John Bigboote

I like the #1 for the orange 'penumbra'(?) in the lighting...

I've been using Adobe Photoshop since V2 on a Mac back in the early 1990's... today it is more of a 'utility' than a program for me. I'll go in, tear an image apart into layers, retouch, crop, adjust, 'save-as' and close it before I even knew I was there... But-If I were to build a 'pyramid' with the programs I use, it would be the cornerstone. Is it necessary? I'd say yes, if you can afford it, and we don't condone the use of illegal apps here on this forum. If you can't afford it... there are several alternatives... the Gimp(free)...Microsoft Paint(free with Windows)...Inkscape(free)...even the Google program 'Picasa'(free) can do much of what Photoshop users need it to do.

Only you can answer that... I'd recommend watching some of the tutorials before you buy to see if it's your 'bag'... you need to dedicate a lot of time to this...kinda like learning to play guitar or speaking Japanese...

http://www.hash.com/store/index.php?main_p...02fd9b28501cd63 Persevere. ALSO--- If you ask a VERY detailled question regarding where you are stuck, it is possible to get a very detailled answer right here on this forum!

Y'know...this reminds me... some of those nickel slot machines have some great 3D animation on them. I play one in St. Ignace, MI called 'Frequent Flyer' with an airport theme... there's this stewardess who does a strip-tease when you win, Pilots, baggage handlers... I'd LOVE to get some of that work!

It sounds like you want to use your designs as a rotoscope in a model window. Make a new model(File/New/Model) and then drag-n-drop the image from the image folder onto the model and you will be presented with a choice: Rotoscope or decal, choose rotoscope. Now you will need to place the image in the proper view and set it's transparency and begin modeling. There are many, many, many more steps involved before you will begin to animate it. As Fuchur recommended in another post, the 'Art of Animation:Master' should prove to be an invaluable resource at this point in your '3D life'. Live long and prosper!

Hey Chris- Welcome to our forum. You WILL need to give us a little more info on what you have in mind, if you could elaborate. Your question 'sounds' a little naive regarding the fundamentals of 3D, and Fuchur's 'The Art of' advice would be a great start perhaps. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

WOW! Fantastic minimalism... should yeild amazing results! I don't see any 5 point patches either! Great modeling!

Great image! Reminds me of the old SNL 'inventors' skit..."Introducing, The Lord and Lady D----bag..." (Belushi) " So, D----bag, just what IS this new invention you are sitting on? Tell me, did the Lady D----bag help you with this?"

You can 'cloak' a PC to look and act like a Mac...

Performance? 2 things... 1- MAKE SURE you are running the latest version (15) of A:M... anything previous is 'who knows'... 2- A:M is designed, programmed and calibrated on a PC, and then 'ported' to a Mac. I have nothing against Apple, think they are GENIUS advertisers- (Those 'BETTER' ads... pure snakeoil! I love it! And they berate MS for Vistas problems after YEARS of their own OS debacles...) We recently had a longtime A:M Mac user here on the forum get his hands on a 2nd hand(recent model) PC and he was singing 'who knew' it could be so good? All I am saying... is IF you get a chance to TRY A:M on a PC...give it a try. I work on both myself.

Spaghetti. I will usually peak (P) the CP... and then you can adjust the bias all 3 ways until smoothness.

Great! It would better if there was a whole row of them! We've got casino's now in Michigan, it was SUPPOSED to be the cure-all for our troubles. I'll pop in once in a while to play$25 in quarters on the nickel slots...unless I am in Detroit... THOSE casinos are all 'TAKE' and no 'GIVE'!

TWISTED! I want one.

Yup...FUN! I dig the SSS...how long was that to render? Very generous to donate it like that...THANX Cronos!

Hilarious! You shoulda seen me laugh when Alice beat-up the guitar player! Congratulations! It will get a TON of views up there on the 'You'... I LOVE Alice Cooper and that song in particular!

I doubt Flash lets you 'weight' the control-vortex to 2+ different bones like A:M does! We are SO spoiled!

After reading this thread and looking at the cool 'abduction' animation, my first thought is that this style would be great for the SWF exporter that zpider wrote, and is now included in A:M and none of us could ever figure out. Y'know- when you think about it... all our A:M model files are- are 3-Dimensional Adobe Illustrator files with advanced materials (Illustrator has no such) that can be animated... and considering how many MILES ahead of AI files a Hash model is, and that they were originally developed at about the same time (Late 1980's) makes you appreciate how Martin is way ahead of his time.

Double-check to make sure there isn't 3 layers already in your 'copy' model...(model #3)

WELCOME rigo! Look forward to your 'creepy' take on A:M. LOTS to be done there. For starts you can stick your 'pin' in the A:M FRAPPER (See link in my sig...) So we can see where you hail... HEY SPLEEN from humid Houston, did you stick your pin in the Frapper yet? LOTS of comic-book-style tutorials on basic spinesmanship to be found... I'll look for the link...

See? He's like the wind...he's not always blowing but...nevermind.

You can use the controller bones as well. Just start with your 'translate to' and 'orient like' constraints and you are on your way.

I usually work backwards, starting in Photoshop. I'll say... Gee- I want a 3D image that is 4 feet by 5 feet at a medium to high resolution, say 150 dots-per-inch. Next, I'll make a new document at those dimensions (Cntrl- N set ,to inches enter values, multiply 'how many' feet by 12 inches) NOW---I have my empty blank canvas-but how big is it in pixels? Easy, I'll take a look at the image size--- and learn that I need my Hash image to be 7200 pixels by 9000 pixels... Next- in A:M, set my camera/render dimensions to that size and set about making my imagery. One foot at 150 DPI (dots per inch) equals 1800 pixels.

DITTO. V15 is far, far superior with the SimCloth... I can't even recommend the V10 cloth sim...

I like that idea as it would spur discussions and reveal resources. Those who 'do it one way' could compare features and benefits with those who 'do it the other way' all while inspiring and educating those who 'just don't know'...