Slipin Lizard

Its a great animation for sure...one petty comment I'd make for realism is the girls fingers seem to be hovering above the keys. Real piano players rest their fingers gently on the white keys and move up to the black keys when needed... just nit picking.

Ok, thanks for your response. I figured out the problem. I was saving it as too new a version of AI. I resaved it to version 8, and AM recognized the file. I guess that raises the question of whats the latest version of AI the plugin can work with? But thanks, I'm good to go. My last post looks stupid... Luck bat beat me to it... Doh!

Has anyone out there used the AI plug in that comes with Animation Master? I am trying to bring in a logo from an illustrator file and I can locate the file no problem, the option dialogue box comes up, but when I hit "ok" nothing happens. The model window just sits empty. Anyone actually been able to create a 3D logo with the AI plug in?

He's looking really good. A couple of comments would be that the sand doesn't quite seem to look grainy enough, and his clothing and helmet could be pitted and discolored from wind corrosion, but I know you said you still have a lot to do so maybe these ideas are already on your list. I didn't realize that sphere was his helmet. I'd make it tell a bit more of a story, so maybe have the helmet closer by, on its side or upside down but postioned so that you can clearly tell its a helmet. Maybe he got stuck, and at the last moment ripped his helmet off in a desparate last effort to breath...... yaaahhhh!

Thanks guys... I liked some of the analogies you are using. I think I definitely fit into the category of user that you are describing... I don't want to build my own PC... I'm happy just modeling my own characters and would like to move on to the animation process as quickly and as easily as possible. The "invisible bones" aspect sounds complicated, and by purchasing TSM2 I'll be able to bypass that stuff for now, and come back to it later if I need to. I'll give TSM2 a try, thanks for your input!

Yeah, in a way I don't mind the "Yes and Yes" answer, someone told me that their instructional video was really good, and I got it, and it is very good. I'm just learning about rigging now, and have two characters ready to be rigged. I watched the demo video on TSM2, but I wasn't completely sold as it seemed the guy was still doing a lot of tweeking and even then he keeps saying "this is just a rough example". So it would be nice to hear from people who are using it... what's the advantage? what part of the rigging process is it making easier? For me, anything that makes the work easier is well worth it, and to be honest I don't see myself making really complex characters (maybe an octopus some day, who knows). If the TSM2 is going to make rigging a snap and allow me to move on to animation, great. But if learning it is just about as complex as learning how to build the rig from sratch, then there's not much point. Love to hear more from TSM2 users, but appreciate the response.

I would just like to ask the fellow AM'ers out there who are using the TSM2 rigging plug in how they like it. Is it worth the money and does it really make rigging all that much easier?

Looks great... now build a Dog Town board!

Well, here goes my attempt to actually post something, hopefully it works. This guy started out as just a very simple attempt at organic modeling. He's really simple, and some people will notice I borrowed ideas from the "Killer Bean" character. I was just trying to make an egg have arms and legs as a way to practice using 5 point patching. He just kept evolving. The sunglasses were an attempt to make eyes, which I screwed up, and then realized my mistake would make really neat sunglasses so I just went with it. I figure he'd make a great bad-ass super hero, in world populated with egg people, and his only weapon would be a sledge hammer.

Nice work, I actually appreciate that we're getting to see it as it develops, much more informative that way. There was mention of how you do it manually. I use After Effects quite a bit, and with that program you use motion tracker to track the motion of the layer you want tracked, in this case the kid running from the library, select a point to track, track it, and then apply the motion track to the layer you want, in this case the giant shaggy. It's pretty straight forward, and the nice thing is that its all keyframed, meaning that if one part of the track is good, but another starts to drift, you can keep what's good and just re-track the part that needs fixing. Looks great!

An excellent first effort for sure! I'm pretty new to AM as well, so I know how challenging a project like that can be. One thing I would mention is that the car seems to have an all round wafer thin feel to it. It would be good now that you've got the shape down to redo the model with beveled edges so that the body has a more solid look to it. Good work though! Keep it up!

I'm pretty skeptical of Atomlike's forecast of an impending lawsuit. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't all the material, both audio and visual being created by webadage? Have you guys seen stuff like "Tripping the Void"? I mean, that was a total parody of Star Wars, and it went to broadcast. I think you're only going to run into problems if you: 1) use material that someone else created. 2) Model a character (Yoda for instance), call him "Yoda" and cast him as a main character in your movie. 3) Claim that your work is affiliated with or endorsed by someone its not. There a zillions of little parody projects out there, and some of them actually get aired on TV. I don't think there's a problem here. The models look great for someone who is just starting. My only comment would be that they seem a little compressed, so that when seen at certain angles, its hard to tell what you're actually looking at.

Well agree with the other guy... its... its.. its a fake! Come on, that's a computer image?? What is everyone blathering about tweek this and fix that... oh man if I could only even come close to something that good. And Stian told me "he's still learning"... you're making me cry man. I think there should be a seperate category where the stuff is at least something that people like me might be able to achieve in this life time! Great work! Cal

I just have to say that the "can you hear me now?" dude getting smoked by someone driving and on a cell phone was perfect poetic justice and funnier than hell. I think first impressions are what its all about, and it made me laugh, it was really funny. I for one like the minimalist set design and Shaggy's voice. Annoying? That's the whole point! Hey, I think you're motivation is good, but learn and move on rather than go back and try to fix stuff. I used to be in a band, and when we would record in the studio, we really had to learn to just try our best, and learn from mistakes and try not to repeat them in the next one. In every major motion picture out there, there are always things that could have been better. You've done a great job, now start the next project and try to out do yourself. Thanks for making me laugh too!

Awesome stuff! I see from your resume that you use Maya as well... were all these done with just Animation Master? How do you like AM compared to Maya?

Looks really good Dustin. Was all the animation work on your website done with Animation Master?

Thanks Rodney... that font/logo tutorial was just what I was looking for... tell me more about this bonus CD that you mentioned... Thanks again..

I'm totally new to AM and working through the book. I'm using version 11.1, and a couple of tutorials I would like to find would be: -how to make 3D text using the text wizard thing or whatever people are talking about. (the only tutorial I found so far made text by bringing in a image file of the text and creating splines around it by tracying. Looked very tedious and the results were less than desireable.) -how to make a planet earth. There are two types of planet earth I would like to be able to create. The first is just creating a typical, realistic 3D "Earth as seen from space" model. In Maya this was done by mapping an image texture to a nurbs sphere. The second type of planet earth I'd like to make is sometimes seen on news type shows. Its where the land mass is all opaque and the oceans are all transparent. As the earth spins around, you can actually seen through the oceans areas and see the back side of the land mass that is currently rotated away from you. If someone could steer me in the right direction for these it would be great!