Paul Forwood

That's great, Mike!

1) Complement : Press the full stop/period key on your keyboard to select all of the currently unselected CPs instead of the currently selected ones. 2) Compliment : Your ears are like petals...(bicycle pedals). -------------------------------------- THWAK!!! -------------------------------------- Okay, the second example was the complement of a compliment...and I didn't mean it really.

Yeah! Well done, Mr. Tycoon!

Excellent work, Mike! I agree about the eyes though.

Very nice work and a good demonstration of boolean cutters.

Try dropping Keecat into your choreography window from a top view. If you drop a model into a choreogrphy it will fall until it hits another object. If you need to move it the choreography icon (loud-hailer) is highlighted, and then just click on your object, to select it, and then drag it to it's new location. Don't forget to make use of the orthogonal views, (numeric keypad: 2,4,6,8,5 and birdseye 7 as well as camera view 1). Ctrl/Shift/Z to zoom in to you selection.

Beautiful, Marcos!

Nice work! Looks like you really put your backs into that one. Are you going to be demonstrating a spinal injury or something?

Look at post #7 HERE.

That is really well done, Gerry! A fun and clever concept too. How about setting up a seasonal webpage that will offer the visitor the option to download the movie, (in a variety of formats and file sizes), or watch online? You could even set it up to stream automatically.

Nice work, Ken! I saw that job posted but he stated that he wanted a fully rigged model with mouth poses done by last Friday. A tall order! Glad to see that you got an extension on the deadline.

Excellent robot! How about going through some of his expressions in a few seconds of animation?

Amazing work, Stian. That's quite a coincidence, meeting the author who's drawings you based your models on!

All the Daleks have been recalled, Gazz. Relax. I'm not sure whether I will be going to the Mac Expo yet. I'll let you know a day or two before hand but if I do it will be on the Saturday.

Hi, Nancy. Thanks for the comments. Yes this is a consistent effect when rendering QT files with the settings that I am using for hair. If I just render a single frame as a Targa the hair is unaffected by any forces or dynamics. I am in the habit of saving the whole project and reloading it before rendering as it updates everything. It is the only method that I know of to ensure that I am seeing all the changes that I have made. Ken, my settings are approximately what you have suggested: Collisions - On Bounce - 5% (hmm, I'd better check that one again) Friction - 50% I'll try adjusting the stiffness and see what I get. Cheers.

Hi! I have been tinkering with an old project and have noticed that an old problem still exists in A:M12. The problem is that if I have dynamics turned on for the hair of my character and I have dynamic bones elsewhere on the character there is some kind of interference set in motion between the two. Some of you may remember an old test that I did with a Woot model whose coat-tails would fly up when the hair dynamics was turned on. This problem still exists in version 12 (v?) and I wondered if it has been solved in version 13. Another problem that I am experiencing with this character is her hair. I have the constraint set to 'spring' because that always seems to produce the best results for flowing hair but I find that the interaction with her wings and centrifugal force seems to make her hair stretch. (View the attached file to see what I mean). Has anyone else experienced this and if so did you find a reliable work-around? I won't post the current example because I know that some people are offended by skirts fluttering up above the waste. Instead I will post a short clip of the character with a 'less-than-satisfactory' alternative to the skirt problem: [attachmentid=20276] Thanks for any advice.

Ah! At last I have seen your trailer and it surpasses all expectations. Absolutely beautiful work, Stephen! I hope this attracts some big fish very soon! ( Four stars, at the moment, on CG Talk and climbing!!! )

I have been experiencing this recently with A:M 12. The Copy/Paste command seems to introduce errors sometimes. At least that is what it seems like at this point. Open your model file in a text editor, Notepad or what ever is available on a Mac, and scroll down. If you see a load of empty bone data holders you are probably experiencing what I am. (Sorry I can't think of the correct term for those 'open/close' statements at the moment). Sometimes A:M seems to get into a loop and just keeps copying these empty statements, adding thousands of lines to your model file. I don't know what causes this to happen but it has been around for several years. The way that I rectify the problem is to highlight all of the empty statements, except one, and delete them. Then save the model file. That seems to do the trick usually. Good luck.

Okay. Yes, I see what you mean. Not pretty! I hope that I can get around that when I come to concentrating on the wings and surface properties. For now I am just constantly tweaking the model and rig and testing. If anyone else has seen this unnatural effect please chime in. I guess that I should report it to A:M Reports but I will wait until I have played with the surface properties a bit more. Oh! I found the problem with the head bone! It turns out that I was trying to manipulate the head bone, which should have been hidden, when in fact I should have been manipulating the head controller. The head bone was obscuring the head controller.The penny took a while to drop. It must be something to do with all this heat. Well, that's my excuse anyway.

Big red face! Sorry folks! My mistake. I went back and checked the project again and found that collisions and dynamics were indeed ON! Thanks, David! The problem with the head bone persists. I am using TSM2 but I think that the problem is related to additional constraints that I have added. Maybe the eye target, or facial bones, are sitting at the wrong level in the hierarchy. I will take a closer look. I can't review the clip at the moment but if you are refering to the tip of the wings, bending and becoming more opaque, that is caused by 3-point patches. I will be replacing the wings and will avoid 3-point patches unless they are very discrete and flat. If you are refering to the effect created when the wings overlap in the view I agree that it needs some work. It looks like it might be an additive effect. I don't know but I would be interested in hearing any suggestions on avoiding it. Thanks, Rusty! Yes I have seen the distorting hair many times but luckily it was only my stupidity this time. It is good to know that it has been resolved in A:M 13. You were all of great help! Just getting someone else, who understands these things, to look at the problem is a confidence booster at times so thank you all!

Hi. I have noticed some strangeness in hair from time to time and the attached file is an example of a current problem. Dynamics and collision detection are turned off yet I am getting this distortion occuring, as if collision detection were activated. Any ideas? This model still requires alot of work on the geometry and rig but I have a problem that someone may be able to shed some light on. For some reason the head bone refuses to work in an action or choreography. I have tried creating a pose slider to get around this but that refuses to work too. Any ideas what could be preventing me from rotating the head bone? Thanks for any ideas! [attachmentid=18584]

Wow! Amazing, Stian! I don't know where you managed to find such detailed references to pick out so much detail. I couldn't find anything better than some fuzzy, distant shots. Top quality modelling!!!

A great challenge, Stian! Looks good so far but I must warn you that if you persist I will have to model a little swordfish.

Excellent! I loved it, apart from the boomerang cutting through the character. Good work, Ross!

Two very talented and determined guys! I wish you all the best with your weekly workouts. Your creative muscles will be rippling. ;-)