Fuchur

Depending on you knowledge you can find different reviews and articles about A:M. I wrote one which is aimed at absolute beginners: Softwarefocus: Animation Master This one is for beginners too: http://library.creativecow.net/articles/ha...im_mast_rev.php A little bit older one: http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/art....jsp?id=32109-1 For experienced users there are some reviews of the 3dWorldMagazine, but they are not available online... I have some of them, so if you need one, let me know and I will scan them for you. There is not a full "all features in a table"-thing, but you can review the new features of the last few years: New in v14 New in v13 New in v12 New in v11 New in v10.5 New in v10 New in v9 Till now there is no such page for v15, but the new features are: - New Fluid-Particles (to simulate liquids) - Surface-Baking (to combine all surfaceattributes in a texture) - Integrated NLE (to edit in A:M directly) A great thing to watch is this one: A:M Demonstration in a few minutes *Fuchur*

DONT EVER forget Marcels great work... His site is still online and he offers many very useful plugins... some are already included with A:M, but others are not and anyway useful. Kci-Group - ZPider (Marcel Brickman) - Plugins And you can find two export-plugins at my website too... have a look at my signature for more infos. *Fuchur*

The best thing we can say (even if it is not what you may want to hear) is: Dont use v9 or v9.5... These versions are very old and will not work very well. Head for v15 which is so much better, with many new features, a better interface and so on. -> A:M v10 features -> A:M v10.5 features -> A:M v11.0 features -> A:M v12.0 features -> A:M v13.0 features -> A:M v14.0 features The new features in v15 are SurfaceBaking, a new particle-type called "Fluids" and an integrated NLE-editor. You see, it happend SO much since v9... it is absolutley worth the 50 Dollars for the Websubscription and even for the CD-version if you like it better. A old PC isnt anything you have to worry about too much. My one is 5 years old (so I will buy a new one soon). As long as you can run Windows XP on it, you wont have any trouble. Of course a new one will render faster, etc. but it will work anyway. *Fuchur*

No... the standard-models etc. are free to download. Only if you want more of them, you would have to buy the extra-dvd or go for example to eggprops to buy other models. *Fuchur*

Where exactly is the problem occuring? I used the Plugin recently for several trees. If you really need roots (most people dont need them and they will only add to your rendertime), do it in the way John described it. For all of you who want to know how to use treez, which is a very good plugin(!): 1.) Create a spline-ring as base (it doesnt have to be a circle. Quite everything is possible). 2.) Select it and name the group "base". 3.) Now you can create some splines manually above the base-ring. Every point will be the aim for one of the branches. (You can although use the lath-tool, etc. ANY CP will be used, if it is a geometry, or only a spline) 4.) Create a new action and rightclick anywhere in it. Go to Wizards-> Treez 5.) If you click anywhere you will see that geometry was created. It is separted into several different groups which will give access to different levels of the tree. One thing I noticed so is, that the normals are often flipped. For rendering-projects this is NOT important. Only if you want to use it in a game-engine it can be a problem and you will have to flipp the normals manually. *Fuchur*

A cloud is something that is most often not modeled. I would use an image with an Alpha-Channel to simulate it. Have a look at "Layers" in the manual or have a look at my website (www.patchwork3d.de). Under 'What&How > Tutorials' you can find "Layer". It is a small tutorial about how to use Layers. If you need a bit more real looking thing, you can use a Particle-Emitter as a cloud. Someone else did a tutorial on that, but I cant remember how it was. *Fuchur*

Looks very stylish, warm and has absolutly a cool atmosphere! Very well done *Fuchur*

Exactly. A cho-file only containts of informations what (names) should be included and so on. The real information-container like Models (*.mdl), Actions (*.act) and/or Projectfiles (*.prj) would although be needed to get the *.cho-file to work. Projektfiles can containt all the other files, if they where embeded or they only containt references to these files. Both is possible and used in different circumstances. In General, PRJ- and MDL-Files can be found on the Extra-DVD or occuasional on the net. There is however no website (I know of) where a big library of them is hosted, or something like that. If you want to share a project, I recommend to embed all and to get the textures, etc. consolidate the file after that into a new folder. *Fuchur*

It is working for me. You will have to insert the numbers on an image and than you will be redirected to a upload-form. Which browser do you use? I recommend FireFox... *Fuchur*

If the decals of the shirt are of a more or less equal size, you can try to use a Patch-Image for it. To do that, just go to the group in the PWS, rightclick on the shirt-group and choose "Add Image". This is a very fast way for titled maps. You could although try to use BitMapPlus for such a task, which is a material-typ. You can find it by doubleclicking on the MAterials-Folder, Going to the new material and rightclicking on the attribue. Choose "Change Type To" -> "Plugin" -> "Kci-Group" -> "BitMapPlus". The most flexible choice will however be a real decal like paradymx told you. A little tip so: You can use an Action-Window to unwrap your model with the flattening-command (see manual) or by hand. *Fuchur*

Eggprops has some dinosaurs in their portfolio and they had a very nice rig (I think so, because they got a great walkcycle from it). Maybe it is worth a look... Eggprops - AM Section *Fuchur*

