Simon Edmondson

Tore. Thats one extremely dense mesh ! I like the look of the model although, to my eyes at least, the grey rendered version looks more like the type of shapes/surface you get with loosely modeled plasticene ? I'm hoping to make some actual stop frame models again in the next few weeks but it may take some time. regards simon

Today was the deadline in sight. Unfortunately its only 2/3's done This is the 'story' so far. Think the first bit after the moon walk needs adjusting for timing and movement. Lots of detail still to be resolved, lighting and set for example. Any critical feedback regarding Timing and posing very welcome. simon PS VGA convert from DV filesSka Lake.mov

Next stage in the process. Any critical feedback regarding timing or posing greatly appreciated. Much detail to be resolved later. simon Ps VGA convert from DV file TakeThree.mov

Robert. Thank you, as ever, for your help. I shall have a look later. I was worried that the last spins were too fast. I may try to put a hold in so the unwind is more apparent. Trying to get a variety of speeds but it is taking a long time. Only getting about 4 seconds a day done and thats before going back to add the 'finer' points. regards simon

Still plugging away at it. Only thinking about the movement at this point. Lighting and camerawork later. Think the spinning transitions may be too quick, and it needs some holds ? Any critical feedback welcome simon TakeTwo.mov

This was the basic blocking with rudimentary lighting and camera work. Its not a method I'd used before but, went through the whole piece and keyed all the positions, but hit 7 to put holds on them all, by way of checking the timing. Then 6 to get some rough playthrough, before setting any tween positions and adjusting the curves. You do get bogged down in a lot of detail this way but, learning a lot in the process. simon Sequence 1.mov

Robert Thank you for your reply. I'm fretting over it too much I think. I thought it would take a week to block out the moves, it took three. Thought the first part was done, until I saw this. I think I'm going to try and get the rest of it ( 60 seconds ), tweened then go back and start trying to finesse it with hand, and face and a lot of work with the curves. I have tried to use guidelines to get the weight properly positioned but still some work to do, as you suggest. Charlies right arm doesn't appear to roll enough at 14 but, having spotted that, went back in and made sure it did. Only for it still to appear static. so there is a lot of work still to go. Haven't paid any real attention to the lighting and staging yet... regards simon

Thought it was a good idea to test the models before starting on the bigger project. It was a very good idea as it has proved to be a very bad model !!! The pajama's need redoing, as does the rest of the figure really. The idea was to set up the choreography of the dance, then use it to test the model when its redone ( hope that makes sense . Have been plugging away at it for about two weeks and this was the result so far. I now think the beginning needs to be speeded up... Any critical feedback very welcome. simon Take One.mov

Mark and Mark Thank you for your replies. I shall try both now. regards simon

Is this the Mac thing where you should send the program to the background then bring it back? Robert Thank you for your reply and help. The image sequence was the files used for the time lapse, initially there were 500 frames but, for the file using Ken's B24, I only used 125 frames ( @25fps ). It doesn't appear to be the Mac bug you mention as I tried that to no effect. Mark has suggested another method and I will try that when the current render goes through. regards simon Tore Thank you. I will try that too. regards simon

Mark Thank you for you reply and help. Where do I find the read/write permissions you mention. The only one I could see is when you "get into" on the AM.app icon ? You are right about it being counterintuitive ! I'll try that later. Not sure if I can post the 'offending' chorbecause of all the image files but will have a look when the current render goes through. regards simon

Working away today on the Ghosts idea I keep getting a recurring problem with the values settings for a chor. Working in V18B When the chor was set up initially it had an image sequence 00:19:20 frames long. The chor defaulted to that value and was saved as such. Further along, the image sequence has been deleted from the project, the chor resaved as something else and, no matter how many times I reset the length to 00:05:00 and save it afresh, when reloaded it has defaulted back to 00:19:20. It has happened about 10-15 times today. I'm getting close to ranting !!! I've got used to the fps defaulting to 30 and the rotate to 5 but the changes in the render panel ( I've mentioned before ) are not very friendly either. basically, If you open the render to file options, set the values you want, click apply, then try to exit the panel... The only way to do so is to start a render. Which you then have to cancel. That seems entirely counter intuitive. Or is that just me > feeling rather grumpy. Apologies for that. simon

Happy Birthday Gerald Thank you for your helpful tutorials.

on't know which version you are using ( ?) but it has worked in all the versions I've tried. Presently working in V17. Don't wish to sound patronising but, are you selecting the point you want to edit and, are you opening up the option in the the PWS You can select individual values or have all those associated with that keyed item, in tis case the foot controller... regards simon PS I usually edit in the PWS but, just tried the timeline with this result. The bias handles showed and worked ?

