largento

So, I ran the Benchmark 2017 (180p single thread) and got a time of 16:40. That's compared to the 21:51 time on the Mac. A whole five minutes faster.

I decided to hold off on the laptop, but have been working to install Windows on my Mac via Boot Camp today. A much easier process than the one I remember from the olden days (which involved burning an install disc and lots of hoops to jump through.) Everything seems to be fine, so far. I've set up a Dropbox folder that I can use to share files with my Mac and I think it'll be good for my productivity to have a kind of distraction free workspace when I'm working in A:M.

Lotsa stuff to ponder, guys. Thanks for the good info. I'll weigh how important it is for me to get one against the cost.

Well, what got me to thinking about it, was a spam email from Costco this morning, that included this listing: $225 isn't a whole lotta' money for a computer, but not being savvy on the Windows side, I wasn't sure if this was adequate.

I'm going to continue with my iMac as my desktop computer, and can't really see having two desktop computers. Having a laptop would allow me to make use of downtime at work and when I'm away from home. Obviously A:M runs better on a PC, so it makes sense to get a Windows laptop. I keep seeing these Windows laptops advertised for under $500 and wonder if they would have the power to do the basic A:M stuff. I'm literally only going to use A:M on this machine, so I don't want to invest a whole lot.

Hey guys, I'm considering the option of getting a Windows laptop just to run A:M on for modeling/rigging/animating. Not so much for rendering. I see there are a number of reasonably priced laptops out there, but I'm not sure if they're up to snuff. Since I have no experience with Windows, I wanted to put it out here to ask what would be a good choice. Ideally, I'm looking for one that will do what it needs to do, but on the low cost side, since it's going to be just a supplemental thing. Any opinions/suggestions? Thanks!

No doubt. The ship would probably be more than 2 feet long! It would all have to be remodeled not only for that reason, but also because most of it has no depth. I could make the sails out of cloth, though and use string for the rigging.

I should probably be at a point where I have a secret lair first. 🙂 Mostly, this action figure project is just for fun, but the "big one" I'd go for is to remodel Flemm's ship, the Sea Anemone, to be printed at the same scale as the action figure. That would be super cool.

No rush, Paul. I'm not going to have the real time to focus on this until the summer. I'm only intending on printing two (one for me and one for McCrary).

I went with their most affordable option, which does have "a slightly textured surface and a matte finish." It is less than an inch tall, so it's not really as noticeable to the naked eye. They offer a "premium" finish that is semi-glossy and scratch resistant.

Got my print from Shapeways today (well, it came yesterday, but nobody checked the mail.) It looks pretty good. The details appear sharper in real life, but it is a tiny bit "chalky." Not sure when I'll have the time to attempt painting it, but it probably won't be for a couple of months. Still, it's pretty neat to hold a model in your hand and see it in reality.

Happy New Year, Serg!

Neat! I definitely would like to check them out. I'll send you my my address!

Check your messages, Paul! Thanks!

Unfortunately, there's no Mac version of Netfabb. There was an older version, but they don't offer it anymore. Shapeways recommends a free app called Meshmixer, which I just downloaded. They also recommend a site: www.makeprintable.com which charges you per model repaired. I may take you up on that, Paul. See if there's any difference. At some point, I'm wanting to get my own 3D printer, but I'm just dipping my toe in at this point.

On the side, I've been playing with the idea of making a 3D printed Flemm action figure. This was my first test head. The challenge was to try to keep it as a single, closed model. It will mean some details will be added with paint, but to give an idea of the difference, this head is 353 patches and the original was 1273. I exported it out as an OBJ file, but Shapeways wasn't too keen on that or the STL I exported. I ended up opening the OBJ in a 3rd party app and converting it to a DAE file, which Shapeways was perfectly happy with. I ordered one just to see what the quality will be and it should be here soon. It was processed and printed fairly quickly, but the holidays seems to be interfering with the shipping. Here's an idea of what it would look like when it's painted:

Appreciate your dedication, Jason!

My mistake, I just clicked on the link to the store. Didn't realize there were two.

I logged in on Friday and bought an update. Everything worked fine as far as I could tell.

Hey Wally, This is a common glitch in the Mac version. The workaround is to switch to another app and then back to A:M. I use CMD-TAB to open the app switcher and I usually go to Mail, since it's usually open and seems to work every time. Once I'm in Mail, I do the same thing to go back to A:M and you'll find that it's not greyed out anymore. I almost do it out of second nature these days.

Wow!

It's fairly simple. In a Choreography, import a prop. Create a new model and place it in the cho. With it selected, go to model mode (the little yellow guy icon) and click the snap-to-surface button. Use the add control point to click somewhere on the prop and you will begin modeling with your CPs sticking to the surface of the prop.

Using decals is an option I've considered before. It would be a kind of non-intuitive setup, but you've got 200 decals/frames available to set up on a slider. Grouping them would help. With time, you'd eventually memorize where they are.. Obviously, you probably wouldn't use 200. And using a very small amount might give it a stop motion/nervous effect. As if his eyes dart from side to side and his blinks are fast. But inbetweens could be added, too. I used to have a plug-in for Flash that was designed for this kind of setup. I suppose, that if you did know how to write expressions, you could create some sort of interface that would go to the correct frame and work like having eye bones. I assume it's the way they do the facial features on this "Bubble Guppies," which looks quite appealing.

Dan, I actually tried it with five-patchers, but I was seeing flickering and you don't want that happening when you're rendering. It was a case of having to try different things and then when something worked, doing it over and over again for all the incidents. Rodney, I want to say that I did do a boolean for the column fluting one time back in the day. I'll confess that I viewed that as faking it. Likewise, I think using decals could have worked, too. There was some satisfaction in knowing that I didn't have to go those routes.

Modeled a column for my Guardian set and got to the difficult part of having the rounded divets on the ends of the fluting. I could have just faked it, but I went ahead and worked it out. This might not be the best solution, but this worked for me.