NancyGormezano

Well done!

Hmmm...I wondered about that and found out that I had accidently set the spec size on his shoes to 0% which made them look shiny. The cape was at 20% (also looked a bit shiny), whereas everything else was at 10000%. Interesting since there weren't any lights in the chor with spec on. I guess soft reflections also uses the spec size. Strange.

I did a quick test (16b-32, no multipass), 1 level soft reflections, glow - radius 50, %100. Only the colored walls are 100% ambiant, the white walls (back, floor) and the character are 70% reflective (10000 % spec size), 0 ambiant. Yes there is a reflection on the floor in mine. EDIT: in the 2nd image I decaled the colored walls with an image to see what it would look like. I suspect glow is not always needed. (it is still ON in 2nd image)

I will have to play with this! Excellent! In the last image: I am guessing the shadow of the man on the floor is really a soft reflection? which would imply it would change based on the view angle?

Thanks Robert for the suggestions, answers - I shall experiment more

Thanks all for your comments and well wishes! I particularly liked the installation process. Even though it would scare me every time...as I nervously wondered "will it ever work again after the changes I just made?" - but yes. the rigger never failed, and only took 30-60 secs each time, but of course seemed like an eternity when worry-warting. I liked that I could experiment/change the positioning of the geometry bones, and cp weightings and not have to tweak the control bones/structures or constraints relationships to match the changes - all done automagically by the rigger. And once I figured it out, I liked that it was easy to work with the pre-rigged - just geometry boned - model to add my own special face rig, cape rig, etc, with their constraints/relationships. I also eventually realized that it was best to cp weight, texture the pre-rigged model (which is different work flow when installing other rigs) Once rigged, I liked that there is a minimal amount of controls & pose sliders, so that I don't have to wade thru zillions of choices when animating. And I like the "pseudo-squetch" capabilities of the spine, legs, arms. What I have still to figure out: 1) what is the optimal placement of the spine, arm, leg bones, relative to the spline layout for the TSM2 rig. Ie, is it better to put start/end of bone at the spline ring ? or inbetween the spline rings? I forget what I ended up with (been a month since I've played with it), but felt like I was shooting blind. Not sure how to use less that the standard # of spine bones (5), arm or leg bones 2) I didn't use any fan bones - but just did CP weighting - again - making best guesses and acting blindly. Not sure if fan bones would have been better, or would help. 3) Not sure how many spline rings would be best for the joints. I ended up with one at shoulder, elbows, knees - as I was following what had been done for some of the example models. My guess is that it would have been better to have more spline rings (3?, 2?), as the joints on my model bend sharply, even with weighting. However, on this character it doesn't matter that much. 4) Would like to figure out how to pivot model (more easily) at intersection of toe joint, rather than at back of heel. And of course, the danger is as A:M moves forward, TSM2 will eventually not work anymore with a reasonable work flow. I am using 16b 32bit, win xp pro, but someday, maybe I'll be upgrading my system.

Here's a character (Captain Crazy Pants) I was working on before I took a trip to the ER for emergency abdominal surgery (was july 11, and I am almost back to "normal"). Since you're all waiting for the Mascot contest voting to begin, I thought this might be the time to post before the excitement begins...I had intended to do more with him and add some auxillary friends - but my energy level hadn't been up to snuff and I found it difficult to sit at computer for any length of time. Ok...ok...enuff with the excuses and sympathy gathering... I will probably return to this set of characters at some point as I want to have some new friends to integrate with photos of my hiking "adventures" (did 7.1 miles easy on this past friday! yay me!). I rigged him with TSM2 (first time user - and I am now a true believer!) and my own face rig. Capes and slinky leotards seem to be all the rage these days on the hiking trails...

Nice modeling!

excellent! EDIT: How are you doing the fur? (regular hair? old hair?) - it's quite good.

It will change the whole channel (existing keys) to Euler keyframes, I believe, but there is no harm in trying! see what happens..

awnings/cloth look fabulous

That's quite amazing. Congrats!

Congrats Sebastian! - terrific entry All were wonderful.

Yup...can't resist!

loved it! Fun stuff. great style!

