John Bigboote

GREAT!!!! A 'gag' like that would be considered 'politically-incorrect' here in the conservative US...consider yourselvs lucky to be on an 'enlightened' continent. Well staged! KEN---43,000 uniques in a DAY!!!?!!!?!!! Wowzers!

Luckbat- yup, lines would be cool but the original artists design did'nt have them so I left them out...tis a future consideration tho- THANKS! John Artbox- Thats sorta what I did! I would use distinct reds and greens with full ambiance which Photoshop could 'extract' using the 'select color range' feature...good idea rendering at higher res tho! Will do! It's a great feeling to make a complicated photoshop action and set it to motion on a folder full of frames and watch it 'do it's stuff'... Thanks guys!

Hey--- I have a new movie on my site http://mcampbell.250free.com showing how I was able to achieve a 'new look' for a toon character using A:M and Photoshop and After Effects. click on the 'toon shader' button. Basicly, the character was already designed for a childrens book and they (the potential client) wanted the SAME look but in motion 3D... I prepped this test in 6 hours...it may sell the gig... I roughly modelled the character in A:M, then did selective renders...tail...skin...shirt...eyes...etc by turning OFF the visibility of everything I DID NOT want rendered and I used an alpha channel...brought the :04 sequences individually into Photoshop where I made an 'action' that filled the individual layers with a gradient and added a bevelled edge...applied that action to the entire seq(s)...and rebuilt the image in AfterEffects by 'layering it up'...keeping 'some' of the 3D imagery... Everyone I showed it to freaked and could NOT figure out how I did it...showed-up a couple Maya guys too which always makes my day... 6 hours? HA!!! A:M to the rescue! It's kinda south parkish... Also on the site is the new 'Stones' movie... both are limited to 2 mb by 250free.com Let me know your reaction. Or not, have a looky. http://mcampbell.250free.com

I did a similar thing recently except I used animated bump mattes. Very cool approach. I was able to do my lip synch in after effects and then apply them to my model as a bump...worked great...I'll try to post a movie tomorrow.

Thanks folks! Crimebomb is awaiting a story, more will come. Right now, all I have is a couple of limericks... High above the city at night stands a man of girth and might! for criminals are minimals when CrimeBomb joins the fight. His partner is much lithe and leaner, her mind is quick, senses keener! but she's fed-up with her get-up so watch-out for Ms. Demeanor!

They live! Click the 250free link below to see my Anzovin TSM2 contest entry. It's the 1st 15 seconds of 'Don't Stop' ( a more recent Stones tune) It may not place in the contest, but you can see where I'm going with it...

Muy Bieno! Let us know how you feel about A:M after using Max to animate this character previously. Would like to know.

Have you seen this clip? http://www.big-boys.com/articles/harrierfalls.html

I enjoyed that, thanks! I think I'll even have a looksy at the project... Nice Stuff!

yeah what was the deviation from the Babbage toot? Also, that is a small part of an ocean, what are you planning for the rest? Is this tile-able? Looks good to me!

Mick and Charlie (drummer) have same basic head geometry, cut and paste and reshape. I tried to do that to Ronnie with Keith's head but it just didn't work. Also with Ronnie I used a drawn front/side rotoscope but deviated from it halfway thru and abandoned it. Mostly, these are modelled from memory, but I DO have lots of books I keep handy to reference and I make lots of doodles along the way. I am happy with most of the likenesses except for Charlie Watts, who I just can't get but figure he just needs to be in the back anyway. I am using much of the same geometry for the bodies too. Thru the action of each character...I do hope to capture their character there as well...sure made a lot of work for myself...but I figure I'll just need to do the first 4 bars of a song and then it would get old...

I LOVED THAT! "I'm gonna wash those fringies right outta my file" (TV jingle) The concept you are illustrating, I believe, is called 'Pre-multiplying'... If your file is not uni-colored I find it helps to 'premultiply' (make the background color) a 50% grey. know what I mean---?

This image is HOT off the renderer. (3X3 multipass...16 min) Dont touch it or the colors will smear. I have all the bodies modelled except for Micks...rigged Charlie (TSM2...quick...but still having finger troubles) and 'borrowed' and 'modified' the drumset off of Hash.com free models (thanks...somebody, nice kit!) and am now testing a drumming action. I am glad to see there is a new topic 'reusable motions' I can stand to learn a thing or two... I'll post the test movie Monday.

Thanks JohnL3D- I -SHOULD- mention...that these characters were/are being generated/animated as an experiment of the 'distortion' mode feature which I have recently learned is an INDISPENSIBLE modelling/animation tool for Hash, the BEST feature to come out of Vancouvre since...well...v11 hair...IMHO It's one thing to model a character the way you think he/she should look, but then to be able to take that likeness and interactively 'distort' it with an easy to use distortion mode which allows for the real 'characaturing' to happen... I'm tickled with this feature. I even have some ideas how they could take it to the next level... Just wait until you see Jagger's facial animation...it's going to...well...ROCK! I hope. It always looks so good in my head and then I make it it and...nnnnyyyygggaahhhh!! What I REALLY need ...is some like-minded artists and a generous budget...and a hamburger. BTW- all 4 stones modelled in 4 days complete with bodies. The hair was actually one of the quickest/easiest parts...but I'm still tweeking. V11 Hash hair is GREAT! Watch for more WIP's

Thanks sculpto pro. Yes, 4 likenesses...whew! I don't know what song yet...probably whichever one I love enough to get sued for...

Thanks for the compliments. I have updated the movie with the 4th guy in it, on the original post...have a looky!

Thanks for posting that, it's enlightening! How are you achieving the motion?

Thanks Far Star, Steve, Zaryn, Ken and CFree. Added Charlie and rendering another test... Here's a frame!

Funny- I'm checking back on the list because my computer IS bogging adding another line of splines to Ronnie Woods face (for smile/wrinkles) ... I am going to try using bump mappes to add more wrinkles from here. THANKS! Yes. These hopefully will become animated. Thats where the real fun is for me.

THUR: Thanks for the comments, they mean a lot, really. Folks here look at it and say..."ooh, the beatles!" I am updating the animation file with a new one that shows all 4 stones...I know I still have some tweeking. I love V11's hair and the ease in which you can 'emulate' a hairstyle quickly. Thru practice, I now consider myself a bit of a 'virtual hairstylist'. Hmmm. Maybe I WILL do the Beatles next...which era??? WED: I wanted to make my next characters to be based off of real personas...with the ultimate goal being to do the 'real' imitating in animation. I plan to make the main character (in the center) have an 'over-elasticized' face in animation. Also, these will be 'big-head little body' characters. Some of the younger Hasher's may not be hip to this band, they were 'big' back when guitars were really plugged-in to amplifiers and singers really sang into microphones... These are early WIPs, are they working? I'll post a frame later on. Haven't started on the drummer yet, the bass player....nahhh. He quit the band anyway. theBAND1.mov

Pretty cool. Looks like you used a environmnent map on the flying sphere and it doesn't really reflect what is passing under it. Maybe you should go with real reflections. Nice terrian tho-

Nice mix of realism and artistic liberty. Great lighting...illustrative feel. Go-Go-Go!

That looks good! Should be a big hit with the ladies!

I'll pass.

Quite COOL! I LIKE the light...I like everything but the knight...it's right off the hash CD and everything else is not, seems out of place. My apologies if that is your own knight model. Only other suggestion: spiderwebs!