heyvern

Martin, I had the same trouble. I think it may be whatever... setting is used in the flash for presenting movies... I don't use flash for that very much so I don't know for sure. That clip... was actually pretty good! Rotoscoped 3D characters on live action video. Nice explosion. I wasn't expecting it. My critique would be... A TON of... build up... and still... not much content to speak of. I think you've spent more time on the website, titles, music, web store, than the actual animations. If not... then we just aren't seeing it. Would really like to see more... viewable clips of actual content. What little I've seen looks a 1000% better than when you started. My advice? Don't use FLASH! At least... not until you know what your doing with it. Not for everything. Don't use Flash for the sake of using Flash. Those same clips even with a huge amount of compression to keep the size down... would play better in any other format (AVI, MOV, WMV) than they are right now. At least we could download them and view them. Lots of free tools out there. -vern

Did you actually get a PG-13? Those ratings are copyrighted by the MPAA. You have to submit the film and they give you a rating. Forgive me if you have gone through this process already. I applaud your efforts and wish you the best of luck. I just don't want you to get sued or something. By the way... I don't know how your flash site is set up... but I have fairly high speed internet and normaly don't have trouble with Flash based movies... however the three clips on the site were so choppy as to be unviewable... something odd about them. They would play... a second... and stop... very choppy. Without a way to download them... there was no way to see them clearly. There should at least be some kind of replay button so if you can't stream in "real time" you can at least replay it after it downloads completely. -vern

I liked it! Great job. Very convincing weight when he is pulled in. I have one question... in the beginning... is he sneezing or yawning? It looked like a sneeze... but I am assuming it is suppose to be a yawn. -vern

Resolution is always pixels based on 72 dpi. "low" is 320 x 240 pixels at 72 dpi. That is used primarily for preview renders. Then you have... "VGA".... 640 x 480 pixels at 72 dpi Upwards from there. Standard NTSC television would be around 720 x 540 I am pretty sure. Compression is something else entirely. It is not releated to resolution in any way. You can use the same compression for any resolution... playback on the computer would depend on the computer and graphics card. For the most flexibility in external editors your best off not using ANY compression. Let your external editor add the compression when you save it or export it. This way you can use the same content to create multiple versions using different compression values. You are also better off going with a larger resolution... depending on what your delivery method would be... web... TV... widescreen HD... At the largest resolution you can always go down... at a smaller resolution you can't go up without a loss of quality. There is no... "list" of "best" resolutions per se. You need to know what you want ahead of time. If your Pinnacle Studio "project" is 720 x 540... then you want to render to match that. -vern

This looks like one of those times when you need extra keyframes. That bunny has huge, big, floppy clown feet. They are going to dip into the floor even with zero slope for the foot location. You need to tweak one of the "extreme" spots by rotating the foot to bring it up. Notice that the foot is not below the floor... it is ROTATED below the floor. His heel and the null controling the foot are right where you want them. A situation like this demands "human intervention". It may not even require a bunch of extra keys... probably just a few at specific trouble areas. -vern

This is... slightly off topic... but I will share anyway. When Jim first mentioned "DreamyPhotoEffect"... ... the first thing that popped into my head was an episode of "Father Ted" when father Jack drank a whole bottle of "Dreamy Sleepy Nighty Snoozy Snooze". So now... I think "Dreamy Sleepy Nighty Snoozy Snooze" in my head when ever I look at this topic subject line. -vern

If it CAN'T be done in AM... somehow... then it steps over the line. As Jim mentioned... his tweaks could have been done in composite... an out of focus render... composited over a standard render... with a subtle color shift... etc. If there were a... glass filter effect possible in AM... then I suppose... well... it might be a question call there... I think if the overall... geometry of the image is hidden... then it might be over the top. Nancy... your images are beautiful... you shouldn't hide them with fancy shmancy filters! I think as has been said... the tweaks are mainly for... the artists... most viewers wouldn't know what was missing... since we hadn't seen the tweaks. I know I get sick and tired of my images after a while... I want to do stuff... so they look new... to me. -vern

Holy cow! I use to be the guy in the cubicle in the corner!!! It was great because no one saw you back there... you could get away with murder. Then they gave me a dang office... with my back to the door... can't play games on a computer with your back to the door. Are those red desks laminated? I love that color scheme. I would like a desk like that. Maybe Ikea has them. -vern

It's always the same problem when starting new secret societies. I know that was the main sticking point for me when trying to start a new religion. -vern

I like it. As long as its name isn't "Larry". http://www.vernsworld.com/enchanted_forest/liger.jpg -vern

Holy crap... Has anyone else noticed that... Yoda... looks just like one of those Gremlins? (the creatures from the Spielburg movie not the car). Less hair... but Yoda was very old... he may have been bald. All those movies... all they needed to do was throw water on him or feed him after midnight... and they could have had a Yoda army. -vern

