Simon Edmondson

Robert Thank you once again for your help. I set a render going over night using just one iteration rather than multiples of AM. Its still got three hours or so to run ( time to actually do the long postponed housework ) but, it seems to be going through OK. I've just stepped through the rendered frames on the HD and, with a couple of curious anomalies they seem to be behaving as they should. I will post a version of it all later. The anomalies are three frames were the green showed up in the spaces. . Went back to check the CC frames, thinking I must have missed those bits yesterday when working through, but no, they are absent in the original CC files (?). I wondered if it might have been caused by memory management ? I know nothing of such things but, the CC files were quite large in total size, likewise in numbers ( 802 ). There were three iterations of AM running at the same time, all accessing the same file cache of CCfiles. Might that have cause some bottlenecks on the system ? regards simon

This was the result of 5 seconds worth, rendered in V15, using the same CC decals. I'm going to see about using TGA with alpha and see if that's better. simon T3AM.mov

Robert the key colour only worked on the first frame of the sequence yesterday. Not for the rest of the frames in that sequence, for those it stayed as 0.0.0. It didn't seem to allow setting the key for individual frames but, as there were 800 and the value didn't change on any of them, thats when I went for the alpha. In response to your earlier question, above is a quick render of frame 260 before render it out a a still moments later, Puzzled by that, I did another quick render, with this result I know very little on the technical side but, wondered if it might be a memory allocation problem ? I copied all the files over onto this machine to try it on V15 and have a QT.mov going through now. It appears to have other difficulties... regards simon

Robert I'll try that in a moment or so and get back to yo, its going through on another machine. Nancy To try to answer your questions. After applying the CC decal to the model in the PWS, were it renders ok , it's imported to the chor as usual then, after some testing with the lights, rendered out as a sequence of tga files at first, now a series of jpg files. Originally it was a 1080HD .mov saved out of the stop frame software ( Dragonframe ). I have all the individual frames too but they are huge in res and memory size and contain too much information for what I want at this point. Plus, I've never used RAW format before. That 1080 file was converted into a png sequence using QT that comes as part of OSX. That was the version giving trouble yesterday. It saved as PNG but did not seem to retain the alpha channel while doing so (?) That was a bit of a pain as there were 802 frames involved. Just as I got onto bed, I remembered that, when it worked before, it had been done using QTpro. This morning I saved out the sequence again using QTpro and it worked. Retaining the alpha values. Then removed all the background colour in PS using an action droplet script and the magic wand ( CS5 ) which I learnt about last night, doing the first lot. It didn't get all the bits that were 'trapped' inside closed spaces so, then went through individually to get those. The tolerance on the magic wand was set quite high, 70, but still missed a few specks which show up white in the render. I didn't know you could use PS for video editing, all my editing is done in Final Cut pro which I'm still getting to know, five years after buying it ! Recently we did a workshop on FCP X, it was a bit of a mind boggler as its completely unlike the V7 I've got. I've seen them using PS to do drawn animation at College but have no idea how or where to look for it ? The Dragonframe software saves out a high res and a help file. 32 seconds came out at 29gb !!!!! Can't access After Effects until go back to college so it will have to wait awhile before trying that. regards simon

Robert. Thank you for your reply. Theres no compositing as such. I rendered the mov file out as a png sequence using QT pro and that gave me the alpha channel info that was the glitch yesterday. Then batch converted the sequence in Photoshop, taking out the background colour, leaving just the figures against the alpha. Saving it out again. Then imported that into AM, and used it as a Cookie Cutter decal on a flat model in a chor. The sequence goes through and AM casts the shadows as it does so. I checked the original CC sequence and the frames are as they should be. Would you like me to post them ? regards simon These are the cookie cutter frames in sequence

Managed to get it working with Alpha channel but, a crious glitch when it comes to render time. I've got multiple renders going through but the sequence below shows the problem This frame 259 frame 260 Frame 261 As you can see the sequence is suddenly broken by the cookie cutter sequence suddenly going back to the start before returning to where it should be. There are other glitches appearing but proceeding with this to find out what the problem might be. This is not a problem I've encountered before so, any advice gratefully received. simon

Nancy, Robert Thank you both for your help. Much appreciated. It appears to be a problem with QT. I used QT on my Mac mini for the original batch but tried it using QTpro on my Imac and it seems to give the desired alpha channel. If I can get it done in time, I will post the result later today. regards simon

Nancy Thank you very much for your very swift reply. Much appreciated. What I am trying tto do is to take the Tango sequence you saw on FB and convert the frames into cookie cutters so I can use them to project shadows into a ballroom type space in AM. I outputted the sequence into png files thinking they would have transparency that way. Mistake. I have the original stop frame files in jpg and RAW format ( working in Drafonframe ) but there are other complications too big to consider in the time available so tried to use the .mov output as sequence instead . regards simon

