*J*

Just curious-- has anyone pondered the idea of what A:M would be under a GNU license like Blender? Granted, with NO idea of that process (nor what Mr. Hash's current inclinations would be in response) let me appologize in advance if such a speculation toss reads about as tactfull as a bull in china shop. JAKERUPERT: "Martin has abandoned A:M a long time ago and left it to Jason and Steffen for maintainance.." I'm just thankfull that didn't include shuttering the whole shebang and these forums. I don't really have any free time for 3d so I've only been tinkering around with my older copy of A:M very sparsely this past year. Searching thru the forums has been an incredible resource and splines with their wysiwyg curves (rather than poly verts w/modifiers) feels closer to drawing than sculpting which appeals to me. More precise, less free form-- at least with my current procedures. It just seems like a free license [ignoring the process of getting there & whatever can of worms freely modifable software would entale] would encourage throngs of curious programmers to build on an already cool platform. For people to take splines in new territories and the software in new directions/pipelines never thought before. If you're even a casual fan of patches and the software you don't want the possiblity of A:M growth slowing too much in fear of it dropping out completely. The ease that splines give modelers would bring in more people whose curiousity was sparked at such an alternative (w/ friendlier animation tools!) and open the A:M (seemingly) walled garden- and what could POSSIBLY go wrong, right?! This sounded pretty reckless, so please let me clarify with the obvious: As long as the software runs on your system, it's the obligation of the user (not the tool maker) to make something special with it. I'm using an almost decade old version and it's still powerfull enough for me to learn so once I get up to that speed, v 18+ is gonna be a whole new world and I humbly thank the programmers (Yoda64, other members of the team) for pushing the progess along. This is just typical "armchair quarterback" fool-speak so thanx in advance. I'm going back to my tinkering now (currently trying to find a way to "loop-cut" across patches less manually).