NancyGormezano

very lovely - very very nice feeling

After rendering, and before closing the rendering window panels - hit shift + 8 to turn off hair & particles. Then close the render windows, to return to the chor. I believe that works (ie, I think? I have done this)

Then hair (sounds like it's for clouds) might do the trick if you use emitter images (same as your sprite) and comb it "cloud like" - use a variety of shapes for the surface emitting the hair - have it conform to your shape/path of the cloud area - use transparency (render times could be high)

very terrific fun animation - love the style

You haven't mentioned what the sprites are supposed to represent - nor if this is for an animation or still ? Perhaps you might be able to use hair instead ? Moving hair emitters that use the image you are using for sprites ? Hair responds to shadows. You can animate the density, length as well.

Paul - as John said - my version is older than his. I never install itunes. I had tried 7.2 (and maybe 7.3?) but found I needed to go back to 7.1.6 - And now I can't remember the problems that I was experiencing. I do know that I couldn't vote on the 11 sec club with 7.1.6 & Firefox (some version) - had to upgrade to 7.2 - so I vote on my other system (but don't believe I have problems with A:M? not sure). I only upgrade media players if I am forced.

very good - the animated sprites work very well, ie it doesn't look like sprites - looks like multiple models I too appreciate your experiments. (no problems viewing - I use QT 7.1.6)

great characters!

I still like fungible better - had to look it up in the wiki-p, eg: I give you BS - You give me toad stools ... er ... I mean mushrooms You share with older people because they will hurt you if you don't. Economics 101.

ooo weee... fungible what a nice new juicy word for me I don't care what it means - I like the way it sounds...squishyish John - ask for 50% - you deserve it. Those are good numbers. Don't sell out cheap.

The switches are a very, very nice concept. In my experience, I didn't find using the pose on/off, sliders a problem when needing to change modes, states. Once I figured out what the names meant. There are too many names that look the same. There are too many options. That is probably what stops people from using different, or new features. The switches, imo, don't make animating that much faster. The switches are for changing modes in general - something that is done infrequently. They also get in the way when grabbing bones (especially the spine). Something done frequently. The switches appear to conflict with the ability to set some items on or off as default. They appear to have problems with states and defined behavior. If the switches didn't create problems - I would say they would be a much, much better interface. Less clutter, with less conflicting channels created makes animating easier, faster. I would imagine with less channels, the real time response is faster as well. Simple distinguishable names makes animating easier, faster - no thinking, reading required. Two or more bones, poses, switches controlling the same thing and "breaking" the other makes animating harder, slower, confusing, frustrating. Especially for a new user. And an old user. I saw nothing wrong with the previous incantation for the squetch rig used on TWO. Except maybe that ik/fk switching was confusing, as it didn't always seem to work. I love the squetch rig. It has me spoiled. I love the FACE interface, I love the Steve's hand gizmo. The biggest problem I see/saw for the squetch rig is the installation process. Therefore, I eagerly look forward to the new instructions, process. All of the above was only the opinion of a lazy person animator, who doesn't want to spend more than 1 week for 10 seconds of animation. And wants the rig to install itself. Those who want to take 3 months to tweak the bejeebers out of 10 seconds might see it differently.

from the wiki: Quebec City's Old Town (Vieux-Québec) is the only North American fortified city north of Mexico whose walls still exist, Nice building Yves. I too liked the grade at the base Happy 400th Quebec-iversary

Definitely humorous. He's kind of a mad scientist that ended up becoming his own project. And working on a limited budget that's what he came up with, but he'll be mail ordering parts for an upgrade. Sounds terrific - funny funny funny FUNNNEEEE story - I hope you're "serious" - love the character

Very, very interesting look - I look forward to viewing the story. And now I might know why your art work reminds me of Scandanavian furniture. My curiousity is really peaked.

I don't know why your chest controller is small - but it looks like you have IK arms on (rather than FK arms default). So the arms shouldn't move.

1) I noticed with your new rig that (in a new action) - if I set switch setup = off that some right arm bones show up (along with z_switches) - but for the right arm only - either none should be set ? or left arm bones should be set as well? (see image) 2) I notice if I create my own version of Sam such that the default switch setup=off and Steves hand controls are on - that in a new action the Steves hand controls get initialized as OFF (ignoring my default) 3) I notice that even tho the default switch for Spine fk_iK_iksquecth blah blah etc = 1 (under torso) , it is initialized set to 0 in a new action

No no... it would be way more hysterically funny stereotypically wise if there was an fascist nazi descendant rascist intolerant insensitive german pig caricature in the story - left over from the really fun days of european colonization, invasion and WWII. Now that would really be funny.

Hi again thefreshestever First, I forgot to say that I found your characters very well modeled, and look forward to seeing what you are going to do with the story/setting. I love Africa. I love the African people. I've been to Africa 4 times. And I'm also a birder - so the vulture (which is excellent) also jumped out at me. I love the landscape. I really hesitated to write what I did - because I too feel that a lot of things are taken too seriously. Since you are sort of new to the forum - you don't know that I can be really off the wall (and also unintentionally offend people). And I can be very outrageous at times (ok, a lot or most of the time), and some people won't like it. I find I have to tone myself down when posting or I might be banned for life. To maybe put it into perspective: I have found that it's usually ok to make fun of ourselves - or to poke fun at our own tribe, religion, country, family, mother. But if someone who we don't know from outside that tribe, country, religion, family makes fun, people quite often take offense. They could find it prejudiced, bigoted - even if that wasn't the intent, or feeling behind the work. It's up to you to decide if you want to take the chance. I am probably of a different generation than you (ok...I am an old person). The male character looks very much like a character resembling those from a "black face" minstrel show (very offensive to older african americans today if done by white folk) - or civil war slave depictions...or the illustrations in little black sambo - a childrens book. Or resembling a monkey ...I believe my older african american friends might take offense at your male character. But I really don't know. I think you have a great idea in showing it to your friends and asking their opinion - because their opinion would be more valid than my guessing. I would be curious to know what their parents thought of it as well. I truly hope I am wrong. I am a firm believer in comedy - It's much more preferable than taking one's self seriously. Nancy

