robcat2075

When I refer to "Dope Sheet" I just mean the A:M use of the term, that feature that automatically converts text into keyframes of Pose Sliders that represent specific phonemes. It gets a result in minimum time for a new user but it creates an overly-active look to the mouth. I don't recommend it for "lip synch" today. I'm not sure it's a great use of the term "Dope Sheet" "Dope Sheet" is also sometimes used to refer to the timeline view that represents keyframes as red dots on horizontal lines, as opposed to the view that shows channel curves for values of W, X, Y and Z... the "curve editor" In stop motion you had to get everything done in the first pass and that was largely true in hand-drawn 2D before drawing it onto a computer became a thing. So you did plan every frame in advance and matched to a frame number, down to the mouthshapes even. The exposure sheet or "dope sheet" But in 3D, the feedback cycle is so fast and so available you don't need to work that way. You put the body performance of the character in first, the mouth movement is probably the last detail you worry about. At any point, you can hit Play and see how what you have done matches the sound track. It is so easy to slide keyframes forward and back in the timeline to perfect the synch that committing to a specific frame before you start is unnecessary. It is so easy to add and subtract and revise any detail, big or small, at any point in the shot that needing to stake it all out to specific frames in advance is gone. That was what they taught at Animation Mentor when I did that. The process basically went... Thumbnail drawings to develop visual ideas and storyboard. Shooting reference footage to study timing and body mechanics Key in the main character poses, matched to the sound track, if there is one Polish the motion between the poses and holds "lip synch" might be that last thing to go in. I would have some basic jaw motion in there before this, but just basic. They never spoke of an exposure sheet or dope sheet. Now that you can plop the sound track right into the timeline and scrub it, and press "Play" to instantly see how your work matches up to the sound, that tells you all you need to know about when things have to happen. (or, it would be if you could hear the sound!) They spoke only lightly of mouthshapes, never of classic cartoon "phonemes", and discouraged the re-use of specific shapes, like we might see on "The Simpsons" where every "ee" is exactly the same. The mouth nuances were something we fashioned after everything else was working, and were not identified with frames on an exposure sheet in advance. Every substantial 3D animator I've heard talk about process since then pretty much has the same take on it and that is how I have always done it. The gray is not abnormal, that is just to make it not too contrasty. Not being able to scrub and hear the sound track will be an impediment for you. We need to figure out what is wrong. If you double click the audio file in the "Sounds" folder at the top of the PWS, do you hear anything?

I was able to do the steps in TAoAM 7 "Can You Say That?" without a crash. First try Help>Reset Settings and reboot and see if anything changes.

You should hear something.

Welcome James! In 20+ years of AM-ing I have never used a dope sheet! It's a bit of an obsolete technique for animation today, but if no one else has an answer, I'll take a look for completeness's sake. Do you have a sample PRJ you are working on and can you post it?

More trippy stuff! The center black appears to be exactly circular. Is that applied in compositing to prevent the sprites from visibly popping on?

Bigger basket!

I have entries from BruceMonahan Chuck Gram Createo Goss John Lemke MadFox Michael Brennan Rodger Reynolds Shelton Svetlix VanceG If anyone has sent me an entry and is not on that list... now is the time to holler!

How about giant eggs?

The AM2001 skeleton distributed with v19 has those limits corrected, although not the enforcement rate.

In Thom, which also has the 2001 rig, neither Euler constraint has a + It appears that default for a newly made Euler constraint is for enforcement always at 100%. In an ON/OFF Pose it will be 100% at both ON and OFF. The plus sign shows up when a key frame has been made on the enforcement channel to make enforcement be other than 100% at either ON or OFF. I believe the two 0% in the 2001 skeleton is an error. There are several ways to fix this. One is to open that relationship for editing, Open the Pose Slider window, then set the enforcement to 100% for both IK Arms Setup ON and IK Arms Setup OFF.

Is that the 2001 rig after all the installation steps have been done?

Today is the day! Get those unfinished finished! And the wireframe, too!

