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Hash, Inc. - Animation:Master

Fuchur

*A:M User*
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Posts posted by Fuchur

  1. thanks ken, those are easier ways than what I had in mind.

     

    by stereo I mean red/blue glasses. when model making there are times when I have a real problem visualizing the geometry, especially in wireframe.

     

    This is not possible till now, even so it would be cool... I dont know if it can be done by OpenGL or Direct3d, but if, it would be cool.

     

    For now you will have to use Shaded-mode or shaded-wire or (like I most often prefer) wireframe... Yes it is sometimes a bit tricky to see the geometry and imagine in right, but that is only a thing to learn.

     

    *Fuchur*

  2. The problem with that approach is, that you are not very flexible... it is best to make every Mouthshape in its own pose.

    There are of course exceptions like when you do a smile and an angry mouthshape, or something... because those two wont be used at the same time, they can be used on one slider.

    0% is the startingposition, so dont change this and 100% is the mouseshape you want... for example an A.

    Make that with every more important letter... some can be combined together like A and H for example. O and U is although possible, and so on.

    Now just blend them in the Action or Chereo like you want.

     

    If it is then a bit annoying to use all of them, you can make a different pose and just set different poses under this new pose. So you can combine the many different poses to one new. Example:

    You have "Eyebrows up / down", "Eyes open / close" and "Angry Mouth / Smile".

    You can now easily make a new pose called "Angry Character / Happy Character" or something like that by combining the three under the new pose without moving CPs around in "Angry Character / Happy Character".

     

    If you need more "space" on your Slider, you can rightclick on a Pose in for example the timeline(is a bit tricky here, because you have to select it with a left click first...) or the poseslider-window and use Properties or something like that. That will open the properties of the pose where you can set the start and ending-point of the pose. There you can easily set in -100 to 200 or whatever you want. In the end it doesnt make a big difference to 0-100 but it just helps you to get a better overview...

     

    *Fuchur*

  3. As Nancy already told you:

     

    0-255 are the grey-values between black and white. So you need 256 different possibilities to save these informations.

    2^8 => 256 -> so you need 8 bit. This would be a greyvalue-image.

     

    To get an RGB-images you need 3 Channels (red, green, blue) -> 3 * 8 bit = 24 Bit.

    To get transparency to work you need another grey-channel which will handle that.

    White areas will be solid, black areas will be transparent.

    -> another 8 bit...

     

    = 32 bit...

     

    And now ask me why a PNG-images with only 24 bit can provide Color and Transparency... I dont know neighter ;)

    (Anyone knows about that?)

     

    *Fuchur*

  4. Sounds like a very serious graphic-driver-problem... First I would try to change the driver under "option->global". Direct3d or OpenGL... whatever you are using currently... Be sure you are using the newest graphic-driver for your system.

     

    *Fuchur*

     

    PS: Grid and Co can be activated in the "Draw"-toolbar. Just click for example next to the play-bar at the bottom of the screen with the right mousebutton and choose "toolbar->draw" (I recommend to activate "View" too...

     

    I am not on a Mac so I cant help you much more... "New relationship" has nothing to do with CP-positions or so... it is used for poses, smartskins, etc. but just start with the TAO to learn more about these things... relationships arent necessary for the first steps with A:M...

  5. I tried that, but with the alpha white, and nothing in the selection, it wouldn't work for me. Also, if the Alpha was gray, I was getting a trasparent image.

     

    I would like to cut down the steps somehow.

     

    I assume you are using photoshop:

     

    1.) Load your image of the leaf.

    2.) Doubleclick on the Background-Layer to make it manipulatable (so you can delete the not needed background and make the layers background transparent in photoshop. It is easier to manipulate and select your leaf that way).

    3.) Select the leaf for example by using the lasso-tool or the magic wand.

    4.) Go to "Selection -> Save Selection".

    5.) "Name" is for example Alpha. Leave the remaining things like they are.

    6.) Save your image as a TGA with 32bit (->important).

     

    You can look at your Channels-window (another tab near the layer-window if you activated it under "window") to see the alpha. It should be white where the leaf is and black where the background is /was.

    This can be done manuel too, by creating in the channel-window a new channel, make the other channels (R G B RGB) all invisible. Now you can paint directly on the alpha-channel. White means fully visible, black means not visible. Greys inbetween are transparency-values.

     

    If you have many pictures of a leaf you want to manipulate this way you can try to use the macros of Photoshop for a faster access.

    Macros are predefined steps which will be performed by Photoshop on several different images.

     

    In the end you have to hit a "record"-button before you do the steps above. After that you can just stop the record and apply it as a macro on every picture you want. It will only be practicable with a leaf which has a huge differnz in color to the background and if you use the magic wand-tool. The macro can only work with images which behave the same way on the same comment.

     

    *Fuchur*

     

    PS: Another possibility is to use png-images(24 bit) instead of TGAs. You dont have to assign an alpha-channel here. Just make the background transparent in Photoshop and save as a PNG with transparency.

    I think A:M v12 or something like that first introduce the import of png-images.

  6. You can find a rig on your A:M CD. For example under 2001Rig or the SquetchRig... (SquetchRig can be found on the forum as well...)

     

    BVH is a motioncapture-file more or less like an action. You can store motion-informations in there and later you can constraint the motiondata to your rig.

     

    *Fuchur*

  7. The PWS-Tree-Symbol (show more than drivers-symbol) is one of the most hidden and most powerful things in you PWS...

    It can be found if you for example make a new pose, go to the Relationship-Action which is temporarly there when you click on the pose itself / the relationship of the pose. At the action click on the PWS-Tree-Symbol next to the action which is marked with a red cross.

