Rodney

Thanks Robert! And thanks to those whose renderings more often than not occupy them!

I know we were just folks hanging out here in the forum but I feel like I've just lost a family member. I wonder if her family knows just how much we enjoyed having her here with us. I hope she knew too. I left a short message on the guestbook.

I've been tidying up the Special Topics area and wondering... Has anyone heard from Kat recently? I hope the move to California wasn't too hard on her! We miss you kat!

Okay... that's scary. If you moved her just a little... every so subtley in the neck, face, eyes, mouth, hair.... anywhere right there at the last that'd freak me out. Also, it's not clear what lights up the scene at the very end. Is it a flash light? Or perhaps it doesn't particularly matter. If it was a flash light that'd mean that it was me (in the audience) that was turning on said flashlight which would transport me even closer into the scene. With regard to the court scene... The first time through I missed the shadow on the wall because I was trying to read the text. I therefore saw the legs before the pass of the second shadow. I'm not sure what to do about that because you definitely want the text to lead into seeing the shadow. In your previous version/still (without the text) it was easy to see the shadow first. It may be that I was just having a hard time reading the text due to it's size and placement and so as I tried harder to read it I missed the shadow. Anyway... thaz my impression. I don't care for scary movies ('cause they are usually more funny than scary) but you'be piqued my interest. I"m really enjoying your work here. P.S. I like the smoke too! P.P.S. I hope your next project is all happy and stuff. That Breckenridge stuff is scary!

It still looks impressive to me. At a glance it'd be hard for me to tell that was a computer generated image. It looks more like it was made with traditional mixed media. (that's a good thing!)

We'd have to test to see if there is any render hit but... creating a group of the area beneath the cloth and setting it's transparency to 99.9% will make sure nothing pokes through. I say 99.9% for two reasons; one 99.9% is easier to search for than 100% (so it'll stand out if looking for it) and I have a vague memory of someone telling me 99.9% transparency was better than 100% in some rendering situations (yet another thing we'd have to test). Hiding should work though... but keep in mind that if the mesh isn't there then simulations may create cloth that passes through where the body should be. By having it transparent it is still present and will effect the simulation. Leaving some dangling splines to manipulate the simulation is another approach to taming cloth but I don't recall all the specifics of that method.

Nice. You are really on a roll with these. That's some very nice splinage you have on that Perry model.

Heh. You are correct. I grabbed the wrong word. I should have suggested 32bit A:M rendering to MOV but noticed David was on a Mac. Where I move into Mac territory I'm treading in places I had best leave to others who are more informed. If you are running the PC release on your Mac and can run 32bit A:M definitely look into rendering out to MOV format. Someone will have to educate us on what codecs are available for that.

Interesting article although I'm pretty sure frame by frame analysis and subliminal messages don't equate to the same thing. The whole point of a subliminal would be that the audience subconsiously picks up the message without having to resort to the viewing of individual frames.

I'm posting this here not so much to plug the kickstarter but to highlight one of the interviews/demonstrations that relates to it. Over on the Traditionalanimation.com site, Lavalle Lee conducts an interview with Don Bluth, then one with Gary Goldman and then raps up with a few question with both that dovetails into the announcement of the kickstarter. The main event however is saved for last and that is an animation demonstration by Don Bluth with him breaking down a simple animation of DIrk the Daring swinging his sword. A few highlights of the video include: Don demonstrates the traditional art of animation Don uses an exposure sheet and metronome as an aid to timing out his shot Don works through the whole process and then follows up with a review of the results. Don drops all kinds of useful tips throughout. This demonstration is much like Don use to run during his weekly seminars which unfortunately he had to stop. Sadly, there just wasn't enough interest to make the continuing effort worthwhile. BUT... perhaps the primary reason I'm posting here and not on my blog is that the high definition version of the interview/demo is available for download and given that it is well over 1GB in size I wonder how long they will be able to justify keeping that online. So before I post anything on my blog I wanted to give everyone here a heads up. *There is also some interesting insight on the kickstarter related to Don's theater in Phoenix Arizona "First Row Theater" which has been his focus outside of animation since stepping away from animation. Should you support the kickstarter? Hey, that's your call. I'm not a big Dirk the Daring fan but I'm likely in for a few dollars. Those Toon Talk magazines alone are well worth $10 bucks. Interview Link (vimeo direct): xhttps://vimeo.com/143663609 Tradition Animation site: (look for interviews with Aaron Blaise and Dominic Carola as well as a host of other resources) http://www.traditionalanimation.com/ And the Dragon's Lair kickstarter: (with just shy of 800 backers they've raised $70K out of their goal of $550K to perfect their pitch) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/donbluth/dragons-lair-the-movie Disclaimer: I have a feeling Don and Gary will try to make the film regardless of the outcome of the kickstarter but a successful kickstarter will get the ball rolling faster. Also consider that while I am in no way affiliated with Lavalle Lee or Don Bluth I am acquainted with both. As such I don't wish to persuade you one way or the other whether you should donate money to any kickstarter; this one or any other. Edit: Looks like I'm backer #800

