oakchas

and yes to final on the render... as jpg... but fixed as a tga.

If you enable "Show More than drivers" for the object in the chor you have access to a model's groups and you can animate their transparency settings in the chor. Great, and... the artifacts disappeared on tga file render... now I gotta see if I can revolve him and fade him out... thanks SO VERY MUCH for your help... Charlie

Oh, and a quick render to file copied the artifacts rendered to sequence of jpgs.

I did the shift Q thing to get those real time renders. (but at least I got rid of the blotchys on dex's face which seemed to be related to the bump map on the brain) New Question: Can I do transparency over time? while the head is revolving?

okay, here's the problem: Screenshot 1: dex's head is "transparency not set" Screenshot 2: Dex's head is "transparency 80%" And you can see his brain... the item in red is the Medulla Oblongata. Screenshot 3: Dex's head is "transparency not set" Artifacts of transparency on hair and on right side of neck when re-setting the transparency attribute to not set or to 0%. I'm working in version 14.0c... and have downloaded and replaced my other version of 14.0c and it still does it... now, I haven't rendered it to a file. and maybe that's all I need to do, and it would be okay in final render... but I don't know that, yet, until I try. I'll work on that tomorrow.

Thanks Rob... I remember you... And just like a nooob, I was looking for the instant answer... Workin' on it... just frustrating, that's all... pull out the tech ref, the manuals... etc... I'll work on it some more... and I can prolly fix it my ownself...

Been a looong time since I've been here, folks... And almost as long since I've messed with AM, sorry to say... I'm still in V14.0c Okay that's established. I've modeled a brain. Primitive really... but sufficient for my needs. I've cut Dex's head off... sorry Dex, really... but I just needed your head. I have saved my brain as "brain.mdl" clever that, no? And I've saved Dex's head alone as "dexhead.mdl" (equally clever, I think) Now... I've tried to import dexhead.mdl into brain.mdl. and positioned good ol' Dex's head around the brain, which seems to work just fine... Well, the brain doesn't work... Dex's just pretty.. no smarts, you see.... But aside from that, I'm trying to make Dex's head somewhat transparent... so that we can see his non-working brain... In model "port" that doesn't work so well... Using render lock, Dex kinda looks like he might have Leprosy... gets all spotty and bumpy looking... Like maybe the bump map of the brain is leaking into him... Do I need to move both brain and Dexhead it to choreography and assemble there to make it work, or will Dex remain spotty? I think that's the correct answer (To move both parts to chor, and assemble there)... but what do I know? (what I did know about A:M, I forgot a few years back.) Need a screen shot? I will provide... but it'll be after the holidays... give you plenty of time to mull answers... but I suspect you guys don't need much time to tell me where I'm wrong.

Thanks, It works for me... The only book I have ever known to be published spiral bound (except some cookbooks) was How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive by John Muir... They quit the practice before I bought my copy due to the expense of printing that way. I hate losing my place in a manual when I'm in the middle of following a tute. And I really find switching back and forth between the online version of the books and the program a pain in the butt... It wouldn't be bad in a dual monitor setup maybe... but otherwise, eccch.

I'm not a newbie. Well, I am in many ways even though I've had this program in many versions starting with v3. Here's a 2 part solution to how to get the most you can out of your version of A:M starting today (providing you have the disk version not just the web version/upgrade). PART 1: First thing to do is take your manuals TAO A:M and the Technical Reference to your favorite office supply store... You know... Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, Kinko's... whichever like that. Take them back to the printing services area. Ask them to cut off the perfect binding (as little as they can Have them wire spiral bind them. This will cost you about $4.00 per book. Take them home. PART 2: Put TAO A:M on your desk next to the keyboard. Starting on page 1, do all the exercises in A:M. Once you have done that, leave TAO A:M on your desk but put the Technical Reference on top of it. Start a project of your own. Refer to the books often. You will find this much easier to do now that you have them spiral bound because the pages will lay flat and you can keep one hand ever ready on the mouse to make your next mistake, and turn pages with your other hand to learn how to fix it! The tip here is to have the books spiral bound (and of course, to use them). It is VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE: The Margins in the Technical Reference are very tight... you may lose a word or two here and there but most likely just a portion of the word. If you don't think you can _igure _ut _hat the words are... this method may not be for you. You can switch back and forth between the online versions of the manuals, and the program... but I find that method lets you lose your place too easily... This helped me immensly... It may not help you because you're young and don't know how to use anything but on-line help... I was raised on books... it works for me.

mirror an action... Let's say keekat is dancing on stage in front of a bunch of other keekats. the keekats in the audience are following his actions... but they are wrong because they are mirrors... keekat stops shakes his head and turns around, back to audience, to show them that they are doing it wrong.... they get it and start doing it correctly. and, with the jump action in the library, i'd like to have the charachter jump forward... and then by doubling the lenght of the action... reverse his jump... is there an easy way to do these things... ? I found this in the search of the archives http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...l=mirror+action but I don't know if it would work.

getting op to 30 FPS See my sig for specs. This is cool stuff, Mark! Just kind of elegant to look at. I know nothing of programming or what its benefit might be to use...but i enjoy watching.

