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With all the help on the forum I've managed to come up with a cool walk cycle along a path in a choreography. Thank you! Now, I'm mixing 3 different actions in the same choreography - character begins with the walk cycle (action 1), does a hopscotch move (action 2), then takes a few steps, turns, stops, and looks at a sign (action 3). How do I get the character to stop moving along the path as she looks at the sign (or how do I add an action to this character in the choreography that is NOT constrained to the path after she completes the actions I want constrained to the path)? Thanks. Chris Walters http://heartdancemusic.com/chriswalters.html

Thanks for the acute observation, Scott. I'll take a look at the keyframe you're talking about. This is one of several walk cycles I've work on with this character and it's actually based on a 2d walk cycle of Frank Gabriel's mouse walk I found in Particle Illusion's emitter program. Therefore, it is not a true 3d walk cycle - one side is not a mirror of the other. Some of the other walk cycles I've created with the character are examples of this, but those results are less than stellar as well. I thought I'd try this cycle and just render it from the left view - there are 10 keyframes, each spaced 2 frames apart. I like a lot about it - it's relatively funny - but I want the character's 'cuteness' (I'm glad you see it!) to jump out at the audience and I feel facial expression (which is hard to discern at this speed) will go a long way toward accomplishing that. Chris

Here it is at 24 fps. I still feel it's hard to really make out her features even at this rate. I'm going to mess with stride length and lighting to see it that makes the action easier to watch. girl_walks_by__24fps_.mov

Perhaps - I'll mess with the stride length. However, the speed of her walk is kind of humorous and charming, it's just the jitteriness and lack of definition in her appearance throughout the action that bothers me. -Chris

Thanks for your input, Ken. What are non spline curves and how can I alleviate this jitteriness? Also, how do I add frames quickly between keyframes? Seems like everytime I start adding or deleting frames in my actions they get all screwy - once an action is played, it creates a default timeline length that I don't know how to change. As for the first and last frames of the cycle not matching, I did copy the 1st frame and paste it two frames later than the last 'posed' keyframe of the cycle as all resources suggest, but I'll look at that further. It seems you understand my predicament - the movement is not bad, but it seems 'jittery' and not easy to watch. It occurs to me that if I'm feeling this way about the scene without any objects other than the default ground in the scene, once I begin adding to the character's environment it will expound the difficulty. Thanks.

I was trying to send an mpeg4 - here it is a a quicktime file - 575 kb. Thanks. girl_walks_by__sm_.mov

Hello - I have created as short walk cycle with a model I created that I am now in the process of animating for a short film. The resulting choreography is okay, but I feel it is hard to focus on the girl model as she walks across the screen. I'm experimenting with lights and what not, but really have no idea what I'm doing. I thought it might be because I rendered it at A:M's default 30fps, but when I change the project's fps to 24, the choreography speed still looks the same. I'm unable to attach the file to this forum because I get a "You are not permitted to upload a file with that extension." error message. How can I show my results so members can see it? Any suggestions how to make this animation easier to focus on? Thanks, Chris Walters http://heartdancemusic.com/chriswalters.html

I'd love to receive the free upgrade to A:M 2006 - consider me entered. Chris Walters http://heartdancemusic.com/chriswalters.html

I just rendered the same low- res scene in shaded mode in A:M 12 - whoa! 40 seconds as opposed to 20 minutes in v.11! -Chris

Turning shadows and rendering in shaded mode cut rendering time considerably. The same animation took only 20 minutes in this mode. Thanks for your help. My rigging skills are still questionable, even with TSM2 (possibly my best purchase this year), so I still have a ways to go before I have an animation worth rendering in final mode anyway. -Chris http://heartdancemusic.com/chriswalters.html

Whoops! It is a 3.2 Ghz processor. I am rendering particles and fur - I figure the model's hair material is considered fur? I'll try rendering in shaded mode as suggested. Guess I'll turn off shading and shadows as well, though it would help visualize the charm (or lack thereof) of the scene. Still seems like a long render for 20 seconds of choreography. Thanks for all of your responses. Chris

Hello - I have purchased a custom built PC with an AMD 320+Ghz dual core processor with 2 gig of RAM and I'm still running into long rendering times. Rendering a 20 sec (491 frames) animation in "preview" mode at low res (320x240) is still taking over 2 hours. My choreography's ground and sky are just the default A:M backgrounds. I am running A:M 11.1 on my startup disc and rendering to a seperate internal hard drive. Surely this rendering time is abnormally long. Any suggestions? Thanks, Chris

