Fuchur

Two links to A:M-Models... Egginton - Free Collection Eggprops - Quite cheap Best thing to get if you want A:M Models: ExtraDVD And of course you should have a look at the forum here. You will get many useful infos and help to create everything you need and sometimes people post models for download here too... *Fuchur*

Have a look at the Buffers... you can although renderout only the shadows of a scene... the image will be a black one, but the alpha-channel will contain the informations. *Fuchur*

Would be a great AutoUnwrap Algorithm *Fuchur*

You have to wait a little time till it is fully loaded... *Fuchur*

I dont know exactly, but if I am not wrong, normalmaped surfaces can be affected by lights in the scene (so the additional detail will be affected) while bump-maps cant do that. Displacementmaps on the other hand can manipulate the surface and will add geometry-details to the model (it wont change the mesh so, it just at it on top). A terrain-map (for example used by the Terrain-Plugin) will change the geometry. I wrote a short explaination on my website on these kind of maps when normalmaps came out... you may want to have a look at it: Difference between Bump-, Normal- and Displacementmaps I am not such an expert as Yves or so, but I think I am quite sure that it is more or less correct. *Fuchur*

Multipass-Renderings are generally a bit better concerning some effects and antialiasing. It depends on the scene so, if 16 passes are the same as AA... in some cases 9 passes are good enough, in others 16... In the end: I only recommend to use Multipass for still-images or if you got a real need for it... (for example: Raytraced shadows get softer by multipassrenderings, while they stay hard with AA-renderings, etc.). ZBuffer-Shadows will render in both blurred, so it is your choice. *Fuchur* PS: Top 5 Rendering-Slowdowners for me: 1.) Reflection-Level too high..,! Be sure that you have the reflectionvalue at exactly the value you need... often 2 is enough. Try it out: Render an image with 2 and after that with 5... 5 will take forever and in most cases it is just not needed. 2.) Roughness-Values are rendering less fast than bump-maps. The Antialaising of those is very timeconsuming, so I recommend to use a Bumpmap, even so they are less easy to setup. 3.) Displacementmaps are really a cool thing and they can give you much better looking objects... but be careful: They take longer to render than for example a normalmap or a bumpmap... so if you are only after small details and you dont need displacementmaps, dont use them. If you however need a very detailed object near to the camera, you should use them! 4.) Particles - While it has gotten far better in the last versions, particles are still a big timekiller in the renderingprocess. 5.) Transparent Objects, especially if you are using specularity and other surfacevalues with it... worst thing: Index of Refraction.... so if you dont really need it, dont use it. Think about rendering to different imagesquences and blending them together afterwards. It may not look exactly the same and as cool as the first attemp, but it renders far faster and it is much faster to change something afterwards. These are my top5... the first here isnt necessarily the worst thing for renderings... it highly depends on your scene.... *Fuchur*

You can always consolidate your project. Go to Project -> Consolidate -> Textfile and A:M will consolidate all the data of your project into a new folderstructure for you. You can now pack the folderstructure (or you can use the Consolidate + ZIP-function of A:M) and upload it here. *Fuchur*

Even better is the *.x-exporter... (see siganture) But yes: OBJ is better than 3ds... 3ds is a triangual format... quadformats are better suited... *Fuchur*

Not exactly... anyone can buy it, you dont have to own A:M to be allowed to get the websubscription. There are two "limitations". It will only run on one computer and it will run for 1 year. After that you have to buy a new subscription... But it has several advantages too... It is an easy way to get in touch with A:M (the latest available version), it is cheap and it will not ask for a CD in the drive. Everything else should be as you are used too, except the fact that you get v15 (and v16 if it comes out in the next year from your buying-time on...) *Fuchur*

I'd be happy to say yes to the material-question, but I dont think there is one... There is a plugin from Marcel Bricman (ZPider) around, which can bevel for you... it works in most circumstances, but not in all... I highly recommend to model always from the beginning with bevels. The plugin is available here: Zevel-Plugin Just to say it again: It cant do miracls! *Fuchur*

First: Rightclick on the toolbar and look at the "Allow Docking"-option... is it on? *Fuchur*

Hm... sorry cant help you there... that is a quite old A:M-version and I doubt that any can help you with this. I will try anyway: Did you add anything to the project? Are your harddrives running normal? Do you save on a USB-Harddisc/external harddisc? Is it in USB 2.0-Mode or USB 1.0-mode? (for example if you changed the USB-port and got not the newest PC with some inactive USB-connectors / old USB-Connectors, this can happen). If that isnt the case, open the project-file and have a look if there are any "empty-driver"-entries... I dont know which version had that problems, but it could be that 2002 was it. ""-entries may increase the project-size. You wont find many informations about that, because this problem is LONG gone. *Fuchur* PS: I highly recommend you to buy a websubscription of A:M v15... it happend so much and so many good features came in and bugs are gone... it just is a much better software today thana in 2002.