You mean "forearm" not "calf", right? The Forearm is the part of the arm below the elbow. a "calf" is in the leg. It is the lower leg, below the knee.

The sparkle war seems to be a draw. I wonder what the next level is?

Last call! I have a few stragglers hooked, I'm reeling them in... get your entries in, on or before Sunday March 28th!

My biggest doubt is that the name, "Reassign target model CPs," when deselected, doesn't describe what is happening.

I do get that result with the sample tubes in your tutorial. Can you imagine a use for this?

This is a useful technique for keeping different-purpose maps exactly aligned. For example you might paint some steel-gray rivets on a copper-color background in a paint program and stamp that onto your model and set it to COLOR. Then, back in the paint program you might copy that color image and edit it to be a grayscale bump map to elevate the rivets above the background. You would save out that new version, drop it into the folder that already has the color version, set it to BUMP and the details of both will align pixel-perfect. You don't have to try to stamp the second map exactly on top of the first.

The function of "Clone CP Weights" is to copy the CP weights from one model to the exactly matching CPs in a target model. Question: What is the purpose of the checkbox for "Reassign target model CPs"? If I uncheck it, no CP weights get changed, which is the same as not using the plugin at all. @yoda64 I did watch the tut by @itsjustme but I didn't see it address that questions.

Hi Myron, If you want your PNG to have background transparency and want the transparency to be included in the file, set... Buffers>Alpha to ON Buffers>Save Buffers to OFF "Alpha" decides if you get transparency "Save Buffers" decides if it is saved separately. "Save with unpremultiplied alpha channel" only decides how semi-transparent pixels are colored. OFF is usually normal. Ask again if that doesn't solve your problem.

I'm not sure what you mean. Yes. In most environments the 1, 2 and 3 keys (not the ones on the number pad) will constrain motion to x, y or z. They can be used in combinationn to move on a plane. If you have the World Space button (the Earth icon on your toolbar) ON those motions will be in world space. If it is OFF the motion will be in Object space. I've never had to do that. Do you have "Radiosity" ON in the Chor Properties? Turn if OFF. To get reflections you should only need to have a reflective surface and "Reflections" ON in the Render settings.

I brought it up with Steffen. It seems there is no way write an OBJ that uses cylinder mapping the way A:M does. However, it should be possible to make a Photoshop "Action" that would automatically triple the original Cylinder map, as above, for use with the OBJ and another Photoshop Action that could un-triple it all back into one square, after painting externally, for use in A:M. I like cylinder map because it doesn't force separate tiles for each patch, there's just one seam in the back of the model. The cylinder map is easy to work on in a 2D paint program.

I will add that most Constraints can have "offsets". Offsets will be made automatically when "Compensate Mode" is on. Compensate Mode is turned on by default when you begin to make most constraints. So, with Compensate Mode ON, if you Translate constrain Bone A to Bone B while it is 5cm away from Bone B, Bone A will follow Bone B... and always maintain that original distance relative to Bone B. An example use is when a character has to pick up some object. The model bone of a hammer doesn't need to be Translated exactly to some bone inside the character's hand, causing a pass-through. The hammer can be moved so it looks like it is touching the hand, then the Translate and (Orient Like) constraint is made, and the hammer will maintain the appropriate distance (and rotation) relative to the hand. Similarly, bones do not need to be physically attached to another bone to be a child of it. They only need to be a child of the bone in the PWS hierarchy and they will follow from any distance. Note that while constraints can be turned ON and OFF during an animation, parent/child relationships can not.

Here is a complication for the external painting workflow If I export a model that used Cylinder mapping to apply the decal, the OBJ can not reproduce that correctly. This has something to do with A:M using a 3x repeat on cylindrical decals. If I take the exported map into Photoshop and 3x the "canvas" width, with the original image in the center, the OBJ can use that and it looks correct except for a portion missing on the back If I tile the original image 3X we can see that the missing portion gets its imagery from one of the extra side images... I presume that if this were used for painting in 3DCoat, as Gerald describes, not all the paint would land on the center tile. Some way would be needed to compile all the paint back into the center tile for use in A:M.

Come and get it, Ladies!