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Thanks for that. I was just trying the frame number solution, but now I'll try both. Good luck with your videos. Do you post clips anywhere? Seana

Hi, I am sure this is easy, but I'm just not getting it. I have a model of a book. I want to put several different covers on the book with a percentage pose so I have only one model making up the little library. I understand it's possible. But how to tell the relationship "load this image, then swap at x%..." thanks very much. S.

Hi, I got that error once when I wiped the program and reinstalled it only from the update. I found I had to reinstall from the CD, then get the update and install that. I'm not sure that from v.4 might not be too much of a jump. I suspect you'll need the latest CD, that will install whatever version was burned to it at the time, then you install the latest posted update. hope that helps, Seana

Sorry, I _did_ have something selected when I tried before, but it was kind of tricky to prop the menu open and snap the screen shot. Will try to do all that again... S. PS. I went back to the pegboard I made, selected a peg right clicked and the peg was obscured by the menu, same result because I think it deselected. So I zoomed in, selected, right clicked and it was there because it stayed selected. So there we are then. Here's a question though, for the happy day when the TSM2 goes Tiger-- AM used to have a restriction on the number of plugins that would display and I recall having to make room for the three TSM component, by shuffling things back and forth, restarting, etc. Is that still the case? I haven't rigged a model with the TSM in Panther in a few months. Thank you! I prefer obvious solutions to things.. S.

Hi Justin, If your piece doesn't fit within TV safe limits-- the distance between the outer parameter and the inner box is "action safe", the inner frame is also called title safe, and relates to what would be cut off a curved TV screen- then your editing software MAY have a filter to help with this, e.g., if you've rendered "widescreen" and you need a 4:3 master. I know Final Cut and Avid can do this. If you're going for TV 4:3 ratio SD, then you want 720x480 or 720x 486 (DV or D1) and the pixels are .9, not square. It sounds like you're not widescreen as such, although "squeezed" widescreen still has an aspect of 720x 480, but if the sequence settings are wrong, everyone is tall and thin with "alien heads"... Also before you re-render or anything else, your DVD authoring software may be able to format the clips as "pan and scan" if they are widescreen. This basically takes a widescreen "film" frame and crops it so that it will play 4:3. You can only do this if you are in the project file of the DVD software, as far as I know. Squeezed DV pixels are a little wider than they are tall --1.22, I think. As a rule, try reformatting your frame (pan and scan) before you give up any resolution. I'm assuming you made your animation, burned it to DVD and the TV screen is cropping it, then I think you'll find the answer in your DVD authoring software prefs. You'll have to burn again, but that's no great issue. If it's your animation that is outside the title safe area in AM originally, the violins are playing, I feel your pain. Been there...once. That was enough. I hope it's a quick fix, a setting somewhere. Seana

Here is what shows up... it used to work fine for me, and the Duplicator is in the HXT folder but I can't access it.

Hi, I went to duplicate something in a simple model of a pegboard/coat rack kind of thing I need for a wall. I wanted to duplicate the pegs at certain intervals, but right clicking and going into the Wizards folder only revealed Extruder, Grid, Font, and AI. I created an HXT backup folder and stuck the Font Wizard in there temporarily, but then that only left the Grid and Extruder wizards as choices when I restarted the program. Is the Duplicator Wizard now unavailable in the Mac versions? I'm running Tiger here. Can I get it to work? At least to show up in the menu? Seana

Yes! that's my problem too. You can go in, click the CP, it smartens up, a Spline folder might be created (if you just do this in the Chor yes, if you split screen the windows and do it in the Model window, probably not.) You can delete the Splines folder and it will remember. Until the next time. Also mainly around wrists affecting lower arm, rigged with TSM2. I have 1 character with the CD rig. She's "on" next week (God and techno pixies willing).. but I don't think she has this issue. I'll post if she does. If you don't select the CP, the twist/concave spline will render in final. Not consistently reproducible, but when ity occurs, it stays till you fix it. All the gammas on the affected CPs are at their defaults. I don't mess with gamma much. Thanks for chiming in David. I wish it was a gamma thing. Then it could be reliably sorted, but I'm a little stumped, other than to keep an eye open. S.

Yes, luckbat's right. I still don't really get smartskinning. I use fan bones (added at the point the TSM says, and labelled accordingly, not to be confused with their nomenclature) and CP weighting. Every character is different, but the TSM is an excellent general rigging system. One size doesn't fit all, but it can be tailored to most. This was about spline popping (which I still get sometimes...) should we move to a new topic/area? best, S.

