robcat2075

The last time I heard a Hash person speak on it, they said that A:M doesn't really benefit from a top-of-the-line card. It doesn't depend on the video card for performance as much as other 3D apps. If you have a 128 mb card you're probably set. increasing your RAM will probably let you run more apps with A:M better, but won't increase performance unless you have complex elements that exceed your RAM and the computer has to begin swapping from the hard drive. Hard to predict the tipping point for that. going up to 1GB probably isn't too expensive though. But really, a faster CPU (and motherboard and RAM) is most likely to produce perceptible gains.

Wonderful model and wonderful splining! The wireframe should be in the A:M encyclopedia under "less is more"

pretty hard to tell from that small pic what is smeared and not smeared. remember a spherically or cylinderically wrapped image has to be pretty wide to not get stretched as it is made to fit all the way around an object.

This struck me too. The smoothness with which it slides across the ground, and rigidity it displays when landing. I'd start investigating some extra jiggles and shakes as skids out. And if it were possible to rig that canopy that's over the driver... just a little overlapping motion on impact might go a long way to selling this shot. I also think the camera shake is way too slow. I'm sure sound effects will help when you put them in, but if you can get it to work even without the sound that would be great. But, as always, I love the whole idea of this movie, and am eager to see it. One more thing, I think the cat's legs could be off set just a hair front to back. They look exactly in synch right now.

I like the new tripod legs. Will be interesting to animate them. Can't recall how they handled it in WotW. I'm not sure we ever got a look at them taking more than a step or two.

"Preview" mode is a term encountered when the render panel does not have "advanced" checked. It equates to "final" render with multipass ON and set to 1 pass. Shadows are enabled. "Real-time" equates to shaded mode, which cannot do shadows.

If you're judging lighting or appearance, just render a few representative frames, like every 50th. Don't bother with a full render until those look good. seconds/frame is not fps

7200 seconds/491 frames = ~15 seconds/frame. That's pretty fast. But it all depends on what is in your scene. If you're just testing motion, rendering in shaded mode (AKA "real-time") is faster.

"minimum contents 6 fluid ozs." that is truly from a bygone era in which people had a "sip" of coke and not a bucket. Maybe you should add the thin people from "American Gothic" in the background just to establish that human beings once flourished in that form.

Wonderful looking images. That centurion should have a short to star in.

That's a very dusty room!

That's not an attack. That's offering to help. When I said show us the bad result, I really meant show us the bad result. Really. It's real tough to diagnose the trouble by words. The problems you are describing seem not to be TSM problems at all and yet are attributed to TSM. Here's a strong indicator of why TSM rigs are so good: They were made by people who need to put out fine animation, for paying customers, on a deadline. They use it themselves. They made it so it would be easier to animate characters well, not harder. (But they still have to do their own smartskin. No way around that.) Here's one little animation example: TSM characters can raise their heel and leave the toe of the foot in place. AM2001 can't. You have to rotate the whole foot then reposition it so the toe looks like it stayed. And what are the chances of that looking good between keyframes? Here's a big giant one: TSM has an IK spine; it controls all the spine bones with just two bones. AM2001 is FK spine; you have to rotate each spine bone individually in increments from the butt to the shoulders and hope you end up at the right place. Yuk. Again, show us the problem. Then it can be figured out.

Without spending alot of time with other rigs you won't know the difference. TSM1 was great, TSM2 is even better. However most animators are not at the level where they can discern the advantages of them. They don't understand what rigs really do. And most modelers are not at the point where they can properly assign CPs to bones for character animation. It's something you learn to do by experimentation. No rig, even one you make yourself, will do that correctly automatically. What step would you not have to do with your own rig that you have to do with TSM? It is easier to make bad animation with simpler rigs. A lot of the stiff, floaty, weightless animation we've seen over that last 20 years is the result of rigs that make it hard to put the character where it needs to be. Show us the bad result. then we'll know what the problem is.

I can't really tell what it is about from the trailer. The "handcart" reference suggests something to do with the Mormon's trek across the plains to Utah. But the dress of the characters doesn't look to be from that period. So I'm stumped.

AFAIK, light lists work on objects, not parts of objects. If the eyes are separate objects from all else then you could do light lists.

How about adding two lights to the model that just shine on the eyes?

Hey, that was charming! Everything I always wanted to know about snowmen but was afraid to ask. I enjoyed watching that. And the music was fun too. Burn it on a DVD and send it to friend and foe alike for the holidays.

In the Pose Sliders window, remember to turn "TSM Constraints" ON. My TSM models come out with it "OFF" for some reason. I really like TSM and TSM 2. I'm not sure I'd be animating without them.

Congratulations on finishing your first movie! I like the fact that it's a "silent movie", meaning it's all told thru the visual. There were several moments where the exact intention of the interaction between the characters eluded me. It might be something as simple as a different camera angle to fix that. If martial arts conventions ever have film festivals (like anime conventions sometimes do) you should enter it.

Fine looking helicopter! Looks good enough to be in a movie.

Bigger head? Bigger eyes? It looks like you did the reverse.

Looks Great! If you don't want to do white, a light blue gradient background would be wintery.

you might have something... if you filtered the audio file to smooth it out and just leave the basic vowel sounds you might use that to generate the action, then swap the origianl audio back in...?

Welcome to A:M, the most powerful animation software in our world! Both are possible. For best results convert your video to a targa sequence and import that as an "image sequence" into your images folder. After that you use it like any other decal.

OK, it finished downloading. One problem with the jumps is that he leaves the ground before he's finished stretching. that means any force he's applying to the ground never really gets applied, making his flight in the air look impossible. that stretch should happen in one or two frames at most. Boing! take a look at theses bounces: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&sh...ndpost&p=143990 compression: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&sh...ndpost&p=145375