You can although save the animation out and import it as an action... (in the end chor-actions are nothing else than normal actions...) If you want to reuse it, for another character while keeping the first one where it is this is another way. *Fuchur*

I tend to say that the Windows-version is slightly more stable than the Mac-versions... I don't own a Mac, so I cant proove it... this is just from what I have read. In Vista you will have to deactivate Desktop-Composition (you can set that for each programm individuelly) and after that it should run well. Hash won't be on the Siggraph. Martin thinks (I tend to say he is right) that Siggraph is dieing. But you will find Hash on the Comicon 2009 in San Diego, (quite large) and some others... Someone from hash should answer you there... Maybe there is a roadmap somewhere... *Fuchur*

Very cool model! And not that bad walkcycle for a quick and dirty one... *Fuchur*

Wrong video-codec? Try something like "Animation" from Quicktime... this is an old one which should be readable no matter what... *Fuchur*

Have a look at the PRJ-file. It is quite simple. If you dont get it, drag one of the 20 points around... *Fuchur*

Good thought. I bought a copy some time back, but have yet to open it up and play around with it. I'll give it a shot. You will nevertheless have to do the UVs first... Automatic UVs are okay, but not perfect... *Fuchur*

My tutorial is quite basic here. It is not much about flattening and using the UV-editor, etc. but mostly about decaling. Anyway: A:M doesnt have a good UV-editor... it lags many things, because A:M is more about decals itself, not about UV-editing afterwards. (For example: The UV-editor doesnt even offer the possibilitie to select several CPs with the shift-key / alt-key. It can't disconnect whole patches by selecting a whole patch and move it away, etc... however it can disconnect CPs from other CPs by pressing the CTRL-key...) The UV-editor is useable, but could be improved... The better way is to use an action, flatten (I prefer to flatten by hand, not with the flatten-function) the model and apply the texture. That's the way to go. A:M isnt about using a basic mapping and than splitting and realigning the parts in the UV-editor. It is about decals/stamps. Even if you want to use an UV-technique, it will still be decal-based! However for mechanical models this is often not necessary. But it is for organic once! *Fuchur* PS: The tutorials on my site are quite large, but today it shouldnt be a bigger problem for most broadband-users (ADSL, etc.). It just wanted a nice quality and not the usual "300px x 300px"-badquality-mini-tutorial.

It is not possible in an automatic way. You can ask Hash to unlock it for another machine, but this will mean that your homecomputer will not work no longer. This is meant for people who are changing computers permamently... There are two different possibilities for you: 1.) Get more Websubscriptions. 2.) Get one CD/DVD-Version. Here the CD/DVD (dont know eactly if it is still a CD) is the dongle and you can change computers as often as you wish to by putting the DVD in another dvd-drive. *Fuchur*

Depends on what you are after... how "new" is your character? Do you WANT to use existing models or should it be all "yours", etc. I usually model everything from the beginning, not even using my own models as a start. As long as I am not on pressure with deadlines of course. For me it is fun to model... BUT you need to know how to model to do that. So if you didnt quite get the thing with continuity, 5pointers, etc. you shouldnt try that. On the other hand: Trial and Error is often the best teacher. (at least for me) You will learn WHY you shouldnt do something. Not only how to do it right. That is often a very effective way to solve future-problems.... etc.

Okay... lets be sure about this: 1.) Your JPEG_Sequenz / TGA-Sequenz is numbered like this: "image_1.jpg" , "image_2.jpg" OR "image1.jpg", "image2.jpg" OR "image01.jpg", "image02.jpg" -> Important is, that the number at the end is running up. 2.) The images are the same size? (don't know if it acutally makes a difference, but just to be sure) for instance 300px x 300px each... 3.) You imported with the option "imagesequenz" (the checkbox under the explorer-window has to be checked, no matter if you are using "import image" or "import as an animation..." (it's both the same but the checkbox is checked by default...) *Fuchur*

The surface-properties you showed us in the other thread are the once of a whole model and they are usually set to the values you showed us. It is quite unlikely that they are causing problems. It maybe a keyframe thing... *Fuchur*

Hm... Fire like a certain object so... Several options come to my mind: 1.) Use A:Ms sprite-particles with "Die on Impact" enabled. You could now use a model (shaped like the dragon) to be the hitobject. Next use several small fire-particleemitter in the model and it should look a bit like the fire is dragonshaped. 2.) Use the object as emitter and try that. It could work and will be much less trouble. 3.) Create a image-sequenz of a fire and use a compositing-prorgramm to create a mask for it, which is shaped like the dragon... won't look that good, if you are not animating the mask very heavily, but may be good enough. (only recommended for one cameraposition, not a animated camera) I could be wrong, but have a look at the Hash-CD / Datafolder. Isn't there a material for explosions and one for fire? (cant look right now) *Fuchur*

RGB { 0 - 255 } -> Middlegray: 128 / 127 (128 is comon) -> RGB: 128/128/128 For some dents you could use a patch-image (if the patches are more or less the same size) or you could try out BitMapPlus (which only works with Normal-Maps so, not Bumpmaps or displacementmaps (it's a pitty...) Patch-Images can be created by creating a group, clicking in the PWS with the rightmousebutton on it and choosing "New Image". That will tell A:M to use the same image on every patch of the model. If you need more control you however will have to unwrap / flatten your model. *Fuchur*