Hi, I wanted to stamp a decal on my character, but she had a light list already. Decal was nothing special, targa with alpha also tried without (it made no difference)... and suddenly.. she was in darkness. No light list. Anyone else have this problem? Using 12.0q for Mac 10.3.4. Seana

Hi, have you seen this thread? Use math (the z values), no slipping. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...808&hl=slippage Other than that, ask luckbat. Then do exactly what he says, at least with regard to walk cycles. cheers, S.

Hi SL, sorry I haven't looked at this. Christmas. film. New Year. film. Russian (old) Christmas. film. Happy new year. Use it wisely, you only get one 2006 to play with. Your problem might be with fan bones you added to the TSM, make sure they are also turned on, but turn on TSM constraints first. The biggest problem I had was with wild wrist flipping. A top down approach in FK solved it (rotate upper arm first, then lower, then position hand, particularly for opening pose). Also, the other thing I had to learn was what bones I was using to move things (control vs. "straight" bones). Make sure you are grabbing the right ones, usually control bones unless you have certain user properties turned on. If you can invest in 1 more CD, get Raf's one about the TSM2. It has lots of pointers that the documentation doesn't. It took me about 3 weeks to get comfortable with the TSM2, it's not intuitive at first, but then it will click. Write to Morgan if needed. I don't know how up to speed the office is yet, given the sad events over the holiday, but I would be back with plasticine and wire if it weren't for the TSM. cheers, S.

Whoa. hi guys. First, my 2p on the TSM2 (I wasn't around for TSM1, so can't comment). I suppose this is mainly for slipin. It's great, I especially like the finger controls, the extra foot isolation as has been mentioned, so you can animate the heel in a walk, the torso and pelvis controls, and the bit of spine stretch you can add to even a not very cartoony character just to get smoother arcs for bending. But the provided documentation isnt fantastic, but the CDs are good, especially the Animate ones or the one where Raf explains the ins and outs of the new rig. I had a few problems with it when I first started, most notably I get flipping at the wrists with lots of Additive actions. The solution seems to be to watch the roll handle and zero it out from time to time and if you are layering action objects you can actually turn off the contraints on some of them after you've animated (the data is still there, but it can have odd cumulative effects, according to Raf.) Certainly, check the Anzovin list and if in particular straits write to Morgan. Also I find FK default arms are easier than IK, but that's because you can't really get nice arcs with IK, at least I can't. The elbows go akimbo and so I use FK arms mostly and the rotate manipulator. I think the TSM is worth its weight in gold. Rigging is my least favourite part of 3D, crucial though I know it is. For me, it's one letter short of a bad word, and that's on a good day. KenH, something about this "popping" I noticed: If I split screen the model and the Chor and select what appears to be an offending cp+spline in the model, it goes right immediately in the Chor. If I'm lazy and select it in the Chor, it will still go back to rights, but sometimes (about 50%) the cp will go blue, like it does when you make a muscle pose. And a Spline folder will be created, keyframed for the action, as might be expected. If however I delete the Splines folder in the action, the cp stays where it should. Do you still want to see it or shall I just remember to "fix" it when it happens? Seana

Hello, I think this is what David refers to as "gamma popping" in his book. Sometimes when I am animating a character in the Chor, the arms in particular will look a little "planar" and concave along one spline (flattened-looking). If I switch to muscle mode and select what I think is the offending CP with its spline direction, it will suddenly go back to the way it should look. I understand what gamma does, but because this character is not a mechanical model, I haven't adjusted the gamma at all. All randomly sampled CPs have a (default?) gamma of 0%. It's as if occasionally a spline forgets whether it is to bend in or out. As I said, as soon as I touch a CP+spline that looks odd, it resumes its proper alignment. I don't get this popping in animation, but I have wasted some time doing what proves to be unnecessary CP weighting. Is there an optimal gamma percentage for "organic" models or their more active joints, like wrists and shoulders? Is it a redraw thing, should I just run the Chor back and forth? I do that with constraints, but in this animation the character isn't holding anything, and she isn't constrained is any way (other than the TSM2 constraints so that she animates.) I'm using 12.0n+ for Tiger (Mac) and I rigged my character with the TSM 2. Thanks very much. Seana

That's cool, though the name seemed mildly rude at first glance. Then again, this from the woman who misspelled fluorescent in the title of the post that gave rise to this intriguing lighting method. I claim insufficient coffee at the time of my original post. But MUFOOF is neat. I applaud your luminary genius. S.