Simon Edmondson

Thank you. I looked it up this morning, which is what I should have done yesterday... simon

Rob Thank you for your reply. It will have to be tomorrow I'm afraid, as I need a friend to remind me how to do it under OSX !!! I know it is possible but, have used it so infrequently, I've forgotten. Sorry about that. Embarrassedly simon

You really mean "consecutively", right. It can be done, but I'd need to know more about what you have. Rob Yes, you are correct. I do mean consecutively, my apologies. What I have is 11 separate actions, corresponding to the separate parts of the medley ( Elvis through to Led Zeppelin ), One .wav file of the medley that lasts 1min:54 secs. What I want to do is, make the 11 into one continuous sequence, synced to the respective parts on the medley, ( does that make sense ? ). regards simon

In the project on which I'm working, I have a medley of famous songs I animated to. When I started they were all split up into separate parts and each bit done as an action. With fresh eyes I realise that may not have been the best of plans (?) so now I am trying to put it all together as one with the whole 1min 54 seconds of medley. I tried to do this in the choreography but could not get the separate actions to run concurrently, even when I adjusted the input/output settings in 'properties'. So I tried to copy all the bones info in one action and paste it into a new one, along with the full medley. That did not work either. Is there a way to sequence the actions, above the full medley, so I can get the timings right, then come back to it to adjust the animation itself afterwards ? Imac 3.3, OSX snow Leopard, V15J Thank you Simon

I haven't been able to buy V16 yet ( Illness ) but it is one of the coming tasks. After I finish this project. regards simon

Rob Thank you very much for that. I shall try it out straightaway. regards simon

After a long period of illness I am back trying to finish my project. Working on an IMac 3.3 under OSX Snow Leopard, using V15J. Trying to output a test of the current revisions. It will render as a sequence of TGA files but, it won't render as QT file ? The render crashes and the program closes. I get the following message, "Format error, try adjusting the settings in Output/options/settings" I have looked under Tools/options and tried to find the required bit using properties, but to no avail. I think the problem might arise because I was using Final Cut Pro the other day and outputting using using a different codec ??? Could anyone kindly advise as to the error of my ways and how to correct it ? regards simon

A strange problem is occuring when I try to render a QT to preview some animation. Working in 15J on an Imac under OSX 10.56 If I render the view using the Q ( quick render ) option, the image appears. If I try to render the same view to a QT file, I get a black blank. No image. This problem has not happened before. I get the same problem if I try to render a choreography from the camera view. ??? The shadows only option is turned off in the buffers. The other settings are standard. Does anyone have any ideas as to what might be going wrong ? Also, I don't know if this is related or not but, In my project I have a number ( about 10 ) choreographies for each of the actions. For some reason (?) these keep defaulting to 46:12 in length, even though they are usually less than 15 secs in length. I have tried to reset them them many times using the properties box, and saved them diligently each time. That seems to work... Until I get a crash or something else happens and they revert back to 00:46:12. I must have tried to alter this 20-30 times or more. It is very annoying. To add to the frustration, One or two have stayed at the 'set' values ( famous last words ) while others have gone back to the rogue settings . If I wasn't grey already, I soon would be. Can anyone help here ? Thanks in advance simon

I'm afraid I can't answer your question directly but, I run an Imac with 10.56 on it and run V15.J As I recall, when I tried to install on a different machine, the installation program warned that the version of OSX needed to be updated. So, if you don't get the warning you may well be OK.However, someone who is more of a Mac expert, will give you a more definitive answer. regards simon

Rob I think I've got it now. Can I just check. When the shadows have been rendered to seperate files, Do you turn the options of afterwards to render the objects without shadows ? regards simon

Thank you very much I shall follow it up now. regards simon

Rob Thank you for that. This is not the time or place to start a Mac/PC arguement but, I moved over to Macs for hardware and software reliability reasons. I'm still getting used to the transition. Its had its hiccups but nowhere near as many as before. regareds simon

