Gerard

As far as I am aware it has always been $99 for the upgrade. But you don't have to have the previous version .. you may have missed a year or more (tsk tsk) and can still upgrade to the latest version for $99! I'm one of several people however that choose to buy the updates every year. Not only new features but also general overall improvements make it too hard for me to miss.

Hi Saliz, Lee is right in that the book that comes with the software does indeed skate over some topics. As I mentioned earlier, it is designed just to get you up and running with some very fundamental stuff. You may indeed have skipped a step when adding bones to your model, so if you need a quick refresher I suggest you click on this link here AM: Technical Reference then go to the "Contents" tab, open "User Interface and Environment" then "Toolbars" and finally select "Bones Toolbar". Read the page that opens particularly toward the bottom where it talks about assigning control points. It just might help. Gerard PS. This might seem like a really obvious thing to say, but I'll throw it in just in case you've forgotten ... if you have assigned the CP's to the bones in the bones window, the mesh will still not move when you move a bone ... you need to open an Action/Choreography window to test the movement.

Saliz, the bones will move the control points ONLY after you assign the CP's to them. You don't just plonk bones into a model and expect them to know which points to move. If I'm reading your question correctly it seems that you don't know how to assign CP's to bones. This is one of a number of absolutely fundamental skills if you wish to use Animation Master. I can't stress enough the need to work through "The Art of Animation Master" book that came with the software. Work through this, and in no time at all you will have the answer to your question, as well as a multitude of other necessary skills. If you don't, then I'll bet anything you like, that you will have another 20 basic questions on this forum within the week, and anyone who responds to you will say the same thing .... "have you been through "The Art of Animation Master" book yet?" It's not that we don't like answering basic questions Saliz, (hey, they're the only ones I know the answers to anyway!) it's just that the book that came with your software was designed so that you could come to grips quickly with these fundamentals. You'll still have a ton of basic questions after completing the book which we'll all answer for you, but go through the book and at least get these fundamentals out of the way first OK. Gerard

Steve, you might get some additional help from this page ... 2001 Animation Rig from Eggington Studios. It contains four sections, 3 dealing with setting up, applying and adapting the rig to your models, and the 4th (the one I think you'll get the most out of) details how the rig system works. Some images of the interface may look a little different, this is because the tutorial has been around for a few years now and was obviously done in an earlier version of AM. However it's not so different that you won't be able to follow along. Gerard

Hi Arthur, You'll kick yourself when you find out what you did. You know how to assign cp's to a bone right?... you select the bone, then select the cp's you want to assign to that bone. Well ... with the steps you are taking, by selecting the model bone and then selecting the model, you are reassigning all the control points to the model bone. This is where you lose the control point assignments to the individual bones. All you need to do is select the model bone and then scale using the ctrl key ... i.e. DONT select the model after selecting the model bone. Gerard

Hi C-grid, You're quite correct ... there are NO keys you can hold down to achieve what "someawfulbridge" was trying to achieve. I was just trying to make available some possible alternatives in light of that fact. Like you, I also discovered the ability to move the translucent box some time ago ... it's amazing what you uncover the more you muck around with this software. Gerard

You can restrict the pivot's translation to the x, y and z axis. As robcat suggested, activate the "Show Manipulator Properties" but rather than just tracking the location of the pivot as you move it, you can actually click on the figures to the right of the X-Pivot:, Y-Pivot or Z-Pivot displays, and type in the new x, y or z pivot position. This same function is also available in the properties section under the title "Pivot" (surprise surprise) so there is no need to open the "Show Manipulator Properties" if you don't wish to, you can just make your x,y and z translation changes in the properties section. It just depends on how you like to work and what is easiest for you. As for being able to rotate in say 5 degree increments ... this is also possible. Go into Tools/Options and select the "Units" tab. In here you will see an entry titled "Rotate snap angle" just enter the angle you wish e.g 5 and click OK to close the window. Now when you rotate the pivot it snaps in 5 degree increments. This makes it very easy to control the rotation. Gerard