robcat2075

If you could make a small test PRJ by copying examples of both windows into a new chor side by side, that would make a good AMReport.

In the tutorials link in my signature is a piece about using a distortion box to bend text.

The important part of what you're saying (if I understand correctly) is that the stride length is exactly 1/2 of the full cycle length. In A:M parlance, yes. It is the distance from, say, a left footprint to a right footprint, which is half of a walk cycle. (A full cycle would be left to right to left) It may be that is an ambiguous term. In looking up definitions of the noun "stride" I find that it may be intended as one step (in humans) or as the complete cycle of motion (in horses).

I like the title design on that, too!

Wow, that's got to be one of your most elaborate tinkers ever! And that must be some pre-Newton dynamics simulation at work there too.

You are right that I only touched on it briefly and I do intend to make a bigger mention about it in the actual walk tut. However, that's all there is to it really. Set it to measure the distance from heel-to-heel at the contact pose and that will be the most accurate way to use it. It measures one "stride" and that's something that is clearest in contact pose, the moment when the heel hits the ground, when both feet are on the ground.

I recall, at Nortel, once spending half an hour with a woman from another department getting just the right shade of purple background for something i was doing for her. Then the next day she drags her manager by and starts shrieking about how I put the wrong color on her project.

I attached a camera to the top of one of my metal cloth crashing cars so you can take the plunge... CrashCamH1200.mov You can see more falling cars in my "Crunch!" thread.

Eventually there will be a prequel on how to make the Walk Cycle in the first place, to be part of New TAoA:M.

After you get your PRJ loaded and the camera view selected Press the Render Button to get the "Render To File Settings" Choose "Final" Set "Start" and "End" to suit your animation Press the ... button to Get "Save Images As". Choose a filename and location. Set "Save as File Type" to Quicktime". Press OK Press the "Compression" button to get the Quicktime compression settings. The settings in this screen cap are safe for your first try.

When you run that installer and it shows the path it wants to install to , make sure it's going to the C:\Program Files (x86) rather than the regular "Program Files" folder

Yes. I think this will get you v16: ftp://ftp.hash.com/pub/updates/windows/

Mod note: I've split this off from a TAoA:M exercise thread as this might be useful to other people who need to find and install 32-bit A:M to use its Quicktime ability. 64-bit A:M doesn't have Quicktime, but 32-bit A:M does. Actually the best way to post work is to render it to a Quicktime file. If you are using 64-bit A:M you may also want to install the 32-bit version so you can load your PRJ and render (Quicktime isn't available yet in 64-bit A:M) You can have both A:Ms installed. copy the master0.lic file from the 64-bit A:M folder to the 32-bit A:M folder.

Happy Birthday, Jeff Bolle, AKA Zaryin! Jeff has been doing great work with A:M for a long time, here are a few WIP threads: The Crystal Apple Spiderman

Wow! That trophy should get a trophy.

Did the codec error say something about 16 bits? If that's it switch AVI to uncompressed. That's about the only AVI that works. But you said even image sequences don't work. So it's not just AVI that is the problem.

And you V16 and V17 are indeed installed to different folders within your Hash folder, right?

Hmmm.... A:M itself hasn't changed and it worked before.... My first suggestion is to do Help>Reset all Settings. I don't think that will get you much but it's easy to try. After that, uninstall and reinstall. Of course you will save your master0.lic file somewhere safe before hand.

I've been toying with the timing a bit more and now, in the afternoon, I feel like the keyframes should be about two frames later. MoveToBeat3.mov I notice the Quicktime never looks quite like the playback in A:M and if i upload something to Youtube, that looks different still. Sync is very confusing sometimes. Actually there's a range of about 8 frames that I can drag the keys around in A:M and eventually convince myself that it's spot on.

I have that book! The essential concepts presented in it regarding splining (although I don't think 5-point patches were invented yet) and rigging(I don't think CP weighting existed then either) and materials and lighting are mostly still valid. However the few times I've gone back to resurrect a project done in that version I've found i don't recognize much about the interface. A:M does look rather different now and much for the better! A:M is faster, stronger and more reliable now. But if you want to use it try a little bit of modeling just to see how fun it is, I think that's safe. Still, for $79 you can zoom from 1998 to the far off future of... 2012!

Here's brief demo of what I mean by using anticipations to go into a beat. On the first two drum whacks the stick has a separate anticipation into each one. On the last two the stick still anticipates into the first whack but swings thru it to use that first whack as the anticipation into the second. It's a somewhat less frantic look than the first treatment. MoveToBeatJPG.mov movetoBeat.zip If you look at the PRJ you'll see the motion is hitting a bit before the actual sound happens. This is the sort of thing i can spend a whole day tinkering with! I spend a lot of time shifting things a key frame forward and back, faster and slower, bigger and smaller, to see what has the best effect. There aren't good rules for it, you have to experiment and know what you trying to get. One problem i have is that almost anything starts to look right if I watch it enough times.

One thing I find that helps in accenting a musical beat is to make a very visible anticipation movement to the gesture and also making the motion hit a hair earlier than the sound actually is.

Regrettably, A:M is not available in stores. I believe a credit card is required. It's possible they take PayPal now too. You could go through the order process at the Hash Store far enough to see what the payment options are.

I'm afraid that is so dark I can't see anything but the torches.

I agree that's promising looking! It needs something to make it looks not so black.