itsjustme

Hit "F8" or the "Skeletal Mode" button (it has a running stick figure image on it).

There are two online courses, that I am aware of, that teach animation. However, those courses don't teach you how to use the software, they assume you know how to use the tools already. Neither of these courses provide assets for Animation Master, so you would have to make them yourself. My advice (for what it's worth), would be to learn the software using the resources available to you here. Then, if you want to take an online animation course, you will have the understanding of the tools necessary to complete your course work. You might be surprised how much you can learn about the software and animation in general on these forums...and it's free. As for the software, there are a lot of tutorials (including video tutorials) available here. Do a search, if you don't find what you need, ask. Hope that helps.

Have fun! Welcome to the community.

What I'm able to see looks fine, Dhar. It's hard to tell about the face and fingers, but the arms, legs, torso and feet appear alright. It's just a colloquial contraction of "Yes sir"...it's humorous to me. There are some stranger things that I use conversationally for the same reason.

There's an older tutorial located here that might help...I think it would still work the same, I haven't messed with layers in quite a while. There is also this tutorial that might help. I'm sure others will mention tutorials besides those...hope these help.

Yessir. The "wrist_fan_geom" will help blend the transition from the forearm to the hand and the carpal bones are the bases for the fingers which help shape the hand for things like cupping, etc. Check Squetchy Sam's hands for an example. Hope that helps.

Yessir.

Have you reset the compensates using the accompanying text file, Dhar?

The installations are keyed to specific CD's...what is the picture on the CD you have?

The cheek bone and ear bone are located in the same place...you may have to hide one to get to the other or pick it from the PWS.

The settings for the FACE camera can be adjusted in the "Animation_Controls/FACE Interface/Customize_interface/Camera" folder. It looks like the cheek, jowl and nostril bones are in some strange places. You'll also want to move the bases of the nose bones farther back to where the nose connects to the face. To make manipulating them easier, the Maxilla, LowerTeeth and Jaw bones could be lengthened. If you unhide the bones in Squetchy Sam, it should give you a good idea of what I mean. You're getting there, Dhar! The easiest way to make the adjustments would be to open the last saved Action (hopefully, just before you exported, so that everything you did is saved), make the adjustments and then export again. Hope that helps. ------------------------------- EDIT ------------------------------- When I originally posted this, I thought the eyebrow bones wouldn't work right like you have them...but now I see that you're probably right. Considering the curvature of Gumbo's skull and the location of the brows, I think you've got them closer to the right place. If not, those would be an easy fix. The bases of the eyebrow bones might need to be raised slightly to get some proper lift...a little experimenting will provide the answer.

The baking of constraints that makes seamless switching between IK and FK possible may cause problems in the 2001 rig...which is what KeeKat uses. I'm sure there's a way to work around it...it's not a bug though.

You could use Colin's "Uber eye"...that should be here. I used to have a tutorial that was posted on a site...it doesn't appear to be available anymore. You could take the eyes out of Squetchy Sam (in my signature is a link to the Wiki, there are several versions of Sam linked there) for the ones like that tutorial...they don't have iris maps, but those are easy enough to make, or you could use one of the maps I posted here. As for the rigging...I made a face rigging tutorial a couple of years ago that might help. It's located here. For a simple aiming of the eye, you just need a target and an "aim at" constraint on the eye bone to aim at that target. Hope that helps.

The Action Object isn't right, Dhar....it looks like you are importing your model into the rig in an Action (that's why you're getting the Action Object, I suspect). Just open the rig as a model (which you probably did), right mouse click on the name of the model in the PWS and select "Import/Model" (selecting the model you want to rig). Save the model out under a new name, then, open an Action by double-clicking on the "Actions" folder. Once that's done, you can use Action1 (the default name for a new Action) to install the rig. As you go along, periodically save the Action under a new name for safety. Hope that helps.

Did the eye bones look like this image from the side when you unhid them, Dhar? If you unhid the INSTALL bone, that is not going to be what you need to see if you have the latest installation. You need to be able to see the "Eye_right_geom" bone to size the overall eye rig...it's the longest bone that is level.