It is rare for me to be able to answer a technical question but in this case, thats what I'm currently doing. They are in the modeling panel on the top of the screen. regards simon

Apologies all for lack of clarity in question ( i'm in the midst of blocking a dance sequence and I'm not a choreographer ! ). Think I may have mixed up my terminology. What I'm after are the keyboard short cuts to set keys for the bone values, Rotate and Translate, on new frames. At the moment I am having to move the mouse over the key icon and click there. Short cuts are used for other things, S for scale, N for translate, R for rotate and so on. Wondered if there was a standard setting for make key ? When the pointer is over the icon a hint comes up in a bracket saying Insert but ( being the tech savvy person I am ) couldn't find the Inset key on the keyboard ... pause for laughter elsewhere. Tried to set it up under options but nearly all keyboard buttons seem to be already assigned to something ? regards simon. PS If using my intuous tablet perhaps assign it to the buttons on that ?

Have started to try and set up some hot keys to speed up the animation process. Does any body have a method they use to short cut, setting keys on bones in a chor or action ? I started going through them on the keyboard but, they all seem to be already set. Any Suggestions welcome. regards simon

Personally I'm really fed up of super hero films but this trailer suggests it might e worth watching. There are shades of the trailer for The Incredibles, were Mr Incredible has trouble putting his costume on... ? I heard, but don't know how accurately, that Victor Navonne animated that trailer ? Several people I know expressed regret that the scene was not included in the film. regards simon

The Teddy Bears companion takes his first walk... in his pajama's. I like the ( accidental ) fabric effect on the torso but will have to adjust the crotch area. Just a test. He's supposed to be about 10. Any feedback welcome. simon Charlie_Walk.mov

I don't know anything about that. Perhaps your system doesn't have an associated email client to launch the email from. On my end the link just doesn't work. Seriously though, there are only two email addresses to remember and you really should use the one that starts with 'jason' and ends with hash.com. Rodney Thank you for your reply. I was trying to find the link via the website, that was having trouble loading in Safari. I will try the email tomorrow. Sleep beckons now. regards simon

I asked a short while ago about using multiples under one licence and Nancy was kind enough to pint me to where /I could get the windows versions. There was a remaining question about running under two OS's. Finally had a chance to do that but, when I tried to contact support via the main Hash page, ( www.Hash.com ) the screen won't load fully and keeps trying to reload. Is anyone else having this problem ? simon

Just got in this afternoon to find four notifications from the forum in my mailbox, Only to find that the messages they relate to are from 2013... Is there a glitch with the new server setup ? simon

Nancy Thank you for your help. I'm dl'ing the files now. regards simon

Robert Thank you. Blast !!! I couldn't upgrade to V16 at the time due to hospitalisation. Ah well, revised masterplan awaits... regards simon

A friend has offered me his Macbook Pro when he upgrades in a few weeks time, it has Windows 7 on as a dual boot option. The first question is, if I buy a Licence to run V18 on the Mac , do I have to get another one to run it under W7 on the same machine ? I am keen to try the 64bit option to speed up the rendering and, it might provide the option of using the setup machine as well . In a related question. My brother installed W7 on my Mini using an open source program called " Virtual Box", haven't had a chance to try it yet but, I have my earlier versions of AM on CD. Would it be legitimate to use those under virtual box , again to try the 64bit version which, it was my impression, became available with V15 ? It is about 5 years since I last saw Windows and have never seen W8 in action ( Vista did it for me), I hope this doesn't open a can of worms but, am I likely to encounter much by way of transfer difficulties ? regards simon