mainly about me here) don't even get that far in our efforts to develop the future. There is an infinite amount of things that can be done to improve A:M. Special exporters require special attention and FBX exporters a knowledge of import/export solutions. -- a slight aside: Most folks desire exporters but fewer see with clarity that we need the full cyclic solution that includes the importer too. Perhaps when we say 'exporter' we actually see that as importer-inclusive. The code to produce each is considerably different so this shouldn't be the case but as end users we don't care about that stuff, we just want the immediate solution. We have several exporters whose created content is one-way only which is sub-optimal. In a perfect world any data that can be exported/saved out of A:M should be able to make the round trip back into A:M also. (But... dangerwillrobinson,.. full solutions tie up developers who cannot go on to explore other code). Some other practical steps we can take (especially in the interim) is to document current approaches and best practices with... I dare say... an A:M-centric approach. Many non-funded purchase orders start off with 'how can A:M help me use this other program'. And so the idea generally starts off broke and has to be resorted. In my day job (actually a night job) I often resort to a saying that generally states, "a great idea that cannot be implemented isn't a very practical solution'. Something that can help in this regard is to list constraints/obstacles that prove troublesome to those ideas. It may be that someone has already formulated a workaround or viable solution.

Sorry for the delayed response. I downloaded but didn't have time to check them out. Those need to go into my primitives folder ASAP. Thanks!

In the context of a scene that looks outstanding! Wow!

A Star Wars spoof would be very timely.

Not sure. The only similar problem was substantial enough that you'd be having other more serious problems so likely wouldn't even be asking this particular question as the need to move to a different installer would be obvious. That installer was replaced with a new installer within a day or two. Don't forget that we can install more than one release at a time so consider that option. Just install each version to it's own directory when prompted for the installation directory. Assuming that is an L and not an i, it looks like you have three releases to choose from that are more up to date than your current installation. There wasn't any mention of a copy paste issue in the version L release topic or changelog.

Wow. You've got a lot going on in that one. Well done!

Ha! Nicely done. Catchy music there too. I need to leverage some of that royalty free music on youtube myself.