Jim Apologies for my delayed response, I've been busy trying to get organised ( hah ! ). Thank you for the info, I shall implement it straight away. regards simon

A couple of years ago, someone kindly pointed me to an info file which dealt with "shadows only" rendering. I used it but in the interim have been distracted by many things. I recently reorganised the house and, when I went to get it it again couldn't find it ( it was a big change around ! ). The file described the basic wok flow behind using shadows only and then compositing in AM. I think it was part of the official documentation (?). Could someone kindly point me to the files again, or a good description of the method used? Thank you very much. regards simon

Thank you kindly for the info. regards simon

I am running an IMac 3.03 with 4Gb of RAM, using OSX 10.65 and 15J of AM. I am trying to finish off a project that has had a few difficulties but, I have a recurring problem which, if I was a less affable fellow, would have me screaming. This afternoon ( UK time ) I was rendering out some test QT files of Action files for the project. One file would render and I would select the next one. When I go to save file as, to change the name, the program freezes up and every time I click the mouse I get the fault sound. I can't even click CANCEL . The only way to get out of it is to Force Quit under OSX. Then reload. This happens each time I have rendered one file and try to render another. Its getting a bit frustrating having to keep restarting. Can anyone suggest what might be the problem and, most importantly, how can I fix it ? This has happened before but, not as frequently and as regularly as today. I've tried rebooting the machine and have nothing going on in the background at the same time. Any help you are able to offer will be greatly appreciated. regards simon

Thank you very much indeed for your informative reply. regards simon

I may not be asking this in the appropriate place, If sO I apologise. I have spent a long time rendering out .tga files from my current project. They were rendered at 1920 x 1060 and I am now trying to compile the frames in Final Cut Pro into the finished piece. Can anyone advise as to what video Codec to use to get the best quality at full registration ? The still frames rendered have no visual banding but, when I compile them in FCP, even in uncompressed form, ( all 508Mb for 3 seconds worth ) then banding is very noticeable. Is there acny way around this ? If I am asking in the wrong place, can anyone advise as to where to ask ? sincerely Simon Edmondson

The way to burn render settings into your project is to set them all (and i mean all) in the camera properties in the chor and set your render options to "use camera settings" Alternatively, at render time, you can save a "preset" that captures all current render parameters in a file you can re-load at future render times. Rob Thank you for the info. I will try to implement it from now on. regards simon

Slight update Another thing that seems to be happening ( which I'm unused to ) is that Some of the the changes made in a project, don't save properly, even though they were saved carefully. ? For example. This morning we had a power cut which stopped the rendering. Although I had carefully saved all the changes, when I reopened to begin again, the project did not hold the previous settings ( even though they had been saved ). So, the choreography had reverted to 10 seconds long instead of 4, The file to render to was now a QT movie rather than a TGA sequence, The resolution was now low instead of 1080HD, Render in passes was turned off instead of on and, the frames to render had changed as well. This is mildly irritating but, is it a problem others have had and, most importantly, is it significant ? regards simon

This can happen to any file. It seems if the prj file has the entrees for a give file and the file has it also it will prompt a save when you load it up. Another one of those quirks they never got around to cleaning up. This may not be the only one to cause this problem. But this is what I have found. Thank you for the info. I'll have to go back to trying to spot the cause of the other problem. regards simon

I think he means he gets an asterick - indicating there is some change. I have noticed that on occasion, I will get an asterick on something but I ignore it, if I know I haven't changed anything. It is safe to ignore. You are correct, that is exactly what I mean by a save prompt. It only seems to happen to the action folder ( which is why I wondered if it might be relevant to the previous problem ?) but it doesn't happen to the same action each time. Curiouser and curiouser ( said Alice )... regards simon

I'm in the middle of a prolonged render of the project I'm working on so, it might take a few days but, I will try to do so as soon as I can. regards simon