[Coloured Keyframes In AM's Timeline]

I'd be surprised if the SDK had the stuff in it for this.

 

I've never seen an A:M plugin that actually has an effect on the interface.

[can we get an eyebrow decal?]

Any chance we could add an eyebrow decal to the models so even with hair turned off we can still see eyebrow position?

 

Very hard to judge some of the facial expressions I'm seeing with invisible eyebrows.

 

It could be turned on/off with a pose.

[1-03-29]

I did mush everything into one action, as I originally had holds, but then it looked too staccato to me.

 

I'd be curious to see the staccato version. That would give me a sense of what your main poses are.

[Wop Them, Bop Them (Loons)]

Did you catch "Teddy Bear's Picnic" in "Open Season"?

 

And they didn't even bother to change the words.

[Question regarding the SWF intro video]

I recall he made two versions of the pic in a paint program first. One regular for the background, another that used an alpha channel to cut out everything except him for the foreground. the 3D character goes in between.

[1-03-29]

Quick thought...

 

we don't have to use both arms all the time. I think the essential poses on the left arm are working and they are clearly visible in silhouette at the angle we're shooting here.

 

To get good silhouette on the right arm will be tough here.

 

I'd suggest simplifying this by leaving his right hand perched on his knee (I'm presuming his knee is right below frame) and do the acting! with the head and left arm.

 

You could spend a lot of time trying to use that right arm and it won't read 10% as much as what is seen in silhouette (his head, torso and left arm).

 

 

 

This may not apply to what you were saying about Woot's holds but it's on the same subject and I think some will find it useful.

a good tip.

[TWO Dialogue]

OK, I joining in on Hackfest now. I'm wondering if the dialogue is final and are we to lipsynch to it?

 

To paraphrase Martin, it's final until it needs to change.

 

 

 

 

On that subject, in the future could it be "arranged" that dialoge samples have no pause in them at the start. This means that initial keyframes need to be set for all face controls.

I'm not sure what you mean. Many shots will not have the dialog begin on the very first frame.

[the spider revisted]

I just noticed someting.. shouldn't spider legs all come out of the front body segment?

[A few questions of a general nature...]

[2] Sometimes, in complicated areas where there are a lot of CP's [or I'm not zoomed in close enough] I move 95% of an object and the rest stays. I do a CRTL_Z, and all is well, but when I look at the model in wireframe, the CP's that didn't move are bright blue instead of red. They'll turn green when selected, but go back to blue. Is A:M trying to tell me somthing?

I believe blue is used to indicate keyframes in muscle-mode. any chance you accidentally got into muscle mode?

 

[3] Is it possible to interrupt a render and then re-start? My renders [in FINAL mode] take about an hour for a second of movie. Sometimes I'd like to stop it, work on a different model, then re-start the render as I go to bed.

render to targas (instead of QT or AVI) and you will only lose the frame in progress, the others will be saved. you can pick up where you left off by setting the frame range.

 

 

 

here's a pic. of the current project.

 

[attachmentid=21050]

looks cool!

What's Mr. Incredible doing in ancient egypt?

[1_05_21 (practice)]

Hi Teresa,

 

some extended stammering...

 

[attachmentid=21046]

 

Hard to explain the appearance of Brigitte Helm in this thing, but she does show up.

Woot_1_05_21commentsH264.mov

[Looking for modelers for New Film "Crumblenet...The Movie"]

Hmmm... "nunsofAmerica"... I'm seeing some sort of a climactic duel with ruler-sabers.

 

I bet you get that every day.

 

the title sounds interesting, you should post a link to some concept art or a summary of what it's all about to pique people's interest.

[1-03-35]

I don't know if you think you're getting good value for money with Animation Mentor, but we're getting fabulous value for your money!

 

To honest, I learned lots of great stuff from AnimationMentor, but I think I learned more about "body mechanics"... this stuff about trying to give the body a sense of mass and weight.. from having done The Animation Showdown every week for a year before that. After a year of trial and error, some basic truths started to click in my head and I was better prepared absorb the detail info at animationMentor when that came along.

 

AnimationMentor tries to get someone from zero to ready-to-animate-a-studio-quality-short-film in a year, which in retrospect is a pretty scary goal. After the first class had gone through four quarters they felt that too many students weren't "getting" body mechanics and revised the curriculum. Still, a year is a short time to pack it all in.

 

There were some people who started from zero and just exploded and did fabulous stuff, but the people having trouble were more numerous.

 

If anyone is thinking of enrolling in a school like that i'd recommend first getting to the point where you can move a basic character around and suggest weight and mass.

 

I guess TWO is as good a place as any for that, right?

[1-03-35]

regarding the arm motion "snap"

 

[attachmentid=21031]

armsnapcomment.mov

[the spider revisted]

Do spiders really have hairy legs?

 

I guess tarantulas do.

 

Cute spider. So animate him.

[older posts losing attachments]

I'm noticing some older posts are losing their attachments, like this one.

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...ost&p=89298

 

is there an expiration date for attachments?

[3D Soccer Stadium]

The number and placement of the fan bones is surprising. Are they all constrained at different percentages? (on the hip bone for example)

[1_05_21 (practice)]

HI teresa, I just caught your shot.

 

one question first... is the length of the clip the length the shot is in the animatic right now or is it intended to run longer?

[We’re Off, We’re Gone (Tin Woodman, Scarecrow, Woot)]

Just curious how this is going to work

 

This is still in the larval stage. It's not certain yet that we will even have this song in the movie.

 

But my notion is to create a recording that includes all the verses and choruses we intend to use. That would be enough to storyboard and animate to since the tempo wouldn't change even after we rerecord it with the actual voices.

[Exercise 10: FW-190 Fighter]

What happened to my attachment?

hmmm... I thought i could just copy the attachment id and it would get copied in my post, but it seems to have stolen it from yours.

[Exercise 10: FW-190 Fighter]

Name: Shane O'Sullivan

[attachmentid=20648]

That looks like a successful outing.

 

My only question is the nose... it looks rather flattish.

 

Name: Eric Camden

 

 

Showoff!

 

Looks great!

 

The little rust dribbles on the landing gear might be too uniform.

[1-03-35]

BTW, Dhar, when you're doing this body mechanics stuff, use the lo-re proxy if the full character won't run at 24fps in shaded mode. Turn off the background, page down to 1 poly if you have to. You want to see the motion as close to full as possible without waiting to render.

 

I've found that things that seem to move ok at 12fps can still be robotic and floaty when I see them at full frame rate. So might as well work at full frame rate all the time and not be fooled.

 

Thanks for taking the time to teach me, to teach us all these animation golden nuggets.

 

Maybe pewter. Hopefully not iron pyrite.

[Just getting back into it]

Which one is the new one? The one with the tail ball?

[We’re Off, We’re Gone (Tin Woodman, Scarecrow, Woot)]

I made the mistake of singing along with the song. Big MISTAKE! Got stuck in my head and now I can't get it out.

 

That's a bad thing?

 

Well, when Martin and I pick up the Oscar for best song, you'll be able to say to your friends "I was sick of that song when it was just a demo!"

[2nd abstract with light]

beautiful. You should develop some of the abstract things you're doing.

[1-03-35]

I guess I've found the limit for "unlimited space" for uploads here.

 

This is on my site so let me know when you've got it, Dhar.

 

1_03_35_Comments.mov ~5Meg

 

12 glorious minutes of me going "uh....." while i scrub through the movie.

 

These are broad stroke comments. I'm not really looking at small detail polishing yet.