Gerry

I've rendered some pretty large stills successfully, but never video. Not sure if there's a physical limit but it may be related to your RAM and processor speed?

this is my first time seeing this thread, and your pic is obviously finished so I'll be brief and gentle. 1) Love the chair! 2) Not getting the diagonals on the water surface that run to the horizon. What are they? 3) Water line is too harsh. there's a transparency that happens where you can see the sand and its color several inches into the water. If you could manage this it would help a lot. 4) Overall it's gorgeous. A few tweaks and it would really be perfect. But it's a wonderful image and nice the way this thread shows your progress on it.

Really striking work!

Could you post some screenshots or a more detailed explanation?

Seems like Yves had one on his website but that was a long time ago. I'll track it down if I can. EDIT: Try this one. Go to about the third or fourth page for the cube tutorial. http://www.ypoart.com/tutorials/bevels/index.php

My only comment on the hand splining (and I'm no expert on hand modeling!) is that your three spline rings for the knuckles should be further apart to accomodate the deformation when they bend.

Fun start! I look forward to more of these.

This just gets better and better!

That's looking nice Gene. Can't wait to see the story. Your work gets better with each project.

nicely done, Gene!

Mark, good luck with all your adventures and upheaval (not sure if "upheaval" is synonymous with "adventure" but you gotta think positive!) and here's to the New Year bringing change for the better for you and the WP's!

It's not reading that way. It shouldn't be dark in the middle or be morphing shapes. My recommendation would be to make it perfectly round, blinding white, and all the heat/radiation effects should be external to the disc. when I was a kid I would stare into the sun for the simple reason that grownups said not to. After a minute or so I would see a "corkscrew" effect like the white disc of the sun was unscrewing from the sky. that's the effect I would go for! Also check out my timelapse sunset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YFd_Vqadcs A hot desert sun would be even more intense than that. EDIT: Also the lettering should be shadowed on the front, with a highlit top edge.

Definitely better, but I think the text should be moving somehow. I had a long elaborate solution in mind but decided not to complicate your life! It's also not clear if that's the sun or a meteor, and if it's supposed to be moving. Why not have it start small and fly right into the camera lens? Unless I'm misreading your intent.

Well if you've got a Mac can you render to tga's and import them into QT? You don't have the fine editing options but you'll maintain the quality. Or iMovie? I'm not familiar with it but is that an option?

This is looking nice Darkwing! The second segment needs better definition in the comet tail, right now it's looking a little solid rather than gaseous. Wish I could help with your export probs but I have no experience with Vista.

For starters you might try uploading a problem project and see if others can replicate this behavior.

Nice start. I like the distortion! Looks dramatic.

Ah, the magic of the internets!

Totally awesome from start to finish, but in an effort to have some small critique, I would say that the action is too evenly paced and the falls too "regular". Something to "rattle" the flow would give it more realism, either some camera shake, or a character getting dazed by an extra-hard fall, something to break up the steady pacing. But if you were to leave this sequence as it is, it would be more than acceptable for a finished shot.

Wonderful and well done! I always enjoy Christmas and holiday greetings that avoid the obvious seasonal cliches. As usual, your work makes CG animation seem effortless. Happy New Year to you all!

Classic! And glad you added a glow to the star, you read my mind!

Welcome to the forums! Stick around, we're a bunch of problem solvers around here.

Thanks, Robert!

For anyone who's interested I did keep careful track of my hours on this and just today got a printout from the company bookkeeper. Total hours for everything, 292 hours. It's broken down into various tasks (modeling, decaling, etc.) so if you really really want to know I can tell you that too.

That's very helpful, thanks!