gaetan

My ignorance is only superseded by my enthusiasm! I'll go over and check out the tutorials on Lipsynching. I'll probably start experimenting with that part of the program next month. Like Dr. Frankenshteen, I've got some sewing to do! Thanks again! Gaetan

Thanks for answering the questions. I thought that those would be the answers but it never hurts to check before creating your very own private disaster :-) It is a bit of a slog learning to understand this program but then I try to remember how much of a slog it was to learn all those other programs I've ever had to learn. Who is Jason O?

I took a break from building models and decided to start learning about poses and facial animation. Here a link to 4 very small clips. I have no way of assembling them. It is getting easier each every as some things become familiar. Questions: a) If I attach these heads to their respective bodies will they remember the poses? Is it better to import the body into the head file or vice versa? c) If I rig the faces and them import them onto a rigged body, can I combine the rigs by moving the bone files intot hte proper hierachy? thanks, Gaetan Facial Clips Test

I began by with the overcoat and the arms linked to the same bone. This made smartskin adjustments a nightmare because of the confusing array of CPs. So I've copied the model and erased any unseen splines. The original will be reboned so that the overcoat has it's own set of bones. This is in case she ever need to let the coat slide off and fall to the floor. Now on to animation...I have a idea for an add-on on the next release of A:M...how about a mind reader so that the program can assemble, colour and pose everything that I see the model doing in my head. Gaetan

My wife an dI looked at your STUNNING! clip. We have one observation. The first eye blink, and possibly the last one too, is too slow. The penultimate blink fits well with the voice track. Everything is is so gorgeous, I am envious. Gaetan

Thanks for the advice. For the moment the two triangles on the chest, upper and lower rib cage are in stable areas. They came from poor planning and I'm not 100% comfortable thinking in splines, as of yet. As an example, the upper area where you connect the shoulders, neck, front and back together, it's a very basic, let's get them connected, sort of solution that I'm not happy with, but for the moment works enough to get to the next step: animation. The nose and the corner of the mouth triangles are there because I need sharp creases. The nose triangle isn't presenting any movement problems. The mouth triangles, are there because I've not figured another method of design for effect I want. I want that crease. It is slightly problematic in certain very large and dramatic shapes such as a yell but it works great for the more subtle closed mouth shapes like a shy smile. Question: When the overcoat is on should I, create a duplicate model and delete any non-visible splines to reduce on the render times? I can smartskin both the overcoat and arms at the same time. My old way would be to delete any unnecessary data to speed up calculations and rendering. Any opinion? Gaetan

Thanks, as for the low spline count, I used to do polygon models on a very slow and old 300Mhz system. It forced me to design some very creative solutions to complex volumes. Now, I am happy with that experience, at the time however... Gaetan

That is a very, very neat effect! Gaetan

Dominique now has clothes. All that's left is to give her some guns! The overcoat does not have very many details yet. It's a question of splines vs bumpmap and graphic. The model is 75% boned, and thanks to the all your help, the overcoat will be boned very soon with Dynamic Constraints. My experiments with the test model were mostly successful. I should have a small clip up by next week. Hopefully she'll be able to shoot the guns in a dramatic fashion. Gaetan

Thanks, the shoulders weren't too much of a problem - yet. I still have to Smartsin the overhead position. The hips are mostly ok. as long as I don't want to make her an Olympic gymnast. In both the biceps and the thighs I removed one ring of splines to see if that would make for a smoother transition. It helped in some positions but not in others. I'm going to post a clip of the leg movement - walk - soon. Gaetan

Thanks for the comment. The hair is not moving using dynamics. It's moving using bones. I can see that there are many, many options available in this program. Unfortunately, A:M didn't put the same effort in the manual. It's mostly trial and error and trolling through the lists to try and find the missing information. gaetan

It's not a great clip by any stretch of the imagination but I now have the dominique model boned - somewhat - and a few facial animations. Now I've just got to figure out the million other things in A:M. gatean myfirstAM.mov

It's a gorgeous model. Thanks for putting up the views. I'm just learning how to model in splines and those pictures are going to be a lot of help! Gaetan

