Ganthofer

I agree with Rooky Animator's suggestion to model the head and the handle separately. Mechanical and rigid objects that are not going to stretch and stretch to any large degree, will not benefit from making it all one continuous mesh. A hammer is normally made of 2 parts (except for the all metal ones that are cast), so the seam that will show where they join will actually make it look more real. If you prefer a solution for your existing model, then decals would be one. The other would be to add or rearrange splines to physically model the seam where the handle meets the head. As for the black areas, a screen snap of wireframe would better allow us to point out what the problem is.

If I understand your question, the problem you are having is with the 6 point openings in your shape? Well, here is my suggestion. I believe it will require adding 6 spline rings (not exactly rings, but rings as in closed rings).

OK, I was able to duplicate it in v14.0c and v13.0t It only appears to happen when the section of the spline you are attaching to, has one (or both) of it's CP's peaked. If you make your Rectangle from 4 seperate splines or Smooth (instead of Peaked) then this does not happen. I can't say that I've done much splining with Peaked Splines. It's easy to reproduce, so you should file a bug report.

Unless someone has a better Idea, I would recommend deleting the rig and re-rigging. I'm not a great rigger and limited in my knowledge of constraints. I would really recommend saving your Models at various stages of progress. Especially making changes to Models once they are rigged. If you have your model embedded in a Project file, then change it to unebbeded, save to a new location/name/number and then re-embed it. If you Have your file as a Model File (.mdl), then close the file you are working on, and in Windows (or Apple OS) use the file manager to copy the MDL (and all its maps, materials etc...) to another folder with a discriptive name (and maybe date). Glenn

I don't know that I can help you there. Do you have a backup of the Model from before the problem occurred? If not, I would recommend you save a backup of it now and then check the relationships. If the message is accurate, the it should be called Relationship 1, it is a Translate to ( not a scale or a Rotate....) and the object of the translate to is "balance point". Sounds like part of a standard Rig. What rig are you using? 2001, TSM, the rig from TWO? Glenn

My guess is, it is a constraint problem. Did you rig the model? Did you add any constraints, specifically to the "hips"? Circularity usually indicactes that one thing is based on another, but the other is based on the one thing. Making it circular. Since this would make any change in one result in a never ending change. Not the most clear and probably not the most accurate explanation, but it's my best at the moment. Glenn

Exporting a model with displacement map as any of the export formats bakes the displament into the geometry in v15 alpha. Didn't try the older versions. Of course the results will vary, depending on how well your mesh exports and imports. Glenn

He's using V13.0t

Looks good. The straight path is a little distracting (maybe it needs just a little arc to it IMHO), but I think the Lamp post needs to flex a little bit on impact. Just my 2 cents Glenn

Here is the way I understand the Libraries work: Under Options>Folders>Show folders for:Libraries(lbr files), the path displayed (i.e. /Applications/Animation Master 13.0/Data/Libraries), A:M expects to find a file (or files) with the extension .lbr. The name of this (these) files is what is displayed in the Library Drop down in A:M (i.e. Hash CD Libraries...). Usually these lbr files use relative paths inside "FileName=../Models/Actors/KeeKat/KeeKat.mdl". The .. indicate that the actual path to this would be (using the example above) "/Applications/Animation Master 13.0/Data/Models/Actors/KeeKat/KeeKat.mdl". In your pics, the folder structure should look something like below. The underlined would be the default libraries that are loaded when you install the application. You will have is Post Effects and Tutorials, and it should show as "Hash Installed Library" as the lbr file is named that in the Library folder. Or if you installed the data from the CD at installation time, I believe the lbr file will be Hash CD Library Hope this makes some sense. -Applications -----Animation Master 13.0 ----------Actions ----------Choreographies ----------Data ---------------Actions ---------------Choreographies ---------------Images ---------------Libraries --------------------Hash CD Library.lbr ---------------Materials ---------------Models ---------------Post Effects ---------------Projects ---------------Sound Effects ---------------Tutorials ----------Extra's CD ---------------Actions ---------------Choreographies ---------------Images ---------------Libraries --------------------AM Extras CD Vol1.lbr ---------------Materials ---------------Models ---------------Post Effects ---------------Projects ---------------Sound Effects ---------------Tutorials ----------Images ----------Libraries ----------Materials ----------Models ----------My Data ---------------Actions ---------------Choreographies ---------------Images ---------------Libraries --------------------My Library.lbr ---------------Materials ---------------Models ---------------Post Effects ---------------Projects ---------------Sound Effects ---------------Tutorials ----------Post Effects ----------Projects ----------Sound Effects ----------Tutorials

In case you haven't closed A:M and opened it back up again, this always seems to be needed when adding libraries, as it appears these only get read at startup. If you have done that and they still don't show, can you show us a screen cap of "Options>Folders>Show folders for:Libraries (lbr files)" ?

I second Will's suggestion. I have seen this problem (CP's getting stuck in the other mesh) when moving an object (deflector ) too fast or the mesh was not dense enough.

