Shelton

Oops, i also wanted to say Martin, I had a blast at the Hash bash 10 years ago and I dont know if I ever thanked you for everything, so Thank You!

Martin glad to see you back! Some of the mentors have taken upon themselves to help and teach and coach. This forum is an awesome place to learn about AM and animation in general. There are alot of very talented people here! I am very thankful for the forum and I have made some wonderful friendships through collaboration of some fun projects. So my thanks for all your hard work and efforts in the past. I am sorry you had to go through what you listed. I think those of us here are here to have fun. So welcome back!!!

Ok, Rodney, this is perfect timing as I am working with the dragon. My first test of fire breathing dragon was a total waste of time. I would love to see this setup. I will try to make it this Saturday to live question and answer time with Robert. I will be traveling this week with work so will not be around until then.

The knight now has a new set of bones installed. I will build the relationships after I finish my animation assignment.

Hi David First off thanks for uploading the updates. I have just downloaded the new files. Are there new instructions on the install process?

Simon Weighting can be tedious, but you can achieve great results. But in the end unless you are supper rigger like David, Mark, or Mack you need fan or cog bones and probably will smart skin. I like the ability of weighting in 17 and 18. Choose two bones and click in the area where the bones are listed when weighting. Then select a third bone and click the list area. Now select the main bone and the value and select lock and click in the list area. Now select the next bone enter the value and then lock and click in tje list area. Third bone will now have the remainder of 100% but you will have two values set. The key is not to apply until you are finished.

Horse sized to the knight. Now to rig Timothy - the Goblin (half Done) Sir Harold the Knight (Half completed) Alvin the Dragon (3/4 completed) Melissa the Maiden (3/4) completed Hector the horse (5% completed) Then on to the forest set. I have trees from other projects and a rolling hillside. This has been a fun diversion.

Nice!

Thanks Steve

I started the rig on the knight last week and almost done with the bones install. I have to get the final orient like and roll like bones in. I have got most of the rig done on the dragon as well. Pausing to think about the wings at the present time. I have pulled a model I finished in 2006 and rig worked the horse for the knight. I am on vacay this next week so I hope to show more effort in the next few days.

Awesome! Love the detail of Tusk

Very cool.

Rigging of the knight has not been easy. I had to start over a couple of times and not sure that I might have to do it again. This maybe a custom rig.

Simon you might try the Saucy rig. But still shoulders and hip area are trouble some. David Simmons squetch rig is incredible as well.

Looks very nice!

New shot with the corrected size

After sleeping on it. I am going to resize the dragon to make sure i can get him in the frame

Here is the first render of the dragon. It started out as a horse. He is about 14 ft tall and about 32 ft long

Here is a wireframe

Long day, thanks Rodney and David! I will render a wireframe and up load. I am 3/4 done with my dragon. I used my horse i created a long time ago and modified it. I took the feet off a raptor or dinosaur on the extra cd. Getting close. The wings are from my cupid and bird from the extra files. Anyway looking for a dragon texture or scales now. Hope to have render tomorrow.

Last one of the day

Thanks! Good to see you back around. I was wondering how your book was going? I start on the dragon tonight once I complete his sword.

The Knight body is almost completed. Just a few bevels to the suit and will be completed.

This looks great! I have never explored this featured of AM. great looking character!

I have used Mack Chapelle's Rig or the Saucy rig. I usually can get it in within a couple of hours without weighting.