[by the way, did you ever do the exercises in the book, if not, I suggest that you do those,] I've completed excercises 1-7, 9, 11, 13, & 14 but have not posted them as my level of success has varied with the different tasks. Excercise 6, the chapter in question here, is one that's results have left me perplexed. I hope to complete all the chapters one day, but the motivation to do so diminishes when the results vary from the book's results. I'm sure a lot of time has been put into the manual, but honestly, I've felt more success using some of the processes from the manual on my original models (obviously more fulfilling) and getting answers from this forum. Thanks, Chris

Thank you for responding. The link works, so I'll give it a go and see if I'm able to apply it to my project. In the meantime, I've added both constraints to my model and the results are better, but not yet perfect. I'll spend some time with it but may need assistance in the future. - Chris

I'm running into problems with a pose similar to the "Shaggy/Doorknob" tutorial in the Hash manual. I am trying to constrain both of my human model's hands to the handle of a pushcart model so that as the human model's rig moves through a walk cycle the hands stay locked in place on the cart's handle. I'm using a compensated IK constraint on the forearm bones and a compensated "Orient like" constraint on the hand bones (as suggested in the "Shaggy" tut)). The hands stay oriented like the handle bone, but they still leave the handle as the spine pulls the arms during the walk cycle. What am I doing wrong? Thanks, Chris

That was it! I had not turned the pose on! I guess that is why they are called on/off poses, huh? Thank you for your quick and knowledgeable responses. Sorry to have missed the obvious, but I'm still trying to comprehend many of the choices in the A:M interface. This forum is invaluable. Thank you. -Chris

Noel - My lack of understanding in the rigging process has made it difficult for me to discern what is actually going on, but I'll describe it another way. I have saved models after adding control bones and the control bones are not assigned (or not activated) when I create a new action using the model. This is different from my earlier claim that the constraints and smartskinning weren't being saved with the model, but no less perplexing to me. How do I activate the control bones in my new action? Thank you, Chris

I am confused about reusing a rigged model with relationships built in a new pose for multiple actions. When I create a new action the default "use model" option just lists the models I've rigged before setting constraints and smart skins. How do I go about saving the model with it's constraints and smartskin edits intact for multiple actions and choreographies? Thanks, Chris

Thank you for all your suggestions! Vernon, your idea to start by rigging a simpler model seems prudent - I guess I've been so eager to get this camel animated I've overlooked the obvious solution to start more simply! I'll also try to dive into TSM again at some point. Thanks for your support and ideas. Chris

I actually did buy Anzovin's TSM, but the plug-in doesn't address constraints and smart-skinning, the two issues I'm stuck on. In fact, I feel I bought TSM pre-maturely, because I still don't understand what it saves in the rigging process except maybe the time it takes to add and name the bones. The CP assignment and relationship assignments are still left to the modeler (myself), and this is where rigging actually gets difficult. I'll look at the other link, but honestly, I'm ready to pay someone with rigging experience and know-how to rig my model. I'll look at the finished product and try to understand the relationship procedure from hindsight. Thanks.

I have completed modeling a simple camel that I am having trouble rigging for animation. I have invested in the Anzovin CD-Rom tutorials and have invested numerous hours on cleaning up my initial rig with constraints and smart skinning. At this point I am spinning my wheels repeating the same processes (mistakes) over and over again. I am unable to figure out how to assign bones to control bones properly to get the desired effects and smart skinning continues to contort the model haphazardly. Can someone send me a link to an "idiot's" guide to rigging or would anyone be interested in being paid to rig my model for animation.

Hey guys - thanks for your responses. Chris, I will be contacting you soon for coffee or lunch. Rodney, I did buy Anzovin's TSM rigging software, but I think my purchase was premature. I need to get a firmer grasp on skeletons and constraints even to use their plug-in. I will probably invest in the CD's as you suggested. I did meet with an interesting A:M user, Den Dotson, in St. Louis last week and got a few helpful suggestions from him - great guy. I am so grateful for the vast resources in the community.

Hello - This is my first post on the forum. I am a 2d animater new to A:M (since 12/04) and have been utilizing the vast resources available on the web and in book form to successfully create my first completed model (a cartoonish camel). I am looking for any other A:M users in Nashville, TN that might be able and willing to meet with me to help me get a firmer grasp of this wonderful software. Users of any level would be helpful, but I would really like to meet with an advanced user who could walk me through specific modeling, rigging, and animation issues that arise. I would even be willing to pay for tutoring sessions. Thanks.