Fuchur

1600px x 1200px is realy large... near HD but not really HD... (Full HD(1080i/p) would be 1920px × 1080px). Depending on your codecs and the compression-settings this resolution will force most older computers to its limits or will even not run smooth. I would use 720p-standard for HD-TVs (1280px × 720px) or for a non-hd-tv PAL/SECAM/NTSC-Standard (depending on your country... PAL/SECAM: 768 × 576, NTSC: 720px x 480px) For computer-screens you are very variable... but 640x480 or 800x600 is most often enough. Youtube is using even a smaller resolution (480 x ???). *Fuchur* PS: To be correct: PAL/SECAM/NTSC are color-norms and they dont define resolutions. The resolutions are defined by black/white-norms. But most people doesnt make a difference there because PAL/NTSC are most often used with a certain black and white-norm.

Hm... I would say if you only want to blur one object in your scene and everything else should stay sharp, you should render in two layers, blur the layer with the object and combine it with the one without blur in AM oder AE. *Fuchur*

Hi! First: MAKE A BACKUP-Copy of the *.prj-file... this is important if you do something you didnt intend to do! You can try to open the *.prj-file with notepad or another texteditor (a more advanced one will help). You will easily see the filestructure and you can go to the model and see if something looks different. If you see something(for example a string which isnt complete or a CP/Splines with less entries than the others etc. with, you will be able to delete the rest of the model or the specific spline. Now you can try to open it again. The Spline you deleted wont appear, but it is possible that you made it readable again through that. Test it out... it doesnt have to work, but it can. *Fuchur*

Of course both models have to use the same bone-system and the same poses, etc. to work properly. After that you can just change the shortcut to the model and the animation will be transfered to the real model. *Fuchur*

If I am not wrong, you could use a map in v10 to direct the hair in the right directions. But I am not sure where to get the tutorial from. There was a little application (based on Java or something like that in the internet) which could produce this hair-maps... anybody have got a link to there? *Fuchur*

Less is more... that is correct. But usually there is no limit in any direction. Less splines are better to handle for you, so you should aim for that anyway. I think the rebuilding was the solution. Maybe there was a corrupt patch or something like that involved... a bit odd, but it can happen. It would be interesting to see, if it would be the same when you rebuilt the model with equal amount of splines... but if you got your problem solved it doesnt matter anyway. *Fuchur*

Polygon-Models? That will take much rework. Exception: It doesnt have to be animated. Props are working out okay. You should try to import some files before you buy something. There are import / export-plugins for: *.x-files *.3ds-files *.obj-files *.lwo-files *.ply-files and maybe some more I am not aware of. BUT try it with a free file before you buy anything. Polygon-models have a too high polycount and doesnt have any continuity-informationsn in them. Both things will prevent A:M from performing and showing the models very well. If the model is a low-poly-counted, it can be prepared to behave well in A:M. You can always use the poly-model as a 3d-rotoscope of course. Some free poly-programms can reduce polygon-counts. So that is another option, but that is NOT perfect. *Fuchur*

You should use the pivot-settings (if I understand you right). That should move the pivot to where you want it. Or you can just delete the group (not geometry, only the group) and recreate it. The pivot will be centered again. *Fuchur*

I think that $99 is a very good price. It worked quite great for 3dpainter, it has a nice flow (less than hundred even not really less) and I think it would be a good pricetag compared to A:Ms pricing which is a factor, even if it is not the biggest one because you want to sell it for other packages too. "Time spent" is very difficult to split correct, because you dont know how much you will sell. With 1000 copies it is different to 100 copies and so on even if it would be a very reasonable pricing-strategey. *Fuchur*

Very bright contact lenses? *Fuchur*

Amazing! Very cool programm! *Fuchur*

You are an Illustration:Master Looks like you already modelled them... *Fuchur*

Just go to "Tools->Options->Folder" and look for library. Now set the right infos there. For example set your DVD/CD-drive and the link to the library-file. You can set up more than one folder there when you for example have 2 dvd-drives. A:M will look for a file and than lead it from one of the folders you specified there. *Fuchur*

