robcat2075

When I load your image in Photoshop i find that the RGB values for the green color are 0, 255, 1 Perhaps you have set 0,255,0 as the key color.

-you have the exact same color chosen and -"Cookie Cutter" chosen as "Type" ?

I'll note that transparency on a "layer" in Photoshop will not equate to transparency in an alpha channel in a TGA. However transparency in a Photoshop layer will equate to a transparency in a PNG that A:M can interpret correctly.

Congratulations David!

If the file has an alpha channel Cookie Cut will use the alpha channel to make the transparency. If it doesn't have an alpha channel there is an option in the properties somewhere to choose a specific RGB "background color" that will be interpreted as transparent. While alpha channel transparency allows some anti-aliasing of edges, background color is an all-or-nothing thing.

Since A:M itself makes only sparing use of multi threading, the extra four virtual threads won't get you much that the four real threads don't already. (I'm talking about a quad core CPU) However in NetRender, based on other user's benchmark results, 4 real cores+ 4 virtual cores will get you about 25% better throughput than just 4 real cores. Of course you'd have to buy a license for four extra Netrender nodes to have eight running simultaneously and you' need sufficiant RAM for those extra Nodes to operate. All things considered, the hyperthreading is probably only a modest advantage for A:M, and only when using NetRender.

I think the $600 box would be a decent A:M workstation (more than what i work on now) if you changed out their 2-core CPU for a four-core CPU and upped the RAM to 8 GB at least. Of course it wouldn't be $600 anymore I like their idea of making a cheap Hometheater PC. Something with more CPU oomph and RAM could make a plausible NetRender box when you weren't watching movies on it.

Article with suggestions for best PC build (not necessarily render box build) at $300, $600 and $1200... http://lifehacker.com/5840963/the-best-pcs...or-600-and-1200

I as referring to a general problem... a single patch thickness surface will only cast a z-buffered shadow on the ground plane if the ground plane is set to "Cast Shadows" ON. In v17 and later the ground plane has that set ON by default but it was OFF in previous versions.

That's a very odd reveal. That could be some sort of space warp/uncloaking effect.

I think that sounds like a realistic plan. Two minutes is a lot but it's do-able.

It stands on the shoulders of giants.

I'll note that from the Tools>Customize>Commands tab you can drag any button to any toolbar for convenient placement.

Happy birthday, and may you continue to create fabulous A:M works!

There's a thread or a tut around here by Jason1025 where he talks through doing this image based lighting stuff. A ground plane will need to be set to Cast Shadows ON in its options for a single patch to properly cast a shadow on it. That might be the problem. The razor sharp shadow probably don't look right. You can try the z-buffered lights again. Or, ray-traced lights have a "width" and when you use that with multi-pass they will jitter to create authentic fuzzy shadows that get fuzzier as they get farther from the object. To me it doesn't look like there's any AO happening. We should see some darkening around the base of things or under the helicopter. Perhaps some crucial setting is not right on that.

The 4096 was added for 3D printing purposes, probably overkill for most other occassions. The OBJ for that test object is 31,194KB vs. 6KB for the A:M spline original. You're going to need a bigger hard drive if you want to do much of that stuff. Probably small. It's an either/or situation. We can presume the center of a red clump is farther out than the edge but we don't know how much. For painting purposes it ought to be well within the limits of what the eye would ever notice.

Here's 4096 subdivs. It's probably very, very close. The overlaps only tell you if one surface is farther out than another, not how far. One micron would be all it takes.

On the question of whether the OBJ exporter understands the bias settings of the A:M splines when it subdivides them... It seems to be pretty darn close in its interpretation. Here is an A:M spline model of a half torus with splines peaked, with bias at 167% and with bias at 300%. Below it is that model exported to OBJ at 64 subdivisions and then imported as a Prop: Here they are dropped on top of each other. The spline model is red and the Prop is Green. The surfaces seem to be very close to each other but not identical...

Manuel, My legal opinion is a bit different than Rodney's. I ascribe to the principle first asserted in the 1908 Supreme Court ruling in Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Strauss that allows someone to resell a copyrighted work if they are truly giving it up and not just making a new copy. If you have a version that runs only with a CD in the drive and you have that CD in your drive, you may run it. The person who sold it to you doesn't have the CD anymore so they can't run it anymore. Those CD versions are kind of old and, yes, the current $79 annual subscription has many improvements, but if you use that version you've got and have questions about A:M, we'll try to answer your questions (if it's at least v11 or later )

The Neverhood is about the only PC game I ever bought. Looked great. I got lost in some cave and never figured it out.

If you use A:M to decal, that should work yes. (I described above how it should be done) At least it worked with 3d Coat for me. See you *Fuchur* So... ToreB can have a good result with painting on A:M models, but he will need to decal first in A:M. That one change to the workflow is all that's needed, right?

Is this workflow possible?... I see hints of it above but I'm not sure... -export an OBJ that is highly subdivided so that the curves of the shapes between the original CPs are preserved. -paint on OBJ that in the poly paint program -fit the map that results back onto the original, lo-density spine model. Is that already possible?

For that price you need to really, really, really want to paint in 3D.

Hipster Squirrel? I've never seen Hipster Squirrel before. From "Porky Chops" (1947)

This sounds interresting... How do you change the pose values when rotating a bone? A "Smartskin" can associate any keyable parameter with a bone rotation. Are you already familiar with creating smartskins and pose sliders? -