Yes! Vern want a cookie? NO!... vern want many cookie. -vern

Hey! If this is done with invividual pieces... you could make it explode using the newton dynamics plugin right? It might be a bit of chore to set it up of course. -vern

I'm an idiot! Didn't look closely at the image... no internal patches... so sorry. I'm an idiot... sometimes everyone is allowed to be an idiot. -vern

It's tricky.. You need to click on the internal spline so that one... "vector" or spline is selected. For instance... the front and back wall of the building... your internal splines... there are 3 splines... 2 that go up and across (x y... those create "good" patches) and one that goes "through" (z... bad patches). They are all connected... but you can delete one of the splines by clicking on the spline. Don't drag select the point. Don't click on the point. Zoom in and click on the end of the internal spline in wireframe mode. (z axis spline). Hit delete and the other splines won't be effected. If the are you did it wrong. When you select the end of the spline to delete it should highlight... the line highlights in the direction of the spline selected. ------ Bricks... decal or material... As my previous reply indicates... I prefer decals... mainly for the reason you indicate (render speed) but also because I have more control... I can add dings and chips... use photos of real bricks... easily add displace or bump images etc. -vern

Ha! A brick material? I am such a decal slut... it never occurred to me to use a... a... material! For bricks? Good grief! They'd all... look the same! -vern

Ha ha! Oh my goodness... when that happened to me a really long time ago I started a long render... I was asleep... in bed... suddenly.... DING DINGDING... DING DING.... DINGDINGDING.... DING DING.... DINGYDINGYDINGDING.... I had absolutely NO idea what the heck it was. It stopped... I fell asleep... then it comes back... it stops... Later I thought it was a dream. -vern

You applied the image to the model. These would be called "Patch images"... You could use this... but... the images are "repeated" based on the sizes of the patches. You could even rotate the images to be in the right direction but they wouldn't all be the same size. What you should do is decal the image. There should be a tutorial explaining how to apply a decal. You may need to apply several stamps to cover everything. In the decal image settings you can set the repeat values to make the bricks the size you need. Don't change the size of the decal on each stamp. If you do they won't "match". Make sure you stamp from the same decal image scale. ------- Also you have internal patches... those splines connecting the front and back surface INSIDE the model. You don't want those. Just select the end of each one INSIDE and press delete. Make sure you have the correct CP selected so you don't delete the wrong one... experimentation may help here if you have trouble. What you want to end up with is a "hollow" shape. You only want a cross section spline that creates a patch on the "outside" surface. You want the shape hollow. -vern

nevermind I said a bunch of stupid stuff here because I didn't read the entire post carefully. Better that my stupidity remain a secret. -vern

Oops! Oh well... ha ha... uh... oh my... Uh... ha ha ha... Silly me. I should really check my calender more carefully... or at least look at the date. I mean usually on monday... I am already thinking about tuesday... ... it is monday right? -vern

Are there still plans for some of us to "car pool" to Siggraph? I think I might be interested. Apparently not only will Hash be there... but my "other" favorite application will be represented (the "one man shop" that created it just teamed up with a bigger company and will be showing off the new version with a new name). -vern

The model and render looks great... but... Come on! It's the new century! Where is the sleek aerodynamic futuristic look? Why can't we have some cool looking designs? Why does all this stuff have to be so dog gone... PRACTICAL? If we go back to the moon we should do it with some style baby! Put some fins on it... nurnies... or something. Those legs look just like the ones on the Apollo landers. Can't we have some decent legs on these things? Looks like a big chicken. ... and while I'm on the subject where are the darn jet cars? Why can't I fly to the WaWa with my jet pack? Why don't we all where "earth uniforms" by now? We should all have similar looking outfits by now so we can recognize each other when the aliens are probing us on the ships... ... man! Too much caffiene... -Vern

I hate to mention this.. but... (This has only happened once in the last month. It was a freak occurance after a freaky computer crash unrelated to AM... uh... thunderstorm... power went out.) I was working on a project and saving often as usual. When I opened it again after mother nature decided I had been on the computer too much that day... ... the model was "missing" from the project... the shortcut in the chor was linked to a blank reference. There was no model in the objects folder. The model had been embedded in the project. Like I said I never even gave it a thought... it was a simple test project that I created in like 5 minutes... at the time it seemed odd but was not terrifying and I just redid it. ------ The lesson here is to always make backups of everything you work on. Here is a what I do... Imagine... really really think how you would feel if the file you are working on VANISHED into thin air.... pretend like it really really happened... ... if you get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach... save a copy of the project and model/s immediately. I apply this technique to ALL my software files... not just AM. -Vern

Not enough info. There is no way to tell from the description exactly what you did or where the file "went" or "is". Do a search for the file name to find out where it was saved originally. If you saved to a new location and it wouldn't let you... it should still be where it was. -vern

Oh man... I left it running on my screen for like... 15 minutes... and that poor kid vomited all over himself... -vern