NancyGormezano

looks good David - You could probably widen him some more (front view) , and perhaps change the shape of his belly (side view) to reduce the preggers look even further. But since he will be animated, it's most likely the impression is only in my mind, and only when he is viewed as a still image. This is a caricature - so it's all a matter of how YOU want him to look - and he works wonderfully just as he is. I did some animated gifs (have to click on image to see) for you to see how it might look, with modified belly proportions.

Hi Myron (thank you for your PM, made my day, I'm a sucka for flattery) Your image that you rendered and posted before actually looked like it had the alpha buffer turned on (see dialog I posted) - as the sky/background was black (meaning that nothing was rendered in that area). You would be able to take this image into a 2D paint program and composite it with other backgrounds - as well as in A:M (using a composite feature - I believe) To turn off the alpha buffer - ie render the background/sky color in those areas where no models get rendered - you would expand the buffer options in the render to file dialog - try rendering again with alpha buffer OFF. Only certain file formats have the alpha buffer option: targa, png, quicktime, etc - Avi's do NOT have the alpha buffer option

but..but...I can't get my magic marker to work...do I need to take the cap off?

Wow - that is really impressive. Excellent. EDIT: Wow! I just re-read the thread - looks like lots of Wows coming from lots of people. Wow.

2 things - 1) Did you turn ON the TSM constraints (located in the poses) before trying to animate ? 2) The error message is a nuance - but doesn't appear to hurt anything- save your rigged model, close A:M and restart - I have noticed that it tends to go away or becomes less obvious

Perhaps you have really just created a pose that doesn't yet have a relationship to edit ? - you can create a relationship by choosing "new relationship"

Yeah I have to add my "me too" - it's truly a great visual style for a toot.

yah - Very good character ! My one crit would be his belly looks pregnant. If that's what you're going for, then it worked! But if not....perhaps if the belly were given more width above the pants (ie from the front view & back) - it would convey a more love-handly look. (If you're going for pregnant, then you need to also give him some man-brea..um...er...never mind)

Hoo Hoo - fabulous John! (but..ummm...huh? you stuck a whatsis in a whosis ?)

Most likely Johnl3d will chime in here eventually - as he was doing something similar: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=271412 essentially I believe - he placed objects inside a 100% ? reflective sphere/cube and set the number of reflection levels to some number of your choice (default =2) when rendering

If your camera is going to move - then using a layer (or a dome) is what you want. If the camera isn't going to move then using the image as a rotoscope works Check your option settings for the layer in the chor - you probably want it to be similar to what I'm showing: Flat shaded = ON , cast reflections = ON , cast shadows=OFF, receive shadows = OFF

Oh yeah - lots of good links there - thanks Caroline

hmmm...just a guess: have you changed the gamma setting for rendering from the default? Calibrated your monitor? Which vers A:M are you using? and are you on a PC? Mac? Perhaps you can post the background image here. (your image didn't get uploaded) What are your render settings?

First You will need to apply your decals in the action: Go into the action and go to the frame that shows the shape that you want to apply the first decal right click on the model (Under Objects not in the action but while still in the action window, select new/ decal/ image name, right click/apply go to other frame that shows the second shape - do the same as above Then you will need to create a new relationship (pose) for your model that will transition between the 2 decals by changing the percentage that each decal shows ie at 0% of the pose decal 1 shows 100% and decal 2 shows 0% at 100% of the pose decal 1 shows 0% and decal 2 shows 100%

I tried it with 15c and it didn't crash. BTW, I also notice that you have some cps on the left arm that are assigned to the right arm (right upper arm1)

You can offset the start position (look at arm.txt) - it says something like: create a bone called "blah blah" with the start point of "another bone" offset by 0.12

ah...I was assuming the squetch Rig Installer plugin was standard issue - but perhaps it's only included in the zip files for Squetch rig? here is just the plugin for windows - just put under hxt folder. I believe it is included whenever David posts a new version of Squetch rig. Currently now to install the squetch rig, the steps are: 1) import the Squetch posable model into your model - the model to be rigged 2) create an action and do the Poses thing 3) export posed model from the action (just sizes the bones to fit the model to be rigged) 4) delete installation poses 5) Import Final IMPORT Model into newly posed model - I believe this only has poses/relationships in it and does not influence the plugin? Not sure. doesn't matter. 6) Run Install rig plugin (SIRP) 7) reset compensates 8) assign & weight CP's The Squetch Posable Model (mentioned in step 1) appears to have the instructions for how to create the final Squetch hierarchy. It has a bunch of extra bones with "INSTALL" in the name that get deleted after running the plugin. As well as hooking other bones up properly in the Squetch hierarchy. Perhaps someone can chime in as to exactly what the syntax is for this plugin. This is something that I believe was written by hash? My guess is that this plugin can come in handy as well, for other things if included in the procedure for rigging, and have a hybrid variation of TSM2 scripts and SIRP pseudo-scripts. Windows_InstallRig.zip

