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robcat2075

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Everything posted by robcat2075

  1. If you just did the tut and saved a .prj then the model is probably embedded inthe project. If you actually went thru the op of saving the model as a separate file then it's not embedded. but then you'd have a .mdl file somewhere on your dirve that you could load independently of the project. if you "Windows>close all" the windows in A:M and then double click on your model under "objects", what happens?
  2. If worse came to worse you could always save your project, which we presume to contain the model (unless it's not embedded), and then extract the model portion in a text editor and paste it into a blank model file and reload that. Not easy to explain, so I'll let someone else try
  3. Try opening up the "project workspace" window (ALT+1) and double click on your model under "objects"
  4. Yes. I recommended Sorensen 3 because it compresses quite a bit while retaining decent quality. This is important for files that people will be downloading off the web. It's faster to compress and it also doesn't require the large computing power to play back that H.264 does. This will be less of an issue as people migrate to faster CPUs but we still have users here who can't play H.264 file well. H.264 can make smaller files, though. "Animation" codec's compression is quite poor and makes huge files. It's best use is for footage that you don't want compressed (because you're going to compress it later with some other program), that needs an alpha channel (It's the only QT codec that supports that) and an attached sound track (if one didn't need attached sound, a numbered targa sequence would be a better output choice) and will only be used locally, not posted on the web. Rendering footage that you would later use in a video editing program to make yet another file would be an example of this. "Animation" may be the default because it's first on the codec list and quicktime just automatically goes there when it's first run.
  5. Hi Lori, Looks like you got the motion working! The black sky is from having "Alpha channels" on in your render settings AND using the "Animation" codec in your quicktime compression settings. turn them off on this panel and also access quicktime compression settings there [attachmentid=20351] and try these settings: [attachmentid=20349] Vary the KB/sec setting to something like 100 or 200 to vary quality
  6. According to Martin, that's what SVN does. No checking out required. That's how the code for A:M is done too. Everyone is working on different parts and then it gets shuffled together. Scary, huh?
  7. that's what the whole SVN thing is about, no?
  8. When I try that it just pans the camera and doesn't stay on the selected object. but that just creates regular "birds eye" motion without changing the camera
  9. To have the camera always point to something, you'd have to have it constrained ("Aim at") to that object. But that would be awkward to keep doing and undoing. And typically, you set the camera and leave it there for the length of a shot. I'd wonder why it is they need to keep moving the camera. There are some camera navigation shortcuts here: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11392
  10. The best way to make a part of a decal invisible is to create it with an "alpha channel". In Photoshop this is a fourth channel in addition to the R G and B Note that this does not make part of the plane transparent, it prevents the decal form from coloring part of the plane. In A:M you can choose to make any one color in your decal transparent, but it's all or nothing (jaggy), an alpha channel can give smoother edges to your decal images.
  11. Even if you are compositing in AE you will do better to use the alpha channels A:M can generate rather than render an object against a colored background and try to color key that out.
  12. Save your project like this Myprojectname_01.prj then, when you "save as" later, just increment the 01 part. Maybe three seconds to do. There are utilities that will autosave every so often, but it's easy enough to do manually. On complicated projects I like to add a bit after the number so I can find major turning points in the project like... projectname_08_bonesadded.prj or projectname_46_smartskinrevised.prj or projectname_73_constraintssimplified.prj This does take longer than three seconds but it makes it makes it easier to revert to before-I-made-a-bad-mistake.
  13. But if you're impatient or just want to see a rough result you can just group select the whole model after you import it and hit "P" to mass convert the splines. Nice model, I'll be curious to see the conversion.
  14. It may be time to reload the model and start over. I was thinking the same thing as well, ugh... Not looking forward to it tho, it took me forever to get the characters posed in the CHoreography the way I wanted, then added the cyclic motion... Everything was looking good up to that point... Just reload the version of the project you saved before things went wrong. What? You didn't save versions of your project? Tsk, Tsk. Save your work frequently. Every five minutes. It's very easy to press a wrong button and not realize it until no amount of undoing will revert it. But you do have your last save. Copy it and try deleting keys until whatever you lost comes back. It's a cheap experiment. That's about all I can suggest without actually seeing how you did what you did. This will not simplify your workflow, and will yield motion that is very hard to tweak. Better to animate in the chor.
  15. Hey that's me! By default it only keys things that have been keyed before For most animation situations you only need and want the ones I have bolded above You're onthe right track here... You can set the key filter to "Key Bone" (rather than "Key Model") and SHIFT-select various bones to force keys on bones that haven't been previously keyed, without forcing keys on EVERY bone inthe model. Mystery to me. POSSIBLY having that "Key Other" button selected might be in some way responsible because that includes making keys on a whole world of horrors that usually shouldn't get keyed. That's just one theory. It may be time to reload the model and start over. BTW, after you've used SHIFT-force Keyframe to access the radio buttons, remember to SHIFT-Force keyframe then next time you use it so you can set the radio button back to it's normal, safe "key only bones that are already keyed" mode. probably right here. Using it with "Key Model" was the problem I think. Not sure And that's when you should come here to ask a specific question, as you are doing now. see brief verbosity above Actually I think this is pretty sophisticated stuff. Knowing when to key something and when to key only part of something isn't always immediately obvious.
  16. Nice pig. Well, if I were going tweak one thing I'd make the body continue down for a frame or two after each foot contact so the legs don't look so stiff (the compression pose). And I'd puthe feet closer together instead of spread so far apart. And I'd make the nose movement an action separate from the walk so I could just use it occasionally ok, that was three things.
  17. Remember, it's only "the channel editor" if you have the button pressed to look at the "curves". The other button shows you "that thing which uses red squares to depict keyframes" which may be called "the dopesheet". But both are states of "the timeline". I've never found much use for "The Timeline" window proper since the PWS timeline does all that and more.
  18. Perhaps you could post a specific question to start, maybe with a screen capture to show what you're asking about. Personally, i prefer the timeline that is in the right pane of the Project WorkSpace (PWS), rather than the window actually named "the timeline". The PWS Timeline keeps everything visible all the time so it's easier to to see the relationship between keys on different bones. but again... post a specific question to start, maybe with a screen capture to show what you're asking about.
  19. Post a screen capture of it so we can see.
  20. I think it's just the whim of the front page editor. That dialog test with a guy tied in a chair they had up a bit ago sure didn't seem to merit being there. Argument of generalization. Another sophism. Incorrect. Saying that I've only observed something to happen under certain conditions is not making a generalization. If I had said "We always hear that trotted out when..." that might be a generalization.
  21. Whatever the eyes, we still hope to see more of your work on this!
  22. That is an argument of authority. A sophism. That doesn't validate anything. Perhaps, but I only hear that trotted out when someone doesn't like the authority's opinion. For me, the eye darts seem odd because they aren't in the style that the rest of the movie lives in, and they aren't a big enough part of the movie to expand the style to include them. They're like a blip and so their intended meaning isn't conveyed.
  23. that before and after should be in Hash's promo material under "displacement mapping"
  24. It doesn't hurt for a modeler to be knowledgeable about what a character will need to do in animation. At the pro level there are many fine animators who dont' do much modeling. Concentrating on animation rather than modeling probably helped their progress. Likewise, many people only model or only rig or only texture. Their specialized skills make them valuable as team members. Almost anything you see in a commercial movie is the product of much teamwork. Sit thru the credits of a CG-heavy movie and count all the people listed and the special titles they have. However, if you want to work alone, as some artists do, you will need to become at least passable at all the skills.
  25. Good start. I'll be curious to see how you animate it. The loops in the back are interesting. Are they like ribs?
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