robcat2075

That's quite impressive! That's a great example of what an enthusiastic new user can do. That's a wonderful idea for a short film and the pacing and camera work show you know your way around making a movie. Polishing? Probably the biggest bang for your time would be to upgrade the environments and lighting. (That will send render time thru the roof, but that's computer time not you time). Thumbs up also to your associates who did the original music and sounds effects!

The most frequent reason is that the "Key Model" button (found at the bottom of the interface) is not on when you do the copying and mirror-pasting. Check that first. the "keyframing options" vid in the tut link in my sig gives some further background on the use of the various keyframe filter buttons.

Let them know what rig you are using. At the very least the actions would have to be on the same rig.

the even frames will get even numbers(000,002,004,006...) and the odd frames will get odd numbers(001,003,005,007...) (this is rendering to targas) when they're all done import them as an image sequence into A:M. They will be correctly ordered. you can resave from A:M as a single QT file if you want. QT Pro can also import numbered image sequences and export ot a single QT file.

32 minutes on a reflection and refraction intensive scene like that doesn't sound outrageous. On a PC you can set things so that each instance of A:M is on a different processor. (On the Mac... someone will have to chime in.) If they are both fighting for the same processor that won't speed things up. Also this multiple instance thing is for when you are rendering more than one frame. For example, instance 1 would render only odd frames and instance two would render only even frames. If you're just rendering one frame, one instance is all you should run.

I'm impressed with your take on caricature in 3D, so quickly after jumping into it. But, remember when you asked if you were improving? Well, we really need to get you splining better. It doesn't take any longer and your models will look better.

YOur description is a bit hazy. If you show a movie of it going wrong it will be easy to see.

You can scale mouse movement in mouse prefs. When I don't recommend a tablet for A:M I really just mean for A:M. I got a Cintiq for drawing. I wouldn't recommend a mouse for drawing.

Congratulations! Applause really is nice to get. Have you shown it here? I have no idea if an imac has an output for a second monitor. I'll presume you've confirmed that.

I find a tablet not a plus because the springiness of the pen tip makes it hard to place and release something at an exact point. I can also navigate the screen with just a wrist move with a mouse, while a tablet makes me move the whole arm RAM helps in situations where your scene elements have grown so large that your computer is needing to swap data to/from the hard drive. More RAM = less swapping. Bitmap textures may be a big part of this. I don't know it it's the same with complex things like particles and hair. A faster CPU is always useful. Are you mac or PC? The consensus seems to be that A:M is faster on a PC. I think the best plugin for A:M is a second monitor. Being able to spread out the PWS timeline on a whole screen by itself makes A:M immensely more easy to comprehend for animating. Old CRTs are cheap now. get one that does the same res as your main monitor. If your graphics card doesn't have two video outs, get one that does. A $2 adapter can convert a digital monitor out to a VGA out for a CRT monitor.

What parts are A:M? The swarm of butterflies?

I substituted my own depth map (a blurred black R) for the missing one. At first it didn't work, then I changed it to bump, then I changed it back to Depth, and it seems to work. make sure there isn't an alpha channel in your depth map.

Yes they are improving. Although I thought the guitar playing was better when Thom did it in the previous video.

Why did I know that was going to happen?

the depression that IS working is a bump map? It looks like we're seeing perspective and overlapping edges on that and that doesn't happen with bump maps. Yes, post a sample project and let someone try it. Don't forget to include the map.

I have no idea what I'm looking at, but if that is one layer of patches there are several spline problems there. In the tut link in my sig there's a vidoe on avoiding dead end splines. That might be useful. But I'm still not sure what part of your pic you're referring to.

You mean in A:M? just about every character on the CD has a good hand, with varying levels of realism/stylization

you mean 3 splines? Show us a wireframe of the problem spot. You'll get a more useful answer if we see it.

if you look up either of those or "surface Properties" in the help index it tells you all about them.

Fun stuff. I'm glad you're enjoying A:M so much.

Compared to some other first walks that have wandered thru here it's not a complete horror. Is there some element that didn't work the way you expected? I made some vids on walks for TWO animators. You may find those helpful. You can find them in the tut link in my sig.

that looks great! Looks like very good splining.

Quick test of lag constraint idea... floatingThingTestMP4.mov FloatingThing.zip

is the problem just the cable to the floating thing? I'm not sure yet from reading your description. But a while back i offered a solution for a hose that needed to run from a gas pump to the nozzle http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=286159 also don't discount th epossiblity of using a dynamic chain for the link. that is a more advanced solution requiring more patience. If the problem is getting the floating thing to "float" rather than be rigidly following the beast, that sounds like a job for a translate to constraint with "lag" set to several frames. Basically it causes a delayed reaction to the movement of the parent object. "lag" may be an advanced prop. enabel advanced props in options>global I think.

Oh... that rider. It look like you've constrained the rider to the model bone of the creature. You need to constrain it to a bone in the creature that is in the creature's back. The bone that the Saddle CPs are associated to would be a good choice.