robcat2075

In your options panel set rendering to "use camera settings"

Welcome to the forum! Download or CD version? -If you have the CD version go updates to go get the latest installer for the CD version. The most recent A:M is v15j+ -If you have the download version I presume you've got that already, but check Help>About just in case. -The community window is a rather unused feature, so for the moment close it rather than log in. It's possible that's a firewall problem, but I'm just guessing. I don't have Vista, but I recall they should turn off "Desktop Composition". I think you on the icon for A:M and set that in properties. Try that much and when that doesn't work... come back with more questions. I know lots of people use A:M on Vista.

If it were called "meaningless hip position averaging" most people would think less of it.

I think you have something set wrong. The descriptions dont' make sense. You need to post a screen capture so we can see what you are doing. I'm not sure what you mean by this. are you on a mac or PC?

You're in completely the wrong mode to do what you want to do. You have gone into bone editing mode. It is not for changing things while you animate. That is for setting up the character before you do any animation. This is a mode you almost never use from the chor. Use it in the model window only.

Our 2010 Community Project is "Bus Stop". Everyone can play! 1) Download this zip containing the set 2010_Forum_Project_Update2.zip (Thanks to mtpeak2 for making the fabulous set!) 2) unzip it to your hard drive 3) load the PRJ for your version of A:M. There are versions for v13, v14 and v15. We don't have a version for before v13; not yet anyway. 4) Animate your scene in the Choreography. Every scene begins with a bus pulling away to reveal this view of a bus stop. You animate what is happening at this bus stop after the bus pulls away...until the next bus arrives to cover up the scene again. You don't animate the bus. I'll add that in post. 5) you can use your characters or any stock A:M characters 6) shorter is probably better. 6b) Use your good judgment on content. I reserve the grand power to not use something if it's unsuitable for mass viewing but I'm sure that will not be a problem. 7) leave the camera and lights where they are. 8) you can add sound or leave your scene silent 8) Rendering Update: In your Options Panel set rendering to "use camera Settings". That will load the settings stored with the camera when you go to render. The camera is set to render to a JPG series. An image series was chosen instead of Quicktime so you wouldn't have to render your animation all in one stretch. Resolution: The camera is set to render at 720x405. If you prefer you may up the resolution to 854x480 when you go to render. This is 40% more pixels and will take 40% more time to render. I'll edit the video at the larger size and upscale smaller renders to fit. Either size is acceptable. 9) Get done by: October 20 27 10) I will edit together everyone's segment ask questions below if you have them Have fun! I'm sure we will see some great stuff!

Sometimes an exceedingly bad idea gets a really good name.

You don't need those. Those produce no benefit for animators. They do not make anything steady and they do not make anything balanced. Always turn those off if you have a rig that has them.

NewNull_MP4.mov The sound drops out at the end but it's mostly there. At one point I mistakenly call the "offsets" button the "constraints" button. EDIT: That button is really called "Compensate Mode" Edit from the future of 2014: this video was made before A:M turned on the "Compensate Mode" button ON by default when New Constraint is begon.

r is the shortcut to bring up the rotate manipulator the pivot of a model is the origin of the black bone, aka the model bone, that only appears in the model window if you are in bones mode and click on the back ground. in the model window you can only rotate a bone with the rotate manipulator , you can not translate it. You can translate a bone in the model window if you turn off the rotate manipulator. when you are in the chor window r also brings up the rotate manipulator. in the chor window you can translate a bone while the rotate manip is active only if you drag the origin point. You can not change the location of the model bone within the model when you are in the chor window. you can move the model bone in the chor which of course moves the whole model. If you need to make a model rotate about a point other than its model bone... see my first answer. It does work. I know because I have done it many times. If it is not working, you are doing something other than what i outlined. You'll have to show a screen capture of something not working because what you are describing isn't detailed enough.

Can you show a screen capture of it not working because I'm not even sure what you are describing.

What key are you using to spin the model?

If you need to temporarily move a model about any arbitrary point, constrain it to a null you have added to the chor. Add the null move it to the part of the model you want to be the center constrain the model to the null turn the null

If you're wanting to eventually use a path constraint you'll want to do it treadmill style since that is the convention path constraints anticipate you will use. But animating with real motion forward is a more traditional method and makes the body mechanics problems more realistic. In most feature animation walk "cycles" aren't used because they look like robotic repetition after the first repeat. If a character needs to walk somewhere they animate every step and show the character thinking about why they are going where they are going and appropriately starting and stopping along the way. A Hanna-Barbera cartoon uses walk cycles disguise what would otherwise be a static dialog scene. They do lots of walking and talking in "Scooby Doo" for example. But feature animation tends to avoid such contrivances. Walk cycles got used in TWO for economy's sake, but they are pretty obvious. A good use of cycles in TWO was the parade scene. Ken Heslip animated a cycle that marched forward two steps and made the beginning match the end. Then at the end of the cycle he moved the character's model bone forward the exact distance of two steps to pick up where the last cycle ended. This has the advantage of not altering the length of the cycle as it was animated; a path constraint stretches the timing to fit the distance needing to be covered. Cycles work for the parade because that's a situation where the characters really are trying to repeat their motion. The longest stretch of walk cycle animation I've seen in a Disney movie was the opening of "Robin Hood" and that was... a parade.

I think walks are THE hardest common activity to get right. It's really a bunch of different body mechanics problems all rolled into one. I like that you are doing the walk moving forward rather than treadmill style. That's a much better tactic.

What's the character rigged with? Raising the heel seems to be giving you trouble. The biggy I see is that he's reaching his lowest point before his heel hits the ground. It comes after. Have you watched my vid? And/or studied Richard Williams section on basic walk?

Yay! TSM2 lives to rig another day! It would be a calamity if they didn't since TSM2 uses the same constraints that have been around forever.

do your other 3rd party plugins appear? It may be that TSM2 needs to be recompiled to work in 64bit?... and that won't likely happen.

Change to Targa format, turn alpha OFF, then change back to your intended format.

what os were you on before?

briefly... -the job of the rear foot is to push the guy onto the foot that just got planted. If that rear foot is already sliding forward it can't be pushing much. -that gives the appearance that his center of gravity is way too far back. There's no way he could have enough weight off his rear foot to let him slide it forward when he does. -You can get more extension of the rear leg so it can push longer by pushing off with the toe. -after you finish pushing off with the toe and the foot is in the air, the toe doesn't remain curled up. In fact in animation we tend to let it lag behind as the foot is pulled forward thru the air. -after the heel contacts the ground the foot should slap down in another frame or maybe two at most in a normal walk. In animation we often lag the toe one frame after the foot -a real body is falling onto the leading foot and continues down for an instant after the heel contact, then the planted leg starts to push the body back up until it is ready to fall onto the next foot plant. - the front leg should be pretty straight when the heel contacts the ground and you got that right! Don't lose that when you are fixing the other stuff. - I made some videos on posing walks. look in the link in my sig. Richard Williams also covers fundamentals of walks in great detail in his book.

Show a screencapture of it not showing the X Y lines. Axis lines haven't changed much over the years.

Write a script, then scratch out a storyboard and and edit to a sound track and see how the thing holds up.

Looks good, Mark.

Looking good. I prefer the old weathered trashcan. Move the sign higher so it's not "tangent" to the top of the hedge. And move the manhole so it's not centered. To the right a bit. The other thing that's been bugging me is the clouds. The perspective seems off, like an upward sky shot was been decaled on a vertical plane. Is that reallya horizon shot of clouds? edit: it may be that they are not "lit" in the same direction as the foreground.