robcat2075

Mmakeing 3D models is a lot like sculpting. You can use a photo as a reference but there is no automatic computer tool to do that except for on very simple geometric objects (not part of A:M , BTW). if the object is very flat, and you have a straight on pic of it you can import that as a rotoscope and use it as a guide for splining. But I most reccommend learning the essential modeling princples in TAOA:M and then you can make any shape you want. There area a couple of tuts there on working from photos. Start small and simple, grow from there.

The multi-processing hasn't turned out to be much of a factor in PC rendering, so comparitively, the lack of it on Macs isn't much of a factor either.

Aha. So that's what that multiple path stuff was about. They'll love it. Congratulations! Here's what I noticed about the posing... When he's carrying the heavy object, you can make it look heavier by posing him with his arms pulled straight down from his shoulders and the object close against his chest. He'll have to lean back a bit too to balance( edit: I notice you do have him leaning back some already). Holding it out in front and away from him suggests it is a very light object.

Welcome to A:M! May all your splines be of good continuity..

That's interesting. I think it needs some way to diminish the visual presence of the larger, less populated, areas because even a flat disk still commands quite a bit of attention. How about a circle that is not filled in? It would still cover the needed area but also indicate the "emptyness" of it.

Hey, that looks very convincing!

just to amplify on Mike's comments... you could have your jet emit particles, render those as a separate pass with everything else black and use that pass to controll bluriness/distortion created in a compositing program like after effects and applied to your main image pass. Particles because those would have a changing nature to them that a solid shape would not. if you could make fuzzy edged, clear, refracting particles (the new V15 water?) you might be able to do it in all A:M. Not sure how to make fuzzy edged water tho.

Have you viewed the rendered file in another program? Is it still black? What do you get in the file when you render parallel ro cross eye format?

What version are you using? You may have to post a PRJ that demonstrates this. If you can get it to happen with just a simple cube in front of the camera , do that.

That looks promising. A little fill light on the left will make the face clearer.

additional animation after using an "action" needs to be done in a "New Choreography Action" This vid mentions some of that... shaggyanddoormp4b.mov

if they are walking in the same place each time you can use the ease property of the constraint to put a character back at the beginning of a path or any where on it. 0% = start of path 100% = end of path 1%-99%= somewhere inbetween.

Hey , that looks sharp. He had a cape, right? That will be cool to see.

I tried making some new relationships in V13 and didnt' get the error either. So far it's only happened with TSM.

Nice models. There's a "planet glow" material around somewhere that will soften the atmosphere on the plant shot. On the second one a non-shadow casting backlight might help separate the model from the background.

How about if the "reflection" stuck his head out from behind the mirror at the end. Instead of putting an image on the mirror, take the mirror out of the frame and pose a copy of the character so it is seen thru the frame as if it were a reflection and then at the very end we find out it's not a reflection.

I was using V13, I really think this is an A:M/TSM thing. I hadn't noticed a constraint haveing any problem in other situations.

on the computer, in ToonBoom Studio using my magical reflectiq drawing tablet. I studied the clip very closely to count frames, see where the arcs were going, and to identify the key poses. I eyeballed the key frames as close to the orginal as I could without tracing them. then I inbetweened from there. I also found a model sheet of Bosko that answered some questions about what his shape is supposed to be. I tried to make some of the arcs and spacing better particularly in the hip motion. I'm not sure it made much of a difference. A lot of detail in the hands and feet is guessed at since the clip was so foggy. Yeah, once TWO is done I want to start looking at hand drawn again. I feel like I've learned enough about timing and motion doing while doing 3D that I might be more likely to get watchable results than before when I had no clue.

You mean even if someone installs a squetch rig the relationship names get that error?

I had to rig a character quick today and I noticed that a newly-rigged TSM character now gets "Error loading string xxxx" at the end of its relationship names. Since the character still seems to otherwise work ok and this didn't happen before, I'm guessing that A:M has changed some detail about how it reads these names in from the model file. Perhaps some termination character is not being recognized anymore or something like that. Has anyone pawed thru this situation with a text editor and found out what the cause is?

Hey David, I really like the way you move your characters around. You're one of the few people animating around here that "gets" body mechanics. Even when you're doing something weird it has a plausibility about it that is rather rare. -The action always seems to be trailing the sound. I feel like if i slid the sound later a few frames it would really lock in. -I'd consider making red tent a white igloo or something not so red so it wasn't grabbing so much attention.

That's a great concept. Several levels of meaning in there. Right now the staging is a problem. His body is obscuring too much of the hand that's leaning on the mirror. I'd consider waiting to reveal that the reflection is "on it's own" until just before he speaks.

I may have voted... not sure, but I think I did.

Yeah it does look a bit dark, but I think it worked well. Hope your teacher likes it!

The other option was a usb dongle. Not inexpensive however. I got a second cheap used CD drive and leave the A:M CD in there. I understand they are going to online activation for future versions but I dont' know the details of that.