NancyGormezano

This was just a start, experimenting with all sorts of backgrounds (not just the ones shown above). I am liking the floor with fall off best so far, that looks like a highly polished marble, however I am still experimenting. I will also be experimenting with fog, mist, steam (if I don't lose energy). I am thinking I will eventually fool with the reflection filtering, add bump maps, fall-off. Especially if I do some water effects, in the style of Cirque du Soleil's production "Ka", where the surface changes into water. Who knows, even more creatures may be showing up (repeat here: if I don't run out of energy). This is my usual style of approaching animation projects. Start with seed idea, minimal planning, insert lots of stream of consciousness, change lots of stuff mid stream, scrap lots of stuff. Everything everybody says NOT to do. This is usually the best way for me to break inertia, and get going. I like to let what develops take me wherever it wants to go, with complete freedom to change. Keeps it open & more fun for me. There is something funny going on with reflections and shadows, and flat shading and front projection in ver 16 - but it is more likely I had some setting that is weird last night. Sometimes I find I have to clear things out, and reset a bunch of stuff to get back to what I had. Will investigate more today. Thanks Rodney, Mark for your comments.

I realize you are trying to use radiosity and get a more accurate result - but I have to wonder if you've considered fiddling with light lists, 4 kliegs with colored zbuf shadows (Diffuse=OFF? spec=ON) to augment the look? I don't know if it would help.

So far this is front runner - but I'm still looking I've just started animating eye movement (no blinks, smiles, brows yet, and eye movement isn't done either). It is my intention to finish the face expressions & glancing between the 2 of them, but I will work on that more after I fix the dancing some. I couldn't stand the straight ahead vacant gaze anymore. I do intend for them eventually to look like they are involved & playing - she will be more coy & he will be more attentive. I hope to introduce some comedy, maybe some story going on with them - right now I am just struggling with getting the dance routine down. It is far far far FAR from done. , Oh yeah - there is one part that bothers me like crazy - and so far I haven't figured out what to do about it - the steps are wrong - They don't fit, they're awkward. I don't like how the feet sometimes don't look anchored, and on, and on. I'm struggling. This is not the final set. I only changed the sky color because the default/standard one is so boring. I have been playing with potential backdrops, and toying around with simple prop/set ideas in my mind. I don't know what the floor will be yet. I would love to do something with them dancing, splashing thru water - but I don't know if I have the stamina to twiddle with that - maybe I can do something like that for a short segment of the dance. Hmmm, good question. I'm using 32bit. I don't have 64 bit OS. Thanks Steve, Chris for your comments! (BTW - with reflections render time for 3 pass is 13 secs versus 8 secs without it)

Sounds good, but I'm hoping you'll do some preliminary research first, with schools & teachers & parents? Get an idea of what they might like to see, which subjects, topics they think would be valuable, desirable, accepted by kids. Whether they or the school might purchase as supplemental materials? maybe there is also a market for some "social engineering" type strips for "in trouble - at risk" kids, without sounding preachy? And if you want to go "preachy" then maybe there is a market in religious materials, biblical stories? (I wouldn't know about such things) Hmmm. If you're not into it then you are breaking one of the first cardinal rules of art: Write, create, act on what you know, like, relate to. Do the style, subject that speaks to you, your style. It will be authentic and resonate with others. Trying to pretend you're into "pirates" probably means you're not taping into those who really do like piratey type things (apparently like some Somalians). I always failed selling any paintings when I tried to figure out what others would like, rather than do my own style. Can't worry about the "what ifs". There is no way to predict, unless you've got some data, feedback, and even then it's a guess - but at least it's an educated one. Gotta go with a mixture of reality and some gut feelings. Anyone who has succeeded usually has "failed" many times before. It's only really a failure if you don't learn from mistakes, and keep doing the same thing.

Excellent idea! hoo hooooo! good one, Gerry! (EDIT)Mark: perhaps if you go the way of education, getting into schools to promote reading, perhaps you might consider doing educational tutorials again, but about different subjects that pertain to whatever grade you specialize in - as learning materials. I thought you did an excellent job on your basic A:M tuts, highly enjoyable, very readable, and I would expect this style to be embraced by kids as to learning all sorts of subject matter. To me, the money in 3D, & art (for most small, independants) would be more about selling the tools, tutorials, books, resources in teaching others how to do their own 3D & art, rather than making money from selling one's own art. There are way less opportunities for selling one's own art, unless some marketeer convinces a whole lotta folk that one's art was super dooper different, special, unique. (Not saying your's isn't, it just seems harder to make a living at selling it) It would seem to me that both you and Gerry would both excell at being storyboard artists...I would think that skill is in demand for filmaking? But I have no real stats on the subject.

Great! So what was the problem? And she looks terrific (minus the funny eyelids). Could you share your SSS settings, please?

