John Bigboote

http://www.darksim.com/html/download_simbiont2.html Yes, the Darktrees are highly recommendable for this purpose...and free I believe. I think there is a plug-in you have to install, then you will want to download the entire package...LOTS of preset textures and such.

They might be there but you don't see them because you have switched to solid view? Hit the 8 key on the top row of your keyboard to get you back into wireframe mode...

Two words: Wow!

There's a way around that... Make the stuff 'in the hole' weighted to a bone that is a child of the boolean bone...and they do not get cut away!

Wow...cool idea! To do a circular path, I would: -Make a new model and lathe a simple perfect circle...name the model 'path'. -Bring path into chor and situate and size it. -Make a new 'null' and place it in the center. -Assign a 'path constraint' to the camera and hold 'shift' as you pick your path.mdl -Assign an 'aim at' constraint to the camera and pick the null as its target. -Now, you can keyframe the 'ease' factor of the path constraint. To 'take pictures and post' you can simply render out a jpeg image..save it to your local drive...and uploading should be evident here on the forum. Good Luck!

'Tis illusion...actually the top and bottom are the SAME, because you are seeing an ORTHOGRAPHIC view of the book. To see your book in PERSPECTIVE you can simply hit the '\' (backwards slash key) on your keyboard...and '/' (forward slash) to get back to orthographic. Another way would be to bring the book into a choreography, where the camera will have natural perspective default.

I just googled leather and found this: http://www.gowfb.com/images/Coja/Coja-Leather-EXP.jpg You could use it as a decal/bump/color map to get a nice quick leather.

That's interesting research you are doing. There must be a way to do this in A:M using a combination of Newton/ Dynamic Constraints/ and any rigged character. Can you set the mass for an object with Newton?

This forum has been used that way....from time 2 time. Someone will say 'I'm lookin for a ______.mdl' and the helpful among us will tell them where to find _______.mdl OR volunteer their own ______.mdl...

My immediate thought on this was 'use booleans'...and to illustrate my approach, I did one up! 10 MINS! Craps anyone??? (Image made with fisheye lens, default lighting and existing bkgd model.) DICE.mdl

Nice work...GREAT CAR! How do the front wheels turn? My suggestion...other than the obvious 'Add a fill light'...would be to go get our new fisheye lens (in the rigging forum) and render a test with it. Your car BEGS for forced perspective!

WOW! Welcome Wiskey! Post number ONE and it's a 'doozey! Hope to see more of you!

SWEET! You can adjust the 'drag' on the leaves to get more or less wind effect. Maybe add more mass too!

The dynamics are working! YES! That's looking a LOT better Ben...

What does scaling the geometry slightly smaller accomplish, MT?

You could try an 'import'? -Delete all geometry from model A except for the scalp (hair emitting geometry) -Save As new model - Open the destination model and right clik 'import' and select the new model... There's GOT to be a way here...

Next-time-shmextime! DON'T do the SSS! It's not always needed. (referring to simulate-spring-systems...not sub-surface-scattering) Try this: Remove the dynamic you now have... and then apply another. That's it...leave the settings alone, unless maybe to lower the constraint percentage to get more 'wiggle'... and then RENDER...NO SSS! I NEED IT! The time frame you mention is very eye opening... my mind boggles at the possibilities. I hope that years from now we look back at 2008 and say "That's when it all happened...remember Ernie?" This opens the door for virtual news reporters...or 'timely animations' delivered very quickly...or- as in Ernie's case...animated opinion-givers spewing 'bovine scatology'... I'm itching to get going on this front...but am currently battling with solving a very important A:M dilemma to me: Hair Collision-Detection, specifically LONG hair... I think I have it figured out... LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT INSTALLMENT!

That will tend to happen. You need to think inversely in your copy-paste. Instead of copying your head and pasting it into a new body try the opposite: Delete the entire body from your model and SAVE-AS a new file. Now, copy the body you want on the head and paste it into the file you just created. The hair styling should still be intact! This is known as 'Thinking outside the box'...don't try it at work!

Yeah, nice lamb. We would also need to know: What version are you on? What are your render settings? That is wierd alrighty!

How dense is the skirts mesh? Denser equals better for SimCloth collision-detection. I find that square shaped patches (uniform) help too. The best way to get going in an advanced feature like this is to conduct some rudimentary tests for your own experience. Drape a cloth mesh over a box, ball or other more complex shapes. Experiment with dense meshes versus not-so-dense meshes. There is no 'for dummies' guide...it's a very advanced feature and to try it on a moving figure means you will have some experimenting. HERE is a 'simple' draping experiment I finished recently for a TV spot that proves A:M SimCloth Collision-Detection DOES work (on a static object at least)...this used an EXTREMELY dense mesh. http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yhv88Vakq6Y

Yup- both features are newer (jitter and muhair) GOOD NEWS- You can upgrade for only $50 and that will put you in V15!

I find that making an object 'unpickable' only takes place once you click on something else...or click on nothing(I'll click on a light or the camera in the PWS). This will reset the 'unpick' and when you go back to try to pick it, you won't be able to.

I think people should realize that Zign Track is a facial motion capture solution, not an overall workaround for a good face rig and lip synch poses. The more you rig your face and setup mouth poses the better Zign Track's results will be for you... am I right Luuk?

An hour and a half for one image? I have a theory on speeding up your render...seems to work for me. Try this: (Always good advice to 'Save As' before trying something new...) As you noticed, there are two places where you can set your hair emitter's density- one in the main material hair property window and one each in the individual emitter's property windows. I've recently had great speed in renders by reducing the individual emitters density to the lowest value possible- which I believe is .01 (if you set both to .01 you will have a 50-50 ratio of the 2 emitters, but if you set one to .01 and the other to .02,.03,.04 etc you will have a primary emitter and a secondary emitter.) Now this will make your hair quite sparse, so in the main hair property window you will compensate- set that value to 400% or 500% or 900% (experiment) Now- try a render frame and see if you notice an improvement in render time. I hope you do! ALSO= How can you make it look more natural? Have you set the surface attribute to Muhair yet? Muhair gives the overall hair a 'pantene-sheen' that is quite natural. To do this- In the individual emitters 'Surface' property window scroll down to 'Diffuse Render Shader' and click the setting for MuHair, and do the same to the setting below which is called 'Specular Render Shader' (Set to Muhair) There are lots of new settings to dink with but for starts leave the default settings be and see if you like the hairs new look upon render. (Don't forget to specify in the render properties window to turn Render Shaders to 'ON'...under 'options') This will cause a little extra render time but the visual is worth it. Good luck! I like your character!

MAN! I can't WAIT to git my fingers on this thing! Those are some pretty usefull features/improvements! Thanks Luuk! Nice sample Paul! I love the dynamic hair!