Gerry

Nancy, you have such a distinctive style it's always a pleasure! Nice test, great color and movement. this bird dances like no one's watching!

You can also have two models, one complete sphere and one segmented, and swap them out with the "active/inactive" switch. I did something a little more elaborate in my 2006 Christmas animation. But Robert's solution looks a lot easier than mine!

Hey this is a great tip! One more tool for the ol' toolbox.

Xtaz, that's great lipsynch. I do see the tongue come through the bottom teeth at one point, but I know this is just a first draft. Very nice!

Wow, really nice. I just recently worked on a similar problem but I'm not as mechanical minded as you. Looks like it will articulate just fine.

Fun and silly!

Well, Caroline's examples are fairly simple, but isn't that effect pretty much what you're after? What effect are you trying for that an animated decal wouldn't accomplish?

Hey, there's an echo in here!

For a first try that's really nice! If you had any idea how difficult ears are to do you never would have gotten such good results!

I agree. I link to as many of them as I can. But they're already hosted on the Hash server, no?

Steffen, done! Thank you. Gerry

I'm on a Mac OS 10.5.6 and I just discovered that my libraries are misbehaving badly. A couple of months ago, after I'd installed the subscription version of v.15e, I noticed that my libraries were partially absent from the app folder, with only two or three models, three actions, one material, etc. Since I have the PC version at work I copied all the libs from there and installed them at home and everything showed up just fine. But the fact is I hardly ever use the libraries and don't usually have the panel open. So in looking into Masna's problem I opened the lib panel, and my library content is mostly missing. the libraries are all present in the app folder, in a folder called Data. I tried to reset the link in the Options window but the links are messed up, and when I tried to reset them, upon relaunching they were still messed up and the lib content is not showing up as it should. I think it may be connected to the 10.5.6 update that I mentioned in another thread a week or two ago. I think you're right, Masna. I may open an AM Reports file on this, as I can't seem to fix it so it stays fixed. As far as I can tell the libs were loading up just fine as recently as Sept. If your lib content is present in the app folder you can of course always get it with Cmd-O, and just open a material, model, what have you. EDIT: Inside the Data folder there's also a Libraries folder, which contains a 4kb Hash CD Library.lbr file. Should this be on the same level as the library content folders? Maybe that's the problem. SECOND EDIT: I copied the .lbr file into a Libraries folder OUTSIDE the Data folder, and now my Libraries panel is completely blank. So I'm making progress!

Are you on Mac or PC? Anything you can tell us about your system could help. The problem with making a bug report is that your problem is not connected to a prj or file to reproduce the problem. Not that you shouldn't make a report, but I'm not sure how much help they can be. It *might* require a reinstall. But in the meantime, put your system info in your profile page.

I *believe* it's Tools>Options>Folders>Show folders for: Libraries, then click New and click the Browse button with the "..." on it, and browse to your libraries folder. This is on the Mac, may be different on the PC side. If this isn't correct hopefully someone else will chime in.

largento mentioned his work process of saving out every element of a prj, including materials, models, and maybe even actions and stuff. That makes a lot of sense and I really should start revising my work habits. Ya know I'm still learning this stuff! You may not realize it, but the poor soul who saved 17 versions of his first rigging project was...ME!

Well, say you bring in a model from the library, then proceed to tweak it. If it's not embedded, you will be altering the model in the library. Or, say you bring in an external model and proceed to rig it. You save progressive versions of the prj, up to, say, v.17. Then something goes haywire with the rig, say, at the stage where you're setting up the constraints, and you do something out of order and the rig is damaged somehow. If you go back to an earlier version to start from an earlier stage in the rigging process, every version from v.1 through v.16 has the same damage, because the error is now contained in the external model, not just in the latest version. So maybe the key is to embed just the model. Or save it externally under a new name. But simply bringing in a model and proceeding to work on it can be tricky, and beginners may not be aware of the pitfalls here. Like I said, this was mainly a reminder to myself!

And always "Embed All"! (this is just a reminder for myself actually)

Yarr!

Hey Homes and Jeff, just so you know the image seq import is a little different (and a little funky) on the Mac, e.g., the "Import as an animation or sequence of images" option is not there. I think you have to highlight the whole series and click import. However the image seq import can be a little buggy on the mac and it may be necessary to drag them into the images folder from a finder window. Jeff, if it's a longish movie you're bringing in it may get a little arduous. Try it out with a shorter sequence just for a test, say 20-30 images and see what works. Hang in there, this is a process that will take some experimenting on your part. Just keep asking questions and be as specific as you can.

Lot of good pointers there, Rusty. Thanks!

Hey Rodney, that's good info on Specified Booleans. I was unaware of this use for Boolean Cutters.

I haven't dealt with this sort of thing myself but maybe this is a case where you should assemble the scene in an action.

Hi cindylyoung - Tried to look at your .mov in three different browsers and just got a white "?". Can you upload a different version of the .mov? If this QT is a render right out of A:M you might try exporting it out of QT to a new .mov. Gerry

Wow, nice! I'm working on articulating the legs of my jetwasp for decent rigging and have found that I've created all sorts of problems by basing the 3D model too closely on my original drawings. Been wrestling with this for a couple of days now.

It all looks great! I want more!