heyvern

Same answer: Right click, import model, select AM model. If you import this way into an open model window the mesh and bones are imported "inside" that model and there is no eternal link. If you right click on the objects folder and import a model it loads the model as a new model "object" and is linked to the model selected. p.s. I agree with the others, do all the tutorials. So many of these basic questions are answered. -vern

Just go under the view menu and select project workspace. -vern

Oh my aching head... Anyway. I apologize for putting you all to sleep with my Ruby on Rails demo. I have to admit in hindsight it was pretty "DRY". (that's an inside joke for RoR programmers: D-on't R-epeat Y-ourself.). If we do the skype thing again we must figure out a way to share the "screen" through the internet. I was amazed at how well that worked though. It really was almost like having Rich in the room... I have to admit... when his head was the size of a Cooper Mini on the big screen it was a bit... disconcerting. Yes! Please! You must post the "Teletubbies" image! As I said before, I think I will modify the Eugene skeleton model to look like a terminator... shouldn't take to long. I will send the scripts out tonight sometime. If anyone wants to try an Austrian accent go for it. In the meantime I will try some audio myself... as soon as I get my voice back... it's a bit rough right now from SHOUTING OVER THE MUSIC AT THE FUNERAL... that's something you don't hear everyday. ---------- I made it to my other party in plenty of time after the MAAM gig. I got a teeny tiny bit drunk and started telling people about Ruby on Rails... several of them passed out right in front of me. (The wife of the deceased tried to hit me when I was caught giving someone one of my business cards. I tried to be discrete but you got to do what you got to do right? Thanks Don!) People kept rubbing my bald head last night. Total strangers would come up behind me while I was sitting and just... rub my head for no apparent reason (several people said "Because It just feels nice"). I told them they have to make a wish first... and a small donation would be appropriate... give me a quarter, rub my head and your wish comes true... rub my head without warning and make me spill my drink... no wishes for you honey. -vern

As soon as I completely recover from my hangover... I will think about this... No more funerals for Vern for a while. June 21... at this point in time... sounds fine by me. I am going to make sure everyone knows this date so NOTHING gets scheduled for it. I have the worst luck with MAAM meting dates. -vern

A close colleague and friend of mine passed away very suddenly on friday. There is a huge party in his honor on Saturday. I've known this guy for 20+ years. The people at this party will be people I haven't seen in ages, old coworkers, old friends, old bosses... business opportunities. I must go. Anyway, this is NOT a sad morbid wake... this will be a huge blowout party, a celebration. He wanted it that way. There will be no viewing, no funeral just this huge party with drinking and food, music dancing... and whatever... I have to go. I must go. It doesn't start until about 3:00 on saturday and will probably go till the wee hours of the night. I figure I can spend 3 or 4 hours with you guys and cut out early. Sorry about this. It seems that the MAAM meetings for me are some kind of ethereal junction in the space time continuum. I will be there on Saturday I just won't be able to stay as long as usual. If we could move the start time back a little bit that would be nice but isn't necessary. I'm going to miss my old friend. I still can't believe it. I love the idea of a party though. He would have loved that. -vern

I'm in of course. I wish I could have it at my house but I assure you... it would NOT be fun... very small... no big screen... not a lot of outlets... no air conditioning... the house is a bit of a mess... very small. You'd think a small house would be easier to clean but I don't have a live in maid wife. (i'm kidding! No flames!) I will offer up another option for a future date. My parents house. No fast internet but they do have a new HD flat screen tv with computer hookup, lots of seating. We would have to end it early... 11 or 12 pm. They are in their 70's. I might look into renting some space for the day. Can't be too much on a Saturday and it would be pay back for all the hospitality from you guys. Let's go ahead and confirm that the next MAAM meeting (after this one) will be my job to supply the location. We can talk about this at the upcoming meeting. -vern

