Vertexspline

Ha ha Nancy------"beads of sweat forming" --- hey --time is such a valuable commodity so anything that saves time is well worth it. If the purchase price makes sense for you ---I cannot see how you will be disappointed except in like three years down the road when computer speed processing envy might return.

Rodger r --thanks for that one too......two awesome things. And Chris --did not even know there was a AM wiki----smiles

tbenefi33--way to keep churning out the characters and models. I really liked the tommy gun and the boat. The characters are pretty nice too and really amazing how much you get done. will keep on watching with excitement as you progress.

very nice Gene-----gosh when you can have the attention to detail you showed here with the beats -----it really makes for a great animation. Enjoyed it very much ----watched it twice and nice music as well .

Robert- "I've got a secret . Can you keep a secret? Didn't think so" smiles ---(v17)

Thanks Rodney-- Will take a look at that. Also for those looking for a cheap alternative for noncommercial uses --corel sells a special coreldraw x5 Home and student version suite that weighs in at $129.00 list but which can be seen at times at other online sources for much much less. (Its nearly the same as its big brother commercial version minus some content and a few features but still a nice draw and paint etc suite) I have already seen for certain modeling things the AI importing process a huge time saver. (for me at least).

Was curious to learn how many folks have found this to be a useful resource. I know it has lots of models etc but wondered how many folks use things from it or not. I was contemplating purchasing it but was not sure.

thanks thekamps------this is very useful for me as well...appreciate it.

Looks awesome Rodger ..and I think adding a little character makes it seem more real. great job. and nice render too!

Jimd-----I liked that alot. Jason is right about fast pace ---nice. Overall a nice mix of sounds , music ,images --

wow...looks really nice Mike....and glad you decided to come back and share.

Totlover --good luck with school.....enjoy that. and when you get time to do more of this stuff will be watching eagerly to see how this develops.

Ilidrake --I like him ..nice job so far and even at this stage he has some personality oozing out of him ........keep churning along!!

Chris..I have used decals and loaded up a sequence _this time a tga sequence --and all seems pretty good except when I render the scene out as an avi movie the "movie" plays on my one patch tv but it not very smooth almost like its skipping frames or something. Thinking its maybe some kind of timing issue between the decal and the rendering of the avi ---gonna play with it some more myself.

I did a quick test using decals with image sequenced files and it seemed to work pretty good. I did use a png sequence and did seem a little rough so next time I have a chance will follow robert's sage advice with using jpg or tga's and see how that goes. The decal way was pretty quick to set up too.

And thanks for the additional info.....you guys always go the extra yard in help.

That's is one awesome looking scene and lighting and rendering. Its really looking amazing. Great job guys.. (Played it a few times for the sheer joy.)

Hey Thanks you guys too !! I have been very happy to share and celebrate with my Animation Master friends it has been really great fun for me since I have refocused my energies with AM and this forum has much to do with that feeling indeed. So thanks All of you for your BD wishes .

Hey guys --thanks for all that feedback and information. So i guess like a lot of importers one has to still do a little thinking and planning and sometimes nothing beats the good AM modeler and your own splinage. But the botton line was glad to hear it was used by some of you guys and looks like for me I may add this to my tool pipe at least for somethings. The one man circus needs all the time savers one can find. and Rodney special thanks for that detailed response and examples!

So I do not own a program yet that saves in "AI" and so I downloaded a demo of corelx5 draw to try out and make some shapes to use the Illustrator file import wizard in AM . It seem to me to be a pretty nifty way of saving some time on certain kinds of modeling. Especially for buildings, walls , windows , things with holes etc. I was kind of curious what others thought of this process. Do they use it often, seldom , never ? Are there any pitfalls , or issues . The splines it created so far for me seemed decent when imported and need little fixing but I have not really done a lot of this. So would be appreciate any thoughts. I know is it always better to keep working on making your models in AM to improve and I do ...but saw this as a time saver of which as we all know is always good.

Rodney, Not really been back long enough to voice much of opinion but I think you may have some logical points here with the 2011 timeframe. (Now personally really great idea to push to 2012 as gives me some more time to learn so that i can particpate in a better way.) One could think of maybe a user show reel type production for remaining 2011 gleaning scenes from the best of the projects here ...and or have folks submit their own small 10 -15 second item for possible inclusion---in a 2011 user show reel. I think a good user show reel posted about can bring some new users. Just random thoughts. The one thing for sure the 2011 project set being worked on is uber cool looking and I cannot even wait to see what some of the amazing scenes that will be created - no matter the year.

Thank you all....very kind of you. And always nice to see another one. (BD) . Think I am going use some gift money and add another ver 16 subscription so I can maximize my free time on Animation Master-- now that would make it a Happy Birthday for sure .

Steve---my thoughts exactly looking at these ---great job Nancy ---so cute a character pair indeed!! and great lighting for sure. Plus the test was illuminating as well....and I think indeed for animation you can often get away with less passes as all that motion one does not have a chance to really focus on the subject so easily. Thanks for doing this ---so we all can decide for ourselves what makes sense.

hey JohnP --welcome to AM and the forums. And Robert understates the fact for answers being right here --This forum has more experts who are so willing to help new folks than any other I have seen. And no matter the skill level they are always friendly. I might suggest to try a quick search first in the forums before posting 1. because the question may have been addressed before and secondly because when i do that I find all kind of other cool things to learn at same time. This forum is like gold mine of information. But--that said ---if you are stuck or getting frustrated just post away --These guys will help and help you fast!!

Pinballwzd ---cloth systems are pretty complex and lots and lots of tweaking always required. Its one of the most devilish items in any 3d application that has it. One nice thing about Animation Master's Cloth sim --its pretty fast. So tweaking can happen faster. Anyhow enjoy and keep working at it. The results can be very nice.