frosteternal
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Posts posted by frosteternal
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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)
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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.
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For those looking in, Hair Locks are generally invoked by holding down the SHIFT key when creating the Hair Material.
There may be another way to do it but I don't know one.
The SHIFT clicking method is there to give us access to the old hair locks because they give us capabilities the newer hair doesn't.
This was Hash Inc's way of keeping the old while adding the new...
..In 2008 we have the best of both worlds.
SHIFT - click will create the old "shag" hair type...I still use this for "fuzzy" bits of hair because it is easy, very little setup time (not a lot of options) and it renders nice and fast ("fake" geometry). This hair type is the only hair type that works with hair locks, as there was no good way to style the old "shag" hair. Hair locks, however, are fantastic for fly-away stuff like pony-tails, wisps of hair, etc. that might be easier to place manually than patch hair. (now, if the new hair could be locked like the old hair...wow)
I'm glad we have both options!
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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.
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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)
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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?
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Nice job!
He reminds of Keanu Reeves ... a lot
LOL I'll let him know.
He laughed out loud; I just told him.
He looks nothing like keanu in real life
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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.
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Too much of life is spent getting "bad-tired." I like that A:M offers me some "good-tired" days. :-)
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I so very much needed to read that story today - thank you. I printed it out for everyone here at work this blustery day.
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When you buy the downloadable upgrade, do you receive a link instantly or is there a wait?
Mine was pretty instantaneous. You can download it first, the link is posted under updates on this site.
The activation code comes via email.
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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.
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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.
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Also Should I upgrade?
Upgrade!
You won't regret it!
It is the best 99$ I spend each time.
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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.
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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.)
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
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I checked v14 last night when I saw that comment...I didn't see it when using the Squetch Rig installation. Maybe I'm not understanding the steps to make this happen.
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.)
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I had to rig a character quick today and I noticed that a newly-rigged TSM character now gets "Error loading string xxxx" at the end of its relationship names. Since the character still seems to otherwise work ok and this didn't happen before, I'm guessing that A:M has changed some detail about how it reads these names in from the model file. Perhaps some termination character is not being recognized anymore or something like that.
Has anyone pawed thru this situation with a text editor and found out what the cause is?
It is not just TSM rigs...all relationships display like this.
I made a report of it, but like you said, everything works fine.
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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.)
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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!
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Here it be. Thanks.
And, BTW, I reproduced the same effect using AM 13.0l
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.
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...Anybody got a clue to this mystery?
-Wes
P.S. I'm using AM 14.0a
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.
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Your work stands on its own and I think it was great. You do good work Jesse. Keep digging, you'll hit water soon enough
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!
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Your a Winner in my book, cool animation(s)
Thanks, much appreciated.
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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.
Dogfood
in Work In Progress / Sweatbox
Posted
Thanks, I'll look into fixing that, I haven't had a dog in years and years and don't recall.