tobinjim

Wade, was adding CP's (changing internal 4-point patches to 5-point geometry) faster than just deleting the cross members? That's the technique I've been using, but am always looking for better ways. I figured by deleting splines I was speeding up load and save times as well. Either way, I'm sure you and I have gotten very adept at "T" rotation and seeing those nasty little internal splines no matter where they hide!

Bill, What fun to be a voyuer on your project! Thanks for keeping us posted all along. The SkyCast lighting to my eye is too flat. Could you add a spot light to give some better contrast, and let the SkyCast rig provide overall general lighting? The way the leaves scale up is too obvious to those of us following along... I'd ask my wife to look at it and see if it bothers her the way it bothers me (she not having read the whole thread), but she's out right now. To be sure, actually controlling angle and size would be much more challenging than scaling a bone, but that's still what's bugging me about the animation. Oh, a lighting question, too: Is the time-lapse meant to be real? In other words, if time is passing while those leaves and branches grow, I'd expect to see lighting changes (sun movement across the sky, cloud shadows zipping by, etc.) to enhance the realism and the sense of time passing. Jim

movie!... Movie!!.. MOvie!!!. MOVIE!!!! (er, I missed the animated clip, too!) Want to say WOW! but can't -- yet

Okay, we now have LegoDude, and he's walking! Thanks to the folks who've helped me come to grips with the interplay of all those Action / Cycle relationships. He's still sliding a little bit, but this is far enough along that he can begin life building the machines my son has been designing. LDW.mov

Dalemation, Ignore those two previous posts about uniformity and hair color! That's exactly what a white haired dog bathed in orange jello looks like! Just ask my kids! (No animals were harmed in the creation of this post)

Legions of Legos are battling for control of the galaxy. At least, that's what my son has been dreaming about in his play time. Some day this will all be animated. Photoshop created the energy beams and composited the individual shots. My daughter believes there needs to be some visible form of propulsion, even if the advanced technology that is pictured here uses invisible forces. What do you think?

Hi Jay, My kids were playing with clay today, and I think the swirl texture would help people's eyes clue in to the material. It might help to take two colors of clay, squish them into a ball, then roll them out in legs and arms and see how the swirls play out. Okay, that was my girls' way of playing. My boy tends to press clumps together, an all together different look... Jim

And I thought it was a disco ball that fell in Alien Song, but I guess a lunar lander does look a little like a disco ball. You know, there's a symmetry here, just like when Dorothy's house fell on the witch... Oh, and Vern: There can't be more debris from the lander scattered about by the big foot, because remember the lander isn't in the same space-time continuum! Silly Vern! Jim -- I Will Survive --

Could the "doesn't feel right" be coming from the difference between your drawing having larger eyes than the 3d model? The smallness of the eyes has been bothering me all along. If it weren't for that, I would have asked for her phone number. Tell you what, I'll buy you the upgrade, but I'll send it along with some lipstick for her -- the poor dear needs some color! (the entire preceding sentence is 100% joke, unfortunately!) What are the render times like, given all those hair patches? Jim

Okay, figured out what I mean by eye movement being too "bug-like" (as in "Bug's Life-like" When I try to move my eyes there is either a bit of "head follows" movement or the eyes will stutter across the motion. The eye movements in v4 seem to snap to their final destination. Am I right that the eyebrows are adding emotion? Sometimes even moving a little independently of one another? That's way cool. Really helps add personality. Jim

Well, I think the eye movements -- at the camera when delivering bad news, up to the heavens when "watched from above" -- are working brilliantly. The very first think I liked was the lateral shake during "scrutinized" -- it was so non-animation that it gave life to the character. Actually, I like the eye movements and blinking less in v4 than v3 -- almost too bug-like. Where the heck is this leading? Jim

Robert, I liked your Catching Something Heavy! The double-take was great; it's hard to time that right, because it's individually handled, and probably depends a lot on how fast Putty Dude was coming at him, what was happening up in the air off screen, etc. I was expecting (on probably the third viewing, looking for something to improve upon ) for the alien to catch Putty Dude and then look at him instead of up in the sky, but maybe looking up would have been the appropriate action if he staggered (bent knees) under the weight of Puddy Dude. Fun fun fun. Know that my four year-old will want to watch it again and again and want the rest of the movie to show! Cheers, Jim

