Elm

Wait for a second... For years I've been trying to do some camera projection mapping in A:M. How do you do this? And: What are light gels?! Never heard of this!

Whatever. I think that, whenever exchanging models etc. with other software pakages, I think that in most cases you'll have to rework surfaces and materials, or at lest tweak the imported results. This isn't hard and in octane, it's even fun. What counts (imo) is correctly exchanged decal coordinates.

Most material parameters (color, transparency, ambience, reflectivity...) can be converted into a bitmap with the same appearance on a model with the "Bake Surface" command. this is new to me - how can I do this?

How does Octanes accept A:M's materials? Do they need to be baked first, or reworked in Octane using Octane's proprietary materials...? What you mean with "baked materials"? Well, I have reworked the materials in Octane. (The model's groups are preserved!!)

Yes, the "Shlitten" was modeled in A:M. If you haven't yet, you can see it in action here: "Shlitten on Vimeo" Well, Octane doesn't accept any MDD files yet (BUT it loads A:M's OBJs really well (including decals)). Basically, Octane deals with OBJ sequences. It's still a bit uncomfortable, but maybe the next version(s) of it even support MDD import? This would be great. Plus: Otane doesn't have a timeline or something like that yet. to get a camera (or even a whole choreography) over to octane is still pretty impossible (only with workarounds).... Let's hope for future development!

The whole MDD and OBJ export thing is really very very interesting. Here are some of our recent tests - exported to octane render and Modo. BTW - The Power sledge had its textures when it came over in to octane - as the ball still had its groups. Also, Alan Wood still had his textures correctly when we imported him as an OBJ into Modo. I see G R E A T potential in this export thing (obj and MDD) All the best, Elm. Ball.mov Schlitten_Turntable.MOV

Superb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Y E S Y E S Y E S Y E S Y E S Y E S ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

the sock is awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

perfect

Your stuff is just too funny for me, really! I was laughing in tears!

Brilliant!

Exactly.

Hey guys! You're all right. Door Sequence: Rough animation, then muscle poses to clean out penetrations. We didn't really care about the hair penetrating something or such. As you pointed out: Everything goes quick and the eye doesn't notice that quick. I always bare in mind to not loose myself in something that's not too important and keep my eye on the story and the things that the eye usually catches. And: Yes, commercials are always over too quick. Greetz, Elm.

So true. But even without thinking about reaching a broader audience - to me, it's mostly about not loosing myself in a project that's too big Greetz, Elm.

The only tip from my side would be to first focus on the desired look (without thinking technically). Then to think about "which / how many / how designed" passes you need to have, baring in mind your idea of compositing and post production possibilities and such (i.e. blurring individual passes differently, etc...). Thanks, Elm.

No... Every pass is an independent 'autarc' A:M project itself: For every pass we need, we create specific models (i.e.: "candle-white.mdl" or "candle-flat.mdl" etc...) As well as specific choreographies (one with flat shaded models, one just for the ambience occlusion, etc...) It's pretty much work to create and handle all these different pass-choreographies (...not always as easy as with those candles... ) , but it's worth it, and it's pretty safe, because you know what the result will look like. The rendered images of each pass are simple tga-sequences with or without alpha channel. Well, I think that commercials have pretty cool timeframes. I think I would go nuts spending months and years telling just one story (which may even turn out whack in the end and I was blinded by work, not seeing it). Greetz, Elm.

That's exactly the thread I had in mind! Yeah, indeed - as I came up with the idea of an advent wreath on the table, I immediately was thinking of aaver's candle ! Greetz, Elm.

Hey! Yea, indeed it was inspired by those candles (think I remember that thread, too...). Funny is that, if I remember right, that thread was about subsurface scattering, right? Well, our candles had no sss at all, the only passes that were rendered out for the candles were these: I made the candles look ssscattered in After effects by composing these passes pretty experimentally... Greetz, Elm.

Maybe "Save and rave" or "Greed is great" or "Thrifty is nifty" or "Smooch the scrooge" Something like that. Greetz, Elm.

It's been done with a muscle pose. It unfolds just as it would in real life (the pose contained keyframes every tenth percent). Thanks for your compliments.

Schönes ding! Die Animation find ich nicht sooo prickelnd. Die Katze an sich ist sehr schön! Greetz, Elm.

Hi Folks! After some time off, and some projects that we've done with other software packages, we finally did a project with A:M again. It's the return of the christmas rabbit! Here's a quicktime link: Christmas Rabbit 640 x 480 (ca.18 MB) A:M was used for all the characters, as well as the table, chairs, candles and the advent wreath. Greetings, Elm and the whole Department! P.S.: We just updated our website. Have a look in "Our Work" to watch our recent projects: http://www.soulcage-department.de

So - do I get you right: U rendered with ambience occlusion, global color? What was the color? And what were your AO settings? And: You covered "everything" in the scene with that envitronment Map? What about its opacity? Did you do any compositing, or was it rendered in one beauty-pass? And: Just a little bit of constructive critique: You could have done a reflection map for nicer ground reflections. Once again - outstanding work, brrrrrrilliant! Thanks in advance for answering my questions, greetings, Elm.