markw

Maybe..., possibly if you were saving a backup to the same folder as your normal saves were going to, you opened the "wrong" folder as it were and found the backup instead of what you were expecting. Here are the settings I was using last night and all worked well. Is the Backup path to the default folder in this screenshot the same path as yours?

That's an interesting idea of Nancey's. I've never used the Backup feature before myself, so I've had it running tonight to see what happens on my Mac. So far everything is still saving as it should. As I've never used the feature before I took a screen shot of what I must assume to be its default settings. As you see it has its own dedicated Backup folder that it saves to. Is this how yours looks Simon? I'll also note that the Backups produced have a similar folder structure to those made when choosing to consolidate a project.

Hay, good to see you back. That's looking sharp!

Hi jimd, at the risk of repeating myself, that's strange too! Like in Simons original post, this is also odd behaviour I'm just not seeing on my Mac. Have you tried a reset of A:M? All my Saves and Opens behave exactly as expected, no matter how many asset folders things are kept in. True, if I move/change something when A:M isn't looking it will need to be pointed in the right direction to find it again but if I then Save any time after that A:M always knows where to look the next time. For the record, I only have one issue in A:M at the moment (which I have reported to Steffen), and that is with Materials not displaying quite right in an on screen render with MultiPass = Off.

Strange… In your screen shot, starting with the folder named 'Macintosh HD' and going on to and including the 'Porcelain.mat', all of that is the kind of folder/file structure I would expect to see automatically created IF and only IF I had chosen in A:M the following; Project > 'Consolidate…' > 'Project as text file (*.PRJ)…' and my chosen destination for this consolidation had been the folder; RB17_1364713501 If its doing this every time you choose; File > 'Save Project' or 'Save Project As…' then something is not right. Maybe try resetting A:M?

So there's going to be more lightning you say later. Better make sure I'm properly earthed! Of those last two tests, I think I prefer No:4. May be a bit more yellow in it at the start just after the strike?

To have the last Project load at startup Simon, you will need to set that in A:M's preferences window. As to saving Projects, I'm afraid I don't quite follow what you are saying there, sorry? If I have a new Project and I save it, I get the normal save dialogue window to choose a name & location, and if I want, a new folder for it in my chosen location. A:M will then save just the .prj file as instructed. Next time I save that same project it will still be just the project file on its own in the same location.

Hi Simon, I've not been on the forum of late but if you don't mind I have some thoughts on S12. As always do feel free to ignore my ramblings ! So, although its a cartoon, a little bit of real physics might help sell the action! The rock should be at its hottest, therefore brightest immediately after the lightning strikes and continue to loose heat as it cools unless more energy is put back in. At the moment you have effectively 1 lightning strike at the start but the rock seems to heat up again during the course of the action, which to me looks a little odd as is. As this scene is 6 seconds I think you have time to get another lightning strike in to account for this and it might also emphasise how much energy is heating the rock as he hops about getting closer to the edge. (I took the liberty of making a little story board!)

Happy Birthday !

BUMP I'm finding this old/new feature very useful at the moment so just thought I'd draw others attention to it once more lest it fall into obscurity again!

Yes, Happy Birthday And thanks for all your rigging efforts, much appreciated

Speed trap Its only one frame, not even animated and it still made me laugh!

And yet again another one nailed! Good stuff

On PC when you are in the model window go to menu: window/new window (alt+W) then change the view in the new window Well that was embarrassingly easy! Thanks Nancy After all this time I never found it! Its fun to discover some new 'how to...' in A:M!

Ah, you 'ed on the model in the PWS to get your rotoscopes. By default with this method A:M will put it in the 'Front View'. You can change it by going to it in the PWS and opening its properties and change 'View'. This throw me too the first time I encountered it! I always choose in the Modeling window now. I'm not sure you can have separate views in separate modeling windows of the same model. Least I'v never found a way.

Ooo, thats going back a bit,1979! and yes a terrific play written by someone that new the value of story and characters over eye candy. As for your story and character, I'm ready for S11 now!

That's definitely helped define sky from land now! I've taken the liberty of messing with that last clip. Here are two screenshots from it. One is as is and the other is with a slightly purple tint to the mountains to define them better. What do you think?

Hi Simon, I think I would have to agree with your brother on that one. Maybe a more purplish shade for them? Not knowing anything about the context of the shot, but the large amount of blue at the top bothers me as well. Maybe consider moving the cloud layer/s up to cover/fill it. By raising them up it would also help distinguish cloud from mountain at the bottom of the shot.

You need to go to 'Window' in the tool bar and then choose your desired properties window. QT 7 offers a surprising amount of tinkering possibilities over the newer QT X. But QT X lets you make screen recordings with sound!

If I may; attached here Nancey is a screen grab from the large "faulty" clip Simon posted. Why it looks like this on our Macs and not to you on a PC has me stumped but for us a quick run through re-compressing in QT or HandBrake and it comes out looking as it should and did look when it was still in A:M. Not totally sure but yes I think "Apple Intermediate Codec" is a Mac thing most likely, for use with their editing software. Incidentally I just counted 67 movie compression options for rendering out a movie from A:M! I think it must have access to whatever has been installed on the system by other video software.

Yes, something happens in the converting, probably not down to what app dose it, just that it needs to get converted for some reason. I've used HandBrake for a long time now to convert things to H.264. Yes its free, you can download it here; http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php By default, if memory serves, first time out it will want to add file extensions of .mv4 which I think is primarily for mobile devises and may give you playback/uploading to A:M issues. Just change that to .mp4 in the Save dialog box for more universal playback.

Yes that's certainly odd on the Low-res version. I have vague memories of this happening to me once. I think it is something to do with the output codecs used. I see the Low-res one is using 'Animation' as its codecs which I think is the reason but to be honest I'm not sure. Any way, now the weird bit. If you put your Low-res file through HandBreak and convert it to H.264, it comes out looking as it should! as you can see below. And its a much, much smaller file size. My "go to" movie output from A:M would be 'Apple Intermediate Codecs' as it plays nicely with FCE 4 or the old iMovie HD for something quick (I really don't like the new iMovie) and then when finished editing, output as H.264 or uncompressed and use HandBreak to turn it into H.264. S9_Clouds_Low_res_After_HandBreak.mp4

That's a much better pass around the figure this time. By the way I've only just noticed a huge typo in my above post on using a Null as a pivot. I've amended it now but hope it didn't confuse you when you then looked at the project file!

As Rodney says time for you to get to work. You're working for us now! So glad this is happening for you

As a fellow laptop user also living in what can be a very hot and dusty part of the world this is my biggest fear. Every spring I open mine up and clean out the fans and heat exchangers before the hot weather kicks in. Fingers crossed for you...