heyvern

I was more concerned about the crashed hard drive than the tutorials! I am so relieved you got past that hurdle. That type of thing can be emotionally devastating. I know I've had some sleepless anxious nights, sweat pouring down my brow, desperately trying to boot my hard drive (and then frantically making back ups when I discover it was just a plug pulled out by mistake.) -vern

Oh please. He isn't going to "gut it". There is nothing in Obama's plan to gut the military. That is a huge gigantic in your face exaggeration. He can't "gut" the military. He wants to SAVE the military. He wants to make it stronger by cutting back on waste and stupid useless misguided wars. Oh please! Once again you are mixing up your facts. Afghanistan had the terrorists. We didn't finish the job there. Irag NEVER ATTACKED THE UNITED STATES. If Bush's concern was for the PEOPLE of Irag that should have been his only reason to attack. If he wanted the oil he should have made it clear. He and his administration LIED about terrorists and WMD in Iraq. This is FACT proven over and over and over. Obama is NOT a socialist. Also, what is so wrong with a little tiny bit of socialism? People have that word confused with something else. Canada, France, have the BEST "socialized" health care in the world. Yes it has some problems BUT IT FREAKING WORKS. It isn't perfect but it's TEN TIMES BETTER THAN WHAT WE HAVE. The administration is in the pocket of the pharmaceutical companies. Do you realize that 60% of all health care casts ARE PAPER WORK? Yes, forms. Something like 60% of employees that work in medical health care industry only fill out and process forms. Every freaking insurance company has a DIFFERENT FORM. This is because there are no rules, no one telling them to streamline and save money. Once again, Obama is not a "socialist" and you really need to do some research on that word. You don't really know what it means in todays world. You are repeating the propaganda and lies perpetrated by those who support the current administration. Yes Clinton may have missed the boat but he didn't have hindsight to know. AND HE TOLD THE BUSH WHITEHOUSE TO WATCH OUT FOR BIN LADEN! He warned them. When the Clinton administration left office they told Bush and his people that Al quaida was a bad thing and to keep an eye on them. Bush ignored those warnings. Maybe because he hated Bill so much who knows. Maybe because he didn't agree with it. Doesn't matter now, water under the bridge. 911 happened a year into the Bush presidency. Bush had nearly a YEAR to "fix" any mistakes that Clinton made. Maybe if Gore had won in 2000 he would have LISTENED to the warnings instead of ignoring them. Don't try to shift blame of 911 onto Clinton. That's just ridiculous. 911 was no one's "fault" except the terrorists who perpetrated it. It happened. It was tragic. Our whole government dropped the ball INCLUDING Bush. Get your facts straight... not much point in asking that because whenever people like you hear the truth you deny it as a cover up or conspiracy. The truth just doesn't work. Obama is not a socialist, he is not a muslim, and he isn't going to "gut" the military or turn us into a "third world country". McCain's money did not come from organized crime, and he is not funded by Alquaida and he is not "just" a wrinkly old man. Both candidates could run this country without a hitch. I am sure of that. My concern is HOW they will do it. What will happen in the long term? One has a status quo philosophy. The other wants to try a new approach. Neither idea will destroy America. We're to strong for that. A single president couldn't destroy America, although Bush has made a good start. We need some CHANGE. And that word is not some "catch phrase" made up by advertising consultants... it means what it says... CHANGE. We need a new different direction. -vern

