sb4
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Posts posted by sb4
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Hi Martin you wild and crazy guy, I hope you make some movies with A:M and show us some stuff. I second your kudos and appreciation to Stefen Gross and Jason Simonds , I hope they are rewarded for their efforts. I want to see A:M continue to flourish.
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I would like to get as much info about the compatibility issues to help me. I'm guessing that there are some 32-bit "drivers" that come with the V13/V14 that are the main problem -- maybe screen drivers? Or disk/CD drivers?
As far as the CD versions of A:M the one problem I'm aware of is that the copy protection can no longer run under Windows 10, rather than 32-bit issues. Once the above-mentioned registry maneuver is done the (32-bit) CD versions seem to run appropriately in my 64- bit Windows 7.
I would love it if the programmer(s) in charge of A:M would maintain a "classic" version of A:M, such as V14, for the purpose of getting new users interested and sell it at a reduced price. Seems like it could be a decent marketing strategy, and probably wouldn't require too much work to maintain it.
For now, I'd say our A:M programmer is fully tasked in maintaining three current versions (MacOS + 32 and
6364 bit Windows).V14 is so antique in the code that it has that maintaining it would probably be a huge extra effort with little return. The two-week free trial is Hash's nod toward the doubtful buyers.
Yes, I'm sure it is asking too much. I thought maybe once the Win10 compatibility was solved, there wouldn't be much to do, just leave it alone.
I see there is a $299 downloadable version of A:M available -- what is that? The store description doesn't say much about it and seems to contradict itself as to whether it is available on CD or not.
BTW IMO: 2 weeks seems a pittance for exploring A:M. I've been exploring for 10 years (in pockets of time - that's the problem) and still haven't actually produced an original animation because there are so many concepts that I'd like to understand rather than just the "do this" type of instruction. The best affordable resource I've found is the old 2006 book on A:M which matches V13/14, so that's partly why I like to work with that version.
I'm currently interested in using A:M to make 2-D animations using the "cartoon" feature, which I'm hoping could be a very practical way to create watchable, entertaining, and possibly commercial content without needing all the fancy bells and whistles of photo-realistic, physically dynamic 3-D modeling/animation. I love those high-end features, but a single animator can get bogged down and invest years developing efficient techniques for employing them in a real production. So in a retro kind of way I'm interested in seeing what I can do with the feature set of the V13/14.
On the other hand, if the latest version of A:M is more about improvements in stability, bug-fixes, input/output formats, performance and rendering than it is about new fancy features, then I can see it just might be a show-stopper to try to work with an older, buggy version. But I'll continue to obstinately explore the limits of V13/14 for a while anyway. I appreciate your patience in trying to help me overcome various problems with it.
-SB
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Thanks for those suggestions and tip on seeing my content -- it's been a while since I've been on this forum, I didn't remember that or it is new. (Maybe the last name explains the need to make a batch of choc chip cookies on a regular basis
.)I'll start tinkering with the Windows 10 suggestions. I know the subscription solves such problems and I'll eventually do that, but I'm interested in proving something with the old A:M CD for the time being -- it fits my workflow best at this time.
I would like to get as much info about the compatibility issues to help me. I'm guessing that there are some 32-bit "drivers" that come with the V13/V14 that are the main problem -- maybe screen drivers? Or disk/CD drivers? I'd be very interested in testing V13/V14 with Windows 10 32-bit. If anyone else who likes to tinker with legacy A:Ms can try it to test the 32-bit driver compatibility theory, that would be appreciated.
It's too bad there isn't a simple way to convert the 32-bit drivers to 64-bit -- like de-compile to C and recompile. I'm sure it's entangled with the Windows API or hardware in some deep way.
I would love it if the programmer(s) in charge of A:M would maintain a "classic" version of A:M, such as V14, for the purpose of getting new users interested and sell it at a reduced price. Seems like it could be a decent marketing strategy, and probably wouldn't require too much work to maintain it.
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I would like to try to get my A:M V13/V14 running under Windows 10. Any help would be appreciated. I have not been successful so far. Double-clicking the icon does not seem to launch anything. The CD is in the DVD reader. The install seemed to go OK, I checked the box to copy the software to the drive. I did install it on my D: drive instead of the default C: drive, not sure if that could be an issue.
BTW: is there a way to search or show for all posts and threads I have participated in or posted? I can't seem to get any good info using the search. I also have a problem in that my name is "sb4" which the search says is too short and won't let me proceed.
Regards,
-SB
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I'm interested in getting the look of 5 frames per second animation, with no interpolation.
I'm wondering what is the most efficient way to do this.
For example, I can set the FPS in A:M to 5 FPS and render an AVI file. I'm not sure what is in the AVI file -- is it just 5 frames of data per second of action, or is it translated to 30 frames per second for display purposes? Or is that a meaningless question.
