Gerry

I just added a new instance of the roto and deleted the first one, seems fine. EDIT: Bruce, sorry you won't be doing this! Maybe next one.

For some reason my hedge roto has stopped rendering. It was fine yesterday, did a series of test renders set to one pass, shaded wireframe. but today, the roto is still there in the camera, I haven't touched or changed anything, the "eye" icon is unchecked, but the hedge has disappeared both from wireframe and final renders. Should I re-import the set? Post a screen shot? Not sure what to do. I'm currently closing, shutting down and re-starting. If it changes back I'll let you know.

Nope, haven't touched the A key. I seem to have fixed it and it's rendering now, I'll see if I can retrace my steps once it's done.

I've animated a bottle being thrown through the air and to animate it spinning end-over-end, I changed the rotation to Euler. that wasn't working so I went to change it back, but my options are only to change it to vector or quaternion, and neither of those options appear to create keyframes. How do I change the rotation back to default so I can keyframe the rotation?

I just turned off hair and particles with Schlitzy and the renders are now about 3.5 minutes/frame. I can live with that, and Schlitzy still looks "good"...for Schlitzy, anyway.

I'll have to look at that tomorrow. I may decide not to use Schlitzy at all and go with something else. But I guess the first thing is to delete the hair and see how he looks and how it affects the render time.

Image 1 is the original render, took about 26+ minutes. Image 2 is Robcat's version, took about 16+ minutes.

I wanted to use "Schlitzy" from the library, but it seems like the hair material is kicking up the render times. I just did a test and it was taking 26 minutes a frame. That don't sound right!

Yep, there it is!

Rob, I believe you mentioned a 24fps frame rate? Is this already set up in the camera settings?

Now that the set's all ready my mind is a COMPLETE BLANK.

North, if you look at the title bar of your file, you'll see "Birds Eye View". this indicates that you're not looking at it from a direct side/front/top view. No axes will display in birds eye view. The Num keypad will show the following views: 8-rear; 4-left; 5-top; 6-right; 1-camera view (if you've got a camera); 2-front; 3 and 9 don't do anything I think. If you're looking from any straight-on view, you can return to the previous birds eye view with 7. You can always check the xyz positions with the little indicator at the bottom left of the window.

It's not your imagination, this set looks post-apocalyptic. In a good way!

Mark, I've really felt for you through this whole process. Considering that this set has been designed by committee I admire your restraint and cooperation!

Two suggestions for the bus: First, the lettering on the tires should come out, so the illusion that they're turning is preserved; and second, It doesn't *really* need to stop each time, does it? Can't it just roll by since this is merely a bridging device? Having it stop for a realistic span of time between each segment would get tiresome. The segments will be more like blackout sketches so the stopping isn't a necessity IMO, or maybe rolling in, stopping and rolling out in just a second or two.

Then my work here is done!

this forum project is a great idea! I'm having fun already!

Gene's right. And can we work in a monkey or two? No, that's probably overkill. One monkey should suffice.

We could make it a rocket ship and have a row of refrigerators instead of a hedge! Then a casket, some empty milk bottles and a roll of toilet paper only with dollar bills...then it would be PERFECT! EDIT: forgot to add the smiley...

Hi Bill. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in here, but it sounds like you need to remap the path to the library file in your application folder. First, look in your app folders if you have more than one version installed, and see where the .lbr file is physically located. For instance, I've got folders for v. 12, 13 and 15, but when I checked there's only a full version of the library in the folder for v.12 and a partial library in the v.15 folder, but you can add them both to your library list if you want. With A:M open, click Tools>Options. In the window that opens, click the Folders tab. In the pull down menu there, select Libraries. What you need to do is map the location of the .lbr file, which will be located either in the Libraries folder or the Data folder (the actual models, rigs, props, etc. will be in the Data folder). The .lbr file is small, 2 or 4k. You can select more than one .lbr file and add to the list in the Folders pane, and move them up and down if you like. I think the app accesses them in the order you put them in. Restart and see if the libraries are appearing properly. Remember to select "All Libraries" at the top of the Library panel. Also keep in mind that not many seasoned users actually use the Libraries panel. It's just as easy to hit Cmd-O, navigate to the Data folder and open the needed files manually. Not as streamlined, but it works. And if you import any elements from the libraries, be sure to "Save As...", otherwise any changes you make will be to the library item instead of your saved version of it. Like I said this is my best guess and there may be a simpler way.

That's coming along Gene! My main comment is that the initial drop is too slow. It could use some other tweaking but this is a vast improvement!

Not just TECHNICALLY amazing! Amazing, period!

Gene, surely there are some tutes on YouTube or Animation Mentor or somewhere. Try a little harder with the ball bounce, and show it from a side view. Ditch the spotlights while you're at it too! Just a plain stage with a ball bouncing from left to right, four or five bounces at least. EDIT: I just went over to YouTube thinking I would post a couple of links here for you and I found about 20 videos with "bouncing ball" in the title! Check some out.

FWIW that last one looked like he was being attracted magnetically to the cube. At the very least you need more of a parabolic shape to the curve of his jump. ...unless it IS a magnet. I mean, he's in a suit of armor after all!

Great work holmes, I only watched about the first 20 minutes but will watch the rest later. Great info, very thorough and well explained.