Simon Edmondson

Impressive and certainly better than my render skills. My only suggestions would be the strength of the reflections, in particular where the object meets the glass surface, They look a bit too 'thin'. And the strength of the light in the background coming through the door/window. Its a too strong and distracts a little from the foreground.. The highlights on the candle (?) work well, although a bit too close to the paper in the background in the top right corner. I would suggest that the specular highlights in the glass bowl need to be a bit stronger too as they are slightly grey. regards simon

[My preference would be for the first (IBL ) example if only because the specular highlight on the sphere is too sharp and clearly defined in the second image. I don't know if its my monitor but there appears to be a slight pink tinge to top of the sphere in the first image and a green area to the lower part. That makes it fit the envioronment more that the neutral grey of the second image. I prefer the canon (?) in the first image too as the shadowsare clearer and the detail more apparent. Likewise with the bird bath (?) in the foreground. My only quibble would be that the blue in that looks a bit too intense and clear? simon

Not sure that I'm qualified to comment but, here goes. I think the lighting on the first Image works best for the vehicles in the background under the awning, because there is a wider tonal range. Although the white car could do with a stronger highlight. The Foreground vehicle is perhaps more accurate in terms of realism but , if 'selling' that was the intention of the piece then the loss of detail would undermine the effect. The second Image works better at 'selling' the foreground vehicle because it is more visible and the illumination around it works with rather than against it. Perhaps a combination of the two would work best, with the background shadows of the first combined with the foreground of the second ( but a stronger highlight on the white car ) ? Two pence worth simon

I'm not really qualified to say anything constructive about your work, so WOW !! will have to do for now. Have you heard of a magazine called 3D World ? Its a UK publication but sells worldwide, it claims to be the biggest 3D mag in the world ( pardon me if you know this already ? ). They have a section every month that showcases the work done by readers of the magazine. It covers a broad spectrum of work. If you have not considered it might I humbly suggest that you put your work forward for that as it is certainly more than good enough and the exposure it generates will at least do you justice and could lead to other things as it is widely read in the industry. regards simon

I'm not really qualified to say anything constructive about your work, so WOW !! will have to do for now. Have you heard of a magazine called 3D World ? Its a UK publication but sells worldwide, it claims to be the biggest 3D mag in the world ( pardon me if you know this already ? ). They have a section every month that showcases the work done by readers of the magazine. It covers a broad spectrum of work. If you have not considered it might I humbly suggest that you put your work forward for that as it is certainly more than good enough and the exposure it generates will at least do you justice and could lead to other things as it is widely read in the industry. regards simon

Pardon my ignorance but what is a normal buffer ? I've used shadows only in the past but have no idea what a normal buffer is or what it would be used for ? regards simon

Hallelujah !!! I had not realised that the model bone was different to the root bone. Thank you very much. simon

Rob Thank you once again for your response. I tried that and entered a more suitable value. 10.27 cm ( same as the left ), but the problem remains. I've tried going through all the bones in the properties section and checking the length value but they all seem reasonable. When I select make all bones visible they all seem to be in the right length. Do you think I should report it as a fault ? regards simon Ps you must be a very early riser !

Rob Thank you, that fixed the wandering hips. On a related question if I may? The bone for the Balance right foot seems to have grown to a huge length so that when I switch viewpoints the figure is very small in the view because it is allowing for the extra length. I have deleted the channel keys and adjusted it in the original model to 30cm but, it doe not appear to make a difference in the action? Is there a way around this ? regards simon

Rob Thank you kindly for that I shall try it straight away. regards simon

Whisperin_Grass.prj Rob Thank you for your response. I did post to the address you suggested but here is the file ( hope it works ). Thank you both for your time. regards simon

Pardon my ignorance but, How do you check that ? I don't know what an area controller is and where would I check it ? I am using the 2001 rig regards simon

