robcat2075

I like that variation.

I suggest submitting just the original seat board and noting that the plugin crashes on it. It may not be possible for the plugin to solve the internal patches but a more graceful exit would be preferable.

EDIT: I see Rodney beat me to it!... Yup, I suspect Rodney is on the right track. The internal patches probably create an unsolvable dilemma for the plugin, since there is no way to flip them to agree with their neighbors. Most of those internal patches could be avoided without any increase in mesh density by proper extrusion workflow. They are not always a problem but by process of elimination it seems to be the board that makes the seat that IS a problem. If I remake it like this by adding two center splines all the internal patches are eliminated and the plugin survives. It also reports "Nothing to do!" but at least it doesn't crash. kitchen chair seat.mdl

That does make it clearer although at least the indenting is still in current versions. I'm confident it wasn't dropped for the purpose of making A:M harder to use. V9 would be around the time just before they launched on a push to unify the Windows and Mac versions into one code base. I know some interface features disappeared because they couldn't be duplicated in both versions (without a substantial, lengthy recoding effort). Perhaps this is one of those.

Wow, I don't even remember that. You can post an image after you click "More Reply Options"

I believe the desire was to be able to recreate the morph targets and other deformations that characters rigged in other programs have so they can bend at joints. If one could get that altered shape into A:M and turn that into a pose, then you would not need to re invent all the point weighting. that's the plan.

Guidelines?

New polo shirts! That sounds like a commitment to the future! We've got a number of smart designers around here, there ought to be some good entries!

None-the-less, if you have an actual crash you can reproduce, that would make for an appropriate bug report.

Best wishes, Will! May all your Zandorias be fully tarred!

To try... Copy the mesh, paste it into another model window and save. Try the plugin on that. Also possible... Reset all settings.

I just tried it on a vase and it didn't crash.

Following up on Nancy's test.... i find that v18d is the last one in which "Bake Dynamic Systems" works. It appears to be broken first in v18e

Did you really mean "can't"? I note that that video is done with AM2005 and the "Bake Dynamic Systems" menu item isn't there. However it is in AM now and "Bake Dynamic Systems" now does what the "Simulate Spring Systems" did back then with the same result of creating keys in the timeline. The feature is still there in v17, just under a different name.

I've tried the essential demo that you did in your video. (I have not watched the 150 Meg video yet.) It is indeed broken in v18. It does work for me in v17 in v17 I can "Bake Dynamic Systems" to get the dynamic constraint action keyed on every frame. (Note that as far as I know this stuff has always been called a "dynamic constraint" and "Bake Dynamic Systems" is the way to lock it in. "Spring systems" are something else entirely that I have not looked at. They had something to do with the old cloth scheme.) In your video you are trying to key the stiffness of the constraint, but you are changing the value of stiffness in the model's properties. you can't key anything in the model, only set a value. For any model parameter to be key-able it would have to appear in the properties of the model in the action. However, even if I turn on "show more than drivers" the properties of the dynamic constraint are not available. "Lag" and "Enforcement" for the relationship the constrain is in are available. Hold it... It is possible to add the constraint in the action rather than in a pose that is turned on in the action. I can do that (I'm still in v17) and key the stiffness parameter. This sample PRJ shows the constraint added in the action and the parameter keyed in the action. The floppy pillar starts out at 100% stiffness and then transitions to 50% stiffness. Floppy04.prj Hold it... I've gotten a little farther in your video and it seems you have discovered this approach. Was it ever possible to have this key-able means other than by first adding the constraint in the action or the chor? My suggestion... You need this baked? In v17, add the constraint in the chor or action you want to use and "Bake Dynamic Systems" in v17. Save, and then you can render in v18 if you have to. Note that if you bake a simulation in an Action that you intend to repeat in a chor, it is extrememly unlikely that the simulation will match at the beginning and end of the Action. You'll get a jump when the Action loops. It is better to only key your regular bone animation in the Action, use the Action in the chor however you intend to, and then Bake in the chor. I recommend submitting a bug report on the baking problem. include a sample PRJ and show that it works appropriately in v17 but not in v18.

I tried loading that but aside from many images it asks for an .act file that is not embedded in it.

I haven'[ watched the video yet... however... there are tools to make "spring" systems (add spring) which I've never used. Are we talking about those or are we talking about dynamic constraints on bones?

Thanks for trying. And I believe you have an ATI card? or Nvidia? Nvidia here. Definitely do a bug report of what you have found, Nancy.

i couldn't reproduce it but maybe it is the non-standard patches around the eye? Maybe better to stick in a sphere for the eye.

Have you actually made a spring system? I've never done one.

Damn, I thought I posted a reply but it's not here. I get the same results as you, Nancy. I'll note that The see-through effect occurs for me in shaded mode, but not in wireframe or shaded wireframe modes.

Yes, that is definitely something to note in a bug report

A quick test in v18g... i was able to place decals on a vase with both OpenGL and OpenGL3.

I think the bottom one is a bit over-gelatinous.

Tom, have decals never worked before? Is this your first try at them? What happens if you in the model window and add the decal that way?