danf

Thanks a ton guys! I did apparently mean character more than rig. Also, robcat, you had some good questions, and you're probably right that these are urban myth. The important part was definitely the notion that some models display action more clearly than others. I'm particularly concerned with a character's rig right now because I had a little bit of a nightmare on my last project, (no offense to the creator, I probably wasn't using it right) with the Clown model. There HAS to be a way to turn off IK for some things, but I ignorantly didn't look for one and so I did some pretty crazy things to achieve the positions I ended up using.

I met an animation major, and she was saying how on job application reels, it's best to use a minimalistic "rig" rather than a fully fleshed character. She also said some people will throw away a tape just because of the rig they see used. So my question is, what's a good pre-made rig for A:M to practice animating, not modeling? Mind you I do own the bonus models DVD, so those are fair game for recommendations.

Hey everyone! Long time no visit. I was starting to toy around with A:M again, and I wanted to make my own character this time, but had a question: I wanted to make the general shape of my character first, and then gradually add detail to it. Is there an easy way to say, "add spline down shape, between the two existing splines running in this direction"? That'd be really great.

I was able to import an image sequence to a:m on a mac in this way: Get the sequence into QuickTime pro (import either image sequence or movie) then export as a targa sequence. The catch that surprised me was to import the sequence, you go to the PwS and right click the... What is one of the top folders, with all imported images in it, (I'm on my phone) and you select import anmination/ image seq, but only need to select the first image of the sequence. If this helps, thank rob cat for being awesome and remembering I went through this.

I was able to do all of this except the shadow buffer... I found a "light buffer" option in the render options, but no shadow buffer. Is there anywhere else I should be looking? Could this be a Mac version difference?

Shadow of the ball. If it looks like it's there in that first shot that's a deception. When making contact the lack of shadow is the most conspicuous.

I know there's been a lot of alpha channel talk lately, but I don't think this has been touched on- I'm using a .TGA sequence to rotoscope a 3D element into my real footage. One problem is the shadows. While I've read tutorials that suggested making objects that match those in the scene, and then project the same decal from your main camera onto those, I think having a live actor in the shot makes this more complicated. What would be ideal to me as compositor, would be a way to export the ball and some darkness under itself softened by another alpha layer. In my mind the way to do that would be to make the surfaces that receive shadows, and then tell it to render with alpha, but to exclude the surfaces, while including their shading. That sounds partly impossible while I say it, so it might not be the right way, but if anyone knows how to solve this problem in any way, I'd be interested to hear how.

So I watched a demo 34 minute tutorial by Jeff Lew on his website, and I was struck by how fluidly he is able to manipulate his models. When animating, I've never had the option of creating poses as quickly as he does, because my refresh rate is so much slower. I've got a 1 year old iMac Core2 Duo, with an ATI RadeonHD2400, and I thought that made my experience good. But now that I've glimpsed the other side, I'm just wondering if I'm missing some drivers or something, because he made this video SIX YEARS AGO, and he's putting my animating experience to shame. Thoughts? I mean, I have a second monitor, but when posing I'm largely moving my wrist a tiny bit and waiting to see what that looks like. Even when turned to draft mode, although it doesn't look like his is. Any ideas of what kind of setup makes for the smoothest posing experience?

No bones, but heyvern's magic button did the trick!

I've been experimenting with the bouncing ball, and I've just finished texture mapping my soccer ball (previously using a mono-toned ball), officially entering the realm where the object's rotation actually matters. The problem I hit pretty quickly is that if a ball rolls let's say just 45 degrees before being lifted, in order to simply raise it, instead of holding 2 and dragging it, I have to alternate between two directions, or enter a perfect side view- and the latter only works if the ball has a pretty direct trajectory, and makes it hard to line up with my rotoscope. There has to be an easier way- to rotate the ball, while keeping the translation angles pointing in consistent directions. But how??

I partly suspect it could be an issue w/ A:M recognizing video codecs. Are there any codecs that are reliable to import, or do I have to create a huge Targa sequence every time I want a video roto?

So the ICARUS and ICAM are awesome, and I've started to try out a test shot. I suspect the problem I've hit is mac version specific. After I drag the imported movie onto my Camera-1 Shortcut, instead of the footage becoming the background for the camera, the camera background turns black, and other parts of the interface are turned into my imported movie: If I can't see the footage, there's no way I can objects up on it, let alone correct the aspect ratio... Does anyone have experience with the mac version enough to know how to make a rotoscope movie play correctly?

Hmm... I'm thinking I might save a couple hundred bucks by modeling marking lines that I line up with specific objects, then move the camera to keep them all consistent.

Yeah, somehow that one passed me by, I'll have to still keep my eyes open despite having the curves editor And of course, thinning for stretch and thickening for squash. One extra question- You noticed that I translated the ball slightly under the ground to simulate the bottom of the ball's squash- do you usually deform the ball on a model level to achieve that effect?

If I have video footage that involves motion, let's say a pan, and I want to apply this video as the background to my main A:M camera (for the sake of putting things in the right place), is there a way to automate this camera's movement to match the original camera's, so that the scene stays stationary while the camera has a pan?

Alright, I think you're correct in saying the wall-bounce doesn't deteriorate the x velocity as much as a floor bounce deteriorates the y, but I don't know why, and I feel like I need to know what the real math here is. I'll ask my math buddy.

Thanks a ton for the notes! One decision I made, which you point out, and I think is worth discussing, is the way a ball bounces off a wall when hitting at its apex. My reasoning was the "Coefficient of Restitution" would apply to the wall in much the same way it does to a floor, only instead of bouncing X% lower, it would bounce only X% as far out as it came from. Keep in mind this was not some mathematical decision I'm not playing some trump card, this was my offhand logic, so I could be applying the principle wrong. If the bounce-back isn't the same as the CR, what is the principle balls follow? Actually I think I'm going to do some trials. I'll get back to you.

That's incredible, Nimblepix! You're my hero! Now to scuff this thing up...

That taught me a lot about how alpha channels work. BTW- I could save a lot of time if there were a way to rotate a decal that I'm applying, while in the applying mode. Is there such a way?

Nope, 32 bit didn't do it either. I'll mess with it later, thanks for the ideas.

That could well be it, I did 24 bit- off to try!

After very carefully placing the second decal, I realized that my targa file somehow did not keep the transparency mask I made for it in photoshop, so the "transparent" mapped white over my previous decal. I have a feeling the answer might lie in the "spherical" decal application method, but since I don't know how that works, I figure it can be part of the same question if it's the answer.

Right after I posted it my girlfriend also noticed that- earlier I wasn't sure if the stretch was meant to be motion-blur or the ball actually mis-shaping. I did however get this concept right on the final landing, I'm proud of that! Sorry I didn't reply sooner, I was out playing soccer . PS. Speaking of soccer, I was thinking a fun short would be me and some buddies playing soccer when the ball starts running/bouncing away. It'd be a real challenge in modeling the ball, animating its motion, and compositing it into reality. Now I'm going to try out making a soccer ball. Let's hope a texture map is sufficient to convey its texture!

Okay, I made one that bounces itself! Critique? Next assignment? Booya!

Right, that's what I meant when I mis-said: "It probably helps that the curve editor grabs all the keyframes and pulls them down with it, " by "keyframes" I meant "non-keyframed inbetweens." Can you see a problem in the acceleration in the video, or was it just my mis-speaking that told you something was wrong?