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*

Sounds odd, but nice that you worked it out Normally A:M doesnt judge anything about what is rendered... *Fuchur*

A:M can although import/export several other formats with the free plugins available (obj, 3ds, lwo, etc.) and there are a few commerical but very cheap plugins (*.x for example) too but in the end: Patches != Polygones and so you will run into trouble. I am not aware of any conversion-tools (like Polytrans or Deep Exploration or so..) which can handle A:M-files... Most of the formats cant export any animation-data and some even cant export Textures... one of the best exporters is *.x-exporter... it can handle textures and animationdata. But for import, you will run into problems of too many polygones to have advantages from A:M, and so on... A:M can use BVH-files. And no... there is no demo-version available... but you have a 30 day-money-back-option. The manual-files and tech-pdfs can be found here as a pdf-version: TechRef 2007 The Art of Animation:Master Manual HelpFile If you have more question, dont hestiate to ask *Fuchur* PS: You already know about the VideoTutorials? -> LINK And for indepth-infos about some features see these TechTalks -> LINK

Not a few minutes, but nevertheless fast enough, I hope You will need divx to watch this one... Sorry for the bad english... *Fuchur* video_tutorial_interface_divx.zip

In a view minutes I will have a small video-tutorial for you on how to set your interface so you can do that... *Fuchur*

You know of the folders etc. you can make to collect different poses in different areas, right? I think this is very usful... Just go to your model in the PWS, go to "User Options" rightclick and say "New Folder". Now drag and drop your Poses in the folders... if you drage and drop them around here, I think it should translate to the chereo as well... sometimes there are some "Refresh"-Problems with that, so pressing space, closing and reopening the choreographie or restarting A:M should solve the problem... *Fuchur*

"Grey-Mode" = Shaded Mode "Grey-Mode with Wireframe" = ShadedWireFrame-Mode "Default" = Hybrid Mode... (eventuelly needed later...) *Fuchur*

Gruesse aus Karlsruhe zurueck There is a shader which could help you too... it is called "Null Shader"... I cant think of where to get it, but maybe someone else can... *Fuchur*

Okay... I just had a look at the review from this "Graphics Guy" there and I just have to say: EVERYTHING he writes is not true or just a half-truth... "A:M cant have multiple windows." -> just wrong... it can have as many as you want and your graphiccard is capable of. "A:M isn't crashproove..." -> maybe you can say it wasnt on version 9... but every other version later was quite crashproove... of course no software is totally crashproove... but A:M is at an average level if you ask me... and they provide a better bug-tracking-portal than any other I saw... bugs are very fast found (A:M Reports) and a patch will be available in one to two weeks ore even on the same day if it is something important "A:M is primitive..." -> cant be more wrong... it is efficent... it's interface looks simple and is easy to use... so a new user can easily and fast find his way through it... and it is VERY powerful if you know how to use it... MUCH better than what you will find in Max or so, if you ask me... "A:M has a bad technical service..." -> Yes... if you compare it to the service Autodesk provides you with, it is not that good... the only bad thing about it... Autodesk will charge you several thousand dollars for that... but I doubt that there is a better one out there for free, if you think of the forum and A:M Reports. "A:M's Forum is only filled with other users..." -> half-truth and even if, that isnt any disadvantage at all... they walked the same way as you will and so they will have easy and fast solutions for you point of view... AND Martin, Yves, Noel and Co arent only user... they are programmers too... "A:M's renderingspeed is slow" -> Yes and no... it depends on what you are rendering and how you will compare it... keep in mind: To get an equally round sphere for example you have to use that many polygones while a few patches will be enough... so if you use only the patchcount and transfer it to polycount, yes, A:M will loose the race... but the thing is: A:M will provide you with a sphere while polygone-programms will provied you with a box or something like that which you didnt want... "A:M isnt the only softwarepackage which is cheap..:" -> This one is true... but for example Carrera isnt half as powerful as A:M... There are other cheap tools available for example one from Softimage... BUT they are all not "full" versions like A:M but limited once which cant keep up with the features of A:M. "A:M's forum has a censorship..." -> true... DAMN you Martin, that you won't let us post advertisings for competing products on the forum... cant understand why you do that! One thing about that is although: You get informations here, which are filtered for being helpful and useful without the spam-entries, etc. "A:M's manual is not good..." -> Damn we all have to be wizards to work with A:M... in fact: the TAO ("The Art of Animation:Master"-manual) is just not usual... it is a tutorial-approach to bring you into the software which worked very well for most of us. The Technical Reference you will get too is the "normal approach"... it is true that the technical reference wasn't there in a printed form on early versions... but was in the internet for download. And lets say you like it more visual... there are VideoTutorials which will guide you the same steps like the TAO does and if you want more "indepth"-informations there are the tech-talks-video-tutorials which are really a great help for the new features... *Fuchur*

It will save a cookie on you PC so you are automatically logged in when you visit the forum... nothing special... *Fuchur*

Directly under the intensity if you are using v14... *Fuchur*

I dont know exactly but as far as I know: Materials will render less fast when you are using combiners, etc. but if you are just using the surface-colors of a group, I dont think you will get any speed-ups. Maybe even slow downs because the textures have to be loaded and antialiased and so on... but I just assume that... I cant say if there is a different between surfacecolor of a group and surface-colors set by an material... maybe there is a difference too... *Fuchur*

I asume your box wasnt "white" but had gradients from the light... At the surface-attributes, you can set two settings which can help you there... diffuse falloff and ambiance-color / strength... The problem is, that you will lose the 3d-informations if you use 0% or 100% at one of these... A better solution is a very well designed lightening like a very bright light-dome... but even that wont give you a totally white surface without loosing informations... Informations on lightdomes / skylight-rigs can be found here: Yves Poissant's - Webpage The webpage has some very nicly done stuff on it... you should have a look at it for in depth-informations on A:M's techniques... *Fuchur*

Think of it this way: If you want to make a poster over a whole building, you will need 256 passes Other than that, 16 passes will quite always be enough. In some situations you will need 25 for some (normal) posters even 36... but in the end: The higher you go, the better the results till you hit the 1pixel-limit. (That means that every further step will take that little effect that it cant be displayed anymore) So, if you have the time and patience... go as high as you want... 16 or 25 passes will be enough though... *Fuchur*

Very, very cool! You should render some higher resolution and send it in for the Mascot-Contest... *Fuchur*

Hm... at tools -> options you can set Audio-settings, but I dont think it has something to do with that... my recommendation is: Restart A:M. In the audio-settings go to moni and a low khz-value... that will take less memory and so it should work a bit better... But in the end: Sometimes when working with audio you just have to reload the audio or restart A:M... *Fuchur*