There's a big difference between having a strong offense and knowing when to use it, and just throwing in the gauntlet at the drop of a hat. I'm not talking about walking into a potential negotiation with another country bearing cookies and tea. My feeling is that the threat of military force MUST be kept as THE ABSOLUTE LAST RESORT or it will lose all its impact as a deterrent. That has already happened. Every country knows now that the US military is stretched to the limit. We need to get the majority of our forces back from Irag. Replenish it and then NOT USE IT SO MUCH. A military is necessary. I don't think the US shouldn't have a strong military. I just don't think we need to throw that out as the only option every time some country saber rattling or does something we don't agree with. Sometimes NOT showing force is the right thing to do. We haven't done that in years. Every situation, North Korea, Iran... it's always "Military action is not off the table." Rumors start about when we are going to bomb Iran (McCain singing "Bomb Bomb Bomb Iran") We shouldn't even say that ever, even if it is true. It sends the wrong message. It makes us a bully. The whole conflict with Russia and Georgia is a result of Bush's bullying of Russia. Pushing them constantly. Military force in the mid east, missile defense in Poland etc etc. Russia is pissed off with a capital "P". The front page of one of their newspapers had a huge middle finger. It represents Russia telling the west to go ____ themselves. Russia doesn't care about sanctions. The west needs Russia more than they need us. That is a direct result of our arrogant bullying attitude we have used for the last 8 years. If it doesn't stop it isn't going to end well. We are on the verge of another cold war because of the republicans and George Bush. You can say "Well, McCain isn't George Bush." but that's a load of crap. McCain has followed along with Bush's plan all along. He votes with him on everything and agrees with his policies. Even now his statements about what is going on in Georgia are bullying tactics. Putin directly referred to McCain when he accused the US of intentionally inciting violence in Georgia to "Give one candidate an advantage over the other". We have to give Russian something to feel good about. In the past we skirted the fact that Russia lost some of it's "power" when it changed its course. We didn't rub their faces in it. Now we just keep pushing them. Putin is not the kind of leader to push around. He's a tough guy. He won't take it... and now he's had it. The situation in Russia is the result of Bush's failed international policies. Enough saber rattling. Let's find a new way to deal with these situations. In our current situation, our military couldn't handle much more conflict. We are stretched so thin right now. And everyone knows this. -------------- Maybe BEFORE the convention but no longer. I don't know how much of the convention you watched but Hilary and Bill nailed it. They were clear about their support. From what I heard, yes, Hilary supporters were FURIOUS. So angry and heartbroken they couldn't stand the thought of supporting Obama. That will pass. They spent years working for here campaign. they so hoped to see her as the first woman president. Ultimately most will come to the conclusion that Barack represents most of the same values and beliefs that Hilary has. The new poll numbers have Obama ahead by 8 points. And this was taken before McCain announced his VP. Barack's speech on Thursday was viewed by 39 million people. More than the Oscars, or the last night of the Olympics. More than the season finale of American Idol... but that last one doesn't really excite me so much. All those people saw that speech. Even if you don't support Barack, that speech was powerful. I don't think McCain could deliver his own message (whatever it is) as powerfully as Obama did thursday night. Now I'm anxious to watch the Republican convention. Can't wait to see what their focus will be now that the "experience" issue is totally off the table. I also can't wait to see the debates. I just can't imagine how Palin will hold up against Biden. I don't think she has the experience to perform under that kind of pressure especially from Joe Biden. I don't think she has been "tested" enough. Barack has already shown what he can do. In a debate the Obama/Biden ticket is going to be hard to beat. We have to wait and see. -vern

She said today she WILL get the votes of the disappointed Hillary supporters. Mike Moore on Count Down tonight said the republicans must think American women are stupid if you just throw any old woman into the mix and automatically they will support her regardless of her politics. She is basically against everything that Hilary and her supporters are for. I think if the democrats were asked to pick the worse VP candidate for McCain... she would have been in the top 3 at least. Look at this woman... listen to her politics, her beliefs... and imagine her in your brain... really imagine it... it's real... imagine her as THE FREAKING PRESIDENT! I can't do it. I start to get anxious and can't breath. Palin as president is like a SNL sketch or one of those stupid satire movies. It would make a great sit com... not a great reality. Unfortunately for me... She is SOOOOO FFREAKING HOT I may just vote for McCain so I get to watch her on TV more. Maybe if she wore more low cut tops, left a few buttons undone... man she could pull in the horny man vote big time. -vern

