Cybrknight

Thanks everyone. I think I am good to go.

in my experience this may take a while, usually a couple of days. That is crazy but thanks.

Is anyone in support today? I sent an email to support early today and nobody has gotten back to me yet.

I just saw some of your videos... I love your work. Thanks, but I think I am going Windows with Hash.

That is a known bug with a workaround... something like CMD + Q or CMD + C if I am not wrong. Anyway: Since Apple has changed much with the Maverik-Update, it is a little bit unknown what will happen in the future. If they leave many libraries behind (like they did with Maverick) it may become very hard to get A:M to work on the Mac any longer on OS 11.0 and above. The Windows-version is however working much better. See you *Fuchur* I just got a 1/yr subscription to A:M for Mac. I hope I will be allow to run it on windows instead. Yes you will be. Ask Jason (support[-a-t-]hash[-d-o-t-]com) if A:M will stop working (it is not said till now that it will happen), but again: Maverick has just recently been released, so you may have a year of the mac version too. See you *Fuchur* So I can just ask to change to over to PC version now? Is there a way to deactivate it from my Mac?

That is a known bug with a workaround... something like CMD + Q or CMD + C if I am not wrong. Anyway: Since Apple has changed much with the Maverik-Update, it is a little bit unknown what will happen in the future. If they leave many libraries behind (like they did with Maverick) it may become very hard to get A:M to work on the Mac any longer on OS 11.0 and above. The Windows-version is however working much better. See you *Fuchur* I just got a 1/yr subscription to A:M for Mac. I hope I will be allow to run it on windows instead.

I wonder how many people use the Mac version of A:M? A:M is turning out to be the best animation package I have ever used, but the interface is in desperate need of an update. First, I can't get the Mac version to work in a window; it just goes full-screen and hides the dock. This is a no-no in Mac Interface design. Second, I would prefer a darker GUI, and more eye pleasing icons. Third there is a big bug in the Mac Version. After the first time you use the Open/Save dialog, it becomes unusable. It just won't let you choose another folder or do anything else with the mouse. Clearly this is a great program, and probably very few people use the Mac version, so no big deal. Also, this is a new version and I suspect the team is working on a fix for the open/save dialog. I will probably just switch my version over to the PC version later in the year. Cheers, Steve

You can get sharp cubes too using the primitiv wizard. ( > plugins > wizards > primitiv). Since A:M is not really a boxmodeller but a spline/patchbased one. Like that primitives are not that important. The idea behind round edges is that these are harder to create and like this are more needed. See u *Fuchur* Thanks.

I was impressed to find some basic primitives like spheres and cubes. What I was surprised to find out was the cube objects had rounded corners. That isn't something your average modeler expects when initially creating a cube. I was wondering what the philosophy surrounding this is, so I could better understand the mind of a A:Mer. Thanks, Steve

One of the reasons we don't see a lot of A:M specific information for lighting is that lighting and rendering concepts largely apply across the board. If for instance you know how to light a scene in the real world it's easier to adapt those approaches to the digital world. Concepts of lighting in other software can be adapted as well. As there is an internet full of information available on rendering and lighting those areas tend to be set aside in favor of those areas that are not the same accross platforms and software; primary spline technology and how that can be best put to use. While there are endless resources in the lighting and rendering arena, the go to book on lighting and rendering is still Jeremy Brin's 'Digital Lighting and Rendering'. Keep an eye out for it and you can find some copies on the cheap, especially the earlier editions. Jeremy has some short and sweet articles on lighting and rendering that are must reads: http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2165641 Here are most of the articles your find via that link: Top Ten Tips for More Convincing Lighting and Rendering *Hot off the presses! (13 Dec 2013) Lighting Environments and Architecture in Animation (26 Nov 2013) How to Create Realistic 3D Shadows (18 Aug 2006) Lighting Your Imagery (Aug 2001) These articles are short... which makes them even more useful. Note that this last one has a tip that transformed my understanding of lighting and rendering and that is to... 'Start in Darkness'. While it may be useful to setup and test with default lighting in any given program you really want to get rid of the defaults and create your own for your final rendering. Having said that, A:M does provide a nice starting place with a three light setup. My advise however would be when going for the final image delete those default lights and start in darkness. Then start to consider where the 'real' light and heat and emotion is coming from in your scene's specific environment. Another tip worth noting when adjusting lights is, "When you begin adjusting a light, the first step is to solo the light." Turn off all the lights except the one you are adjusting and see how it is effecting your scene. In some cases you may find the light you are adjusting isn't contributing as you thought and in some cases can even be deleted. A third tip which I don't recall seeing from Jeremy Brin is to consider shading all models in neutral grey while testing to avoid having the surfaces of objects trick you into thinking you are seeing effects from the lighting when it is the effect of the surface (often not yet optimized for rendering) instead. Thanks, I just bought the third edition. What I was talking about though was lighting and rendering specifics. For example: does A:M support radiosity? Iif so how do I enable it. Where do I find all the rendering options? Etc, etc, etc. As always, you seem to have an answer for everything. You must have decades of experience. You are a genius. Thanks for your awesome pointers.

Thank you.

There is no real scripting language. There have been Python and Lua experiments in the past, but it never got very far. You will have to use C++ and Visual Studio to get a plugin working. I recommend this only to people who already have experience with C++/MFC-programming. Steffen can tell you a bit more about that than me, but as far as I understand it, there are example plugins in the SDK for close to any plugin-type (for instance Export of 3d models, Render-Output, texture plugins, post effect-plugins, modelling helper-plugins and so on) which should help you to see how these things are done. If you are still interested, please send me a PM or email me (werbung-at-patchwork-dot-de) to receive the last SDK. (will have to check with Steffen if we can make the latest SDK available to the public right now) See you *Fuchur* Thanks, I know C++ well, but I am a Mac developer and user now. Clearly the plugins must work on a Mac, so I doubt they use MFC.

As I am reading through the manuals, I keep hearing about plugins. Eventually I would love to make some of my own. 1. how do you get started in plugin development? 2. any tutorials? 3. is there a scripting language inside this wonderful program? Thanks, Stede

I was looking over the tutorial section last night, but I couldn't find any material on rendering or lighting so far. I am also reading the A:M getting started guide. They have a great tutorial on creating a procedural texture, but that is about it. Thanks again for all the resources. They seem to never stop :-)

Thanks for that link... This image (I think it is a matte painting) is the look I am after: http://www.bprince.com/Hook.html.