Simon Edmondson

Nancy. Thank you. Domestic duties ( doncha just love them ! ) prevent me doing it tonight but will post an effort tomorrow. regards simon

I've encountered a similar problem before and my apologies for asking again. I'm trying a technique whereby I draw with oil pastels on clear plastic, photograph it and import into AM for use as a Cookie Cut decal. I made a little run sequence, converted it to png files with a background in each frame of pure white ( 255,255,255 ) applied that sequence to a flat with the white selected as the key colour. The first frame was as expected The second came out solid rather than cut I will go back tomorrow and convert them to alpha backgrounds but, in the meantime, can anyone kindly suggest what the problem might be ? regards simon

This is a transition scene at the end of the dance routine. Any critical feedback very welcome I think the room might be too bright and the posters on the wall too 'real " ? simon S2 Transition 000.mov

Dan Thank you. I'm still hoping to get it all finished soon. Almost got the dance part done, final scene needs redoing then the sound. regards simon didn't know what else to term it really, trying hard not to induce more chuckles...

Gerald Thank you for your feedback and help. Much appreciated. I shall follow up on the door later. regards simon

With apologies for the delayed posting, I've been rather busy with other things. A big thank you to Gerald, Nancy and Robert for their help to get this far. I hope this is the last test of this scene but, any critical feedback would be very welcome. It does show up darker on the originating computer/monitor setup, but on this ( Imac) it appears to have a much lighter effect with the stairway appearing self illuminated. Although the exterior lights show up better on the window and door ! simon Stairs 000.mov

Robert, Nancy Thank you very much for your help and efforts on my behalf. Very much appreciated. I will follow them up first thing tomorrow and post the results later that day. regards simon

Robert. Thank you for your help. I checked the light and made sure the shadows were 100% this was the initial result. Stairs 000.mov I saved it out as a different prj with everything embedded except the textures and maps as you were kind enough to say you'd hae a look at it. regards smon Lights.prj Slight update If I convert the lights to 'raytraced', then the light penetration doesn't happen. Although other anomolies do, the carpet by the door for example.

Gerald, Nancy, Robert. Thank you for your help. Much appreciated This is a full scale render showing the problem. Its a final not a shaded render. You can see how the cone penetratesthree walls, showing up on the landing as a arc on the bedroom door. This is slightly later in the sequence, giving a better idea of the model layout. THis os a split screen showing the render and a top view regards simon

I've asked before but it was a bit uncertain as to how to procede. Trying to finish the boy and bear project I'm having trouble with the light penetrating the walls of the model. To try and get around it, the walls were double skinned and the materials, other than the door glass, set to 0 transparency. It occurs with Z buffered and ray traced lights. Can anyone kindly suggest a solution ? simon Working in V17g on an Imac under OSX 10.68 Stairs.mov

Robert, Mat, Nancy, Thank you for your replies. Unfortunately, I got to them slightlly too late ( my mistake ). I found a work around which was a bit of a pain, but I shall try your suggesstions next time. The work around was to shift click unhide the hand bone. That revealed everything. I moved the appropriate nulls to get the pose sliders done, then had to go back into the PWS to delete all the relationship keys for the bones that were unhidden and otherwise unusued. It was a bit tedious doing it six times but it worked. regards simon

Working in V17g under OSX 10.68 I'm trying to setup some pose sliders to move the fingers in the 2008 rig. I've previously been advised that its not best practice but, for what is presently underway, it works well enough. Managed to get them installed for one character but, the second is proving difficult. When I open the model in amodel window the relevant bones and nulls are visible. If I select the "New Pose" option the finger Bones and nulls disappear and only the finger controller and Hand bone are visible. Can someone kindly point out how to get the bones back to visible ? Thanks simon

Thank you. I'm hoping to finish it fully in the coming weeks. I have to refine the movements, timing, put in the overlapping sections and facial and finger movements yet. There are another two scenes, before and after the dancing, and they need redoing also. I had almost finished it when it became apparent that the model of the young boy needed redoing so, that took some time and, because the rig was installed from a different position ( a T pose rather than arms down ) it meant going through and resetting all his poses ( fun ! ). The saddest part of the whole project for me is that, Chris Hawkins who did the music for me, died a few weeks back and I didn't get it finished before then. He was one of the finest people I've ever known. A great loss to all wsho knew him. regards simon

