robcat2075

I agree that's starting to look too busy. Find some way to make the character the main event.

One thing that bothered me about Skype was the spam text messages. Even though I had my privacy setting set to get calls and messages only from people on my contact list, the spam was still getting through and that made me suspect the security of it wasn't all that complete. That's why i gave up on having it run in the background all the time.

they're all rather too dark for me.

I think everyone on TWO had Skype installed at one time or another. If someone could make a Skype that screencams a desktop that would be a useful thing for helping people with programs.

Sorry to hear about the continuing knee trouble.

A good comprehensive book on the peculiarities of CG lighting is Jeremy Birne's "Digital Lighting and Rendering" I have compiled some translation notes for A:M users.

Is that really taking 20 minutes per frame? What's the deal?

I hadn't caught this one. Good looking character!

the French do it best:

Welcome to the Forum! First, read the page for New users, it has good advice: http://www.hash.com/newuser.htm I'll repeat its main suggestion, which is to do all the exercises in "The Art of Animation:Master" which you get as a booklet with the CD version or as a PDF download with the download version of A:M Those are designed to introduce you to all the essential basics of using A:M. Don't skip those! You can find video versions of them in the TAoA:M subforum and also show your work there and ask questions if you get stuck.

Right now my PlayRange at the top of the PWS is white against very, very light gray which is almost indistinguishable. I know there's some Windows interface color setting that manages this and it's not in A:M but what interface elment do i change the color of to get my non playrange area to be a darker gray?

Tom, do you have the bad version saved so it can be repeated? that would be a good AMReport.

It's one of the control rings that you normally see in shaded mode ? That's interesting. Tom, what happens if you nudge the light a few pixels in some direction?

This sounds slightly familiar. if you change the "quality" setting of the effect does the line change?

This look's like he's rearing back from us. I think you want to suggest a more forward moving pose

Bend the torso forward a bit, move him forward more over his right foot. Get more of a 3/4 view so he's not directly facing the camera.

I'll also add that only one child can be "attached" to a parent, even if several are physically placed as if they are. If a hand bone has five finger bones that are children of it, only one can have the"attached to Parent" property ON. In the case of fingers, it is most likely that the rigger would choose to have none of them set to ON, even though one of them could be.

Congrats! I think that's a fine first outing! I've been doing this for 10+ years and still haven't got a short done. And welcome to the forum!

A child is any bone lower in the hierarchy physically attached or not. "Attached to parent" (it's a property of the bone) needs to be ON for IK solving and Kinematic constraints to work their way up a chain. An upper leg bone (a thigh) is usually NOT "attached to parent" since you don't want your moving of the leg bones to move the hip. likewise, toes are rarely "attached to parent" If a bone isn't positioned to be physically attached to a parent, A:M will move the origin so that it is if you turn" Attached to parent" ON You may want to more carefully place your bones so that A:M isn't doing that for you.

If they do animate, then they need bones. You can put them in now and choose to not animate them at the beginning. Generally then I'd say your placement of the bones looks appropriate If any bones are part of a Kinematic constraint chain, like in my video, any child bone needs to have "attach to parent" ON, for example where the lower leg bone meets the upper leg bone ( a knee).

Here's a suggestion for plusing his pose. Put him in a more aggressive stance, slightly crouched and forward leaning...

Good looking stuff! Great looking locomotive. Like something Superman should be trying to outrace. Interesting about the "polarity".

Presuming those claws don't animate, that they move with the feet as a solid unit, then they don't need bones in them. Just attach their CPs to the same bone the foot is attached to.

Are the claws on the feet really supposed to be animatable?

A lot of this depends on what "rig" you are installing. For the moment I'll presume you are rolling your own. I like it that way. In your case i think that's best. Make it a horizontal bone with the roll handle pointing up so +x will be "up" and -x will be "down". I recall in some programs a "child" bone MUST be connected to its parent. In A:M that is not necessary, it only needs to appear as a child in the hierarchy as shown in the PWS. Watch my "Simplest IK Leg" video for a quick explanation of why heirarchy isn't that simple and why you dont' want it to be that simple. It's in the screencam link in my sig. Holmes has some videos that explain these sort of rigging ideas in greater depth.