jpappas

Here's some interesting information from www.nineplanets.org that might help explain why stars are much larger than gas planets: Jupiter is just about as large in diameter as a gas planet can be. If more material were to be added, it would be compressed by gravity such that the overall radius would increase only slightly. A star can be larger only because of its internal (nuclear) heat source. (But Jupiter would have to be at least 80 times more massive to become a star.) -Jim

Hi, my name is Jim, and I've been Poser free for over a year now. I purchased AM last year and haven't looked back. At that time a year ago I was actually on the verge of buying Carrara when I found someone's posting on Renderosity's AM forum of all things, where someone was raving about AM, and this started me on the AM path. It's ironic considering there's barely just a handful of posts in Renderosity's AM forum -- but even so, just that one person's post did much to convince me (and I wonder how many other new users too). In these forums, I've posted here and there, but I thought I should re-introduce myself because I'm about to go through TAOAM -- because I want that certificate! Well, and also because the journey is the reward, and all that stuff... I did finally model and render an object for my avatar so there's hope for me yet. I'm a software engineer going on 10 years, starting at Lotus Software which later was bought by IBM. I approach things like an engineer so I want to let loose that right brain hemisphere from time to time. OK, on to TAOAM, and then Bootcamp! -Jim

Matt, Dan, Awesome renders! It amazes me that Jupiter's red spot is the size of the earth. -Jim

I'm not sure how to help, but you could try these keyboard shortcuts and see if it gets you to the menus: Alt+f = File menu Alt+p = Project menu Alt+v = View menu Alt+t = Tools menu ALt+h = Help menu If you can get to the Tools menu in particular then you could choose Customize... and try hitting the Reset button for the Toolbars. The only other thing I notice is that the main menu bar is movable, is it possible it was moved somehow and is now on the left, bottom, or right, or hidden behind another sub-window? -Jim

Hi, Under the main Options menu, then the Global tab, make sure Show Advanced Properties is checked and they should show up in the Workspace giving you an easier way to get to them. -Jim

Hope no one minds another example! After reading these threads I had to give it a try myself. In this example I have one patch on the ground with the displacement map. I didn't notice any major increase in render time at all - zipped right along! test.mov

Korken, I also tried my hand at making the chain and noticed it was a bit unclear in the original example as to how the bone went completely around -- but I think the trick is that path is actually wrapped around the shape of the path twice, so the part of the path that goes the second time around is laid at the same spot as the first part. This makes it appear as one path but gives you the extra 50% you need to move the bone back to the start position. This isn't easy to describe and a bit tricky to do but if you need more help I have some notes on it, or perhaps someone with more know-how might step in and describe it some more. On the other hand, I also noticed another thread here in the forum recently talking about pulleys/chains, etc., that simply took a circlular model and used a distortion modifier in an Action to make it into the shape of an ellipse to make it look like a chain. Rotating the original bone worked fine on the new shape. It seemed a heck of alot easier to implement. -Jim

Shaun, I've watched the clip three times now and it's so well done it actually looks like a rendered sphere composited over real footage of ocean water, and I couldn't express any better compliment about how good it looks than that! Very nice job on the bright sunlight dancing on the water, it really helps make it realistic. If you planned on sharing a tutorial (hint, hint) I'm sure it would become the go-to AM water tutorial for a long time to come. -Jim