I screwed up the last render totally... and now I have a huge project I'm working on that pays actual dollars... priorities priorities. I keep forgetting to start the new render when I go to sleep. I am usually so tired I barely make it to my bed before passing out... when I wake I slap my head and say "Dang! I should have started that rendering!". I am thinking the moment has passed. It probably isn't relevant anymore. -vern

That has been my point all along. Recently the US has totally rejected Russia's statement that WE manipulated the violence in Georgia for "political purposes". Russian is trying to use our local politics to justify their attack on Georgia. Bush and McCain are both "hard liners", warmongers to use a really strong word... but I think it applies. I agree we need someone with a level head. Being "diplomatic" does NOT mean being a wimp. You can still be tough, we would still have our military if the absolute need arises, but we can't have a president who threatens military action every time someone makes a move we don't like. It makes US "feel good" to do that... but the other side doesn't see it the same way. Think about it in your own head. When someone is "mean" or "bad" to you and you make threats or get angry, it makes YOU feel good. It has NO effect on the other side. The emotional response is completely different. Obama says in his speeches one of the important things he learned from his mother was to put himself in the other persons shoes. Imagine how they feel when they are being bullied or pushed. When you can REALLY do that, really imagine how it feels to be on the other side when someone is making bold threats and demands you can better understand the situation. That is DIPLOMACY. You know the other side may not deserve such consideration but you have to at least TRY to find some non violent way to resolve conflicts. If we don't try then... my god... there will be new wars and conflicts popping up every other day. If the US continues to be a bully in the world's school yard... no one will listen to us. Constantly making threats of military attack isn't going to solve anything. We need to become more of the negotiators and diplomats. Of course, terrorists are a different topic. They aren't from one country, they don't behave like rational individuals, they don't respond to diplomacy. I have no answers or suggestions for dealing with terrorists. -vern -vern

Dang... I've never been Rickrolled before. there goes my record. Does this count as an actual "Rickrolling"? Or is this going to be a new craze that sweeps the internet? -vern

Man... just watched Joe Biden's speech tonight... man oh man. I like that guy. He's a "real" person. He isn't a fake. There just isn't anything insincere about him. He's just a regular guy and he can talk. Most of these conventions bore the freaking heck out of me. the last democratic convention was a total snooze fest. This one felt like a Madonna concert with out the video of Hitler! Truth be told... I've never been to a Madonna concert, but if I saw one I would hope it was just like this democratic convention... uh... all 2 hours of it I've seen anyway (I don't even know who most of those people are who they get to speak.) Has anyone been watching any of the MSNBC coverage? Rachel Maddow looks a bit rough around the edges. She looks... tired... dark circles under the eyes.. something's wrong with her makeup. She needs more rest. By the way, I predicted her new show the first time I saw her on Count Down. I haven't heard her radio show but I really really like her. It might be the fact that she is an exact twin of my younger sister. Put those two together they look like they could be sisters. Of course I'm sure my sister had the short haircut first. I'm so tired of this election process... I just want it to be over already... so I can decide if I need to move to Europe or I can just stay here. I heard that Europe's population growth is way down. They need more people! If McCain wins that is always an option for me. Since I have absolutely no clue about European politics or politicians I won't really care so much who wins and won't get so angry all the time. Plus... they have nude beaches. There you have it. A slice of my mind. I go from Joe Biden's speech to nude beaches in just a few sentences. -vern

