NancyGormezano

1)Did you consolidate after you baked? or 2) baked after consolidating? I would say if it's the first, then the filepath to the pai, par files in the chor didn't get redirected (updated) during the consolidate process in the chor or if it's the 2nd case then you might have to resave the project first into the newly created consolidated folder, and rebake particles so that the path does get updated in the chor, as well as possible in the .pai file (who knows what's in there?) - or else text edit the files to make sure the paths are correct? Thatsa my wag-olas

You must also delete the poses from the User properties I am guessing you probably didn't turn the pose ON. You can turn the pose ON in the chor, or action (view/pose sliders). Or you can have the pose default to ON by setting it to ON in the User properties and then saving the model.

Your alpha channel is all white - meaning all of the image is used for the decal. The alpha channel, if you wish to exclude the background, should only be white where the design is, and the surrounds of the alpha channel should be black. I also shrunk the area around the design to get rid of the potential for the halo. Here is the color tga only, 32 bit with a corrected alpha channel. AnTirMidPlateColFlat_copy_withalpha.tga

The files get written into the same directory as the Project is stored. What I do is start a new project, import my chor, create a folder for my project, then save the project in that folder, then bake, then save the chor. I then do not work with the project any more - those file paths seem to get permanently embedded in the chor data. There doesn't currently seem to be a way to specify where the files should be stored. Also be aware that if you start a new project, import a different chor (in same session as the previous), and do a bake - it appears that the par,pai files will be written into the same folder/directory in which the last project was saved. Not good. But obviously one can move the par, pai files and then text edit the chor files to point to the new location.

Voo-dooo, and in particular, chicken bones. Some things that sometimes work: I sometimes find that this clears up if I save the chor (after baking) & then restart A:M. I have in general found that it is best to be on frame 0, before baking, or starting a render. (with hair or anything). It is best to render after restarting A:M in general, always. With my current animation, I am noticing that it is NOT good to bake before rendering. I only experienced the hair stretch problem after baking. But hadn't experienced it before then in this particular chor, if I didn't bake. I am running 32bit, and run only 1 render thread I also have observed that in previous versions (and maybe the release version), if it didn't clear up by going to frame 0, then sometimes the act of going to frame 1, and then back to frame 0 might clear it up. EDIT: the other thing that may or may not have anything to do with anything - is to unhide any hidden models in your chor before baking, rendering. That is a workaround, for a current bug, that I reported, that Steffen has fixed for the next release, and he let me know that the workaround was to unhide all models for my particular problem (non-related models getting corrupted after "Bake Dynamic Systems")

yes definitely. It's best to bake at the end 1) to see what corrections you might need based on dynamic hair movement, because you can play the animation in real-time and 2) maybe? to save on render time later perhaps - ie doesn't have to be recalculated EDIT: Note that it is not necessary to bake particles (hair) before rendering - and I find that sometimes it works better, ie more consistent, to NOT bake. If you have problems with hair rendering funny, unbake if you've baked, or try baking if you haven't baked. I've uploaded screen grab of what .par,.pai files look like in the project directory

Hair is a particle system. When you choose to "bake particles" in the chor, an extra file is created in the project directory with the name of the particle system eg hairmaterial.par, along with an index into the .par file (called .pai). The .par file contains the values for the dynamic hair splines, so that, in theory (and works most of the time), hair will not be recalculated on the fly, and one can then observe the behavior of the hair/particle systems in real-time, as well as, in theory (not so sure about this), save on render time (maybe). Presumably data for sprites are also stored in similar files, with the name spritematerial.par. The name of these files are referenced in the chor, under the name of the group that that has an associated particle/hair system, after baking. I have found that funny stuff happens if one tries to turn particle systems on/off individually: the .par files, .pai indices can get corrupted - so it is better to rebake, rather than fool with that switch. Also be careful about sharing project directories, as baked files will get created in the last project saved, and for someone like me, who doesn't work with projects, that can make a mess, if the same model is used in multiple chors.

I will assume you are talking about scrubbing in real time with a chor that has particles baked, & in particular hair. Is the property in chor, groups/hair group name/Hair system/Particle baked = ON? Baking sprites, streaks etc may work differently, especially if there is also hair. I find sometimes when there is funny behavior, I have to restart A:M and then it works properly. I am only baking hair, & there are multiple systems, but only on one character, and he is not in an action. I also find if I turn off "Particle baked" on only one of the hair systems - the real-time playback still seems to assume it is baked for all of them. I have to turn OFF particle baked for all systems for the real time to acknowledge that. And then when I turn it back ON for only 1 of the systems, the real-time recomputes for the system, but still has other systems that aren't baked. So perhaps not all your systems are particle baked? And there is some toggleling-demon at work.

Bravo! Bravo! Excellent imagery, lighting, camera work; fabulous, interesting sound design, love the stop-mo puppet style! Wonderful. Congrats! My only crit would be that the sub-titles distract one's attention away from the terrific imagery. I had to replay it in order to get the story, as I was entranced by the style. Your voice quality is excellent. If at all possible, perhaps it might be better if you were to also have a version with a sound track using your voice, in English, without sub-titles? Loved it!

