robcat2075

If you get stuck ask some more.

Make a group for each section of the model you want to show/hide. Make an new On/OFF pose. Go down to the phantom Action that appears in the Actions folder and turn on "Show More Than Drivers" to expose the groups. Do your key framing in that phantom pose for one group Close the Pose and repeat for each Group.

You can keyframe surface settings like transparency in a pose. Set your keyfames to "Hold" interpolation so the transparency happens suddenly and not gradually between keyframes.

Chuck Jones anticipated body suit flying before body suit flying was cool...

I wonder why the window on the door flickers out for a moment?

I also notice that you can't turn Lens Flare ON/OFF in the Chor, it can only have the setting the light has in the Objects folder.

I tested this in the v18p beta A:M... NetRender...

Also need a "preset" to make sure both renders are done with the same settings. Go to Render in A:M, check all your settings and then hit the "Save" button on the right to save a .pre file.

Tore, if you could also post a sample PRJ and render preset that preserves all your render settings that would dramatically improve the chance this will be taken up quickly. It wouldn't' have to be your whole scene. You could probably strip out everything but the light and the camera.

I think the visible shadows make for a more eye-pleasing result.

What are the small pegs that appear to be below the hedges? I don't see them in the render, are they necessary? The roofs could be simplified down to two patches since they don't need any curvature.

OK, I see... On the Sun light set "Width" to 0 and "Darkness" to 100 This will make the light and its shadows more Sun-like. After you do that you may want to re-balance your light and global ambiance intensities. Setting darkness to less than 100 is something typically done when AO/Global Ambiance is not being used. It simulates ambient light by lightening shadows but when you use it with AO/Global Ambiance it makes the shadows so light you can't see them. It also create unnatural illumination in enclosed spaces like the garages. Setting the Width greater than 0 causes a different AO/Global Ambiance approximation where a shadows get lighter the farther they are from the object that casts them. The greater the Width, the faster they fade. If they fade too soon they may never reach the object the shadow is supposed to be seen on.

Something is set wrong. There should not be that much light inside the garage. Can you show a screen cap of all the properties of the light ? Another suggestion... make the roof overhang the triangle sides of the house. You want the shadow that will cast.

It looks like a 3D scroll... But it's really just a low-relief sculpture! This is the "reverse" of the award medal, where the winner's name will be laser-zapped. It took me a long time to wrap my mind around how to make that 2D design work in splines but now it think I've got it. Still need to find a better font for the text.

Are you sure shadows and AO were on in that render? They should be exceedingly obvious in a shot like that. For example the inside of the garage should be quite dark but it's got sun light in it.

It's the old hidden-workspace-trick!

Did this problem get solved? I'm not quite sure the initial question was really about.

If you can show a wireframe there may be simplifications possible.

40MB is indeed ... yuuuuge!

extra... I'll suggest that since your adding the Ambiant light, set the Sun width to zero so it doesn't decay its shadows.

That's the idea. You can play with the balance between the two sources for all sorts of nuances.

Yup, it looks like the swarm container has accidentally acquired some properties of a light.

Briefly... in the properties of the Chor... -turn Global Ambiance Type to "Global Color" -Choose a Ambience color. Anywhere from slightly blue for Noon to reddish orange for sunset -Ambiance Intensity is something you have to balance against the Sun light Intensity in your chor. For noon day sun try 25% Ambiance intensity and 75% Sun Light intensity. It's OK to have the two add to more than 100% but if both are 100% you will get over blown whites. For times near sunrise/sunset the proportion of Ambiance to direct light would be greater. -Set Ambiance Occlusion to 100% When you go to render set Render To File Settings>Ambiance Occlusion to ON and... Occlusion Sampling to the lowest number that gets you acceptable shadow quality. Start with 10%. Leave Transparent AO OFF unless you need transparent surfaces in your scene.

I think something is wrong with flocking in general. It should be possible to produce something other than this very jittery motion that always seems to end up collecting in the center, but the settings don't seem to offer much alternative.

That's odd. I tried the PRJ. The only lights should be the ones in the aliens", right? Even if you change the "population" down to zero that light is still there. It's as if the "swarm" is a light itself.