GAngus

digitalnumbers.prjHere's an old project file by Vern (heyvern-here) that does the digital clock thing using a pose !! Very unique solution, indeed. It was done in vers. 10.5 and dates back to 2004 but loaded OK here in 13.0t Just in case it may be helpful to you. digitalnumbers.prj

I don't know if it will help any mac users here but... I am running OSX 10.4.11 and A:M v13.0t still works fine. I use it (13), once in a while, when I see a project or model file created in that version. I have the 15.0d subscription also, and that's even better.

Wow, what a great example of using constraints ! Absolutely masterful use in the control of so many things going on and the timing is so convincing. Really great animation short. We want more ! What a great specimen for a nice juicy tutorial, wink, nudge. Or at the least, some of the prj file ? thanks, either way. A real treat, seeing what can be done here.

IT's ALIVE ! ! ! ! ! ! ! This has come along Great ! Can't wait to give him a try.

OK, I held back for a while with this but perhaps it's time for (hopefully) a laugh or two. I got this in a batch mailing and it does not necessarily represent any political views I hold and I don't intend any disrespect either. I just thought it was a bit funny.

Just so we are all on the same page here, from the Tech manual, "The control point that will form a hook is attached to the center of a spline just as it would be attached to another control point. Hold the control point to be hooked over the center of a spline, and with the left mouse button down, right-click (on a Mac, press the key on the keyboard, called a tilde)." So, dragging a CP over to the middle of another spline and doing a right-click will produce a "Hook".

Worked just fine here, Mac G4, Safari... WOW !!!!! Thanks to All. Can't wait to dig into this...

Would just like to add this too. There is So ! much really in the TaoA:M book. Going through and doing each and every one of those exercises is so important. Perhaps even do them over 2-3 times, you'll understand better each time. Each one has a few more elements that will add up and guide you on the quest here. Here's another idea which can help, if you are so inclined. Get a model loaded up, and apply one of the many Action files to it and just SEE how the animation is done. Follow each bones movement in time line, and actually SEE the key frames and how the smoothness happens. Smooth curves create smooth animation. I find myself often going in there and am actually able to move some of the points and correct things. Here's a pic of the "Run" action. Experiment, analyze, it's free.

Hey, nice project, great "concept" here, very inspirational, thanks for sharing.

Hey Rob, OK, here's what I did... I slowed the whole thing down again, a little. I did another pass and shifted his knees/feet forward as he presses into the hand stand and the balance looks a little better, I think. I may even have the knees too scrunched up into his chest now, i'll probably work on it some more there. I also introduced some side to side movement as his hands take the weight of each step. What do you think ? here's the proj. too PS. Jeetman, MasterFunk, some how it reverted back to that On2 Codec again. I changed it again, hope it plays OK now, sorry bout that. WillHandStand_final1a.mov will_hand_stand_final1.prj.zip

That's a challenging motion to do. One thing I think would give more weight to it is to make sure his body mass is centered over his hands while he's pushing himself up. If he had rolled into that handstand quickly his momentum might plausibly be carrying him forward, but he's gone into it so carefully that that doesn't look the case. I also think there's opportunity to bend his spine when he leans forward and when he is pushing his legs up. That woudl loosen him up and help show more effort in what he is doing. good start though. Yes, crits well taken, Rob As seen in a side render, there's really lots of room for improvement. Especially, concerning his Center of Gravity. During the walk he even wavers a bit too in the Z. It was a challenge indeed, for nooby me especially. Actually, I had first tried doing it by blocking in the model bone 1st, and then doing the in-be-tweens, but what a disaster that was, so I re-did it all over, leaving the model bone alone. Some re-editing is in progress. I Will post back soon when I can improve on this. thanks WillHandStandNew22bbb.mov

HA - HA - HA... That's a Riot . . .. I Love It

Thanks, I must have changed some lighting keys. Now it's too dark. Here's my latest WIP. It's Barry Zundels "Will" model which was on his tutorial CD.. A walk/hand cycle ?? WillHandStandNew22.mov

