Simon Edmondson

Robert There is a render going through at the moment so I can't check straight away. Will do so later on. Thank you for your help. regards simon

Robert Thank you for your reply and impressive video. I'm not sure the problem is quite as you suggest, in occuring when save/save as was used? I will have to try to watch for that in future. It seemed to happen when I did cmd/ select to group a multiple, then activate/deactivate in the PWS. ? I'm hoping to upgrade to V17 in March, so that should avoid it anyway. On an upgrade question. This might seem odd but, I understand that 64bit only works with Windows at the moment, and that is a lot faster at render time than 32 bit ? I prefer OSX to windows but, if I had a dual boot machine with Windows and OSX installed on it, would that require a multiple purchase of AM or would a single purchase cover the requirements ? It would be good to be able to model and animate under OSX but gain the speed advantage of 64 bit. I apologise if that is not an appropriate question. I'm just musing before the upgrade. regards simon

Have had difficulties with mystery channels appearing in the PWS ( I hope I'm using the right word with channels ? ) and the rotate handles on bones suddenly growing very large but never known what might be the cause. Yesterday morning, I went through all the models in the chor and deleted the oddities then worked on the walk of one of the figures, having hid the other models. In the evening I unhid the others and prepared to render it out, only to find that the mystery channels had reappeared, along with the elongated roll handles. I've circled both in this screen grab. The problem seemed to come about when the models were group selected in the PWS and reactivated under properties. Has anybody else had this problem ? regards simon OSX 10.68 V15J

Rodney Thank you very much for your kind observations. I thought the jump back reactions were a bit strong but I was trying to make them that way so I can scale them back at a later point in another piece. The idea was that he was bopping along, all excited about meeting "his girl" then, was taken aback by the rejection, and the 'dear Ray' not waiting for him on the bench ( although that might go yet ). I hope the animation is improving, getting lots of practice, though needing lots more. Have spent the afternoon reworking the walk in the light of Nancy's observations. Its going through now, so may post later, if there is time before going to bed. regards simon

Tried to post shots earlier, seemed to have messed that up so, here goes again.The walk is over a 16 frame sequence. This is the second step. I set the contacts poses at 16 and 32, did the passing pose at 24 then went back again to set the step forward at 20 and the step up at 28. Then went back into the timeline to off set the joint movement so they overlapped and were on separate frames. The interpolation was then smoothed. Its not on a action cycle but key framed all the way through using guides to get the step distance equal. The steps were set to 55 cm. Correction 30 cm. This is the first three seconds of the walk. Winona_Walk.mov Any critical feedback welcome. Thank you for your help. regards simon

Nancy Thank you very much indeed for the advice. I shall work through the Keith Lango piece tomorrow. What I was trying for with her walk, was a recognisably female walk, self confidant, sure she's got the upper hand. It was to be a contrast of personality from the double bounce walk of the male earlier. Trying, by contrasting the styles of movement, to get a narrative going visually. I wanted it to read without using dialogue and sound so that, when they are added, it enhances rather than carries the narrative ( hope that doesn't sound too pretentious ? ). I asked some people here what they thought was going on, and the response was "She's telling him to "bugger off", which is a stronger version of what I was trying for. Mike Fitz thought it looked as though she was trying to use the force so, I tried to alter the hand gestures to change that. I was trying to use the ideas in the Richard Williams book. He suggests using a centre line and have the feet step over the line to the 'opposite' side.That would be the opposite of the "Mr Macho" type, were the males struts along feet widely spaced. There is a fair bit of contra rotation in the upper body but, evidentially, not enough. She is only taking small strides, 40cm I think, I set the guides in the chor to space it out, then set the extremes steps, followed by the in betweens. Trying to be more deliberate in approach I suppose.. Will try to post some stll shots of the key frames tomorrow. Thank you for your help once again regards simon

Revised Winona walk ( again ! ) to try to get more hip rotation and smoother action. Any critical feedback very welcome. regards simon Why_S5.mov

Revised S5 with Ray being animated. Revised Winona walk as her hand was penetrating her hip and thigh at times. This is a shaded version rather than a final quality toon render. Still awaiting the finesse points like fingers and facial settings. Any Critical feedback welcome. regards PS It was rendered at 720HD, this is a VGA conversion to keep the file size down. S5.mov

Nancy Thank you again. I've had to go into models every so often, to correct the wavy spline problem with the set. I forgot to mention it before but, the Y axis (?) of the Winona model bone grows in the chor as she walks away. Haven't had that before We swapped messages sometime back, about odd values appearing in bones properties but could not isolate what caused it ? I will follow up your suggestion tomorrow as sleep calls and a render is going through now of another scene. Thank you very much for your help. regards simon

Nancy. Magic !!! Thank you very much indeed for that. It was winding me up so much I had to go do the food shopping to get away from the computer for a bit. Terrific. regards simon