If anyone is interested... I have a geeky chiphead over the top nerdy demo for the meeting. I will bring my laptop and build a functional datadrive blog from scratch in 15 minutes using Ruby on Rails. I've been telling John about it. Finally! Something new and cutting edge in the web world that I know about before it's old news! This type of web site construction really is the future of the internet. A smart child could build Google with it. I plan to move my website to a host that supports RoR. I'm swamped with work at the moment. A big site update, a bunch of crappy print jobs... another poster for my brother (anyone heard of the play "Doubt"? Community theater... I shouldn't be surprised). I also landed a pretty fun... animation job that won't involve Animation:Master... sorry it's out of my hands. I had no choice in the program used. Looking forward to the meeting. -vern

I love that movie! I have it on DVD and have watched it a bazillion times. In celebration of your beautiful interpretation I will watch it again tonight as I work... make notes... check for accuracy. p.s. Some years ago they tracked down the original movie prop in some guys shed or garage... and restored it. There is an "extra" bit of footage they filmed just for the DVD with the original actors that takes place many years after the ending of the original film. Kind of schmaltzy but fun. -vern

Holy cow! It looks like you guys used my railing cookie cutter textures for Kuklip's workshop. And the curved iBeams on the walls are still there. Those were just crazy. I modeled the freaking holes! I guess I did a little bit for the project. Are there any clearer shots of that set or final animations? I haven't gone through all of the ones available yet. Huge downloads. -vern

I think I understand what you want but rather than using snap to grid you should just drag and rotate the whole lathed mesh so that one cp is on the point in the grid you want. It won't be exact but it should be close enough. Snapping to grid doesn't have any "options"... you either "snap" or you don't. -vern

Either date is fine by me. I want to see you guys sooner... but the later date gives me more time to "do stuff" with my new version of A:M. Woohoooo! I am on the same page with you guys now! Yeeehaaa! Maybe we can do some SIMPLE SHORT stuff with the "MAAM Squad" idea? I still like the idea of animating to the sound of one of the meetings or we can do some "improv" stuff on the fly and animate that. Something SHORT (15-30 seconds tops). I am thinking we go with AM despite my... uh... other pursuits. :oops:. I've got my own forum section I have to justify the privilege. Now that I have the latest version I will be paying more attention at the meetings. I especially want to play with the new hair jitter feature. Maybe you guys more familar with cloth and physics and other features like SSS can help with my AM "promo" animations (in Verns World). Rich, do you use any of those fancy shmancy skin shaders? I need a really good one for that "Change your pants" promo. -vern

I remember reading ages ago that the author of the newton plugin for AM was working on "rag doll" physics. I guess he hasn't finished that yet or is there a way to do that "by hand"? p.s. The guy falling should cut down on the caffeine. He looks a bit "jittery". -vern

I am not an expert with hair but I believe there are easier ways to make "pony tails" using single long "hair splines". You have one or three long hair splines that represent multiple hairs. Then you can control the twist and direction of the "pony tail". Like I said, I have not used this technique, I have only seen it in tutorials and examples on the forum. You can also control hair length, direction and density using texture maps. The values in the maps define those properties and you can still add in variations with the other hair tools. Use the maps to get a rough hair set up and then tweak it. I used maps for this hair example a long time ago. I'm out of practice. The color, length, direction, density are controlled with decals. I then went in and tweaked with the brush and tools. http://www.vernsworld.com/enchanted_forest/larry_roar2.mov -vern

