Shelton

Thanks Nancy! Here is Cupid's arrow. and now bow and arrow Steve

I have to agree. I watched one as well today and I have to agree that the tone set my the character before any animation is critical. Right off you know the character's attitude before he moves. Case in point, Presto, the short from Wall-e. Here are two more shots and I am now happy with color and placement of the hair and I am starting on the next character. The darker color is with the MuHair shader Steve

Thanks Gene Thanks Steve. I will update with color of hair tonight. One thing the webinar taught me was the planning. Planining of the model, plan the shot, etc.. I have always worked from a rotoscope on the modeling, but the limited animation I have done was done from my head. So with the project I just started I had already made a list of things I wanted. But after yesterday I started a little more planning. Steve

Well I had fun today. Sat in on animationmentor webinar and got a chance to put some hair on my character and coached my son's tee ball game. All in all a good day. Here is an up date with the hair in place and now playing with the colors. Steve

Hi Robert I decided to do something for once with this software. Sure I have done something simple for others but nothing that I have wanted to do. So this project is my birthday present to myself. I started at the end of February on a character that I doodle on a napkin at dinner (he is one of the secondary characters now in this project). Then last month at my birthday dinner the short came to me. So I decided it was time to start then. I figure it will take me some time to do this as it is just me and the short will be 5 minutes. I finished the plot and have a basic outline of all the scenes, characters and models. I have laid out a camera list and what I want the shots to look like. There are lot things not decided - backgrounds, lighting, how much detail in shot, etc I have a lot of things ready to go - netrender, hardware (render farm still have it from TWO), after effects, premiere, royalty free pics and musics, several friends willing to contribute with the music score and voices, and most important to me is the passion to see it through. The learning curve is large on this project. For example AM. There is still so much I don't know what you guys are talking about on this forum and some things I have not even tried in AM. But I have a video background and I am hoping this will help in pulling this off. My wife and kid are not sure about this, but I have done most of the stuff so far after hours so I am safe for now. Sorry to go on and on. But hopefully you can tell I am excited. Steve

Nancy, Yep the gloves and shorts and boots are made that way for a reason. He is going to be the star of the short. His character is parady on all of the Pharmaceutical companies that are using 3d characters as their spokes person. In my short he is an out of work super hero who used to be famous for selling the companies drugs. The hair has been a thorn in my side. I had blonde hair on him, I have had short hair, long hair, helment hair, etc. I think a like dark hair, short, with a curl on the front. I am working on that now. I am ready to move on to the next character and hardest one for me to model, the female. So I want to resolve my issues with the hair and colors so I can tackle her. Steve

I admire your courage. I wish that I would have had the courage to do that 10 years ago and go after my dream. Good Luck and I wish all the success. Steve

Computer issues forced a rebuild (had backups on server and removable), which allowed a great deal of cleanup and grouping. I have changed the logo and color as well. Let me know what you think? I have to redo the skull cap and hair but that is ok as I was not happy in the direction I was going. Steve

Camtasia was slightly better. I have used their lossless codec for years. Steve

This is great news. I like the hair particles now that I am playing with them. Patience is the key. Steve

Excellent, had not thought of that. Sometimes you over look the simple solution. Steve

I think what I have found is have a base material with thicker hairs and then apply another material with thinner hair and it seems to look better. Is there a way to turn off one material while you are grooming? I know to hide the rest of the mesh. Steve

Ok first go round with the hair on PM. I have to increase the density of the hair to a very large number to get to this thickness. I guess I am doing something wrong. Steve

It took me almost all evening to complete the glasses. It was due to the placement of the ears. Here is an update with glasses. I will start on the skull cap tomorrow. Steve

Paul Do you do like Steve recommends, a skull cap? Steve

I have tried but the grooming of the hair has really flustered me. I thought I would give it another go tonight. Steve

Thanks Steve The flip in the front looks a drop of ice cream. Also I may have to lighten the hair to be able to see it. Steve

Paul you are right. He is a company rep! It took me a minute but when I got what you were saying I was LOL. Gene thanks. I have to finish him tonight with eyebrows. and interior of the mouth and then it is on to the female character. Steve

Here are two more shots of the hair. I am not happy yet with it. Steve

Nancy, He is in the short I am doing. He is Pharmaceutical Man! Steve

Finished the colors and layout of the character. Here is an update. I will have the hair on tonight along with the glasses. The only thing after that is the inside of the mouth. Steve

You got it right on the mark. Changed a couple of settings in photoshop. PNG worked great. Thanks Steve

I am tired and can not remember this. I have a decal that I have created in photoshop. I have applied alpha as I don't want the white background. I have imported it into AM, but when I apply it puts the white background. Can some remind what to do to remove the background Steve

This one will be easy to be clothing on! Gloves and shorts and the rest will be skin tight clothing. The other ones I have been looking at what Jesse did in his forum. Steve

It took me a while today but got the hands on. I tried a different approach. I shot two pics and used them as rotoscopes. I then simply followed the profile of the hand, then split the splines, pulled the cps, split, pulled etc, until I got a smooth line. Most of the time on the hands I lathe and form Here is a shot of the super that is all thumbs! Steve