fae_alba

From the ashes rises a new truck.

Tactic seems to have some promise, I'll have to look a little deeper at the product. At first blush it feels like it is a WordPress like approach to workflow management. I just might have a go at installing it on my blog sight and see if it works out.

I was looking at not only an archiver but a project management app as well. As Robert hinted at, a simple batch job could be written (for Microsnot users at least) to create back up copies of a folder easy enough, but I was looking to kill a whole flock of birds all at once!

check this one out Shotgun. Fits the bill, but $49/person/month. Pricey. I like free.

So now the creative juices being to flow: I'm wondering if an app external to A:M is created that can be triggered from within A:M that handles archival of a project on the fly. I have always thought that some sort of repository of an animation project that ties everything together, with a nice gui front end would help me a lot. When developing a software project I/we normally go through the following process: 1) gather requirements; what is the project supposed to do? (what is the story we are trying to tell) 2) Functional design; maps the requirements into a mid-level design of the project (script) 3) Technical design; maps the functional design into a detailed design of the project (storyboards) 4) Testing design; maps the technical design into a testing plan (animatic) 5) Development; performs the work laid out in the technical design (modeling/rigging/lighting/animation) 6) Quality assurance; performing the actions laid out in the test design match expected results (editing) 7) product release; The challenge is making sure that everything defined in step 1 makes it to step 7, and there is no loss of the work as we move to each stage. I'd like to see an app that, by way of database driven archival/retrieval, that allows us to maintain an A:M project, with plug ins perchance that allow us to maintain it from within A:M and/or a stand alone web based gui. How about a collaborative project? I have friends on my side who I perhaps can talk into doing some coding (their fee is beer usually). I'd think an open-source project, take donations to help defray the cost of a cloud platform. What I would need from folks here is a requirements list. I truly am a glutton for punishment since I will be in NYC for 4 days next week starting my new job as a technical architect. That transition has got me stressed out a wee bit, but once I've gotten my Christmas short out and the Rear Window project done, I'd like to investigate this, since I'm painfully aware of what happens when things go south with files!

As an update, I did perform the oft suggested practice of saving copies with new names. I had a half model saved off that I was able to use to get (almost) back to where I was on Tuesday. Even added a few additional tweeks. All I have to do is add poses, and the rig and I'm back in business. Still not really sold on svn though. Like I said earlier, while i used it for quite a few software dev projects it always felt like it was more of a pain than it was worth. I'm thinking that a backup hard drive on the network that can be used as a duplicate copy of my local drive, then a regular monthly backkup to cd-rom is a viable solution. That of course precludes getting in the habit of actually doing that!

Simon, unfortunately I've had to go back to 16b on my laptop. When I renewed my license a few weeks ago 17g decided it didn't want to play and the renderer crashed A:M. I simply haven't had the time to figure that one out. If I could get 17g to work in my environment, then that feature certainly would have saved my blood pressure last night..

I always save a model after each change. Like you Robert I got in that habit a long time ago when A:M tended to decide to retire at the most inappropriate times. I also make iterative copies of a model as I progress through the development stage (save as "model_v1, v2 etc.). But, once I feel the model has been "completed" I generally don't make iterative copies. If I tweek a spline in a minor fashion, I simply save the model over itself and move on. That's what I did last night, only this time A:M saved a blank file. Don't know why, and I must say I haven't seen this happen in a long long time.

Rodney, What you say is the rub of it. Tortoise is a passive archive, it waits for you to post file changes back to the repository. With A:M, and in this particular case, the write is a destructive overwrite. So if I didn't manually back up the version into a repository, then the file is lost, kaput. This time around, A:M wrote empty place holders in the model file, nothing else; so there is no recovery. It would be nice to have an archive repository plug-in for A:M that posts the version of a file currently on disk into an archive BEFORE the new version is written to disk. That way, when we all become the dunder heads that I became last night, the A:M gods are there to protect our work.

