GAngus

Wasn't there a particular key stroke to press at AM startup that would make it reset before starting ? Like Shift, Option, CTRL ???

Magnificent find, how up-lifting... and to see what is happening "behind the scenes"..... One, easily overlooks or forgets how important and helpful a sound track can be in animation, especially cartoon animation. Thanks, Robert.

As I recall now, there's the method where you can drag/drop a Sequence of frames on a camera in a chor., although even here, with my new 21" iMac, it's a bit finicky and frames drop occasionally. None-the-less, it's a visually rewarding process when it works. The old new-tech method? Perhaps a series of same sized, grid-ed pages in Gimp (or some other) to draw and save a sequence?, which I think I may try. Great fun, if you can draw well enough too. To me, It almost suggests an A:M request for some method/module to create this simple process. Don't worry about the PRJ, thats where all the work is and I should be doing my own. Thanks Gerry, Jerry

So Gerry, your rendered final is animated roto's ? or, could you perhaps share the Prj file ?

I have not been very active in the forums lately but still lurk almost daily and am enjoying the latest subscription, for sure. I just felt compelled to add something here. Yes, the current splash IS a high quality model indeed, and won out in the competition, but I have to side with "SEM_Kids" on this. IMO, A:M could use a better Brand / Identification certainly with it's opening screen. Something with a bit more universal appeal.

Wow, doing a new roof on that house will be a monumental project, even for the most experienced roofing specialist, for sure. The "slopes" are pretty severe and there may be no walking around way up there for them. They will use those moveable planks that they have and work there way up from the bottom to the top. Consider securing a line (a heavy rope will do) from chimney-top to chimney-top and drape the tarps over it, perhaps on just only that one long span. Most tarps have good eyelets and 2 of them connected at the eyelets (or more points) could make one larger tarp ? Good "roofers" work very fast. I have seen roofs like that done in 3 days, from start to finish. Just get tight with the weather forecast and carve out a 2-3 day optimal time for doing it. Good luck.

Hey, thanks guys... Even though it's now July 4th, it's fun pretending all the fuss they make is for my birthday (fireworks, BBQ's, etc). hehehe. wow ! (70+) Where does the time go !?

Hey... http://www.hash.com/forums/style_emoticons...ult/biggrin.gif Thanks, for the birthday greetings. Heart warming for me indeed. Mostly just lurking these days. Wishing I had more time to contribute something. Still fascinated by the wonderful power of A:M !!! Gerald

There's a nice Magnifying Glass tutorial project on one of the AM Extras DVD. Hmmm... let me see... Here, I will try to include it here if it's OK.... Magnifying_Glass.zip

Inkscape allows you to also "export" (save) bitmap files. It uses the .png format, which A:M will recognize as an image file. So you can create a nice design (perhaps a spiral) or scene in Inkscape and then bring THAT into A:M as a image, and use it as a decal or a rotoscope for further use.

The standard Mac OS Utility called "Font Book" can and should be used to install, and validate new fonts. Fonts can be quirky things, especially ones you find and install yourself, as there are many variations of file types out there. Also, be sure to restart your system after installing a new font. The OS likes to keep control of things like fonts and puts them in special places so they work properly, ie; cashes, etc. I should think that any font you can see and use in another Mac application, should be usable in A:M also.

Yes, Yes, very nice tree. I like that you changed the scene lighting, so that the green branches show up a little better than in your earlier posts. A nice addition to my seasonal desktop pictures. Thanks

Very Cool.

Wow, what a fabulous link !!! Thanks....

When I highlight a group of CPs, the selection square is a soft green and the CPs are still quite visible. It is also the exact same green when I highlight some text, say, like, when I am renaming something.... Now, I am on a Mac here, but I do notice (also) that this "highlight" color is tied to my system preferences in my Appearances section. I know in Win XP /Control Panels/Appearance & Themes/Display Properties you can customize all these color settings. I see you are running Vista (in your profile). You could explore this in you system there and see if you can change it that way. I could be wrong about this so, be sure to make a note of your existing settings BEFORE you change anything system-wise. Please let us know if you have any success with this.

