robcat2075

To do it in A:M... I would note that the three-camera approach was compromise based on off-the-shelf lenses they had at the time. OmniMax is more modern attempt at the same effect. Today an OmniMax camera (not Imax) can cover the same field of view in one image and the OmniMax projector on the OmniMax screen (basically a dome) can approximately undo the distortion that result from putting that on one flat piece of film. That distortion is what we see when we set an A:M camera to a very wide angle. Idea 1) It should be possible to take that flat A:M render and re-map it onto a suitable rectangle then, with a pose, stretch and squeeze it in the right places to undo the distortion and create the curvature. Idea 2) you can do three cameras just like cinerama and remap them onto a curved screen. Because A:M cameras can occupy the same point simultaneously there should be no mismatch between adjoining edges although there will be linear distortion at each seam. Idea 3) Instead of three cameras.... many cameras, each set to take a narrow vertical slice of the panorama. Those could be mapped back onto a panorama screen. By using many narrower cameras you would reduce the curvilinear mismatch between neighboring slices.

holly, if you have further questions, let us know. I'll note that Hypercam 2 is a free screen movie software.

I have actually seen Cinerama on a true Cinerama screen. "This is Cinerama" was re-released in the early 70s and my parents and I went to see it. It is a remarkable effect IF you are sitting in the sweet spot approximately where the curvature of the screen would be centered, which we made sure to do. If you were far back in the theater you probably would see something more like the appearance of the "smile box". The seam between the three filmstrips was always pretty obvious, especially when some object with straight lines intersected it, but for a lot of material it didn't matter.

A feature I quite like about A:M, so much so that I feel inconvenienced when something HAS to be done with a menu and can't be had with a click or a double click.

I'll investigate. The short answer is 'yes' but the demonstrable answer is 'hmmm... now how did I do that again..." Edit: Actually... it's easy to demo. If you accidentally select the roll handle of the Null then it will rotate. This doesn't appear to happen upon first click but with a second click. I'll see if I can prevent it. In a model... In the properties of a null I can set Manipulator Options>Manipulation to "Translate Only" and the roll handle will not appear no matter how many times I click How are you creating your translate=-only Null?I assume the Null is part of a Model because, unless I'm missing something, Nulls cannot be limited in such a way outside of a Model. True, a Null by itself in a Chor doesn't have the same Manipulator Limits properties. For a Null by itself in a Chor I can put a Spherical Limits constraint on it with Mins and Maxs all set to 0° and the Null will not be rotatable. (Rotation Keyframes will be created if you try to rotate it but no rotation motion will happen)

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In a quick test, i can't make a translate-only null go into rotation just by grabbing it. Is this something you can repeat?

The current tactic of constraining bone controllers to limit their movement should be enough for that. What specifically do you need to do?

Yeah, normally you can't have a single CP.

A work-around might be to -hide all the CPs you want to hide -select the CPs that remain visible -unhide all CPs -invert the selection (period key) -name the inverted selection Group -save the model then when you later reload the model and need the CPs hidden -select the Group -period key -H

Try increasing the shadow "darkness" of the light coming from the right.

You can have one kleig pointing down at the ground and another pointing up just to illuminate the light shade. That way you can adjust each one's brightness separately for desired effect. Sorry, Paul! I meant to reply to your post but edited it instead... If you can remember what you wrote and want to repost it that would be great.

I'll add that in 99.9% of animation circumstances you want the "A" Button to be ON (red). When it is OFF, new keyframes won't be made and any changes you make to the scene will change previous keyframes.

BTW, you may find my "Making Poses" video useful for its coverage of "drag and drop" poses which may suit your hand posing needs better than slider poses.

It's a good idea, and it has been suggested before. I've discussed it with Steffen before and basically he said that the way A:M uses the operating system to create those pose windows makes it difficult to add images for them. For now, descriptive titles like "loose pointing finger" will have to do.

I think that's how Mercator made his map!

On another forum someone asked how to "study" a shot Here was my response... At AnimationMentor they told us it's better to study live action shots than to study animated shots. You don't want to be re-creating other animators' mannerisms if you can help it. None-the-less there are some things you can ask yourself about any shot, live or animated... -What is the goal of the character? What are you seeing getting done that advances the story? -How does the character visibly change to show thought or action? -What are the main poses and changes of appearance the character goes through to show you what he is thinking or doing? When a character comes to a hold is an obvious pose but some poses are extremes that are passed through and not paused at. They define the motion of the action without being a stopping point. -What is the "secondary action?" If a character is pouring a cup of coffee and something outside the window gets his attention, the secondary action is probably the coffee pouring. The change in his attention focus is the primary storytelling action, it probably leads to him doing the next thing in the story because of what he saw. On the other hand, he could have been doing anything else when his attention was distracted, the coffee-pouring was just one of many possibilities (making toast, washing dishes, cooking) to give a reason to be near that window. The coffee-pouring was something his attention could be pulled away from so the change to out-side-the-window would be clear. Secondary action (not to be confused with "over-lapping action") is particularly useful in dialog shots because real people rarely stand and deliver lines while doing nothing else. Characters who stand and gesticulate with their arms while they are talking get tedious very fast. If you are trying to figure out the timing of an action it is useful to count frames and track the paths of body parts but animators generally try to make you NOT feel like you are seeing a series poses so keyframes may not be obvious just as there are no keyframes in real life. Character animation is a process of starting out with just the essential poses and then successively refining the motion between them but real life doesn't happen that way. Character animation tries to make it look like it didn't happen that way either.

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The manual covers this basic operation but is perhaps not entirely clear. A screencam of a plugin texture being deployed in a Material can found in post #7 of this thread.

Hi Tom, here is a screencam of me doing it. Does this look like what you are seeing? clip3829MakingPluginMaterial.mov

New Pluto pics released today look like A:M's "Perlin" turbulence combiner... PlutoDentedTexture05 troughs.zip

When I saw the new Pluto pictures from the New Horizons probe... I thought, "Hey, I've seen that before." Pluto resembles the A:M "Dented" material... PlutoDentedTexture.prj

"Cloth wizard" isn't relevant to Simcloth. It was a tool for the old method of creating cloth, now replaced by Simcloth. From your description I'm not sure which one you are doing. First, have you done the "wave the flag" tutorial in "The Art of Animation:Master"? That shows how to create a material that turns a mesh into cloth.

Contest Announcement: The deadline is moved to the evening of Sunday August 9. That gives you two more extra weekends to work on your image and get it submitted!

Contest Announcement: Image size Good question! I'm going to declare that it needs to be a 1080p image. 1080 pixels high and you can make it any format width you wish. A 16:9 image would be 1080 high by 1920 wide. A 4:3 image would be 1080 high by 1440 wide.