Srmjr

Nope. Painful though it is, A:M cannot.

Not native (at least not that I've seen.) There are plugins for those packages, but..., not native! Good job Team Hash!!

This is just a fantastic, awesome leap forward. Hash is now steps away from being able to unarguably say "game over" to the other "big" packages. This is truly exciting and I will be upgrading from ver11. I don't think it can fairly be compared to Zbrush just yet. The thing that makes Zbrushing so enjoyable (at least for me) the realtime interaction and painterly feel. When A:M comes out with a 3d paint tool AND true HDR image based lighting, it will officially, unequivically be GAME OVER! But in the meantime, this is awesome, and i can't wait to try it out!! Sterling

Cory, nice job! Excelllent. What (if any) particular rig did you use? Sterling

It may be old but it certainly isn't dead! I think everyone is just taking a breather before round 2 starts. There are also other plant type threads sprouting up all over the place that have the floor at this time to complement the work by Marcel. Here are three*: Tree growth Animation Toon Flower Model with Sliders Creating Leaves with Hair Too much fun! ...and there are other areas that fit nicely into the realms of greenery; Grass for instance: Grass from Hair in v11 *Edited Rodney, YOU are a living breathing reference manual!!! Thanks! Just amazing! Sterling

Wow! That looks great! Well done!!

Thanks for that comment and the rest of your post. Your words are reassuring. I for one am excited about the apprentice program, even though I won't be attempting to be an apprentice for a little while yet. In the meantime, it's nice to know that you- and others who are very skilled and knowledgeable in A:M are commited to still sharing with the A:M community in general as well as an apprentice.

What I mean by "qualified" in this context- a forum populated with varying degrees of A:M expertise- is does the individual offering the criticism have a firm concept of the demands and techniques envolved to produce the work? Imho, that's a very important question. I don't ever want to offer criticism with out fully being capable of- at the very least- understanding the demands required AND the limitations of what actually CAN be done. :edit: (Personally, I'm hesitant to offer criticism to someone who's level of work I aspire to, ie, William's Balrog and many others.) Sterling

Honest criticisms always a valuable thing, but I think things to consider before one issues criticism is "are they qualified to issue the criticism?" After that they have to understand that there is a WAY to criticise. My better half, used to work in feature development at both Nickelodeon and Disney. She said one of the first things they taught her in relation to issuing a critique of a script or pitch was to ALWAYS dwell on the positive first, and ALWAYS accompany a negative comment with a "fix" statement- ie, a helpful suggestion. Good criticism is very much an art. Sterling

David, thanks a lot. This clarifys much for me. I think this will be a great program. Sterling

Wow! It's nice to hear so much response regarding this. Believe me, my intent wasn't to get anybody's ire up in simply discussing it, so harsh responses aren't warranted. I, myself, am VERY aware of what an apprentice to master relationship entails, as I spent many years as an acting apprentice in one of the finest theaters in the country, studying under everyone from Sir Ian McKellen to Richard Easton. It's hard, intense work that requires a deeply teachable spirit (read "humble") and an extreme willingness to set aside ones own, independent agenda for a while. This is a very significant trade off that can't be trivialized or simply dismissed as selfishness. People buy A:M with hopes and dreams in mind and then, most discover that their is no "make dragon" button and that it's going to take a great deal of time to achieve that vision or dream. My suggestion of obtaining the mentor's help on the apprentice project as well was merely away of trying to keep the personal vision and dream real and readily accessible to the apprentice. btw, it is not outside the traditional apprentice/mentor relationship for the apprentice to be working on their own to develop ideas and bring whatever makes them uniquely them to the work and share it for analysis and opinion with their mentor. In fact, it's well within the tradition of that relationship. Sterling

I'm posting this here because I couldn't find it in the "New Users Forum" and it can't be responded to elsewhere unless your a Fellow, so...: I think this is a great idea in principle. My only concern is that by implementing this, the question becomes "what happens to the 'inbetweeners?'" What happens to those of us who are presently working on our own projects but still depend upon the Fellows and other more experienced users to invest time and energy in critiquing and consuling us in our projects? It would be a shame to sacrifice one of the huge benifits of this forum, ie, the EQUAL spread of knowledge to all those who need it simply for the sake of apprentices working on the projects of their mentors. I think if mentors were not only willing to mentor people who were working on the mentor's own projects but also the apprentice's project, this idea would be a lot more appealing. I would love to absorb(sp) the knowledge that a Willia Sutton or a David Rogers has to pour into an apprentice, but quite frankly, not at the expense of my own visions, hopes and dreams. If individual like the above were willing to come along beside me and mentor me in my dreams and visions, that would be great. Animation is time consuming and hard enough with out feeling like you wil NEVER get to your own personal projects. anyway, those are my thoughts. I would love to learn from these other guys, but I don't want to have to table all the other things I'm working on for the sake of doing so. Sterling

You've proved your point I think. I humbly bow down. Man that's Frigging Great!! VERY inspirational.

I'm in love with her AND SynthEye! Do bad they don't make it for Mac. SynthEye, that is.

Vern, Very funny! Very nice! Can't wait to see the end product. I tend to think the music is PERFECT. In fact- if anything- it could be even more "Bondish" in a real characature kind of way, but that is certainly not necessary. It's already a sixty-ish send up as it is. What might help the zipper gag is cutting to an insert of the gag so we (meaning the camera) are CLOSE ON: The hand doing the zipping as it catches the nipple. "Ouch!" Anyhoo, great work. Thanks for sharing. Sterling

Ditto!

*sigh* well here's another reason why I'm gonna have to get Panther. Sterling

Yeah, yeah..., great trees, blah, blah, but I feel like the kid on the block that has to stay inside and watch everybody play outside the window. Is this gonna get ported to Mac? Really though, the plugin looks GREAT. Sterling

As embarrasing as this is, I didn't discover Shaded Mode until a year after I had the soft ware and saw William Eggington's creature modeling siggraph demo ('99 I think). Working in shaded mode was a revolution for me. Sterling

Again, thanks all! This is very helpful. Sterling

Thanks, Phil. When I go about re-attaching it, how do I make sure it attaches to the center spline and not the neck. I know that maybe a "no-brainer" question, but..., well..., anyway, how do I do it? Sterling

Thanks, Rodney. I hope to keep it that way as I build the rest of the body. Did you check out the neck/adams apple area. The spline there is a little screwy. I admit I didn't discover the whole "maintain curvature thing until after I finished this. But I was wondering if the weirdness was being caused by the fact that it is a three spline intersection? Sterling

...It's shameful that I've had A:M for years and never attempted modeling a human head, so here it is. Please look at the spline layout and offer your (CONSTRUCTIVE ) thoughts- especially about the neck. I'm having trouble there. Also the ear connections are a little haphazzard, hazarrd ha..., oh you know what I mean. Sterling

Watching this process is awesome! In a ridiculously humbling kind of way. Sterling

Yeah, blue is the color of choice. I think (when I decide to go back into this) I'm gonna use some light list for fill lighting. Right now, no fill lighting exits whatsoever in the shot. At the time a did this, I didn't even know how to use light lists I can't wait to go back into this and see if I can improve upon the lighting. All of your comments have helped me focus on the priorities for this scene. MORE LIGHT As for the speed issue, you could be right Ken. I'll know more when I have it in context. The shot is designed to cut to the Gravity sled pilots face during turn, thus extending the duration of the moment, and then cut back out to the wider shot as they virtually run on top of us. We'll see if that helps once I choreograph it. Eventually I'm going to link other images from the project. I've got some images from another segment that I'm putting together for an animatic. I probably put those up pretty soon. Sterling