I'm not a new user but am unsure where to ask the question so ...? I am doing a little character test for a figure and have it sitting on a stool but I keep getting positional drift on the hip null. I tried using Hold for the interpolation method to no avail. I tried using zero slope, again no joy. I deleted all the key frames for the hips except the one on frame 0, still no luck, It keeps drifting I have deleted the keyframes for the foot targets too so neither they or the hips should move after frame 0. ~Still the hips keep drifting position. Is there something I am missing here ? regards simon Mac OSX 10-68, V15J,

Take Two I've taken out a lot of the mouth closes and softened some of the poses.and added a couple of breaths. I did keep most of the lip vibrato as a personal preference,Mouth_Test.mov simon

Sadly the singer, Sandy Denny, died in 1980 or perhaps earlier. The track was originally on her first solo album. I don't know of any reference material for her singing it. You are right, I was trying to get the lip vibrato. Perhaps I've overdone it. I shall try to correct that. I was trying to avoid a static shape for too long as she hold a note for quite a while, in animation terms at least, in places. I only used the clip because it was to hand and I wanted a female voice to work to when doing the figure animation later. regards simon

Rob Thank you for your feed back. I shall try to make the adjustments later. simon

Trying to learn lessons from previous post. This is a bit of lip synch leading towards some animation with a female blockhead. I thought I'd try to get this bit right then start working on the body poses and the overall piece. She breathes in just before starting to sing. Any feedback welcome. regards simonMouth_Test.mov

Rusty I'm not in a position to be able to help with the effect you are after in AM but, there is a possibility of very strong Auroral activity over the next couple of days as the largest solar storm for five years kicked off a couple of days ago. If you are in a location that favours that it might be of interest ? regards simon

Not really my cup of tea ( to use a brit expression ). I'm not a great fan of electro music these days, I prefer 'real' instruments and a less compressed sound. Strange visuals with militaristic overtones though...

It's as simple as pasting a downloaded Hopper JPG to a flat plane. In PSPro I straightened up some of his less than orthogonal store fronts, erased the fire hydrant, mirrored it and decaled it to a flat plane that I had bowed to match the curve in the entire facade. Then I unbowed the plane and placed it on the same street as the warehouse. Rodger Thank you for the demo. For the look I want, I think I'll have to do some physical painting, scan it in and make the flats as you suggest. I can't recall the details but there was a section in the manual for V8 that showed how to make a multiplane camera effect. regards simon

Rob I bought AM paint when it first came out but, for various reasons, I have never actually used it. It would appear that now might be the time to start learning. Thank you for the info and the links. simon

the painted look is almost exactly that... textures painted with a brush in a paint program. Someone who studied Hopper's style closely coudl apply that to digital painting. So its down to the texture maps applied to the surface ? Are there any settings needed in the renderer and would I have to go into UV settings and mapping when applying the maps ? You can tell at this point that I don't have a lot of knowledge or experience of UV or mapping ! On a slightly different, but related, topic. Have you seen the animated film " The illusionist", directed by Sykvain Chomet ? ( not the live action one with Edward Norton ). That has a beautiful combination of cg and drawn animation, a bit like the Iron Giant in that regard. I've wanted to explore the Toon option within AM for some time but have barely scratched the surface. Are there any tuts or guides to its use anywhere? regards simon

Rodger I'm very impressed by your skills and they are way beyond my own. As mentioned before, my modelling skills are not of the highest order. Part of what I like about Hopper is what he leaves out. They are realistic in the sense that you recognise they are based on the world around him but he edits out a lot of what he doesn't need and the image works better as a result. For me at least. Its getting that balance that I always had a problem with in the days when I used to paint more often than I do now. If anyone else know how to get that painted feel in AM I would be very happy to learn how to do it. I almost bought a Link photo a few years back at the Royal Academy in London and regret that I didn't. It was an image that incorporated the three major transports themes of the 20th century. It was at a drive in movie, the train was going by in the background and the image on the movie screen was of a jet airliner. It caught the transition from one time and place to another perfectly. The tonal range of the print would have made Ansell Adams proud and the black and white just glowed. It was FAB ! regards simon