You should be able to do the hiding in the modeling window if the Action window is giving you problems. Hope that helps.

Save your Action, unzip the installation files again, open the new installation file, import your unrigged character and import the installation Action you saved...is the problem still there? My guess is that in one of the false starts you had before this, something in the default settings might have gotten changed on the installation model. If that's not it, I'll take another stab at it. Also, the knee rigging should probably be a little higher and farther forward...at least from the looks of that image. Hope that helps.

There are cheaper options...you might look into Cinelerra. Cinelerra is free, can do feature film resolution video, has six tracks of audio (if I remember correctly), can handle OpenEXR images, it can composite and can use a network to render transitions, effects, etc. It is Linux only, which is a non-starter for some people, but, there are Live CD's that have Cinelerra on them, like Dynebolic and I've seen this VMware version. You could also dual boot Linux and Windows or Linux and OSX...or you could have a dedicated Linux computer. What format a TV station accepts varies depending on their gear. The station I work at accepts BetaSP, DVPro and one inch (very rare now). We occasionally get some local spots on DVD and regular DV, but that's unusual...in the case of regular DV, it's hit or miss whether we can get it to transfer well. The vast majority of the spots we get are sent digitally using services like DG/Fastchannel, VYVX or Pathfire (which was bought by DG/Fastchannel recently). Local businesses generally get a media buyer and they use those services. Hope that helps.

I don't think it will be a problem...might take some experimenting to find out though. In my mind, modeling isn't finished until the character is rigged. I would finish modeling him and just make adjustments as needed while rigging. For more complicated joints, a lower density of splines is almost always better...you get a lot of stuff for "free" when the patches are moved if the spline layout is good.

I meant the top spline that was defining the hips...after re-reading my post, I see I wasn't clear. The way it was, the mid-section would look strange while bending. Moving that spline wouldn't affect the arms being able to reach the thighs, but it would reduce the vertical size of the hip area. As for the five point patch...it will just take some re-routing of splines.

From the look of his head, I was expecting a shorter character with a heavier looking lower torso. That's what was in my mind, at least. From a modeling standpoint...I would take out one of the chest splines and lower the hips (they end in the mid-section now). It looks like you hit the high points on spline placement, from what I can tell, Dhar. Nice job so far!

Top notch! That's as good as anything I've ever seen, Lee.

Nice, Stian! You're making me feel lazy...you're churning out great bunches of stuff. The only critique I have is that the car could be dirtied up a bit....great job.

Yes, all versions will work with v13 or later. The v12 and v13 are identical, except the v13 installation won't open in earlier versions. The v11.1 versions don't have the FK/IK seamless switching, because that didn't get put in until late in the v12 cycle (otherwise, they are the same). If you have v13s or later, I would recommend using the Posable installations that Mark will be posting shortly. They make the process a lot easier. At this time, there are only Posable installations for the biped rigs. Hope that helps, Mike.

Here's the next update to the biped rigs (these updates aren't necessary in the Quad rigs). The bicep flexing is improved and limited now and there are added geometry bones for a short-sleeved shirt. There is a new Pose, "Animation_Controls/Arm_Controls/sleeves_roll_like_biceps" which will roll the sleeve geometry bones like the biceps using a percentage slider. The sleeve geometry bones will work with limb bowing and general squetching...in extreme squashes you might have the arm go through the sleeve though, since there isn't any squetching built into the sleeves. I have included versions of Squetchy Sam that have some make-shift sleeves so that it will be easier to see what the new stuff does. This release has the InstallRig plugin included in the installation ZIPs. If anyone finds a problem or something I missed, let me know and I'll fix it as fast as I can. Mark posted the Posable installations here. If you are using v11.1, you'll need the DLL files located here, there are instructions for installing them inside the ZIP file. There is more information and add-ons on the Wiki. ---------------------------------- EDIT ---------------------------------- I forgot to thank Rusty Williamson for suggesting these updates and Mark Skodacek for double-checking everything...so, I'll tack that on here. Thanks guys! Sorry for the unintended omission. ---------------------------------- EDIT ---------------------------------- The next update is located here, the files from this post were deleted.