Fuchur

As long as you dont change the camera to orthographic. *Fuchur*

Vorsicht Jungs, die Forenregeln verbieten eigentlich länger Diskussionen in deutsch Für sowas gibts ja eigentlich bei mir die deutsche Community... auch wenn sie zugegebener maßen ziemlich ruhig ist [Careful boys, the foren rules doesnt allow longer discussions in german For such things there is the german community at my website... so I have to admit that it is quite quiet there.] *Fuchur*

That looks terrific! Nice character and fine movement! *Fuchur*

In short: You have to say A:M when to start a movement (Keyframe #1) and when to end it (Keyframe #2)... You are just saying that the character should lift the arm. But you never told him/her when not to move it. A:M will interpolate the movement from one keyframe to the next. It doesnt magically know when you want it to stand still. Think about it and you may already know what is going wrong. Step by Step: 1.) Bring the Character to the starting-pose. -> Keyframe 1. (You have to move ANY bone you want to use slightly to create an animation history for it (called driver). 2.) Lift the arm. -> Keyframe 2. (dont just lift the arm. FORCE a keyframe for every bone you are going to move. After you create an animation history in step 1, you just have to click the "force keyframe"-button (the big yellow key at the bottom of your screen) now. 3.) Move the other arm -> Keyframe 3. Hit the "Force Keyframe"-Button again. *Fuchur*

- double post -

Or use the patch group mode. Only visible once will be selected. In most cases robs answer is better so. *Fuchur*

You should try to model the bevels in from the beginning... if you get familar with that, it is actually not that hard. *Fuchur*

There are some tools in Photoshop which could do that for you (in the newer versions at least) but if you are happy with it, why not do it in A:M? *Fuchur*

Happy Birthday! *Fuchur*

Looks as if it was made to be combined with him... NICE! *'Fuchur*

Would be new to me, but I have to admit I never tried that before. Maybe if you change the direction of the normals? See you *Fuchur*

v16 may be interesting for you, since it will be 64bit and renderoptimised (quad- / n-core-releated)... I think when it comes out, it should not be much of a trouble to go to the new version then. Other than that: There are new things in v15 (specially bug-fixes but although stuff like NLE and particle-system baking but these are not essential to create masterpieces for people with your skill. Particle-System baking can be a timesaver, but it is not essential to create effects. See you *Fuchur*

Please let us know what you did to get rid of the problem... *Fuchur*

The second attempt is so much better. The first needs much work. The velocity of the motions is unnaturally changing inbetween withour a reason, there are jumps and there is not that much weight in it. The jump is quite okay, so there is a too fast moving at the end (grap the keys for the legs and move them backwards in time while leaving the models position where it is.) At the landing, you should try to use some delay-times / show the inertia. Some stuff moves before other stuff. For example: The legs may have hitten the ground already, but the hands must got down furthermore, because the legs are just slowing the motion down but cant stop it in an instance, etc. *Fuchur*

I would call that a successful experiment, Mark! Fantastic looking material! *Fuchur*

Very well done... I liked especially the elephants... very sympathic. You are getting much better If you want to improve but for this clip it already works well: - have a look at better textures and maybe a nice lightening. - Put some weight in the animations... for example pushing around the box is a great oportunity to learn that. See you *Fuchur*

Are you sure you want a laptop? You get faster machines for less on the using a desktop-pc... Especially in the 3d-sector you will like to have the abillity to extend the RAM and the graphiccard and so on. See you and think about it: Do you really need a laptop? *Fuchur*

You could try the velvet shader too... that might help with that sort of thing. *Fuchur*

It is quite easy to get the effect in A:M. So the rendertimes are a killer if you ask me... doing it in the post should be much better.

Radiosity will increase the rendering-times heavily... You've got more options so... for example: Why not rotate all the objects? Use Spotlights with soft-shadows created by z-buffer-lights, etc. There is no "click and go"-option like AO, but you can create nearly any look with z-buffers too and the renderingtime will be sooo much shorter. See you *Fuchur*

How it works: The programm "A:M" itself is not located on the Disc... it is only a "dongle" to make sure you have the right to use A:M (I know that you have). Here is a step-by-step-instruction: 1.) Put in your A:M-CD in the Disc-drive.# 2.) Any autorun that will start should be IGNORED. Cancle whatever comes up AND leave the CD in the drive. (this is important) 3.) Install "A:M 2004 Stuff" located here. 4.) Install "A:M 2004" located here. 5.) Go to your Start-Menu and open A:M using the link there. (very likely: "Start > Programs > Hash Inc > A:M 2004 / A:M 11.1" (dont rememebe exactly, but should be something like that.) Tipp: ANYTIME you start A:M you need to have the CD in the drive . After it has been started you can pull it out. Tipp: ALWAYS ignore the autorun and cancel it. Now A:M should start. Trouble-Shooting if not: 1.) Do you have 2 CD-drives? Place the CD in the other one and try again. Maybe you are tryting to use a DVD in a CD-drive? make sure you arent (it is unlikely nowadays, but who knows) 2.) Are you using the right version? If nothing works out with the link above, you can try to install the version on the disc: - Install "A:M 2004 Stuff" located here. - Go to the explorer and RIGHTCLICK () on the CD-drive and choose "Open in new Window". - Locate the Setup-file on the disc. Very likly it is in the current folder and is called "setup.exe" or "install.exe" or something like that. - Double-Click on it and install A:M that way. - Open A:M using the Start-entry (see 5.) ) IF nothing of that above works, the version may not be functional with the Windows-Version you are using. A:M 2004 is about 7 years old when Win 7 was not even planned. So it may be needed to buy a newer version for Win 7. I am running A:M v15 on a Win 7 64bit-computer and it works like it should. If 299 Dollars is too much for you, you may want to buy the 79 Dollars-Websubscription-Version. It will give you unlimited access to A:M for one year on one computer. See you *Fuchur*

You told me: "Happy Cooking!" = "Glücklich Kochen" but I appreciate that too Thanks again guys *Fuchur*

And again: Thank you, Vielen Dank, muchas gracias, merci

Question: what exactly is an HDR EXR and how do you make one to use as a decal? (I am assuming it is brighter than an 8bit image, but how do you make it? Another question: What is a front project target? Thanks! Quite complex topic... A TGA-file has 8bits per Channel (Red = 8 bit, Green = 8bit, Blue = 8bits, Alpha = 8bits) -> means each can have values from 0-255... So you are limited showing colors and more important brightnesses. With an EXR-file which has (up to) 32bit per Channel you can save many more colors and more important: "brighter areas than white". These can not be seen on a normal display, but they can be used to calculate different effects. You can use a 32bit-image and set the exposure in a way, that even in the darkest shadow there are still elements visible which would not even have been captured with a 8bit-format. Additional to that, an EXR-file can handle "layers" which are called buffers in an EXR. These can in A:M for example store only the shadow of the rendered image, or the effect of a specific light. You are able to manipulate these each by itself and like that you can "change the lightening" in the rendered image without re-rendering. There are other buffers too, which can be handy. It is harder to create such a file so. One way is to create three images (or more) from a camera (the camera need to be at the exact same position) with different exposure-settings. So ony very bright, one very dark and one looking good for your eyes. Combining them will give you a High Dynamic Range-Image (HDR). Saving this one as an EXR and you are done. See you *Fuchur*

Thanks again *Fuchur*