John Bigboote

Very interesting, GO ADOBE! Looking at the workflow, I am reminded of Mixamo's downfall... they want to sell you pre-animated BVH actions from their extensive yet limited library. I need to look into 'Fuse' where they claim you can create your character- that's new! ANYTHING A:M could do to bridge into this up-and-coming mainstream workflow would be epic.

Sounds fun! Too bad about spiders... I'll find something else.

Hi- Thanks for all the nice words. Yup- real parrot. I get a LOT of help from top-notch shooters, agency etc. I am on set for the shoots with a cardboard cutout of Tireman, and the director will always consult with me for any shot involving animation or interaction. I will take reference shots and have an app that shoots a 360 HDRI style panorama on my iPhone. The agency and client hammer out the scripts weeks in advance, the agency storyboards the action and times out the cuts to the second in advance... top-name directors (Detroit area) and their crew use dolly's tons of lights and all the 'belles' and whistles on the shoots. Last weekend we shot this year's live action plates in 2 14 hour days and there was about 50 people on the set... actors, BT employees, extras, grips and PA's, sound guys, craft service and catering, agency and BT clients. A huge production. Now I am in the middle of filling the animation and editorial for it all... so far so good- happy clients. A:M is chugging away rendering while I type. Then it will go off for final edit, sound mixing, effects and music... and then uploaded to Comcast for airing in lower Michigan and upper Indiana/Ohio. Belle advertises heavily during sporting events like Tiger, RedWing and Lion games... Will post when done. Attached is a reference from the shoot. I will be making my Tireman character hand the actress a cup of coffee... I loved the extra guy in the background checking her out. EDIT: Added final shot.

https://vimeo.com/127739839 Hey folks- I am embarking on a new campaign for my 'Belle Tire' client and it occured to me that I never 'showed off' my big 2014 campaign. Here it is... 6 :30 TV spots for Belle Tire(9th largest Tire reseller in the country, after Discount Tire #1 and CostCo #2) All animation and renders done in A:M. Motion tracking and composite, color correction and edit done with Adobe CC products.

Not really- other than the swift render time and the 'live' after effects environment... other than that- it's just a little...different. Different reflections, different look to the AO... easy-peasy HDR lighting with realtime feedback... other than the HDR, just 1 klieg light in AE...

I like the concept of alternate renderers for A:M... not saying that A:M has a bad renderer, just that alternatives are great, even the Maya and C4D folk are always interested in optional renderers, so we should keep topics like this going- I hope without rubbing noses the wrong way. I look forward to seeing your 1st test, Rodney. Speaking of samples... here is a render I made using Element 3D V2, which is a GPU renderer which works right within After Effects. I animate in A:M using all Hash's belles-n-whistles, export a obj sequence into E3DV2 and assign materials, lights and camera in AE/E3DV2. I had troubles figuring-out the magilla of getting the characrters decals into a UV world (3 decals, the Tireman on his hat, the white highlites in his eyes and the tread on the bottoms of his shoes...) so I ended-up just modelling them in 3D instead. I am no good at UV mapping in any app. At full HD 1920 X 1080 resolution the the frames took 13 seconds each. The kicked-up dust used Trapcode Particular in AE. Tireman JumpIn 1small.mov

Uh-oh... I may have said 'it can't be done' and once again Robcat chimes in with proof that it can... you should start a series of these!

Seeing as A:M is not a typical UV type program where this would be an easy offset... I would say you would need to use an animated image sequence, animate your image moving from where it needs to start over to where it needs to end over the number of frames it needs to have...use an alpha channel... and in A:M apply the decal where it needs to be. SHOULD work--- Good luck.

Great fusion of your hobbies... 3D-hiking-photography... into something commercially viable!

Cool! Does your printer print in colors, Rodney? Love to see your 1st success!

Well, it is completely a different tool, being 2D. If you are interested in all aspects of animation- you may want it in your toolbox.

'Great Googly-Moogly!' I like your use of A:M's hair feature... are you using it dynamically?

Dear A:M Forum- I have greatly enjoyed my time with this software and this forum, even back when it was just the A:M 'list' (remember that?) Today, I have given-in to the ongoing demand of my 2 dimensional interests, and will be ceasing my participation with the Animation:Master 3D community effective immediately. I wish you all well. -Vernon Zehr That took 2 minutes.

Things just aint been the same since Vern's daily rants on this forum... all the enthusiasm he brought- the back and forth rapport... his wonderful innovations and explanations of this wonderful technology. I am chagrined that he left so suddenly and without ever offering an reason- if he had been wronged... if he and Martin had had words... if it was an illness or family matter... if it was something I had said... or if he had simply moved on to greener pastures.

Great! I am excited for this- it will be a big help. Report has been logged #0006614- 'OBJ sequence exporter needs bigger image size options- 1 setting to work for all frames'

My first test with exporting animation from A:M via obj sequence straight into Element3DV2 rendering using the After Effects 3D camera and E3D providing DOF, shadows, reflections, textures, fog. Having some trouble with my GPU in After Effects or possibly a E3D bug- but working out the method, slowly. Render time per frame at 1920 X 1080 res... 2 seconds. Happy with that! E3Dproblem render2.mov

Holy cow... yes! 16,384 is huge- and I imagine there would be some intermittent resolutions in-between? ALSO- since you are looking into this exporter- when an OBJ sequence is generated by A:M it currently asks on every frame if an image should be generated for that frame, I usually say 'yes' on frame 0 and 'no' thereafter- but if I am exporting 90 frames that means I need to babysit and hit 'no' 90 times... is that the way it should work?

Can we export anything larger than 512 (which, when set to 512 I get a 1024 double sized image...?) using the obj/seq exporter? (See image for where I am...)

Downloaded V L... in a model or action/pose... the 9 key will toggle between ortho/perspective... the backslash does nothing anymore... and right click to see the view/menu has no shortcut key listed (should say 9) I may program the backslash key to do the toggle(as Rob suggested) just because it is ingrained in my workflow...

I see. Yup- numpad 9 does that now... good to know! I must read and remember the changelogs! Thanks Steffen

Okay- good to know it will be back in VM... can anyone confirm or deny VK? (Hey- what the L happened to VL?)

Can someone confirm this feature is missing? The backslash key (/) 'used' to toggle between a perspective view and an orthographic view in a model, action or pose. I see it is gone now in 18.0k ( I think I have K installed... splash still says J and so does the about screen...) Just wondering.

That does not sound right... if you make a bone visible in the model window... it should be visible in poses, actions and choreographies as well. Are you in the bones mode in the pose?

Finally got my hands on Element 3D V2 and some time to play... here's my 1st GPU renders: So far it is playing with A:M nicely. BT_Element test render_3small.mov

Let's hook-up to this as an alternate renderer! http://www.animationmagazine.net/vfx/pixar-releases-free-noncommercial-renderman/