El-manchego

Thanks for your suggestions. I will try them today and let you all know how they go. Sounds like it's gonna work though. Love this forum for all the great help available! SMC

I set up a character (Eddie) to look like he is swimming under water by kicking his feet. I have three frames setup so that his feet look like they would be constantly moving. Eddie lives in a workd that is about 12 seconds long. The three keys I made for his feet kicking is about 24 frames long. Any suggestions to sorta "copy and Paste" the 3 keyframes to the animation line for the full 12 seconds? I'm only on TAOA:M lesson 6 and don't remember coming across this. Thanks all. SMC

If your camera is going to move - then using a layer (or a dome) is what you want. If the camera isn't going to move then using the image as a rotoscope works Check your option settings for the layer in the chor - you probably want it to be similar to what I'm showing: Flat shaded = ON , cast reflections = ON , cast shadows=OFF, receive shadows = OFF Round of applause for "The Great Nancy!" some of my settings that should have been off were on. Gotta run but did a quick render and it looked 200x's better!! Will check again later. THX!!

Hello, Don't think it's monitor calibration since the image in the background looks fine when it is not rendered (see image in above post). I'm using V. 15.0c I'm on a PC render settings are default. SMC

You're analysis was dead on, it was "normals". I only drag and dropped the image of the background into the window and inserted it as a "Layer". SOunds like this may be wrong? I've attached an image. As previously stated it looks fine when not rendered.

Hi, I added a background image (jpg), an underwater scene, to an animated fish I created. Some of you who have been assisting me may be aware of the fish. Anyway, every time I render the animated fish with the background the background image is washed out almost completly. This happens with every image I add not just the under water one. I tried removing all the lights to figure out which light was the problem but even with NO LIGHTS it comes back as washed out. Any ideas or suggestions. I really am stuck. THX all. 4 got to add that my modeled fish is lookin like it's got lights beaming out of it in wireframe mode. What's that about? See atached.

If the CPs aren't sticking to the bones you missed something. You dont' mention that you tested it in an "action" (putting it in a choreography will work too). FlowerPower mentions this at the bottom of the page "Assigning control point to bones" and just before it discusses Smartskin. The CPs won't stick to the bones in the modeling window, because if they did it would be impossible to change the position of a bone in relation to the mesh without haveing to reassign them to some other bone first. Guys, I believe I have the Bones issue ironed out and the fish animating (swimming). When viewed in different angles I can see where I could improve but it would require a lot more work then what the project asks for. Not wanting it to look crappy, i'll redo the whole thing and make it look nice. Thanks for everyone's help, links and patience. I'm going to go over all of the demos you've all posted and post my FINAL version when I get better at animating, modeling, etc. SMC Fish_Swim.mov

Who said that? Who said to use "deformers"? Thanks for all the great suggestions. I did start with looking at the Bones tutorial. I understand Bones from my days on Maya 4. I tried to "bone" the fish (ok, no Bevis and Butt Head jokes) but it's almost like the bone isn't sticking to the fish. I followed the "Flower tutorial to the T but the bones move independant of the fish. Also, thx for the suggestion on Distortion Mode. I'll check it out too. the person who told me to use "Deformers" was an instructor for a class I'm taking. A:M is just one of the 3 softwares he supports for the class so maybe he confussed a common term used in another software with something similar in A:M? I'll try it again with Bones and distortion... Any feed back for the bones problem is appreciated. SMC

Hello All. Really newbie question here. I've modeled a fish and am supposed to animate it useing deformers. I've done a serach on the TechRef. PDF and can't find anything that'll show me how to use deformers. I've searched this site and have only found people talking about them but not how to use 'em. Any toots out there? If you need more info let me know. Thanks. SMC

Looks like I got it.. Thanks guys for the prompt response and assistance. SMC

Never mind... I think I got it, "Arrow with the + sign" no?

Danke and Merci Glenn and Robert. I understand the concept of what you are both showing me, I use to use Maya and C4D as a novice, but I can't find the tools in A:M to: 1) Connect the matching (opposing) CP's. THX again. Tschuss, Sal

Hello Group. First point here and first time using this software. I am trying to close the Points on a tail for a Fish that I modeled (see photo) but can't. Not sure if 5 points applies to this or not. Thx in advance for the assistance. Sal