Bruce Del Porte

I assume the nucleus has only protons and neutrons? I would put all of the nuclear particles into one model and have each one assigned to separate bones. When you go to animate, you can rotate the root bone and all of the nucleus will rotate as one. As you break off particles, you can translate the separate particle bones (for that matter to can assign an entire alpha to just one child bone) A crude demo Sorry bad prj file use this one alpha.mov alphadecay.prj alphadecay.prj

A lot less offensive, so it is a matter of degree? Does an outright lie constitute a "smear"? Like; I didn't know we were down to two parties, but for the sake of argument lets say we are, Bush may have seriously harmed the Republican party but I don't think he consciously tried to eliminate it. Maybe you could elaborate on his attempt and McCains support of the effort. If pointing out that Obama is not ready to lead is "smear", it was developed by Clinton and Biden. Yes the Republicans use negative advertising, because it works. You do too!

There was Pat Buchanan in 2000. He probably impacted the race in a way he never intended by receiving votes from people too stupid to know who they were voting for in Florida. I don't remember him campaigning for the illiterate vote but even he admitted he got way more votes than he expected in some counties. Isn’t “Do these morons really want another "4 years of Bush"? “ really the same irrelevant “smear” you complain about? Bush isn’t running and won’t be part of any McCain administration. At least talk about McCain's failings, real or imagined. Obama’s big issue of Iraq can’t be discussed because it will kill him to admit the surge has been effective. The withdrawal date will be negotiated well before the election, is Obama going to oppose a withdrawal date because it was negotiated by Rice? The usual Democrat platform of higher taxes and hate is all he has left. Obama should be twenty points up in the polls but he is even and fading, he should have picked Billary.

Use a mirror. A mirror is better than shapes on a page, you will want to look at your own lips whan you animate anyway.

Bravo! Your cartoon clearly addresses the health care reform and alternative energy issues that you so politely pointed out my cartoon lacked. One suggestion for the next pass, and I hesitate to mess with a masterpiece, when McCain goes to check his tire pressure, perhaps going to a close up of the reading?? The poignancy of this cartoon showing Obama's heroic solution to our dependence on foreign oil, well... you are spot on sir, how could McCain help but become a Obamacan? And to think, I thought you were just another "All Hate, All the Time" liberal crackpot. I humbly apologize for my thought crime.

It is quite true Jib Jab is better animation, they have a huge production staff, I am but one man with one computer. Thirty seconds of animation for one person is huge. I could have certainly used more polish time but to be topical, I needed to post, it looked like the VP announcement would be today. I make no excuses but we all work under constraints. I have never made the claim of any piece I have done as being “constructive” or “serious”. Your statement simply is not true. You have no way of knowing my intent so you are just going to have to take my word for it. Until Obama states his reason for not picking Hillary, probably not until he writes a memoir, we are both just speculating. As of this writing he has not even not picked her. Once he states his reasons, we will probably both be right. As to the image of the cigar, without getting vulgar, read Ken Starr’s report, paragraphs 210 and 273. If you still don’t get it I will assume you never will. BTW Jib Jab’s “Election 2008” is referring to the same cigar! Starr report

The message is that, in my opinion, the reason there will not be a Clinton Vice Presidency is the concern in the Obama camp of Bill’s past and possible future misbehavior. It is hard to believe this is the first time you have heard this theory. Obama appears to be defying the wishes of about half the Democrats who would like to see an Obama/Clinton ticket. Being President is about making decisive decisions when none of the choices are very good. Frank and honest disclosure of the decision-making equation is rare. This leaves punditry, speculation and conspiracy theory as a major fixture in American culture. Michael Moore spent millions making “Fahrenheit 911”. Some dismissed Moore as only meaning to shock or annoy however I think there was enough truth in the movie to spark a more in-depth examination of some of the administration’s decision processes. Al Gore chose to distance himself from the Clintons in part because of the incident and lost, Obama is appears to be willing to go it alone as well. The polls show Obama and McCain as much closer than I would think they should be. I think this is in part due to the split between Obama and Clinton and I present this cartoon as a satirical examination of my theory of the reason for Obama’s discomfort with the Clintons. The Oval Office scene opens with a celebration and a victory cigar. Once the girl in the blue dress is introduced, of course the cigar, blue dress color and under the Kennedy desk all flash to the intern incident. Health care and energy are important issues but each candidate’s decisions on how they form their coalition and conduct their campaign also impact how these issues get addressed. Obama has to win before he can do anything, is distancing himself from the Clintons the way to get health care reform? Politics is always a hornet’s nest. Sex and race has always been a part of our (US) Presidential politics. Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton over remarks made at a dinner party commenting on the Vice President’s whoring. My response to 3DArtz was rhetorical. Hate the politics or the zombie gore, it is ok to say so. I know 3DArtz knows how to critique animation in this forum, he is better than his comment.

