John Bigboote

I would think the easiest and most common way to rig the eyes is with a bone(s) based at the center of each eyeball and pointing out towards the iris. The bones will eventually be children of the head bone from your rig. Also add a null and name it 'eyes aim at' and place it at 0 on the Y axis out in front of the head. Make a new pose(on/off) call it 'eyes aim at null' and add the 'aim at' constraint to each eye with the null as target. Eventually, when you rig the character you will most-likely have a 'constraints' pose where you can set the eye pose to ON. Then, animating both eyes is as easy as keyframing the position of the null...

All true... but in retrospect, I think a part of the reason I 'bought in' on Animation:Master was because I had seen ads for it in Animation Magazine- which brought credibility. I also attribute my 'buying-in' was because of the magical Greg Rostrami demos at Siggraph, those are gone now too.

Great usage... didn't know we had that feature now!

64 bit either... no 'A'... looks just like previous V

Excellent entries! Great PRIZES! Rob, was the snowflake pattern on the dish procedural? Wish you had done more procedural goodness on the candle-holder. Congrats to Nancy!

I'm being forced to learn C4D, which is TOTALLY different than A:M. They have a robust and fast primitive generators, and capping(bevelling) is easy and quick... but the objects created are just procedural objects and not considered actual geometry. 90% of C4D users simply use these shapes and rarely use the function that turns them into actual 3D editable models... C4D has a robust modeling toolset that many users avoid or rarely use simply because you can make-do with the procedural primitives quite nicely- they play well with C4D's mograph module, deformers, shaders, particle effects, and renderer. A:M's modeling toolset is simple and elegant. Newcomers need to learn the 'art of the spline' and methodology before they can go too far, and fundamentals can get you where you want to go but learning is a 'deep well' and a lifelong task. Watch the tutorials and play-play-play.

Every year it happens, go to open A:M and I get the 'subscription has expired' dialogue... crap, already?! I like to document my resubscribing experience here on the forum, so that it may help others, possibly illuminate Hash Inc. what a typical(?) yearly(since 2000) customer goes thru... but mainly because I hope NEXT year I will be able to pull-up this thread and read it if I get stuck... because every year I GET STUCK! (I do my home sub in a few months) SO- I go to the Hash store, update my address and user information no problem, add 1 $79.99 yearly sub to the cart, go to checkout. This year, I notice that Hash is really-really pushing the PayPal payment process- and it looks as if it is the ONLY way to buy... but you can click on a tiny 'pay without PayPal' button and be directed to a credit card option. I figured this out after backing out, reading the instructions, going back into checkout (now my price was DOUBLE so I had to lower the units back to 1...) and then looking for the CC option. SO- the transaction goes smoothly, I get a receipt- print it out for my boss, and jot down the 16 digit code that I know I will need. The invoice instructs that a confirmation email has been sent. I check my email and see there are 2 emails... 1 from Hash Inc. WebStore(orders@hash.com) and another from service@paypal.com... both are thank-you's and both offer to show a receipt (making my paranoid brain say- did I just get double-billed? I didn't use PayPal! need to check the creditcard statement...grrr) SO- I already have A:M V18 installed on my computer, and I know if I try to start it I will still get the 'expired' thing... but at this point, I am at a loss for what to do next- and there is no documentation or instructions on any of the reciepts informing a resubscriber what to do... this is where I get stuck every year, and remember other years doing a full UNinstall/REinstall. THEN- my brain kicks in... I remember there is a text document in my Hash folder (a .lic file) that I need to fiddle with. I open the file, look for instructions... no, it is mostly code. I drag the .lic file out of the HashV18 folder and onto my desktop... retry starting A:M and VIOLA! I get a new window asking for my 16 digit code... home free, right? Wrong. Code does not work. retype it... no. Perhaps I wrote it down wrong, or made my 0 look like an O... need to recheck the numbers... SO- I go back to the email sent from Hash and see there is a 'click here for detailed invoice' option... which links you BACK to the Hash store where you see your order information and within is a ACTIVATION CODE with a different set of digits... I copy those numbers down and enter them into the A:M dialogue box--- VIOLA! Good for another year of splineing. BUT, makes me wonder- what was that 1st set of 16 numbers? Looking at my printed reciept I see them as my 'Receipt ID #... 16 digits XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX JUST LIKE the Activation code... confusion for the sake of confusion it appears. Now I know I am not the sharpest crayon in the box, but I really feel bad for someone new trying to figure this all out. AND- every year I look at my order number and make note of it, subtract last years number from it and get a number I perceive to be the 'units sold' for the year... multiply that number by $80 to see how much money Martin, Jason and Steffen are 'rolling in'. I hope I am wrong... 2013 was 304 units or $24,320.

CLEVER Esolc! I forgot that you can embed Youtube here in the forum, I like that!

Great RnD, Will. I need to get hip to your blog... yeah what about the displacements in this process?

Wush I had more time to put into this, needs audio but I am out the door on a holiday road trip... Happy New Year, Hash Community! LOVE YA! -MC HNY2014.mov

Great stuff Will! Way to represent! Phone should be ringin' after that.

COMICAL character! Hi Tom!

LET HIM OUT! Looks good Rob! I'd like to see you do the same experiment with 'render as lines' instead of patch images- probably get a similar result.... that highlight looks weird.

Is it the play-range? Right-click on the timeline top and select 'set range end'... mine gets reset to zero frequently.

SO- it looks like fastAO GPU does not work in V18?

Yeah, great new version! I'm trying to render a V17 project where I was using fastAO/GPU... I installed the drivers into the v18 folder, but I see that there is some new thinking on this in V18. MAINLY- the addition of a new tab in the Render to File/Options called GPU Postprocess effects OFF/ON with 3 options to it when activated AND a new Screen Space Ambiant Occlusion tab... it's settings look alot like Jenpy's plug-in- does this mean that fastAO is now included in A:M? I have some experimenting to do...

Very cool! Eye candy! well done, Serg!

Now THAT'S a nice implementation of matcaps!

And- I see you can visit the forum thru AMChat now! This rocks! I am posting to the forum thru the program itself! NIFTY!

Jason- great work!

I've found that in some versions of A:M it is helpful to close down the choreography window before you switch-out characters in the chor/PWS. I've experienced lags and crashes sometimes when I do it.

Hi Bobby- GREAT work! I look forward to seeing more from you. I am unaware that TSM2 can not add SmartSkin after rigging process... news to me! I was of the thinking that SmartSkin can be added and deleted at any time in the process. I know there are FK/IK issues that may arise, but I think you can smartskin and re-weight your character at any point in the animation process. No?

Your photo-comps have a very 'hallmark' feel to them... perhaps you should pitch the idea! GREETING CARDS! You live in a very beautiful place- I'm glad you are getting out and appreciating it, and thanks for sharing with US!

Awesome! I always thought the teeth and bone would be the same tint... maybe some yellowing in the teeth at the roots. OFF TOPIC- just read on Facebook(so it HAS to be true) that root-canals are now considered to be highly dangerous to your body... nowhere else in medical science is a 'dead' body part allowed to remain on the body, and that the bacteria the dead tooth produces is very harmful- it's better to go with a partial or an implant.

Great!