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*

The first step would be: Make a drawing or get some reference-images. You can model from scratch, but it is hard to help you with that... If you have something, please let us know and upload the image... The drawings should be from left and front or something else... *Fuchur*

Could you upload an image? *Fuchur*

Looks cool... so what exactly do you want to know? I would start modeling it and if you are that far, we can talk about the model, splinage and after that the rigging. Just upload some WorkInProgress-images and we will help you if you need it *Fuchur*

Excellent. Thanks again Ken. The Lights are more or less like a model. If you use it in a choreo, a shortcut is created and you can animate iit in the chor, while if you make changes to it, it will effect the shortcut too. You can easy use that behaviour for example for a light-dome by using one light in a chor several times. Now you can adjust every light in the chor simultanious by changing the attributes of the light under "Objects" And if you right-click on "objects" you can easily go to "New Light" and set a new one too. The same happens if you use the command on a Chor itself. *fuchur*

It is so amazing how well you texturings work... you should write some tutorials for your unwrap-processes and the textuering itself... *Fuchur*

Nice one, but I had to download the file and rename it. When I tried to open it in the browser, quicktime didnt seem to work. Then I downloaded it and the extension of the file was .mp3 (.mpg.mp3) That wouldnt work because it is recognized as an Audiofile which it isnt. After renaming it to only .mpg / .mpeg it worked in the windowsmediaplayer. *Fuchur*

It should be under ->Wizard. *Fuchur*

What are targa images? TARGA (or *.tga) is a fileformat which allows alphachannels and 8 bit per channel... For example XnView can handle and convert this fileformat. And of course, A:M can. It is the prevered fileformat for A:M because it is loseless and has transparency through the alpha-channel. *Fuchur*

I haven't tried AVIs for a while, but when I did, it balked at a DV type 1 AVI, but the same movie uncompressed was fine. If you're using a file captured from a DV camera by firewire, try converting it to Type 2 using one of the many free converters out there (such as the one by Paul Glagla). I wouldnt use AVIs in A:M... if you have the possibility use a image-sequence or convert you videofiles to a image-squence (for example *.tgas) See u *Fuchur*

Or right-click on the decal-imagefolder, say "new image", browse it and set the at its attributes (at the decal-imagefolder) "bump" or "displacement".

I have one more: Use a Dynamic Constraint for the Ears... if they are that long they just have to move a bit with the movement. You could do it by hand too, of course. *Fuchur*

I would use a patch-image for the skin... this will only work if your patches are more or less the same size. Just make a group right-click on it and select "Add Image". You will see what happens. With "Rotate Image" you can rotate the image for each patch. The stripes should be done with a decal. 3dPainter isnt a way to apply better decals... it is a way to create decals. But you need to unwrap the model anyway, even so there is a way to unwrap it automatically. After that, 3dPainter can give you distortionless decals and very well looking models. *Fuchur*

Okay... you do it this way: 1.) Go to your modelling-window. 2.) Go to Bones-Mode. 3.) Rightclick on a bone an say: "New Smartskin" or something like that. A new Action-Window will open automatically with the bone rotated in a certain way (for example X-Rotation = 90°). 4.) In this window you adjust the smartskin you like to have, by going into the CP-Animation-Mode (dont know the exact name for it now... it is next to the skeleton-mode in the action-window). 5.) Go to a choreography and add the model in. 6.) Try the bones out. If you already have the model in a choreo, you may need to hit the space-bar or close the choreo-window again and reopen it. That is the way a smartskin is done. It is not done in the modelling-window but in a special Relationship-Action-Window which will pop up if you hit "New Smartskin" or the relationship itself in the PWS. *Fuchur*

Just a question but... Is he touching his ear with the lightsaber? *Fuchur*

As far as I know, there is always the last A:M-version for download till v6 or something like that... can be found on the FTP-server. So he can download the last version of v11.1 easily. You should look on the FTP-server for the am-stuff.exe for your version... the dll will very likeley be in there... if not, you can google for it on some of the DLL-file-sites... I looked it up for you: Download this... I hope it can help you. It is for windows... See you *Fuchur*