Thanks for your reply. I still have to ask: What makes it a Mac if it's using Intel hardware and a Microsoft OS (other than it can also run a MacOS)? Does Apple do something special/unique to the Hardware config to make it run fast with windows? I haven't ever found macs to be intuitive, just different. Windows in the past has been buggy (and all future OS's will have bugs). All systems will have bugs. I have crashed many a mac (friends) when I have tried them out to see if I would like them. When a user is familiar with an OS, program, they will crash it less often. They know what NOT to do. A new user monkey will give it a better shake down. I rarely, if ever (can't remember last time) that I have had to reboot my computer (winxp pro). And I run usually with multiple programs open (photoshop, AE, A:M, etc) all simultaneously. I might have to close and reopen some programs (like A:M, photoshop, etc) because those applications have memory leaks, or don't reinitialize something, or they get themselves into a funny state, but never have to restart, reboot because the OS is misbehaving. I repeat, this is the first time I would seriously consider getting a laptop to replace desktop PC. But I would not get a Mac laptop. I have too much software that is windows based. Since one can get a windows system (win 7 home, pro) with the same hardware config as that "mac" for way less money...I don't see a need, to spend the extra dough. Thanks for posting your Benchmark results!

In photoshop (any version) you must create & SAVE the alpha channel AND also save the file as 32 bit TGA. You do not have to delete the background layer. The way I do it is: 1) on the layer that has the imagery (the stuff to be visible, ie the alpha channel): Select/load selection/layer transparency or use the current selection 2) then save the alpha channel: Select/save selection/(new if it doesn't exist, alpha if it does exist channel) - if new: fill in the name: alpha, if not pull down list, select alpha, choose replace 3) Save as tga, 32 bits (which saves the alpha channel, as well as RGB). If you select 24 bits it only has RGB channels. Step 2 is the important part I've uploaded a tga that has an alpha channel, and also has the background. You must save it to your harddrive to see it. vegetables2withalpha.tga

Yes me too, I have experienced this. But I use a hybrid rig (a little bit of lite rig and 2008 rig and my own face rig). I believe others (soulcage guys?) have reported they also find it better to render "fresh".

Perhaps you have alpha buffer option ON when rendering to a mov? The smoke may not be included in the alpha channel? (turn it OFF?) OR...perhaps A:M requires some background to composite with the smoke. I suspect it wouldn't render to a TGA with alpha channel On and no background either.

Well done, people! well done! - enjoyed them all.

Wow. I have to ask: What makes it a Mac if it's using Intel hardware and a Microsoft OS (other than it can also run a MacOS)? Does Apple do something special/unique to the Hardware config? I'm assuming it's using integrated intel graphics? There must be PC's with that config? Is this CPU just for Macs? or can any lapbook/laptop use? I'm trying to figure out what makes this system fast (other than ver17g 64 bit in conjunction with win7 64 being fast). What are the numbers for cache? (lots? fast?) memory? HD? (speed? SSD?), I understand this CPU can run at a burst mode up to 3.2ghz? (or something like that). Hyperthreading OFF? 4 Cores? Does 17g use anything unique to this hardware config (eg: instruction set extensions? GPU?) This is the first time I would seriously consider getting a laptop to replace desktop PC.

Thanks Steve!

That's curious. Does the macbook air run windows 7 home premium? The image you uploaded says you are running win 7 when you rendered at 1:57

Hi Tore - I just found out there is a bug in Matcap (vers 16b PC, haven't tried 17): The image used for the matcap ambiant shader seems to get lost after saving the model (becomes obvious if you start new project and re-import the chor or model). I have found a work-around: I decal the model with the same image to be used with the Matcap shader, and then set the opacity of the decal to 0%, so that the image comes in with the model. You also might be able to save the entire thing as a project (do not have to embed everything) and that might work also (haven't tried) .

This is my initial first testing, I think you can probably get something close to a linotype look using Matcap shader for your ambiant shader. Don't forget to turn ON Plug-in shaders in render options. Play with the image you use for the shader, as well as perhaps the diffuse color if you want something more unique.