I should have said that out of all the versions you posted that last one really stands out. I'd love to see what feedback they give to that!

Very impressive Nancy. The accompanying text is a bit hard to read, specifically the word 'when' which is hidden under the raven's talons. Perhaps If there were a specific reason to obscure the word other than EAP's general appeal to insanity (i.e. for no particular reason)... I can't help but think you'll get recommendations to change the white raven to black but there is something very interesting/alluring/enchanting about the white raven esp. given the dead raven below on the ground. I would expect to see something like this in a bookshop. Added: I'm a bit torn here... so I'll add it because it came to mind. The white raven's eye looking out at the reader is interesting but I wonder if you could 'trap' the reader into the image by having the white raven looking at the black/dead raven who is pointing to the right. Then something on the right pushing attention back to the head/eye of the raven (you pretty much get this already with the reading of the author's name across the bottom then the connection with the white raven's wing position at the right... and of course the background arc). Very nice. Perhaps if the wing could extend downward more that would seal the deal as well as create an additional sense of depth, as if the raven is truly hovering over/around the deceased. Odd thought (related to the prompt): With that trapping of the reader in the image (something the text temporarily accomplishes) you might then be able to try an alternate version where you drop the text entirely and insert somewhere appropriately inside the general framework the title "Volume I" Very nice!

You shouldn't have a 10MB limit... perhaps I need to check into that. A:M is in something of a transitory period along with the industry in that some of the older mainstay codecs/formats haven't kept up with the times and newer ones haven't been fully assimilated yet. Since you are on a Mac you may have something of an advantage as you may have some tools at your disposal for adjusting compression natively in your OS that other users lack. There are a host of tools/utilities/software that can be used to convert and compress: Handbrake is one (available for PC and Mac) Fusion (v8 now supports Mac) You can setup an input and an output and then point that to a different image sequence or video as necessary. Then adjust the output format to one that is adequately compressed. I agree that we should watch the size of our files and keep them as small as possible BUT in the interim... try to upload the file and see what happens. As for the plural of codex... it's not as pleasing to the ear; codices.

And away we go! I've added a PNG version of your render as the TGA format isn't a browser friendly image format. (Edit: What Robert said!) Exercise 1 is deceptively simple and yet I'm glad it doesn't dive too deeply into the technicalities that is computer animation. Questions should start pop.pop.popping up throughout these exercises and I would encourage you to write down words or sentences to capture those ideas. There will come a time when you forget what you don't know. Now is an excellent time to write a few notes down so that you can capture the learning process while it's happening! There is also great opportunity for expanding our learning by providing just the right level of access to our curious minds as we work through the exercises. Three primary areas of interest come to mind as I see your posting of Exercise 1. In no particular order they are as follows: How can we perfect out presentations? This is a deep subject but primarily I'm thinking of a few technicalities that are necessary from the start; for example: the best file formats for sharing our work online, I'd say PNG and JPG are optimal Cameras How can we best manipulate the camera to capture our ideas. I know that Exercise 1 is just a 'point and shoot' presenation but the movement of our camera(s) will become so very important. If nothing else Exercise 1 should suggest to us that we can master the art of digital presentation. Cropping/Composition Again, Exercise 1 is 'point and shoot' but as we discover how to manipulate our camera we will discover the variety of ways we can present our stories. Who is this character? What is he doing? (Completing Exercise 1 of course!) Character presets (personality) An important concept introduced from the get-go in Exercise 1 is the Pose Sliders that are collected in Keekat's User Properties. A question should therefore begin to form that asks, "How can we set up such things in our own characters? Or expand on those currently available?)

