Fuchur

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*

You should use the Sweeper-Plugin instead of the Duplicator-Plugin for this... it is integrated in A:M since v13 if I am not wrong. But the bone-solution is very good too... more flexible... *Fuchur*

In Maya and Max you group OBJECTS together... in A:M you can group ControlPoints of a Spline, Splines and Patches in one model and save the group to reacess it later on or to set certain attributes for a specified part of a model. The Group-Connect-Tools from Maya and Max are more like the selection-tools in the choreography-window, but in this term I am speaking about the group in the model-window of A:M... Unlike Maya and Max, A:M has several "moduls" like the Model-Modul, Action-Modul and Choreography-modul(lightwave had this for a while too)... that keeps the work separeted and easy to access and handle while it can have some disadvantages if you need to interact between models... (but there are ways to do that too...) YOu should have a look at some of the basic training-videos and tutorial-videos on the Hash website and the manual... Videotutorials *Fuchur*

You need to insert your CD in your cd-rom-drive to start Animation:MAster... after that you can take it out again, but till it is loaded, you need to put the cd in... it is the copyright-protection of A:M *Fuchur*

Give the emitter-surface 100% transparency by making a group for it and editting the surface-properties. *Fuchur*

Yes, Mudbox and ZBrush are amazing, but A:M's Patches are just better suited for characteranimation than polys are... patches are more controlable than many polygones or even nurbs... *Fuchur*

And one of the most useful shortcuts for me is the group-connect-shortcut ( / )... It will select everything connected to the cp / spline you selected. *Fuchur*

Hi... just wanted to ask a newbee-question... When I use hair on a group, the hair gets often the surface-attribute "transparency" of the group underneath it... If I set the group for the hair 100% transparency, the hair gets that too... even when I set the hair-property for it to 0%. I couldnt find how to overwrite that... Any ideas? *Fuchur*

And you can specify it by a pose of course... I like it that way the most... *Fuchur*

Wow, wow, wow, wow..... There the aliasing goes and god that it is good VERYVERY Cool rendering... I am very impressed... *Fuchur*

Isnt shift the Stitch-feature? Left and Right-Click should make a hook... *Fuchur*

A plugin to produce spirals? Which one are you talking about? Sweeper? *Fuchur*

I just would test it... Do a closeuprendering and see if the quality is sufficient. If not, use higher resolution-texturemaps. Of course that will cause a bit longer rendertimes, but if you need it, you need it... (More data results in longer times to proceed...) *Fuchur*

I wouldnt use them... Booleans in A:M are not affecting the model but only the rendering... that can be a problem... Booleans in A:M are made in a model where a group for example has a bone. The bone can be set to "boolean" and that will cut whatever hits the boolean-group. The cool thing about them: They can easily be animated and there are no slicing-problems like in 3dsmax, where the model can be damaged by booleans which are too complex... the bad thing: you dont really see what it will look like without final-rendering and you will not be able to, for example give the whole a real window while you are in the same model. So you need to make it in the chereo wie 2 different models... *Fuchur*

No Problem... If you have any other questions just ask *Fuchur*

That is quite easy if you dont need many cameraflights etc. ... render your character/effects with Alpha-Channel... Then use "Render Shadow Only" to bring shadows in... you will need to model an aproximated environment where shadows will be caught by the environment... Now you need a software like AfterEffects (or you can make some of it in A:M with layers and the new NLE-feature)... But if you want a motiontracker you will need AE or something equal. (Icarus is although possible). Import your video and the TGA-sequence you rendered from A:M and the TGA-sequence for the shadows of course. Now use the motiontracker or whatever you want... *Fuchur*

"sorry about that i'm not a very good writer and i couldn't see what i was typing before this is most likely not any better but i will try my best ok every time i click on create your own tutorial it says unhandled exception #001 animation master will now close and i can't seem to watch one of those help videos so you know i'm a bit stuck i guess and yes i am a huge blondie fanand i am a huge debbie harry fan is well." Much better if you ask me... english isnt my mother tongue too... so I totally understand the problems which can occur with that. Where exactly do you click on "New Tutorial" or something like that? You open A:M and what do you do than? The way it should be done is than to click on "File->New->Model" for example. You should than be able to make a own model. If you have the problem that there occurs a error when using "File->New->Model" you may try to activate the ProjectWorkSpace ("View->ProjectWorkSpace"), double-click with your mouse on "Objects" and there should be a model. If nothing helps, uninstall A:M and reinstall it again... maybe something was going wrong... *Fuchur* PS: It could help you too to use this interfacesettings, but you dont want to make a new tutorial or something like that... Videotutorial: Interfacesetting PPSS: You dont have to watch the videotutorials in A:M or something like that (wasnt aware that that is possible) but you can go to this - LINK - and watch the videotutorials...

The best thing is, to make a grid with a thoughtful density... that means, think about what you need at first, than build it... for example: To make a hole (which is all you will need to make a door or a window) you need at least a 5-point-hole. That means, you should make a wall like in the attachment... If you need the wall to have more holes (for example 2 windows above eachother) you will need more CPs... And it can be done with dead-end-splines too... You may wonder why other users here ask you questions... that is, because if you dont need the windows in detailshots, you could use CookieCut-Maps (which are maps which will make "holes" into the geometry), Bump-Maps, Boolean Cutters or modeling it or or or... If you really need to open a window interact with it or you can get quite close to it, you should model it... if that isnt necessary you will have it much easier by using maps... *Fuchur* PS: The second spline (vertical) from the right is actually not necessary...

That sometimes happen if you havent the librarys installed where A:M searches for them... You can handle that by going to "Tools->Options->Folders" and set the libraryfolder there... (you can set different folders there... so just set your DVD/CD-Driver->data->library and maybe the folder in which you have copied the librarays on your harddisk (if there is one) and so on... Than the librarys should show up again after a restart of A:M... *Fuchur*

You can although press 1, 2 or 3 for only manipulating one axis... *Fuchur*

The bones determins, where the rotation- & scale-pivot is and how big the model is The other bone called "COG" was from a rig, which was implemented by hand, the "root"-bone (which will be the model-bone in the choreo) is generated for every Model by the computer. *Fuchur*