I guess to display my animation on TV, I need to make a DVD, which requires using a DVD-making program that will input an AVI file. I'm wondering if the 5 FPS avi file I make with A:M will be interpreted correctly by the DVD-making program to create an NTSC format video that plays correctly.
Alternatively, I think I could set A:M to 30 FPS, and set the Keyframe Interpolation to "Hold", and force a keyframe 5 times a second (not sure how to do that easily).
What are all the ways to achieve a final 5 FPS product?
Regards,
-SB
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Repositioning the pivot would be within the scope of awkward things that professionals grit their teeth and live with, but probably daunting for new users.
If you make that ear a named group it will save a custom pivot point (although there were some older versions where that didn't work). If the pivot point was getting left behind you could reset it quickly by unselecting the group, then re selecting it in the PWS.
I'm not sure what happens to a custom pivot point after some muscle mode animation has been done. My own preference for a floppy ear would be to rig it with a bone rather than use muscle mode animation, but the author may be using this as a sample case to introduce the concept of muscle mode animation.
I have a named group for the "ear" and the properties show that does save a pivot, but the coordinates seem to be absolute (i.e. relative to the origin of the x y z axes).
I suppose it would be difficult to make a pivot point "relative" to a group, since any deformation of the group would make the new pivot location ill-defined (unless you had a way to set the pivot point to the center of mass of the group, for example -- but even then the orientation would be ambiguous probably).
So I guess it is a tool to be used as appropriate, and the author was pointing it out.
Thanks,
-SB
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A question for anyone whose has worked through some of the exercises in "Animation:Master - A Complete Guilde" by Rogers, 2007:
In chapter 4, "Action Basics", on animating the flour sack in an Action window, after you lay down the basic "hopping" animation, the author instructs you to refine the action using Muscle mode and doing some overshoot of the "ears".
The idea is to use the "group" tool to select a single CP at the tip of the ear, and then use the "rotate manipulator" to lag the ear behind the fast motion of the torso.
If I understand correctly, you are supposed to move the pivot of the rotate manipulator to the "base" of the ear, so you can rotate the tip CP relative to the pivot at the base, and thus drag the mesh a little by the tip to make the ear flex.
The author wants you to then step through the timeline and wag the ear appropriately using the "rotate manipulator".
The problem I find is that when I step through my animation with the sack hopping up and down, when the sack moves, the rotate pivot point does not follow the sack. So for each frame, I have to reposition the pivot to the base of the ear in order to try to achieve a useful rotation frame.
In the end, it is so clumsy that it seems a very ineffective way to wag the ear. I feel I can simply grab the CP with the mouse pointer and drag it one way or another far more easily (viewing from an appropriate perspective).
I'm wondering if I'm not getting the correct technique to using the "rotate manipulator" in this case. Has anyone gone through this, or has a comment?
Regards,
-SB
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I'm finding if I create a new Action window with a model, and I like the model default pose for my first and last keyframe, I can't just press "Force KeyFrame" on frame 0, move to frame xx, press "Force KeyFrame" again, and get keyframes. They just don't "take".
However, it seems if I perturb a bone once in a keyframe (such as keyframe 0), and do the same procedure as above, the keyframes are "recorded" -- meaning I can skip back and forth to the keyframes.
OK, I read this a bit closer now.
Force Keyframe, by default, will only force keyframes on things that already have a keyframe somewhere in the timeline. Holding down the SHIFT key while using Force Keyframe brings up an option window that can key EVERYTHING. This is risky to do.
Have you seen my "keyframing basics" videos. I think one of them , at least, covers that.
In the Screencams link in my signature.
Great idea, I'll check it out. Wish there were more hours in the day to check all these great resources.
-SB
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I was just musing about some of the genres of animation I'm aware of, and how it affects where we put our learning effort into A:M.
For example, the TAO manual has wonderful "top 10" tips for animating that encompass the qualities of squash, stretch, overshoot, etc.
When I think of those ideas, it brings to mind the old "Looney Tunes" cartoons that dominate my early memories -- Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, et al. They really embodied so many of those tips -- and it was interesting how, for example, a character could even temporarily change those qualities to more fully express the emotion of an action. I can image, for example, Daffy Duck shooting upward like a rocket, hitting the ceiling, then descending in the trajectory a feather would take -- temporarily changing his weight for comedic effect.
And the anticipation / overshoot qualities of Wiley Coyote as he charged off a cliff, hovered in the air until he realized there was no support, at which time, gravity is cued to operate and he plunges downward. Suspending physics for comedic effect.