Yes that is normal, if I understand you correctly. After importing the chor, you must double click on either a model, or the chor for a window to open, if you are just saving chors. This is different if you are saving projects. Saved projects will open up with the same windows open, based on what the window state(s) were when you saved it.

That would only change the default method for new curves I believe. You can not just delete the w curve from existing curves as there is not a 1 to 1 correspondence between the x,y,z of quaternions and x,y,z channels of euler angles - but for existing curves, you can right click on the rotation property of the model or of the bone and choose convert driver to/euler. Then it will be setup properly, and you can deal with only 3 channels.

Have you done any cp weighting first?

Ooooo...nice pitchurs! - well done! Thanks Matt

Nice!

A:M defaults to use quaternions to compute orientation (rotation) as opposed to Euler angles (roll, pitch, yaw). You can change the default method tools/options/Action/Interpolation. Quaternions use 4 coefficients, versus 3 for eulers. You can choose to change the interpolation method of existing channels by right clicking on the rotate/convert driver/euler. It is easier for humans to understand euler angles, versus quaternion values. Quaternions are traditionally preferred for computation because they handle gimbal lock. The math to convert between quaternions and eulers can be googled. Quaternions are not easy to describe but here is something: http://www.j3d.org/matrix_faq/matrfaq_latest.html#Q60

There is a Robby Model rigged with the 2008 rig in the Example_Models.zip located in this post Robby could be Stewie's twin.

Happy Birthday Laddie

I vote for zombies or hoarders

It can change/augment the effect if you play with different %'s for the bump - I made this one 1000% versus previous was 100%. Just More tweaky for deaky.

Hmmm...I noticed that if I applied the decal straight instead - ie, not reversed scale like you had done, that it would display correctly - I would say reverse your image in photoshop. Originally I thought perhaps because the hole hadn't been closed (so I closed it) - but it seems more related to reversing the scale (-1390%, 1390%). I also added a bump to the displacement. myCoin.mdl

About seven years ago they took down their six-foot fence and put up a nine-foot fence. Umm...There wouldn't be any razor wire on top as well? perhaps? And is it surrounding a large concrete "mansion"?

You must have both a color map as well as displacement, or bump, if you wish to see an image on the surface. Otherwise you will just have the surface color show. I am assuming your surface color of the group (or model's surface color) is set to white.

ACK - guilt??? Hoo hooo...I'll bet my guilt baggage trumps yours, hands down. My intention is to describe my impressions, with no guilting & with no requirement to do anything about it. Only if you agree, otherwise ignore. So that being said: for the Sneeze & Bokor clip - looks a little better, could still use some subtle hand, finger movement, unconscious but meaningful body language gestures consistent with their dialog. I wasn't suggesting the arms should come down, but there could be some subtle turning of the wrists, twitch of the fingers (noticed that you took out Sneeze's hand flip, unfortunately) The new clip, in contrast seems floaty (as opposed to stiff), as if they are all swimming into their next move, especially the monkey. My impression would be that monkey movements could be erratic, deliberate, nervous, twitchy, crazy or juvenile like. Think of your nephews? As for Flemm and Bokor, their movements could be more deliberate & could use some holds, before they move a bit snappier into their next pose. It's coming along!

I do not understand the statement "cannot reassociate decal to model". Do you have decals turned off? Is there a decal container in the model (BakedSurface) that has Images bs_color, bs_specularintensity, bs_bump, etc? When you import the baked model - do those images not get loaded into your project? Where were the images written to when you baked the surface? Were you able to render the baked surface model after baking, after deleting material, but before restarting? Does it not work only after restarting? Ie can you render before shutting A:M down? Have you tried with any material other than dark trees type? eg gradient? here's my steps: new/project 1) create or import sphere model 2) import intsoftLeather Material (or create new material and save material). I am not working with embedded material. 3) make a group of all cps 4) drag material to that group (I am not dragging to the model - but to a group) 5) save model - call it prebake - do a quick 1 pass render (no AO) 6) save project somewhere (important because thats the folder where the jpg images will be saved) 7) right click in prebake model - bake surface (I shift clicked and changed resolution to 9, and checked overwrite existing files) 8) you should have images show up in project, and a decal container show up in model, that points to these new jpg images 9) delete the material from the model (do not have to delete from project) 10) save model - call it baked 10) render the baked model (do a quick 1 pass no AO) - decal should show up start new project (no name) import baked model it should have the images, decal containers come in with it. ver16 release, 32 bit PC

Strange - if the decal is there, and the decal image has color, then perhaps the mapping is not correct from the baking? Or there is a difference between 32bit and 64 bit ver 16, or perhaps the resolution of the image map isn't sufficient? If you want - post the model, with the material. Can you get it to work with just a simple model - eg cylinder, sphere?