Ralph

robcat2075 the information about gave me the information I needed to help me restore the missing preset icons. I simply copied the .pre files from a computer where all of the presets were still showing and replaced the .pre files on the computer where the icons were not displaying correctly. This did the trick. As far as the recommendations that I should just tell the students here is another way to do things... I wish it would be that easy. Unfortunately, many of the students I am working with have very weak reading skills, don't follow written instructions very well (even when I include a lot of screen capture images in my handouts), and I am currently supporting the lessons using Hash's video tutorials. I have also recorded the text in audio files so students can just listen as I read the step-by-step instructions to them. Did I mention some of the students have short attention spans. After 9 weeks, some students are still getting confused about how to navigate to their network folders so they can save their files correctly. :-( This is by no means a description of all of my students, but in U.S. public education the philosophy currently is "No child left behind" and if the student doesn't get it... it is the teacher's fault. I do appreciate the recommendations several of you have made, but for the students I am working with and the wide range of abilities these students seem to have, my strategy has been to try and create really simple introductory tutorials that every student can do and then to make available more advanced tutorials for the students who have the interest, the ability to read, the ability to follow instructions, and can work independently. I will reserve the "try another way instructions" for these more advanced learners. Thanks everyone for your help and support.

They are stored as .pre files. On my computer they are in C:\Program Files (x86)\Hash Inc\V15.0\Presets Your path may be somewhat different but there must be a presets folder in your install somewhere. well, you've heard my opinion of the library... Get them to use regular file operations. Outside of TAoA:M references to the Library are exceedingly rare. There's always more than one way to do things and that concept would be a good lesson for them. Don't know the answer but that's better than getting that message before you want to quit. Robcat 2075: I have instructed my students to close the Library window and to import their models and actions from a folder they can easily access on the C:\ root directory of their computers. The students have been doing this without any real problems. I thank you for suggesting this approach! :-) Before the students start the hands-on activities I have been having them watch the (Hash) video tutorial for the lesson they are going to be working on. All of these videos show the models being dragged onto the Choreography window from the library window. This is the main reason I would like to figure out why the library window isn't working correctly. The video is showing one way to do things and now I am telling them to do things a different way. When I teach students starting out on new software, I usually like to have all my instructional materials to be in agreement as to procedures on how to do things. Otherwise, some students get confused. In regards to the rendering presets... The different preset files in the Presets folder have not been deleted. The icons in the Render settings dialog are what were deleted. What I am trying to figure out is how to restore the preset icons. The software must store information somewhere as to what icons are displayed in the Render settings dialog and I was wondering if there was a way to make it so my students couldn't go in and delete those icons. Again when the instructions tell the students to select the Final render icon and that icon is no longer there... 8th graders are not happy. When you have 20+ students in the room needing help all at the same time it is not a pretty picture. My goal is to try and avoid this situation. My class is set up so 1/3 of the class works in Animation Master, 1/3 works through introductory lessons in Photoshop, and another 1/3 of the class is working through tutorials using a CAD (architecture) program. The students cycle through these three areas. AM has been giving me the most trouble because it is too easy to alter the interface of the software and it does not reset itself when a student logs off the computer and another student logs on. Everyday when class starts, I don't know what my students are going to be looking at when they start up AM. What is going to be there and what isn't... that is the question. Thanks again for your support!

Thanks everyone for your recommendations! I made the folder containing my models a read only folder. I have instructed my students to Open the Project Workspace window and right-click on the top icon and select Embed All so that the student's models will be saved to the project file. Unfortunately, I have had some problems with students deleting a few of the Rendering presets (Final) on some of my computers and on another computer a student closed several of the toolbars. These are all things I can help them fix but it would really be nice if there was a way to set up Animation Master so it would always open to the default workspace and everything would be reset to the default settings every time they open the application. I have tried using the Help menu > Reset option. Reset does restore the toolbars, however it apparently does not restore the Rendering preset buttons (Final, Preview, Toon, Real-Time, etc.). Does anyone know how to restore the render preset icons easily without having to right-click on a preset in the Render to File Settings dialog and select duplicate and then edit the preset to the desired settings? Are these presets stored in a folder that I could make read only? When the written instructions the students are following say go here and click on this or that and those items are missing in the program it is a little frustrating. The majority of my computers are still not showing the Library window objects. I have also noticed that when students exit Animation Master they are getting a dialog stating that the program has quit working. The school's computers have many access and permission restrictions and I can't help but wonder if this is causing some/many of the problems I am having. Thanks again everyone for your help!

