heyvern

Yes yes! The real vern. Sent a message to admin about getting my old username back. Could have sworn I changed my email back in 2009 but who knows?It was a very long time ago. I was reliving the past and reading my old posts. If only I could be that young again. By the way... this happens all the time. I post a question and find it shortly after. Was about to post my own reply about pgdn/pgup. I was randomly hitting keys on the "right-ish" side of the keyboard hoping for a miracle.

The ultimate "reintroduction". I was Heyvern here many years ago. I tried a few other 3D and 2D apps. Lately using Blender. Still using Moho (2D vector animation). Years ago when I was younger my brain was soft and absorbent. These days it's a bit crusty and hard, like an old eraser or the candy coating on bubble gum. New stuff just doesn't get in as easily. it's been difficult to find the same ease of use with other apps. I recently purchased a Bambu A1 3D printer (arriving... soon-ish?) and would love to play around with my original A:M files and also have something I can use for fast easy modeling. I decided what the heck and bought a copy. I'm currently playing around with ancient files I haven't opened in years. All the old skills are still there and it's all coming back. p.s. I'm also hoping to get my old username access back. Fingers crossed.

Anyway it's been a very long time since I've used A:M but it's almost all coming back. One thing I can't remember or find or maybe it no longer exists was the hotkey to change the "levels" of smooth rendering in shaded view while modeling. I thought it involved "[]". I recall there were like 4 or 5 levels of smoothness? You could lower it to work faster and raise it up quickly to get a better view.

Yes but... in my opinion there are dedicated standalone applications that already have those file transfer functions and chat functions etc so why put it in AM? Just run them along side AM. Those other programs are BETTER at it than AM ever could be. I don't want the limited resources of Hash to be wasted on trivial "novelties" like "chatting" in the program. Even MS word doesn't have a "chat" feature does it? If Hash removed the chat feature I won't lose sleep over it (unless the headphone cord brushed my leg). Does anyone need Skype to have a 3D modeling/animation plugin? I mean... you may want to animate something while you are typing or talking and it would be so much easier than all that work to open up AM. Of course if AM has chat you can chat and do 3D in Skype AND AM at the same time... while modeling in 3D in skype you can chat in AM and never miss a second of productive time. Put an email application and a beer dispenser with a snack machine in AM and I would never leave the house. Put a game engine in there so you can play games while working in AM. A link to Hulu and watch TV as well. Make it an entertainment console... that also does 3D... Okay I went a bit far with this... forgive me. Obviously... I don't own an all in one printer/scanner/fax machine either. p.s. Hash never did put in my feature request for a coffee machine USB hook up that activates with long render times. -vern

Yes, it was fun for a while... then the novelty wore off. I am prone to being frightened by simple things when I am deeply engrossed in work like this. It could be a tiny breeze causing a small scrap of paper to flutter on the desk and I will jump like a gun shot went off. One time I freaked out when the change in my pocket shifted slightly against my leg while I was in my "creative trance". My headphone wires are the worst. They will shift and fall funny and brush up against my neck, shoulder or arms and scare the bejesus out of me (I really need to get a wireless headphone). I had to turn the AM community thingy off. Too much stress. -vern

Nice job so far... ... yikes... I would however, not buy a robot to work in my house with a but crack like that. This is just a personal preference. Others may like a good but crack on their robots... who am I to judge. -vern

My trick with Thom being assembled by particles was done by reversing the rendered sequence. You can't "reverse" particles so the best way has been covered. Get both animations the way you like them. Render the second "equence". Import that sequence and reverse the time. You could just render both sequences and composite with another program or you could composite both in AM or just use the one sequence as a rotoscope and "hide" that model and particle sequence in the chor. You would only have to render TWICE instead of 3 times. So you render one sequence to go backwards with the other model hidden or not active. Import that sequence as a rotoscope and reversed the time. Make THAT model not active and turn on the OTHER one. You could also throw in camera movement this way as well but would have to reverse the keys of the camera movement for the reversed rendered sequence. See the rendered sequence used as a rotoscope will match the camera movement but it's backwards in time... ... oh my... I'm getting dizzy... is anyone else's head spinning or is it just me? -vern

In my case there will be shots of stationary characters talking at a table facing each other, the camera locked. Behind one character will be a large set of windows overlooking a large production assembly line. I figure the "window" and frame of the window can be a non moving single image render. The background elements seen through the window can be a short looping animated cycle. The foreground elements and characters would be another layer in the composite. The character with no moving background elements is even easier. If I cut back and forth and keep the wide shots to a minimum this should save a lot of rendering time. -vern

I find it very distracting. Also if I forget to "turn it off" it scares the hell out of me when someone chimes in. Literally I jump out of my skin. Rush of adrenaline. I had to deactivate it. When I have AM open I plan to work not chat. I don't see the purpose of "chat" software inside a program for getting something done. If I need to chat there are plenty of dedicated programs for that and my hair won't turn white and fall out when I'm contacted. -vern

I plan to try something like this with my Terminator spoof to speed up render times. Since I plan to use an environment map for reflections it should work for the shiny stuff. I figure the shiny robots will require the most rendering time so if I can render them separately from the background elements it will speed things up a bit. The "background" elements will be animated but not as much. Don't many of the "big" studios (Pixar for example) use this technique? Rendering different elements in separate passes to composite? Is this done for rendering speed or other purposes? -vern

I think the question of "what is cheaper" to do, real vs. computer isn't about the cost. In some cases it might be the same cost to film real objects as opposed to using 3D. The benefits of 3D come in for absolute and total 100% control over every aspect. PERFECT product shots, PERFECT lighting, PERFECT camera moves. Nothing left to chance. Also in many situations the product may not even exist yet. A product might only exist as "blue prints" or "cad" designs. Being able to get a jump on the advertising in advance of production is always good. They do that with cars all the time. Print ads of cars for the next years model are often not real, just 3D. I remember having to do some stuff with a product that technically existed but... the production had changed slightly. The plastic was a different color. The shape had changed slightly. They didn't have any prototypes for photographing at all... so... had to use 3D. Real photography was not even an option at all. -vern

Uh... er... gravity? In what situation? Hair? Particles? Newton dynamics? Dynamic constraint? I believe hair and particles use the "force" setting in the chor which is on by default. Newton dynamics have the gravity set in the properties for each object. There is no "gravity" that you can "turn on or off" for plain objects. -vern

I thought Yves shader was "broken" in 15e? I was trying to use it a while back and it didn't project correctly. Has it been updated somewhere? Or is this a different shader? The spherical mapping didn't seem to work right. Fantastic amazing mind blowing renders by the way. Good grief you would almost think AM is some sort of professional 3D application... uh... wait... it is.... never mind. p.s. Where can I get those genetically modified "coreless" apples? Those will sell like hotcakes. -vern

Yes the fog image was removed per the client request. They wanted the logo on an entirely black background. I just made the camera color black so the fog is black. -vern