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For the interested. The checker and spherical combiners may be studied in the attached project file. MachinedProject.zip

This is done with a checker and a spherical combiner

Here is a link to a simple plugin for water effects that might be useful. If you like a reference, I have also attached a movie of a somewhat realistic water splash. (Thanks to Fabrice Favé for letting me use his Caustics setup. ) Test01.mov

Victor, Thanks for showing. I just love it!! The timing is exceptional There is one thing that I noticed and that I would have done differently (on the other hand I wouldn't been able to do a single frame of it in the first place...): When your giant rocks the planet, leaning backwards the first time he(?) keeps his fingers down. The second and third time he stretches his fingers so they don't touch the planet. For me this seems a bit odd and I'm worried he'll slip. I would feel more comfortable if he kept his fingers down Obviously, nothing in your animation is there by accident and there is of course a reason for him to stretch his fingers. I get a strange feeling from it though and thought you might like to know

Well, you might be right, but I don't see a reason for the following quote if it wasn't for the competition to be anonymous: If Hash Inc. says it's ok to enter the same image for more than one contest, I might consider it, but it wouldn't be as much fun as making a new one, I guess - A lot easier, but not as much fun I have already said something about that in this thread. Did you miss it or do you want more details? I could let you look at the model file and the texture image if you want. That is just a rotation action, motion blur and lot of passes. No. It's not. It's all native A:M. Ken, Paul and Doug, Since you are the only ones interested in the sky, I will not write a tutorial, but if you like to, I could let you look at the model file.

Again, thank you all for your comments! Eventually I will find time to implement some of your ideas Regarding the idea of entering my AC in the mechanical contest, I guess it's disqualified by having been in a contest already, right? Maybe I could donate the AC model to get rid of that problem though... BTW, is anyone interested in how I made the sky in my entry. I haven't seen volumetric clouds like these made in A:M before, but I'm not sure it hasn't been done though Maybe it's just me that haven't thought of this possibility, but if there are enough people interested in this I might consider writing a short tutorial. What do you think?

Thank you for the comments, so far Well, the AC is on its first flight and I thought is should be rather clean, but maybe that's not what you meant. I certainly didn't want it to look like a cardboard model though. Do you have any idea of what will prevent it from doing so? This was my intention, to focus on the achievement, the long path between New York and Paris. Maybe you are right about it being a rather weak pose though. What do everyone else think I put rather much effort in making the sky in A:M and I guess I got a little too proud of it and forgot about what was the main object in the scene. This isn't exactly the "kill your darlings" rule, but a bit related, i think... I'll try to remember this for the next contest. I know I wont, but I'll try anyway... I'll try to be a bit more interesting next time ... No, seriously, I see what you mean Vernon. I was going for the mood ten or fifteen minutes after sunset and relied on a skylight, an "oceanlight" and just one yellow fill light from behind. With a visible sun it would have been a much more dramatic scene I guess. I guess I should have done more research for how a sky looks from this altitude. It shouldn't be too much work to add some cliffs. The most work was in experimenting with the sky material. That's probably why I got in love with it The Ocean is a combination of a displacement map and a bump map. It is the same "wavy" image for both, but the bump map has a repetition factor of 30 or so. Tanks all for your comments so far! Also, you don't have to excuse yourselves for not voting on my entry. This thread is not about that.

Now when the Image Contest is finished I'd like to congratulate Colin, Noah, John and Mike. Very good work, indeed! To learn more, I also like everyone to tell me what's good and what's not so good with my entry. Don't be shy. I'd really like to improve the image and I think my ego can handle almost anything I'm interested in critique on everything: Lighting Composition Modelling (The full detailed engine took too long to render so I exchanged it with a proxy that has some issues that I'm aware of) The sky The ocean "Topic relevance" ... I'd really appreciate it if you gave it some time Thanks, /Anders

Sorry, but no, not yet. I haven't forgot about it though Depending on what you need, in the meantime maybe you could try to use Photoshop as suggested by Yves earlier in this thread?

Really nice Chris! (and Hash) I would guess that your bear has about half a million hairs.

Oh, all those details! At last, I think we have a working algorithm, though

Yes, you are correct Yves, but I think you got a typo in your code. What I think meant was: N = 2048; for (int i=0, i < N, i++){ costheta = Rand(); sintheta = sqrt( 1.0 - costheta * costheta ); phi = Rand() * 2.0 * Pi(); X[i]= R*cos(phi)*sintheta; Y[i] = R*sin(phi)*sintheta; Z[i] = R*costheta; } I think costheta must have a uniform distribution. Am I right? (Edit: I guess I am since otherwise there will be a dimension error) (I also corrected the loop index, but that was trivial)

After some more thought, I think your problem will be solved if you simply change your line Transform.Rotate.X = 360*(-0.5+Rand()) to Transform.Rotate.X = 90 + 180/Pi()*ASin(2*Rand() - 1) EDIT: I wasn't sure if A:M trig functions used radians or not. Now I think it's correct though...

Julian, The clustering you see is what you should expect. On a sphere, an arc length is shorter close to the poles than around the equator, but your algorithm places just as many bones at latitude 0 as it does at latitude 89. The solution is to have a non uniform random distribution for the latitude angle. It may be shown that this distribution should have a frequency function as f(Lat) = cos(Lat) This is an algorithm that might help you to solve your problem. It produces evenly random distributed points on a half sphere. N = 2048; for (int i=1, i < N, i++){ Lat = asin(rand()); // Latitude angle [0,pi/2). This is the "magic" line... Long = 2*pi*rand(); // Longitude angle [0,2*pi) X[i]= R*cos(Lat)*cos(Long); // X coordinate for the light source Y[i] = R*cos(Lat)*sin(Long); // Y coordinate for the light source Z[i] = R*sin(Lat); // Z coordinate for the light source }

...and the project: Ripple01.prj

And now the last example for the evening (at least here in Sweden, it is late) A drop in a pool. The movie... Drip02.mov

Thanks Jim!

The project: Hypnotic01.zip

Another example. Something happened to poor mr Rabbits eyes... Cylindrical waves with helix ON. The movie: [attachmentid=12527] Hypnotic01.mov

...and then the project file (v.10.5) WavePhysics01.prj

This is the first example. Nothing fancy. Just three planar waves arranged to demonstrate reflection and refraction. First the movie... WavePhysics01.mov

The plugin has been updated after some minor bug fixes. Those who have already downloaded the plugin are advised to remove it and install the new 0.5.1 version. Sorry for the inconvenience. /Anders

After some tinkering with the SDK I have come up with something that might be useful to at least someone. The plugin has a lot of parameters to tweak and although they have rather informative names I guess it might be hard without any help. When I find time for it, I'll make some example projects to get you started. Please note that this is a time limited beta version. When it expires in a couple of months a message will be shown when you start up A:M. The message will stop showing when you uninstall the plugin or upgrade. Also note that this is a rather simple procedural texture plugin and nothing that is capable of producing photo realistic effects. At least, I don't think so... If you have any questions or experience any problems with the MultiWave, please let me know. /Anders EDIT 1: The plugin has been updated after some minor bug fixes. Those who have already downloaded the plugin are advised to remove it and install the new 0.5.1 version. Sorry for the inconvenience. EDIT 2: The time limitation on this plugin has now been removed. MultiWave__v._0.5.2_Beta_.zip

He has four fingers and a thumb. He's human, you know

Your Gaston is great! What plans do you have for him? Do they perhaps include an insane cat and a vicious depressed seagull? Gaston is my wifes favorite cartoon, while I'm more into Spirou and the Marsupilami, two other characters drawn by the belgian cartoonist André Franquin.