It will be a lot of work. Is this a "passing fancy" for fun or is it needed for a real project? These are just my ideas on how to do this with video of a real or "live" person. I have never tried it and I am not a professional. I assume by "live" you mean "real" and not "real time". First you would need to import the footage as a rotoscope. Next you need to apply some kind of flame effect. How extensive do the flames need to be? would this human torch have any recognizable features? Or would it be completely encased in flames? If completely encased in flames you have two options: Mask the figure in the original footage so you could composite a flame effect over it or create a 3D figure in A:M as a "stand in" for the person in the video. This 3D "proxy" would almost completely eliminate the need for the live footage except for use for rotoscoping the motion. If you go that route I would use a "locked" camera on a tripod and film the scene both with and with out the person. If you don't do this you will need to use some kind of motion tracking software to account for the moving or hand held camera. This second footage with out the person could even be a still image but that often shows up in the final. Plus you may want other people in the scene. As long as they stay behind your "human torch" this would be easy to do. You would next need a realistic flame material probably using sprites or "spriticles". I think there are many examples of this floating around. Some probably on the AM cd or included with the application. If you go with the "3D" replacement model you would apply the flame effect to that model. You may need to "tweak" the model to match the basic size and proportions of your actor but it doesn't have to be exact or "realistic" since it will be entirely engulfed with flames. Next use the video footage with the actor to rotoscope the models movements to the motion of the person in the video. You will probably need to adjust the camera inside AM to roughly match the perspective in the imported video. This way you could animate a "transition" very easily by fading between the two (that's why you need the "locked" camera with a second version of the footage with no person in it). That's a lot of effort. It might not be the easiest way. I can think of some other possible alternatives using simpler shapes to apply over the video... but the same problems with motion tracking arise. You may want to consider using a product like AE which has all kinds of plugins available for adding flame effects to things and has motion tracking... of course... you would end up spending a few thousand dollars for that solution. Back to my original question, is this for fun? Will you do it once and and never again? Then experiment. Start small, set one of the models that came with AM on fire. You get that looking good you are half way there. The problem is that when we see these effects done really well in movies we want to try them out without realizing what goes into it. The movie makers didn't push a "human torch" button. They had to do a whole bunch of things first, had to plan it out carefully to get that effect. The final result just makes it look easy. ; -vern

Yes, you can export paths from Photoshop as Illustrator format and they can be imported to A:M. I've done this before. However I know that the latest versions of Photoshop have a new type of vector support for Illustrator format ("Smart" layers? Or something like that). I don't have that version of Photoshop so I'm not sure if the exports will work the same. -vern

Do you know what "rigging" means? It means to add bones to to a model so it can be animated. If you know how to rig than rigging a dog model shouldn't be that much different than rigging a two legged model. -vern

I don't think your answer was vague at all Veehoy. Anyone who uses computers for graphics and doesn't know what Adobe Illustrator is (even if they don't own it or use it) has been living under a rock for 20 years. Not all answers like that require a detailed response. That's what the internet is for. 20 year anniversary of Illustrator 88. Happy Birthday! Man I miss Mac OS 6. -vern

I find using copy/flip/attach to be a wonderful time saver with models like this. I only create one section and c/f/a it several times to create the final object. For instance create one section of the grate with one "hole" and c/f/a till I get as many sections as needed for one side, attach one corner, cfa that complete quarter section across, cfa for the whole thing down. I've done this before so that even if I don't like the completed model I just break the splines and delete 3/4 of the object, make tweaks, do it again. I have to admit that the AI import is really really... really fast. Even if you have to clean up some spline connections it is faster than other methods. -vern

Don't be silly. Some of us who are 30 years older can't even keep up with the 14 year olds. I can't type on those tiny cell phone keyboards and I bet you have a full head of hair. Of course, you can't drive so we do have one small advantage. -vern

That's just freaking brilliant. Tweak the timing and brightness of the expansion of the fireworks and the boolean shape and it would look exactly like fireworks. Probably a lot less "expensive" than particles. You could throw in a distortion grid to have the "particles" droop slightly before going out. -vern

A project is the "whole thing". All the models, actions, choreographies etc are stored either embedded or "linked" to external files inside a project. You can only have one project open at a time. A choreography, or model, or action etc, exists within a project. You can have as many of those as you want. AM by default will launch with the last project you had open unless you change this in the prefs. If you want to create a new project you go to the menu and select "New Project". -vern

