robcat2075

Most A:M users will never need to do something like this, but it is possible to investigate and make useful changes to an A:M file with a text editor. You'll need your close-up glasses for most of this. AMTextEditing.mov Things I have done with text editing -fixing the "dragged bone in a chor" problem (shown in this video) -changing the name of an item throughout a PRJ -changing a bone to a null -finding and fixing name spelling capitalization mistakes. ("Left" instead of "left" -fixing a corrupted file or saving some portion of it. -finding and deleting an external link to something that is not really needed in a PRJ yet is not easily findable because it's buried in some asset. -other things i don't recall

Try this file... Simons_Wayward_x.prj I'll upload a video later.

OK, I see where it is. I'll take a look at it.

When you say "do the UVing"... what are you doing?

Demonstration of how to copy smartskin keyframes from one side to the other. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=45459

T2G doesn't have a bone that is indented under another bone. It has no keys but i presume you deleted them.

I've had success with manually Copying>PasteMirroring smartskin keyframes from a left smartskin window to a right window but that's a bit fiddly. Something else I found is that in v18 not all the original smartskin keys show up.

For which bones exactly? All four of the bones with smartskin on them. They seem to get smartskin info written into them but it's not doing the deformations.

I tried the mirror mode tolerance but i still get only partial or no mirror with the smartskins.

I'm looking at it. Is this mesh imported from a polygon program by any chance? It has a lot of splining things that you'd really not want in an A:M model.

I would make a video out of it so you and other people could see what to look for and what to fix. If you could send me the problem version and the last version that didn't have the problem that would help make hunting easier. Make it a PRJ with the models embedded.

I just tried it on a simple case and it worked as expected and worked left-to-right and right-to-left. Do you... -have a truly symmetrical mesh? -have truly symmetrical bones? -with "right" and "left" in the bone names correctly spelled and same capitalization? those are the possibilities that come to mind first.

If you want to send me the chor I can look at it in a text editor. You can send it in a private message if you want. Steffen has made another stab at fixing that bug for v18, I haven't tested it out yet.

Here's what I see... SimonBalance3D_notes.mov

I don't know what the exact economics of it are. The software that makes it work has to be licensed and typically costs a fee per dongle. One vendor I just looked up charges about $20 per dongle depending on the quantity. Shipping that to a customer would add $10 or more. And, if it were me, I'd add some charge on top of that to recover the revenue lost from people who are no longer buying multiple subscriptions. This might be a $50+ cost to the end user. There are dongle schemes where the end user provides the USB RAM stick and the key is installed on that but i don't know how those are regarded security-wise. Apparently they have not put the physical dongle providers out of business.

I'll note to clarify... The original TSM was a stand-alone program that you would run a saved .mdl file through. It will work only on models from v12 or earlier because of the file format change in v13. Those models can still be loaded in later versions of A:M. TSM2 is a plugin that works within A:M. It still works in 32-bit Windows versions of A:M up to v16. It doesn't work in 64-bit windows versions of A:M and doesn't work in current MacOS computers but you can use it to rig your character in a 32-bit Windows version of A:M and then use your model on a MAC or 64-bit version of A:M. You can use your A:M license to run both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of A:M on one PC.

I'll note that a new FakeAO is coming in v18 for both Mac and PC.

It's been suggested but it's currently not an option. I suppose it would be an extra cost option if it happened. I wonder what that would be worth to people.

I remember when I was at Animation Mentor (circa 2005) I was told that such a thing would be impossible!

I'll have to refresh myself on the distinction. Does the TSM2 manual (found in the install folders) explain anything? I shall go take a look again (don't remember reading anything about it). I dimly recall that the difference is between FK arms that maintain their orientation to the torso as it rotates and FK arms that maintain their orientation to world space as the torso rotates.

Looks sharp, Matt! Maybe your corporate bigwigs should meet my former corporate bigwigs. Their last theme was "right hand turn."

Mark Skodacek has devised an add-on for seamless switching. Prior to that I would scrub back and forth from the FK frame to the IK frame and refine the match. I'd match the hand position first then move the elbow. i dimly recall that with spine stretching set to 0% the spine would remain a constant length no matter how far the torso target was away from the top of the spine, while at 100% it woudl strethc any distance to reach the target. I'll have to refresh myself on the distinction. Does the TSM2 manual (found in the install folders) explain anything? I bet a cloth simulation would work well there.

I'm rendering someone's Rear Window segment. I seem to recall that there should be a texture where I've marked the red Xs. What is missing there and how do I get it back?

Overall. I'd say that has a more convincing air to it than the first one. He's never really standing up straight at the beginning and never quite over his feet. He's hanging right off the back edge of his heels which looks awkward. Count 3 frames after the heel hits the ground. Notice how the kne is almost locked in space from frame 3 to 4 and the body pivots over it. It's common occurence in CG but it's oddlooking. The knee was fairly fat through space and then froze for those two frames and then started up again. Probably could have avoided that if the hips had generally dipped down more during that compression phase of the motion. You want the leg to look like it's pushed the body into the air and you're not giving it much opportunity to do that by leaving the hip so high.

I'm looking at that reference video. I regret that they've edited around the transition from her standing on two feet to standing with one raised in front of her. But compare the forward tilt of her body at 0:17 to the rearward tilt at 0:27 when she has the leg raised. I'd definitely want to make that clear and note that the transition happens as she raises the leg, not after she has raised the leg. They also don't show the crucial side view when she falls forward onto the front leg. When your character falls forward he jolts forward as if he had already been moving. He's starting from a standstill, he can't be suddenly moving, his mass needs to start slowly and accelerate to the ground. Important point from the bouncing ball video... Falling objects start slow and accelerate on the way down. I belabor that point because it is so crucial to these sort of motions. Here are some video notes... SimonBalance3_h400.mov