Rodney

Well said Nancy. I missed what he said the first time through so it's good that you identify that in your feedback. After several views I'd forgotten I had initially missed the big payoff.* His dialogue is essential in revealing the twist in the story you missed, so that certainly explains why you missed it. So, yes, it was very important. *I also have a vague memory of reading a storyboard or script of the short which might have aided my understanding. Not sure if I am just imagining that.

Do you need the tracks to appear in the ground or the actual treads (machinery) that turn? I will assume both. There are several approaches to making the treads There is only one really decent approach to making tracks in the ground IMO.* Robert Holmen outline one method for animating tank treads from simple patches using displacement maps. That might be the way to go in some instances. The benefit to this approach is that the rotation of the treads doesn't even have to be animated as the map itself can accomplish that. That leaves just the turning of direction to be animated. Here's his topic on that subject: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=37807 As for tracks in the ground displacement can handle this as well. The trick being to view the ground plane from underneath while the treads (actual geometry would be ideal) appear through the ground. Here's a tutorial that describes an approach to making tracks in the ground (footprints in this case) and it also talks of a plugin/script. The script isn't required but was the focus of that topic. http://www.dotnet.se/aaver/FootPrint/Tutorial/ There are some other similar topics in the forum. If you are wanting to set up an actual tank tread that rotates that also can be done. *An alternative way would be to use Boolean cutters to cut tank tread shapes out of a ground shape.

Feedback is an interesting thing... it'd be nice if we knew better when to give it and when to hold it in reserve. I think it is safe to say that Will knows those areas that could use work. The other side of feedback of course is to actually demonstrate how something can be improved... and correct me if I'm wrong here (I'd be glad to be wrong)... you aren't likely to get that level of feedback from folks over at CGTalk. I think folks are more likely to get that here (in the A:M Forum) although we need to help folks break out of the shackles of disdaining feedback first. For those that desire to grow a fan-base... you need those that follow you to voice their opinion. Just because an opinion is shared doesn't mean you have to agree with it or implement it in your work. In fact, in cases of plot and story it might be best to avoid suggestions of those types altogether. In other words, use that type of feedback as a barometer to gauge whether a story is too predictable. But... here's the secret to giving and/or not giving feedback: If the individual asks for feedback then it can be assumed they desire feedback, otherwise they are simply sharing their work with you. Will's posting of this episode of Tar falls into this latter category because he didn't solicit feedback. Lack of such a statement can be construed as a signal to everyone to focus on the entertainment value... to sit back and just enjoy the show. Was it entertaining? Did you like it? To which I can honestly respond to Will.... "It was too short!" and "I want to see more." With this in mind I could go back and watch episode one with an eye for feedback that focuses on the characters, the story... where I think/hope Will might be taking us on this journey. The feedback wouldn't address technical issues, suggest tweaks to animation or suggest alternatives to artistic choices. I might then be inclined to say, "I love those hyenas. I wish they would have had more screen time" and "I want to see more of those guys!" and "I thought they might be nastier." (to which we hope Will might answer, "Hehe, there is a very good chance you'll see more of them in a future episode... but not those particular ones 'cause they are vulture meat." and/or "You haven't seen the last of them." To which I'd respond, "Right on!". And then I might make a mental note that we didn't see all of those guys actually die. Hmmmm.... And then I might add, "What else have you got up your sleeve?" "What other characters from the world of Tar will appear in the future?" And perhaps most importantly, "How long do we have to wait until the next episode?"

It was automatically done by me. Sometimes I see something worthy of a few extra moments of my time and adding relevant tags to your topic was most definitely worthy of my time. Of course it would be even better if such work could be automated.

Nicely executed. I sure wouldn't want to be the one to mess with that hippo. Congrats on getting this completed!

Hey, I remember that well. That was a defining moment for displacement maps.

...and yet another test combining .STL with a regular model. In this case the prop is based on a STL file of the earths solid mass (minus water) and the water (and atmosphere) via splined spheres. (it's hard to see the atmosphere in these screen shots) The basic idea being that the water can be animated (rise/fall, change transparency, animate) without effecting the underlying prop. I've added a shot of the STL prop as well which is courtesy of Thingiverse (Thanks to Alan Folmsbee for that model) The various height colors are added via a spherical material with gradients.

Here's a still from another of today's tests. I tried to get some flying snow from a fractal sum based material.

I didn't get an entry in for the Sci Fi contest but am thinking about posting some WIPs from that effort. I might just use that idea yet in another contest so in the interim am posting this here: I put this together today after being inspired by the Sci Fi contest. (I wish I would have moved in this direction for the contest!) We should have those contests more often. I was pushing the image toward being a mock movie poster starring Shaggy but how many will read that title as 'Shaggy is Steel' rather than 'Shaggy is .S T L' (the former being the correct reading in this case)? To confuse matters even more... Shaggy isn't an STL file... the spaceship that Shaggy thinks is a gun is. Can you hardcore Sci Fi fans recall what movie the spaceship is from? The .STL file used here was downloaded from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:402270 ( Thanks to Tobz for the file) (Most files posted at Thingverse are covered by a Creative Commons license) Of late I've been playing with combinations of A:M Props and regular Models and having fun with that. (My initial contest idea was inspired by an .STL file) Thinking of the STL files as solid objects and spline based models as soft objects or even tissue aids in my approach to modeling and layout. It's all in my mind but the props 'feel' heavier and less 'alive'. Aside: A downside of using .STL props is that they aren't recognized by HAMR. But... particle hair is.

