luckbat

Have you considered switching to a longer lens? That way you could keep the same framing, but reduce the size disparity between Rose and the console. Also: The "90-degree rule?"

Slipin, I think the distinction we're all fumbling with here is that TSM2 is not an advanced rigging automator. It's an advanced rig. You don't have to build it, but you do have to install it. If you've never done any rigging before, you'll need to read some tutorials about how the process works, and then either do some rig experiments or jump in with TSM2 with one hand on the manual. It's not that the Anzovins don't want to create a plug-in that can do all of a user's Smartskinning and fan bones automatically, it's just that, like texturing, some aspects of modeling can only be done by the artists themselves. You say you purchased Weight Mover to help with Smartskinning, but the fact is, Weight Mover is a tool for CP weighting, not Smartskinning. And even then, it's only for extremely dense-meshed models. I'm sympathetic to your frustrations, but if you don't find out what a product does before you buy it, that's what's going to happen. I know Robcat might've seemed a little curt, but you did hijack someone else's help-request thread just so you could rant about how you don't like TSM2. If you want assistance with TSM rigging, start a new thread in the Anzovin section and we'll help you out. If you want to explore rigging on your own, try Sonofpat's tutorials, or download the Squetchy rig, which is the primary rig used on the TWO project.

Love it. But why does she pause for so long at the wall? Not sure about the camera angle on that control panel. It looks... startlingly gigantic. Also, because of the lack of ambient light when she opens the shutter, it creates the illusion that the mechanism is opening behind her, rather than in front. (Besides, the room wasn't pitch-black a second ago...)

Slipin, You might want to try the Anzovin forum section: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18476

Sweet.

The address is 135 Plymouth St., in fabulous Brooklyn, apartment 208. [More detailed info in this thread] You could definitely take a cab, especially if your company's paying, but I, personally, would take the F line. Just walk one block over to Avenue of the Americas (6th Ave) and hop on. The train ride downtown is under 25 minutes, which is a lot faster than a cab would be, I expect. I'm at York Station. Since some of the other NYNJAs arrive via Penn Station, which is where your hotel is, you may even find yourself with an escort or two. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Man, I should pay more attention to the calendar. January 16th is MLK day, so that Monday's a holiday for most of us anyway. So, noon it is. Sorry for the confusion, and we'll see you in a month, Colin!

Then perhaps it's time to expand into indie-film special effects?

As Jandals pointed out, you want some light "spill" beneath the car, except for the four tires, which cast hard shadows. I think the "correct" way would be to use raytraced shadows with lots of rays, but that's a serious render hit. A good way to fake it would be for each car to have its own shadowcasting klieg in a light list so it shades only that car, with Orient-Like -> Sun and Translate-To -> car. Then use Z-buffered shadows to get the hard/soft look you're after. The lights should be pretty close to the ground.

You'll be able to download any upgrade for v.12 that comes out. Updates for last year's version 11 continued until July, so it's possible that Hash, Inc. will continue to update A:M v12 until next summer.

That sounds like a two-parter. One step is to transform a model into a dust heap; the next is to make the dust heap blow away. You'll definitely need to use particles.

There are so many ways of doing this--it really depends on what you want the final effect to look like. You could, for example, use a material to transform the model's surface into something sandy-looking, then use a boolean cutter with particles + wind to make it look like the model is dissolving. But that's just one idea. You could also make use of a material effector like this: http://johnl.inform.net/pages/matteffect.htm My advice would be to decide how you want it to look, sketch it out, then solicit some specific plans of attack. It's complicated, but not impossible...

Based on an informal polling of the NYNJAs, we're leaning towards the Monday, January 16th slot at noon. Those of us with day jobs are encouraged to call in sick, that we may maximize our time spent basking in Mr. Colin Freeman's warm glowing warming glow. Please note: if anyone would prefer a 6:00 meeting instead, please post to this thread and state your case. As always, it's majority rule around here. If you live in the New York/New Jersey area and haven't attended a NYNJA MUG meeting yet, now's a great time to start. Don't miss out on all the free food, hands-on advice and big-screen tutorials in Dolby 7.1 surround! As always, the Luckbat loft is available for gatherings, but if somebody knows of a central Manhattan location, I'm happy to defer.

You can read it online, if that helps: http://www.anzovin.com/TSM2manual/ Edit: Oops. Dead link. Hopefully the Anzovins will fix that soon, although it looks like they're beginning to bury references to TSM2 for A:M. Their home page has no links or mention of it. In any case, my manual's in a TSM2 folder inside the HXT folder inside the A:M application folder. Do you not have that?

Well, the 16th is a Monday, so that might make evening a better choice--unless I'm the only one here with a day job, in which case I could just call in sick that day and meet you folks at noon.

Hmm. The thing is, New York police are assigned to search people entering the subway system, and dressing like a ninja might draw undue attention. And then they'd confiscate the beer. You can see where this is going.

All in favor of scheduling a mid-January meeting just so we can hang out with Colin, say aye.

Just a reminder that the next meeting is this coming Saturday. I'm in the process of assembling another showcase of cg animations and tutorials, and I hope to see you all there!

It shouldn't. That background color isn't really "there." It's just that the empty void surrounding a model has to look like something, so, A:M lets you choose a color. A quickie environment map should take care of this problem without overly affecting your render times.

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9749

That mug needs to switch to decaf.

Sweet! I'd drink out of that. The next meeting is on Saturday, December 10th. Hope to see you there!

That's right, it's time for another NYNJA MUG get-together, once again at Luckbat World Headquarters in fabulous Brooklyn (135 Plymouth St. #208). Coming your way on Saturday (sorry Joe, you were outvoted!), December 10, starting at noon and ending whenever everybody gets tired of talking about CP weights. If you have stuff you want to show (and you should), either bring your laptop, a DVD of your stuff, or a URL where we can download it. As always, I'll try to dig up some amusing animated shorts to educate and entertain. Last meeting was a blast, so don't be shy--come on out and meet your fellow NY/NJ-area Hashers!

Plant-eater, so probably defensive.

Q: "When will there be a version for MacOS X Tiger?"