Paul Forwood

I think that this could be an interesting experiment and would, hopefully lead to some great collaborations and if the standards are high enough would benefit everyone. My only concern is that of time. I could imagine devoting most of my time to such a scheme when I am not busy with earning a crust but we've all got bills to pay and priorities to consider. For a young whippersnapper, still living at home and looking for an alernative to the usual training paths, this might be ideal. It all depends on the final product really. Who wants to spend a year slogging away helping to make someone elses dream a reality, sacrificing time and potential earnings, only to have the final work ridiculed or abandoned. Are studios going to recognise the apprenticeship as valid training? If the projects have quality stamped all over them and they manage to get some airing on TV or indie theatres the recognition may come. Personally. I would welcome the opportunity to work with some members of the Hash Community and I am sure that I would gain something from the experience but, as I said before, it's just a matter of how much time is practical. Just my initial thoughts. Paul Forwood

Very nice posting! Thank you, Helen. Paul Forwood

Hi, Pequod. BAM! Yeah, I kinda lean towards that one too and it opens the doors to alot more people. Very expressive name too. I might try a another mock-up. Thanks for the compliments, guys. Paul Forwood

Thanks for the corrections, Parlo.

Server keeps refusing the TGA!!! Someone been tightening up the firewall? I could try sending it as a jpg but you'll koose the alpha channel. Try it as a zip file...

Sorry, guys, I have not looked in here for a few days. One firtree tga coming your way, if it makes it to you this time. The tga that I used was quickly thrown together and I am sure that you could improve on both it and the model. The model was was made as a response to an earlier request for a tree which would be flown over and that is what it was designed for. As such it does not have any modelled branches and is not really up to low close-up shots. If you want a fairly low patch forest it's not a bad starting point. Stick a chain of dynamic bones up the trunk, copy and mutate a few more and build a forest with the crowd tool. Also the TGA that I used was almost 4Mb, which cannot be sent via these forums, so I have had had to reduce it's size. I hope it's okay. Have fun and post some of your results, please. Paul Forwood

Yes, the LA:MU meeting was a hit and you can get my perspective here: LA:MU Parlo, I am sending you the pics right now. Unfortunately the quality is poor. Thanks, guys, for a very enjoyable Saturday. Looking forward to the next one. Paul Forwood

Hey, Ken, he's great! Do you have plans for him? Looks like you've got some nice, subtle, texturing on him. I'll be watching for more of this guy. Paul Forwood

Hi, Strohbehn. Just wanted to complement you on your modelling skills. You are obviously a quick learner to have pulled this much together so fast. Well done. I don't really want to critisize your animation but I would like to see you run through this one again with more exaggeration, just for the fun of it. I look forward to watching your progress. Thanks for posting. Paul Forwood

My pleasure, Chris.

Sorry for my mistake, above. Just to avoid any confusion: The 2nd of October is SATURDAY!!! (not Sunday)

Hi, Sam. Now that looks like a very nice venue! Well done! I will be propping up he bar any time from 1:00 in the Rose & Crown. I am sorry to hear of your recent loss. There seems to be alot of it about at the moment. But, as you say, 91 is a good innings. I look forward to meeting you and whoever else can make it on Saturday. Thanks for organising this, Sam. Paul Forwood

By way of explanation, just incase you're not sure what's happening here: 1) Make three components for the tape. Two red cylindrical objects and one rectangular strip for the adjoining piece. 2) Select the circumference control points on each spool of tape and group them. 3) In bones mode create bones for the circumference groups and assign the cps to them. Create two bones for the tape strip, one to control the position of each end. 4) Create a pose and at 0% scale the circumference of one spool down, move the bone for that end of the tape strip so that it touches, or slightly intersects, the circumference of the scaled spool. Align the other end in the same manner and make sure that all the bones have benn moved slightly so that their position registers in the current frame of the pose. 5) Move the pose slider to 100%, scale the spool back up, adjust position of strip, scale other spool down and adjust position of that end of the strip. 6) Scroll back and forth through the pose with the pose slider, just to make sure that everything is working, and save 7) Create a new action or choreography for rendering this. Open pose sliders and set to 0% on frame 0 and 100% on frame 02:00. 8) Set up your camera and lights for the shot and render. Phew! How's that then? I would have incorporated the animated decal aswell but I want to get on with my own stuff. Please post your results. Good luck. Paul Forwood

Okay. Here is the project file. I tried flipping the normals on the tape strip but the shadow stilll refused to render. It's a mistery. If anyone can solve this one it might be useful. Good luck with your project. Paul Forwood

Yep. That's what I would do too, John.

Here it is, Chris. Like I said, the nornals on the loose tape neede to be flipped, hence no shadow. Paul Forwood

Hey, that looks good! One little critisizm, as you asked for it, is the eyes. It looks like you have applied a decal with a black pupil and forgot to change the key colour to something other than black. I may be wrong and that maybe exactly what you intended. If so I am very sorry. Has he got something hiding in that shell? Well done! How about a walk cycle now? Paul Forwood

This is a call to Parlo or whoever was organising a venue for this weekend. As Sunday, October 2nd is now just a couple of days away I just wanted to ask if this meeting is going to happen and if so where and what time? Any one up for it? Paul Forwood

I like this model very much, Gaetan. Very economical splining. I look forward to seeing her move. Paul Forwood

Well, I've just been testing the rig and it seems to be holding up so I'll continue with it for the moment. Maybe all those question marks will go away if I ignore them.

Hi, Ken Luckily I have a backup but I have lost alot of tweeking and rigging work. I curse this technology sometimes but without it how many of us would have the opportunity of doing this great stuff? Two steps forward, one step back. One step forward, two steps back. One day... Paul Forwood

I was hoping to have progressed with this project by now but I seem to have hit a glitch with my rig. I found a couple of those yellow folders with the question mark in my bones folder and when I investigated found that they referred to duplicate bones with the same name. I checked to see which ones were linked in the hierarchy and then deleted the others. This seems to have recked my whole rig!!! Now every single bone in my rig has a queation mark on it's folder! Has anyone else seen this and do you know if this is something that I have caused or is it a bug? I am feeling very deflated right now. A:M 11.0r Going back to 11.0q

Oh,yes. You wanted to do something interesting and I think you've achieved that. It definately needs the hotspots to fully deliver but this is very cool. How do you put this together? Do you need Quicktime Pro? One suggestion, and I don't know if it's even possible, would be to have the cube spin once when the page loads so that it alerts the viewer to the fact that it is an interactive image. Maybe not. It was just a thought. Great stuff. Be sure to post again when the hotspots are active. Paul Forwood

Ha Ha! Is that a request? Here is a longer test: http://www.rollmodels.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Wip_page.htm I need to sort my website. All my filenames get their case changed when I upload and it can be a chore correcting them. I hope the link works.

Gorgeous! I was concerned when you first posted that it looked too much as though you could carry it around and play cds in it . Now it feels heavier and powerful. I would love one of these babies! Nice work. Paul Forwood