Dalemation

Yeah, definately special effects please. I really like to know how these are devised in 3D. I can visualise what I want but a means of actually creating the effect isn't always obvious to me

That stuff looks fantastic! I can't get enough of sites like that. Some great work. Thanks for posting Rusty.

Thanks for the comments. Gary - Yes, she's part of the 'haunted house' story. I will post some more animation soon. It's always difficult knowing just how much to 'give away' when showing stuff. I've been playing around with a program called Mirage lately. It's an old Amiga program (which appealed to me immediately) developed now for PC/Mac. Seems a lot more versatile (and cheaper) than After Effects for what I want and it's so fast and responsive to use. You can matte paint right over your original footage and create camera moves to match etc. Anyway, here is a quick test I did. The foreground trees/toadstool are a matte painting. Probably would be even better to bring into A:M as a layer to save having to match the camera move. Well, back to it....

Wow, it seems a loooong time since I last posted! Here is a young girl character I've nearly finished for our pilot film - yes, it's still going ahead I've managed to get everybody together in one place to record the voice track next week (please!!) and most of the modelling is now finished. Several people want to animate on it so, hopefully, we shouldn't be too far off now MelSpin Animation (Mov)

I'm quickly putting together a promotional brochure for our project to show a producer on Friday. I know it's a long shot but the last time I saw this guy was 16 years ago and he remembered me and the stuff I showed him then! I'm hoping a few of the other animators will come with me for support. Will let you know how it goes - good or bad

Thanks for the comments. Pixar - Yep, I think you're right. He definitely looks a little light footed at the moment. I'm on to it

Best to right click and download so that the animation can be looped. Thanks go to Mark Skodacek for very kindly offering to rig this character with his always evolving rig and doing a fantastic job. Oh and the character was created by George Laban. George is testing out the rig also. McSpookemWalk

A few interesting images there but nope, no regrets. I'd much rather be doing something creative with my time than playing games. Like using A:M Fine for people that enjoy them but just not for me.

I think we'll let you find out in the film Hmm I remember my Brother having Myst on the Amiga. Never played it though - I don't play computer games. Never bought a game in my life. Obviously not too difficult to tell what the model is then. It's supposed to look a lttle frankensteinian. Thanks for the comments. Back to it....

Vern mentioned he had considered modelling a steam powered computer. This isn't such a thing but what is it? It's obviously not finished but I am in the process of creating it for the 'Haunted House' film. I don't want to spend too much time on it because it was only written into the script for one gag!

That's a great looking model! I too like the animation you have done. Is he going to feature in a short?

This was modelled, not by me, but by George Laban who is one member of a small team working with me on, yes, that project featuring the Haunted House! I bet you will be fed up of this soon This was George's first model in A:M. There are a few rigging issues etc but....

Hi Andy, As usual...an amazing looking model. I've just downloaded it so I can test it out. Thanks, Dale.

LOL! Well, I've been 'similarly' described in the past Hmmm, that's certainly very close to the script and intended setting for the furniture. Thanks Bill.

It's great to see the progress on your project. It's looking good - so much better with a face expressing emotion rather than just the visor I can see the hands etc require tweaking so I look forward to the completed shot.

Thanks Ben. I think I've almost finished the Clock now. I will probably start a new thread after this if I post anymore images. I feel guilty bumping this back to the top again

Hi Mike, Nancy and Doug. Thanks for the comments - it really motivates me to get on with this project. I will post some of the work done by the others also working on this soon.

That fog does look great - better than my volumetric dust! I'm gonna download the project now and have a look

And this...

A Longcase (Grandfather Clock) for the same room. Nearly finished.

Garcon - Thanks for the comments. Something like Queen Anne I think. Paul - That's a good idea! That's what it is - they just look too spidery and fragile to me. I like the skulls idea. Luckily, no, they aren't to be animated.

Vern - Thanks for the comments. Looks like I'm way outnumbered over the feet so I've got to keep them! You should complete your steam powered computer btw - would be great to see. Seven - The 'atmosphere' in the images is nothing more than a volumetric rim light! Sorry that I have no secrets to impart Ref the tutorial: yes, ofcourse, you should flatten the model if you are doing a very detailed painted decal for a face or something. However, if you apply this technique for dirtmaps to mainly camera facing planes it seems to work fine. If the decal 'smears' over other faces slightly it often doesn't matter with a dirt map I've found. You do need to think about this when you are painting your map though. I've realised you are right about my tutorial being overlong too. I may try and edit it a bit. My next one will be much improved, I hope, now I know a bit more how Wink works.

Thanks Mike! I will have to re evaluate those clawed feet now. To be honest it's unlikely they will even be noticed in the scene so I'm probably worrying unnecessarily.

Thanks for the kind words Chris. Furniture isn't exactly the most exciting of subjects so I didn't expect to get posts like yours I have a folder on my HD full of reference material for the film we're working on that I've either downloaded or taken as screen grabs from DVD's. Obviously I never 'copy' things but they serve as a guide to the sort of look I'm after. The sofa and chair were inspired by a chair in the 1931 Frankenstein. The bookcase was totally made up. I think one of the great things about A:M is that you can almost 'sketch out' a model and see how it develops. I do that a lot too. I hope the tutorial is useful. I thought it was about time I put something back into this great community we have here!

A wink tutorial on creating a simple DirtMap in PaintShop Pro 8 for THIS chair model. Download the tutorial here. I've found that you need to copy the files from the zipped folder to somewhere on your HD for these to load correctly. This is my first ever tutorial so be kind