Maka

Thanks so much John, It's great ! I really appreciate you taking the time to do that, it's definitely getting really close to what I'm hoping to achieve. As always, this forum is terrific !

Nancy, that's great. I think that's the right direction. Thanks so much, I really appreciate your time.

Thanks so much for the input. I'll try a few more things and get back with the results.

Hi, Thanks for your replies. Screen shot 1 is the wireframe. Screen shot 2 is where I am now. Screen shot 3 is more of what I'm hoping to have.

Hi All, I've been trying to create a dimension rounded bump on the surface of a globe. Using the library materials, I'm getting either spikes or rectangular protrusions, but not a smooth rounded look. It would also be wonderful to have some size variation in the bumps. What is the best way to approach this ? Thanks for any suggestions.

Thanks Rob for that tip. I have an " eye " beside distort following the example you sent, but it is not allowing me to change it. When I click on the " eye ", the 3 icons for " bounding box ", "vector " and "curve " show up rather than the normal " x " that you get when you're hiding something. Can you tell what I'm not doing right ? Thanks.

You're a genius. That was it. I was in shaded/ wireframe mode and as soon as I switched to shaded, the problem went away. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Bummer, yeah, it's in the choreography with pose sliders. Oh well, if I happen to stumble into something, I'll let you know. Thanks

Hi Everyone, Thanks for all the input. Nancy, you have it on the nose. That's what I'm experiencing. The problem I'm having is that I'm smack in the middle of a choreography, used 3 distortions in the choreography around the head area of the characters, and am having problems seeing through the distortion boxes to finish animating the expressions. Any thoughts ?

Hi, A real quick question. Is there a way to hide the distortion boxes from the modeling screen after you finish using them ? Thanks for the help.

Again, thank you all so much. This is GREAT information. Robert, thanks so much for going into the detail on the " Bake ". I couldn't figure out how to specify a quality factor. I'm going to give that a try before I continue with the remove, redo thing. I'll let you know how I fare. Also the Shift Q is fabulous, I've been rendering everything to verify what was working. This will be soooo much faster and easier. One quick question on " Bake "- Is it possible to bake a specified potion of a model, or is it an all or nothing thing ? Gerry, thanks for the info on the normals. I'll definitely be checking for that in all future work. And believe me, I know now what a wonderful support group this is, and hopefully thanks to all of you, I can keep what's left of my hair. Nancy, I can't wait to give your information a try. This sounds like exactly what I need to do when I finish the back. Question - The front of this model is the upper portion of a mountain that is part of a scenic photograph that sits directly behind it, so matching the appearance between the model and the photo is crucial. That is the reason there are so many decals. When you are doing that kind of matching, would the Bitmap Plus be workable, or is it better suited for the applications that don't need specific placements ? THANK YOU, THANK YOU

Thanks Rob, That's just the top, it's been quite a time consuming project. I actually have boulders across it as well. I tried the " Bake ' and eliminated the decals, and after rendering the blasted brown patch was gone, however the quality of the appearance was greatly reduced. So I'm still searching. If you happen to think of anything else, I'd love to hear about it. All the Best. Well I found a solution. I eliminated all the decals in the problem areas and then came back over it with new decals. A couple of areas are still giving me problems, but for the most part it's working. Would still be interested to see if there was an easier option though. Thanks again.

Thanks again Rob, I'll be working on it tonight. I'll let you know how it goes. All the Best.

You guys are the best ! Rob, yes, the solid brown patch that you show in the Q render is what I've been getting no matter what setting I used. I've not been able to figure out why this section would be any different than any other. I have a few other small areas in another part of the mountain that are doing the same thing, but not near the scale of this one. Please forgive any stupid questions I may be asking as I'm still fairly new to the animation field. First question is - What is a Shift - Q render ? The result you are showing is what it should look like. Second question - It sounds like you would recommend to " Bake Surface ", is that correct ? Gerry, how did you get the front side to render properly ? The back of the model is incomplete at this time as it isn't being used for the particular choreography I'm working on. So I'm just trying to make sure the front renders correctly. Thank you both again for taking the time to help with this. I've been pulling my hair out. It's really wonderful to have this forum.

Sorry, those other decals are on the lower section of the mountain, so I didn't think they were relevant, but there is an attachment area that is part of the model file that was downloaded, so it obviously had a large impact. The foliage files are out of the Hash CD library, and should not affect the issue, and the MP logo is a separate piece that also shouldn't have an impact, but please let me know if you need them anyway. Thanks again. Decals.zip