These characters were used in little films I made for my nieces and nephews. Sort of a hobby to use up the extra creative urges. It was all done in DOGA. Trying to design models to get as smooth a motion as possible involved some serious exploration of the programs limitations. Since this has nothign to do with A:M, I'll put up a link to a temp site, if you want to see some old clips as soon as I upload them. Really old clips and images Some old clips and images are up. They were used for a story line of putting the Mounties in space." Royal Canadian Space Police " Just another crime fighting story line. Gaetan

Yes I did import some of the parts like the hair, which was done in Metasequoia. I haven't figured out how I am going to create the volume in splines yet. I used a rotoscope of my own model to build most of the body. and get the basic shape of the head. The lips were imported and then joined. For future reference, this model is one of over 150 I designed over the last three years using Meta, Hexagreat and a few other wonderful free Japanese programs. These include buildings, cityscapes, vehicles, characters, weapons, furniture and so on. These were animated in DogaCGA along with original orchestral compositions and sound effects, as I've studied music for 20+ years. So if any body needs original music in any genre let me know. Making the mouths open and close and the eyes move etc. involved making 10 different face models for each character, and then reshoot each scene with the various faces and composite them in Premiere to give the impression of facial expressions and movement. So A:M is definetly an improvement. Here is an example of what I have done with some low-level free programs. Once I get used to building with splines, I will be able to build "100% true"A:M models that do not require any assistance of imports.

Yep, it's a gorgeous model! That's all I can say. Gaetan

I've just redone the mouth area - I've increased the amount of splines and I put in a three-point corner at the very end of the lips. Hopefully this will give me a better mouth opening.

I might have read the stuff on booleans wrong, but what about experimenting with a boolean constraint? That way the mud would change shape as the boolean effect is applied? Gaetan

I do have a lot of dead-end splines as you call them. I figure that they are the "dues I have to pay" in learning how to build good spline connections. The areas I've marked out for re-working are the mouth, the armpits, the hands - which you can't see very well but are truly a spaghetti of splines. My first goal was to a model built to resemble a human being. Now that I've done and made a lot of mistakes in the design, the hours spent correcting these errors will teach me where to be especially careful when creating my next model. As for the model, she is one of my character's from a long, long time ago. She's the one in the helmet as my avatar. Over the next couple of months, I hope to be creating the rest of cast and vehicles and buidings and... not get any sleep as I try to cram it all into 24hrs. Thank you for all the comments, they are truly appreciated as creating and inventing tends to be a mostly solitary occupation. Gaetan

Here are the spline pics. The mouth area, for one, is proving to be difficult. Along with the armpit/shoulder point. The hands are close but they're going to require a lot of playing around with to get the points in their proper place. "Learn and study / do and redo / someday your work will be more than just goo!" Gaetan

Thanks for all of the comments!!!!! The reason the model is rendered in toon is because the splinemanship is really not up to par with the other WIP I've seen on this site. When I post the spline you'll see that the model still needs a huge amount of work. As for the "saving issue" it's not fixed but I've learned to live with it, along with a few new quirks with ver11 verP As for the having a "good feel for anatomy" I've spent years and years looking at anatomy I've done a few renders "shaded and wireframe". How do you stop the CPs from displaying? I cannot seem to get just a capture of the lines. gaetan

I put up for comment my first character model. External validation always appreciated :-) I don't know how to put up a spline version of the image yet, so please bear with me. I'm still having difficulties with the hands. and the model is not boned yet. That's my next step. Gaetan

I would have liked to have seen the trailer you created but I could not stay on the site very long. I would, humbly, suggest that you simplify your site to maximize the impact of your animation and models.

Thanks for the response. I've put up the shaded mesh version. While the mesh#1 needs a lot of work, I have figured out how to bone the mouth and the eyebrows. So I can pose the face and see what unwanted deformations are happening. Just need to figure out how to animate the eyeball mesh as a unit and not as a deformation. The results of this experiment will all be noted down for the next face. Thinking in splines as opposed to polygons is certainly different. I'm discovering that with splines I can just go ahead and draw my face instead of trying to create and deform countless polygons. Thanks again, Gaëtan

Good day all! I'm truly not at the level of the rest of the users but "I've screwed my courage to the sticking post" and put up my first model. All I have to do now is figure out how to put some bones on it. Hints, suggestions and comments are very much welcome. The model can be viewed at the following address: http://www.cmcarts.ca/AM.htm thanks, Gaëtan (now if I can just fiugre out how to put in a smilie!?)