Yes this is very cool if you want to give the light some shape. Thanks for letting me remember that. This is for example done by Victor Navone in his aliensong-movie to create the disco-like lighteffects at the ground. An image is applied by a projection-map-material. In this way you can define dark and light colors to your light, so that it for example looks like the light is shining through a window, without having to model the window and without having to render it as well (it is much faster than rendering the shadows, etc.) *Fuchur*

Search for Volumetric Lightening... If you cant find anything: In the properties of each light you can find under "Options" -> "Volumetric" what you are searching for. Just activate it and you will get some other properties for the volumetric light. Play a bit with it, you will see how it works. *Fuchur*

Quite easy to explain: What they are named after... Some are more complex and cant be explained like that but for example: "Aim At" means, that the selected bone will be "Aimed At" an target. "Translate To" will translate the selected bone to another bone. "Roll Like" is easy to: "Roll the bone like another bone. "Orient Like" means, that it is rotated, so oriented like another bone, and so one. There are more complex ones like "Kinematic" which is a bit more complex to explain. The bone with the "Kinematic"-Constraint will try to reach a target in its reach. The difference to for example Aim At is, that it will not only effect one bone, but the whole bone-chain / bone-hierachy it is connected to. The most used once are translateto, aimat, orientlike and Kinematic. But of course the others can be necessary too. And so on... more detailed informations can be found in the helpfile. *Fuchur*

Did you already install A:M v15 on the machine or did you just buy AM v15 and want to unlock it? The Patch (so v15c) dont have to be activated, if you already have AM v15 (a or on your machine. If v15 is new on your machine, the activation-screen will appear at the first start of A:M. *Fuchur*

it is version 14.0.... Windows XP Very strange. Just tested it with A:M v15 and everything worked fine. Do you render with the blue or the green renderingbutton? Is it the same in rendering-to-file? What are your renderingsettings? *Fuchur*

Dont get me wrong, but Amish-people arent allowed to use computers, are they? *Fuchur*

Thank you I didnt think of that. I would however recommend to include the primitives with the install-file of A:M. *Fuchur*

I just noticed this: When I open the Libraries of A:M v15 (web), I can't find any primitives-objects... am I just blind? In v8-v14 they where available, so they should be included here to. Even so it is only a small collection, this is missing in a 3d-programm. *Fuchur*

I often use another methode, which involves pressing the keys "1" (x-axis), "2"(y-axis) or "3"(z-axis) for the manipulation. Just keep one of the buttons pressed and drag and drop the CPs with the mouse. You will see that only one axis is affected. With this methode you can transform your cps very controlable from any view-angle. *Fuchur*

Try to insert a number at serial number (if you got a serialnumber even better...) There is no demo of A:M. *Fuchur*

It is done in another way since v13 or something like that. How to do it now: 1.) In the PWS go to the folder "PostEffects". Right-Click on it and choose "New->PostEffect". 2.) Rightclick on the Posteffect and say "Change type to -> Hash Inc. -> Tint". 3.) Under "Style" you will find "Sepia" (and some other stuff). 4.) Now you can just drag 'n drop the "Tint"-Posteffect on a camera in the choreography. Anyhow: I would however recommend to render to a tga-sequence without the posteffect and do it afterwards. To do it afterwards in A:M: 1.) Import the tga-sequence to A:M. 2.) See 1.) to 3.) to create a posteffect. 3.) Under "Images" you can right-click on the tga-sequence and choose "New Posteffect -> Tint". 4.) Right-Click again on the tga-sequence and choose "Save Animation as". Hope that helps... *Fuchur* *Fuchur*

You need a connection for the first time you connect and licence it. After that it shouldnt be necessary. Hopefully your licencing was successful and there was not a wireless lan fallout while you was licencing or something. *Fuchur*

Looks very nice... The only critique: The muzzle is too rounded, compared to the rest. It looks catoony. (Try to manipulate the bias-handlers). Other than that: Very nice details and very realistic modelling *Fuchur*

1.) Yes you can. Open the ProjectWorkSpace (ALT + 1 or via the "View"-Menu. Go to the choreography. Next to each object you will find a hand-icon on the right site. Click on it and deselect the object again. Now it should not be pickable any longer. 2.) That can be done in many different ways. One is to use the "Translate"-Button instead of the Standard-Mode. The button is located in the upper part next to the rotation-button. Now you can drag the object up and down by just using the handlers of the translate-box. Each handler is used for one of the axis. The once on the edges are used for controlling 2 axis at the same time. Another possibility is to press the 1, 2 or 3 Button (over the 'Q' on your keyboard). 1 stands for the x axis, 2 for the y axis, 3 for the z axis. Press and hold the button and move the object with the mouse. You can see that it will only move on one axis. 3.) Nulls are helperobjects. It depends what you are after. In the end they can be handled as any other object. They are used to control certain parts of the rig, often as an Aim for example for the eyes. What exactly do you want to know about them? They are just "non"-rendered objects which can be constraint-targets, etc.