rusty

Thanks! Got it.

Actually my first paying gig--a comedian in England. She saw my book trailer and contacted me through twitter. It's the into for a series of You Tube podcasts she's putting together about her near death experience. Interesting. Only 20 seconds. I've really nothing to show yet, still working out the pieces but also she's very particular about not letting anyone see anything though I don't think she'd mind (or know) if I posted progress here...when I have something. Rusty

Hi, Thanks! Some great ideas here. I forgot to mention another problem is that I need the green glow around an object that isn't green. Gulp. Cheers, Rusty

Good attempts John...Thanks but not what she wants. I've posted some my attempts on You Tube I think they're close but anymore ideas would be awesome! http://www.youtube.com/user/zRusty1?feature=mhee Rusty

Hi, I have a material that's supposed to create an atmosphere around a planet... however it won't work, its missing something. I need to create a green glow around these non-green spheres. Anyone have any ideas? Going to look at 'material effect' see if that's an option. Other wise I do not know how to make a material extend beyond the sphere it's attached to. Thanks, Rusty

John, thanks for the idea of using mirrors--saved my ass!! Currently I have a cube of mirrors surrounding my 'energy spheres'--I thought that the cube would need to be constrained with the camera but that looked weird. It looks good now but I was wondering if a sphere shape would work better but that would distort the energy spheres huh. Anyway great tip!!

When I first upgraded to V17 I happened to mention to the very nice sales guy that I was getting a new notebook in a week so I was going to wait until it came in. He said 'no, go ahead, put on your current notebook and when the new one comes in we'll just switch it to that'. I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE WAITED. I've followed the instructions, sent them the numbers but, I've trying for days and I cannot get anyone to send me a new activation number and...I'm sick in bed and I need it.

If you're talking about me, thanks for the kind words. r

Wow, thanks for the suggestions and thanks John for the experiments!!! You guys are awesome. Sorry I have not gotten back to any of you on this. First I need to get somclarificationon on those "energy balls"--I'm not sure exactly what she wants yet. However, Natalie's (this is the person who's hired me) been tied up with working and getting her camera'workingin and hasn't gotten back to me yet. Secondly, my heads been buried in the sand with my new notebook--Win8 took me by surprise; just figuring out how it worked and now, getting it working on my network (still can't access files)! Haven't even started on all the installs and license transfers. As I understand it, the energy balls are transparent looking (no color except perhaps in reflections) but you can't really see through them. There's a green glow 'around them'. The standard glow in A:M might do but initial tests show that it doesn't do too well as the balls go off into the distance... the size doesn't look right. Mirrors sounds like a great idea! Never thought of this nor tried it. Have to look into this one. Could solve a lot of problems (the standard glow would seemingly be a problem though as the balls would be reflected before the glow is applied). As soon as I know more I'll get back on this! Thanks big time!! Rusty

HA!!! Windows is no longer in Windows 8!! Almost! I really do dislike w8... it looks like an iPad. Biggest change in Windows since Win95.

Awesome!!! Thanks!!!!

Hi! I need to build an 'infinite' (looking) grid or matrix of "energy balls". I've built a model of a matrix of spheres which is 22x22x22 and intend to stack these as needed to get the illusion. That one model alone contains 10,648 spheres. If I need to use an animation and decal this onto the spheres to get the energy effect I'm in big trouble. My options seem to be: a) decal 10,600 spheres separately or decal just the fronts of each layer (migOKe okay) or c) I can change the model and decal one sphere which I then proceed to copy/paste and constrain to each sphere bone in the deletingleating the spheres on the model) and export a model from the chor and stack those, or d) do the above and just position each sphere/export a mstacko stacck. All of the above is a lot of work! Does anyone see any other options? If I just need to apply an animated material to the spheres, I'm not sure of the outcome. If rather than applying the material to each sphere (too much work), I apply the material to a single group called 'AllSpheres', will it look the same from the camera and will it look good. It will probably be an animated material. Any alternatives, thoughts or ideas woulappreciatedy appriciated! Rusty

Hi, I'm only charging this female comedian whose in England $200 to put together an intro to her prod cast (first time I ever charge and 'money' for animation work). I took this project mostly so I could track my time and see how my estimate stacked up to reality. Estimate 8 hours/work hours to date 21 and still much to do, LOL. One thing I need to create are 'energy balls'--a special effect--either an animated material or an animated decal (or both). Here's the description: Spheres which are clear energy (almost look watery to give a hint of reflection but mostly clear, yet you don't see THROUGH them to other spheres) and the halo around is an almost fluorescent green. I see this green a lot now when I'm watching sci-fi videos. If you saw Prometheus it shoa lotp alot. Effect like subtle shift of reflection to indicate activity as opposed to a static ball. It's important that they don't like like a solid object, or water, but just 'energy'. I have several ways to go but am looking for fresh alternatives and ideas. Thanks, Rusty

I hate it when they give you something and then take it away! Anyway, I'll be finding out soon enough...my new notebook will arrive next week and it has Win8. Thanks robcat! Rusty

Hi, I'm trying to persuade some people into getting A:M. I remember a video that demonstrated A:M; it gave an overview of the software, it showed how intuitive it was, showed how you can just drag/drop an image onto a model, showed examples of people's work. Does anyone know where this can be found? Thanks, Rusty

Think so... definitely did today... fingers crossed.

For any settings you need to close and reopen A:M... did A:M crash on you before you closed it regularly before? See you *Fuchur* Crash!!! No, lol, I haven't seen AM crash in a long time. No I set the locations and than closed and opened it half a dozen times. Really weird. I'll set them again and cross my fingers. rusty

Hi, I also noticed that the pallet locations I took the time to arrange across my dual monitors went away!?! Anyone else seeing anything like this? Can't think of anything I did that might revert them? Weird! Thoughts? Rusty

Hi, It's unfortunate that AM changes the windows display settings...V14 did not but I guess for some reason V17 has to? I thought AM set them back upon exiting but for some reason I stuck with out the 'transparency' of the window frames (whatever that is called). This should be a trivial point but I guess I've gotten spoiled. How do I change them back? Cheers, Rusty

Still text format and highly compatible. As you know any updates do bring about changes that can be effected backwardly. The last big format change was in v13 when the file format moved to XML compatible formatting. The only real change that I am aware of with libraries is that the Tutorials tab is no longer one of the Libraries tabs. This tab went away when the MS agent was retired from active duty circa v13. Thanks Rodney! I still use and maintain a big resource pool frontended but the library and I love the text format files... allows backend flexabiltity donig global changes. Rusty

Most (free) stuff is included with A:M now... The plugins I am aware of which are not included are these: - 3d Painter - A:M Track - FakeAO See you *Fuchur* Thanks Fuchur!

Hi, Plugins: Wanting to update my existing plug-ins (I had everyone I think) and check for new ones: is there a master list maintained somewhere? Tutorials: Is there a master list of these? Thanks, Rusty

Hi, Can anyone tell me if there have been any changes since V14 related to: * Hash's project and model files--specifically are they still text format * Hash's library and especially the library files Thanks, Rusty

Ahhhhh... IMHO the BEST FEATURES ONE CAN ASK FOR!!!! Though V14c was very stable and fast. Rusty

Thank you Fuchur!! I'll search the forum and check out your tuts (and plug-ins). Rusty