Shelton

So I lied. here is the last post. The first chor had a slight movement of the toolbox throughout the animation. 2-5 chor The toolbox remains in the same place except for a few jumps. The camera is straight on and renders the shadows. If I rotate the model slightly the renderings of the shadow go a way. I believe it has to do with the perspective I have selected on the chor. Steve

Last post of the night. I have tried to rebuild the ends of the tool box and applied decals, and it still renders with shadows. Rendered with different multipass and still renders with shadows. Went to a side view and it renders correctly. I have checked the decals and reapplied to no avail. I have opened new project and rendered model and it renders with shadows. Why would one chor render correctly and the next render with the unwanted shadows? I have brought in older versions of model it renders ok in a new project and without actions. I have all the actions on this model other than lip sync. It would take days to recreate. This is a wierd one. Steve

I have tried to export the chor and render as a stand alone but teh black shadows followed. And it is only rendering the shadows on the top portion of the ends. Inside the tool box is rendering correctly and appears to be rendering with multi pass Steve

That is a good thought. Each chor (5 of them) have different actions added to them. The actions were lip sync to a voice over. I have about pulled my hair out tonight (what liitle is left). I built 5 actions and applied to each chor. The models were imported into the chor and then the actions were added to each chor. I could not see any differences in the poses. Steve Edit Also notice the resolution on the top of the toolbox in the second chor as the line on the side does not appear to be rendering correctly as they are jagged and this is with 9 passes turned on.

I have started rendering our animations. The first picture is from intro chor and the second is from part two. The animation was broken into 5 parts for animating and rendering. The settings are the same in each chor and this was rendered on one machine and then on net render. Notice the inside part of tool box that there is a shadow? has anyone run into this? The first picture was the first chor and the second picture is the from the second chor. All the other chor are rendering with the black shadow on both a stand alone machine or one in the net render farm. Any thoughts????? Steve Edit I thought it was because, for what ever reason, the normals were flipped. But that was not the case

I totally see Bruce Campbell! I really like all the changes Steve

Simply one of the best things I have seen on this forum!! Steve

Thanks!!! I have tried that one as well. Here goes, of all the settings that I had changed in the chor was the focal point of the camera. I changed that back and bingo all the rendering features started again. After talking to Jason at HASH he gave me some tips and I redecalled the model and it worked fine within the chor. I then brought in the other models that I had not changed anything on and the rendering stop once again. Changed the settings back to default on the camera and it rendered. So I really don't know what to say at this point but I am working again. So, I hope for the time being I can get this thing back on track. Steve

I am becomming desperate. It appears that all the files I have been working on for the last 6 months are corrupted?! All have been built in version 13. If I load in from the library everything is ok. I can render. All the models I have done will render in the modeling windows but if they are introduced in the chor window and rendered, (quick or full) it will render until it hits rendering patches. Once there it will stop forever and will not proceed. I have to kill the program. Mind you if this had been a model like the Bismark model I could understand that it would take I awhile. But I have not changed anything other than upgrading to 13e and when it slowed the modeling process down I have gone back to 13d. Anyway I am toast. Steve

I think I have tried just about everyway now. At this point I am going to have to composite in after effects. Just get my position right and try working on the actions and hopefully I can line it up right. I am sorry David, I believe that was one of the tricks I tried as well. Steve

OK I goofed. the rendering was working but the patch count was over 13000 on the 9 models in the chor. sooooo. is there a limit of patch while working in a chor? If there is what is a "working" total for models in a chor? Is this something that Hash is working on? Steve EDIT Nope it locks up!! I can not a report for the last couple of days either

I added toolbox into the shed I built with a great deal of tools and began rendering. AM locked up on about the 12 frame. Started over and AM locked up on 11th frame. Started over and this time it only made it to 7 frames and then locked up. I am running 13e. I can create new project with the toolbox and render fine, or render the shed in a project just fine. When I combine the two models the maching just locks up. I remember reading about a patch count limit and slow down. Toolbox has about 2600 and the shed with all the inside has about 4500 patches. So I have about 7100 patches in chor. I can work in the chor but I try to render even quick render the machines just locks up. Anyone run into this. Steve

