robcat2075

If you need this now, I'd suggest doing one normal render to get the reflections and then another with the object gone and swap the alpha channel from the second render into the first render. The second render could be done quickly with lights off and other things to speed up the render since you only want the alpha channel.

Regular 5 should already do 5-pointers

When you see a big city shot in a movie, a CG movie, they typically make the least geometry they can get away with and put good textures on it to suggest the detail and only on the sides that will be seen. If the camera needs to move in close to something that will be built with more detail. They do that because their software isn't infinite either and they need to get the shot done in a reasonable amount of time and human cost. A:M can do those sort of shots if you can. Your good discretion in modeling and talent in texturing will be essential to do shots like that.

If you can control the reflection and/or specularity of the flake portion of the combiner, you could probably get a good sparkle from that. In my bump map version, you can. the "sharpness" on the Glossy shader affects how quickly a glint goes on and off, and "Specular Intensity" controls the brightness. So a pretty fair spectrum of effects could be had with this technique. In the original at the top, the bright spots are always bright from any angle so they didn't "glitter".

Indeed, just a few weeks ago the question came up. Here's my "sparkle" and there are some other solutions farther down the thread... http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=361539

I kind of like your idea of making it all "clay". What would that look like for "wood"? What would Ardman do?

Try some stuff, see what you get. Remaking one of those boards with more splines should be about a 5 minute task. Try things. Experiment.

I was thinking the top one but the other look interesting too.. What sort of a texture are you planning to put on these boards?

yeah. maybe 2 or three in the middle. And then nudge a few of the CPs around so they're not so straight.

He's lookin' solid!

There's also an "export only triangles" option in there so maybe that's a way to solve the five-pointer problem, if it is a problem.

Good news.... A:M already can export OBJ sequences. in the Chor window>Plugins>Export>OBJ and make yer choices...

Sounds like something to AMReport. Have all the V16s done this or just the current v16b ? Include a "Good" result and a "bad" result

Well, I see that OBJ export is ostensibly available by in the chor window. Let us know...

Creepy critter!

Do you have interns?* Teach one to export the Chor as an MDL, advance one frame and do it again. Then teach him to import the MDLs and export them as OBJ and to do it again. Test this out yourself on a short stretch to see if it works as you imagine. *(note: use of interns in this manner is not actually legal. Perhaps you have "production assistants")

How many frames do you need to do?

Yup, better. I'd be tempted to experiment with having more splines along the length of the planks so i could make the edges slightly wavier... not so perfectly rectangular.

Looks cool! Lilypad feet?

Happy New Year! I'm curious of the story. Did he find it while he was cleaning up? There's probably a lot of ways to convey the idea of him bouncing to the beat more, but it's something I've found very hard to do when I've tried to do it. There's a lot of little overlaps to make it work. Since it's "animation" you might give him a really big harmonica to make it more obvious. Hard to see the one he has.

Happy Birthday to the calmest forum moderator on the internet!

Those are cuties, John.

I suppose you could do it in an action. Perhaps Poses are more commonly used because they get saved with the character, Actions aren't.

Why a pose? Image maps are essentially flat things and 3D objects are not. If we can temporarily flatten out the surface of a 3D object so the image can face all the patches evenly, the image will appear less distorted. Generally, this flattening is something you do manually in a pose by moving CPs. However, for uniformly round objects like your hammer head, cylindrical application is easier and more precise. You image needs to be painted so that the left and right edges can meet without an obvious seam.

Happy New Year! And may all your patches face outward!