kikiriki
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Posts posted by kikiriki
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Congratulations to the winner. And thanks to all who voted for my work. And special thanks to Robert Holmen, who convinced me to participate.
It's been nice to collaborate in the contest after all those years of absence and feeling the good vibes of this group once again. Stay positive!-
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"Had to" switch to Blender? That's like saying you "had to" order the sheep's head soup when there was edible food elsewhere on the menu.
Yes "had to" is a good term. I made quite a few projects with A:M over the years (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTyLlqDyrgo or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs_TTh2LG8s)
And after investing so much time and energy into mastering 3D tool, it's not easy to switch to something else (because you know that you will need to invest another couple of years to master another 3D tool). A:M didn't made serious update for 10 years. And that's a stone age in 3D industry. If A:M wouldn't be so "closed" and would allow us to export our work to external renderer (or import models from other applications) then I would gladly use A:M as my main tool (around it I would use tools like Zbrush, Vray etc...). And I'm sure most of users (from once once flourishing community) would stay too...But the decision was that "A:M won't be plug-in for other 3D programs..." :-(I think if you're going to give away the secret features that make A:M so good you should at least give them the $79 subscription.
Before I pay 79$, I would like to know that A:M works on my computer. Since version 13 doesn't, it could happen that v18 won't work from the same reason (AFAIK A:M code didn't change much all those years...)If you're making an instance of something in the same file, do a Duplicate Linked. If the source data is in an external file, do a File | Link. A:M does pretty much the same thing under the bonnet.Thank you for your advice, but unfortunately it's not that easy. Theoretically it should work as you said- but it instancing works only on very simple models (like the ones from manuals and tutorials). If you use complex rigs with a lot of Shape Keys- it would make a mess...I have updated the count now you can try out the software. I knew it was getting close but I did not know it was that close.Jason, thank you very much! :-) -
Hi guys!
I was a long time A:M user. For my new project I (had to) switched to Blender. Blender is great in some aspects and really bad in others. I really miss the logic and workflow of A:M. I have coworkers and I simply cannot explain them how to make some things (like object instances) which was extremely easy in A:M but practically impossible in Blender. I cannot show them that- since my A:M version 13 doesn't work on my Windows 8 anymore (don't know why, since it worked couple of months ago when I tried. On the same system of course. Maybe some new Windows update has messed something... Of course I tried deinstalled and installed again... etc...).
I can see there is a trial version of A:M. But: "Hash Inc. is only offering 1000 trials for Hash Animation:Master v.18.0 at the moment! This limit has been reached!"The button "Ask directly" doesn't work.How can I get the demo of new version of A:M? Has many things changed since v13?Thanks in advance!Dušan -
Thank you guys! You are the best! It's a great feeling to know that I could always get help here in this forums.
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Guys, you are the greatest! Thank you very much for all those informations. You gave me a lot of material to study, so I will probably need a couple of days before I could give you a feedback :-)
Looks like a lot has happening since I don't checking forum regularly. If I understand this "Fake AO" works as a separate pass and we need an A:M composite or After Effects (or something like that) to merge AO effect with image?
Thank you again!
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(Duplicate Post?)
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I'm playing with SSS in v17a and I'm having problems getting decent results. I didn't use SSS in A:M before (but I did use it in other 3D software).
I found out that SSS doesn't work with "Global ambience colour". Can someone please confirm that?
I would be very grateful if someone could send me a complete PRJ file with working SSS material that looks like skin or wax (of course model could be a simple ball or cube...). This would help me a lot!
Maybe it would be good idea for one of the next contests, if the topic would be SSS materials. Now that A:M supports SSS materials, our community could use couple of good SSS materials.
Thank you in advance!
Dušan
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You are the owner of the files! Clients pays you for the final product- which is a movie file. And they got the final product. So they got what they payed for.
The way how did you made the final product is entirely your own. It may consist a lot of "trade secrets" and you are absolutely not obligated to reveal them.
If you buy a bottle of Coca-Cola in the store (or any other product), you buy a final product. The company is not obligated to give you a recipe how the Coca-Cola is made, because in that way you can mix your own Coca-Cola and the company will be out of business.
So- if the initial contract doesn't state otherwise, you are absolutely NOT obligated to give them anything but the final product.
