robcat2075

I was trying to make puffy clouds but the negative space and the positive space got mixed up. Mmmm.... cheese!

Unsuccessful cloud material:

You might try upping the octaves on that for more detail.

The program features are the same. The $79 version (Subscription) will run for one year on your computer and you can run any new update or version (even betas) that comes out during that year. It is locked to the computer you install it on. After one year... subscribe again for $79! Like the subscription, the $299 version is locked to the computer you install it on. Like the subscription, it lets you run anything that comes out in the year after you activate. Unlike the subscription, it doesn't expire after one year, you can continue to run whatever versions you got during the year. It won't run versions that come out after that year. This version is probably intended for people who need to know they will be able to run the A:M version they've been working with even if Hash were to disappear from the Earth and not able to offer a new subscription. I believe you also get printed manuals (instead of PDFs) and a hard copy of the Extras DVD. Anyone know if I'm correct on that?

For $79 you can't go wrong!

I've added it to the post with the movie.

Here's a test with "cellular" turbulence. I think this has good possibilities for more-separated, cumulus-style clouds: ThinTurn.mov

Dangerous lookin' crowd!

You could... we've certainly made do with such things over the years, but this method creates actual 3D forms within the cube. When you move a camera around a flat plane it becomes obvious that it's a flat plane but this appears as real shapes from any angle (unless you view the planes on edge).

Welcome to A:M! OF course we recommend it! I will say that new users vary in their ability to master any program. The goal of Animation:Master is make the 3D production pipeline as accessible as possible for the artist who wants to create original things. To judge for yourself if it's something you might be able to do you could watch some of the new user training videos. I have made a video tutorial for people who are starting from zero to introduce them to A:M you can download here: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=358113 Hash Inc., has posted screen capture videos of all most all the tutorials in the new user manual: http://www.hash.com/index.php?pcode=video_tutorials In particular, #4 "It's a Pitch" shows some basic animation process and #10 "FW-190 Fighter" demonstrates modeling a simple airplane. Those are simple projects. Of course, A:M is capable for very complex projects also. You might spend an evening watching those three videos and ask yourself "Could I do that too?" There are many things about CG animation that are complicated and involved even in A:M but I don't think any program that's full-featured like A:M has succeeded in making it easier than A:M does. If you have more questions...ask!

To use the compensate mode correctly... -select the bone you want constrained - to select a constraint type -make sure the compensate mode button is depressed (should turn it self on by default) -then select the target bone with the eyedropper cursor Is that what you are doing?

Here's a the sine turbulence combiner inside a gradient combiner to fade it out at the top, all on a stack of 40 flat plates Amazing Box o' Clouds (by Whammo!) CubeRedBallTwo.mov mp4 version: CubeRedBallTwo.mp4 (click to enlarge) Cube_o_Clouds_05_With_Ball.prj I dimly recall trying something like this back in the 90's but gave it up when it was taking an hour per frame. Now it takes 55 seconds and NetRender can do four at once! Possibly with a different turbulence combiner more daylight between the clouds could be had?

hmmm... Do you still have a light list in there? You shouldn't need one anymore.

How about making it a displacement map?

I second all of that.

If you adjusted the turbulence material so that it never peaked at full white you might avoid the flatness.

that is a very promising 3D result you have there. Change the Klieg light from Z-buffered to Raytraced

Hey... I just got an idea for who you can recruit to program that FBX thing!

You fooled me... I thought those shadows were real! I'm not sure I understand your setup exactly but how about this... Instead of putting the tree image on the light, put it on a card in front of the lights (a transparency map) and arrange it so its shadow falls on the road and on the character: Shadows.mov When the same light is shadowing the character and the "trees" you'll get one proper shadow on the ground for both of them. Here's the PRJ of my simple example case: Double_shadow_problem.zip

there better be some monsters in this movie

If you want Bone A to copy the motion of Bone B without going to where Bone B is, you need an "orient Like " constraint. Does that help?

I guess what you want is to not have a shadow in a shadow, right? My first idea would be to paint out the shadow on the front projection image (or get a shot of the road where there isn't a shadow) and use your A:M lighting to recreate it so the characters shadow and the shadow on the road are the same shadow. Another possibility, that requires some compositing program, is to use a "darken" composite mode to combine the shadow layer and the road. Instead of adding the darkness of the shadow to the road it only darkens the road where it was lighter than the shadow. The shadow parts of the road don't get any darker. These are both tricky to do, but does that make sense?

Always use Lathing to make anything circular. It automatically adjusts the bias of every CP to make the circle round. Lathe out a few things with different lathe settings and click on a CP and look at its bias properties to see how the bias has been changed from the default 100%

In that case, Matt is correct, you can drag any bone in the PWS, even from one model to another, to re-order a heirarchy and it will take it's children with it.

In general if you need to move some set of bones together as a unit while in the bones window, select the bone that is the parent of the set (hope there is one!) and use the translate, rotate and scale manipulators to re position as needed. The children will translate, rotate and scale along with it.