Gerry

Nice!

Do a search for skylight rig. Someone posted a link to it just a couple of weeks ago so I could download but I don't recall what forum it might have been in. But I think that's definitely the kind of lighting you're looking for. Oh, and for lightening elements in a scene, don't use glow. turn on the ambience a little, maybe 20%, and it will lighten the model very nicely.

Make it bigger!

Danf, another good general pointer to keep in mind, especially when you're doing a lot of "save as"s with chors or models, is to periodically click "Embed all" under the Project menu. This is also important if you bring in a model from the libraries, because if you don't embed it in the prj, any changes you make will be to the library copy as well. I think. I could be wrong. But I've gotten into the habit of clicking "Embed all" a couple of times a day. It's sort of like rubbing a lucky horseshoe.

In the past I've found it necessary to rename the chor (or model) outside AM, or make a copy of the saved chor/mdl. Otherwise any changes you make in the prj will also be made to the chor even if you've saved it out. Danf, these things can get frustrating, believe me I know! Just have patience when they happen, and you'll never make the same mistake again once you've been through it.

How many passes are you rendering at?

When I saw the first color scheme I was tempted to say make it grayer, then saw the second one. But maybe a darker grey with a slight bluish/purplish tint for a bit more depth to the color. Nice start overall though! The vulture has a lot of character, and a FAT vulture speaks volumes!

Well, she IS wearing shoes!

EDIT: I took this link down.

Depending on the action and the nature of the scene, another option is that you can place as many cameras in a chor as you like. Once they're in there, you can cycle through them by just tapping the "1" key on the keypad. That's a good approach if, say, you want a closeup of a character's walking feet in the middle of a scene.

thank you gentlemen. John, as you can see I'm making good use of your snowflakes!

EDIT: I've taken this link down.

Because it's magic?

Nice tutorial Robert. I've bookmarked it.

Mark, here's a thread in the Newbies forum about Booleans. Might help you understand the options a little better. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=33429

Hey, that's some big news! I thought both objects needed to be closed. Mark, if you haven't worked with them before, you'll come to love booleans, they're a great tool.

I would also recommend that you subscribe to the Creative Cow newsletter if you haven't already. Lots of good AE tutes! You can learn a ton from them. Just looking at the one that came yesterday, there are these featured video tutes: Creating the "Sin City" look; Smoking Letters; Sci-fi Hologram in AE; Making Design Elements Grow. And it text tutorials: Making Lights Disappear Behind Objects and Reappear with Expressions; Morphing in After Effects.

that's a really impressive first outing! Sure, some rough edges but you took on a very involved project and actually finished it. That's huge!

Mark, I think you've hit on a perfectly acceptable solution under the circumstances. My only comment is that the ship seems to be heading "downhill" at the end of that shot. You may also be able to create an animated mask in AE to refine the waterline on the boat.

Thanks Darkwing, I am rendering out final scenes as we speak! this is my favorite project here. My boss likes to do offbeat and quirky for our holiday greeting and that suits me to a tee. FYI, in using the benlens, which I really like: the readme file says it doesn't play well with volumetric lights and fog. I should also mention that it appears to cancel any glows as well. Just thought I'd add this to its short list of quirks.

Yep, the very one!

I think it gets better with repeat viewings!

This is a rough version of several of the scenes strung together. I'm still working on the timing and a lot of other tweaks and it's coming out just fine, but I wanted to post something before too much more time went by. Also a little bigger file than I like to post, but you'll get an idea of the story. The shooting star and stardust in the opening were created in After Effects. Scene01to07_v2_h264.mov

Wow! Really nice!

Nope, displacement maps are part and parcel of A:M. When you apply a decal there's a pulldown in the properties panel where you define what kind of decal (color, bump, displacement, specular, etc.) Haven't used displacement maps myself lately so I can't tell you much more about it. But by all means stop back here with questions! You'll have lots!