heyvern

When I use a distortion grid or box during modeling I always select more points than I really want to distort. I increase the grid resolution so when I distort the areas "inside" the box that I want to change there is a natural smooth falloff. This would of course depend on the patch resolution of the model. I haven't tried it with an animated distortion. -vern

Yes you can use materials for any type of attribute. Materials have the same surface attributes as a model or group. So you use the combiners to create interesting "patterns". It is the attributes of the underlying combiner that define how the material "looks" on the model or group. For example to create a black and white chess board effect you use a checker combiner with a black color attribute and a white attribute. But those surface attributes also have all of the other surface properties, specular, ambiance, transparency... etc etc. By mixing and combining these you can create incredibly detailed and complex materials. Keep in mind that very complex material combiners can create long render times. I created a pretty convincing "semi-translucent" foam packing material (the "rubbery" kind used to pack electronics) using materials with several "layers" of translucency and transparency. Hope this helps. -vern

Depends on how you need to use this object. If you are going for a "simple" but detailed "realistic" look... I would probably try to model this. Booleans are great and work well but it requires setting it up with bones and I believe is like a "post" effect... you can't "see it" in the modeling window like actual geometry... I think... this may have changed in later versions. Also if the booleaned shapes move around and interact with other parts of the model you have to organize the bone hierarchy so they don't punch through the wrong thing. Another trick would be to look at what is really needed. If you need a "pin" through a cylinder you only need the bevel on the edge of the "hole"... it doesn't have to be a real hole. Maybe a bump or displacement image on a simple mesh in that spot would be enough. -vern

I like that there is some wear and tear on the surface. The only thing that might make it better would be to consider the actual wear patterns of this kind of device. There should be damage and wear in specific locations like where it is held or the exposed edges from pulling it out of a holster or something. Where heat from the discharge would effect the front etc. That would add more realism. The random scratches just seem like that... random. If you bought a brand new blaster and dropped it down some stone steps you might get scratches like that. I'd like to see some specific wear. Just my opinion. Very detailed model needs a touch more. Maybe a beefier handle for such a large weapon. It might be difficult to hold. -vern

Belle-Tire? Seriously though. I LOVE this Tireman character. This is one of those wonderful simple advertising gimmicks that can gain cult status. What an incredible opportunity! A character that can only say one thing. You could do so much with that. I hope he never gets more lines. The expression on his face at the end of that one commercial where he kind of shrugs because there isn't anything else to say but "Belle-Tire" is priceless. Does anyone remember the very small "bit" character in Tron? It was literally a "bit" and could only say yes or no. And yet was hysterically funny. Jeff Bridges was its straight man. I always wished that character hung around longer. -vern

Ahhhhhhgggggg! Belle-Tire!!! Belle-Tire... Belle-Tire... Belle-Tire... Belle-Tire... I see it... everywhere now. it's in my brain. I can't hide from it. When I get up in the morning I see tiny tread marks on the floor. I hear the muffled cry of "Belle-Tire" behind the closed bathroom door. It uses all the hot water for its showers! It ate all the cereal and used all the milk! Last night I heard it rustling under my bed. It talks in its sleep... Belle-Tire... Belle-Tire... Belle-Tire... How much more of this can I take? I don't know. That horrible smiling face! Does it never get angry? Does it never get sad? When I scream and rave at it it only smiles innocently and says "Belle-Tire". I beg it to write down the phone messages but the notes say "Belle-Tire called at 2:00". I only have one choice left. I will go mad if I don't. Please forgive me... uh... wait... no... stop that... you can't... stop it! Stop it! Get away from me.... Belle-Tire Belle-Tire Belle-Tire Belle-Tire HAHAHAHHAH Belle-Tire. -vern -Belle-Tire

I will bring my "Lost World" project... I can show off some AM work for a change... ... along with... that... other... thing of course. Don, speaking of that "other thing" I should give you a copy and see what you think. It should be done by then. -vern

Yes please. -vern

Someone actually makes laptops without a CD drive? -vern

Here's one for you! Naomi Campbell's Soup! It would just be water in a can. -vern

There is an original 1973 "Ajerx" sticker going for $65 on eBay... I had a bunch of that one as a kid as well as the "Crust Toothpaste" sticker and all the classics. It brought back memories. I had those stuck to my notebook in school. I remember now... they were stickers. But I also had a huge stack of cards as well. -vern