Very impressive indeed Rodger

Have been distracted by coursework for a few months but, still plodding along with this. I rebuilt the model of Charlie, then had to redo the animation as the installation was different. That was a bit frustrating so, after the first pass at that, thought it might be a good break to have a bash at the lighting. Initially there was only one follow spot but a proffesional stage lighting person told me she would do it with two, and that seemed a way around the problem of when they move apart, so adopted that idea. This is the first pass at that. The intro and outro need reding too but that will come later. Any feedback on animation, staging or lighting, very welcome. simon 2L VGA 000.mov Ps Originally the follow spots were done using raytracing, but switched to z buffer for this. Don't know why but, without changing other settings, that seemed to have a distinct change in the colour rendered ? I will post an example later. This was the Ray Traced result This the Z Buffer

Robert Thank you. I shalltry those straight away. regards simon

V17g OSX Having some trouble setting up the lighting for a project. This is the shot with one light on This is the shot with a different light on This is the same shot withboth lights on at the same time Could anyone, kindly point out what the problem might be caused by ? I am trying to set it up so each character is followed by a spot light as they move apart. They will then move back together, reverting to a different light as they do. simon Update. the above were using Toon render. When TR is turned off, both lights are visible ?

William That is an impressive piece of work. The ship sits well in the water and the motion of it and the water, works well. My only observation would be that the wake coming off the hull of the ship is too low scale for a vessel of that size and weight? regards simon

Robert Spot on , as usual. Thank you very much. Don't know how I managed that. Still, now I know. regards simon

Working in V17g with OSX 10.68 Got back to trying to finsh Ska Lake, spent the last two days correcting for the new model,it seemed to work ok and intended to go back today to start adjusting te detail poses and timing. Using the 2008 rig. `For some reason (?) the keys don't appear to set in the PWS when the bones are moved. It was working as normal yesterday but curious things today. You can see no keys set in the timeline, even when its moved or rotated, No key when the force key option is set to inividual bone keys set when heirachy selected and force used, but no key when individual bone moved. When Body Null selected and whole body key forced, it turns through 90 degrees ? Can anyone kindly suggest what might be happening and how I might fix it ? simon

Rodney Might this be of interest in terms of the way it was done ? simon http://petapixel.com/2015/01/03/trippy-music-video-made-circular-rig-16-dslrs-clever-editing/

Nancy, Steve, OVNI, Rodney Thank you for youor feedback and encouragement, much appreciated. I come from a very literal minded family and tend to be so myself. The Tango was an attempt to do two things, break out of that mindset a little and do some stop frame work of which I have very limited experience. The Tangram was used because you can't be literal about it, its a process of abstraction and synthesis. I had intended to take it into AM as a means of giving it some space ( it was shot against a flat green fabric ) and possibly some 3D characters, although time will preclude that in the end. Had tried the cookie cutter technique before and it seemed a better idea than to try and use the stop frame as a rotoscope to animate to. The animatic was animated in AM, but only the key poses, the inbetweens were done on the spot and proved mentally taxing !!! not least because there is no undo button and going back tover a mistake is not simple. I also had in mind the work of Tiny Animatiions, http://vimeo.com/88687371, and theirs is an approach I would like to explore further down the line. When doing the stop frame I fretted about the lack of a 'flat' finish on the painted surface and tried with many coats of paint to get there. In the end I thought it actually worked better that way against the rendered background ? The timing was really awkward to do because Tango has no drums so the regular cues are not available plus, its in 2/4 time, and I have no knowledge of that, which is why the animatic was done in AM. You can hear the music go through and set the keys were you think they might be... regards simon Ps Hope to finish the Boy and teddy Bear dance next.

Ken Thank you very Much for your helpful tips. regards simon

As threatened. Here is a 720 version of the 1080 original. Hope this one has sound. Simon T3B 720.mov

I'm just copying the files on the other machine and will post the result later but, in the meantime. Noticed something while correcting the errors that might have some bearing on the problem ? It may be slightly difficult to explain but, here goes. There was a problem with frame 221. On more detailed checking I spotted which one of the CC decals it was ( actually 222 ). Corrected that and re rendered. Only to end up with the starting squares again. Tried again and, when rendering a short sequence, only the first frame of that sequence, used the starting squares. The others were OK. It appeared ( and this is guess work on my part ) that AM was referencing the start of the CC sequence as it started a render, even though it was rendering 10 seconds into the main sequence ? I tried this at other points and got the same result each time. The first frame referenced the start of the CC sequence, then AM caught up with itself for the next few. I've saved the project file if anyone wants to have a look. Couldn't save all the CC files as there were too many (800 + ) but, you could try your own ? simon