You said you read the manual. Have you done any of the TAoA:M exercises? Yes it takes ages to drag a key from frame 0 to somewhere way down the time line. I don't think they suggest dragging all the keys that way in the tutorials. It would be better to copy it and paste the key frame or create the key on the frame itself. If you want to create a key on frame other than 0 that frame MUST be selected in the time line. It is much faster to type in the frame number in the animation controls at the bottom to skip around the animation. You can also shrink the time line so you don't have as far to scroll. There is a time line that "shows it all". The time line connected to the PWS. Robcat mentioned it in the post above your last post. It will list all the bones and you can see all the keys for each bone. Maybe you should stop this project for a while. Put it aside and do the TAoA:M exercises. They are "progressive" they build on each other. You learn new things with each tutorial. Each one builds from what you learned in the last one. The steps are the same for EVERYONE and since it is written down you can get the exact specific help you need from those who are familiar with them as you work through them. Trust me from what I've seen on this forum those exercises work. You have a whole bunch of people all doing the same thing. Lots of people to compare notes with. -vern

A pain? A pain? Let me tell you about pain... have you ever stepped on one of those army pieces from the game "Risk" in bare feet? That's pain. Yes, you do need to key all the bones that you want to move or not move. This is where the "key filters" and "key modes" are very important. You can try to guess which bones you want to key on your own and just key them by hand or you can click those key mode buttons at the bottom of the screen. If you rollover them it tells you what they do. One button means you key the whole skeleton when you move something, another will key only the bone and its children etc etc. I'm guessing pretty much since I don't have AM open right now. Look up "key filters" and "key modes" in the help. Those key modes will help you keep everything in place and not moving when you don't want it too. However it may also add more keys than you actually need. The 3 icons look like teeny tiny red boxes representing bones bone chains and a skeleton. They only work on ONE object. It won't key the ball AND the rabbit. If you move a bone in the rabbit it will key the bones of the rabbit. Keep going! Don't give up! At some point YOU WILL get that "Eureka" moment and when you look back on this a long time from now you will laugh about it... or cry... depends on if you just stepped on a Risk Game piece or not. EDIT: Aha! But you didn't key the rabbit knee bend at FRAME 30!!! The bend at frame 55 starts at frame 1 if you didn't make a key on frame 30 for the rabbits bones that move on frame 55. The keys for the rabbit on frame 30 should be the same as frame 1... not moving... not changed. The change happens from frame 30 to 55. p.s. My neighbors with the barking dog some of you know about? Yes well... they are raising pit bulls. She... had... puppies.... talk about a pain. -vern

You can copy and paste keys or to make a quick "key" for an element just select the object and nudge it with the arrow keys. Nudge it one way and then back. The object doesn't move but now you have a key frame. There are 2 time lines. One is part of the PWS (project work space) where all the project assets are listed. In my set up the PWS is on the left side. The "time line" is connected to it on the right. It will get "closed up" and hard to see if the model or working window is real big on the right side. The second time line is the one at the bottom. Both of these time lines work just a little bit differently. The blue bars indicate the length of a choreography (or action outside of the choreography), the red bars are the "actions" inside the model shortcut in the choreography. Actions length can be changed, the red bars indicate the length and cycling of an action. If you expand the properties triangle next to a model in the chor you see that red bar along with the animation keys. You can select individual elements (model, bones etc) and see the animated properties in the time line. I have to ask... and I don't want to get yelled at by Rodney ... but... ... have you done all the tutorials? Have you read through the "TAoA:M" (The Art of Animation Master)? All of these concepts with screen grabs should be in there. The technical reference manual would also include explanations for this. A lot of what we are covering here is in the manual and tutorials. There are also videos online that, while not specifically covering the time line will at least show the time line in use. Glad to help out but some effort from your side of the teacher/student relationship can help. I think you are getting close to understanding. Don't give up! -vern

Can't get much clearer... here's a picture: Single model in a choreograhy translated side to side/front to back Channel view showing the translation curves x (red line) y (green line) and z (blue line). -vern