I want to thank all of you for your advice and for sharing your expertise as I try to teach myself along with my students how to use Animation Master (and figure out why my library window objects are not showing on any of my computers). As a technology teacher, I see a large number of students who (think) they want to become animators and/or game designers. The majority of these students don't really understand (especially in 8th grade) that playing games is one thing and creating games involves a lot more skills than knowing how to operate a joystick or move a mouse. I thought giving students a chance to experience creating 3D animation using Animation Master would be a great learning experience in my Technology Education classes and it would give me an opening to talk about careers and how animation is used for more than just creating games and to create movie special effects. (For example: Industrial animators, 3D medical animators, and Forensics animators). To introduce the basics, I am using many of the introductory tutorials available online and provided with Animation Master. Since I am working with 8th graders my objectives are pretty basic: - how to pose a premade model (Actor) and use the pose sliders - how to apply an action to a model - how to render an animation to create a movie - how to work with keyframes and create a short keyframe animation - how to make an animated object follow a path Since my students are not really doing anything very sophisticated, do you really think it is necessary to teach my students how to embed the models into the project file? I am trying to keep things pretty simple and I think it might be easier to simply renew the library files before each new group of students begins using the software. This way if a mdl file is altered or corrupted I will simply replace the entire library with a new copy before a new group of students starts work on the assigned lessons.

I think this is the problem in Your case , XP and Vista/Win7 having a different rights managment for accessing registry and also the program folder . The machine , where the error occurs is a vista machine ? I am running AM on both Vista and XP computers. As of Friday, none of my 10 seats of the software were showing any models, or actions in the library window. The library window is empty.

I want to make sure I understand what you are saying.... 1. A student opens Animation Master, starts a new project, and does File > New > Choreography window. 2. The student then imports one of the models from a shared folder I created on the hard drive containing many different models. 3. The student imports an action and applies it to the model or changes the pose on an Actor. 4. The student goes to the Project menu and does a Save As to save the prj file to their own network folder. 5. You are recommending that the student should also go to the File menu and do a Save As to save the model to their own network folder. < Is this correct? If the student only saves the project file and does not do a File menu > Save As... are you saying that the original model file stored in the shared library folder will be altered? I appreciate your advice on this... I obviously don't understand the connection between the models and the project file. I thought when you saved your work as a project file the model in that project was only an instance of the original model file and that changes to the instance would not affect the original. I thought the only way I could modify the original model was to open the model file, edit it and then save it using the File> Save menu option.

At this time , no . But You can change the library path , to do this . Yes Should be "A:M Installationdirectory"\Libraries for V16 Additional in V15 "Useraccount"\AppData\Roaming\Hash Inc\Libraries I assume here can be a problem occuring , if You are using a 64 bit windows and the 32bit Version from A:M , because the first entry is redirectet to a syswow32 directory, where only administrators have write access . Here I need to know which OS version (XP,vista or win7) , they have a different right managment for accessing the registry . Please open a bugreport , that we can communicate more direct . yoda64: Thank you for sharing your knowledge about this software! We are running Animation Master on Vista and XP computers. I am trying to find out what OS is running on our school's server... our network administrator has not responded to my email so I do not know if it is a 64 bit or 32. Once I know more about the server OS I will submit a bug report as you suggested. Thanks Again for your help!