I had an icky feeling you were going to say that. I thought 0 meant don't scale to reach IK control (original state) and 100 on the dial meant scale to reach the IK control 100%. I thought it was a continuous dial. And setting it back to 0 means go back to original state. Seems to me you have multiple states being defined by the dial instead of the one: % scale to reach. The 0 setting on the dial has 2 meanings- current scale to reach is off (0%) and maintain current scale at whatever it is. The meaning of 0 setting depends on what order things get moved, changed. To have to toggle the zero position seems a bit strange to get back to original state. I won't noodle this any more. I done. I recognize it's not always a perfect world.

No. I expected it to UN squetch (unstretch) when I set the scale back to =0,0,0 (original value). I expected the leg to go back to its original unextended length. I will try to say it hopefully in other ways: It squetches (stretches) fine to the IK control when you turn it on (scale=0,0,100). If you move the IK controller, and then turn the scale back to 0 - it does not UNSQUETCH (un stretch) back to original length (does not behave as it does in initial state). It stays at the extended length but doesn't extend further if the IK controller is moved further away. The problem is getting it back to it's original state ie unextended length (when first start the action) and having the scale switch off, after having moved the IK control, and stretched the leg. Please try it for yourself. Following my steps in the previous post. Let me know how you intended it to work. It is not obvious.

seriously, i have no idea... any suggestions? i don´t even know if the outfit of the girl fits to the half-naked guy, tribe-wise... the idea for that only came to me when asked myself: what kind of nature-shot can i do without having to populate it that much with grass and trees ... and the answer was africa... This is potentially touchy. The caricature nature of the characters might be a bit too stereotypic looking in an unflattering way. It also depends on your audience (is this for a class? private project ?). It also depends on your story. If you are not of african descent - you may end up offending those who are. It depends on whether you want to be sensitive to that. The physical exaggerated depiction of the man's face is probably the more potentially offensive. I am not of African descent. So my opinion is one of an outsider. The landscape reminds me of East Africa - particularly the savannah type areas - rift valley of Kenya, Tanzania. or even southern Africa areas of Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa. The loin cloth outfit of the guy could be from the bushmen (!kung or San bushmen) of southern africa (but without the neck rings) - the woman's headdress could be from western africa - but her top & skirt is not familiar to me as to where to suggest where it comes from. The San or !Kung bushmen women today typically cover up more (I believe). But I don't know what they really wear "when not being photographed". I find the masai (or maasai) tribe particularly interesting looking - they are found in Kenya in areas that look like your landscape. But they wear different, colorful outfits and probably would mean too much change for your characters. (do a google on masai and then look at images). The masai women would wear neck rings made of colorful beads. If this project is mainly for you as a learning experience - then don't worry about it. If it is to be shown to a class (of mixed cultures) or published elsewhere - you may want to research a bit more on how you want to caricature the people. This is only my opinion.

you probably don't have to go 16 pass - 5 passes would be good enough - maybe even less - try it. Will cut down on render times. I'm curious as to which tribe/region of Africa that you are trying to portray?

In the chor select the path, then change the mode to MODELING mode (f5) - the yellow thom icon - (NOT muscle mode - arm flexing icon) Add cps and modify path. This changes the path model. No need to put more cps in than necessary. In a similar way - instead of using animate mode on/off go to frame where the monster model is not hitting terrain correctly, select the path - change mode to modeling mode and reposition path cps, (add cps, subtract cps if required), and then: Remember to change mode back to director (or skeletal)

What that sounds like is the "baking" causing that. When something is turned on and off repeatedly, that is what happens. We had the same thing happen with the "Blink" Pose. For the "Blink", we have it where it never really goes to "0"...it goes to ".01". We can't do that with the scale-to-reach Poses though, they have to be turned off in FK. So, that's something that the animator will just have to be aware of, Nancy. It is not the repeated turning on/off that is a problem - it appears there isn't a way to turn the leg squetch off totally once it's been turned on. The leg or arm maintains the extended length with A:M ver 15b, SAM ver b. Here's how it happens for me: in an action move ik foot to beyond normal - an exaggerated amount turn scale to reach rotate to 0,0,100 - leg squetches like expected and reaches ik foot move ik foot turn scale to reach rotate to 0,0,0 leg does not unsquetch move ik foot leg is still the extended length but doesn't scale to reach the ik foot (arms work same way) How do you turn it off and get the leg back to normal size and behavior ?

I believe it is maintaining the scale even tho the scale rotate value = 0,0,0 It does not seem to reset back to zero - it works the same in 14c and 15b I do notice if I move the left ik foot control back close to normal position, them type in 0,0,100 for the scale switch rotate value, the leg resets, then I type in 0,0,0 for the scale and it seems back to normal. try it. move the ik foot control far out - keep ratcheting the scale switch back and forth in the window, note how it never resets back to normal.