NancyGormezano

makes me laugh - terrific narration!

Bravo! love it!

Great looking character, love the render. What are you using, doing to get the felt look?

Wow! What a treat! That has to be among the best animations done so far using A:M. Loved the combo of 2d, 3d elements, stylization, expressiveness All around terrific! Be proud!

Very nice! Very evil. My only tweak would be to move that tie clip up a bit so that it wasn't so much straight in line with the pocket hanky, or make it something other than rectangular looking (eg. maybe a round skull tack). If this is to be an animation, then probably wouldn't matter. But if it is to be only 1 still then it's placement/shape is distracting (to me).

Those were good sample scenes from Hitchcock's movie, which definitely support my suggestions. I was addressing Mark's last movie and his progress so far. It was not obvious to me that Mark was intending to go that route, ie how far he was going to take it, nor the plan for camera on this animation project. Nor restrictions on animations. Perhaps it was indicated what the eventual goal of set, etc is in some post in this thread somewhere? I was assuming set was still in the state of flux. Is the time lapse sequence intended for transitioning purposes mainly? Only? Hitchcock's movie doesn't just take place straight on looking at/thru windows. Wasn't clear to me that project was restricted to what Hitchcock did either. EDIT: added screengrab

Very terrific looking collection of buildings! I have not been paying close attention but it appears you are trying to go realistic, soooo....my immediate thoughts: 1) The main thing that bothers me is that it reminds me of abandonned buildings in the Bronx (beautiful ones at that). Adding some indication of window coverings: ie some randomly positioned curtains, shades, would help. 2) Not sure how the time lapse will be used, but if it is, lights should come on and off (at different times) in some rooms as night/morning approaches. 3) sky color/cloud/stars patterns could/should? change as the time of day changes. 4) The courtyard could use some litter & randomly placed items (laundry, kids toys), and maybe a couple of fire escape landings might have some plants, or other personal items. People could add their own props to courtyard if they choose to animate in the courtyard. I don't think you need to keep adding, unless you want to. I'm assuming the camera angle can be changed by participants? This set begs to be explored. I am assuming that animation is not limited to a room I am confused as to what the structure is on the top of the roof on the right hand side? I repeat - Great looking set! EDIT: (added examples of abandonned, random window treatments, lights in windows at night)

Thanks Rodney for your explanation and sample composite. I was able to open your composite: Only by dragging it into A:M, as you pointed out (saw no way to import it directly). And If I selected any image other than a .mov type when asked for the file, A:M crashed. I think right there is another hint to why composite isn't used as frequently as it could be, in that it isn't as robust, nor consistent in behavior as other features. It probably never had a good shaking out in A:M reports. Similarly, I could follow your steps for starting a new composite (and as well have read Holmes tutorial). The trouble starts when one wants to experiment, change the ordering of mixing, add & delete nodes etc - Then all sorts of funnies start to happen. Many times, one has to start from the beginning. However, after fiddling, and then getting a stable fixed post processing combo/sequence of effects, one can see that the use of the composite feature can have benefits. It's the finally getting there that can be frustrating to new & old users in trying to use this feature. Thanks again! It did get me to relook at this feature once again.

Ok - now I know what you're talking about. Yes I have experienced that and I too have ignored it. I still think it has to do with A:M's interface to the graphics card, and not resetting/setting something. With all the bazillion flavors of graphics cards, I'm amazed it works at all. For a test, I opened my opengl tab in options and played with seeing what would happen if I enabled bi-linear filtered texture and yes there was a difference in real-time display. I did not see any change when I checked "antialias" option. When I clicked show all extensions - there were a boatload of other options (none of which appeared settable), many of which have to do with textures, compression, display etc It's anyone's guess as to which of those extensions may need to be reset/cleared/initialized in order to get back to original full res display.

Happy Happy Day!

I'm not sure why you need to see the decal at a high res in the real-time, but I will assume there is a good reason. I'm guessing this display problem has something to do with how much memory your graphics card has, and that A:M does not reset some parameter in the graphic card interface, to reclaim memory, once the graphics card memory gets full. I'll bet if you restarted your system the problem would get cleared. I assume you do not have any other programs running either, like After effects, photoshop, premiere. If you do - you might try using their "purge" commands. They also chew up resources. Have you tried halving the resolution size of the image you are using? Many times I've noticed that people use gigantic images for decals, and most times it's overkill. You may be able to get away with a smaller image for rendering (ie instead of 4kx4k - go with 2k x 2k). Try it. I rarely ever go above 1000 x 1000. If you insist you really MUST have such a large image for rendering, then a workaround could be to use a downsized image as a proxy, and switch it out when you do your really, really, final, final rendering. I do remember there being a thread about how to get the realtime view back when this happened, but can't remember what the "trick" was. I think KenH might have reported it, or might have suggested a solution. I can't say I've ever found it a problem myself.

Yes indeedy, the models look very well done!

I am curious as to 1) what software did you use to capture the original vimeo clip of Lady and the tramp? 2) How are you using post effects? I assume you are doing a composite (assuming with a tga? exr? mov? sequence)? of lady and tramp. Can you show a screen capture of your project/composite hierarchy? I always gets confused by the order in which one does a composite, specifically how to add/combine hierarchy of post effects. Very confusing to me, so I am missing something critical in understanding the workflow.