Any way to make a "Quick Buck" is OK . . . . . I guess..... Be Careful, Big brother may be be watching..... Just kidding Very cool creation. Quite Incredible !!!!

OK... Firstly, I can't find that "back-facing" option location/selection.... where the heck is that ? I don't see it in prefs/options Yes, perhaps the Camera was set a little too low, so I moved it up a pinch. Then I just went and deleted all occurrences of "Ground". I am pretty sure I had the visibility turned off for "shortcut to ground" and expected that to NOT be a problem, but perhaps it was ? I also dumped the material, temporarily, to speed up the test render.. Thanks, for the helpful feedback. I have much more of what I want now, and can proceed. PS, John, yes, of course, in Cam View with the render attempt.. Thanks for that too. (BTW, Love your stuff)

Just an experiment ... but OK, I made a Dome model, and applied a material to it, I even applied a decal on to it and placed it in a Cho. with the camera positioned inside of it. In the Cho., in Camera view, it seems like I have things set up all right but, when I do a render all I get is a blue color where the render should be. I also tried setting the background color in the camera properties to other colors but that does not change anything either. How can I get a rendered look of what the camera is pointing at ? Just not obvious to me. AM-14C Thanks Creating_a_Mood.prj.txt

I was able to dig them out over here.. Seems to be 4 of them.. 1,2,3a, & 3b FLATTEN_1.mov.zip FLATTEN_2.mov.zip FLATTEN_3a.mov.zip FLATTEN_3b.mov.zip

Ahh, thanks a lot. Kool looking dude. The "Wav" didn't make it, probably make upload too big anyway.

Since the following were not available inside the "project" file you uploaded, A:M could not load the file for examination. I think they need to be "embedded" before, in order for the file to be useful. solo.wav, simple skin.mat, rock2.mdl, ibanez.mdl, forum rock.act Since you asked, here's the project. Rock_project.prj

Excellent..... Truly inspirational, especially when it comes to A:M animation projects that include sound. Is there any possibility of sharing this project file with us ? Even an abbreviated or short one, so we can perhaps learn something from it, as to how it is done ? There seem to be very few examples in the forum that employ the use of sound (audio). I know audio can create much larger file sizes but, those of us who like it, have to live with it but, probably will do just that. Thanks PS: doesn't hurt to ask. Right ?

Well, I did it the hard way as perhaps "Master Chief" was trying to do it by, starting with the 32 patch sphere and using the delete key to eliminate 3/4 of of the original sphere first, then re-adjust the 1st Quad (peak 4 places and adjust the bias handles to get the proper proportions back) then copy/paste/rotate the new 3 quads (grouped them) and animated it in a Chor. in muscle mode, with each Quad. Yes indeed, a little more tedious, but is able to be done that way. Just one glitch, where some interior patches got created on each quad. (as you can see) but, with a more front camera angle view, they could be hidden from view. A Fun challenge. ( did it in 14.0c) Quads.mov Quads.prj.zip

In the AM Libraries . . . in Models, there is a "buildings" folder. In it are 4-5 sample building models, if you have not seen them. They are good examples of how to get started with "mechanical" objects, as they are sometimes referred to as. They are pretty plain, and not many decals there but, good basic structures. Once you can understand the decal process, it's great to be able to just slap on pictures of say; bricks, wood, tiles... etc... or your own stuff to create anything you want... onto the structure you have built. It takes some fore-thought (planing) and will become a real project at first but, well worth the effort once you apply yourself to it.

GAngus I have V14 but haven't installed it yet as I've been dealing with all sorts of other problems. Does it and V15 run with OSX 10:46 as well or, does it need another upgrade from that ? Thank you for your observations and help. regards simon Yes, 14.0d and especially 15.0d (seems-faster, all around) runs just fine here with OSX 10.4.11. C' mon up !