Bush and Chenney's goal was to eliminate the DEMOCRATIC party, maybe not elminate it but make it powerless. They were using lobbying and changing the rules to lock in the Republicans in the government. They did a pretty good job of it in the first four years. Look at what the republican congress did? Nothing much but let Bush get away with what can only be described as crimes. and if Bush hadn't made so many bad decisions and gotten such low approval ratings he might have accomplished the task and gone even further. If Bush had a solid approval rating right now McCain would be a shoe in. I've always have had some negative feelings about any administration. They all do stupid things. But for the first time I actually FEAR the current administration. It has whittled away at our constitutional rights until now they can basically arrest anyone they want, without cause. I am talking anyone, even US citizens. They promise not to do anything bad but with that kind of power it's bound to be abused. We need someone new in there. Someone who can try to stop this "big brother" mentality. McCain would jump at the chance to take advantage of these new rules for "fighting terrorism". He is a military guy. They love not having limits on their power. He is from the party of Bush. The party that almost owned washington because of the lobbyists that were being pulled in from republican politicians. In the last 40 years there have only been 3 democratic presidents,. I think it is time for a new person at the helm. Someone new. Someone with some new ideas. See I listen to what both candidates say and I just don't believe in McCain's sincerity. I think it's a fake. He wants to be president. I actually believe Obama does want to make changes for the better. I wasn't too sure about Hilary to be honest. I was nervous about her. I actually liked Huckabee... maybe I'm an idiot but I kind of wouldn't have minded him that much. McCain just rubs me the wrong way. I can't trust him. He comes across like a president who will have to rely too much on advisor's. Look what happened to Bush doing that too much. McCain says he doesn't know anything about economics, he doesn't know which side is which in Iraq (till Lieberman whispered in his ear, he didn't know that Czechoslovakia no longer exists. That's not good. It makes me nervous. Then add on the fact he doesn't know how many homes he owns. You know, he should have thought of that before. He should have known that might be an issue and just wrote it down on a slip of paper in his wallet. This election is probably more important than any in a very long time. this election is historical. It will be talked about for a long time to come. It will be interesting to look back in 4 years to see how things went. -vern

Oh please. No it isn't. It's a lot less offensive than what the other side is saying about Obama. It's amazing how the republicans and their supporters STARTED OUT saying vile horrible lies about Obama but MAN! Say one tiny little negative about McCain and you're the Devil. McCain has YET to denounce that book full of lies about Obama. Yet today Obama and Hilary Clinton denounced and spoke out against Madonna's comparison of McCain to hitler in her concert video. McCain needs to do the same with that book... but he won't because negative campaigns work. Bush won two elections with that technique. Honed it to a razor's edge in '04 with the swift boat guys. Did you know years later they were found guilty? The republican party DID give them money. Small news article. No one cares because it's ancient history. Everyone supporting McCain talks about the "surge" being a success. The war had been going on for years before the surge. The only reason the surge was successful was that it couldn't possibly get any worse than it was. It was successful compared to the failure UP TO THAT POINT. The war isn't over, McCain HAS SAID HIMSELF that he wants to show more military muscle. McCain has also said he would not rule out the draft... not that little slip the other night, he supports the draft. His campaign tries to downplay that. When I say that McCain will be another 4 years of Bush, I'm serious. McCain's campaign platform is almost identical to what Bush has been doing for the last 8 years. War, military, cutting domestic programs... uh... sorry... GUTTING domestic programs. That is what I mean. McCain is a carbon copy of Bush in many ways. It's the same mentality, the same hard core military thinking. Go to war instead of diplomacy. His solution for everything is to use the military. He keeps saying the US has to be "tougher" in the world arena. I honestly don't know why the vets support him, why he keeps talking about helping the troops, he's voted against every bill put up to add money for helping the troops. All politicians "change their minds"... but changing his mind is like changing his clothes. He does one thing and says another. He changes his position in stump speeches ON THE SAME DAY. Another issue that concerns me is Bush's attempt to ELIMINATE the two party system and erode the rights of the American citizens. If McCain gets in all that will continue and get worse. We desperately need some new blood in the white house... maybe Obama isn't THE ABSOLUTELY PERFECT CHOICE but he's better than we've seen in a while. We need some new ideas not the same old same old. There have been good republican presidents in the past but I don't feel that McCain is going to make any difference. He will be a continuation of the same beliefs and policies as the last administration. My GOD we need someone new. There were other republican candidates that I would have felt much better about. I was so hoping McCain would not win. His advertising is repugnant. Obama HAS TO play the same game or he ends up like Kerry did when he refused to address the attacks. Smear campaigns WORK. -vern

