frosteternal

I have begun my final project for Digital Film class. It is a humorous/macabre short entitled "Dogfood". The style is somewhat german expressionist, somewhat my own strange sensibilities. The man in it is tormented day and night by the barking dog in his neighbor's apartment, until he exacts his revenge. The man never actually sees the dog barking, so the script had called for a sillouhetted dog, rather than something too specific. Since I have no dog, much less one that would be willing to act in this part, I have opted to use a CG stunt dog. It doesn't need to be photoreal, just a suggeston of a dog. My digital film teacher has a vendetta against A:M that he had mentioned a year or so, in passing, on a school tour. He believes it to be "a fun program, but not good for real work; just a toy." Since he basically gave us free reign over our final projects, I find it delightful to use my "toy" to slap together some effective fx shots. I'll only tell if he asks. So, anyhow, I'll post the shots as I complete them, and of course a link to the final project, when it is done. We only have like four weeks left, so this will clip along at a good pace. This particular fx shot is the first(?) shot that the man envisions, as he tries to get some sleep. The dog was animated in A:M, of course, and then composited with After Effects. (Took me about 3 hrs, rendering and all) DogFXShot.mov

You also need to put a bit of patches outside the window, colour them the colour of your light, and set the ambience to 100%, and turn the "Glow" options on. This will give you the exterior "blowout" light effect.

The last link from the last tsm2 update still works, forum post here http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=157478 Happy rigging. Oh, & Rob, the Error Reading String error seems to be gone.

According to this it won't work in V14 and later... That was a temporary glitch. My TSM works still in v15. As long as the SDK stuff it uses remains relatively unchanged, TSM should continue to work. Good thing, too, it saves me ages of time. (even if it is not always the best rig, it is usually adequate, once customized)

I agree with Robcat here; the crash is too slow-motion. Besides the aforementioned smoke issues, perhaps some pieces could crack off? I love your work; you constantly challenge the doubters who say polygons are better for mechanical work. Bah! Nice test. Isn't reality becoming fluid nowadays?

LOL I'll let him know. He laughed out loud; I just told him. He looks nothing like keanu in real life

Every now & then, I like to crack open an old project and play with it. Here's a shot from some lip-syncing I've been doing with poor Dushan's head. I added SSS as well and find it, well, kinda disconcerting. Rendered in v15. Happy New Year everyone. School starts again next week so I'll be too busy to post too much.

I so very much needed to read that story today - thank you. I printed it out for everyone here at work this blustery day.

Mine was pretty instantaneous. You can download it first, the link is posted under updates on this site. The activation code comes via email.

So today, by post, I received the oddest memento of this ketchup project. It is about two inches high, and actually contains ketchup. This certainly counts as my most unusual animation "winning", even if I didn't really place.

While 500 mhz is functional, I wouldn't recommend less than 1000. However, what you are describing sounds to me like you don't have a video card with 3d acceleration features. If that is the case, that must be changed. =) Go to your program options, and choose the tab marked either "OpenGL" or "Direct3D" (which one is available depends on your settings.) This tab should list the funtions available to your card. If it just says something like "Software- REF" then you know for certain you need a new video card. If there are only a feww features listed as supported, you still need a new card. Really though, the money would be best invested in a new computer; you can get a passable one for under 300 nowadays.

Upgrade! You won't regret it! It is the best 99$ I spend each time.

There is an option in the properties for the relationships that your percentage poses control (look in the model's "Relationships" folder.) This option is called "Blend Mode". It defaults to "Add", I like "Blend" for facial poses because it doesn't add poses together, it (as the name suggests) Blends them. This will solve 90, maybe 100% of your complaints that you have described. Also, make sure your "Small Mouth Strike" and "Roar" poses don't both move the points in the small mouth geometry. e.g., "Roar" might affect only main jaw parts, and "Small Mouth Strike" only the small mouth and stalk parts. You may want to break the "small mouth strike" into "smallMouthOpen/Close" and "smallMouthExtend/Retract" poses, for more flexibility. The more experience I get with specialized rigging and pose controls, the more I find myself breaking motions into separate parts. I almost never regret the extra work, in the long run.

I tested v14 by creating new relationships on a very simple model that I made in that version...I didn't get the string error. I tried "orient like", "aim at" and "translate to" constraints without anything unusual turning up. Then, I opened Squetchy Sam in v14 and started adding new Poses...I didn't get the string error. Does TSM put anything in one of the AM folders? Like an HXT file in the HXT folder? If so, have you tried testing for this problem without those files installed, Jesse? I don't have TSM, so it's not something I would be able to try. That's weird. It doesn't give me an error today at all. *shrugs* doesn't matter either way, can still read relationship names thru the error when it happens

I was using V13, I really think this is an A:M/TSM thing. I hadn't noticed a constraint haveing any problem in other situations. All newly created (ie not copied, pasted or imported, such as during a squetch rig install) relationships, whether tsm or not, give string errors. Imported actors with relationships built under previous versions do not display the error. To test this, create a new relationship, any relationship, on a model. It will display the string error text. Very minor. (These facts are true in v14c, I don't use 13 anymore.)

It is not just TSM rigs...all relationships display like this. I made a report of it, but like you said, everything works fine.

Wow. I don't know what to say, guys (& Nancy ) Thanks for all the compliments - now I can't wait to send it out as part of my All Hallow's Eve greeting e-mails. So glad you seem to have as much fun watching it as it was to make. Thanks all so much for the brilliant praise! Okay, off to finish my design homework. (coloured pencil, ick.)

This came to me on Wednesday, I 'boarded it on Thursday, modeled it on Friday, animated Saturday, and finished it tonight. (All in between full-time work and college.) I intend to include it as part o' my Halloween card to fiends and family via e-mail. (Hooray for Hash!) Have I mentioned I adore this software? This is just for fun, really, but I am really very proud of the effect of the monochromatic colour scheme. I do so love the "look" of this spot... Enjoy! Skullford_Small.mov

Fixed it. Set the blood material to 0% transparency as shown below. Particles will inherit their parent surface's transparency, unless you explicitly define otherwise. This functionality might have been "broken" in previous versions.

Post your project file, all stuff embedded. (Don't need the images.) I or someone else (whoever gets to it first) will take a look at it and see what is up. Thanks.

Dhar, you have always been so encouraging - I think I need to get a better grasp of my audience, though. Thank you so much, I won't give up!

Thanks, much appreciated.

Bad news. "Killer Ketchup" did not make it to the final 15. (I'm making my consolation prize a yummy dry martini.) After viewing their choices, I can see why they chose the other videos over mine. Apparently a homicidal bottle of their product just doesn't fit into their brand identity. Go figure! It seems they preferred more folksy/cutesy/warm-fuzzy stuff. Check out the other videos if your get a chance; I voted for "Memories." The old woman who re-lives her happiest memories with one Heinz-full bite (although who the hell makes fries for dinner?) made me happy in a non-specific sort of way. Good news; they are running the contest again in like a half-year or so. Wish me luck the next round. On to better things for me - I (re)start college (finally) this fall anyhow.

Well if you re-rigged the model, you can mostly likely expect that the poses associated with the old rig won't work anymore, unless you built your rig carefully similar, with pose re-use in mind. Always add those extra poses last - after you have the rest of the rig complete, tested, and finalized.

Here, just for fun, this was a quick test I did when I first designed the bottle, its rig, and practiced how it should move. (This was before it turned evil.) BottleTest.mov