Simon Edmondson

Robert Thank you for your reply. I'm trying to render at 1080 HD as thats the size used throughout ( sometimes scale down the clips on the forum to save size but thats usually a QT post production change ). The curiousity with this problem is that, it only seems to crash when I activate the corridor model in the cho. If I render the figures its ok but figures with the set is a no go. If I try to render with set but no figures, it crashes out too. Thinking it might be the corridor model that had become corrupted, I rebuilt that from scratch, taking out all reflective surfaces. It renders OK in the model window but not in the cho. If i select 'shadows only' for the corridor. The frame renders without problem. If I deactivate the corridor, it renders OK But, as soon as the corridor model ( of which ever variant ) is active, the render reaches 40% then crashes out. I'm contemplating saving out the animations as actions from the cho and redoing the cho with them but may have to indulge in some displacement activity first ! regards simon

Having some trouble with the Happy Families project and don't know if its caused by the Hardware, a mac mini running OSX 10.85 with 4Gb of RAM or, have I corrupted the file somehow ? It started with the last scene ( the one with the hard edged lights ) which was taking up to three hours to render some frames, 20 minutes the next, with variations inbetween. Started on the final scene and have manged to get the first pass at the animation done so, while waiting to review that, thought to setup the lighting properly. Introduced the set model but, every time I tried to render a quick test it crashed AM. That was in V17. So switched to V18 and tried that. With the same result, In V18 however it flashed up this message about memory. I tried again, but without the set included, and it rendered OK. Could somebody kindly suggest a cause and, if possible, a solution to the problem? I embedded all the files, except the maps and saved that out in V18 if anyone has the time to look at it.. I don't know if its the computer playing up, me, or something else? thank you for your time simon New Happy Families 001B.prj

Start of the final scene. This is the first pass at the acting so, any critical feedback very welcome indeed. The scenario is, they are sitting in a hospital corridor awaiting news about the Grandmother who has had a motorcycle accident on the way home from the party for her golden wedding anniversary, ( I think 50 years is golden, or is it Ruby ? ) NHF S12.mov No real lighting work as yet and the render settings will be mixed properly later. simon

Rodney Thank you very much. That was the link I was looking for. I tried several places but, inevitably, missed the obvious one. The last render session was done with Multiple render as the method and it tied up the computer comprehensively. regards simon

Robert Thank you once again. I shall try that for the next render. The MarkW tutorial ( if it was he ), was a pdf file I think rather than a video. But, the way my memory is going that could be completely wrong. regards simon

Somewhile ago Mark W ( I think ) wrote a tutorial on how to use netrender on a Mac. I think it was available as a pdf file. Could someone kindly direct me to where I might find it please ? thank you simon

Robert Thank you for your feedback. Very much appreciated. To try and respond in order. The reflections in nosey were a byproduct of the setup but, I liked the result so decided to keep them. It came about because he is standing in front of a glass window and the reflections off the window go back into the glass of the binoculars. I liked it because of the claustrophobic impression and, at risk of being pretentious, the visual qualities of it, Shapes within shapes, the eye in the small inset. The colours were wrong in NHF S10.mov so I redid them when Tore pointed it out to me on FB. In the UK, and I think in the rest of Europe, the emergency vehicles use Blue lights. The image in my head was really from US films and TV. I tried some further tests, including only blue, but went with Blue and a very red orange in the end because it was more dramatic and added to the drama. I rendered it over night. and changed it to a POV shot from the drivers seat. Some of the files were taking a very long time to render ( nearly three hours with 5 passes ) because there are six lights, all with volumetric settings. All the lights are shadow mapped rather than ray traced, with a map resolution of 4096x. This was the redone version NHF S10B.mov With regard to the hard edge. I don't know what might be causing that ? Initially it was on a 100% quality setting to try and cut down on the render times. Have just spent several hours trying to find the cause of the hard edges but to no avail. Wondered if it might be the model so tried this too but, as you can see, that was not the cause. I removed the models and decals. This is the movie without models, just the lights. Notice the hard edge is there at the start A Lights.mov This is the cho file Ambulance Lights.cho regards simon Edit

Heading home. This is when he gets passed by an ambulance. Lead in to the final scene. Supposed to be driving in patchy fog. No sirens as yet. Sound comes later. Any feedback gratefully received. simon NHF S10.mov

Ken Thank you for your reply. The hand reflection is perhaps because he's standing in front of a glass window with a reflection value set on it ? If not, may keep it as is because I quite like that look. I am having other troubles with high specular values suddenly appearing. Trying to sort that but it may just be because I'm very tired and have miss set something. regards simon

I was just about to start celebrating after Robert helped me mix Toon and normal on the same model in a render. It was going to save a lot of time. Then I saved the project and odd things happened. I had modified one of the models, Delivery Man, that came with AM, giving him a beard and a dress shirt. This is what it looked like with Normal render. V17, OSX When I did a Toon render ( before he new modifications ), I noticed some mesh penetration, I tried Robert's suggestion and was really pleased with the result, except I noticed some more penetration and spent a while fixing it. Saved it and went out to do some analog 3D while it rendered away. Came back and checked it, only to find that his beard , and other surface values had reset to the default ones of the original model. The mix of styles was there but the colours had gone. I then spent about 90 mins trying to get it back to how I wanted it because, very foolishly, I'd trashed the earlier files and couldn't get them back. But, every time I reset the values then tried to save it, it would crash out. Tried it in V18 but with no greater luck. The original model is far better than I can manage but, I only wanted to use a small proportion of it and change the colours.( not trying to take credit for someone elses work ). Is there any way to reset the surface values to the default settings so I can go back and modify them without the originals showing through ? Thank you for your timeand help simon Neighbour Two A.mdl

Robert Thank you very much indeed for your help with that problem. I tried it overnight and it worked as you say. Rodney suggested it to me a few weeks ago but I misunderstood the process, thank you both. It should cut production time enormously, Although I might have to redo some earlier scenes. regards simon Nosey 03.mov noticed some mesh penetration that hadn't been visible before so redoing it now.

