ddustin

All those "features" have been with us for a while. To get A:M to save your path changes. go to frame 0 and from a top or front view, grab any model in the chor and (using the arrow keys) move that model one key press in any direction, then moe it back. The save icon will be on now. The second problem really is not a problem at all, just ignor it. David

Mike, It is looking really good!! The thin sheet metal parts look like they don't have any depth to them, you know kind of like they are paper thin instead of say 12 ga aluminum. Is that just an illusion? The model looks like you have made mountains of progress on it!! David

Here is another method (if you have Photoshop). I drew the shape as a path in PS then exported the path, imported the path in A:M using the AI (Adobe Illustrator) wizard. It took all of a minute to make it. David (there should be a tutorial somewhere on the forum about it) David [attachmentid=19270] Wall_2.zip

There are internal patches because the wall itself is not a single object, but 5 seperate ones... Was a shortcut method I was using to build my wall... but I'm going to attempt building it correctly... thanx... That is the best way. The artifacts you are seeing look like the vertical panels are not over-lapping the horizontal surfaces enough (from what I can tell). Can you zoom in to one of the joints? David

Ok, I was confused for a bit... I couldn't quite figure out how this wall was made... Then the bulb clicked on over my head, and I realized it wasn't a single object, but 4 of them.... (ok, I can be a bit slow sometimes...) very clever... Thanx I appreciate your time and patience... No problem, I was a noob once too. Like I said, the right way to do it would be to model the wall, tweak etc. but that is probably a way off for you. Did you by any chance buy A:M recently like SIGGRAPH? David

Ok, Attached is a quick wall. The rounded edges are a littl small but you get the basic idea. It is not the technical way to do it but it will work for what you are trying to do. You'll get the hang of things. David [attachmentid=19264] Wall.zip

That's what I had in mind as well, but the cube is rounded, and there aren't too many buildings with rounded corners (although I can figure out a way to sharpen them up), and then cutting a hole for the door and the window is what's really eluding my I suppose. I know this is probably most basic, but I'm not sure where to begin, even using the primitive. Actually you want your edges to be rounded. If you get in the practice now, you will be much happier later on. Just position the splines so the edge has less of a radius. If you don't take this approach your animations will have artifacts when you render them. By making a few panels with rounded edges (save it as a sepperate model) you can easily create walls with holes in them (lower panel, verticals and upper panel). Really it works and you'll be done much faster in the long run. Attached is a simple rectangle that I use as a building block for most of my geometric shapes. David [attachmentid=19263] rectangle.zip

The easiest way is to start with primitives from the CD. Most of my mechanical projects contain a lot of primitives. Be sure to save the pimitive to your hard drive as you won't be able to save the modified object back to the CD. I usually create a project directory, then sub directories for models and images etc. Save the project file in this directory and the primitives in the model directory. Hope this helps, and welcome!! David

Ooooo, can I see? Huh, pretty please? Seriously, it would be relly cool to see how you do it. Thanks, David

Sorry, I guess I should have had oakchas interpret for me again. He seems to speak your elusive language.

Case, I have thought about it, in fact I think about it every day. Patch count is a concern as you get into larger projects. Let's just say that you can get a feel for the number of patches by the size and detail of the model. There a number of short-cuts one can employ to create surface details instead of modeling them. Look at some of the vehicles Jin Kazama creates... with very few patches. The model looks very good, it just seems like it should not have taken 6k patches. That doesn't mean it is in any way deficient or less of a work. If he posts a wire frame, there may be suggestions as to where he can be more frugal. This WIP forum is intended for critiques, so it is expected that other A:M users will help each other out. I do it with models and animations all the time. The users of this forum have a very keen eye and can point out anomalies we might otherwise miss. "." "," ";" are keys too....

It could be the: Mechs vs. Orgs Mechanicals vs. Organicals Mechans vs. Organs The Apache doesn't look large enough to have 6,000 patches.

Jin, http://www.marlinstudios.com/ This approach might work for you for the crowd. David

And all of us mechanicals, wish we were better at organic........ It looks really good. Can you post a wire-frame? David

Absolutley, keep us posted on where to view it.

3ds props import well. They can not be animated in the sense that you could move branches etc. David

Both the camera and ground is set to pure white, while the model is given a touch of grey (222,222,222) Any other chor lights on? thanks.

I get the plug-in missing message.....

Sure, but they are nothing more than basic settings: Global Color: white 100% 100% Sampling set to 40 Do you have your camera and ground set to white as well? Thanks, David

Stian, Can you share your AO settings? Thanks, David

Very nice work Eric

Mark, Wheel and body would be great, thanks. I would still like to consider the suspension aspect as it will allow for greater detail. David

Mark, So you are kind of proposing a scenario like "here's a button, would you sew a shirt on it for me", we being the button offerers. Honestly I usually don't have suspensions on my vehicles as it really isn't relevent most times, but.... If we had a few basic frames: 1. Truck frame with independent front suspension, and a solid rear axle 2. Car frame with independent front suspension, and a solid rear axle 3. Car frame with 4 wheel independent suspension. we could have a "rig" for each type... How accurate would the suspension need to be? Thanks, David

Dude....................

Well I don't think I can do a looping background, so this offer is not viable. It was a good idea and if anyone has any thoughts as to how to do it, I'm all ears. Will Sutton suggested having the begining and ending values the same. That will cause the material to be in the correct position at the beginning and the end, but it also means the material will need to return back to it's origin point. This makes the material look like it is moving away then back. What I would really like is a material or animated displacement map that looks like it is boiling, but needs to be loopable (don't think that is a word). David