I remember those! As a young child I collected them. I had bunches of them. They came with bubble gum as I recall, like baseball cards. They were fantastic. As I remember it the ones I collected were on cards though, not stickers... I think. Not sure. It was a long time ago (1970's). -vern

Try searching "RebumpX" instead. This is a terrain creation tool from an image correct? There is a link to a Japanese site doing a keyword search on the ARM (www.lowrestv.com/arm). The link is from 1998 and doesn't load. My guess is that this program is long gone by now or it has changed names. I believe there is a more recent application that does the same thing if you search through the forum. I remember someone creating something like this for AM fairly recently. -vern

Not sure but I don't think using an old version disk from someone else after an update is technically "legal" in the strictest interpretation. If you enjoy using AM and have used this "borrowed" copy for a while... ... pay the piper. Save those pennies and bite the bullet... okay I'm out of cliches. -vern

It is never "wrong" to jump right into the deep end with something like this in my opinion. However, just be warned a lot of the "mistakes" will require reworking down the road. I remember years ago jumping into a complex project before having a lot of experience with splines and how they should be constructed. My final model was good in my opinion but some time later I looked at it again, and realize how bad it really was. I too never finished all the tutorials. A lot of my skill with AM was learned doing it on my own (and from advice on the forum of course). I admit in hind sight that I could have avoided a lot of trial and error if I had done more of the tutorials in the beginning. I would suggest that you may want to review some of the basic modeling "rules" about splines and how they work. There are some issues with this model regarding creasing and spline placement that at some point you may find yourself reworking a lot of it. Also you may want to think about the shape of the model in terms of how to create it from a simpler shape. For instance I often look at the final model goal in terms of which direction the splines flow naturally... is it a cylinder? Spherical? Extruded? Could I lathe an outline to create the basic shape or should I extrude a cross section? How will parts be connected? Where will the 5 point patches go so they aren't "in the way". I have found over the years that imagining the final in my head in this way saves wasted effort in the beginning. For instance right off the bat I see your ship model as being created using an extruded shape that is modified along the length. This would avoid the awkward "caps" on the outer ends of the "wings". You would only need to cap the front tip and the back. The "nacels" or engines could be connected with 5 point patches (like "arms") instead of just dead ended into the body. The whole model would be constructed like a continuous cylinder or "tube" shape. This would entirely eliminate most of the awkward 5 point patches in areas where they aren't really needed. More detail could be added in certain areas using hooks. Because of the extruded cylindrical nature of the whole shape they would be easier to add in. These are only suggestions. As I said jumping right in is not bad and is a great way to learn... as long as you don't let the potential frustration get you down too much. -vern

"tens of thousands" of patches isn't an absolute necessity. Even for this project. It depends on where you put the detail and how you connect it to other areas. With mechanical modeling like this you can use more hooks and 5 pointers with out worrying about it. Most mechanical surfaces don't move like organic modeling. I saw an engine model in another post that had lots and lots of ringed surfaces as actual modeled geometry. It was only one "section" but was still "only" around 4,000 patches and had tremendous detail. Up close the modeled geometry is going to look fantastic. From a distance you could create that detail using maps. You have broad "flat" areas. Having a ton of points in those areas may not be a good idea. Having lots of splines running through "flat" areas can make keeping them smooth later kind of difficult for the beginner. Once again it depends on how you want to apply the "details" like window edges and rivets, seams etc... with a bump or displacement map? Or with actual splinage? How closely will the camera get to the model? Those are questions that go into how the model is created. Listen to me! I should practice what I preach... I tend to go way overboard on detail and too much splinage where it isn't needed, but I still don't usually end up with tens of thousands of patches... my computer can't handle it. I remember the ridged cap of a plastic bottle I did. I could have created the ridges with splines but used a bump map instead. Looked just as good and at a fraction of the patches (left me more patch space for the dang fully functional detailed hinge on the back of a lid that no one could see anyway. ). -vern

