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brainmuffin

*A:M User*
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Everything posted by brainmuffin

  1. It's been a while since I posted anything... Just haven't had the time to play around. But I'm taking an animation class this semester, so I had a good excuse to start messing with A:M again This is one of the things I'm working on right now. It's not for class, just for fun. I've wanted to do it for a while, and since I left my flash drive with the files for my class project at school, I figured this weekend would be a good time to get started. I'm working on a Chibi-style character. Chibi is the big-head little-body style, like the sprites from the old Final Fantasy games. I'm actually working on an Oppai Chibi character. (Oppai roughly translates as "Busty") This isn't the character I'm making, but these are like the only tasteful images (or at least the most tasteful) of this type of character I could find to post, so you can see what I'm after: And here's what I've done so far: The first thing I did was to create a low-patch head. It's a little lumpy in the back, and the splineage is very rough, but the form is the only thing that matters at this point. This is just a 3d guide to make it easier to keep the shape right as I model: Then I locked the CPs on this group, and made it transparent, to make it easier to work with. I modeled a temporary eyeball, and started creating the face: When the model is finished, I'm going to replace that eye with a fully modeled eyeball (Like the one in David Simmons' tutorial) that I'll use a distortion box to hold it to the right shape for the face.
  2. Thanks for the quick replies. That's what I was afraid of, though. I'm going to wind up going with my original plan of using a distortion box on a regular eyeball. I'll post some WIP shots later today... Now the next time I build lego characters in AM, though, I'll know exactly how to animate the faces!!!
  3. Hi guys, I'm working on an anime style head, and I found myself thinking it might be easier to just not have an eyeball, and instead make the eye part of the face. But to do it that way would require me to use a bone to control the position of the decal for the pupil. I can't figure out if this can be done, or how to do it. Any thoughts?
  4. would that work with a decal too?
  5. Damn Matt, inspiration is right! I don't think I ever saw the spline renders beforeI I gotta snag them for uh... studying! Yeah! Seriously though, she looks like she'd be easy to rig. Very efficient splineage...
  6. brainmuffin

    LiteRig

    Ok, so how can i fix this, then? I've been installing the last update of the rig (Not last night's, the one before) into a character. I've got all the bones placed and assigned, and I was about to install my fan-bones. Is there a way I can correct this without having to do all that all over again?
  7. brainmuffin

    LiteRig

    Thanks, Holmes! This might be just what I've been looking for. I've been looking for a simple to install rig. I've downloaded it, I'll be playing around this weekend!
  8. You're going to want to have some sort of image editing software, though it doesn't necessarily NEED to be Photoshop. GIMP is a good free program: http://www.gimp.org/ And there's project dogwaffle: http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/free/ And Artrage has a limited but still useful free version: http://www.artrage.com/
  9. Dusan, I hope you will be posting a list of which festivals you will submit to. If it's showing in NYC I'll make the hike down there to see it. I said it before, and I'll say it again: This film is going to win awards.
  10. I used Photoshop 7 for years with no complaints. I still use it on my laptop.
  11. It's not difficult to learn to model in A:M. It's quite a bit easier to learn than polygonal modeling, in fact. Especially if you come from a 2D (on paper) background. It just takes some time, persistence, and patience. It's not quite like drawing, or sculpting, exactly. It's sort of a combination of the two, with some knitting thrown in. Take a look at some of the tutorials on modeling, they'll get you familiar with how modeling works in A:M. I wouldn't say that I'm by any means a great modeler, but I think I could knock out a decent version of that doll in maybe 12-14 hours of modeling. Having a doll or a sculpture to take reference photos of does make things easier.
  12. Mark, if you need/want volunteers, I've got some time. Just don't ask me to rig.
  13. they aren't the same size. Just looking at the grid in the background it's obvious.
  14. Why not try this: Attach the path(s) to the blasters of the firing ship. Then: If the ship that is firing has stationary blasters, constrain the root bone of the firing ship to "aim at" the target ship. If the firing ship has turrets that rotate, then set the turret bones to "Aim at" the target.
  15. I had a similar experience. I started with V8 I think. Dennis the dog was on the CD. I played around with it, then put it away. Every once in a while I'd get the urge to try it again, and I'd dig out the CD and try it again. One day I pulled out the CD and it had a small crack in it. After a while, the crack got big enough that the program wouldn't start. I called Hash. They said they couldn't replace the CD, but they would give me an upgrade for $99. Having already paid $249.99 to upgrade a different software package ( that I originally paid $599 for) I saw the bargain and I took the deal. The orangutan from Tak was on that CD. I've upgraded about every other year since then. The fact that you needed to have the CD in the drive to start should really not have been the issue that people have made it out to be. There are STILL plenty of games that require the disk to be in the drive the wloe time the game is running.
  16. Here's the deal: For $49.95, you get a license to use 1 installation of A:M for one year. It's a good deal. Even if you wanted it on two PCs (i.e. your laptop AND desktop) it's still probably the better way to go, especially if you're a beginner or just a tinkerer. Let's say you get good at it, and decide you're going to seriously hunker down and create a highly detailed short. If you have a render farm (Several computers you're going to render on) and you estimate that it'll take rather a bit longer than a year. Then it might be prudent to opt for the $299.00 CD version.
  17. Yup, Caroline, that's the one! Thanks! Robcat, here's the file. AFAIK, she should be ready to rig. I did everything by hand, too. I didn't try to use MirrorBone to mirror the weighting, nor did I use MirrorConstraints. Babe.zip
  18. For the past two days I've been trying to rig this model and I've run into dead ends everywhere. I tried TSM2 first but I get all the way up to running the rigger, and it gets almost to the end, and it has an error and chases A:M away. I've redone all the steps from scratch three times, and it still crashes and burns. If anyone wants to try it, I can post the file. So I tried the 2001 rig, and that was going well, until I tried to set up constraints for the fan bones, but the arm and leg bones didn't show up in the relationship, and I couldn't get them to show. Had the A.R.M. still been up ,I would have tried building the 2001 rig from scratch from the "How it Works" tutorial,(That's how I did the polar bear) but I can't do the "Lock Hands" poses without it. That was the great thing about the A.R.M., it was a big repository of rigging info. I was just starting to study it again when they bombed it... That's the thing that seems to be lacking; information on building rigs from scratch. I enjoyed having an understanding of what was going on with the polar bear, and I'd like to learn more...
  19. I started a new character this week. I'm trying for a semi realistic style similar to the recent TMNT movie. Here she is. She needs rigging, textures, and hair. Crits, please.
  20. That IS a good idea. If I ever write a computer book, it'll have to be spiral bound...
  21. It's probably not necessary to model the full armor. Samurai really only wore their armor when going to war, or for ceremonial processions. Depending on the period in Japan's history. Also, a ninja is going to try to take his prey completely by suprise, attacking when most vulnerable, probably the middle of the night. I recommend checking out some samurai movies, the Zatoichi series is good, and anything by Kurosawa is worth seeing. The mini-series Shogun is very good for costume, culture and setting reference, but it is rife with historical inaccuracies.
  22. That's the constraint on the base of the spine. It points at a null that's above and behind the bear, to keep the spine curved. I'm still not sure it's right, but I'm not sure how to fix it. Maybe lowering the enforcement percentage will make it wobble less. I'm also not exactly happy with the knee controls. Here's the bear, complete with the current rig, Vern. That way you can see how it's installed. If you have any questions, just ask. I'll post tna updates I make to the rig also. BearRig.zip
  23. Vern, you can have the whole bear if you want. just the rig is no problem. I'll post it later tonight.
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