fae_alba

Yes i got it from the extras cd..complete with actions. It took a lot of experimenting to figure what each action did.

Awesome mug, don't think it'd go over well on desk at work though!

All I've got to say is your perseverance will serve you well down the road..makes me want to do this exercise as well!

My daughter did a video for a High School class project. She used a partial soundtrack from Wizard of Oz I believe and posted it on youtube...I went back a little later to watch it and get a niotice that it had been removed at the request of the copyright owners... It all depends on how draconian the copyright owners are. I'd take the melody of the music, run it through a sound mixer (hand type it if you have to) change a little here and there, and it is a new music piece, yours to own, even if it is based on somebody else's work. Not entirely kosher, but that is how the copyright law is written, only the work, in its original form is protected. Takes more work, but it saves headaches down the road.

I'll have to go back and look tonight....

My one complaint/comment about the on screen face rig was that I was constantly grabbing the wrong null to move the part of the face I wanted. I still had to "hunt and peck" to find the one I was look for. It could very well have been my inexperience with the rig, no denying that. What would be nice is if a label could be displayed when the mouse was floated over the null, to show what part of the face it effected.

Just looked at Skype.com, seems that screen share is part of the app out of the box. Even the free version has it. Just might load it up when I get home tonight.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail comes to mind...

Now that brings back memories! When men were real men, women were real women, and photographers took real pictures!

Possibly, but animating the motion of all the bones that have to move to make a walk via math expressions would be a very daunting task, rather like CG animation was done 40 years ago. I admit that I'm not nearly knowledgeable on what the full extent/purpose of expressions is. I can't help but imagine a plug in that could record a bones motions and use as the basis for the expression, much like a spreadsheet macro recorder.

Just wondering...is it possible to use expressions to create a walk cycle, instead of using an action and path constraint? Sort of like walk to this xyz coordinate, starting at this xyz, take so many frames to get there....

That's pretty much the thought I had..the jitter footage always ends up on the editing room floor. and your point of the time spent is also good...they're not kidding when they say it takes weeks to get a few seconds animated....and you did this in a few days. To me that shows the strength of A:M

Anybody how says A:M can't play with the big boys simply hasn't seen stuff like this! Truly impressive

Can that be textured to have the look and feel of say, a hemp rope? I'm thinking of a sailing ship (pirate perhaps) under attack, and as masts and such are destroyed, rope comes falling from on high onto the decks.

Robcat, I've re rendered my bus stop submission to correct the flickering. If you want it/need it here it is. Also a simple soundtrack. I'm not entirely happy with it, so if you don't use it that's fine as well. circus.wav PaulVHarris_BusStop.zip

Interesting...I see that now...maybe a material issue. I did render multiple instances ... Let me experiment tonight.

let me see what I can do for mine..should be fairly easy (famous last words). I have to write a proposal to answer an RFP tonight, but will get on it asap.

I'm sure most of us will feel like we could have done better, but the important thing is we got it in! [ETA: By which I mean WAY TO GO!] All too true. I'm compiling a "lessons learned" list (bad habit from my consulting life!), and I learned some doozies!

got it, thanks! no...Thank You!

For what it's worth here it is.... PaulVHarris_BusStop.zip Still not entirely happy with it..but it's time to move on.

"Why don't you want to marry her? She's got huge.......tracks of land"

got it, thanks! Robcat...I just noticed that there are some really bad issues with popping in my animation..so I want to clean up some of that real quick and re-render those frames...give me some hours and I can get it done

Not having drop box, and not willing to install the client on my work pc, here is a zip of my offering... Hopefully all goes well with the attachment

I tend to agree with Robcat on this one. If you explain to your students that while the tut shows it being done one way, there is a better way. Explain the differences, the reasons, the logic. Spend 15 minutes at the start, drive it home, and the students will understand. It is actually a good life lesson. Up to this point your students have had stars in their eyes about what animation is (as you said earlier, to them it's all about video games) and have no real concept just how difficult is can be. That includes using, sometimes cantankerous software. A:M is actually one of the easier apps to use, what's difficult with animation is that the software is simply a tool, learn to use the tool properly and you're about one third there. I'd actually like to see animation classes to also delve into the other aspects of animation (production, direction, business, writing, art, etc.) and that every animation movie you see out there took hundreds of folks working several years and spending multi-millions of dollars to get a project to the silver screen. Get the stars out of their eyes, a dose of reality never hurt anybody, especially 8th graders.

Trying like hell to get it done..I'll touch base in the morning with a go/no go