breakthelocke

1. I've set up an environment for my character, and I've found it to be really laggy with only some of the props in there (there's alot of trees). Is there a way for me to turn off the trees or something so I can animate my character without all the lag? and then turn them back on when it's time to render? EDIT-- even when the object is set to hidden, it's still ultra laggy 2. That leads into the next question- should I be animating my character in an action window and then load it into a chor. ? or just animate right in the chor? 3. Is there a format of video that saves the alpha channel? Or do I have to render it as a targa sequence? 4. I need some advice on final rendering and compositing. any general advice is good. I have after effects for compositing. Anyone have any info on matte paintings for backgrounds? thanks!!!!!!!!

thanks alot, I'll try it out!

I have two characters, and I want one a certain sized compared to the other. So I'm applying the 2001 skeleton to the smaller one, but I don't want to make him bigger so it fits. Is there a way to scale down the entire 2001 skeleton? Or am I just going to have to size down all the bones individually? thanks!

great idea- I'll try it out- thanks!

here's a screenshot of my problem-- I apply a hair length map, but where I want there to be NO hair, there's still little tiny hair bumps-- is there a way to get it down to 0% in those areas? In my hair length map, those areas are pure black. Thanks!

yeah I tried that a few times :/ no good.

Hi hopefully this makes sense without posting pictures. if it doens't, i'll post some. but here's the latest problem of mine: I have a hair material I made, applied it to the eyebrows and ponytail of my character. I imported my character's decals, changed the image to diffuse color etc. the eyebrows worked perfectly, the hair picked up the color. but for some reason, the ponytail part stays pure white. any ideas? thanks in advance!

wow perfect answer- fixed it perfectly! thanks a ton!

doh sorry thought i was in rigging >< uhmmm...is this not the rigging section?

Hi I just rigged a character up with the 2001 skeleton- I'm in the process of rigging up the squetch on another... that thing is tough. Anyways, here's my problem: when I open up my character (2001 rig) in an action or a chor, his hand targets and elbow rotate are gone. I just can't find out how to get them there-- i'm new to rigging, so any basic answer would help. thanks!

thanks alot for the info guys! I put a skeleton in him, but it's not working so good to animate. does anyone know where there's a tutorial on how to install the squetch rig?

I think this should work! thanks a ton, that's a grea ttutorial

okay I need some major help here. I've been going at this literally for about 5 hours now. System found to be unsolvable Possible causes: forced intersecting geometry, very sudden movement, or other setting I get this about 80% of the time when I move my character around, and then run Simcloth simulate. It's a simple dress set-up, two legs under it. I just need some help, pleeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssssssssssseeeee

correction--- now when his legs go through the robe, everything just goes crazy- cp's all over the place on the robe.

it says it just can't calculate it-- forced geometry collision, or too fast of movements... not sure what it means. I had a weird robe, that went down and went back up the inside and connected to the top of his legs, so i changed a couple things-- now his legs are basically separate objects, and his robe just goes straight down and ends at his ankles. I applied deflector to the legs, and his robe renders fine just fro moving him around, but the legs just go right through he robe. any thoughts?

I have a model i'm rigging at the moment, and I just cna't figure out how to get the bottom of his robe to work right-- i'm using simcloth, and applied deflector to his legs and everything, but when I move my guy around in a chor., and try to render the cloth, it gives me an error. any ideas? thanks!

Hey anyone that feels like helping here's a model I made of a monk, and i'm getting about ready to rig him up, the mesh still needs some work, though. a couple specific questions about rigging this guy: 1. I've been making skeletons from scratch- would it be a good idea to just put the 2001 skeleton on him and then change some things? 2. Is it possible to just add simcloth to the hem of his robe and the ends of the arms? 3. this guy has a tongue. so far it seems pretty impossible to rig that thing. 4. I noticed on the troll model that comes with A:M, he has a chain around his neck- and it automatically secondary animates itself. My concern is with my monk's ponytail, is there some way to make it animated itself? so I don't have to animate it anytime the monk moves his head.... maybe also with his earlobes that's all for now, thanks a ton, to anyone who can help

I'm planning on modeling a robed character based on the atatched scan (if it works....), I could use anyone's advice on how to model and rig this guy--- i'm thinking about actually making the ends of the arms and the end of the bottom of the robe into cloth....but i'm wondering if that might look weird. anyways, any help at all would be great, i'm a noob and havn't started modeling yet. thanks!

I was wondering if anyone knows of a place that has a complete tutorial/production journal with all the steps of creating an animated short. That's all EDIT *sigh* another thing... copy keyframe and paste mirrorred is jsut not working for me.... everytime I do it, it only affects the toe bones on my character.... I've tried in chor and action, tried everything it seems like. thanks!

I know I post a new topic at least once a day.. just wanted to say thankyou! to everyone that has answered- I am learning so fast, mostly because I get quick and accurate responses from everyone So my newest questions: 1. I need to know how to restrain my bones on my character from going past (ex.: elbow overextending, head turning all the way around) I think once I can get that done, my model will really be animatable. 2. in what window (model, action, etc.) can I add constraints in, so that every time I import my model into an action or choreography, I don't have to add them in again? Thanks!! EDIT 3. I just applied materials to my model for the 5th time, and later I opened up a new action, imported the model, and all his materials are gone. I also saved an action with all the constraints and everything, and when I opened it up later, the model was gone. that's all for now

anyone know where I can find a simple full-body rigging tutorial, not just how to put an already made skeleton into something? If not, can someone tell me which constraint I should use to make feet not go through the ground? thanks !

so nothing was working... but I think I found the problem--- I've just been importing the skeleton that came with AM and been scaling it down to fit my model, and I think it has to do with that. Time to figure out how to add a skeleton to my model >< thanks a TON for your help though, I learned a ton!

do I have to apply the smartskins to each bone every time I open up a new action or choreography window?

okay, that kinda helps--- maybe you could give me a more detailed explanation though--- I've tried everyting.....adding smartskins to every bone in an action window, in the model window, and then i'll open up a new action window with my model in it, and none of the smartskins work. i need help ><

so my problem now is I'm applying a smartskin in a model window, but when I open up a new action or choreography, my smartskins don't seem to be working. any ideas? thanks!