Gee Vern, I'm at a loss to see how it is Hillary's job to heal the party. I would think it is up to the nominee to put together a winning coalition. If Obama’s win-strategy is to marginalize Hillary and hope her supporters come into the fold, that is on him. I would point out that iReport is a political site, I linked here because the piece was animated in Animation Master. It was clearly marked as a political cartoon and it is a work in progress. Mr. 3DArtz said "that is bad animation", fair enough. I think the protocol in this forum is to offer constructive criticism of animation. How can I improve the animation? I think this debate has been great. This is an important election and everyone has a point of view. If art can get people thinking about important issues and spark discussion, it has done it's job. I guess I'll have to make a sequel.

Speculating on a Vice President Clinton seems to be relevant enough that today, both CNN and FOX news give Clinton more ink than any of the other likely choices. Obama’s choice will be analyzed in the context of why he did or did not pick the person with a huge number of primary votes. Obama has no choice but to work with her. Foxnews CNN News Yes, the incident happened more than a decade ago but anytime the Clintons are in a discussion, rightly or wrongly, the intern is a subtext. How many times was Chelsea asked about Monica during the primary? Nobody but Obama knows what issue drove his VP choice. Clinton will always be tied to Lewinski, wishing otherwise is to deny reality.

Most political noise is simpleminded, it has to be. Voters can only remember simple sound bites. If you need depth, doesn’t this get to the heart of why there will be no Vice President Clinton. I’m sure Obama thinks she is qualified to go to funerals, he just doesn’t want Wild Bill’s loose cannon anywhere near his White House. Booting someone out of political office is a fairly mainstream metaphor. In the cartoon world we can and should exaggerate metaphor. It is not out of disrespect for the office but a not so secret Democrat dream since the Supreme Court settled the 2000 election. The boot, Wild Bill, and Gala models are from the disc. Other than colors, they were used unchanged. I modeled Bush, Obama, and all the props. I love it. There is nothing like a close election to fire things up.

Couldn't resist two cents worth of punditry fun. Props to Mel Brooks, "Blazing Saddles" still rings out. iReport

There is a model called "capedwonder" on the ftp site.

Nothing daunting, you are 90% there. The prj plays better than on the video, but you'll get the idea. S_S.prj magic7S_S.mov

Good start! magic7critC.mov

Yes, I use open GL, and rotoscopes work just fine. What steps do you use to load the rotoscope, what kind of file are you using, and exactly what happens when you try to load a rotoscope? AM version/op system/video card? Are your video card drivers up to date?

Sometimes it is easier to just hand animate. an object moving across screen in a straight line or even an arc can be done with just a few keys.

There is a pose slider "TSM Constraints" that needs to be turned on before you animate. Also you may want to set the IK/FK sliders for the arms and legs.

On the rare occasions I model, I always have to relearn hooks. Here is a 20 second tutorial on making a hook. (H264) Hook.mov

The last frame should of course be 00:01:05, I will assume that is a typo. The answer is because when you finish with the starting pose and transition to next iteration of the action, you get the same pose for two frames in a row, 00:00:00 and 00:01:05. Really you want the last pose of the action to be the starting pose minus one frame so the transition will be smooth. The way you do that is to edit your action by keying all bones at their position on frame 00:01:04, deleting all the keys on frame 00:01:05, and making the action length 00:01:04. This way, there is a smooth transition into your starting pose and it only lasts one frame.

Have you tried the rigging tutorial in The Art of Animation Master?

Another method is to make your cloud with particles, decal the cloud sequence onto the face and then composite the face over the cloud. It is more complex. This was a test for chromadepth back when it looked like it would be a feature. movie3.mov

Try what ever the Apple equivalent of right click/ save target as...

Are you sure you aren't making it harder than it needs to be, why not just arrange balls to make your cloud, do you really need the flat? Commenting on character design is difficult because it is hard to know what your vision is. facecloud.mdl

Cho files are generally not an input to your animation project, rather the result. If you are starting a project, you place your models into an empty choreography. After you have posed or animated your characters, you can save it as a separate cho file or better yet, just save the project. The choreography is saved as part of the project.

Click on the link to "A:M films" at the top of this page Click on the "Submit Animation" link