John? I think you've "gotten out of the box" again. You know what's going to happen if you keep trying to think "outside of it" like this? One of these days you won't be able to find your way back to the box to think outside of it and then you will be lost to us. Oh my.. I think I took that analogy on a long trip and got lost myself... Your experiments are a never ending joy of discovery. hee hee hee... mutant jello... mutant jello cinder blocks... mutant lime jello cinder blocks. -vern

Great computer illustration! I do the exact same thing. Some small innocuous clip art is needed. Just to break the boredom I will turn this into the Sistine Chapel and spend loads of time on it. It's fun AND therapeutic. ---------- And yes, you must watch out for HD stuff now. I heard a funny story about that. Someone put in a bunch of "jokes" or easter eggs in tiny little background elements on an animation project. After going to HD the detail was so accurate they could see and read EVERYTHING in the background. HD is going to be tricky for that kind of thing. -vern

Is it possible that this poor individual just has really bad translation software? He might be referring to his previous, even more confusing post, "How do I play A:M". Can you imagine the disappointment of launching AM expecting a cool new game? -vern

Are you talking about the links to the ARM site that use to be here on the Hash forum? I think they moved it to the archives section. If you use the forum "jump" menu at the bottom of the screen and scroll down it is right underneath "OT" under "Archives". -vern

I have to say this about John's crib... He makes "geek" look cool as heck man... that office is to die for... and he has the weapons* to do it as well. I worry about that poor cat if someone ever breaks in while John's in his office. Rich? A donkey for Christmas? "You'll put your eye out kid!" Oh good lord. That is wrong on so many levels. And I thought I had finally cleansed that image from my brain. Don, I have changed my mind and decided to start off with the movie "Clerks 2". Talk about unrealistic plot lines. Everyone knows there is only ONE trilogy and it is "Back to the Future". *If the government is reading this, those "weapons" are just decorative. No midnight raids are necessary. -vern

Don't fret too much Zach, John's TV was too small (see the picture) and the sound system was just awful. You could barely see the atomic structure of the skin cells on Lex Luther's face... unless you squinted. I almost missed it myself. There was a post in the forums for a while that I never saw and my email got stuck in spam limbo. I found out on... wed I think... phew! Someone will make sure you get notified personally for the next one... uh... Someone make sure Zach gets notified for the next one okay? I was thinking, next weekend. Would that be too soon? Just kidding... -vern

You can tentatively expect me as an almost positive definite. I have a newsletter for me old pop to get printed... and... a corporate identity for my brother in law I haven't started yet... uh... and and complete overhaul of an old web site I did a few years ago and... oh lord... I shouldn't waste all that wonderful free saturdayness on frivolous socializing but I will anyway. Without going into details I will add that I haven't done... a... ton of AM work lately, but I would still like to see what you others have been doing. I will bring along... what I have been working on just in case we need a diversion. If I start getting anxious about all the work I should be doing... just hit me on the head with a pizza box or a can of chili or something. -vern

Is it too late? Sorry been out of the loop lately. I know the 2nd is coming up real soon... like... this saturday. If it isn't too short notice I'm up for it. -vern

Those darn Canadians and their fossils. Always showing off. Fantastic job! ---------------------------- Many years ago I had to produce a huge gigantic piece of digital artwork for a "new" technology that wrapped buses completely with a huge advertisements (at the time I had dubbed it "King Kong's Advertising Condom"). This ad would cover the entire bus... all over the whole thing. The artwork needed was pretty high res but we often cheated by res-ing up lower resolution imagery (that wasn't resolution independent, like text or logos). In the future if you have to do this again, I bet you could get away with a lot smaller rendering and resize it up with some unsharp masking, without any perceptible loss in quality. I have been "cheating" that way for many years and no one ever noticed or complained. Many years ago I needed to produce a 600 dpi photo-illustration poster to promote a new 6 color hi res printing process that had a 300 lpi print resolution (most printing at the time was 133 lpi). Because of hard ware limitations at the time I created the image at 200 dpi instead of 600 and sized it up at the end. The file ended up larger than any hard drive available at the time to hold. The final tiff image was more than 1gb in size. It was so big we couldn't even use photoshop. Had to use this new program from some French guy that just came out that could work on images that big. We ended up splitting the image into 2 pieces and transporting them on separate hard drives. It turned out fantastic, no one ever knew we "cheated". I still have the night terrors. -vern