svetlik

That works for the PWS but it won't go away from here...

Messed up a pose and can't delete it. What am I not seeing? Any help appreciated. Apologies if I've asked this before.

FOUND IT!!!!! It was the old "Phantom within a Phantom" syndrome! You'd be proud of me robcat! There were a couple of old Pose sliders hiding in the model that would show up in the properties panel and pose slider window but NOT in the PWS relationship folder!!! (not sure how that happens but then I still haven't figured how Santa delivers all those gifts in one night either) So once I found those I gleefully deleted them and all was right with my tiny little world. Many thanks to you and all the other AM ninjas who take the time to help me.

Set up the gradient materials and the pose sliders exactly as robcat did but can only get the trailing end to work. Been over and over all the details for 2 days and I give up. See attached prj file. Hope your listening robcat. I'm missing something obviously. Just can't find it. ThreadsEnigma.prj

Absolutely brilliant. I tried making 2 gradient materials but didn't know how to nest them as you did. Still trying to comprehend exactly how it works. Bravo robcat and many thanks again. I'm still curious though is it possible to move a decal along a model by animating the numbers somewhere or not? (without having to resort to a sequencial animated map)

This clip wasn't done with the animated gradient. This was done with the booleans and you can see all the weirdness where they join/overlap onto the loom. There's also a lot of rendering anomalies that aren't clear in this clip with many objects in the chor that the booleans intersect with Totally unrelated and separate objects. (but that's another topic) The animated gradient worked great except it couldn't give me the "end of the rope" that I needed so I went back to the booleans. Hope that clears that up.

Yes just a sharp end of the rope, so to speak. The booleans almost work but since these two objects overlap in the chor the booleans are interacting with each other in ways I don't want, even though these are two separate objects. Also discovered that booleans alter/shift the rendering on any object they overlap in the chor. even unrelated objects. This makes me very sad. That's why i'm now trying to animate a decal (transparency map) across the object to get the same effect that your animated gradient material could do. So, my question, how do I animate a decal in x or y axis to achieve this? Or is this not possible?

Still trying to get this "thread" effect to work. Robcat's clever animated gradient material almost worked but didn't get the "end of the snake" of the thread I needed to follow the moving thread. (see attached) Tried adding two animated gradient materials but couldn't get that to work. i then reverted back to animating them with booleans but they caused a buttload of problems in the chor. so now i'm trying to animate a regular decal along the length of the threads (which are then reshaped in the chor.) and cannot get anything to happen. So my question at this point is How can I animate a decal's position along a model? Have tried doing it in Action but nothing happens. Any help appreciated. Sc103aa.mp4.mp4

My apologies if I've offended. I'm grateful that you Hash fellows are still working so hard to help us. Been using AM since 1992 but only in the last few yrs. been using it every day so thanks for all the help from you Hash Ninjas.

Understood. One more question that I've searched the manual for - What is the meaning of a Pose slider being red or pink? Sorry for the dumb question and thanks for all your help robcat. Writing to Hash support or anyone else will get a response in a few days or not at all. Really appreciate all your help.

So that Define Relationships links all the poses shown so when you move one - they ALL move? (which is mostly bad that I can see) and I had noticed that a while ago when making multiople pose sliders. But when "off" you can adjust each one independantly and not affect the others, right?

Ok that seems to have done the trick. Thanks robcat.

SPOKE TOO SOON!!! Soon as I close the project and reopen it the Pose snaps back to 100% - and I can't get rid of it. Back to square one. I've tried deleting the model from the chor and resetting the settings in the pose slider settings but it keeps snapping back to 100. I don't know what else to try.

That did it!!!! I don't know what I'd do without you robcat. I thought the settings in chor would override everything but apparently not. It was ADDING to it! A thousand thanks (again)

Thanks to all the help from robcat and others with my "thread" reveal pose I set it up and it works fine in the pose window, and the threads flow as wanted but as soon as I put it into the choreography - ZIP! NOTHING! No effect and the pose slider is wigging out-displaying numbers that aren't the same as the timeline. See attached PRJ and JPG file screenshot. Any help greatly appreciated. Why would it work in the pose windows and not the chor?????? ThreadsTest01.prj

Thanks again robcat that explains it all.

robcat how do you determine the numbers to setup the Pose? i see the 1st attribute is not set and the 2nd to 100% transparency but how do you make such a sharp line between 0 and 100% transparency in the Pose?

Thanks for the responses. Haven't yet used the gradient material - this looks perfect I'll give it a shot.

Have had animated booleans work but only with one bone in the cutter. Can't seem to get this one to work, am trying to get this "reveal" effect of these cords (threads) as though they're coming off of a spool. Anyone know if this is even possible or have any workarounds? Ribbon.prj Ribbon1.act Ribbon1.mdl

Thanks guys, all those things you suggested work well and it answers the question of why you can't rename imported chors. Much appreciated!

Embarassed that I don't know how to do this. I have a Chor that I want to copy so that I can make another version with all the light settings intact but if I do a "Save As" it re-names the Chor and saves it to disk (which is good) but I want to be able to make a new version with the objects arranged differently but keep all the light/camera settings etc. BUTT!!! If I import the Cho it won't let me rename it. Am I making any sense? I know this should be AM 101, but normally a "Save As" function makes a new file in most apps. You guys are very patient with me and I appreciate it. Especially you Robcat. Any help appreciated.

NEVERMIND forgot to turn off Moron mode! Selecting groups must be in Muscle mode!

In Action I activate the other items icon and the groups all show up but I can't select ANY of them. Is this normal? Any help appreciated.

Ok I'll try that. Thanks, and thanks for the tip on the first finger bone placement.

Spent hours setting up constraints finger joints, all was working well. Came back later, opened the project and boom. Most of the constraints had vanished. For some reason a few remained (see attached) but they were "broken" and had question mark on them. This was made with new pose on/off when I started and everything seemed to be working. I did notice as I was doing this that AM was creating an Action file and all was going into that but after closing the window and returning to the project all constraints but a few had turned to vapor. I also saved constantly while I was working on this. Again I've stumbled into a Moron Mode somehow and cant get out. Any help appreciated.