Had to try out FakeAo (3 pass - 8secs/frame) - What an amazing difference. Did a little tweaking, starting on some face movement. Still on a quest for soundtrack/music. I think this royalty free one "One-Eyed Maestro" by Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech), has potential. 3passFAKEhalfsizeOneEyeMaestro.mov

That is weird. It is just certain cuts that appear that way - but I can't detect any discernible differences in their properties (just transparency 90% instead of 92%) - It doesn't seem to be related to their position in the chor either. They are modeled differently with respect to origin as well. They also look different if I unembedded them - but still blue (ver 16, 32 bit)

Thanks for your links - they look interesting Matcap shader is a plug-in shader for A:M that was developed by the folks at Soulcage (Willi?). Shaders in general are different from materials - (how,why, implementation wise is a mystery to me) - but they only get used if you have turned on use plug-in shaders in the camera data. All plug-in shaders are located at Hash/v16.0 or 15/Shaders and have an extension of .shd. And now that I think about it, I am not sure if Matcap is a standard issue with A:M or if I got it from this forum - so you 1st need to check to see if you have it. To use Matcap, (or any shader) you need to set the shader in the group's properties. Matcap can be used to compute either the diffuse or ambiance "look". Anistropic is used for the specular look. To use Matcap - I find the best/easy predictable results are to set the groups surface diffuse & ambiant color to black, and only use it as an ambiance render shader. (I haven't fooled with it lately, so I could be forgetting something). It usually looks better on models that are more organic, rather that flat surfaces. Do a forum search for Matcap for more detail. Here's a good link, and there is lots of discussion in that sub-forum on shaders in general, as well as Matcap. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=328945 (It looks like Robcat might be investigating a better way to do jewels)

If I extrapolated correctly from bentomax's and my data - then I could see possibly a change in render time on my system of from 7:19 (currently what I get in ver 16 32 bit) to 4:46 (ver 16 64 bit). Sounds good to me. Except for the part of reinstalling everything and finding out what other things won't work anymore.

Three new seconds, plus a bit of previous test. If I hadn't moved the camera - it would almost make a nice loop. test276_373hairMediumKey48Loop.mov

Try a small test case with same cookie cut decal, lashes only - both with and without sss, AO - and see if you get same problem

Hmmmm...this tells me that I would be better off just upgrading to win7 64 bit, and not have to get a new computer (other than for more cores). The biggest decrease in render time is from going from 15j 32bit to RC 64 bit, not from going to 1090T. There is not that much difference between my xp pro core2duo 3.2ghz times for 15j (9:34) and bentomax's 1090T win 7 (8:32). Ratio is 1.12. My 16beta3 32 bit was 7:19 (ratio only 1.3 to my 15j), his 64 bit ver16rc01 was 3:57 (ratio 2.1 to his 15j). Therefore I should expect to see with 64 bit OS, rc01 - a render time around 4:46. Assuming I haven't miscalculated. (big assumption)

Nice, clear example!

Thanks Phil, that's what I have experienced as well. Dell knows I am looking, because periodically I go to their site, browse around, configure different systems, and then chicken out on "buy". Coincidently, within a couple of days, a new Dell catalogue shows up in my mail. Coincidence or my own personal conspiracy theory? Thanks Fuchur for the links. I am still in the "I really want a new computer, but not yet ready to jump" stage. I mostly dread having to re-install everything, and finding out what won't work anymore.

Caustics is a term used to describe how light looks/gets bent when it goes thru a non-opaque medium, typically used for glass, water effects (my very imprecise definition). To render that effect accurately in A:M, involves probably, perhaps using features that I do not fool with as they have way too long render times for my short attention span. There are others who would know better how to approach this. However if you're looking for some cheatin', lyin', wouldn't-fool-nobody-but-me fast renders - I quickly put together these projects. The first one uses the matcap shader on a "quick dirty simple faceted jewel" for it's ambiant shader, using an image of a saphire (the internet is your friend), & where the specular shader is anistropic. The main Klieg light has a rotoscope (gel) using an image of a diamond, which is creating the sparkly effect on the ground. I also put in a bulb light, positioned within the jewel. The 2nd image is same as first except I turned on lens flare for the bulb light. In the third image, I changed the properties of the lens flare. Unfortunately I didn't save the settings. Well actually, I thought I saved it but - I can't find it. These are to get you started with playing. You would need to use better models, with more facets for your jewels, better images for rotos, better matcap images, better lighting colors, better lensflares, better lighting positioning, etc, etc. tweak tweak tweak. It would also help to have something interesting for the jewels to reflect. CheatingLyingFAKEJewels.zip

I would be going for a desktop, and prebuilt. Up till now, and thru the years, I've only had Dell systems (3 so far), always with intel cpus, nvidia graphics cards, and no reliability problems (each system has lasted forever - husband is still using a Dell win 98 sys!). It seems like Dell is getting some bad rap lately, for service, reliability, so I would be willing to consider switching - but...but...I want only that which runs A:M well, with least problems graphic cards. I'm not sure who has prebuilt AMD systems? HP? Gateway? How are they reliability, service wise? I can use all the help, but am not quite ready to jump yet, as it takes awhile to pry the moola out of my sweaty palms, and I usually like to go for a 3x speed increase. So I will come running to this forum for help when I am. However, given the situation with Japan (supply chains), and combined with normal consumers opting now for netbooky, ipady type devices, I suspect prices will be going up for all types of computers, and it might be prudent to buy now while there is still inventory, supply. I know nothing about what's currently new, good. I typically buy not the top of line, nor newest, but usually buy 1 step later, lower. Seems biggest, safest, bang for buck.

