Gerry

Funny how the solutions occur to us right *after* posting a query! happens to me all the time!

Definitely the trick with disp maps is to keep the gradient area as smooth and gradual as possible.

Great tests Mike! You know you can also animate the strength of the displacement map with a smartskin, which raises a whole separate set of possibilities.

this is a great tool!

buh, buh, buh, what's the plugin? And what exactly is happening here?

Hey Rodney, NIFTY pointer! Never knew that but I will be using it! (Also, nice demo. Is that an animated gif?)

Have fun, don't set yourself on fire from the candles!

Pretty funny!

...backwards, with a blindfold and ear plugs.

Nice, Serg! and Happy New Year to you too!

Nice!

"Shift-8" is a huge time saver and extremely handy. Is that a recent addition?

HI Simon, absolutely, share the video. Didn't I post it somewhere here?

Here's the problem, seems unrelated to the ease setting on the path... EDIT: I should say: It's only when I remove the path constraint that the walk cycle returns to its proper length. There appears to be some cause/effect there but I can't figure out what's going on.

I've got a 45 frame walk cycle. When I drop it onto a model, it's fine. But when I constrain the model to a path, it wants to make the walk cycle around 1/10th its length, like 4.5 frames, so in a 90 frame clip the walk cycle loops around ten times. I feel like I've seen this before but I cannot figure out how to fix it. This is happening in both v 16 and v 17.

Very nice! Merry Christmas!

Y'know I knew it was an extra cp or two somewhere, but I looked and looked and couldn't find it. But man, I step away for a day or two and look at all the investigation going on! Great work everyone.

Well, here's my entry. It's not perfect but I do recall *someone* doing some very elegant tests on a problem like this not long ago. However the model I'm posting has a very strange anomaly, two five-point patches that will not render no matter what I try. So, hope this helps, but I'm sure there's a better solution. cylinderWithHole.mdl

Seems like Robert or someone did a series of tests for something like this, but I don't think it was cutting a circle in a curved surface. You might want to make the big cylinder with more splines. My short answer would be "yes" but offhand I'm not sure how. Off to the lab!

That's coming along pretty nicely simon!

Welcome back, Mr. Bill! As Robert said, faster faster faster is the best new feature as well as increased stability overall. For 79 bucks you can't really go wrong by upgrading. As for plugins, etc, it depends slightly on whether you're on pc or mac, but that only affects a couple of things.

Good idea for a thread, in fact I'm hijacking it! By now the big car chase/demolition derby scene where cop cars get totaled in big pileups while everyone drives like a maniac is a well-worn cliche. My question is, was "Slaughterhouse Five" (1972) the first movie to do this scene? It's the first time I recall, but I have no idea if I'm right or wrong. Been wondering about it for awhile.

I just stumbled across a new keyboard shortcut I'd never known about, so I don't know if it's new or just under-documented. If you select a cp on an object, then hit slash to select the object, the pivot is automatically set at the physical center of the selected cp's. BUT, if you then hit Ctrl-Z, the pivot moves to the first cp you selected! This is fantastic, never seen it before but holy crap! Another great one I learned from the Barry Zundel tutorials, is a version of hitting Y to create a cp at the midpoint of a spline. BUT, if you click just a tiny bit PAST the end cp of a spline and hit Y, a new cp shoots out the end of the spline exactly half the distance of the previous spline segment. I'm using this one all the time lately, it's hugely convenient!

I've been a real fan of TSM but with v.17, it's no longer an option. I tried the 2008 rig and it went great! I would highly recommend it, great instructions and easy to follow. Plus, now I can rig on the Mac!

That's some interesting and educational info, Rodney!