MMZ_TimeLord

Almost needs some 'OZing' up to me. More pipes around it, maybe another couple of pressure valves and guages. But the realism of this steam hammer model is astounding! Great job Rodger!

That was totally awsome... My mom will get a kick out of that. She may contact you for a DVD so she can show it to her sunday school class.

Excellent work. I'm going to visit my parents in Arkansas in December for the holidays. Lived there for over 12 years. Please keep it clean.

Way better Rusty! Now I can believe it's truely a 'Battleship'!

Dhar, It would appear I only have time to complete the central Main cable spans and the roadway cables on that section. Although still not aligned properly in the choreography, but you can't see it here. Last but not least... current patch count numbers for this 'WIP'. It will be going on the Extras II DVD in this form. I will be updating this throughout the year and hope to have a 'complete' Golden Gate Bridge High Detail model project for the next 'Extras III' DVD with the lighting, approaches, Fort Mason, shores, toll plaza and water. __________________________________________Patch______Model________Total_Patches Sub_Model_Name____________________________Count______Quantity_____in_Action Tower_Top__________________________________2733________4______________10932 Main_Towers_(each)________________________14097________2______________28194 South_Tower_Skirt____________________________42________1_________________42 Road_Deck_Sections_(Standard)______________7179_______41_____________294339 Road_Deck_Sections_(Tower)_________________4711________2_______________9422 Main_Cable_Sections (Central Span)________23544________4______________94176 Overall_WIP_Model_(High_Detail_version)______________________________437105

John, Actually earlier in the thread you'll notice that it takes over 20 copies of the roadway section, two towers, four copies of the tower tops (each side of each tower), a special roadway section for the towers, one retainer wall at the base of the north tower and probably will take six cable sections all put together in the action. Sometime later when this is updated for the next DVD, I hope to have the elevated part of the freeway, toll plaza along with both shores and Fort Mason under the soute approach and of course the water added to this project.

I'm about half way done with one half of the main cable span between the towers. Here's a shot of the last roadbed cable shoulder on the main cable to give you an idea of the detail I'm up against. Each one of these shoulders is at a slightly different angle and so requires each to be unique. I think I'll go get some sleep now...

Farther back in the post I was contemplating using either a bump or displacement map to achieve the rivet detail. But alas, I have no time... even though I have the high resolution reference pictures to make the decals from.

At this point I just want to get the main bridge done for the Extras II DVD... we can then update the project on the website later. The main geometry of the bridge is what I'm concentrating on now... I won't even have time to do the rivet details now...

Okay, since I'm trying to complete this for the Extras II DVD... here's the current progress. I've removed the main cables as I'm trying to use sweeper to make new and more detailed ones (small bug, so I may have to do it the old fasioned way. ) The main details I've added in the last few days are the walkways around the towers. I've gotten the roadway cables modeled and I'm trying to use sweeper to place them, but it's becoming more time consuming as sweeper keeps slightly rotating the assembly on the guide spline (truncation errors again) as the scale is really huge.

Sounds like you are looking for a modeling tutorial only... Is that the case? If so, one of the TAoA:M tutorials that comes with your book... either Exercise 10: FW-190 Fighter or Exercise 11: Giraffe will show you how to model and texture in A:M. If this is not what you are looking for... please be specific about what 'steps' you are looking for tutorials on. Is it Modeling, Texturing, Rigging, Posing, and creating actions... then putting it in a choreography and guides to lighting? Just a simple 'Start to Finish' leaves a lot to the imagination and I have yet to really master reading minds...

Please share your insights on the Planet Glow settnigs... It would be real nice to add to my solar system and earth project for the ExtrasDVD. Beautiful renders!

Resolution is the number of pixels in height and width of the image. Increased resolution will give the appearance of a higher 'quality' image because it reveals more detail about the scene. In reality the quality is not higher, just the amount of detail in the image. Quality is the amount and type of compression (Codec for movie files) applied to the image. Too high of a compression will lead to artifacts in the image which blur or obscure details and result in lower quality. The best balance is a compression level that keeps 90+% of the image, will little or no artifacts. Motion will greatly affect how good or bad quality is with various compressors. Different compressors will work better with different types of animation. I would recommend staying with quicktime and Sorensen3 codec for animation. Local or personal use, set it to 'Best' or 'Good' quality... for the net, change it to 'Medium' to 'Least'. My personal setting for the net is usually 'Medium' or 'Low'. Hope that halps.

