John Bigboote

Holding the shift key while the splash-screen shows forces an empty (new) project...? With a brand new install I would think a new project would be default.

Watched your tutorial...d'loaded the eye. Your presentation is very professional- I beg for more!

I dunno... Sounds like you have the CD of version 15 (not 1.5) Copy CD to hard drive puts all the 'extras' files and libraries onto your local drive...handy to have if you are doing lots of tutorials and don't want to have to put the CD in all the time... only do this if you have ample disc space. Would your 'Watson' be killing it? Is your PC modern? Plenty of RAM? Try opening a project file from the CD... I hope you get it. I'm not really good at this stuff.

'Armored Core'... how many times are the FPS folks going to re-skin Doom???

Hi- The sky in my world is always black too... my wife calls it 'pessimism'... But seriously- Check your normals on the sphere...if you are inside it they need to point in. Try turning the ambiance on the sphere to 100% and make the sphere white instead of black... Are you rendering in 'final' or 'shaded' mode...if shaded, make sure 'show decals' is on. You may need to re-apply the decal.

I'd suppose you could...if'n you put the force below and set it to 'vortex'...

AWESOME! Thanks for posting! Is that a toon render? I like the 'face'...and the neon-greeon. WOW! What kind of a rig do you use? Is that an actual toy (available to buy?) Too bad we don't have image contests anymore...that might win a 'mechanical' contest. GREAT WORK!

We are suckers for hi detail models here...show us an image!

DIG that SSS!

It must be one hi-patch robot...lotta detail! Using separate models and assembling them in an action (action objects) is a common method for large models. HOWEVER, if it is a CHARACTER with a common rig- then the optimal place for all the geometry would be within the SAME model for rigging and animation purposes. To use 'action objects'...make a new action and choose your main model, then simply drag and drop the other models onto the action...pose, scale and position as needed. NOW, in a choreography- you can just drop that action onto the main model and it will become 'built'.

I saw one of those 'How It's made' TV shows where they were making globes...with a map of the world adhered in the manner you mention. Maybe if you google or youtube search 'globe creation'.

I had done something similar to this WAY BACK in 'ought3' in my Rolling Stones cartoon... if you look at the far right (Keith Richards) character you might be able to see some tracking smoke on a moving character... not the greatest example but-

Definately got my attempt beat by far! ONE piece of advice I may be able to offer that I learned on my ciggy... if you ever go for a final render (like I sorta did) you should leave the smoke as a separate pass...and do the smoke over black in 'shaded' render mode.... 'final' takes WAY too long with that many particles, and there is no real render benefit from the sprite. SPEAKING of the sprite...can you show us the image you fed into it? GREAT WORK, Robert!

This just in: The Beatles 'Yellow Submarine' to be remade by Robert Zemeckis and the Disney machine: http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/10489

Hrmmm. No- that's not supposed to happen...you are just adding a little roughness? weird. For hoots...try changing your decal over to a displacement (or legacy bump) and see what happens...

Amazingly mechanically beautiful. I hope the hull is all 1 mesh and airtight...?

The folks at Apple came-up with a great way to sell your experience... they call it 'BETTER'. Sales are up! Marketing geniuses! The next Mac OS should be called 'Snake Oil'... I'm sorry to hear your employment is 'UN'... here in MI we have counties with 25% or more UN... If you can swing it, the latest V15 on a fast PC is the cats-pajamas. ALSO- I find sometimes after dropping an image on the camera that I need to turn it's 'eyeball' OFF and ON to get it to show up... video card issue. If the image is 'mega' hi-res, try lowering it's dimensions in Photoshop, or using more jpeg compression. Welcome back!

You can always try. Make a new model. Right Click in window and select 'Plugins/Import/Lightwave Model LWO' option. I have this in V15.0 F. If that does not work, you might be able to use the model as a prop in a chor. Make a chor...RT CLK on chor and select 'Import/Prop' and see what you get from there. Let us know your findings.

Thanks Rodney... I could'nt have made my instructions any simpler for the guy. You made it simpler though... I didn't know you could do it that way. It's almost TOO simple. Can we get Hash to complicate this feature a bit?

Quite cool! Great sample.

SINCE your decal is being applied to just 1 patch... you could try applying it as a patch image... 1-Make the target patch it's own group. 2- drop the image on the new group. fini

HELPFUL! Which screen-capture are you using?

Yeaaaah. We'll need a little more info... You'll need a good 3D app and need to know it inside and out. Probably want a 3D tracker like Syntheyes to match your camera shots. A good compositor like After Effects or the sort. Photoshop of course... AND a good editing program like Vegas or Premiere or Final Cut.

That's what I am thinking. Turn him into a sort of 'TV commercial template'... make him available to the world. "Hello, George Washington here- 'father of our country', '1st president'... 'amateur lumberjack'. Anywhoo- I've seen a lot of things in my day but NOTHING like the savings to be had on a new_________" etc

Turned-ON reflections and shadows and let her render all weekend at 1280 X 720 resolution: DOLLAR2.mov DOLLAR1.mov