robcat2075

Back in the old,old, old... days of QuickTime it was possible to save a tiny something called a reference file that was quite worthless for anyone not on the same computer. But I can't imagine that you are doing that so something else must be going seriously wrong.

89 bytes? There's no way there's anything in that. Are you by chance rendering to still images and compiling them somehow into a quicktime?

I have trouble keeping track of all the not-up-tp-date users.

What I'm saying is... you can't on a button to find out about it like you can for a property. You'd have to go hunt for it and get the name exactly right. Not that we haven't expected users to be able to do that in the past, but it's something AMA doesn't extend to yet.

Flat triangles are useless. What does that mean?

The new AMA feature has the ability to link to the web also so there' no reason the wiki (where is it?) coulnd't be a part of that. However AFAIK, one problem with AMA is that it only works on actual property parameters, other interface elements like buttons are not in its scope..

I recall spotty trouble with shaded renders long ago. Since you have v14 try switching OpenGLDirectX and restart A:M

Waiting for someone to step up and put the bell on it...

I agree it is needed. Whatever is done needs to work as much as possible with the new online help implemented in v17. I think that is the future rather than a book, although if it were possible to compile that into a coherent book as an option that would be useful too.

That is only 290 bytes so something must be missing. To use a post effect, "Apply Camera's Post effects" needs to be ON in the "Buffers" settings.

Simon, are you on V17? the current move is to put all the techref available interactively. You on a parameter and the text from the tech ref will come up. I think future efforts should go into making that interactive resource contain better information. The Maya Help appears voluminous to me, but after observing numerous Maya users at 11 sec Club I don't think it is a complete solution either. Consider this quick random check... I look up "Save As" the Maya Help takes me to: huh? buried in the text is a use of something similar to "Save As" but not an explanation. But Maya's Help is not a bad one, but who would write all the extra explanatory information? Who actually knows enough about A:M to do that correctly and and can write well enough that no one will complain in the future that the techref is inadequate?

It only happens with shaded renders?

Is there a good example of a complete tech ref that we might model a revised A:M tech ref on? I think what people really want is more context and examples for each feature. That would be a very huge endeavor.

This only happens on this Phoneme project?

It's like putting a bell on the cat. Everyone thinks it's a good idea but... who will do it?

I'm lost... why the displacement when you want a transparent effect?

Do an AMReport for that request. Steffen has changed the baking code several times so he probably knows about it.

The are supposed to be saved where the PRJ has been saved. Save a PRJ first, even if you are normally only saving chors.

The picture is a bit small to see what's right or wrong, however...Displacement needs to be rendered with multipass or it will not shadow properly.

Would "Merge and Purge Groups" fix the group problem?

Doing FakeAO in "post" in an A:M composite project lets you quickly experiment with settings in real time, which is good because it has many more settings to get right than regular AO does. But it can also be used for final finished renders (in v16, at least)

inthe model window>plugins>wizard>Fontwizard is the path I thing. ON the help... I'm not sure if it worked the same on macs. On pc there was a .CHM file that A:M reads. The TechRef is the source of what was in the CHM file get a PDF here... ftp://ftp.hash.com/pub/docs/ you will also see a masterchm.zip file there. Try unzipping that to your AM directory.

Here's a sample PRJ that shows the core concept working. The vase "Shell" fades away to reveal the "brain". For me it works in real-time shaded mode, progressive renders and final renders. See if it works in V14 for you. FadingAway.prj

Whenever someone would bring me a task that they thought would be great for "animation" I would typically try to suggest some non-CG way to accomplish the goal and deport the task to someone else. I found that if i did not constantly try to push stuff over the fence into someone else's yard I would end up with too many things on my plate that should never have been brought to me. "Wouldn't it be easier to have our photographer shoot that phone instead of me making a 3D model? I'm sure you haven't sent that prototype phone back to the lab IN CANADA before you were sure you didn't need it anymore."

I like the color scheme too.