Thanks for looking into it Jason. Not a high priority here. If I find some extra time I may go back and try to find the last release of A:M that allowed SVN connectivity from inside A:M proper (without using the A:M Community TWO tab).

NIcely done!

Awesome!!! And thanks also for yet another "why didn't I think of that" moment. We need to see that guy animated!

Yes, much better. That's definitely dealt with what I was percieving as 'false blacks'. Aside: A week or so ago I woke from a nap on the couch to see a beautifully lit living room. There was no direct light from any source that I could discern but indirect light was bouncing all over the place. I just stared at the scene for the longest time trying to take it all in. One thing that really caught my attention was a laundry basket filled with junk next to the window (filled with unused small speakers and a host of other items I couldn't easily identify through the slats in the basket). The neat thing though was that part of the speakers (which were black) were whiter than the basket (which was white). That took me a moment to assimilate. Due to the plastic surfaces of the speaker and basket, the speaker's black surface reflection of indirect light in the room was whiter than any other white in the area and some of the white was blacker than the speaker surface's black. Add to that the tiniest bits of blue poking through the slats of the closed blinds from the outside sky in an otherwise grayscale scene in my house and I found myself wanting to get up and capture the moment in a photo. From experience I know that the captured image rarely equals the reality, so I watched the scene for a few more minutes and went back to sleep. A few nights ago I had a different 'lighting experience' in that lights in my neighborhood were creating some very interesting nighttime patterns in the trees of black and green with very little noticeable detail in the black areas but brilliant detail in the lit vignettes from a dozen or so lights. Just the day prior I had counseled a young artist at work who had asked me to critique his latest drawing about how scenes tend to have a lot of detail close up and very little far away. This made me rethink that advice in light (literally) of what I saw that night. . .

I'd love to see a test image where the shadows* weren't so black. There isn't any information/color in those areas to gauge/test the darker hues of the colors. I noticed these overly black surfaces in your office image (I recall some being on the stool). Perhaps that is an indiator of a place where you'll need to bounce some additional light? Disregard if that is an essential part of the test. *Not so much the shadows .. as those seen on the floor are fine. It's the black on the surface of the objects (in shadow) that I refer to.

A project waiting in the wings is gaining ground but I've ran into a minor glitch that I"d like to see resolved. Specifically, I note that when changing the SVN repository setting to another location the TWO film repository URL gets tacked on to the end of the new one. This is only inside A:M Community and SVN can be run just fine outside of A:M so there is an easy workaround but I'm wondering if there might be something (a cache?) I need to clear in order for the SVN repository location/URL to be properly set? Any guesses or insights? A guess or two from me might be that the setting is stored in the WIndows registry or... A:M is finding the URL in a different installation directory or... SVN/Tortoise SVN has that URL stored somewhere where I'm not seeing it. All files commit/update fine outside of A:M directly via Tortoise SVN and Github. Considerably less likely, butpossible, would be that the TWO film repository URL has been hardcoded into that function (commit and update buttons) in A:M. That doesn't seem likely because it would negate the customization of the repository URL in Tools/Options/SVN.

It took me a few tries to remember my password but YES the A:M Community window is working. If you can't remember your password I think you can create a new login and password. Before giving up, try all lowercase.

I believe about that same time Mark Skodecek rigged a pretty sweet bow and arrow too. I'll guess that one's long gone as well. We really need to gain a repository of daily spline doodles around here. Then... at least with regard to recovering A:M models... hard drive crashes would be just a minor inconvenience.

It's great to have you back David! I don't see it anywhere now but think I remember you working on a bow/arrow animation (?) Assuming I'm not imaging that... how did that turn out?

Dusan, It's great to see you here in the forum again. You've been missed! That is beyond odd. I'm curious about what kind of computer you have that won't run v13. And I guess it'd be good to know what exactly doesn't work... A:M won't even start? Parts of it don't appear to work? I don't think I've encountered a computer (running Windows) that can't run v13. Okay, maybe one running Windows 95 or ME, those might have some issues with modern software. This forum is here to help folks get past exactly those types of problem. BTW - If you still keep in contact with Ken Heslip, drop him a message and tell him we want to see him back in action too!

A question to ask might be... Did you immediately save the v7 project to v18 format upon opening it? Then open that v18 project? A:M sometimes will repair/update the differences between versions but only upon saving. The 'dirty' flag (asterix) at top indicates the project isn't saved to most current state although that doesn't tell us if the project is still v7 (opened in v18) or updated to v18.