     

    Now you can manipulate many things like surfacecolor, the percentage of a decal and so on.

    If you model has decals on it you will need to give the decals a new image equal to the first one, but with a different "main"-color. (That should be done in your 2d-graphics-programm, for example Photoshop.)

    Than you can change the percentages of the two images under the decal and by that blending from the first to the second one.

     

    *Fuchur*

  8. Hehehe, funny flick. I though it was quite nice and the story was funny. The CG was very nicely done, the timing clicked prefectly almost everywhere as far as my eye could see. How long did you spend making this?

     

    J

     

    Thanks :)

     

    The time I worked on it was separated through several other practical works for my UAS but I think effective worktime should be about 8 days (8 hours) without rendering of course. but I cant really say it because I had lectures etc. during the time we made the movie.

    We had some trouble with the time at the end of the clip and so we ended up staying in front of the office of my professor, burning the DVD and the DV-cassett while other groups where presenting their work ;)

    We managed to be the last group to present our project and so we got the DVD and the DV-cassett working just in time with some smaller errors in the video... but they werent noticed ;)

     

    So afterwards I solved the errors and gave my professor a better DVD with a nice menu, a short "making of" and some infos about A:M. I hope he will look at the infos and maybe think about buying some licences of A:M... but I dont know about that...

     

    *Fuchur*

  9. I saw the bigger version of the image you showed there in another thread.

    What you are expierencing is a realtime-refresh-problem, if I am not wrong. Just minimize your model-window (etc.) and maximize it again and the problem should be gone.

    This is not a feature, and not a real bug. It has to do with your graphic-card. You could although try to switch the drivers under "Options" if it occure a lot.

     

    *Fuchur*

  10. It looked exactly like this. Only the little box was in my lower right hand corner. It had no box to shrink it or close it at all. It disappeared when i clicked outside the little window. My first thought was it was part of A:M and that i didn't know how to recreate it. I thought it was cool an a good way to tweak something around from a different view.

     

    post-9912-1185050937_thumb.jpg

     

    That looks like a preview-rendering box, if I am not wrong... but I am quite sure you now about that, right?

     

    *Fuchur*

     

    PS: You can always open a second window, go to "window" and tile it like you want. So you get different views...

  11. Not really sure how this happen since i cant recreate it. I was modeling and decided i needed to zoom in on a part and then move it a bit to center it in the screen. Then i looked down at the picture for just a moment an all of a sudden i had another window open in A;M. It was like those T.V with the picture in picture. An all it had was the area i had scrolled in on. I am not to sure if i can do anything within that window because when i clicked outside it on my main model it vanished.

     

    At the time i wasn't using my keyboard or any on screen functions. I was just using the mouse wheel. So is there a function like this in A;M i didn't know about ? IF so how do i recreate it ??

     

    Was it a window (with the close-bar in the upper right) or was it just a smal area?

    It it was just a small area, it can be a realtime-problem. It can most often be solved by pressing space or by clicking on the window-icon next to "close" and "minimize". After that you can maximize the window again and the problem should be gone.

     

    *Fuchur*

  12. Hi Ivan,

     

    Yes, AM 2007 is the current release which will give you version 13.0 and 14.0 with updates until the end of 2007. You are probably best off to purchase it from the hash site to ensure this is the version you are getting.

     

    Paula

     

    The CD will give you the update-rights for about one year. since the CD is out (not when you buy it).

    So with the 2007-CD (Oz-CD) you will be able to update till something like february or march 2008. Most likely Hash will give you the oportunity to use the Alpha-versions of A:M 2008 too. (After that you will have to upgrade to a new CD for 99 Dollars).

     

    *Fuchur*

  13. If you are forced to do it with Polygon-models, you should try the OBJ-format.

    It is much better suited than the 3ds-format as far as I know. But in the end, it is always (really quite always) better to remodel it.

    If you dont have to edited or animate with bones etc. you can use the prop-option which works quite well...

     

    *Fuchur*

  14. Great!

     

    As far as I know (I dont know everything), multi-threading is not used for any realtime/fps-things but for final rendering.

    That means, you will be able to render with 2 or more threads (depending on what you set and how many CPU-cores you have got).

    So the new dual core, quad-core and octaron-cored machines will run not as a single-processor but as a x-core-processor as it is intended to be.

     

    The realtime-performence isnt affected by that.

     

    I could be wrong, but I am quite sure that it is that way.

     

    *Fuchur*

     

    PS: tipps to increase realtime-performence:

    1.) Hit "Page Down" to decrease the subdivision of patches.

    2.) Deactivate the textures for realtime-display.

    3.) Use the different modes for objects you dont need at the moment or you dont need to be displayed at full resolution. -> The modes can be found at the PWS in the Chereography-window.

    4.) If that doesnt help, animate at the wireframe-mode.

  15. Hi!

     

    I have a question and dont know if it is possible to do that.

    I animated something. Now I realized, that I should use several Chereographie-Actions for my Character which will hold several different bones in them to easily blend between reuseable actions etc.

     

    So I want to transfer one "bone" (for example the Animation-Channels of the Model Bone) to another Chereo.

    How can I do that? I tried to drag and drop the bone to the next chereo, but that doesnt work.

     

    I would prefer not to copy pase every keyframe to the new action, so is there a different way?

     

    Thanks in advance.

    *Fuchur*

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