But you can sell them the models if you want (and the price is usually bigger than the price for the final product).
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Hi Guys!
It's couple of minutes past midnight and I'm already in year 2012! Yeeeee...
:-) 
... and instead of partying, I'm writing you this message... which tells you a lot about my life...
About Perk- some authorities in my home-town were decided, that Perk will be a mascot of our town. So they found someone to make a real model based on my sketches. (Some guy who are making this kind of puppets professionally has made it from silicone foam). He did a very good job. I saw the model for the first time just a minute before we shoot that picture on a Christmas parade, where Perk was scarring small children (as he suppose to :-)).
I'm attaching another image and a render of the head which was a base for this model, so you can make comparison. (my model was made in A:M and exported to Zbrush, where I added pores, wrinkles and details.
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All the best in 2012 to all Hashers!
Dušan
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Thank you soooo much for this!
:-) I wasn't aware that A:M supports MDD, This opens so many possibilities. I haven't been so excited for years... really!Btw. Elm, you mentioned that you could do Hair in A:M and render it elsewhere. Can you please explain how?
Oh... I forgot to say: Excelent work!!!
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Great look and great storytelling! (It reminds me a little on great stop-motion film Cabaret Karne http://www.stopmotion.cat/cabaretkadne-en.html )
Congratulations!
I'm sure it will be very successful on the festivals. Are you planning to transfer it to 35mm film? -
For the festivals with a fee... if you've missed the cheapest early bird entry fee, wait for it to come around again next year.
Films for most of the festivals shouldn't be older than 2 years! So you shouldn't wait too long.
Large, very significant, well-known festivals like Sundance are no-gos because of the enormous competition except in some extraordinary case where they have a category that your movie is an exceptional fit for and you happen to know someone on the screening staff.I strongly disagree! There is an old saying: "If you want to throw the stone over the tree, you must aim to the moon!" :-)
The big festivals doesn't shows only films from the eminent film-makers. It all depends from the selection jury. Maybe you will be lucky and the selection committee will see "something" in your film. Maybe they will find interesting the way you made it (over the internet, without director, producer, without any budget... this is very interesting, because it opposed to all the laws of film-making :-) Maybe selection committee will show it in some of non-competitive or informative sections? Non-competitive selection on the Sundance is still much, much better than competitive selection (or even an Award) on some village festival.) Many things depends on pure luck and of course "marketing" (most of the times those factors are much more important than quality of the film). Last year Sundance has more than 12.000 film submitted! There is NO WAY(!) that selection jury would actually watch all the films. So the luck is very important factor. Festivals are a lot like lottery.
There is more than 10.000 film festivals in the world! There are maybe 20 of them which could really do something for your film. Most of other are waste of time and energy (many times you won't even find a mention of your film on the Internet or local papers). So aim high! :-)
Anyway- you must emphasize in the blurb of the film how that film was made. I believe that was your strongest "selling point".
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Withoutabox is the best film submission portal, but unfortunately it is focused mostly to festivals where you need to pay the submission fee (Withpoutabox lives from provisions). Submission fee could be a serious expense (I meet a guy with a very good(!!!) short film, which he submitted to more than 100 festivals and was accepted to only one! He spent thousands of dollars to get nothing in return).
Maybe you guys from US don't know but while submission fee is a standard in US festivals, in the most of other countries you don't have to pay submission fee! (that's why most of the festivals on the Withoutabox are located in US). So my suggestion is to focus on other countries. For European festival you don't only need to pay a submission fee, but also if you film is accepted, a lot of festivals will invite a director (or producer) and cover all expenses (travel expenses, hotel...). Plus the money prizes are bigger in European festivals.
Other submission portals:
http://www.shortfilmdepot.com/pre_index.html
P.S. Just now I realized that my experiences are only on short film festivals. SO is a feature... Those links are for short films. The situation could be different in the feature film festivals. :-( Well- anyway, maybe this could be helpful to someone who is working on short film.
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Wow!!! Congratulations to all contributors! Very nicely done and very fun to watch.
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Which model used wax?
The blue one, which is a little bigger than a thumb nail.
