NancyGormezano

To me - ver 13s looks more or better antialiased when comparing AA Final (no multi). I guess? that AA is going on for decal in 15 - but can't really tell. As my other dirtier decal - did not get smoothed as well The problem with the gross streaking in above tests in ver 15e was due to the fact that the decal didn't cover the whole face (was not a problem in 13) - so today, I added a base all white decal to the face (covers whole face) - reapplied your decal - and streaking went away. I thought I tried that last night, however I didn't realize that you hadn't covered the face, so I had just added a base white image under your image in same decal container - and therefore the problem stayed. Now when I compare 5 pass NO soft to 5 pass SOFT to AA (no MP) - I notice that the soft option in MP appears to "smooth" model edges more than decal appearance (for this test pattern - not sure about others) - and that "anti-aliasing" for this test pattern looks more smoothed using 5 pass multi versus the AA, especially when comparing the thinnest line. Whether anyone cares about that is another story. But if this is an animation - one might? notice edge crawling. 256 passes was the best of all (not shown here) My guess is that one has to try it out for one's particular situation (and one's tolerance or pickiness) as to what works best.

I feel like I'm being set up - it's a conspiracy I tell ya! Just slight differences between 13s and 15e...in AA - looks like AA is sorta similar in the 2 versions - but slightly different. Obviously something is wrong. I restarted 15 - same results. I tried removing alpha channel (made decal image 24 bit instead of 32bit) - things got worse. Tried putting a basic plain white image down first then the test pattern - made no difference. I'm going to sleep on it. And Let my computer sleep on it for now as well.

Well I tryed in v13s: 1) I'm not seeing much dif between 13s and 15e in resultant imagery using Final (no Multi). I suspect my results are worse than yours because I grabbed the compressed jpg from the forum to use as decal, rather than starting with an uncompressed tga. 2) I see the same funny in 13s as in 15e, with regard to not seeing the AA passes show up in status recording window unless there is an additional model in the chor. But I do believe AA is being done anyway. 3) In 13s (did not test in 15e - but would expect same result) - there is a big difference if I unrotate the model back to 0,0,0 from 0,0,-5 - AA looks better if model is not rotated so severely (see image) 4) The best way to compare 15e and 13s would be if you zipped your chor, model, tga (or whatever you are using) - I suspect if I used your project - I would get the same results as you. But it is interesting to see what a difference rotating more severely will do, as well as using an "dirtier, compressed" decal

interesting Robert - perhaps there is something funny in ver 15e? - to not muck up Erics beautiful car thread anymore - I posted here: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=302004

Something strange is afoot in 15e - When I render with Final (no Multi) and just the test pattern object is in the chor, it appears that no anti-aliasing is being done - but really not sure. If I add another model to the chor (but make it inactive) then anti-aliasing is computed. Not sure I can see much diff between the 2. So it just may be that it isn't being recorded in the status window. However there is a difference when I just do 1 pass - Not sure what to make out of all this as I believe the resultant AA in 15e looks different than the version you are using

That's a great solution! and a fun clip ! In many cases, straight simple key framing is faster & gives one more control in creating the "art" of motion. And it's also fun to learn new tricks (when you have the time). You've just taught me a new-old trick, in basically no time at all. Use a path for simulating some types of "Newton-style" motion! - love it!

I really enjoyed using the Literig when animating bumpyman - powerful enough with squetchy parts, with minimal amount of bones, controls to sort thru. Never did test it with any IK/FK switching tho. EDIT: just tested - worked like a charm I also especially liked the Lite face rig - tho it seemed different on Bumpyman from what was posted for installation. I liked the improvement's to the Face rig on Bumpyman

I don't think that's true - if you look at first image I posted - the decal doesn't get AA'ed at all in the regular render, compared to the 256 pass render (and like I said before - I purposely made the decal ugly - used it straight from Robert's original jpeg post and skewed it) http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?act=a...st&id=44048

I wouldn't call multi-pass brute force - just a different approach - Multi-pass will antialias all edges - including those created by decals (not sure about materials - didn't run test) - whereas the standard renderer excludes anti-aliasing of decal edges. The multi-pass method looks like an "averaging" of the passes of sorts. And the optional "soft" makes a big difference in multi-pass. If ya don't want your decals antialiased - then use standard - much faster of course than 256 passes. But aliased decal edges will exhibit edge crawl in an animation for the "right" camera angles. Eric's car doesn't look like it needs anti-aliasing of decals (not sure it has decals) - Perhaps go with regular renderer? And of course rendering at 2x the size for a still works as well. I used Robert's decal - purposely offset to create crappy edges - the resultant image was upscaled in photoshop - without resampling - just to more easily show differences in methods. 2nd imagine is just to show difference in using Soft versus NOT soft option with 5 pass multipass. Other images are just to show the difference in passes between 256.