Robert Thank you very much for your help. I shall try that later today. Unfortunately I won't be able to get to Live Answer Time this week as I've got some analog 3D to do, ( making some stop frame 'stages '). regards simon

Robert Thank you for your feedback once again. Here are the different layers of the process. The main time consuming part was in erasing the full render sections to allow the toon render to show through. It was either this way or overlay the Toon on top. Either would result in a lot of erasure work to get the correct alignment (?) This is the final composite look with the three layers, the Clouds were added after render due to an oversight on my part. This is the separate Toon layer This is the full render with the Toon elements erased There are some small elements left in place which initially I went back and removed but then kept because it had the effect of making those figures slightly more lively (?). regards simon

This is a timing and composition check. Any critical feedback very welcome. I have a second version going through now with slightly longer pauses at the start ad turn around. The final version, if timing ok, will have a toon rendered figure in this setting. simon Nosey.mov Following feedback on Facebook , this is the revised version.Nosey 02.mov

Robert Thank you for your feedback. Very much appreciated. I did try to put some anticipation and arc into it but, clearly not enough. Not sure if I'll have the chance to redo itfor a while as it was taking 15-20 mins each frame to erase the non toon sections to reveal the toon underneath. Inevitably that means it will be done but the completion date stretches again. regards simon Ps I had a quick review of progress so far earlier and there are acouple of scenes need reworking. Hey ho...

Hoping this is the penultimate scene . Then the sound. Any critical feedback very welcome. A bit concerned the movements might be a little stiff ? simon NHF S8.mov 53,000+ views ?????

Having some trouble with an intermittent render glitch. This is a VGA render of the start of the next scene, around frame 34 a set of dark marks start to appear on the top of the cake. S8 000.mov It was the same when, initially, it was rendered as a sequence rather than as a QT file. then I tried again, with this result. No marks. The only animation at this point is the camera move. Can anyone suggest what might be going on and how to fixit ? Thank you. simon

Robert Thank you for your reply and help, much appreciated. I've just gone back and tried the modified Doris model in V18 and it rendered without the odd lines in both Quick render and File render versions. Saved that model out as Doris C3, Closed V18 Opened up V17. Imported C3 and, to my surprise, it rendered ,both Quick render and File render, without the odd lines. Closed that and reverted to the original C model. To my even bigger surprise, that rendered , in both forms, without the odd lines . Yesterday, it would only render with the bad lines. As you may have detected, it was driving me slightly crackers. One of the infuriating things about such problems is that I don't know if its me or something else causing the inconsistency This was rendered today, with the original unmodified file This is the same model, same cho ( only minus background ) rendered yesterday In the end, I used the V18 renders of the file Rodney kindly modified, and composited them into the scene. regards simon

Caution : There are a LOT of flashes in this Will probably adjust the timing but, this is the montage section before resuming 'proper' animating. Any critical feedback very welcome. S6.mov PS Should add, this is a 720 version of a 1080 setup.

xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwzVjsu9XvM This is the first animation series I remember watching as a young kid, about 4-5. I've since learned that, apparently, its the only animation to go out live on the day of broadcast (?) I have long thought of doing something using that process but with cg. (South Park used a similar approach, cg cutout ? ). Its like an animated animatic, if thats not an OTT description. Slightly different style but, this is another UK series. With a hand rendered look. I think there were only 13 made but they have been on summer holidays repeat for the past 40 years. xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqpHnrm5dik I Should declare a vested interest in non photo real render styles. Its a big motivation behind a lot of my stuff. regards simon

I tried the modified file Rodney kindly made for me, for which thank you.The results were slightly mixed The figure on the left is the original and the other is from the modified file. Encouraged, I tried to save the modified model. It saved but, when I tried to open it in V17, it was not allowed. Tried again, several times, it finally allowed the process. Is there a difference from the way V19 saves models to V17 ? This is the modified model in V17, cho render on the left, Quick render to screen on the right. Render settings the same for each I'm going to try to composite around the problem in Photoshop but, it would be good to know how to fix it if possible. regards simon

Rodney. Thank you for your help. Much appreciated. Unfortunately I got here slightly late so, will check it later tomorrow, after a good nights sleep and a busy day. regards simon

Its a while since I saw it, so could be mistaken but, the person who was making her film "just a wooden sword" ( Kay ?) , wasn't that done in a flat render style ? Unfortunately, I recall she passed on before being able to finish it. regards simon

I Tried it in V18 ( usually work in V17 ), but got the same result. I looked in the PWS and there didn't appear to be any animated parameters under the camera. so , incorporated everything except the images, and saved it out as a V18 file. If somebody could kindly have a look to see where I might be going wrong ? Thank you in advance. regards simon Scene 06C.prj

Rodney. Thank you for your help. Much appreciated. I shall have a look straightaway. I was a bit taken aback that it was showing 30,000+ views but, only very few people actually comment and they seem to be the regulars. Good news that the forum is receiving more traffic though ! regards simon