robcat2075

If I raise the color saturation on the top image I can get a very similar result. Saturated color was sort of what Technicolor was about.

To convince people I think we'd to have the same models in the scene presenting the same textures and shapes that need to be lit. This particular one appeals to me and I think would interest many people. Perhaps we can keep it in mind for a future installment of "It Can't be Done" if the models are not immediately obtainable.

I'm not doubtful that it can be done. If someone were to provide the models for such a scene that might make for a good WIP thread. I'll note some things I see working in this TS shot -lots of AO. Note the unnatural amount of AO surrounding the door knob in the upper left corner. Maybe it's supposed to be dirt? -soft focus. Nothing is pixel sharp in this image. Woody is "in focus" but you still can barely read "SHERIFF" on his badge. -DOF. The background is even a bit more out of focus. -Bloom. On real film that bright window would bleed into the surrounding image. They are simulating that effect of course. It's also entirely possible that this image didn't come straight out of the PIXAR render farm. The characters and background may have been rendered separately for ease of lighting and combined in post. I can see getting all of that done in A:M.

It looks like the pose is being applied twice, creating twice the displacement of the CPs. Make sure it is truly OFF or zeroed in the model.

And where does that pose or action come from?

First you figure out where the joints are supposed to be and you put the bones there. Then you figure out how the mesh should bend across that joint. That's what the CP weighting or the fan-boning or the smart skinning is for. If you choose these things wisely, it's easy.

I'll also note that in TSM2 you don't need to have all spine bones the same size. You could make the top one large to simulate the rigid rib cage of the upper torso and use the ones in the middle for the flexible waist area.

It's easy once you know how. I regard a fan bone as easier than smart skin and the knee was a case where the fan bone could serve the needs of the joint I suppose the minimum would be two, the hip bone and a back bone, with spline rings progressively weighted between one to the other. The max would be one bone for each spline ring. TSM2 always uses 5 but you don't necessarily need to weight something to every bone.

To me, it sounds a bit like the animation version of "make dragon"

That's looking much better. If you're going to make something like in the pic Mark posted you're going to need smile line, a spline that can make the dimple to the side of the mouth when the corner is pulled back in a smile. This came up on someone else's face model a while back... http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=379801

Well, that's just silly! I believe there is something about shadows-only in my "Post in Progress" in the tutorials section

But that is a "polish" detail whereas fae alba's request is for some sort of blocking/camera placement automation which would not encompass such a detail. One limiting factor in this scripting ... where in A:M do you paste the text for it to work on?

Here are the nominees so far... - Be able to apply a "script" that describes the actions of a character... fae alba - a gas simulation Fuchur - A light paint-animation (glowing growing spiral-like lines which will fly around. Fuchur (can you explain this one a bit more if it isn't the next one?) - something like this Fuchur - A fisherman, in a boat, on rough waters, in the rain. Simon Edmondson - The weather, The sea, the reflections and colours and transparencies the dynamic (?) forces involved Simon Edmondson - how to combine one's own digital footage on an A:M background, and/or the inverse GAngus There's still lots of time to make suggestions for things you want to be able to do in A:M but don't think can be done.

Happy Birthday, Dagoos... dagnabit!

I guess what I've learned is that the TGA format I've been using all these years was wrong, but I like being wrong and i don't want to be right.

An elf i could make. Keep discussing!

Yeah, I'm sure once you get the whole head in place the proportions will work. But I've noticed in the past that people who aren't looking at animation as much as we do are often boggled by the size of the eyes on most characters.

What big eyes she has!

People sometime ask why A:M isn't frequently mentioned in the magazines. Short answer... you have to buy advertisements in magazines to get treated as newsworthy. It's a very expensive way to generate not very many actual sales. Here's a documented example of the practice from the music industry press where the same thing is common... How to buy a record review

To automatically go from script to animation without more animating... you'd need to already have an enormous library of animation to cover all the possibilities that might be called for in a script. Every possible walk and at every possible speed. Every possible run. Every possible start, every possible stop. Every possible angle of turn, every possible sharpness of the turn. Every possible head turn to every possible direction. Every possible reaching of an arm to touch something in every possible direction and every possible height. Every possible sitting in a chair and every possible getting out of a chair. Holding things... every possible book, every possible tool, every possible food... There's just no end to it. In-game animation works because they have limited you to certain behaviors in certain settings, settings that demand many of the same things happen many times. If you're in a combat game you probably can't make the character stop and do a spontaneous MacGiver thing with some object in the set, unless that was foreseen by the game designers and built that specific possibility into the game. Tell me if I'm not understanding the concept.

I've wondered about that too. Have you made a feature request out of that? I'm not sure how many user have Photoshop however, and how well the other paint apps conform to the proper PSD format. I don't know if it's a can of worms or not.

I just got out the atual eyeball material and dropped iton a ball and it does move with the mesh when I turn the ball. Is it possible the mesh the material is on is not actually connected to the bone you are turning?

the material should stick to the patches it is applied to. The exception is is you have property Global Axis ON. OFF is the default and that's what you want for a case like this. Check it in the properties of both the material and the shortcut to the material in the model. I'd suggest going with a decal none-the-less since you can't see a material in real time.

These are all interesting ideas, none-the-less. Keep them coming. Eventually someone will suggest something i can actually do!

Yes, that would be the first suspect.