The new aviatrixes for winning are out. Wear them proudly!

Congrats everyone!

HAMR's ability to work with particle hair is very nice as well.

Here's a possible point of interest concerning Topic tags... I note that several folks are using the Topic Tags which is a very good thing. When clicking on a tag anywhere in the forum other topics with that same tag will be brought forward. Its a useful way to categorize and retrieve information. This does beg the question however about the usefulness of one of a kind unique tags that are more than likely to only apply to that one instance of using said tag. It may be that folks are using the tags in a similar way as the old subtitles, which have gone away. But note that as those will likely be unique to only that one post or topic, it isn't a particularly good use of tags. Tagging can (at least theoretically) help others find other information in the forum related to your tags.

How does 50% work for you?

All my favorite artists are caricaturists. (I received my Wobbling Dead DVDs too! Thanks Mark!)

Even sounds still play in the HAMR viewer (as included in the A:M Project). Tres cool. I did have my first crash with the viewer due to trying to get the sound to play via a mouseover. That might relate to setting the sound to play outside of the extent of the range of the animation. Not sure. Added: The sound will play with a project but not as a consolidated .zip file. I assume that something is broke there so the sound doesn't get properly referenced after consolidation.

Hard to go wrong there! Alan is a motivational speaker on creativity too: (The following is well worth a listen)

She's looking great Jeff! I haven't picked up a DC comic since they went all dark and gritty so I'm glad to hear there's some lightheartedness in the mix. I fear it's only a matter of time though before some genius decides to take this one dark and gritty as well. Hopefully I'm wrong there. If I wanted dark and gritty in comics I'd just watch the news, tv and/or read the newspapers. Was this the link with images? http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/07/10/dcs-batgirl-comic-gets-a-major-overhaul

Sorry about that. I often added the direct link when I posted a youtube video because a few folks complained about the video not appearing in the forum. It was a pain then.. and now it's a double pain for you. Compound this with the fact that every time someone posted a youtube link that didn't work correctly I usually went in and manually 'fixed' them... if I hadn't done that they might work now. If folks would just stop having problems things like this would never be an issue.

Go Jason! We'll steer folk away from usng just the ID alone.

In the post Robert linked to the BBcode is: [ youtube]MK0ITXBWpHE[ /youtube] (without leading spaces) The new board requires the full URL whereas the old had supplied the URL. This would be easy to fix but the new youtube tag isn't part of the standard BBcode (i.e it isn't even listed as an option in the BBcode listing so must be deeper in the board's code. I've added a new BBcode tag for those that want to only paste the ID of the youtube video. It is: [ youtubeID]MK0ITXBWpHE[ /youtubeID] I see two options in updating the old links: 1. Add the URL after the [ youtube] tag 2. Change the tag from [ youtube] to [ youtubeID] Of course we'd only want to sample/select those links from the old forum or it'll break the links folks have posted in the new forum. Here's the code at Robert's link changed to [ youtubeID]: [youtubeID]MK0ITXBWpHE[/youtubeID] Edit: Not working at the moment. Will doublecheck the BBcode. The current youtube tag falls into IPB's new implementation of the media tag so there may be an easier way to get this done. That media tag is implemented in the PHP.

Make sure you are using th Full Editor and not the quick response (default) editor. Actually, that may not even be required but that will work. I usually just copy/paste from the previous topic, then select the text in the new post I want to quote and hit the quote icon in the menu. In other words... exactly how I quoted text in the old forum. Sweet!

Somebody get this man some drums! I can hardly wait to see (and hear) this Will.

Ha! I knew it. Let me take this opportunity to thank you for the work that went into HAMR. I was in shock when I plopped the .HXT file into place, launched it and it played my current projects. Now that's longevity. And to a large extent A:M is still that scriptable game engine with an API today We just haven't leveraged that legacy. Wow. That makes me wonder where I was back then as that doesn't sound familiar to me. Not that I can speak to the code itself but the good news is that since the timeframe you left off with HAMR the core of A:M hasn't changed significantly. I'd guess the code won't compile directly without a few changes but not as if entire rewrites had altered the code base. I distinctly recall Martin stating back then he would not do a rewrite of the code base. To put this into perspective...the v13SDK has been defacto until only recently with the release of v18SDK and the majority of changes incorporated by one guy; Steffen Gross. A:M has had a long stretch of stability exactly because the program hasn't undergone any foundational structural change. Perhaps the biggest update was to allow the move to 64bit but the 32bit side is maintained as well. As v13 was released circa 2004 and the v18SDK mostly updates A:M to OpenGL3 that suggests that most of the core remains unchanged. Not that I've tested deeply but this is what I've seen in the process of opening current files in the HAMR viewer. I was in shock when I discovered that settings tweaked in A:M carried over to the HAMR Viewer (i.e. Moveable, Rotatable, Scaleable and the big one... Poseable!) I didn't expect that last one to work but there it was allowing me to pose characters in the HAMR viewer just like a decade ago... pretty neat. HAMR was ahead of it's time way back then and as far as I'm concerned it still is today.

Just as Robert said... nice model. And nice economy of splines!