Ya know, when it rains it pours. I've been working like a mad man trying to get this off the cuff Christmas short done before the 4th of July 2014. Had the set built, had props built, and was ready to put the pieces together. Tweeked my truck model, and was really quite stoked that I pulled that one out of the hat, saved the model, saved the chor, saved the project. I then decided to look at some other human models I had kicking around to see if I had one rigged well enough to do what I needed...found one (yeah for dusty archives!). Reopend my opening scene project, and noticed my truck was missing from the chor, and not even in the objects list of the project. Went to reimport the model, no dice. That's when that cold sinking feeling started to make itself known...I opened the model up in notepad, and find the file empty, completely devoid of model-ish data. It was gone, destroyed, never to be seen again. Of course, the only backup I have is two weeks old, and only a half model at that. Of course I spent the rest of the night in a very foul mood, and of course I have nobody to blame but myself. So I have to ask, who uses the tortoise svn setting in A:M? How does it work, if it does with tortoise itself? I have used tortoise with my software dev projects, and honestly never really liked it, but I need to prevent this sort of thing from happening again, and need something that is done in the background, because it should be fairly obvious that a manual copy of files nightly is not a habit I've gotten into.

If you are referring to TSM2, the Turn Constraints is not automatically set to ON after running the rigger (jes' cause that's how the TSM people did it on their planet). But the user can set it to ON (after the rigger runs) and then save the model. However, that only works on this planet. As I told a buddy of mine, I'm from Pluto, but they told me it's not a planet anymore, soooo.... I'm trying to come up with a different way to frame the shots where those pesky humans are needed to keep the acting to a minimum. I'm feeling the pressure of time so I can't use any of it to re-rig my models. Hopefully the end result will live up to my self-imposed standards.

Ok, so I'm rapidly discovering the advantage of a solid skill set in rigging characters, of which I don't posses. I thought that if my human actors were really seen in closed ups, like feet only, back only, I could get away from spending the time on rigging (of which this project is seriously short on). Sadly I am wrong. This little clip was meant to be a final cut on the opening scene, but in watching it after rendering, I find myself disappointed. opening.mp4 Any thoughts, share them please. I'm about a nats whisker away from asking for help 'cause I really want this short done, dammit! No more half finished A:M projects.

roger, thanks for the tip. I had given a passing thought at trying to calculate the stride and placing the truck on a path, but honestly it made my brain hurt! So I opted for expressions. Once again this forum came through and I found some great tuts on this nifty feature of A:M (thanks!).

Yeah, I figured you probably had thought about it, and that you had deliberately done it that way...I probably shouldn't have said anything. I have found (and I believe have read other opinions the same) that if you have text, it will distract the viewer, unless they can read it. It seemed like thetext was very much part of the animation, as the main part ends at around 39 secs and the entire piece takes about 1:17. So the credits/text is taking up almost half the screen time. I don't want to give the impression that I think it is imperative to change...It is an absolutely wonderful piece...no question about it. And again I say: Bravo! It's funny that this comes up now...I was just watching the opening scene from "Joe Versus the Volcano" with Tom Hanks. Great movie. The opening scene sets the mood for the character in a totally horrible job. As he walks in to the factory he passes signs like "... home of the anal probe" then another sign "..25 years of making lube". Subtle messages, but they worked. The camera holds on each sign for just a second or two, but long enough to read.

Here's a piece of a review of the Surface Pro2 from ..." [it] may want to take its time, though: while Windows' high-resolution scaling support has improved in version 8.1, it's still not great for third-party desktop apps, many of which simply haven't been updated to support this new high-resolution world. Apps like Chrome are blurry and don't pick up touch points properly, and Photoshop just looks tiny. Pixel-dense displays are perfect for the modern Windows 8-style apps, but if you're still a heavy desktop user then it's still a frustrating experience using traditional apps on these types of devices. Where the Surface Pro 2's display really shines is with the Wacom-made, pressure-sensitive stylus. It's identical to the original Surface Pro, and the mix of pen, touch, and keyboard / mouse support is still a killer combination on this tablet. Input can be a little tricky to get used while you switch between finger and pen for navigation, but it's still a bonus to be able to take notes in OneNote or draw in apps like Fresh Paint. Unfortunately, the pen still attaches to the power connector, and still falls off easily in my bag — I'd really like to see Microsoft provide a place to store this within the tablet itself, because it’s such a key addition to the experience." the whole review is Here

Is there an better way than through a repeating action to spin the wheels in a chor so that the wheels turn consistantly over a distance? I created an action to rotate the tires over 20 frames, but for some reason the action, once applied to the truck in the chor, doesn't seem to work.