don't know what the SQUETCH Install rig plugin (run after final import) for squetch does, perhaps that could be modified somewhat to help out as well. Robert/David/Mark - I am like a dog with a bone...(yuk yuk - get it?) Back to this NULL thang. I definitely think that the SQUETCH Install Rig plugin can be used to add nulls (and other control bones) to a skeleton hierarchy, in the correct place so that the TSM2 rigger can access the nulls to create constraints - unless, of course, I am misunderstanding how the squetch rig install plugin (SIRP) works... I don't believe any text editing would be necessary. Looks to me like the SIRP takes a hierarchy of bones and interprets them sorta like a script. IE it 1) deletes any bones that end in INSTALL (or contain INSTALL). eg if you start with the hierarchy of bones: base bone INSTALL +another bone INSTALL ++NULL and run the SIRP - you will end up with: NULL 2) and It also looks to me that the SIRP could be used to place the NULLS (and any other bones) in their proper place in the hierarchy eg, If you start with a hierarchy of bones looking like: base bone +GEOM bone INSTALL_base bone/GEOM bone +NULL then Run the SIRP, you end up with: base bone +GEOM bone ++NULL So I am guessing that something could be worked out procedurally like: 1) position (optionally only 1 side) of GEOM bones (either created with TSM build or some other means) 2) optionally run TSM Flipper 3) assign CPs and optionally weight CP's 4) Import a control hierarchy of bones that contains NULLS and perhaps other non-GEOM bones & instructs the SIRP to create a "Final" bone hierarchy. 5) Run the SIRP 6) Run TSM2 Rigger (to create poses that require compensates & additional bones? & whatever). I have found you can write TSM2 scripts that access nulls for use in assigning constraints. ______________________________________________________________ Note: As a side effect in my poking around, I have also learned that the TSM flipper will create a right/left pair of any bone - & the original bone doesn't have to be a TSM special bone name. It will create the complement bone, as long as it doesn't exist already. Unfortunately if there is a NULL named "right null", it will create a BONE called "left null" - but this might be useful if a text editor is required to convert bones to nulls, and the SIRP can't be used.

In the chor, set the model's options to "flat shaded" to get the decal's original colors and render your chor with shadows turned off, no reflections

The easiest way is to have multiple images per decal (using 1 stamp). First: apply your decal as type color, expand the decal container, right click on Images (under decal), select "Add Image", select which image to use, and change it's type to bump. The easiest prep for the image file to use for the bump is to take your original color image and edit it in photoshop (or equivalent program) to make it an image that can be used for a bump map, thus preserving the aspect ratio. Both images used then would have the same mapping method, but are different types. You can also add spec size, intensity, etc. You can also apply multiple decals to the same area (but not as easy to line up) - using different types (color, bump, spec, etc). This would allow you to have different aspect ratios for the images, and different mapping methods (planar, cylindrical, spherical) for the different decals. EDIT: above explanation might be a bit muddy. Need additional info?

2 things occur to me - 1) perhaps rather than a text editor "program" to change bones to nulls, that the rigger plugin be modified to be able to handle the syntax of "create a null" - seems trivial (on the surface) for anyone who understands the sdk and has access to the TSM plugin code. (does anyone?). I do not know the sdk and I am even more rusty than you Robert (like about 15 years rusty) 2) or if thats not likely, I have noticed that I can just add nulls into the hierarchy (manually) and then run the rigger. The existing scripts don't seemed to be bothered by the existence of nulls (have not tested extensively). Perhaps something could be worked such that the geometry bone heirarchy with the necessary nulls for squetch could be imported before running the scripts. This would probably be waaayyy more involved given the complexity of the squetch rig. And requires more thinking. I don't know what the Installrig plugin (run after final import) for squetch does, perhaps that could be modified somewhat to help out as well. I like how the tsm process works: first positioning the geometry bones very simply and manually, 2nd assign (and weight) cps, then third the rigging. The squetch rig obviously has way more options and capabilities.

I've been playing with this - but I can't seem to create a null - I thought the syntax would be similar to: create a bone called "xxx" (ie - create a null called "yyy") perhaps I did something wrong - I also tried: create null I'm wondering if you've got a description of the syntax - or you've had to just play and see what works? Thanks for opening this door - I really like how the different components can be added modularly. EDIT: Just occurred to me that perhaps a null has to be part of the component model? and can't be added with the script - I will try

I notice that your image file (for the decal) is named something like vorparts.002-001.png Try renaming the image files to vorparts002-001.png The extra "." might be the problem

That looks reeeeaaaaallllleeeee good. Looks very professional...and ...umm...umm...I mean that in a good way... It's great to see you cranking this stuff out so quickly ...Plavix anyone? (I watch too many commercials)

Gasp!!!! Be still my heart...