Can you post an image of something similar as to which effect you are trying to simulate? There are different cheats for different things. If it's a caustic type thing - it's one way (I'm not too good with caustic type stuff)), if it's a "lens flare type thing" it's another. There's also possibly a cheat to get the actual jewel to look jewel like by using matcap shader, and different specular shaders. It's tweaky-deaky time. Blobbies? Having a hard time picturing which effect you are trying to get?

Good feedback/comments Dblhelix - thanks! The music from the youtube clip was too noisy (couldn't get a clean, listenable copy). That's one reason for the changed soundtrack. I'm hunting around for a substitute - and going for a "soft shoe" or more like a silent shoe or sock dance "tap" dance, because I also thought a hard tap noise wouldn't fit for those soft paws of Lothario, nor did I want to give him shoes, the other reason for finding different music. I haven't settled on this soundtrack (I thought it had potential), but if I do (or for whatever track I use), I expect to have to adjust the dancing some to more closely match the music. This is still just first pass, key poses only. At this stage I am just trying to follow the choreography of the youtube clip, and retain somewhat the 2 different dancing styles of Fred and Ginger. No breakdown has been done yet (except maybe some foot movement). I expect to go back in, clean up foot placements, sliding, add in breakdown poses, slide keys around, build in more tooney motion, squish-squash, anticipation, followthru. Yes shoulders, arms need work for leading the body movement. Ginger's arm movements in the youtube clip are severely limited due to her holding up her long skirt (to keep it out of her way), so I have mistakenly been following that. Since Ida Ada has a short skirt, this isn't needed, and looks strange/awkward for this character's outfit. I expect to later, either change the skirt so that it looks like it's movement is also guided by her hands, or change her shoulder, arm, hand motion. I suspect I'll more likely do the later. Fred's arm movements are looser, but again - still no breakdown poses done yet for Lothario. This floor is temporary (probably). For now it's a tool to help me see their movement across the floor. I haven't yet decided what kind of set I'll put them in. This sequence may be part of a story that I have in mind, but then again maybe not. Ooooo...Nice! Thank you. When I get to doing breakdowns I will definitely be building in lag, ok, trying to build in lag of body parts, and make these characters have more tooney, exaggerated, fluid arc motion, that fits with their different character. I will refer back to your chart. There is one thing that I don't agree with in that chart, with respect to REAL human motion, in that the upper torso lags behind the hips when going from side to side. In normal everyday movement, say just shifting back and forth from foot to foot (both planted on ground), depending on the individuals body mechanics (and age, agility), I would say most people are relatively stiff, and the upper body/torso will move lock step with the hips. In real dance (and toon motion of course) however - it is a different story, and there are different styles, depending on dance type, individual dancer style, choreographer style that will determine what leads first, follows last, or moves at all. I just reread what you said on chart - and I don't disagree, I had read it wrong the first time. For now, I am using the youtube clip to mainly get the dance choreography, and possibly capture some of the style of Fred & Ginger. It is a dance routine, style I would never be able to create on my own. Thanks John, Mark!

Still futzing, but slower futzing. Redid the beginning some. The grid is only for testing. I'm learning how to use both rigs, and I'm finding out how different the dance styles of Fred and Ginger are. Astaire appears almost amazingly always airborne, has much more nuanced gestures, unique style. Still trying different music (I like this one, may tweak so they are in sync a bit more), still need to animate face expressions, tail, the remainder of dance (800+ frames), then tweak tweak tweak. (This clip does not have dynamic constraints on for ears, whiskas, tail). It takes me forever to get the poses. Slow going. test0_297hairkey48mediumBubblymarch.mov

scary. but cute.

That's exciting! That tells me that your laptop (with ver 16, 64 bitOS) is faster than my desktop dell core2duo 3.2ghz (winxp pro). I'm thrilled! More ammo in my noodle for blowing the bucks!

A:M doesn't create animated gifs, but you can render out your frames to a jpg, tga, or png sequence and then use some program such as photoshop or gimp to reassemble the sequence, assign frame times to each image, and save as a gif.

Happy Was-Probably-Yesterday-in-Down-UnderVille Birthday!

Mazel Tov!