JohnArtbox

Great work Emilio, it looks fantastic. I know a lot of purists dislike the photomapping method because of the false lighting cues, but it's definitely the easiest way to get a photorealistic render. Yves great tip

a tree house.. went with 10.5 to get shadows. Like Phil, I can't wait till the beta's fixed

Personally I could live with a fixed base shape, since the base shape carries though the entire tree, unusual variations don't seem to be all that useful in most cases. Given the amount of return on your coding dollar I can understand wanting to make it easier and more flexible. It's all good

Never was any good at waiting Soon huh?

My cool pic It's a shame the limbs can't be joined with 5 point patches(some people are never satisfied), but it's still very, very nice. With some of the added controls Marcel mentioned it'll be fantastic... I don't know if anyone has mentioned this but the easiest way to get rid of the canopy object is to group it and call it canopy before creating your branches, so that after you've used treeZ you can select the group and delete the points. Marcel(or anyone else that knows)Is there any reason for the level groups apart from level0? and does the thickness spline in the original action do anything? And NoOne how did you get a render with shadows?Is it 10.5? Having lots of fun

Don't really like me too posts......but this is fantastic and all the superlatives have been used up by other members. So... Me too, me too, me too Wonder if the ability to set a permanent rotation point for areas of the mesh(like the bones) would be a worthwhile new feature. I like using that style of rig but I hate the setup time and complexity.

Looks interesting Rodney. How did you do it? I've created a similar effect using 2d displacement in Digital Fusion, but I've got no idea how to do it in AM.

Thanks guys, tonight I'm going to redo the garden with marcel's tree plugin PDaley & Steelshark: bad sky but I just needed to drop something in Jimmy:100% version8 hand sculpted, I made about 10 different variations for the Roadkill(in showcase). Each one took about a day to build.

Marcel, You just made my landscaping a stack easier. Very very very cool

Beautiful. not much to say, she looks fantastic Shaun

Yes it was the v11 fur, but then I got the render hit so I went back to an image map, for the preliminary stages at least. The plan is to use the v11 fur to do most of the vegetation, but in this image I used a tree I built a couple of years ago, and scaled it down. Now I can show it to the client for comment before I invest additional hours. Most of the image will end up being replaced as I add detail, including the sky rotoscope

Hi guys/gals here's a quick preliminary on my current job, architectural renderings for a company with a modular building system. Ony just begun

Buddabuddabuddabuddda...cool design xtaz Lots of attitude, lots of noise

taking shape nicely Grubber. You're going to have fun setting up the skeleton on that lot

Another day, another couple of office blocks. Architects would kill to be this fast I'm modelling all of the buildings square so that I can distort them on a shot by shot basis, and so I can use them later in normal settings if I want to. Ken: The rock is a very simple mesh with a colour and a displacement material applied. I turned the displacement material off for today's render because it seemed to have issues and render patches black. Parlo: Yup this feels better Rodney: Thanks Designing office blocks is hard work.... 3am.. time for four hours sleep before my kids wake me up

Nice work Lance, makes me want to run off and toon render

Damn, it'd be so much easier if all we needed were the characters. Started building the city today, I thinks it's going to be on an island. I spent a few hours working out an easy way to build a building that could be deformed. Ended up with a grid that I think works and has relatively low splinage. Two of the building in the image are mostly modelled, the others are just blocks to be replaced. The floating track will be a monorail, and I'm planning on having some balloons and blimps in the air.

Nice one Nerrazzi. Looking forward to the full model

The superhero project and the IGOR's live on, it's only the lab concept that's discontinued. It just doesn't match the feeling I'm after. It's a bit too straight edged and literal. It probably would have made it this far except that the image contest for this month is mechanical, and once I decided to enter I felt compelled to carry it through. I use the character's name followed by the date for model iterations. If it's a special-use model I might add that fact to the description ie ToonBiplane220204Exploding. I use capitals for the beginning of each word for readability and because I can't bring myself to put spaces in filenames

Hey , I'm a happy man. Stephen Milligan complimented me on my animation and Holmes Bryant complimented my modelling. Anyway here's the final lab(not finished, just abandoned) I adjusted the lighting on the rear robot and added the firehose reel on the wall behind. I pulled the camera back a little bit so that the foreground right light came fully into the scene. I also added the foreground girder at ground level to increase the depth of the image Rod: I'm just a bad typist, and I updated my info, but my website's down for a little while KingSalami:Thanks Homeslice: all geometry, but it's pretty easy because a lot of it is just cut and paste of repeat models. Nothing compared to rebuilding all that greek statuary Besides, I drowned my wacom tablet when my boat sunk, and I don't paint maps without a tablet. So I had to build it all. I make component sets and then just cut and paste. (I'm figuring Homeslice knows this but I make the point for newer users.) The scaffolding is one girder, a footing plate and a three point clip/socket pasted in different combos with a hexagonal head copied from an old model. I also built a plumbing link set that I didn't end up using. It's got all the connections for circular pipes, including taps and gauges

this is really beginning to get there Ross, looking forward to more updates.

superb as always.....

Back again. I dropped the DOF off while I did some colour/texture work. All fairly simple native AM textures. I also moved the white walls towards brown. I'll reinstate the DOF, add some subtle post effects and then move onto some more character work. For those who've purchased SkyCast the laboratory project is available for download at the SCBonus area. Rod: I'm actually planning on playing these viewpoints off against each other, it'll either work really well or people will just look at me with an air of confusion and ask"...and???". It's the risk I take I think your world has to look consistent, there's nothing worse than an image with lots of imported models in different styles. I also think the script should be consistent in the same manner. Unfortunately this means that a lot of ideas will go the way of the laboratory, into my library of "stuff". It doesn't matter if it looks cool or sounds hilarious, if it doesn't forward the story it gets canned. Unless I've decided to break the rules NB I'm not in favour of grand rules.....they produce the kind of homogenous pap that Hollywood is so guilty of. Down with rules, market research, and artistic committees (end of rant) A few of my friends have tried to suggest commercial rewritings of Superhero, so that I can market it for Sat Morn cartoons. It's not a project I expect to make money out of...but hopefully I'll be proud of having done it...when I eventually complete it. If even two percent of the people who see it really like it, then that's better than 80 percent thinking it's ok. (end of more ranting )

Almost nearing the end of the lab...and the beginning .I got caught up in the mechanical modelling and I'm not really sure this fits the style of the short. I guess it makes a halfway decent entry for this month's competition I've added some basic materials, but since I drowned my wacom tablet when my boat sank last week, I've avoided painting textures. Lazy I know . I've probably pushed the DOF a bit far and the centre tower looks a bit simple when compared to the scaffolding on the walls. It's also very grey, which I "think" I like with the orange gas cylinders adding the smallest touch of colour. Suggestions guys/girls?......my creative well's running dry And, of course, now I have to come up with a new concept, probably with a lot more curves.

Hi Mark,This looks pretty cool. Love the flames . Funny how the grass is greener, I think your robots great and have been following this thread with interest. Whereas my stuff is just...well..stuff I hate to sound like I'm promoting but have you tried using a Skycast light or Skydome? considering the setting and the nooks and crannies in your model,I think either woudl work a treat.