The level of details in this technique is incredible. Unfortunately the model is extremely fragile. It suppose to be used as a mold (for fine things line jewelry) right after it came from printer. I have my copy here with me in a small box, but it decayed in couple of days even though I didn't even touch it.
Interesting that you can do that out of ZBrush, I was looking at 3d coat and Mudbox. Didn't know you can convert the displacement mapping down to polys from ZBrush.I don't have experiences with 3d coat. From what I read it has much better UI (Which is very important, because UI of ZBrush was made by Martians), but it is not production proven as Zbrush.
You can export model (with UV maps) from A:M. In Zbrush you must subdivide your model to literary milions of polygons. Then you can use grayscale bump map as a Mask and transfer all those fine detail into polygons (means no displacement maps- for 3D printing you must use real geometry).
You used to be able to convert displacement maps to geometry in A:M. Export to AV2 or PLY. But I haven't tried it in many years, so it may not be possible anymore.I believe that was possible before A:M got an option for pixel-displacement. The old way (I believe before version 10.) to handle displacement maps was to subdivide each patch into 16 smaller patches and move the points regarding the value of the grayscale map. The level of details was, of course, much smaller back then, but this method was useful for many other things. It would be good to have both options.
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Stian- this is a great topic! I wasn't aware that we can already get 3D printers in affordable price!
I'm very interested in this subject. Couple of months ago I helped testing couple of different 3D printers (with different technologies). I made a model of a forest-goblin and then we printed it out with 3 different 3D printers- means 3 entirely different 3D print technologies: coloured model was made with kind of gypsium-like powder, another one was plastic and the smallest one was wax (that one was incredible precize- but unfortunately very fragile).
You can find article here:
http://www.monitor.si/clanek/kako-izdelati...-mavcne-skrate/
Unfortunately it's in Slovene language, but with a little help of Google translate you will be able to understand basics (when choosing a language in Google translate, don't mix Slovene language with Slovakian language!).
And here is an article how I made that goblin (in Zbrush).
http://www.monitor.si/clanek/nova-razseznost-modeliranja/
I made similar article couple of years back, using a basic model made in A:M (Then I exported model with UV maps from A:M to Zbrush and convert bump maps to actual geometry):
http://www.monitor.si/clanek/kako-skrata-s...iz-racunalnika/
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This looks really promising!
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Hi Guys!
My films has been screened on over 200 festivals so far (Including couple of big ones like Sundance, Siggraph...) so I have some experiences and I would be happy to share them.
There are more than 10.000 film festivals in the world. More than 90% of them are completely crap and waste of time. As you know there are 3 or 4 big ones (Cannes, Berlin, Venice and lately Sundance has gaining the similar reputation). If your film is accepted on one of those Festivals then it will surely have a bright future! The "B-league" are so called "Oscar busters". Those are a couple of dozens festivals with a licence from the Oscar Academy (you can find a list on Withoutabox). Means- if you win a "best of the festival" award on one of those festivals you are eligible for the Oscar nomination. Most of those festivals (not all!) are also very good and worth the entry fee. There are couple of other good festivals- hidden gems in the ocean of very bad ones... but those are hard to find.
The good resource of informations for the festivals is http://www.shortfilmcentral.com for short films. I'm not familiar with feature films, because so far I didn't make any :-)
I don't think TWO would be accepted to the COMPETITION programme of any of those festivals. From couple of reasons. To name a few- most of the festivals demands that films shouldn't be distributed in any way (TV, DVD, Internet...) before the end of so called "festival circuit".
Second "festival circuit" in most cases doesn't last more than 2 years. Means that if you want to submit your film on Festivals for 2010, then film should be finished after January 2009. If I remember correctly TWO was finished in 2008.
But at the other hand- the way TWO was produced is very interesting. So maybe you could send an e-mail to the festivals, describing the idea behind the production of TWO and suggest them to screen film "out of competition" in one of special programmes. If you can assure that some of the makers of TWO could attend to the festival to answer questions from the public or even have a lecture about the "making of TWO" and new way to low-budget film making... then this could be very interesting. Maybe you can even offer to organize a workshop for children, where you can make a simple story by using TWO characters... Most of the festivals will welcome such ideas- this could be an interesting addition to the festival and can be a good promotion for TWO. (I lead couple of A:M workshops at the festivals in the past. Here you can see the result from one of them: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...ideoid=20672351 . The idea is similar to the "pass the ball" that Hashers are playing and it is made in only 5 days. Most of the students didn't have any prior experience with any 3D software.)