Nice trophies! Congrats!

Double Ha! and I raise you a hee hee!

looks terrific!

More dilemma for me (all 64bit): Shelton: 2:32 for i7-960 (3.2GHz) ver 16b Bobbesch: 2:44 for i7 2600 (3.4GHz) ver 16b Illidrake: 4:30 for amd athlon 250 (3.0 ghz) ver 16 rc02 Illidrake: I noticed a speed up in rendering when I went from A:M RC01 (32 bit) to ver16b (7:19 versus 6:01). You might also see a speed up in 16b for the 64 bit version? Would be worth a try!

whew...that's a relief...given that I last thought about this in april, one might conclude I'm into the waiting it out thang ...

Ack. Now I'm confused as to what really makes sense to buy. Only reason I thought I might want win7 pro is for compatibility with some very old programs I have (in particular Family tree maker ver 7.5 for one). But I will probably go with home premium anyway. And only 8GB ram And, according to dell it appears that i7 2600 (3.4) is 4 cores with possibility of 4-8 way multi-tasking (is that the same as threads? Hyper threading?), i5 -2500 (2.8) is 4 cores (but only 4 way multi-task). Neither of those can be overclocked but the i7 2600k, and i5 2500k can be. Don't care as I am not an overclocker. I do not like to tempt fate. I was misunderstanding i7, I thought that meant 7 cores (or 8 really with 1 for OS), WELL....a big big duh on me! I don't know what programs I have that can make use of multiple threads? Maybe cs4 After effects? I'm not a gamer, and I only wanted extra cores for extra rendering nodes. But from what I understand now about A:M, the standard is 4 render nodes max with 1 subscription?. I went to ibuypower site - did not see that ibuypower (for same components as the dell) would be cheaper. However, they were offering the ddr3 1600 (instead of 1333), and they were talking about free liquid cooling? There was much to choose, so perhaps I missed it. I'm now wondering about noise levels and heat disipation...And I will probably not be able to use my old old Wacom tablet. (bought 10+ years ago) Yup, me brains are experiencing a major melt down.

Thanks again Gerald, Robert. Yes I would just get the 8GB now. And there is a good possibility, given my stellar track record for inertia, might never feel the urgency to go to 16GB.

Thanks Gerald for your input, yes the dell ram sounded expensive. I looked up 16GB DDR3 1333 at Frys - $89.99! I'm assuming this would work on the Dell system. Does one have to be careful with respect to manufacturers? or any other form factors to consider for compatibility? I noticed that there is now 1600mhz available, but I assume that wouldn't work with the dell system? EDIT: My husband just told me he doesn't like Fry's (they don't guarantee their RAM, costs extra for them to guarantee it!), nor does he like patriot mfg, so he just told me about Crucial.com, says they are more reliable.

Thanks - that's good to know about the OS. Not sure what else my Ram options would be, or if dual channel DDR3, 1333 is anything special. Sounds fast to me, but I am a know nuthin about what's out there currently.

Thanks for the links, suggestions Jason, Fuchur. The base system being offered on Dell is $850. - that includes: Base - $849.99 i7-2600(3.4GHz) Win 7 Home premium * 8GB SDRAM ddr3 at 1333Mhz, 4 dimms * 1TB 7200 HD nvidia geforce GT530 (1GB) NO speakers *, NO monitor thx truStudio PC * (16X CD/DVD burner, wireless N, usb 2.0, ethernet, MS Ofice starter, keyboard, mouse, Mcafee 1 yr, 2 yr Limited HDWARE warranty, inhome service, etc) I modified base system, increased price to $1419, now includes: win 7 pro- (added $130.) 16 GB SDRAM dual channel ddr3 at 1333Mhz, 4 dimms (added $360) cheap speakers ($20.) Soundblaster xfi extreme ($60) Not sure I need the win7 Pro ? Only upgraded because I wanted to be able to run some programs in xp mode if necessary (I have old PS, Illustrator, etc software) Definitely want 16GB (maybe this is too expensive?), need speakers. Upgraded sound from integrated sound, to dedicated sound. My current system has integrated, and it is impossible to record voice cleanly Not sure if I care if only has usb 2.0?

Seems about right as my current system is about 4 years old, tho I really think processor speeds have stagnated, and will continue to, unless some new technology comes about. The personal dilemma at this stage of life is: do I really feel like finding out what old software of mine won't work on win7, or would I rather plan some more vacations and short trips? Maybe I do both. After all, in the unlikely event that there is any moola left, when I finally "check-out", I'm taking it with me. I suspect I might need some extra pocket money for bribes.

Dell 3GHz Intel Core2Duo E6850 1 core 50%? 3GB Ram XP pro sp3 with ver 14c 8:18 ver 15e CD 8:31 with ver 15g CD 9:33 ver 15j+ 9:34 ver 16beta3 32 bit 7:19 Just tried with ver 16b 32 bit 6:01 NICE improvement Steffen! (Wanted to see what bobbesch render times would cost, so I just now configured a Dell xps 8300 with i7-2600, win7 Pro, 16GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333Mhz, 1TB HD, Nvidia geforceGT530, soundblaster - $1419.00...thinking...thinking...beads of sweat forming....)