Just my 2 cents here. I would run it once with the skirt (no cape or hair), then make the skirt a deflector and run it with the cape (no hair) , the run it with the Hair ( with the skirt and the cape already keyed ). I think this would be best, although you obviously have to run 2 cloth sims, but since there really wouldn't be much interaction between the skirt and the cape it should work and the cape will drape itself over the skirt. Of course, you would need to get the skirt animated the way you want it before running the sim on the cape. Oh, and by the way, very nice cloth skirt movement. The model is moving a little jerky though. Glenn

I experimented a while back with Cloth and you might want to try making some denser meshes in the problem areas. I found that I could use the denser mesh during the simulation and switch to the normal mesh during rendering. If you don't want to have 2 versions of your model, you could create some mesh shields and constrain them to the legs and remove or hide them when you render. Just some ideas that you might find useful. Glenn

The answer to your question is no. You can find the file types that can be rendered when you go to: Render to File Settings>Output>Format There you will find what your version of A:M supports. If what you want is .gif in the end, might I suggest rendering to TGA, PNG or BMP and using something like Irfanview (Freeware) to batch convert to GIF. Glenn

First, let me state for the record, I am not a rigging expert and I don't pretend to be. OK. Link to Useful Links in the Forum The "Show some backbone" tutorial can be some what daunting but doable. The problem I found, was that after doing it, I still didn't really know much about rigging. Of course that is because it's not really intended to teach you about rigging or bones, only how to install the pre-existing rig. The one bone that you see when you switch to bones mode on a newly created model is the root bone. It is there by default and all CP's and bones will move with it (but not in the modeling window!!!). To add bones, you must select the little icon (upper right by default I believe- arrow with the +) similar to the one you use to add CP's to a model. place cursor and click right button down to place the start of the bone and move to where the end of the bone should be and release the button. In the PWS you will see the named bone appear and it is here that you control the hierarchy of the bones (which bones are parented to which bone). Now, you may have bones, but one of the CP's are attached to any of the bones (all CP's are attached to the root bone be default). If you click on a bone (it highlites and flashes) and the select a CP (or CP's left click and drag the box around one or more CP's) you will notice that the color of the CP changes to the color of the selected bone. These are just the VERY BASICS. If you then open a new action with this model or drop the model in a Chor, you will see the CP's move as you move the bones Good luck and if you get stuck, please be as specif as possible with your question (this question was really broad) and you will get more precise answers. There are also a lot of resources on the forum if you do a little searching. Glenn

Are you doing this in the PWS under the Models Folder? Right Click (Windows PC) on the Model name (Default model names are Model1 ... Model99). You should get the choice of: Delete Rename (unless it's not an embedded Model) Edit Save (only if there is an unsaved change and model not embedded) Save As... What do you get?

OK, need a little clarification first. -If you render a Frame, say to a TGA file, is it OK or does it have the distortion? -The image you attached is captured from the AVI file you made? Assuming that the TGA render is OK and the attached image is from the AVI, my first guess would be Compression Artifact from the Codec you are using to make the AVI. There are many Codec's and each has it's strengths and weaknesses. For the BEST quality there are Uncompressed Codecs, but the files end up being too large in most cases. You would however, want to use this type if you were planning on editing or manipulating the AVI in some kind of post processing, because you will end up with more distortion/artifacts after processing. Many Codecs also have parameters that can be set to help control the Quality versus Size. I'm not an expert on what Codec or what parameter settings to use, there have been a number of posts with suggestions. Here is one such post The best Codec for simple animations...

Here is my explanation of what is causing the black patches. besides having some flipped normals, the basic cause is that a number of CP's have their magnitude set to 0. This is similar to setting the Spline to Peaked, but has the side effect of warping it's orientation. You should leave the Mag at 100% and Peak these splines. this gets rid of the Black patches. Also the 4 point circular rings have their magnitude set to 250, normal would be 167.39% unless you are not trying for circles. You may have done this to compensate for the side effect 0 Mag on the intersecting spline. Keep practicing

Nice visualization. But I think you would need more variation in the surface (depth wise) to really hide the design. The steps are too repetitious and close together. But, good luck.

I believe you left one important piece of information out, when do you want the finished product? It is possible to do what you are contemplating. How quickly you and/or your artist learn A:M (modeling, texturing, rigging and animating) is the big unknown. Some people pick it up quickly and some slowly. Some people are good all around and some struggle with certain aspects of the process. The A:M community is a great resource, so I doubt you'll be with out assistance if you ask. My 2 cents Glenn

Check out the Engine Finish MOV, I think this is what you are looking for Normal Maps Glenn

If you're willing to spend or have a little cash, 3DPainter is IMHO a marvelous program to aid in painting/decaling models in A:M. 3DPainter and talk in the forum http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=27511 Decaling/UVmapping/skinning is an Art in itself IMHO. Have you checked out Will Sutton's Tute http://www.zandoria.com/uv.htm checked out Vern's A:M Resource Matrix . Good Luck and keep at it Glenn

There have been some really nice images made with Hair. I'll see if I can find some. Try searching with "hair grass" (include the "" in the search string)

If I may add something here. While it is true, there is (no) OFF in the Decal settings, you can set the Percentage (below the Image Type setting) to 0 (zero) at the lowest level of the Decal images and the result is the Decal does not show. This may be helpful