You can see what you have to do here... but every month there is another topic... *Fuchur*

You should think about uploading a jpg-file... the BMP is quite large and cant be previewed in the forum. So less people look at it. If you need converter, you can use XnView (LINK) *Fuchur*

Very nice but if I was you, I would go for a almost black grey... that will give it the impression of black and more details. Just black makes it quite flat to me. *Fuchur*

Deleting Groups and Deleting Groups and Content is easy: If you select a group and than click in the modelling-window on the group/selection (for example) the selected CPs will be deleted... if you just click on a group in the ProjectWorkSpace, only the group is deleted... A:M is ALWAYS getting the Patches from the CPs... You can use the Patch-Select-Tool but in the end, it wont select the patches itself but the CPs of the Splines which are declaring it. The solution: Just create one group for every site and one for the frame. You will have 7 groups but it will work... You should use the Num-Pad instead of the Turn-tool to select the CPs for such an easy object. You cant lock something and still select it. That would be against the whole idea of locking... *Fuchur*

Oh, okay... so you are using a cookie-cut... that explains alot... Why didnt you use the hair-feature? Or which version of A:M are u using? If you are using AM 2005 or above you should definitivly try A:Ms Hair-Feature... make a material, change its type to "Particles->Hair" and look at the settings... you can make quite realistic hair with that. Example 1 from A:M 2005 (without hair-shaders) If you are using AM 2006 or above you can use the Hair-shades Muir and Katayascha (or something like that) which will increase the realism even more. Features A:M 2006 Both have dynamic-options to automaticly calculate how the hair should fall, etc. The hair can be "brushed" with the brushtool and so on... you should really try this very nice feature! *Fuchur*

First I would activate the Muh-Hair-Shader... and than... I dont know but it looks worth than most things I have seen How did you do that? Just let us see your Hair-material-settings. *Fuchur*

The Export-algorithm has changed... it handles Hooks and 5pointer now in another, better way... but I dont know exactly if it will look better for you. Nevertheless the update is worth it... *Fuchur*

In short: Five-Pointers have the right shape at the eyes but the once at the ear should get a hook. For the "Enable 5-Pointers" you could write a featurerequest at A:M Reports. Doesnt sound like a bad idea, if you can use both ways... sometimes a 5-point-hole is designed to be a hole... so you would have to work with 6-point-holes instead... but in other circumstances it would very possible work out well. *Fuchur* PS: You could try what the Select-Plugin from Steffen does... maybe it can help you too... there is a option to select al 5pointers... dont know if they have to be already declared as patches or not... -> www.sgross.com

The best way is to use another geometry for the hair, not his actual skin itself. Make it the size you want it and use the brush-features to control the length. Now move the new hair-group / geometry under the real skin. *Fuchur*

In other programms this is called Passes-Rendering... Multipass-Rendering means to render the image several times without antialising and than combine the images to get nice smooth edges... but what he is talking about is passesrendering which is a way to render only for example the specular-spots in the image and nothing more... the rest of the pass is transparent. (like the alpha-channel in a tga but ONLY with the spots visible...) >>That is a powerful feature...does'nt the new 'composite' feature sort of do this using .exr buffers? It is a start, but it does another thing... the buffers separate different lights, etc. but not the effects itself. The cool thing about it: You can very easy change for example the specular-color in the post-production... *Fuchur*

That has been a featurerequest for quite a while because it is quite comon in the industry to do that but as far as I know: No, A:M cant... BUT there is a solution for some of the passes. You should have a look at the shaders and at the object-properties. There some things can be setted which can help. For example: Rendering shadows only, etc... Another thing you should search for is the EXR-format, which can help much too... For example you can edit the lights seperatly without rerendering it, etc. I assume the following: A:M isnt capable of this native because it is meant to do everything "in a box" and the other approach needs to have another composition-programm... I may be wrong so... maybe it is possible now? *Fuchur*

Is even answered in this thread... It is from the CD. *Fuchur*