Robert was spot on, flipping the tire bones on one side of the truck to match the other worked like a charm. Fast simple, sweet as butter, just the way I like it! Tonight I animate the opening scene where the truck will be used (all of at most a couple of minutes). One weakness in my skill set is having an innate sense of timing. While I always have the best intentions of doing things "right" and working from first a script, then a storyboard, then an animatic, I seem to always jump straight to the animation step. I pay the price in redoing things over and over and over. The final step of animation should be, in my mind, nothing more then fleshing out the animatic, but I'm way to impatient, and always back myself up into impossible deadlines...

Thanks folks! I think Robert is on the right track, when I added the bones for the wheels I have each one pointing out, which means that each side, based on Roberts observation would necessarily spin opposite of each other. First thing this eve I will try and flip one side and give them a "spin".

ok, so I've been trying to rig up the tires so that I could, easily, rotate all four tires all together. My thought was a bone for each tire, then all constrained to a fifth bone with a roll like constraint. seems it's not so easy as that since when I rotate the fifth bone each tire rotates in opposite directions. Anybody have a wild thought on a better approach to rigging this up?

And that's the real challenge. Depicting emotions ranging from happy to sad with a ton of anticipation in an object with no recognizable facial features. A lot is going to rely on the music soundtrack which my 18 yr old daughter has been tasked with doing. In light of the short development time frame, I am trying to keep the "acting" elements as easy as possible. For that reason, what human actors there are, will be shot from ground level, showing only the lower extremities, or disembodied voices. Of course that means walk cycles need to be spot on, but hopefully I'm up for the task. I've got the added challenge that I have just accepted a new job with a NYC software company starting in to weeks. That transition coupled with requisite travel will pose additional challenges. I'm hell bent on getting this short done, let's see if the fates are on my side!

Thanks Robert! Just realized that I need to do a little bit more work on the truck. Simple things like running boards and closing off the front wheel well. I also need to rig it, since the opening scene will be a close up of the truck rolling into frame, stopping, then the driver's side door opening with a (Christmas tree) farmer stepping out of the truck..so I need the door rigged, the wheels rigged to turn, but that's it. Seems like a lot for all of maybe 5 seconds of animation but, I challenged myself to modeling a good truck, so I did

I thought I'd throw a quick test clip of this short, just to get a bit of feedback. Timing seems to be a weakness for me, so rip me a new one in the spirit of making it better! The story goes like this: The Christmas tree season is just beginning, and the local tree lot just got it's delivery of trees. Amongst all the perfectly shaped pine trees is one lost little one. The little tree has great hopes for being picked to go home with someone for Christmas, but as each family comes, another bigger tree is picked, until finally, on Christmas Eve, the little one is left alone in the now closed tree lot. The little tree gives up, truly sad that it will be spending Christmas alone in the snow. When all is lost, sleigh bells can be heard in the distance, then the crunch of snow as Santa's sleigh lands and Santa gets out to pick up the little tree to take back to his workshop for the elves to decorate and celebrate their own Christmas. This clip is just after the little tree is placed in the lot between two bigger trees. The little tree shrinks down self-consciously, sees the "Trees for sale" sign, then looks at his two perfect neighbors. The two trees look at the little one, then immediately dismisses it. seq0000.mp4

Robert, I downloaded a new copy at the same time and I was behind a few minor revs. What I should have done is keep the installer from the last update I did and install in a separate folder, but alas, hindsight is a hundred percent. When I get back from running errands I might take a peek at the ftp site (is it still there?) and see if a can an earlier copy of v17 64 bit to see if a can determine where things went south. Shelton, it is weird no question there! But at least I can keep moving forward on at least my Christmas short. I'm leery of working on Rear Window in an earlier release. While I doubt there would be issues, I don't want to court issues when I don't really need to yet.

When v18 comes out give this a test again and if there's still a crash put in an AMReport. Direct3D is gone in v18. I'll certainly do that. I've noticed already that the 17g 32 bit version using Direct3D is slooowwwwww. I've had to switch to my v16 in order to keep moving forward on projects.

so I downloaded 17g 32bit into a separate folder, launch, load one of the chors I've been working on, and switch to shaded mode. Crash. Switch to Direct3D, load chor, switch to shaded mode, it works. Conclusion: the 64bit windows version of 17G with OpenGL, on at least windows 7 has issues.