Timothy

I have noticed that in some of the tutorials I have watched, and also when I look down in one of the channel views I sometimes see a "W", as in "Transform.Rotate.W". What does that mean please?

Oddly enough... there is. Yes, I found that page yesterday and bookmarked it. Dude ! Yer awesome!!

My goal is to roll it all up into one video, rather than the feature length ordeal it is now. Based on several people's comments I'm beginning to think you could watch them in any order and it wouldnt' be until the third that you got to that "Aha!" moment. I think that's because we learn best through context. What I mean is: if someone were to say they were angry because someone else laughed in their presence - you would have to find out the context - was that person making fun of them or not ? before you could understand if the laughter was misplaced or if the listener misunderstood their meaning for the laughter. Context is everything, and when it comes to learning a technical skill like this, the brain has to learn the meaning of symbols used on the layout before they can learn their appropriate usage. Since symbolic understanding is context independent (usually) the left and right hemispheres of the brain may never really "get" the full connection and how to use a thing until they can see a practical usage for it, through example. In your two videos and the one diagram you address the issue of filtered selections and copy/paste methods from three different angles.. 1) The first video is very left brain-ish, in that it demonstrates the rules and quirks mostly. 2) The diagram suggests a practical approach to usage - but in the abstract only - think of it as a lubricant preparing the way for "understanding". 3) And then the second video gives the knowledge meaning and a real world context - giving rise to the "Ahh Haa". I don't think it is possible to teach this information in one sitting to tell the truth - because at first you introduce a foreign idea; and this creates a need, a vacuum for context - it's that lack of meaning that sets up the student for the next stage; the "getting it (at last)" stage. So, you need to create the need before you can fill it. I have struggled with this paradox (as an instructor) for a lifetime, and have come to the conclusion that simply informing someone that they will need "this" or "that" information, and then proceeding to give them the info, before establishing the context - in a visceral way (for them) - always results in poor retention. And to make it visceral, it has to satisfy a need; a need which fills a vacuum. I think this three tiered approach, though messy-er than a single (movie : consolidated) teaching method is actually a better and more natural way to learn for most of us. Those are my twenty cents on it anyway.

Before watching this tutorial I watched "Keyframing explained maybe" followed by "Keyframing options diagrammed". Those were perfect - made even better (with much clarification as to why one would want to know this in the first place) by this third tutorial. I think the hardest thing to get across when teaching a thing is not just how to do something, but WHY one would ever need to know it - context is really everything. While the first two tutorials were precise and informative, I have to admit that I was left wondering when I would need to know and actually use those selection techniques in a real world situation; and this last video provided that missing part for me. Nice work Robcat - thank you.

Robcat, For me - I liked the pace a lot. Not too fast or too slow - it was paced just right. You were methodical and you repeated things that were needing special emphasis, but never droll. Good work. More of the same please :-)

So I was reading over MMZ TimeLord's description on how he set up his render farm - and he mentions needing at least one "Network Version" of A:M. There's nothing listed as a network version on the main A:M website. 1. Does anyone know about this? 2. Is it still available? 3. How much does it cost? 4. What platform(s) does it support?

Personally, my iMac has 2 - but I think the answer is "as many as we can muster up". That's why I'm interested, so we can figure out what we need, and then start a'gettin.

I have searched on "render farm" in this forum, but could not find any postings on this topic. I assume many users would be interested in this - perhaps there is already a posting on this network rendering, if so, how can I find it here? Here's what I wanted to know.. 1) Is there a built in network rendering capability so that I could assign the rendering to other machines in my network? 2) What external render tools exist that are compatible with A:M? 3) What platform(s) are supported in network rendering? 4) What Mac specific hardware requirements are there for network rendering. 5) How many seat are included - assuming there is a network renderer? I am sorry to ask such a basic set of questions, but I couldn't find it here. Thanks. Oh, one other thing - after posting this message I continued to dig through this Forum, and eventually found mention of something called NetRender. I wonder if this is the same NetRender offered through MAXON? It looks like this was at one time bundled with earlier versions of A:M - correct? Is this the only, or best recommendation for an external distributed renderer that will work with A:M?