George, Bruce, What great examples of how I could add that squash-stretch thing to the Rabbit as he comes out of the hat.. Thanks for taking the time there. I studied them well and was able to incorporate the concept into the clip as much as I could and it definitely adds some more interest to the gag. I've continued going over all the frames/bones and smoothing things out again, and have made an attempt at the boing thing as the rabbit exits the hat as you will see. As it turned out, I had to squeeze it in there (as much as I could) without having to re-key the Knights whole arm movement, so it's not as noticeable as it could have been. I'm surprised a little that I actually pulled it off as little as I did. I hope I can just do a restart on the whole project soon and make it even better. Get some Bows in there (Re: Rodney), and dress up the scene a bit in general. Oh, and get the magic wand into the act also. Perhaps, have knight first tap the hat to produce the magic spell. thanks again Gerald Onward !!! I'm on roll here.... KnightMagic9.mov

OK, here is the updated version I did last night.. There's still a few loose ends with the arm movements before & after the rabbit exits the hat but, I have almost reached the end of what more I can do with all those bad splines but WILL continue to work them out. I recall when I was first doing it, I was hopping around a lot from bone to bone and doing bone rotations in the middle too, so it's like a pile of spaghetti in there now but getting better. Next, will be attempts to finalize the end with something and a few finishing touches. I was thinking of a banner on the stage wall with a twist on "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" but as "Eine kleine Knight Magic", or is that perhaps too corny ? whatever.. Oh yes and Robert: I'll have to try to try the constraints method on the rabbit. That'll have to be a whole new project but, one I should do. Actually, I used a "translate to" with the wand in his hand but realized too late that I should have added an "orient like" also and had to align it by hand during his walk, so just left it that way for now. Constraints are the way to go, too much work otherwise. -understatement- Perhaps run a few tests first.. BTW, couldn't I just stick a Null on the rabbit model up between his ears and just use that to constrain to ? Don't NULLs work that way, or am I way off. Thanks again here... KnightMagic8b.mov

OK, thanks guys Im rendering out a newer version right now. I was able to get into the spline mode as suggested here and found a LOT of bad spots that I was able to iron out. Much smoother, as you will see in a while. The render still has 44 minutes to go (doing it over on the PC). Will post it a little later. Bruce: I redid a lot of spots with center-of-gravity in mind and think that it is better now. Also added a little foot kicking with rabbit as he comes out of the hat. The splines were a real mess in there. Forgot I had stretched the whole thing out in the early stages as it was happening way too fast. Man... there were jagged splines all over, in the middle of frames and even many instances of 2 cp keys on the same frame marker ! I'll keep that in mind when I do that stretching in the future. Painful lesson to learn. Right, perhaps scale/pop the rabbit thing too at the end, thanks. Rodney: Thanks for the idea, I was thinking also about the bows. Matter of fact was thinking of an opening bow but had started already. BTW, Is there a way to Insert say 10 or 20 frames of blank space into and already existing chor action in the front ? I tried to copy/paste the first frame into the second frame as a test but it looked like it was messing everything up so un-did it. That's what is probably nice about using plain Actions in stead of everything in the Chor. right? But, yes, I may add something more on at the end. Bows, or Rabbit scoots away fast as might most Rabbits in this situation perhaps even have the Knight pull out a bull-dozer also ! and a ton of other stuff.. could be fun. Fill the whole stage up ! Thanks for the help, getting a lot out of this exercise. 19 minutes to go on the render. later

Wow... Thanks guys.... I'm feeling a bit honored here with all this, say, professional and even distinguished attention... really, I mean that... And for the excellent suggestions regarding center of gravity, anticipation and the new ideas to try, as well as the welcomed encouragement, which has been exciting and I am looking forward even more now to getting this project improved upon. That "boing" (stretch-unstretch rabbit as he finally pops out of the hat) thing Bruce, sounds a bit daunting at my level here but, I will try for something else there in some way. I knew there was something missing there and that idea could indeed add an extra dimension to the clip as well. And, Robert, I didn't even try any constraints for the rabbit yet, I just inched him up and scaled him, frame by frame with the knights grip (lot of top-front-side views) at that part of the scene until it 'looked-good'. Perhaps I should be glad it wasn't that obvious but, I will try to do it the right way and it will probably be easier too... but watch out for a swarm of questions with that soon, as I know those constraint things can be tricky. Finally, thanks for going easy on me, there's a ton of loose-ends in this clip, now that my eyes have been opened a bit. OK... Gotta get back to work now. Hope my vacation time doesn't end too soon here. Too hot out, and bad rains expected later anyway. thanks

