Paul Forwood

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.

To make the vest you can make a copy of your character's chest area and edit the copy into a suitable vest. If you know the tools maybe you can follow this example of a simple waistcoat that I just did:

Oops! Use the path that I described to import a 3DS model that is editable but will not have continuous splines. (not very pretty) Use Luuk's path to import a 3DS model as a prop, which you can't edit in A:M. Useful as a ... um ...prop.

Sometimes it is just a refresh problem. Saving and reopening the project might put things right.

Assign the CPs to the same bones as the underlying body. If the character is going to wear the suit all the time then it usually better to delete the parts that won't be seen.

3DS models can only be imported as props. You will need to export in the older 3DS format from 3DS Max and then import to A:M. Right click in a new model window and goto Plugins\Import\3D Studio Don't expect to get low patch models though.

Thanks for the comments, guys! I don't really know the history of the Penguin character though I have just found this gallery: Penguin I had assumed that the picture that WarioLoaf posted was from the 40s or earlier but I see now that it was from th 90s. Yeah. Maybe. Hmmm. I see that now. It's not too late though. I can see that he also should have legs that taper more, pointy shoes and eye liner. I am very tempted to deviate and make my own version of Penguin but as that wasn't the aim I will finish this version first.

I just threw a quick TSM2 rig into this model but I haven't finished rigging him, hence the flat hands, lack of facial expressions and other rough stuff, but I wanted to see him move. I will try a penguin waddle next time. He has some way to go yet.

Stian, I love your work but I have to agree with what Charlie is saying. A little, (or alot), of grime would push that action image to a new level. I second that! Maybe you could add a tub of wax polish and a cloth to explain the lack of grime. I think you should have your five image contest wins painted under the cockpit too.

The reason that the cloth is getting stuck to the cylinder is because a CP from the cloth has penetrated the cylinder wall. Careful alignment of CPs on the cloth and cylinder will help. Also increasing the number of substeps and playing with small adjustments of the collision radius may help. The sim looks good though.

The title says it all really. I just wondered if there has been any advancements which make the re-compensating stage avoidable? I haven't got past that stage yet. Cheers.

Try the settings shown in this post: Cloth Settings

I started to do a Wink tutorial for modelling this guy but with just modelling the coat and trousers the movie was around 40 MB. Having started him I felt obliged to take it further. Things that still need doing: 1) Improve the overall shape of the face and body, particularly the nose, and the fitting of the clothing. 2) Add shirt cuffs and add pockets and tails to the coat. 3) Fix some bad modelling on the lapels and finish the hem and sleaves. 4) Adjust the hair so that it doesn't penetrate the hat. 5) Model his umbrella and add a cord to his monocle. 6) Give him eyes that match the reference picture. 7) Texture everything. 8) Rig him. Total patches = 1653 Hmmm. Didn't he have a cigar too? Or is this character not the Penguin? If and when I finish him you can have him.

Yeah! Much better.

I would try to keep the wooden handle looking like wood by making it bow but not bend. Make the rubber end do most of the flexing and get the handle to over-react to these movements. You may need to increase the number of spline rings and bones up the shaft and rig them so that they rotate a small percentage of a single control bone. Just the way I'm seeing it at first glance.

I don't have the Extras CD, so I can't answer that question, but I did submit some models for inclusion which included one called, "boy", or, "the boy", or something like that. If you post a jpg of the original I can tell you if it was mine or not. Cheers.

Superb! Especially for your first A:M model!

I had the same problem the other day. I had to do the grab and slide from the other side of the model for some reason.

Go for the the most up to date version, unless there are alot of posts warning you to hold back. The current version of A:M13 is "t", I believe, and A:M14 beta is at "version5". I have seen a post in the forums tonight regarding taking A:M14 out of beta now so I expect that another update is imminent. A:M14 beta 5 download page It only takes a few seconds to download the installation file, unless you are on a slow dial up service, installation only takes a few seconds and you can have A:M 13 and 14 both installed on your computer. You can even have them both running at the same time. So what are you waiting for? Well... you might want to wait until tomorrow incase the official launch of A:M14 goes ahead tonight.

Well, it looks like dynamic bones on a path constraint work very nicely! Thanks for the input, Rich.

I couldn't get it to play for some unknown reason.

Nice cloth there, Robert, and the button test was quite a success. If the dynamic bone works that will be quite a step forward.

That sounds well worth trying. Good one, David!

Yes. It works in A:M14 too.