DivX does not lock out Mac users. You can certainly use a codec on one platform that a user of another platform may not have or may not be available, but that works both ways. For those who don't know, there's a great open source player for most OSes. VideoLAN Client The download page is nestled inside all that text, so here is the main download page (you ought to read the main page, though, as you'll want to understand the on-going nature of this development effort): VLC download page Cheers, Jim

Only 12 hours? Amazing! Keep going... soon you'll be a new testimonial for the Hash folks! Keep it up; can't wait to see a side view and texturizing! Jim

G-rated means 2 things: 1) General audience... so kids under 13 can watch, which around here seems to mean that when dino sinks his teeth into those two little ones, blood doesn't go flying in all directions 2) My 4-year old, Grace can watch (she's always coming into my office and wanting to watch those two space aliens, Petey and Jaydee, who land in the kitchen and get into trouble with appliances) Cheers, Jim

Since the forearms are bigger than the biceps, I'd guess she eats spinach more than seaweed... is that part of the storyline? The shoulders are quite slender for a species that would likely have strong arms, no? And I agree with Zaryin that the hips should be a bit wider than the shoulders, unless those shoulds are the right proportion. If you make her a nice creature, I've got a tank she can swim in! Keep going! Jim

Cool! Nice setting. Seems like a little voice balloon proclaiming: "Run!" is in order! Maybe eyelids over the top half of dino's eyes to make it more menacing, less bird-like. Hope this will be rated G when done! Jim

You know, it's not like we're all a bunch of sadists, but I'll bet we all did light small fires when we were young'ns. That aside, my opinion would be: Why continue to model something you're just going to blow up? In fact, as a far as feedback goes, I'll be we'll all contribute a lot more helpful information to the explosion of parts and dirt and gas tanks and stuff than we will the actual modeling So, how about appeasing the adoring masses first and get on with the action!?!? Ever looked at the F-22? Pretty boring on the outside -- for small radar cross section reasons! But if we had footage of one hitting the ground (with pilot swinging safely under a parachute, of course) -- now that'd be something to see!!!! Jim

Sean, do me a funny favor and fix up the splineage around his waist... make it look more like a big ol' donut is in there circling his waist, bouncing up and down as he walks! Maybe have sprinkles falling off trailing behind him :) If you save or export your image as a jpeg it can be attached (see "File Attachments" area when editing a reply, it's below this box you type in). You can also press the "IMG" button up above this text edit window. #1 thing to never say to a police officer who has just pulled you over: "You're not going to check the trunk, are you?"

Amar, Very attractive! As I was first looking over the image, I too was thinking "This is much more like a real person than most models we see." And the eyes struck me too... not easy to describe, but sort of a "deer in the headlights" look to them, which may be what you are looking for given the darkness of hair and clothing and downward set of the chin. It does look like her lower jaw is narrower than the upper jaw. Come to think of it, that could cause anyone to have different outlook on life! All those hours in the dentist's chair.... :blink: Put her in a convertiple, with her hair tucked under a ball cap to simplify the animation of her hair :D Keep going! 365 days left (it's a leap year!) Cheers! Jim

Can you clarify what we're seeing? The wireframe, of course, looks to be out of A:M, but the photos are real atoms being imaged, correct? But in the one image you said the blue is photoshopped over the primer, so I'm not sure whether you are bringing the photograph of the atomic model into photoshop and applying color just for us visual learners or whether you're taking the output of A:M render into Photoshop and applying color there. BTW, I keep my 17" iMac on 10.2.8 to be able to get renders and such because I, too, have inconsistent results with 10.3.2/Classic/10.5o Oh, when can we drive the Mustang? My 8 year-old really wants to take it for a spin Jim

Are his pants that long to keep the secret that he goes around in his "stalking" feet? <please don't throw tomatoes at me -- you'll regret it!>