Oh, darn..... Yes, I used that "On2" codec, which I assumed was OK here, and readily available with QT Pro, as it seemed to compress the original file size nicely (was 3.5mb) If that's a problem I will have to explore other options.... sorry How about this one ? magic7anim.mov

Just an animating exercise with some of the Hash resources. All done in a chor. action, and not finished yet although, any crits. welcome. I'm still trying to get a handle on this key-framing business. Barry Zundels CD was very inspirational for me and helped break the ice with animating in A:M. Showing His method of positioning the character at key positions first, using just the model bone, and then filling in the motion "in between" using the bones later, made it a lot easier. magic7.mov

Thanks anyway here... but... Could not open project file with either AM vers. 13.0t or 15.0c.. with the following error screen...

Got it !!! Gee thanks Ken, so very much, for that quick return project file with 3-jumps. I had to go back and forth, comparing the differences between the 2 project files, at first. Then I read and re-read your directive and as it turns out I was on the right track actually. One BIG difference was that in MY 2-jump file, I didn't even have a New Choreography Action created when I was trying to do what I wanted. Actually, I may have tried that at one point but deleted it just before I uploaded my example file, as it was such a mess. Any way, once I created that New Choreography Action and followed your directions, I accomplished what I wanted. So easy when you know how. I even added another action using the same method that gets him back to the original start position (still have to tweak it some more, but it works) I can't wait to try out this new procedure with other variations. Thanks again. 4_jumps.mov

OK, simple Chor question. Could use some help please. Here's the setup... 1. Drag-Drop model into Chor. 2. Drag-Drop Action onto model. 3. Play the Chor and model performs action nicely. 4. Drag-Drop another Action (same action, whatever, a different action would be fun too.) 5. Play the Chor . Now the action gets performed 2 times. However, the second action pops back to the starting point of where the first action started and what I want to happen is, have the second action start from where the first action ended. Question: What do I have to do in the chor, to have the second action start from where the first action ended. I hope this is quite clear. Like, I want him to jump to a spot and then I want him to start from where he is and jump to another spot. There's probably a few ways to do this, but, I am trying to understand better how actions can be manipulated in the Chor. I've tried just dragging the model to another position when the second action starts in the chor but that doesn't seem to work very well. Here's the Chor file with new rigged tom and the 2 actions if someone could help me with this. A step-by-step would really help. (on Mac 15.0c) Thanks 2_jumps.prj

Just thought I might add this bit of information here if it helps.... Just in case you may want to find the absolute value positions of where each control point is at, you could open up the splines folder and the 3D positions (XYZ) of each CP (control point) will be found. Not the relative but, absolute value positions. You will not see any 0-0-0 here unless that's what you want. This can be a tedious adventure if there are many control points in a model and difficult to keep track of what is what. It IS, however, the next step in going deeper into exactly where each control point is at any time. It's the same info that the "Show Manipulator properties" function will give you but, presented in a different way. I just thought I would include this in case you didn't know. You can also edit these XYZ values directly and edit your model directly, if you choose to.

I d'loaded the Mac version also but have not tried it yet, but... There is a "ReadMe" file which seems to address a special workaround Installation Instruction so it can work. Also, from somewhere, in the various TSM threads here, I think someone said, it may not work with Leopard or even Tiger OS's. The "ReadMe" file should be in the folder with the download, you could try that. Here's a snipit from the "readme"... { Step 4: In the A:M folder, open the pre-existing "HXT" folder. You will see six files with an "HXT" extension. These are the plugins that are included with A:M. Currently, the Mac version of Animation:Master cannot load more than six plugins. Since TSM2 consists of three separate plugins, you need to make room for it. Choose three of these HXT files and move them into "HXT Backup." Step 5: From the "HXT Backup" folder, move the three TSM2 HXTs ("TSM2A.hxt," TSM2B.hxt," and "TSM2C.hxt") and the "TSM2" folder into "HXT." That's it! When you run A:M, the TSM2 plugins will be in the plugin menu. For information on using TSM2, you can find the manual in the "TSM2" folder, or click on the "?" button in the TSM2 interface. }

That makes me curious too.... Is their a Mac OSX free version available also ? I always wanted to try it out.