Gerry

Thanks Mark, I think I will look at that. Rodney, I'd been on the fence about that very thing. The rig does have a toe bone and it bends at times but maybe not enough. However having the foot itself deform with the weight was something I'd been considering but wanted to solve the problem without it. However I guess it's called for here.

Have a German Chocolate Cake! Happy Birthday!

I'm working on this "burdened" walk cycle. mainly focusing on the feet. See how this looks. FeetCUtest_h264.mov

Looks nice so far. Maybe post a couple of wireframes of problem areas? That might shake loose a few suggestions.

I saw Greg demo A:M one time at a trade show in NY and he was so great I wanted to buy it again! This video is a reminder of what a great resource he was, really one of a kind. I encourage everyone to watch this.

Yeah man! That makes all the difference, in fact I think I even like it better. And 1:30 per frame instead of twenty minutes!

I had a feeling that an environment map might make a difference but I've never used one. Need to look it up and see how! Thanks for all the suggestions.

I decided to try re-rendering the sax sequences with some reflections turned on, as my original version looked too flat and clay-like to me. So I added reflections and the results are spectacular! So I'm redoing all the closeups of the sax. But the problem is render times. Even at only two passes it's taking anywhere from 17 to 24 minutes a frame. In fact, switching from four passes to two seems to have increased render times. The real time eater seems to be "rendering patches", which I take to mean rendering the reflections, but I'm not sure. I would gladly experiment with the settings if I knew which direction to go in. The current settings if I recall are, two levels of reflections and softness of 40%. Maybe that's too much?

Yeah man! Maybe make the eyes goofier? But this definitely says The Spleen!

Needs better lighting too. But Mark makes a good point, it doesn't speak to your style. More color, more bounce!

Dang, looks like I owe you another book! Thanks Robert!

Hope you have a good one!

I may do that, it's a pretty simple shot. I'll have to delete the geckos though! EDIT: Okay, here it is. Thanks! Test_files_for_Robert.zip

I deleted the material shortcuts and reapplied both the cloth and deflector materials, still nothin. I do need to fine tune the dance steps so I'm putting off the Cloth sim until the dance steps are final. But I still need to get to the bottom of this. It really seems familiar though, I'm sure it's a simple thing I'm overlooking. EDIT: Fuchur, I'm not ignoring your comment, but I'm *pretty* sure someone else made the same comment back when this problem happened before! And under other circumstances I'm all in favor of skirts falling off, but not when she's dancing in the street!

I discovered that the deflector group (legs) were intersecting the skirt at the start,so I repositioned the model so there will be a simcloth "preroll" of about 20 frames before the animation starts. The skirt dropping off was a result of the "attached" group needing to be attached in the chor as well as the material settings, so I did that. But the skirt continues to be rigid. Hmmm. Still trying stuff.

I tried searching the forum but decided the quickest way was to just post a question. I'm doing a second Simcloth skirt on my dancing girl (some new steps), just resaved the chor with the original skirt animated and deleted the splines folder. But when I go to do the simulation, her skirt just falls through the floor. I know this has been brought up (probably by me!) but I can't find an answer and I recollect that it was a simple fix. EDIT: Got the skirt to stay attached but now the simulation isn't happening. The skirt stays rigid. Awhile back I downloaded and watched the video tute on cloth made from a scene in TWO, however I lost it when my external drive went belly-up a couple weeks ago. I know I'm missing something basic, I'll check the TaoAM book next.

Good one, I hadn't seen it before!

voted on Friday, I'll vote again today!

Hey, check out this post. Steve was working on shooting a bow and arrow awhile back. He may have some pointers. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=324005

Isn't this bit the arrow rest? That's what made me take it for a lefty bow. I could be wrong, it's been a few years.

Rodney, jimd and Mark, thanks for your comments. Rodney, I agree with the bulk of your comments. A couple of the shots you mention are still placeholders unfortunately, and some repeated shots will be sweetened with AfterEffects magic to give them a little more punch as they are repeated, so they are not just seen as reruns. The one shot that I like repeating without change is him getting up from the kitchen table. That is supposed to be a "Groundhog Day" moment, he's trapped in this loop like a bad dream. I have some additional gecko dance steps that I haven't used, and maybe varying that element will help it look like more than a retread. Some others that are repeated without progressing, will still have some work done, especially the repeat of the wall full of geckos. The second use of that I just ran out of steam, but I was in a hurry to get another version posted. I'm not happy with the fact that we are just re-seeing it again. Not satisfying as far as I'm concerned, and I'm continuing to work on it. The lipsynch is also a problem. In the shadowy nighttime shot, believe me his face and mouth are quite animated, but with the distance and shadow (and his arm!) obscuring it, I don't know how to fix it at the moment. After doing the lipsynch and rendering I was really surprised how little you can see of it. Then when daylight comes up his arm does block his face. Not sure how to deal with this but I understand your comments. Thanks again, all your comments are helpful.

I've got a close-to-finished rough cut up on Vimeo at http://vimeo.com/31523384, as it's too big to post here. Some shots aren't final and there will be a lot of AfterEffects work on it, but the principal animation is done! Comments welcome.

That looks pretty nice. It's easy to adjust the materials settings with a little trial and error, but reducing the grain depends on how you're creating it. Is it a material, or is it created with the group's surface settings? Either way, try posting a screen shot of your (material or surface) settings in the PWS. BTW it appears to be a left-handed bow. Is that deliberate?

Yep, both are on to bigger and better things. Happy Birthday to the two of them, may their pixels be fruitful and multiply!

One to three weeks! We got quite a bit of snow and branches down, but personally we were lucky as far as power outages. On Saturday I had to shut down and not work because the power kept "winking" on and off, though we never lost it completely. But at one point the power blinked and even with my backup battery the computer blinked off too. I've always depended on the backup and now I have to wonder if it's even working properly.