Update on the question. Working in V17 G under OSX. I generated a very long stop frame sequence ( 802 frames ) and converted it to Png format. The intention was to use them as cookie cutter decals and cast some shadows into a space. The background colour is 0.0.0. and I set that as the key colour in the properties. It works fine for the first frame of the sequence but, the second frame loses the key info and just comes out black ? Is there a way to retain the key colour info throughout the sequence ? or,if not, does anyone know of a way in Photoshop to get the transparecy ( alpha ? ) property to show up in png format or convert to a format that does have the alpha option ? Thank you for listening simon

Robert Thank you for your help. I'm only after it casting some shadows into a space so will test it before going through all 30 seconds of it. regards simon

I've used cookie cutters before and it was the alpha chaanel that did the cutting. Is it possible to do it with a designated colour or does it rely on the alpha channel ? simon

With sincere apologies. Theres no cure for stupid... Some of the rig controllers were turned on in one model and not the other. Newtest going through now. simon

Have been trying to revamp the model so I could finish the animation. Not sure if its complete yet ( he looks too old ? ) but, saved the iteration and fully installed the 2008 rig, as per the instructions, then tested it with the previous animation, with the following painfull result. This is what it looked like before And these are the same frames but with the new model Can anyone kindly suggest where I should look for the fault ? Thank you for your help. Happy Christmas. simon I should add, Both models use the same rig ( hopefully ) installed in the same way and are used in the same chor file.

Mark Thank you for the tip. I've used F13 as I have no idea what that is used for ! regards simon

Confession time. I've been using Macs for some while but havenot been formally introduced to them. This would not normally be a problem but, does any Mac user know where the "insert" key" is ? On a PC, if memory serves, its actually marked as "Insert" On a Mac no. ( at least on this one ). The reason for the question is that I am preparing an animatic using the Tangram shapes and its getting tedious having to key each one using the mouse. When the mouse hovers over the Make Key buton in the chor it suggests that the shortcut is the "Insert" button on a keypad. If I can find that on a Mac keyboard it could speed things up a bit. Thank you. simon

Rodney Thank you for your help. Much appreciated. I had hoped to have it all finished by now ( pause for hollow laughter ). Trying for the new year now. regards simon

Still plugging away at ska dance project when time allows. Presently redoing the head in the light of the example David posted a few weeks back. Have encountered a strange problem though. It still needs lots of tweeks and readjustments but, the model doesn't want to acept the surface colour properties assigned to it? For example, the lips have an RGB setting of 208.180.160 assigned to the group but it doesn't show up in shaded mode or quick render. Can anyone kindly suggest the problem and possible soution ? simon OSX 10.68 V17g DH 001.mdl

Robert Thank you for your halp. regards simon

Gerald, Mark Thank you for your replies. I will try both methods later. regards simon Ps couldn't get projecting light to work so went for scrolling movie as decal. Bit of a rush so not very refined as yet.

I was trying to get a decal to scroll up over the surface of a flat model in the chor but couldn't manage it. Does anyone know of a way to do it ? I should perhaps explain further that, as part of a project at college, someone else designed a Logo which I then made in AM ( its a stylised H ). the intion was to then have some text scroll up the right column of the H within the chor so it could be rendered out as a mov file. Tried to changed the Y values of the decal over 5 seconds but it didn't seem to work that way ? Two related questions, Initially I tried to use a cookie cutter map to project light through a flat, so it would come out on the sufrace of the H but had trouble with that ? In 3D studio ( all those years ago ) it was possible to put a map, or mov, file onto a light so it would act as a projector. Is that possible in AM ? Simon

Robert. Thank you . I always seem to get them skewwhiff. regards simon Mark Thank you. I'll try that later. I'm trying to rework it ( very slowy ) in the light of David's illustration. regards simon

David Splendid. Thank you very much for your help. regards simon

I know this is a perenial question, my apologies for that. I am trying to redo the model of the young boy for the dance project and decided to use retopology as a way of improving my modeling abilities ( not very advanced ), using the previous model as a base to work from. It worked OK for the body but, have encountered some difficulties with the face. I was trying to use the Cooper tutorial in TOAM as a guide and got this, when rendered it comesout with very noticeable creases Fine if it was me but not so good for a 11 year old. I am hoping to smooth out the other bumps with cp repositioning but can't seem to remove the creases. Can someone kindly point me in the right direction ? simon

Happy Birthday Will

It may be possible with text editing to take the CP weighting from one file and insert it into another. Robert. Thank you for your reply.Having warched your tutorial on the subject I have only just got used to rudimentary editing using text editors, the CP weighting is probably a bit beyond me at this time. I was going to look at the null values on the Left hand and see if they could be converted to the Right Hand. I've saved it as a new iteration before starting the process. Sometimes I learn from my errors ! regards simon