robcat2075

Bump maps approximate surface angle by how much the gray scale changes from one point to another. Although they resemble elevation maps each pixel isn't really representing a height. It's the difference in gray value compared to the neighboring pixels that is interpreted as surface angle. Normal maps store the angle (and height?) of that surface at each pixel adn don't depend on the value of neighboring pixels. The colors don't really mean much visually, they are just RGB values re purposed as XYZ values and those are used to drive the shader. Bump maps have the advantage of being easy to paint by hand and can also work as displacement maps. Neither Bump nor Normal maps create any actual surface displacement, just the shaded illusion of it. That's my layman's explanation. I don't really understand the math of either one.

If you buy a $79 subscription, you've got the program and any updates for a year, no other purchase needed. A subscription is locked to the computer you install it on. If you purchase the $299 deal you get a CD which acts as the key to start A:M on any computer you want to install it on, but you need to have the CD in the drive. The CD doesn't expire; any updates that run with that CD won't expire either but I'm not quite clear on how long you get free updates with the CD. I think if you buy both you pay for both. But I've also heard if you buy the CD version you get a subscription version also anyway. I'm not sure on that.

Yeah, I like that quilted outfit too!

Good looking fellows!

Again with the Happy Birthdays! May the tradewinds of success be at your back and... (remainder of high seas metaphor not finished).

When you render it you choose a "save to" location. Are you sure you're looking at the right spot? Try saving it to the desktop. Just to try.

Make sure "Advanced " is on for your render settings... then on the Output tab Click the "Format " triangle so you can see "save Options" Click on "Set" What codec is chosen? "Uncompressed" or "MS video 1" are safer choices. Quicktime format is better than AVI generally. Brace yourself. Many bumps lie ahead.

Here's Shaggy in X format. Shaggy_TSM2.zip However there are many options in the X format and I've never used it before so it may be that these have to be set just right depending on what app you are trying to go to. Some one who knows more will need to chime in.

hey, mark, while you're in the building... http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=38968

When you say this I'm not sure what you are seeing. You'd have to point me to the evidence. He means A:M itself. The splash screen has the version number on it and the A:M title bar no longer has the year in it. "About A:M" reveals a version number but no year in the name.

Always get your normals right.

I think I was rejected by that school! About ten years ago i clicked on a banner ad for a home-study art school and filled out a form, thinking they would send me information in the mail or maybe an "aptitude test." But no, three days later a representative of the school was on my doorstep wanting to interview me and see my portfolio. Portfolio? Well, I grabbed a few pads of drawings from art classes i had taken in Dallas and started flipping through those. Stuff like this: The representative wasn't happy, "No... no... no... oh my god no... I need to see something that shows some drawing ability." "That's about as good as I've done so far, I'm afraid," I replied. "We can't take you. We're looking for people with talent and you just don't have it," the rep said and that was the end of the interview. I didn't feel bad because I didn't have my heart set on Art School anyway and i was completely distracted by something very strange... I couldn't figure out whether this representative was male or female! There was no clue in the voice or face or shape or clothes as to what i was talking to. It was the most sexually ambiguous person i have ever met. And i didn't catch his or her name at the door so I didn't have that clue to work with. It was a genuine "Pat" moment. That's my story of applying to Art School.

? The body is always moving forward in a walk.

"Walks" is absolutely, 100%, positively there.

I remain unconvinced. However, it may be a moot point. I don't think they're going forward with anything resembling my flyer entry anyway.

I still see lots of version numbers out there... Maya 8, Painter 11, Firefox 3.6, Photoshop CS5... I'm going to bet that "v16" will be current longer than "2011" I think using the calendar year label is more confusing. We frequently have people asking things like what happens to their subscription if they buy "A:M 2010" in December 2010. Also, A:M has stopped labeling the top of the A:M window with a year. It's just "Animation Master " now.

Not until i clicked on them. Firefox 3.6

BTW, I had to click on it before it started cycling. Interesting that there is a difference. Too bad normals aren't like the fingers on an inside-out rubber glove where you could just blow into it and they all pop out.

Personally I like "v16" because that's what we all call it and whenever someone comes in here saying they have A:M 200X and where can they get the update we all scratch our heads and go "well, what version is that?" Certainly less text is a reasonable notion, but I went with the wall of details for this flyer because I figure it's being handed out at a convention to people who have already stopped for a few minutes to watch the presentation but weren't hooked yet and are about to walk off. So this isn't something they're going read right then and there, they're going to stick it in their pocket and move on to the rest of the con and maybe when they get home pull it out. Then they have time for details. i remember the first C-64 ad i saw which was basically a wall of text but i read it all a hundred times over because I wanted to know about this thing. I'm putting myself in the mind of the person thinking "well, maybe..." and throwing as many interesting bits at them as i can to get them to want it. That was the strategy, anyway.

Your right, I recall that problem now. I'll be curious to see how this plays out here. I'm wondering how ASIFA missed that.

The ASIFA-Hollywood Archive blog put up some good material on image composition, including the relevant chapter from the Famous Artists Course where they discuss it as four elements: Picture Area, Line, Depth and Value. Th Famous Artists Course is nice because it was aimed at commercial artists who wanted to make fairly realistic, representational images, much as we often strive to do in 3D http://www.animationarchive.org/?p=2033

Originally I wrote "gazillion" but decided to tone it down. Thanks for the corrections. I haven't pursued this any further since I haven't heard from Jason if he wants to do that.

This looks like an promising way to make utitlities for A:M!

Happy Birthday to the most confusing screenname on the forum!

Walks are very hard to do. On the walk... - in general the cycle of the arms should lag the cycle of the legs a bit, meaning the arms reverse direction after the feet do. - I think the distance he is covering with each stride is over-large for a casual walk around the room and the amount of arm swing is pretty big too. -Hips and shoulders also rotate about their vertical axis as the legs and arms swing on them. - in a lot of animated walls I think there's a tendency to have the body too far back when the rear foot leaves the ground - Have you watched my videos on posing out walks? - I think he's rebounding up too soon after each heel contact -feet generally get slapped down in one or two frames after the heel contact. - and yes, the foot sliding needs to be fixed. -When he does the sudden stop, the classic thing to do is have the rear leg get pulled tight as if that were what was holding him back.