KenH

It looks very modern. I hope it has solar panels on the roof! Is it actually going to be built or just a modeling project?

Star Wars forums.

Cool. You should post these on a star wars hang out and see what they think. Also, a mov turnaround would be good.

Uh-oh. Let's not go there. I believe there was a discussion about the splash screen and maybe there was a solution found. But if so, it was a once off. So, no you can't. Not the animations. They're all encoded into the exe.

Are you using Direct3D mode in the options? That always appears lighter than Opengl. I find Opengl just fine.

Then it's not transparency that you want. It's some other thing. A workaround would be to color correct for the green. So, your face would need to lack a certain amount of green in it's colour....then when you put the green helmet over it, it becomes the right color. Tricky to work out.

I wonder if you made the helmet fully transparent but with a high specularity, would you get a better effect for a space helmet? You might need to make it 1% transparent.

Perhaps they're externally written plugins donated by community members and they're not compatible with Win2000... Not sure about the library error.

Cory, it's only 9 seconds. You should be able to get it small with the new 264 quicktime codec. Or if not that, sorenson3. You can reduce the quality abit or the resolution if they don't get them small enough. Everyone should be able to see this!

Oh right. It's a good likness then. Are you peaking the splines to give them a corner? If so, you might consider unpeaking them and giving them a small magnitude.

I hated DS9. Could never get into it. NG all the way. Don't mention Enterprise...and that ending! You're ships looking good on the whole Nekosi, but there's something about the lines of it. They seem too straight and blocky.

Wow! That's booth material.

Or if you want to have two cameras. You could have one camera out of shot of the other one. Then when it's time to cut to the next camera, just animate the second camera to it's cut position at that time.

I think he also wants a shaded wireframe...and so do I. You can do that by pressing the zero key on your keyboard and then take a screenshot. It's better than pure wireframe because it's less confusing when you don't see the splines behind the splines. Also, how did you start that shape? Did you begin with a primative?

Very nice battle damage. It's really cut up there! Some black burns on the guns might look good too.

It depends what sort of run you're doing. Naturally, as you stretch your leg forward, your upper body lags behind arking the back As it is now, he seems hunched over. PS His fingers bend backwards in the walk.

Space might be black, but have you ever been unable to see the Milenium Falcon? You're entitled to use artistic licence too.....

It's a great model. But let us see it! I believe this PS tweaked image is what they're asking for... Also, you need to get some specular highlights in there. It is made of metal right? Also, to make it stand out and look 3D, a rim light is required to add a highlight to the back edge of the model. Maybe a stars image behind might complete it too.

Does the new mov codec not get lower file sizes than sorenson3?

Nice work. On the run, his upper body comes forward when his foot hits the ground. It seems like that happens a few frames too early. Also, with such an exaggerated movement on the foot fall, you might ark his back the other way on the crest of the run.

With the way you're thinking, you may have a hard time picking up AM. It doesn't work by starting with a box. Instead you build up your model with splines. The modelling tools are less cluttered than max. Instead of a foot step editor, AM has canned movements where you can save your movments and use them again and again. For example, animate one step and put it on a path and you have a walk. I don't know if AM is for you, but I'd urge you to at least try it for 30 days.

Yes, the downloads don't include the help file because it's too large. You need to copy the file from your cd onto your hard drive. Not sure which folder though as I don't use it myself. The forum was my help file.

If that's not it and it's a complex scene, it might be the computer is skipping frames to save resources. There's an option for it in the options.

That's terrible....not! You animate too!?! Next you'll have lightening coming out of your eyes!

Welcome and to answer your questions directly: 1) There are 13 year olds using AM quite successfully. So I've no doubt you'll get the hang of it. Though it may not be quick, stick at it. 2) Yes...and texture, animate and render them. 3) As long as you have patience, time and talent to put into a movie, AM can handle it. 4) If you do the exercises in the manual, it'll speed up your progress. Generally, it takes two months (give or take 6 months) to get something half decent on your own.