goodguy20k

Where are the keys? Can I take it for a spin? Stian, that so totally rocks! There's not much more I can say! Except... What's the next project?

Very nice!

Oh my gosh! That's awesome! (Though... The skin looks too perfect for my tastes. Very good for a comic book frame, not sure how it would look animated.) I too love the "velour" look! Awesome job! Just curious, Mark, can McGruff's shirt just get "shorter"? Then you could create a pose slider for "wardrobe select", and scrub along until you find the one you want. Rigging, I think, can be modified on the pose (don't quote me). Where's David? He probably knows.

Have I mentioned how much I hate you and your models? You make me feel pathetic, man! Hope you're happy. Ok, seriously, that model already looks total awesomeness. Can't wait until it's more complete!

I hate to repeat this, but... I can't export from the action either. OZ CD, v14 Beta 3. Everything went BEAUTIFULLY... Until I tried to export. Then it freezes. Other then that, this system ROCKS!

Dude, welcome from a fellow animator and studio owner wannabe. (We also share some story ideas. ) Just had to comment on your "So the best quality is not the most important factor." Don't do that! You can write up the best story and render it in the worst way, and it'll come off ok. You can write up the worst story and render it out the best way possible, and it'll come off awful. But if you push both, requiring a good story and good rendering, you'll do well. I guess that's my tip: Push. Learn, and slowly (as you don't have much choice ), but keep pushing to raise the bar. It's that push that will bring your story across the best way possible. Good luck, man. We'll all need a bit of it. As to the animators part... Depending on what's needed, when, and how much, I think you'll get a lot of people jumping at you. (Out pay Martin, and I'll jump the TWO boat! (KIDDING Martin!) ) Most people pay per character for modeling (which is often based on hours, but can be based off of complexity (same difference). ), and then pay hourly for animation, and hourly for most others. Find yourself a budget and then talk to some strategic people about best payout method.

A few thoughts (warning, these will kill your render time... ) 1) If you want to use dynamics, create a longer hair (you need at least 1cm of hair per control point). I use about 4cm, with 3 control points. Then move to your hair emitter properties and give it a length percentage of say, 25%. You now have 1cm long hair that is semi-dynamic. (Semi, because it only somewhat follows the control points. You'll have to play with this to see what I mean. 2) Transparency. Just as you adjust the hair width over length, make the tips transparent. It sells the "soft" look BIG time. (And hits your render time just as hard... ) I usually set it to 0% at 0, 0% at 90, and 100% at 100.

Lee.... You're dang annoying, you know that?

Annual Image Contest Topics. It's stickied in the Animation Master Topic.

Ok, that was SWEET! Awesome job! Minus the lighting on... You... And a few nit-picks with the water, that looked totally awesome!

It's going to depend on your processor and your OS build.

SWEET! Awesome job!

I just fell across this article while looking for something else. Sounds... Familiar. Maybe with Microsoft behind it, camera manufactures will start movin' over. And then of course, we'll hack all our cameras to use EXR instead.

Dusting out some projects lying in my "todo" list, here's another rev of the walk cycle. XizorWalk.mov

Just a few quick cents of opinion. Make a list of tutorials. Note the ones that are still living, and put those in another list. (Might be nice to get the author's permission as well here...) Then send minions... Err... Volunteers, I mean! To go run through the tutorials. They can note what doesn't work/has changed in the latest versions, and for the more inclined, edit and polish the tutorial. Find a format and shoot it off to the repository. Something like that. I know I wouldn't mind running through tutorials...

3D stars? Or just a star backdrop? You could create a sphear and give it the DarkSim Space material. Works like a charm!

Thanks! I knew it was something simple like that!

Ok, so I'm using paths a bit... And I constrained my model to this path. Now, how do I set the time that it starts on the path and when it ends? So far, I can only get it to work with the choreography time... Can you do this? Where? How? Thanks!

Chor actions generally are model placement/rotation/scale settings. When you dropped the model in the Chor, if you move it away from 0,0,0, it creates that action.

What Yves said. View your model, or whatever window it is. Go to the Window menu and click New Window. (Or in Windows, hit Alt+W) Set the new window to whatever view you want. Also in the window menu, you can automatically arrange the windows. Good stuff!

Here's a interesting thought. If you have stride length on, and your action properly cropped, try this: Go into a choreography, create a new path with just two CPs. Move one CP to a specific position (0,0,0 for example). Then move the other CP to the exact same position. Constrain your model to the path. It shouldn't move, but the action should cycle. Adjust the Choreography time to whatever you need it to run. You can move the path over the time of animation, and/or even constrain it to a model, or something. It's a workaround, and not pretty, but I bet it'll work!

VERY awesome stuff, John! That last one almost looks real! Wonder what a transparent version would look like...

David rocks.

Yep, Rodney! Many of us grabbed it minutes after it released! (See, Martin? We're HOOKED! )

Hmm, I would check all the alignment of the hinge and such bones. Might be the culprit.