I would think that type of classic cartoon animation requires incredible study and learning from the masters.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have Avatar (there are better examples I'm sure), which I would describe as "Realism", where we are concerned more with photorealistic modeling and strict obedience to physical laws. In some ways, the new animator can probably get headway faster here, since there are clearer "rules" you can follow to build your animation. I'm not saying it's easier -- lots of detail and hard work to obey physics -- but the mission is clear what you have to do. At least I feel I would have an easier time approaching it. For example, if I need to animate a kids soccer game, I would video some kids from various angles and use rotoscope to help me animate the characters.
Then we have "Rescue Heroes" cartoons. Sort of modern, low budget tooning. Characters are stiff, not much of the classic cartooning concepts of overshoot, squash, stretch. Minimal animating and articulation. Lots of recycled actions. Supposed to approximate reality, but mainly tell a story with plot and dialog. If you can work out a formula for yourself, this could be a very efficient format to get started animating with A:M, and then work up to the other genres.
I'm sure there are many other genres as well, but I'd better get back to learning A:M...
Cheers,
-SB
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First, make sure you don't have the A button OFF.
The "A" (Animate Mode) button is pushed in.
So not a big problem, just caught me unawares -- maybe fixed in later versions... unless there is something I'm missing.
All part of the learning curve.
-SB
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Bizarre stuff keeps happening as I try to learn how to make an action with my flour sack (chapter 4 AM A Complete Guide).
I made an action with the flour sack "hopping" which looks fairly OK when I play it.
However, somehow the keyframes are "lost" to the toolbar -- pressing next or previous keyframe does nothing. And the action defaults to keyframe "1:00" when I load it -- when I play it, I see the counter jump to 0:00 then play to 1:00 where it stops, as expected. But I can't jump to any of the keyframes
Now, I think something changed, because when I built the action, I was jumping from keyframe to keyframe. But I took a side experiment to see what would happen if I set the frame rate of A:M to 5 FPS and rendered an AVI file from a completely different action. When I returned to the first action, I think I saw some fractional frame numbers, which was cool because it indicated they were recorded somehow even though the frame rate had been altered. But those fractional frames disappeared at some point as I continued to experiment-- I'm never sure what's going on, and I restart the program many times to check if the problem is transitory.
So I returned to frame rate to 24 or 30 (I couldn't remember which I originally chose, but the problem is there with both). I am left with an action that seems to play fine, but I can't find or visit the keyframes.
I'm hard pressed to even know what to ask here. I suppose some insights to frame rate might be useful -- for example, is frame rate stored per project, or is it an A:M parameter global to all projects? I would hope it is stored per project at least.
-SB
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I'm finding if I create a new Action window with a model, and I like the model default pose for my first and last keyframe, I can't just press "Force KeyFrame" on frame 0, move to frame xx, press "Force KeyFrame" again, and get keyframes. They just don't "take".
However, it seems if I perturb a bone once in a keyframe (such as keyframe 0), and do the same procedure as above, the keyframes are "recorded" -- meaning I can skip back and forth to the keyframes.
I typically have the filters: Key Skeletal Translations, Scaling, Rotations active and the Key Bone filter activated, and the other filters inactive, but I don't think any combination of filters has changed this behavior.
Just wondering if this is typical.
-SB
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"Add-lock" is obsolete.
The Current "Add" mode does what Add-lock used to... allow you to create more than one CP without having to repeatedly press the Add mode button.
The Add-lock button can still be found inthe Customize window but i find it non-functional.
Ok, thanks.
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For some reason I can't find an "Add-Lock" tool, or access it.
I open a Model window, and see the "A+" tool (cursor with +), and I see a grayed out "Lock" (but no +).
It is referenced in the AM V10.5 help, so I'm sure it should be somewhere, just can't find it.
Any ideas?
-SB
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That helps, although I'm not quite there yet.
Is there some way to see how much weight each bone applies to a particular CP?
You can select the CP and the
>edit CP weights to see exact percentages. In modern version of A:M the pop-up display will also show that infoAnd are the colors blended in the color-coding when multiple bones affect a CP?Approximately so. It's only a rough indication.
The description I'm reading of the fall-off envelope says that the points in the inner fall-off envelope of a bone are completely controlled by the bone, and the points between the inner and outer envelopes are regions of shared control.But what happens if two different bones' inner envelopes overlap (if that's possible)?
It will be divied (DIV-eed) up, based on distance again.
And what happens in the regions that are outside all envelopes?They retain their default weight, usually to teh model bone.
I'm not sure I yet have a good description of how the fall-off envelopes operate.
Unless maybe those envelopes are just visual approximations of the control, since I see the property "Falloff Type" with the description "Cubic", which makes me think now that the field of influence of a bone is infinite, not only within a sharp boundary.It is not infinite. Cubic has a bell curve influence that falls off slowly in the center, more rapidly half-way out, then slowly again.. Linear is straight falloff by distance.