That's my 2 cents :-)
Regards
Dusan
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Hi guys!
I have been away for a while, so I need to catch up :-)
I'm preparing a new short film and I will probably use A:M to make it.
I'm still using good old v13 (I purchased v14 but I didn't really use it).
Is there anything really new in v15? Has anything changed regarding rendering?
This new film will be technically much simpler than Chicory 'n' Coffee (I will mostly use A:M for 2D animation- only couple of objects will be made in 3D) so I believe I could do it just fine with version 13... but anyway I would very appreciate first-hand experiences with new version.
Dusan
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Guys, thank you very much for this feedback! Really means a lot.
I'm getting quite a few requests and since I can show this to only 25 YouTube friends at a time, I will need tu suspend you rights in a couple of days to give new people oportunity to see the film.
Tommorow I'm flying to some Film Festival, so I won't be able to give the access to private screenings until the middle of the next week when I will return.
Any chance of that getting onto one of the Oscar qualifying festivals?
Well- Foyle Film Fest, where we will meet with Ken is a Oscar Qualifying festival :-)
I remember on CGTalk there were a few complaints that the animation was too limited but if they saw it as a whole they'd see that it's just right.Those were complaints from the Animation Mentor students :-) They thought that the Disney way of animating (with all squash and stretch, anticipation etc...) is the only way.
There are a lot of things that I would like to change- and of course the animation is far from perfect. But I'm quite happy with this "limited" style of animation and I'm planning to work in this style even more in the future. I think this is the only way that small studio can animate a good stories with a small budget and in a reasonable amount of time.
I had a little trouble understanding the english, I might still need subtitles. I suppose the english pretty much loses the rhyme of the original poetry. If it's ever on DVD perhaps you can include an original language track?
Really ?!? :-(
Unfortunatelly my English is not good enough to judge...
Is that very critical?
I'm planning to release the DVD sometimes next year. It will have both versions (original Slovene with subtitles, and this new, synchronised version) and a lot of other things. I will probablly also add a Blue Ray disc in the package to show the film in HD.
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My plan was to show the film on couple of Festivals and after that release the whole Film on YouTube to be available for everyone to watch. But film was quite successful at the festival and couple a days ago I even signed a contract with world distributor! Unfortunately that means that I'm not allowed to show my film on YouTube anytime soon.
Since I'm getting quite a few requests from people who would like to see the film, I decided to make a compromise. YouTube have a special feature with which you can "hide" your film from public view and show it only to the invited ones (actually to 25 YouTube users listed as your "friends"). So if you really want to see the film, please:
-make a YouTube account (if you don't have one already)
-then go to my account ( www.youtube.com/user/bigbugbrain )
-and set me as a "friend".
-After I will get your invitation to become "Friends" I will send you an invitation to see my film which will appear in "Inbox" of your YouTube account.
P.S. One of the "side effects" of getting a world distributor was, that we Synchronised the Film to English. Of course the English version is not as good as Slovenian (not only that lip sync doesn't match perfectly, a lot of the softness and humor of the original version was lost during translation. But anyway- only couple of lucky bastards that actually speaks Slovene can enjoy the original- the others will probably like this English version much more). You can watch the English "Trailer" at:
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Congratulations on finding a distributer and of course for all the awards that Chicory is picking up along the way!
I am now intrigued by your next project. Do you have something in mind already?
Nothing specific yet. But it will probably be a Feature Animation.
I have a drawer full of scripts and ideas for films which I would like to make. I have enough material for next couple of lives! :-)
Most of the ideas are to complex for our small studio. I learned a lot on "Chicory"- and I'm not sure if I will be able to raise enough money to hire a capable and big crew to make this ideas alive. So I will probably spend another couple of months trying to make one of those ideas simple enough to be able to make it with small screw. I was very impressed by "Sita Sings Blues" or Films by "king of Indie Animation" Bill Plypton... Probably something like that. It will probablly be 2D animation.
I'm Martin, and I'm Back
in Hash, Inc. Status
Posted
Hi Martin!