That's where mine is as well. However, when I right clicked on it and selected properties I discovered that it was "blocked" (by MS XP apparently) because it "came from another computer... the Hash computer so I clicked unblock button and voila, I have help in ver 14! This may help someone else:

I downloaded master.chm on the FTP site for help files: Where does it go? In AM v 14 C when i call up help topics, I get this: clicking on a topic I get this: What can I do?

Wow! great minds think alike... You're right on my track... I'm gonna finess it some... Well, quite a bit actually. And use my cannon, of course... but this is very similar to what I'm trying to do! So, dissecting your chor will be a great help... But I did manage to figure out how to find the ease channel and use the multiple instances of the wheel rotate.. Thank you sooo much! Charlie

Thanks George! I'll look at the files tomorrow... I'm at work now and can't view mov files (or any others, for that matter)!

That's the key... in red... I am using a path, though. Does that make a difference? The only action is the wheels on the cannon turnng as it rolls. It's a one second action of a -360° rotation. so: 00:00 off screen "boom" 00:00 - 01:15 cannon rolls to left stopping at left edge of frame. (I need to figure out ease here, too. So it slows its roll) (that was one and one half wheel roll actions) 01:15 - 01:30 pause 02:00 Boom 02:01- 03:16 cannon rolls further along path 03:16 - 04:01 pause 04:02 Boom Etc... through about 7 seconds... This is compressed time line... should be about 4 moves in 7 seconds give or take. I'm sorry to add complexity to this... I'm only clarifying. I found little of obvious help on the CD or DVD... but maybe opening a project with some actions will help... I'll look into that as I can. I usta could do this... I'm getting too old (mentally) again.

But I can't member how. here's the scene: 1.I want to have a cannon fire off screen. 2. reaction to firing causes cannon to roll across screen from right to left. 3. pause 4. cannon fires again. 5. reaction causes cannon to roll (funny path spiral) away from camera 6. pauses 7. cannon fires again. 8+. cannon rolls away from camera further, stops, fires at camera. using ver 14 c I have the action of the cannon's wheels rolling. I have created a chor where steps 1 and 2 occur. ending at 3. How do i add steps 4 thru 8? While you try to explain this to me, I'm looking up resources on the extra cd and dvd. I have the walk and wave tute... but that isn't helping. as I want the action to continue (if the walk was the rolling of the cannon, and the wave was the firing). Help? I'll post a mov file (no sound)

I'm looking for a page turn type of thing again... I think I asked this before a long while back. I'd like to be looking down at stack of pieces of paper, and have the top page curl from the right lower corner to the upper left, revealing the next page. Would it be better/easier to do this as a cloth, or with a series of bones from upper left to lower right? In my ideal world, the first page would flip, exposing the rear of that page as it passes the camera, then showing the next page in the stack. "I'll hang up and listen" = I'm doing a search again while waiting for a reply.

I've updated the female... I think I need help with her face... and Idunno what else...Need input! Update Nope... Scrapping this version of Her... especially after this... Heads dont work well when you pull the head mesh to make phake hair.... even helmet hair... 360herhead.mov

Yeah, well, I had to look up "A-line dresses" in google images... True enough... apparently, A-line dresses cause uni-boob syndrome... the effect whereby the breastal area of the female form has no visible cleavage and becomes a horizontal bump the width of the chest. Will fix tomorrow am. And it makes sense I guess, since I'm going for generic woman.

And now..... My generic Thom has undergone some changes... he had become a generic female.... Still have to work on her head a bit more... but she's getting there... NOTE: This IS NOT the previously mentioned "change" he was going to go thru... I just needed a "generic woman" to fill out scenes. I don't know how she'll animate... as it is just generic man's skin... stretched into a skirt and hair. Probably won't animate worth a darn.. so I'll probably have to change it. But this is the look I'm going for... 360her.mov ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ UPDATED....Better?

Please don't take my original comment as derogatory. I know you are going for realism. I know that the hair is made to be feathers. I think it is an exquisite model, and would agree one of the best I've seen. (though, honestly, I've never seen one to compare it with... few have, I hear...) Fact is, it still makes me smile!

I'm thinking he's ready to rig. minor tweaks. 360.mov

A hairy velociraptor with a rather large "pope's nose"? I like it! it makes me smile... odd... wonder why?

Heads will roll! well, not really... but I was lookibng at the head in a chor from many angles to see what it looked like.... this is what came out... Watch it fast... get ill! frame shuttle through it, and you can see the head from many angles which was the point of the chor. weird_head.mov