I've never heard of a third party candidate that takes away votes from the republicans. I wonder why? I guess they are conservative so that kind of "change" doesn't appeal to them. As long as the candidate says all the right things (even if it's different every time to different groups) they just vote for him. Seriously though, I don't think the majority of voters actually make an effort to look into anything. If the commercials say Obama is responsible for high gas prices then it must be true. If a book says Obama is a radical extremist muslim then it must be true. The problem with these smear campaigns is exactly what happened with Hilary and Obama. You can't just sick that genie back in the bottle. Once you go down that path there is no way to fix it later if the plan didn't work. What bothers me are the Hilary supporters who are so mad that Obama won they are going to vote for McCain. Does this mean Hilary is more like McCain? And now Bill is making stupid statements that Obama isn't fit to be president. Do these morons really want another "4 years of Bush"? Does Hilary really want to be president so bad she would encourage this? I just don't get it. Seriously though. McCain would be just another 4 years of exactly the same thing... it might even get worse. Expect more wars, expect the draft. Anyone young enough, if McCain does win, pack your bags, you're going to war... or Canada. -vern

I disagree. I think the house issue points to a lack of understanding on McCain's part to really understand who is hurting in America. It is the people who don't own 10 houses that are going to elect or not elect him. It is also that majority that is hurt by policies enacted that promote and aid the wealthy. If he doesn't understand that then how can he be of a mind to help those people? He is more inclined to help the rich friends he has and those that helped his campaign. If he really really cared about the poor in this country he could sell 5 of those houses and donate the proceeds to a charity. -vern

They are all transparent. The darker bottles don't show it as much. You still need a completely separate RGB image that is totally white with the same alpha channel as the labels. Add this to the decal images folder and set it to "transparency". this will cause just the label area to be 100% opaque (it's white no transparency). That is how I did my sample. Just a plain white TGA the same size and the same alpha channel as the color label. I created one from the "latte" label. It's a tga so I zipped it. label_transparency.zip p.s. The beauty of this is you can change the value of the decal image (transparency, specular etc etc) by just changing the opacity of the image in the properties. By using a decal image this way you can have irregular shaped variable values for anything OVER an already defined base surface attribute. Easier that creating the whole mask in photoshop and having to go back all the time to make small adjustments. Transparency gets a bit wonky around the edges. It doesn't play well with soft edge alpha channels. -vern

Hogwash. a 401K changes constantly. You have to check every day to know precisely how much is there, the stock market goes up or down, your employer changes their contribution etc etc. An "investment" in stocks or the bank is not ANYTHING like investing in property. The house issue is not about investments, it's about being out of touch with the people you are trying to reach. It's about the "haves" and "have nots". McCain has between 7-10 houses... but he doesn't know for sure... so you have a bunch of people who can't pay their mortgage, losing their houses and he wants their vote. That is the issue. The mindset. You also forget that McCain has been calling Obama elitist and out of touch with Americans. That is the pot calling the kettle black. The fact is Obama is closer to and more in touch with the average American that McCain is. Maybe they are going on a bit much about this house issue but it had to be done. The record had to be set straight. If Obama is out of touch with Americans where does that put McCain who can't remember how many homes he owns or rents? There are probably only a handful of people in America rich enough not to know how many homes they own. Even those who invest in realestate know how many homes they own at a given time. If you don't you are STUPID! ---------------- There will never be a third party in the US, not one that has any chance of getting more than a few percent of the vote. It will never happen. Third party is a joke. The only thing a third party could do is effect the chances of one of the other two. It's like a boxing match and some guy from the audience jumps in the ring. He might swing a few punches and get some applause but he never wins the match. -vern

