robcat2075

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.

He's looking sharp! Get him rigged and get him in a great pose and he'll be a strong entry. The way the fingers come out of the palm of the hand looks odd.

If you have dragons in your lawn you may be... a middle earther.

Nice start. I hope she's got something to hang her feet on while she's riding that way! Welcome to the forum!

All the windows except the viewport are dockable and undockable. in the drag bar and uncheck "allow docking".

yes. If you're having trouble activating one, select its CPs then hit the period key twice. If you want a hook on the side of a 5-point patch, attach it after you've turned the 5-pointer on.

The updates are really full installers, just run them. What's not working? I think there were two different CDs that ran v12 so there may be two different v12 installers.

I like the "Bikini Warning" too. You should have a logo for that!