This thread has some demonstrations of different ways of attaching CPs to bones, including falloffs...
http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...amp;hl=falloffs
Thanks, it's getting clearer.
-SB
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The falloff numbers are something you leave or set manually and not affected by "Computer Weights"
You can see the "envelope" the falloff numbers create by selecting that bone. That gives you a visual approximation of how much a bone will grab of a CP when "Compute weights" is done.
"Remove all weights" eliminates all sharing of CPs between bones and leaves each CP assigned 100% to one (the nearest?) bone.
If you really want eradicate all CP assignments you can select the black model bone and assign all CPs back to that in swoop.
That helps, although I'm not quite there yet.
Is there some way to see how much weight each bone applies to a particular CP? And are the colors blended in the color-coding when multiple bones affect a CP?
The description I'm reading of the fall-off envelope says that the points in the inner fall-off envelope of a bone are completely controlled by the bone, and the points between the inner and outer envelopes are regions of shared control.
But what happens if two different bones' inner envelopes overlap (if that's possible)? And what happens in the regions that are outside all envelopes? I'm not sure I yet have a good description of how the fall-off envelopes operate.
Unless maybe those envelopes are just visual approximations of the control, since I see the property "Falloff Type" with the description "Cubic", which makes me think now that the field of influence of a bone is infinite, not only within a sharp boundary.
-SB
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Following chapter 3 of "A:M A Complete Guide" by David Rogers, I'm rigging my flour sack with bones and assigning CP Weights.
When I turned on "Has Falloff" to the bones, all the numbers assumed some default values, for example: Pivot Outer 35%, etc.
As instructed by the book, I used "Compute All CP Weights" from the model window contextual menu.
However, I don't know what effect that is supposed to make. I don't see any changes in the "Falloff" numbers, for example.
I tried "Remove All CP Weights", and likewise don't see any change anywhere, either in the property values or the coloration in Shaded mode. The Shaded mode coloration seems normal, with colors of CPs assigned to nearby bones, but I don't see changes when I "Compute All" or "Remove All" CP weights.
Can someone clarify how that works?
-SB
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Here's one I did for my Alien that may help.
Thanks very much -- I'll look at that. (hopefully I can open it in one of my AM versions).
-SB
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After working some on my "flour sack" model, I saved the model, then decided to close A:M.
When I agreed to save the project, the error: "RPC Server unavailable".
Then when I went to close it again, it crashed.
Any configuration issues I should change? Or just one of those things?
-SB
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I see this popup error occasionally:
Error Loading String: -1
It seems most repeatable when I group-select some CPs and activate the "Scale Manipulator", and put the mouse over one of the CPs in the group.
I think it's harmless, just wondering if there is some configuration I should do; or maybe it's just a version 11 glitch.
-SB
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Thanks!
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Is there a keystroke to save the model in the model window? "Ctrl-S" seems to bring up the save project dialog.
I got spoiled working with a video-editing program called "Liquid Edition", one of whose virtues was "instantaneous auto-save" (as well as vast undos). If the program crashed (rarely), you just restarted, and all your work was there. It was amazing how much good will the program bought from that one auto-save feature. Don't know how they did it, I've never used another program that did.
-SB
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If you want to select every CP you can use the comma key to select everything on that particular spline or the slash key "/" to select every spline/CP connected to that spline.
I suppose a lot depends on what you mean by 'every'.
*** I note that you mentioned before that you had peaked all of your splines.
Note that you'll want to unpeak those splines (shortcut key O) or else you wont see all of the desired changes in the Bias for those splines. ***
Thanks, maybe peaking caused the problem -- although the peaked CPs still seemed to have all the bias parameters, and I could set them one-by-one. I just couldn't seem to set them en masse -- at least not all of them, some seemed to escape notice.
By "every", I meant the "ctrl-A" command -- does it select every CP in the window?
-SB
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Not sure if this is possible or makes sense, but I'm working on a beveled cube example from "A:M A Complete Guide", and I made a beveled cube with straight splines by setting peaking.
Now I want to slightly round the bevel, so I want to selectively set some gammas on the bevel splines.
But first, I want to set all the alphas to zero and all the magnitudes to 100% just for uniformity.
If I "select all" with ctrl-A and then set the bias properties for all, some of the biases on the model do not change, and are still odd-ball values.
Is this supposed to work, setting all at once?
-SB
It should... be sure to set Alpha, Gamma and Magnitude!
See you
*Fuchur*
Ok, I definitely cannot get this to work, but why I don't know.
When you use ctrl-A, does it really select every cp, or just the outer boundary CPs?
-SB
Animation Master license history question please
in Animation:Master
Posted
Every few years I take another stab at AM during the slow winter months using an old key disk version. I have the tin man disk (I think the one that updates to V14). However, I have lost track of the update files. Are they still archived somewhere by chance?