Started trying to animate the male as the female walks away in "Why"? It was going OK until I switched to the left view and tried to select the male shoulders to make them droop. Every time I tried it selected the other model behind so, deactivated that and went back to the male, only to find that the skeleton won't show up in the window, even if I toggle the skeleton button in the chor. Select him in the PWS and the figure shows but not the bones. If the chor button is toggled, it selects the female in the PWS, even though it is deactivated ? Thinking to post the problem file here, I deleted all the non relevant parts and embeded everything. Only to find that skeletal mode is greyed out altogether and the model won't select. Something is plainly wrong. Does anybody have any suggestions ? Thank you in advance. regards simon PS V15J OSX 10.68 Why_03.prj

First draft of her walk away. No facial or finger movements yet. The male will be added later on today. Any critical feedback welcome. simon S5.mov PS It was rendered at 1080HD, this is a VGA conversion to keep the file size down.

Gene Thank you. I'm working on her walk now and will post it later today. Hoping for a complete contrast to his as he was arriving. regards simon

Mike Thank you for your observations. The reaction on the male is a bit strong I agree but I was trying to amp it up a bit so I could cut back on later work. I wanted to make sure there was no ambiguity about what was taking place. I've modified the female hand gestures and movements. Just noticed I forgot her eye and mouth movements so will do those later today. Any critical feedback welcome. simon S4.mov

Marcos Thank you very much indeed. That has been driving me crackers today. regards simon

Have been having a number of quirky problems recently with the display of models in the chor. This is the latest one. As you can see in the picture,the model is active in the properties section, but in the view window only the bounding box shows up, not the actual wireframe of the model. If a partial quick render is done of the same view port, the models show in the render, while still being invisible in the view !!! It only seems to happen in this chor, the 4th, the others seem ok. Is there an easy explanation I might be missing? Any help gratefully received. regards simon Ps It had seemed resolved but, still getting problems with wavy splines on models in the chor although peaked in the actual model ? Its intermittent though so can't find the cause. Another slight anomaly is that, even though saved in wireframe mode, the chor's seem to reopen in shaded mode. I'm guessing this is a display hiccup ? V15j OSX 10.68

William Thank you for your reply and information. Off to watch it now. regards simon

Gerald Thank you for your reply. Can I just check with you, do you mean NO to using the Nulls ? regards simon

Being the impatient person I am, have never really got around to SSing properly. In order to improve, that needs to be addressed so, have watched a couple of useful tutorials on how to do it, and tried the exercise in TOAM. My question is, How much can be put in one SS relationship ? For example, The hand bone is rotated through 90degrees ( in the Y plane ? ) as if to say 'Stop". The SS is then set. If the hand bone is now rotated ( in the x plane? ) , as if to give the thumbs down. Does that require a new SS, or can it be incorporated into the first one ? Hope thats a clear question . regards simon PS Supplemental Using the 2008 rig, do you use the main finger bones for SS or can you doit with the curling Nulls ? ( The Curling Nulls sounds like a 70's prog band ! )

Robert Thank you very much for your offer of help. Much appreciated. I'm not at all sure what happened to cause the problem. I hadn't selected the flowers at all while adjusting the pose sliders, which is when the problem arose. Or at least, when I noticed it. regards simon I've just reset the constraints and they seem to be working as intended now but I am still keen to know why the problem occurred, so I can try to avoid it in future. Thank you.

I've spent some time getting the fourth shot of the current short animated. At the beginning I constrained the flowers o the hand of the male character and that held all the way through. I was just going through and setting the pose sliders for the facial features when I noticed that the flowers were no longer constrained to the hand. Checked the settings under properties but they hadn't changed,but the flowers were no longer in the hand. One anomaly I have noticed is that a W value seems to have crept in to the rotate properties ? Not noticed that before? X, Y, Z I now start to understand but W ? Has anyone else experienced this and, if so, how did you fix it ? Any help gratefully received. regards simon V15j. OSX 10.68 Constraint_loss.prj

Happy Birthday Holmes. Thank you for all your tutorials. simon

Basic keys, no subtleties of finger or face setups, trying to find out if the basic body language works before going for the details. Any feedback welcome. simon revised S3 S3.mov Scene four S4.mov

in the PWS make the other model Not Pickable, with this icon Robert Thank you very much. My head is clanging that the answer was so simple and I didn't think of it. Doh ! simon

Working away on a scene in a chor with two figures and having a minor, if irritating problem. Working in Skeletal mode. If working on A and I click just off the bone, it is reverting to the model bone, and then won't allow me to select the intended bone in the window. It has to be selected in the PWS. or I don't click exactly on the intended bone and it selects Figure B instead. Again, it won't allow selection in the window, the shortcut to model has to be chosen in the PWS. Is there a way to isolate the selected model so you can only work on it, until you need to change selection? I've deactivated them in the past and that works but, this scene is an action/reaction one and its better to have the two visible together so you can adjust the poses accordingly. Regards simon