Now I remember!!!!! I used an alpha channel on the transparency/specular maps!!! If the label is perfectly "square" or rectangular the alpha is not needed. If the label is an odd shape or circular you need the alpha in the color decal and the masks. Create the surface attributes for the bottle as normal, just the way you have. Make a color decal with an alpha for the label, same as the transparency and specular. Using the same alpha to mask out the decal images!!! The masks of course will be rgb instead of grayscale. Now the decal will work on the bottles surface but still show the label without having to worry about "matching" the transparency mask to the bottles surface properties. -vern

p.s. So... you let Merrill Lynch cash your checks? Buy your cars? Your house? Yes you let people "handle things" but you know WHAT they handle. What? because because his son worked for MBNA? Because MBNA donated to his campaign? Because of that bankruptcy bill? Whoopy freaking do. Good god people. If that's the ONLY stuff you got bring it on. Compared to John McCain Biden is the second coming (well third if you count Barack. ). Attack Joe Biden? No way dude. Joe is my guy. He lives in Wilmington man! He's like... going to be VP and he's from right next door! He's the coolest dude! He's so cool. And come on people, I'm a guy but still... Biden is very attractive. Wilmington will be famous! I may get on TV some day! (look for me in the background with a sign whenever they have news from Willmington.) Even his "plagarism" is blown out of proportion. Who cares! Bush doesn't even write his own speeches! AND he got D's in college. So NONE OF YOU OR ANYONE ELSE EVER EVERY CHEATED IN SCHOOL? Yeah right. I bet 99% of anyone who went to school plagarised something from someone. That doesn't make it right and he paid the price in '88... just like McCain is paying the price right now for his tiny little house/s faux pas. Side note: ALL of the credit card companies and big businesses like to incorporate in WILMINGTON DE. That is how the city makes big bucks and encourages banks like MBNA to set up here and bring TONS OF JOBS AND LOTS OF MONEY INTO THE CITY. And yes, it is also why the interest rates on said cards are high but that isn't Biden's claim to fame. You can blame that on Governor Pierre S. du Pont. That was his doing. Did you ever see the movie "Fight Club"? Set right here in good old Wilmington DE. That last scene looking out the window at all the bank headquarters? Yeah... totally fake... I walked past all those buildings for 12 years when I worked down town. And no, they didn't film any of that movie here. p.s. Good GOD! Did anyone hear Michelle Obama's speech tonight? Freaking awesome. SHE should be the VP. Crap... she should run for president. That woman has a silver tongue. I think I'm in love... she's so... tall. -vern

Another trick which works almost as well is not to peak the points. Use a tiny magnitude on the bias. It adds a tiny bit of "edge" to catch the highlights. I cheated that way with my terminator model... worked pretty good. Even with a bump or texture... it still really pays it off NOT to have razor sharp edges. If this were for anything other than live action compositing i wouldn't make a big deal out of it... but when it needs to blend in with the real world, you almost have to have the bevels. Just my humble opinion. If I wanted bevels so badly I would have volunteered myself. -vern

Yes, but.... in the past... it would still have adverse effect on the reflection and specular of the underlying mesh because of shadows. It could be that is no longer the case with more recent versions. -vern

I have to disagree. I think THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES needs to BE AWARE of things like this. John McCain should know EXACTLY how many properties he has. What happens if one of those "'people' who manage his investments" decides to sell off one of the properties and steal the money? He has no idea what he owns so he wouldn't know if it was missing. That is how things like that happen. When you have so much money you don't HAVE to keep track of things like this you can get lazy about other things. I would hate to think he becomes president and can't remember how many troops are in the field or the names of political leaders, or the names of countries, or any number of other important things that need to be kept track of. I don't expect him to remember EVERYTHING, but not knowing how many properties you and your wife own is... it's just crazy stupid. It's not good. Maybe rich people have this problem. It's fine for them but NOT for someone who wants to run the country. I can't give him a pass on this. -vern