Actually in the "Animator's Survival Kit" it recommends for you NOT to listen to music while you work. I've tried both ways and I agree... you will stay MUCH more focused if you don't let anything distract you. The quality of my work has gone up significantly. Maybe some tracks from that group ... 'white noise' ...

Two things I can think of David... 1. Are the volumetric lights the same size as the headlights involved? 2. Are the volumetric lights in the same position as the heatdlights on the model? (or are they out in front of them?) My limited experience with volumetric lights shows that (like my flashlight in my TAoA:M exercise here) if you make the light the same size as the modeled source and place it just behind the lens or just in front of it, it should look fine. Here's the flashlight model I used with the lights attached. [attachmentid=20664] Flashlight_w_Lighting.zip

I won't give you a hard time... I will say it's a very nice model and includes Exterior, Interior and Interior floors separate. Nicely done. I will post your readme as well as a few renders for folks to get a better idea of the project. The models line up just fine in choreography by simply dragging the exterior model then the assembled interior model and then constraining the interior model to 'translate to' and 'orient like' the exterior model. You would also need to add a 'scale like' constraint if you were going to scale the exterior. First render is simple single light source and AO of just the Exterior model. Second is the same setup, but with the Exterior and Interior together and 80% transparency so you can see the interior somewhat. Below is the ReadMe.txt file contents. [attachmentid=20641][attachmentid=20642]

Don't get too discouraged... I've been working with A:M for over 10 years and I'm just now getting to the point where I am not scared to show WIPs to other folks. My animation still needs LOTS of work. But that's the area where I was rough in to begin with. Most of what I've done in the past is modeling. All I can suggest is practice, practice, practice... find simple objects laying around and try to duplicate them. (spoon, fork, coffee cup, pen, pencil, paper clip, etc.) Start small and get comfortable using the modeler. I hope that helps. Good Luck!

Two things, you can change the file from a saved location to 'embedded' and then you can modify it and save it either with the project or by itself. You can't save it to the CD-ROM (Read Only Memory). Choose a different folder location in your my documents like 'My Animation Master' or something similar. Hope that helps.

I believe the term is "WOW!"... nicely done John! Now we are seeing some SERIOUS use of displacement.

Nicely done Stuart... that should help Boxster out.

I'm not sure about tutorials, I'd have to search for them. I know that you have to make a group and assign any patchs/CPs to that group... then add a bone (I call mine 'Cutter1' or 'Boolean1', etc.) then you must turn on the option in the bone properties that specifies it's a boolean cutter. Now anything you want to appear inside this boolean cutter must have it's own group and bone and be a child of the boolean in order to show up. If it's not, the boolean cutter will cut that also. As you can see on the caliper I did in the wireframe, there are small cylinders where the fasteners/bolts are, those are boolean cutters. As Martin stated they do not show up in realtime renders and so they show their true shape. When final rendered, they are invisible and only serve to 'cut' whatever they intersect. Inside of those cylinders are the bolts and they are grouped and on a bone that is a child of the boolean cutter bone. If you need pictures, I'll grab some when I get to work. Cheers!

I do remember having some problems back on version 7 or 9... but I forget... it's moot now as I have not had any issues with them. One thing I haven't tried is letting a boolean from one model pass through another to see if it would affect it. My presumption is that it should not, but ... as you said, unexpected things... Boxster... back on topic... I think that David is correct when he says use a transparency map. Just remember this will NOT give you sides through the holes, so it will just appear as a paper thin hollow disc with holes in it. If it's going to be seen in detail for a still, i would use booleans.

Actually if you use booleans, it will create a surface where the boolean is cutting through... so it looks solid. I didn't use booleans on the rotor... but the caliper with it's bolts has booleans in it... for the bolt recesses. Also there is one large boolean around the tire to clean up the tread. For stills, I really like booleans... if you want a wireframe of the whole exploded view... Here you go... [attachmentid=19948]

If it's for a still image, I would suggest a disk with lots of little booleans. I modeled a cross-drilled and slotted rotor for a car and it was a pain. Looking back I would use booleans if I make another one. Here is the way mine turned out... [attachmentid=19943] Oh, here's a quick wireframe I just grabbed... Just to give you an idea of how complex it is if you model it. [attachmentid=19944]

Martin, I had forgotten that booleans don't show in realtime such as HA:MR... With that in mind, it's probably going to require more bias tweaking to get that smoothed out, although texturing will help hide some of it.