You're doomed. There's no cure. There's no escape. Yay!!! for your first? non-taoA:M animation - Good One.

Both very nice models Myron!

You must use both "translate to" AND "orient like" -

I don't know actually if it makes a difference with them being included in the alpha channel. Try it. I baked the particles because it's easier to manuever in the chor for further animating. Once particles are baked, they are not recomputed. So then one can jump to frames or scrub thru the timeline without having to watch and wait for "computing particles or dynamics" to finish. When you go to render - you must have alpha buffer = ON (output/buffers/alpha=ON), and you must render to tga format (or png I think is ok too). Rendering with the alpha channel (the data included in the alpha buffer) - makes it easier to use imagery to composite, manipulate later To stop sprites emitting: On the frame you want them to stop, set the rate of emission = 0.

Particles are included in the alpha channel - ver 15e (don't know about other versions). This is screen capture of tga file straight out of A:M. The particles had been baked.

That is a terrific character. Great style! Will be a kick (and challenge) to see those muscles flex, assuming he can even bend those arms.

Right Click on the model in the PWS - Plugins/export/ Whether those formats that come up - will work - don't know.

Do you change the option under "format", or do you put ".jpg" or ".tga" or whatever in the title? Either way, after this is done, can I actually load the file into Paint or Photoshop or whatever? Yes you should be able to load this image file into photoshop (I don't know which image formats Paint handles). when you click on the filename in the render to file dialog, the standard windows dialog box will come up - when you set your filename there - you will see options for what type of file you can render - you set the filename & type there just as you would for any other windows program. If you are on a mac - then I have no idea, but would assume something similar happens. If you know how to use photoshop - then you know how to save and set filenames and types EDIT - when you return from the windows dialog - make sure the A:M dialog box reflects the correct filename and type. You can always then change the type in the A:M dialog - by clicking on format

set your start frame and end frame numbers to be the same and make sure you are rendering to a file format that is not a quicktime .mov or .avi. For a still you would render to yourfilename.tga, .jpg, or .png

Your image will render at whatever size (resolution) you have set in the render to file dialog - presumably that will be the same as what is currently set for your camera in the chor In the chor - go to camera/output/resolution - set the image size in pixels when you go to render to file - check that the resolution is set to be the same - also check your frame ranges - make sure it is set to just render 1 frame or a range of frames - depending on your needs.

It's png

looks like the guide hair is near a 5 point patch - that's been reported as a problem - not sure its still a problem in 15. But if you can't comb it out, ie do some additional combing in that area to hide anomaly - I say live with it. Teddy Bears get mussed as they age - and since this bear is 3?4?100? years old - it makes it more valuable for collectors. How's that for a cop out? Cute bear!

perhaps it was this? - OLD OLD Tutorial (ver 8?) - but still has relevance - Babbage Patch Water Nice looking stuff John!

3D painter probably knows about transparency maps, or cookie cut maps - but I prefer to work with color maps in painter and then bring them back into A:M and switch the type in A:M. You may prefer to work with them as cookie cut or transparency in painter. Regardless - you need to create FIRST the decal in A:M and give it a type (color or cookie cut or transparency or bump etc) What I would do to create an image in 3Dpainter to be used as cookie cut map : 1) decal model in A:M with any ol' blank.tga (white) or otherwise image - make it a color type 2) go into 3d painter - edit this decal/image - but change brush tool to ADD transparency (from standard brush) where you want the cutout (transparent part) to be. Use REMOVE transparency to correct, use Standard to add color, etc 3) EXPORT the map to new name - call it something like Cookie.tga (must be tga type for alpha channel). I prefer to export - rather than save, as I don't like to destroy versions, in case I need to go back to them 4) return to A:M - import cookie.tga 5) switch in the model's decal container where you had blank.tga to point to cookie.tga. 6) Change the type to cookie cut. If I were making a transparency map in 3D painter I would 1) do same as 1) above - make a color map - white, black doesn't matter 2) go into painter - and paint with varying shades of gray 3) bring image into A:M - switch type to transparency

hee hee - This is a tough one - to shorten or not - as the characters preliminary actions have the viewer wondering what's going on, so that the eventual outcome is a BIG surprise. Made me laugh. You could "purty up" the setting some. Or add some other elements to the scene? maybe?

You will have to coordinate moving the hand (forearm, bicep) closer to Nigel's head,face, whatever, along with moving his body parts. Perhaps you can get away with just moving the arm/hand closer to Nigel - which is more likely to happen, rather than moving body closer to hand. I am also making an assumption that the ball is constrained to the hand in some way, and the camera is set to aim at the ball, and is coordinated with the movement of the NULL of which you speak