robcat2075

It's not a new problem really. It's been around for as long as we've had this new displacement. But I still think it's about the angle the original patch is seen by the camera. Here's a test with the same rotation seen from two different angles. platesAngleComparison.mov This is v15i

Tell me more about the lighting theory. Here's a test of the bitmapped displacement model lit from two different directions. The popping still seems to be happening on the same frames. LightDirectionComparison.mov

Someone oughta compile these mac fixes into one document and get it pinned to the top of the new users forum. I worry that new users are getting needlessly discouraged over something that could be easily fixed if they just knew about it.

With TSM2 I found that if I saved right after running Rigger, then restarted A:M and reloaded the character most of the text strings would appear properly. However they are just display names, and don't affect the working of the rig. Usually it's the word "Relationship", but i forget what 4386 is.

The popping is always there. Lower displacement makes it seem less because the pop travels over a shorter distance. I can't tell that the shape has anything to do with it. I think it has something to do with the angle that the original surface is seen by the camera or possibly the angle that two details on the original surface happen to make to the camera. If the exact circumstances could be identified a fix could probably be had. None-the-less this displacement material stuff has potential, I think.

Happy Birthday and thanks for all your A:M contributions!

There are some important differences between your model and the sample you show. Theirs is all rounded surfaces which makes it easy reflect the surroundings. Yours is mostly flat surfaces which have to be precisely aimed to catch reflection. Their objects are very black which makes it easy to see reflections on it. Yours is grey, the bright surface competes with any reflections it catches. In this quick try I deleted all the groups from "big screen" and made it all black and I dropped an "Environment Map" material on it that uses the "SparkelMap05" image. Look at the map it uses and compare the colors on it with where they show up on your model in the render. If a highlight is too bright or the wrong color or in the wrong place in the render, you can edit the map to change it. You can switch out other maps in the material to see how they look. You might well paint other maps to use for other objects' reflections. This isn't real reflection, so you don't need to have Reflections on when you render unless some other model uses real reflections. It is faster than real reflection. With more study this can be improved greatly, but this is a quick example. SpecTestMP4.mov reflectPRJ.zip

My grandest material essay so far... bony stegosaurus style-plates with contrasting tiger-striped Dino-Hyde© in between. This is one color material... and one displacement material (the skin detail is very faint but it's there)... and no maps! a turn-around: platesAllDispH264.mov Yeah, it's got some pops.

There's a photoshop plugin on the OpenEXR site that might work with other software. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenEXR I modeled one spike and scattered several of them on a flat surface. I shot that with an overhead camera with fog settings to make the near to far gradate from white to grey. I rendered that to the exr frame and cylinder wrapped that image on the basic shape.

Yes. This shows the percentage going from -1000 to +1000 The first half is with the original map that didn't have the base color close to middle gray. The second half is after I adjusted it in Photoshop. platesMinusToPlusCH264.mov

If you follow one of the top spikes all the way around you'll see some oddness, which is why I say semi-successful. Here you go. They generally have to be EXR to avoid banding. you can open it in A:M to see it. perpective_Render0.zip

An experiment at making dragon style spikes with displacement mapping. Semi- successful. platesH264.mov

Hey, Ken I just read that Amazon settled a lawsuit last month regarding their publish on demand business. Does that have any effect on your venture?

That's good thinking! So your original bone placement may be appropriate after all. One difference between the skeleton and your layout is that the pivot point for the ribcage is farther back in the skeleton. That may be significant. Maybe more so is that you have CPs from the mesh that would be children of the ribcage bone assigned to the spine bone below it instead, so when she bends her back the ribcage is going to be squashed or stretched. You may still have to cheat some of this placement and CP assignment. In real life what we see is skin sliding over bones rather than skin glued to bones. A:M doesn't slide skin over bones. You may have to place the bones slightly differently or weight the CPs a bit contrary to reality to get a realistic effect. The result you have in your bottom two pics doesn't look bad. What part of that don't you like?

Anatomically the ribcage is a pretty rigid thing. It expands to breath, but it doesn't really bend. So putting a bone joint in the middle of the ribcage wouldn't be useful. The part of the back that really does the bending is the spine from the hips to the bottom of the rib cage (maybe half way up the back?) An anatomy book with a skeleton would be a good guide. I'd move the pivot point of those bones to something more like this... I'm presuming the 2008 rig can be varied like that. I'd also move the hip/leg joint to a more anatomically correct location where the black crosshair is. I don't know much about the working of the 2008 rig. What is that null that i pointed the question mark to?

-1st rule of cloth is it has to start NOT incontact with any deflector. The hair and head mesh are starting too close to each other. Make a pose that can either shrink the head mesh or that can move the hair mesh off the head. Look at the test in this post http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=318157 I start the body out small, then expand it to fill the shirt. -There's also one spline sticking off the top of the cloth mesh. That's a problem waiting to happen. -The cloth mesh also needs to be denser. Look at my post for an example of a cloth density. -Also the cloth hasn't been simulated inteh PRJ you posted. I'm presuming this is the PRJ before you ran the simulation...

Probably they called it a "demo" to attract traffic and ad views to their site. But there isn't a demo version of A:M. And v15e isn't current either. None-the-less I recommend A:M and for $79 you can get the one-year version at good ol' hash.com

Rather than have two versions of the character, you could make a pose on one to hide (make transparent or shrink to 0%) the things you don't want to be there all the time.

Almost none of the models or actions for that project were included. The snake models are all missing. Right now you have saved them all separately from the PRJ file. You can either include them in a zip with that PRJ or do Project>Embed All to make them a part of the PRJ file.

Is it really necessary to change the URL for all the films that were there? This breaks all the links that people have posted on their websites and blogs over the years.

My copy of "The Woman Who Lived on Her Roof" arrived last week! (I was waiting until I bought something else so I could get the free shipping.) It looks quite charming and attractive. I'll hold on to it and give it to my niece next Xmas. And I'll remember to write a review on Amazon.

I know it seems tedious to keyframe all those bones in place but... they were all going to be keyframed someplace anyway since you were going to animate them with some key frames. In the context of all the things that go into animating a character, it's a minor maneuver.

Congrats on the gig! That looks 10x better than some of the local business CG commercials we see around here.

That's looking pretty good! I'm guessing there's no sss in there yet?

TAoA:M says: That's a lot more specific than just something about the shift key. That IS how to make a 5 point patch.