You could test that by making an obvious alteration to a model on the server and see if the change is in the same named model when you load it on a student station. (Of course, you made a backup copy of this model before you changed it ) Or you could make a change on a student station ans see if that appears for anyone else. I'm going to guess that students do not all access the same location or they would be overwriting each other's work. If you on a models name in the Objects folder and do "Save As" you will get a stamdard Save dialog that shows the folder you are aimed at and investigating the path at the top should tell if it is local or reaching across the network. This adds a layer of uncertainty that I dont' know much about. I realize there are some tuts written that make explicit reference to the Library, but it really isn't necessary to use the Library to access any file for A:M. A:M can open and save files withe the same File>Open maneuvers that other programs do. Aside from the File menu you can on the Objects folder (in the PWS) to navigate to and import models, You can on the Images folder to import images, and so on for chors and just about any other asset that woudl appear in a folder in the PWS. You can on and "Save As" any asset that appears in the PWS also. I realize that may require a bit more PC smarts and focus than some 8th graders have, which may be why there's a Library, but standard computer folder navigation works in A:M. robcat2075: Thank you for your suggestion. On my school computers, the Programs folder is hidden so students can not see or access the Animation Master data folder. So what I ended up doing was to make a copy of the Data folder on the root C: drive (Which is visible) and then instructed my students to go to File > Import > AM_Libraries where they could select the model they wanted to import. This approach worked great and my students were able to work with through the tutorials without a problem! Thank you for suggesting this approach! I would still like to figure out how to get the library window to work correctly but importing models is a good temporary fix. Right-clicking on the model will also allow students to import an action and apply it directly to the model. So importing was the answer to fixing this problem as well. :-)

It appears that the education networked version of Animation Master is a different setup than a single seat version. My questions are: 1. Does the network version pull the library files off of the server? 2. Are the library files on the local computer used at all? If no.... Does it matter what is even in the Data folder on the local computer? 3. On the student computer, what should the Tools > Options> Files tab > Libraries paths be? 4. When the library files no longer show on the student computers what happened and how do you fix it so students can see them again? 5. Why is it when I log onto a student's computer the library files are visible and when a student logs onto the same computer they can't see any library files? I have two classes of 8th graders coming into my classroom tomorrow and I would really like to get this fixed. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the information! On my school computers, the Windows directory has many restrictions (students do not have full control) and I think the problem is that when a student is logged on, AM is restricted from writing to the registry file. So when I change the path in the Options menu the file is not being updated. I am not sure how the registry file got changed in the first place. :-( You have given me enough information that I think I can fix the problem. I will post later and let you know how I make out. Thanks again.

When AM launches the file path to Data > Libraries > is never correct. We have a ten seat network > education license. When I log on to the computer all the libraries show correctly. When any of my students log onto the computer, none of the libraries show. No Models, no Actions, no Materials, etc. When I go to the Options menu and check the path to the data > library file, the path is always wrong (when my students log on). The path is directed towards the Shaders directory. Note: This problem is only happening on one computer. My other 9 seats work fine. I have tried changing the path in the Tools > Options > Folders tab to point to the correct file path and then I create new shortcuts to the models I want to show in the library. However, when the student logs off the computer and then logs back on... All the library items are gone (again) and the path has changed back to looking in the Shaders directory. I have tried copying the 2 library files from a good working computer and used them to replace the 2 library files on the computer that does not work correctly. This did not fix the problem. What file does AM read that sets the initial file paths and tells AM where the libraries are located? If there is such a file, where is located? Is it a registry entry? Can a person go in and manual edit this file using Notepad? I would really appreciate any help in how I can resolve this problem.

Short answer, yes, but maybe not, depending on what you have done previously. The explanation is long to type out. In my signature there is a link to videos I have made. Watch the ones on "Keyframing" options. The "filters" you have selected have a lot to do with what gets keyframed. What's a "filter"? Watch that video. Thank you! Your video explanation really helped me understand what is going on.

When I watched the video tutorial for Exercise 5: It's a Pitch the narrator on the video ended up having trouble with bones moving that were not suppose to move. The narrator pointed out that whenever bones are not moved on a particular keyframe their position is not remembered at that keyframe. My question is... After manipulating some of the bones on a keyframe would it be a good idea to press the Force Keyframe button at the bottom of the screen if you wanted to make sure everything is anchored (or keyed)? Would forcing keyframes assign keys to all the bones regardless if they were moved or not?