Simon Edmondson

Mark Thank you for your reply. I had wondered about that? It was on a link I followed up from the front page when you open up the program, and it specifically mentioned Macs, so thought that must be the case. I've bought several copies of the tech ref over the years. Is there any news as to when it might be available for Macs ? On an unrelated question. Have you had any trouble with the settings within tools for the rotate option in V17 ? I set my limit to 0.1 degree, saved and carried on but, it sometimes reverts back to 5 degrees as the minimum rotate. The draw hair in the render panel keeps coming back too, although there has been forum discussion about that before. regards simon

I downloaded the technical reference help for the mac today and placed in in the the program folder as instructed. Please excuse the question but, how do I now access it from within the program. When I used to work on PC's there was a keyboard shortcut ( F12 ? ) that brought up the help option.Its been a few years since then. Is there a similar option on the Mac and, if so, what is it ? regards simon

Paul I must declare an interest here as I'm working on something with a similar question, so I may be biased. My preference would be for the toon settings. The reasons being that, aside from my personal tastes, its visually different from the majority of 3D cg work. Depending on the staging and setup, it would be possible to get a distinctive style that was different from the usual photo real 'gloss' ( even with stylised character design ). Thats not to dis the photo real, there are many fine exponents on this forum, just to suggest that the high finish surface can be a distraction rather than an asset to your narrative ? I would be surprised if other people did not have different views on the subject though, so take the above with a ton of salt. regards simon

Matt Thank you very much for your reply and help. I shall try that presently. regards simon

I have a figure pushing a large heavy sphere. Keyed the basic poses and timing and ready to start refining it. A problem at the moment is that the hands penetrate the mesh of the sphere when the pushing position changes. Is there a way to prevent this, other than keying it every other frame to prevent it. Is there a constraint that can be used or, might editing the curves do it ? Any help gratefully received. regards simon

Lloyd. My apologies. I don't think I'll get it done in time. Sorry about that. regards simon

Mark Thank you very much for that.O've down loaded it straight away. regards simon

Gerald Thank you very much for your reply and your help. I shall do that straight away. regards simon

Is there a standard way to get a sphere ? I ask because I was trying to have a go at the current animation challenge and was using the ball made for last weeks brief. Only to find that its not as spherical as I had thought. The original was a lathed spline which had been adjusted to get the correct curvature, or so I thought Is there a standard method for such a primitive shape? regards simon

This week's Brief on the theme of the bouncing ball. Tried to incorporate Sebastian's suggestions regarding changes of pace in the movements. Any feedback welcome. Bouncing.mov

That looks mighty impressive. Did you get any feedback from the company or audience. regards simon

I'm trying to finish something but will have a go if time allows. simon

Rodney Thank you. I'm hoping to finish it today. I'll post the result in the WIP blockheads thread. regards simon

Rodney Thank you once again. I shall look into that after eating. This is the version that was giving me gip, There are some revisions going through now. regards simon Bouncing2.mov

Rodney Thank you for your reply. I've managed to get the Eular drive working and was pleased with the result. Then noticed that the spinning ball had translated away from the finger. So went back to adjust the translation points again. However, when I tried to move it with either the cursor keys or the mouse, using the translation tool it would 'jump' away. Aligned it in right view, then went to front, it would be 'off'", adjust that and, on checking side view again, it had moved there, so further adjustments were needed. I wondered if that was caused by the Eular ? So went back and, in a new Chor, constrained a null to the finger tip, then the ball to the null. That seemed to work, but then the alignment changed again. So I'm about to have another look at it. Is there an accepted way to translate the ball onto a pivot, eg a finger tip ? regards simon Ps On a trivial note. doesn't Eular Drive sound like something that should be fuelled by Dilithium Crystals and powering Star Fleet ?

Gerry Thank you for your help. I had made a lot of progress with it yesterday then, after some time consuming roto work for another project, thought I'd just do some more before retiring. Mistake. Made a right dogs dinner of it and have to correct that today. Lots of learning going on, which is a very good thing. regards simon

Nothing says you cannot have more than one Project/Chor that is exactly the same to the point of departure (into the great unknown). Translation: Save your project under two different names and then edit the one. You can then render the first up to the point of change and then render the second after that. Assuming any thing like that is even necessary of course... Don't be afraid to break things. You want to do that as often as you can! Just save everything first. Rodney I learnt that lesson a few weeks back. I do him a disservice in not remembering who, but someone advised to save different iterations with changes and I try to follow that closely now. This is 2euler. 01 was up to 4 seconds ! regards simon

William and Rodney Thank you for your replies and help. Much appreciated. If I change the driver to euler does it affect all the key settings prior to that point too? I'm about 6 seconds in and ( to be honest ) don't relish having to go back and do them all again, but will if needed. regards simon

I'm trying to animate a ball spinning on a finger and wondered what might be the best way to achieve that ? Tried using the repeat option in the graph editor under post interpolation but with no joy. Presently keying it every frame to rotate through 176-9 degrees. Is there another possible way to do this ? Any help gratefully received. regards simon

Sebastian Thank you for your reply and feedback. Previously I had set too many keyframes, so tried to space them out more. Had intended to learn how to use the F curves next, to help with the ease in and out. I will try to vary the timing more with this weeks brief. Over use of 4's and 2's I think ? regards simon

Revised version of Bowling with scene three corrections Bowling.mov

Started with a contest entry. This was the first in the series. Wall3.mov

Ball_640.mov Trying to do a series of 10-20 seconds 'briefs', one each week. This is the first. I need to change the composite on the third scene. using a shadows only render ( if I can remember how ) as there is a unintended mix of toon and non toon renders. When rendering a cookie cut decal in toon, it shows on both sides, only the one side in Final ? Any feedback welcome. regards simon PS should have mentioned. this is a VGA conversion of a 1080 render.

Congratulations Sebastian. Great work. simon

Rodney Thank you. I will try that next. regards simon