Paul Forwood

It looks great to me.

Just to clarify: I didn't rig him. I just moved a few of the bones in Thom's 2001 rig so that they align better with the new position of his joints. Anyway, happy rigging to you.

Good idea! I couldn't resist, Charlie. Thomson, (son of Thom). Just moved a few CPs about and adjusted the back bones, neck bone, head bone and thigh bones. No re-rigging. Man! It's been a while since I last tried the 2001 rig and I must say I wouldn't go back to it. If nothing else it gives you the motivation to learn something about rigging. Now that the rig is in roughly the correct position you could carry on modifying the shape of the limbs and add features to the head. Just assign the new CPs on the head to the head bone. Better still would be to carry on with your own Thom mutation because you will learn more and find it more satisfying.

colour and bump maps. He has very black shiny eyes but the lighting isn't reflecting. I'll check the speculars. Thanks! Thanks Steve392. Here is another: (No body textures or rig yet). (Oops! Looks like I animated a light by accident).

He is inbetween at the moment. I intend to give him a figure hugging, extra terrestrial, all purpose Spandex suit but I also wanted to do some full body skin maps so for the moment his suit has skin textures on it.

Thanks, Jay. More later... Well, not exactly random but not far off. It is just a T-pose to an extreme wind up for a punch an back to a T-pose. Nothing that you would find yourself doing. Yeah. That about sums it up.

Here is a rig test for an alien model which is still very much in development: This test was done to test the shoulders and hips and includes a very extreme/impossible pose for the right arm. There is still much to tweak but it is getting there. The model is 1574 patches and is rigged with TSM2 plus my additional bones for the neck and intermediates. The feet have not been properly integrated yet.

You must setup the dress so that it is a good distance away from the surface of your character. Also remember that any sudden movement will make it likely that the cloth collision detection will fail. If a CP from the cloth passes through the surface of the character it is very likely that it will get stuck there.

Ha, ha! Good fun, Gary! Also good to see that all the anomalies seem to have vanished. Congratulations on the job so far.

Nice work, Matt! Did you use a static or variable force to blow the cloth? Martin is going to get very angry with you for making A:M look so professional.

Models made in A:M 13 and 14 cannot be opened in previous versions because the file format changed slightly. You will appreciate all the extra goodies that come with upgrading. Much improved stability and tool functionality as well as all the resources that come on the Extras DVD.

Another inspired tinker! That is a very useful technique. Thanks for sharing it, John.

You have been Alienated!

It was created in A:M 14. What version are you using?

Alien Machine:

Like Ken says, follow those tech talks. They have alot of the fundamentals in there. You can also follow my attempts to get to grips with sim cloth HERE. You will find the settings that I used in that thread. And just to add something here is the last test that I can find on my hard drive: (Ignore the animating in that clip. It was just movement thrown together to test the cloth).

Why don't you at least post a drawing of your alien? We are not all mind readers. Maybe someone has something that could easily be modified to suit your needs. Are you new to animating too? Maybe you should start with a simple sphere shaped alien as the two knights will probably keep you busy for some time.

How about adding the windows in an action or in the choreography? Then you can have two sets of windows. The standard set and a fractured set made up of many small pieces that explode in another action. You then just swap the windows on the desired frame and have the action start on the next frame. Just a thought. I have a feeling that Steffen Gross wrote a plugin to explode objects. There is always Newton to play around with too.

Modelling in A:M is like working with sprung wires. Things do jump about when you are stitching in new splines. You can minimize the amount that bias values change by using "Shift" when you stitch across existing splines. They will still jump though, especially when stitching across splines that are very curved. So you need to get used to roughing in the model as accurately as you can with the knowledge that you will have to go in and tweak eventually anyway. Tweaking is inevitable. Bias handles are the basic controls for splines and are a powerful animating tool as much as a modelling tool. Tweaking the bias handles is like putting the final touches onto the surface of a clay model. It may take time to really get a feel for splines, and they will probably get you very agitated from time to time, but you will get there eventually. Try to use 4 point patches as much as possible and keep 3 and 5 point patches to areas that will not undergo severe twisting or bending on your model.

There should be plenty to choose from on the extras CD/DVD.

The models and the compositing are great! The animation could use more emphasis on weight and that first punch is a bit difficult to read. Also wouldn't the windscreen pop? Overall, another top piece, Stian. .

You are one talented modeller and texturer, Lee! You must finish this guy sometime.

First class work, Vern! Are the hands from an image bank or did you photograph them yourself? Great concept executed beautifully. And the handcuffs are really well done too.

Select the 5 control points that form hole and hit the "5 point patch" tool, (The icon with the five green dots). It's in the Art of Animation:Master that comes with A:M. That's an art in itself. (The art of illusion).

Can you see the rulers at the edge of the model window? Perhaps you have accidentally pressed the "\" key and are trying to model in perspective mode. If you take a screen capture and post it here as a jpg it may give some clues as to what is wrong.