I asked this before.. Where does this idea come from? Why do people think it? Like I said before, if nobody ever said this, I would never know people thought it, as all the mechanical models I have seen have been amazing. It's the bevels. If you build a "box" and don't bevel the edges it doesn't look so hot. Even "other" programs make crappy boxes if you don't bevel the edges. It's all about thinking "out side the box". That would be my only negative comment on the ship so far. There are hard edges with no bevel. If this is to be used within live action (very realistic) those impossibly hard edges will stick out like a sore thumb. In real life nothing has edges like that. This is what makes a lot of stuff look a bit "fake". A bit of a small bevel will add the realism to make it perfect. Just my humble opinion... uh... of course... I bevel everything, including spheres which is very tricky to do . Seriously though it's an obsession with me. I even bevel the edges of metal screws... total waste of time. -vern

John, did cookie cut work well? I mean all the speculars and reflections weren't effected by the "overlapping" geometry? I haven't done that label trick in ages and had problems with cookie cut decals on a mesh over another mesh. I ended up using a set of masks for transparency specular etc. I created all the decals in one photoshop document so they were all lined up. The label with alpha was the color. I then created masks for transparency and specular etc etc with the label area masked out or adjusted (specular) to give a different surface quality in AM for the label area. Then dropped all the images into one decal. It's been a while since I did it I may have missed a step. -vern

I'm rendering a new version. Still takes a bit of time. I did find some naughty materials and decals in there slowing things down so at least I trade the time for quality. Still going to take about 4 hours to render but at least it's final resolution with some multipass. I tried the shaded render with mulitpass but it still looked like crap. I was so stupid though, thought I was rendering image sequences so I stopped the rendering on the section where the camera stops only to find I hadn't changed the setting... and was rendering AVI... had to start over... ARGH! I don't know if this version will be that much better. I totally redid the house so it looks more like a mansion, added a circular driveway, fountain, and a swimming pool. It will allow me to composite in additional stuff later without rerendering the whole thing and update it on youtube if I want to (have to find my dang login). I was thinking when the camera stops moving (wide shot) having a bunch of little people drive in to do gardening, work on the pool etc. I suppose this news item is still "fresh". They should keep this one going for a while I would hope. -vern

The main problem with the quality was my desire to get this done QUICKLY (before the news cycle passes on to something else). For some reason it indicated 17 hours to render... and this is on my faster new PC. So I just did a shaded render with 1 pass, no shadows. Only took 20 minutes but that still seems long for really nothing in there but.... bunches of houses and cars. It is however a very long animation. It could be the models I used have some funky materials... I pulled them off the first Extras disk without any modifications. I should look through and remove materials or decals that might be slowing it down. Or use instances in the chor rather than jamming everything in one big model... I was in a hurry. -vern

Nancy you are brilliant. Your ideas for the beginning and how to handle the "lack" or actually not needing a lot of animation is dead on. I was considering having "lights" in the windows indicating the voices... or shadows passing in front of windows showing the John character moving through the huge house looking for... a house. I also thought of using the AM "cartoon" style I tried years ago. Using images as cookie cutter decals on very low patch shapes and do a "jib jab" sort of style of character animation inside the house (rather than an the outside shot as it is now). John rummaging through drawers and closets, pockets etc. The characters would be very simplistic "puppets" (some of you may know I use another 2d application for this kind of thing but since the idea originated here I would like to do it with AM.) This however would require a LOT more animation and my schedule it kind of tight right now (new animation job! WooHoo!). However I really like your idea Nancy. I can see it clearly in my head the way you described it. p.s. I am thrilled that the small bit of animation I actually did read at all. The "senior" moment when he walks to the wrong side of the car was my intention. p.s.s. What are the copyright issues with the music? Does this fall into the "fair use" category? Maybe I should get the midi version and use Reason to mix the music track. Does SNL have to pay royalties when they use it? -vern

I would like to clear up a misstatement on my part. Apparently Joe Biden and his family DID NOT live IN my neighborhood when I was a child. He lived nearby and my older sister knew him and worked on his campaign. However my father DID borrow his ladder once to fix the gutters on the house... my father may still have that ladder but I can't be sure. They all look kind of the same. I was very young at the time and for some reason thought he lived in that house on the corner. Apparently that was some other Delaware politician who isn't as famous. Easy to get them confused. -vern