John Bigboote

"Boy- I say BOY! I like it!" (Foghorn Leghorn-ish)

We do have the terrain wizard now included in V14,15... Basically to do a displacement, you will want to paint a grayscale image in Photoshop (best to use a 16 bits per channel) keeping in mind that the whites will be the highs, and the darks will be the lows. Apply this as a decal to your geometry and select 'displacement' as the type and adjust the value. You will nee to do a preview render to see the effect.

DIG! In the time you have fitter-futtered trying to get some 'one size fits all' solution you could have (as mentioned by 'thecamps') looked thru the camera and adjusted ONLY the robot feet that the camera see's going thru the ground. KEYFRAMES!

I think MTPeak made a nice tutorial/project file for constraining a 4 wheel vehicle to a rolling ground surface...but that's a horse of a different color. My advice would be KEYFRAMES...lots and lots of KEYFRAMES.

That looks like a fairly capable machine...I wonder could Windows Vista be the culprit? Have you tried switching your graphics card from OpenGL to DirectX or vicey-versey? (In A:M---Tools/options/Global Tab) ???

I have dejavu... 1- I'm not a fireman, but I believe if you right clik on a keyframe you can set it to 'hold', and no interpolation will happen...thus allowing long prolonged inanimate holds.... 2-Yes, animate the wheel spinning 1 rotation in an action...bring it into the choreography and apply it to your model. There will now be an option in the actions properties window to 'repeat'... simply add a number (default is 1...) 3- Yes... but this is actually best done in a pose. You need to turn on 'show more than drivers' in the programs 'settings' under the global tab (I think) Make a group with the geometry you want to make invisible...make a new pose... look under 'actions' and you will see a shortcut to the new pose- turn the 'show drivers' tab on, this will allow you to see the group you just made and animate it's attributes via the pose slider... These are 'Readers Digest Condensed' answers... do you have a manual (available as an online PDF or for purchase as a book thry the Hash store.) I believe the full answers will be explained there.

Very cool...HEY! That 'Vimeo' looks pretty neat...do you recommend it?

That is one highly advanced effect. You would need to combine practical (live shot) and 3D particles in a compositing program like Adobe After Effects... Welcome to the world of the 'technical-director'

Me likey! He has a sorta irreverant cartooney style to him...I almost want to see one pupil larger than the other to give him a 'wacked-out' feel, but that's prolly not what you are after...good work! Thanks for showing!

Do you have a sample or a YouTube link of the clip you want to emulate...for us 'Blade'-virgins.

We've all been coaching each other here on the forum (previously the 'list') to learn how to save OFTEN and in increments. Meaning, every so often as you make major progress on a model do a 'SAVE_AS' operation...with a different name (ie: new model A...new model B etc) This way you can always go back to a safe version if the unwanted should happen. REgarding your specific dilemma...try opening the project and immediately do a SAVE AS... then try opening the NEW project. GOOD LUCK! Don't discourage.

Wow...never heard of the 'hit the period key twice' -trick...what does that accomplish?

I don't know if anyone has one all modelled up to your requirements or not...but 'brandsoftheworld.com' is a great place to find the .ai vector art to get you on the right path...(Use your ai wizard) http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/search/41262069/99446.html

Strong character...kinda of a pimp-grifter-gambler-magician dude... I like the buildup...how was that generated?

Powerful stuff, Stian. The chrome exhaust pipe looks out of place...I can't put my finger on why...

eschew....? God Bless You!

Thats FUNNY! And it keeps with tradition... I made the boat out in front of my Frank Lloyd Wright beach house a 'Hash Craft'...

Should be just a matter of 'highlighting' them (the keyframes)and then you will see a black box with little tabs on the ends, grab a tab and adjust...

Great! I really like the little touches, like the FOR SALE sign...gives it that Michigan-feel!

Have you tried fog? You could also experiment with using multiple flat 'gels' or large colored patches that 'aim-at/constrain to camera' but are mostly transparent (95-99%) and cast no shadows/reflections. Cool scenerio.

Looks like a well-splined model and should rig and animate very well! Congrats!

OK. I may be wrong but--- You set the WHOLE model to be grey... and the software is following your wishes. TO do what (I think) you want... -Select the model where you set the grey color and right click on the color attribute and select 'default' or No value... -Select ALL the CP's in the model and name the group GREY.(make that group's color grey) -Select the CP's you want to be red and name the group RED. (make that group's color red) -Select the RED group and click the 'LOCK' button. Select the GREY group and 'right-click-and-drag' over all the red CPs...this tell's A:M that you DON'T want these CP's in this group... There's a little more to it still...but I'll let you figure it out.

You need to learn about GROUPS. (Not like the Beatles and Stones....well, technically, the Beatles were a BAND and the Stones are a GROUP...) Anyways- Select all the patches you want to be red...they will AUTOMATICALLY be a group in the PWS...simply go and rename the group (ie: RED) then in the groups properties box change it's color to red. Henceforth and beyond, the same!

I actually OWN that car and drive it to work daily...so if you need any detail shots I can go out to my 5 car garage and shoot 'em. (not) As far as your HEALTH goes...whenever I get a cold I'll wear a black bandana over my nose and a 10 gallon cowboy hat to keep warm, works every time but I look like an old-timey bank robber... Here's a picture:

That Shaggy model might be a pretty old rig. I always found, when animating with the older rigs (and this is a good practice to get into...) that it is best to use the rotate tool ® to twist a bones rotation. Also, make sure there aren't any poses you should turn-ON before animating... on my recent models I always have a Pose called 'Animate Ready' which turns on ALL necessary poses...constraints...TSM2 rig...it lowers the arms from the T-pose...sets dynamics etc...