Bruce Del Porte

The principles of animation are the same for Maya and Animation Master. Keep in mind that both programs are tools, like a musical instrument, and learning the artistic side is the hard part. Learning to make commercially competitive animation takes years of study and practice. No software can shortcut that. Animation Master is easy to learn software but can not produce instant results by itself. If this project has a near term schedule and an industry standard quality expectation, I would consider subcontracting the work out. Get Animation Master and learn the principles of animation so you can do the next project.

Totally Awesome! I can’t imagine Ford wouldn’t want that for a commercial. Give us the one minute lowdown on how you worked out the unfolding as you modeled. As always, Excellent work Bruce

I hope you kept a copy in an earlier version. Keep in mind V14 is in Alpha testing, you really have to expect issues. Have you submitted a bug report?

Post an example, artifacts can come from many things.

The F-16 is a lightweight, single engine Air Force fighter, originally designed to be a dogfighter. Carrier take-offs and landings are very hard on the airframe, so carrier planes are generally heavier and have two engines. The F-16 generally takes off from a land airbase. I worked on their fire control radar in a former life but only saw them operate under test conditions. Rodney is an Airman, he probably knows plenty about their deployed operation. It is a cool plane to watch fly.

Hey Angelo, Nice short, is there a higher res version? Bravo

I thought it was an F-16. The F-16 isn't a Navy plane and can't fly off of a carrier, that is what threw me. No worries, anything is possible in animation, good stuff. A new Mini Movie Contest is about to begin, you can track it here. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showforum=49

Hey Dion, Very cool stuff, definitely think about entering the Mini Movie Contest. Steve is very conscientious, I would guess the problem with the photo contest was really just an inadvertent foul up. Just out of curiosity, which fighter is that?

The Art has done its job, stimulating a lively and mostly intelligent debate, that is all I could hope for.

I don't know what 9/11 has to do with the piece and maybe you should re-read what I wrote; "if your against this hanging of Saddam then your an apoligist for the Saddam tyrancy" is a complete misquote and frankly a distortion of any reasonable interpretation of what I wrote. “but leave out the belittling and divisionary talking point to smear anyone with your opposing views.” Isn’t that precisely what you are doing? You are entitled to your opinion, as am I.

Yes, I put it on Youtube at the same time. Interestingly, the view count is about three times the rate here then on Youtube (84 verses 24 in 36 hours). There are hundreds of copies of the entire original hanging clip on Youtube and they say they load 50,000 films a day. Anything I've ever posted on Youtube gets lost in the noise. My one and only Youtube comment was that it was the gayest devil he had ever seen. As I understand it, the hangmen were wishing him a trip to hell and to tell you the truth, anyone who is an apologist for Saddam, I hope I do offend. If hell exists in any form, few qualify more for entry. His crimes aren't really for me to forgive. He has been judged by his countrymen and any country that can punish their own Pharoh is finally free. I hope every tyrannt who solves problems with mass graves of his own people downloads and views the entire hanging and recognizes as Dante did for Nimrod, "he was his own accuser". My offence, if any, is meaningless.

Interesting reactions. A link to this video has been posted on nearly every blog and news web page on the internet. Somehow I doubt this is the first anyone has seen it. As I said in my warning (silly but PC), it is not explicit, Saddam simply exits frame down, cutting to the animation. No blood, no neck snap, so corpse, mild by even Bugs Bunny or Roadrunner standards. Not all art or animation is cute furry garden creatures doing slapstick. The point of the piece was to wish one of the great mass murders of our time, a swift trip to hell. I think it is unfortunate that far too many (Idi Amin and Pol Pot come to mind) get away with crimes such as Saddam’s, with no visible justice. Artistically, Manet’s paintings of the Execution of Maximillian all hanging in MOMA, or Eddie Adams’ Pulitzer Prize winning photo “Viet Cong Execution” and even Gernica are far more explicit. I believe the subject is fair game for artistic treatment. I just hope the schools are not teaching kids that by shielding their eyes, evil or even justice is sterile. If kids are on this forum, they are on the internet. The Fox News page and CNN both linked to the full video, that is where I got it. For those who chose to be appalled, next time, heed the warning and ask your mom. Thanks for looking.

A diversion from shoveling snow Not explicit but mature subject matter, ask your mom if you can watch this? Hanging with Saddam

I don't think you need lights, maybe just add some glow. One pose slider! clip project

Hey Caroline, I think you are on the right track. A couple of tips: 1. For your gel, move the emitter out of frame and let the sprites move from bottom to top. 2. Reduce the Number to reduce the density. Generally what makes good fire is too dense to be a good gel. Really all you are trying to do is make shadows for the kleig, the gel doesn't have to look like fire. 3. I generally render a gel to a 32 bit .mov using the Animation codec although tgas should work fine. Example B

http://www.hash.com/products/am.asp

Animation is an art form, there is the technical side that can be learned in anywhere from a few dozen to a couple of hundred hours and there is an artistic side that takes years to develop. If you are artistically proficient in PhotoShop, you are ahead of the game. Things like palette and composition are directly applicable. Depending on your goals, if you are looking to have fun with animation, you can have fun starting the first day. If you are a serious artist looking to make a masterpiece, you have some work ahead of you. The initial learning curve is steep but if you do the exercises and use this forum for help, you can become technically competent fairly quickly. Think of is as the same as learning to play music, learning the scales comes fairly quickly, playing Carnegie Hall takes practice. Good luck

Contact Hash Support, they can probably help you if you registered in the past.

Are you making these poses in bones or muscle mode?

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "like a sprite....and not "particles"", most 3D renderings of water flowing is done with some sort of particle system, including sprites. Using dynamics and collision detection, you can make a stream of sprites or particles behave like a fluid in turbulent flow. Have you checked out #208 Particle Waterfall by Michael S. Flynn on the ARM?

Believe me, Theodore N' Fink will stand tall at almost any art-house cinema. This is the theater I have show at. http://chaosartspace.blogspot.com/

Hey Ethan, Great work! I love the characters and love the story. Great animation and soundtrack too. Rather than thinking about making your art a business, you can get Theodore N' Fink shown at the thousands of film festivals or even at a local theater. Every town has at least one art-house theater that has the equivalent of open mic night for local film makers to show their films. I've shown a number of my toons here in Colorado, it is always a lot of fun to see them projected on a big screen. It is also a good way to network and meet other filmmakers. Enjoy making art for art's sake. Bravo!

Well.......Due to poor management on my part, I wasn't getting the level of upgrade in the look I had envisioned. External responsibilities also reduced the amount of time I had to work on it. Experimenting with AO and taking more time with the characters put me further behind. I came to the conclusion that I really had not allowed nearly enough time for everything I wanted to and could accomplish. Rather than let schedule make all the artistic decisions, I have rescheduled the release for next year. I am experimenting with way better renders, taking advantage of some of the new features and will replan for a release 12/07. Fortunately there is a Christmas every year. I will keep posting when I have the new look to show. Merry Christmas! Thanks for asking!

It is based on the name of the pose slider, rename the old ones something else and name the new pose slider with the phoneme name. The name must be correct.

Lengthen your walk cycle (more frames) and shorten your stride a little. Post an example and we can give you specific suggestions.