You can also undock some of the components such as the pws or time line. Move them to the new screen and save. Next time you load AM the setup / chor will load on both screens. I have three screens and I love the extra room!! Steve

I love the look!! I have purchased, over the last year, about 4 diiferent animation programs. I have only worked in AM because of the capabilities. You are showing a lot of different modeling techniques from cloth to material / textures in this one model. Keep up the work I am learning a great deal just from watching Steve

Here is a shot of our talking toolbox from our childrens video coming out later this year. I have been working on the rig with the folks over in the rigging section. I have finally got some of the lip poses completed. Steve

I have been in the same boat over the past 4 weeks learning the squetch rig. But I want to say thanks to David, Mark, Mark and all the others that have invested a great deal of time and effort for us. I have now set up blinks, winks, and eye movements on my character. Along with the poses already set I have made additional muscle poses!! I am learning but there is so much to the rig it is unbelievable. I love the flexibility of the rig. I can have bone poses, muscle poses or combinations. I will begin to upload the character and some face shots as I get more of the rig installed. I am working on the mouth and the eyebrows at present and should have the rest of the face installed by the weekend. There are some areas that are a mystery to me but what I have learned is not to be afraid to ask questions. Steve

Finished modelling this umbrella and wanted to rig it for an animation I am working on. I found where some one had done the entire movement of the umbrella in muscle mode but I wanted to place bones on this model. I was thinking the frame work of the umbrella is a lot like a knee. As the release slides down the pole it pulls the ribs inward like a knee. Any thoughts? Steve

I have been asked to post a request for a dog model. We are in the final editing stage of our children's video, and how it happened I don't know, but we have overlooked the animated dog. Anyway the director asked me about modeling the dog and I can but I am animated the last sequence and they want the dog ready asap. Soooo, is there any one that has model a dog, preferably a lab, but any dog can be used. (and they are willing to pay) Steve

Will do. I am rendering a large file and will do it in the morning. Thanks man Steve

I thought I had it all fixed, but once again as I was watching the animations the fingers are curled when they should not be. I matched up the animation time when the fingers curled and uncurled and notice once again that it is around a key frame. I then went back to the model and loaded in a fresh proj. loaded my rigged model and then set a few poses. Then went back and while watching the hands, applied a key frame and sure enough the fingers curled. There was no pose on the hands and a slight pose slider curl. When the key frame was entered the fingers curled to a fist. After that I could not uncurl the fingers with a key frame. Once I deleted the key frame the fingers would uncurl. David I have emailed you my model. Any help is appreciated. Steve

David I am glad to report that after installation of the rig the roll of the fingers from the hand was reversed. The only problem I did not adjust these items. It was part of the gizmo and when I would clench a fist the fingers were rolling 180 degrees in the wrong way. At that time no weighting had been done. So I am not sure what happened, but the rig is working and the hands are weighted and I am ready to begin animating the character!!! I have already completed two animations on my way to the third tonight. So thanks for all the help from both you and Mark and I am sure I will mess things up some how!! Steve

Last one for the night this is after weighting and then key frame added and then tried to straighten out the fingers with pose slider. It could not be restored Steve Edit I deleted teh key frame and watched the hand un clench. Then went to new location on the time line and added the a key frame and the hand curled into a fist even though the pose slider as set at "0". David or Mark any thoughts? Edit two Watch in realtime, the hand was bent slightly and the with the hand gizmo applied as well, the fingers would of course be curled. Removed the hand gizmo settings and better results. I think the weighting could still be the answer. Along with all the roll handles will keep playing with it. And watch the key framing of the hands.

Found two roll handles pointing the wrong way on right hand. However, I did temp avi and found that the hand is still collapsing in on itself. I think now that the rolls are corrected teh weighting may be the problem now. It only does this collapse once a key frame is inserted. Steve

Mark and David Went back through and in fact there are some fingers rotate z was not set. Changed them but still you will notice that after 80 frames of animation ( 10 frames open 10 frames curled and so on). the fingers are stuck in the curled postioned

Hi Mark and David Rolling in the Y? second bone should be rotate to 0 on y as well? Steve