detbear

Hey Will, I know you said you didn't want anyone to do anything on this yet.. I was bored and messed around with the elephant character. I may not be able to have any time when you release the materials. If it can help you out, I'll send it to you. This is completely just a help to you at best..... If it isn't anywhere near helpful. Oh well... This could give your artist a point at which to retopo....or just to test the overall scale. etc. FORGIVE ME IF THIS IS A STEP AHEAD TOO FAR..... I'll remove post if you like.

A:M has made great changes over the years. It has also added really helpful features. I'm both impressed with A:M and proud to have been a supporter. I have always stated that A:M is a good tool. And it still is. The truth is though, most aspiring cg artists desire to go "Big Time" in the Animation Industry. If you get a job in a feature film studio, then you aren't going to be using A:M there.....PERIOD. There is very little that can change that any time soon. 15 years ago, this was still hopeful, but it just did not work out the way many of us long term A:M'ers wish it would have. The battles of the past in this arena pitted very artistic people's opinions against each other. Actually, A:M should hold this dear..... because many of those people who shadowed these forums went on to work on some of the best CG projects the world has ever known. PIXAR....DISNEY.....DREAMWORKS...etc. This would not have been possible if they weren't great artists. In fact, they were some of the best in the world. Do I hold this against them.....for not staying with A:M. No way..... They did what it took to make their goals and dreams happen. A:M was a stepping stone. If they were honest about it, they learned a bunch in this tool. And the tool developed a bunch while so many passed through here. Artists tend to be extremely opinionated. It seems to be a part of their nature. So when extremely talented people are all in the same place....the potential for extremely damaging fallout can take place. As time has shown some of these were in fact among the best of the best. Unfortunately, it brings out the worst at times. The tool known as Animation Master is still a great way to tell stories. PERIOD.

Will, I know the Hyennas have been modeled, but what about the other characters in the above concepts? Have they been created yet? Also, I recall that you modelled/ sculpted a tree in a previous post. I guess what I'm askin' is which of the above have been done already? William D.

It should be noted that the "greendude" is actually the smaller blue character colored green. I always wanted to do some animations with the "Hulk" looking green brute, but Jeff never made that one available. I wish he would release that one also. Those characters are ideal for showing body mechanics skills on a demo reel.

Unity. That's my suggestion.

See my added note in the first post.... I decided this thread may vary too far from the A:M shot under developement. After all, that was the reason for the "Cinematic Submarine shot" Topic. So I will try to stick mostly to the A:M portions of this development. Thanks, William

Hi Manuel, I'm guessing that because you only have 3 posts on the forum, that you are investigating A:M as a potential tool. I've used A:M since around 99' - 2000 and always recomend it. It is a great all around tool for 3D. With that said, my production company uses a pipeline of tools that are constantly changing. But nomatter what I add to or take away from our Pipeline, Animation Master still has a very important place in it. It is way more flexible than most packages. Plus, I just like using it because for me it's easier for various things. I do my best at the start of each new project, to work out the vision for what I want it to acheive. (It might be a certain effect I need. It may be the level of character performance. It may be simply that I need it done fast...like within a few hours.) Whatever the case may be, I decide that way before I jump into a tool(software). Then I figure out which tools can most easily and effectively reach that vision. Sometimes my client(s) force me to use specific tools and I have to work within their pipeline. But after 15 years, A:M remains a vital part of what I do here at Wyboo Productions. William

Thanks Simon. Agreed. But that is just a first pass. The wake can be greased up in post production. It actually needs more off the sides and back as well.

Hey Everyone, As I'm approaching this particular shot, I'm also in development of others. Attached is a render under development of a period ship cruising through the surf. It turned out better than I expected. Much of this is not done in A:M I'm afraid. But these type shots will blend with Hash elements throughout the project. So the quality, mood and the artistic feel will all match up.....Or at least that's the plan. ******I edited this post because in retrospect I didn't want to take away from the A:M portion of our task.******* I'm making progress, William

Nice work... ALSO......If you render the image out as an exr or a different method where you can get your shadow in a separate layer, then you can use an image editor to move and manipulate the shadow/ layers as you need.

You may want to check out my Pseudo Flow topic here: https://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=46653 I have several simulations using props to interact as well. A current project of mine required this type simulation. You are not an idiot as you mentioned above. Water with the material editor is very tricky and takes time to get familiar. It's not an automatic process. Remember that water displacement is a slow, trial and error process. GET FAMILIAR with the x, y, z channels of the "turbulent" material in the "project work space tree" small changes can make big differences/ changes. The material turbulent method is a very good one and it is flexible enough to manipulate the speeds, directions, and properties of the surface. It is based on material manipulation on two channels. The most imortant thing to do is to decide what your needs are for your project. Because every water effect is going to be set up differently based on the scene....project. Most simulations(not all) are handled on a small scale and then composited into a larger shot. They take large render times. William

And EQUALLY as difficult is when the video editing community thinks they can jump into an animated 3D project. My experience is that many video editors arrogantly assume that their video editing skills grant them the same knowledge of 3D. They soon discover why their craft should not bill out as much hee hee hee hee!!!!! In fact, 3D artists have much more experience on average with video editing than video editors do with 3D....PERIOD.

I think it more likely that Luxrender will be more open to help A:M artists use their render engine. IN fact, I think that has already happened to some degree. XTaz and a few others were able to incorporate that at some point if I read the posts correctly. WITH THAT SAID........any renderer that imports mdd or other mesh/ frame sequences is basically an external renderer. You only need the ability to create material spaces on your model to replace yours with the render's materials. AND of course this makes A:M's export capabilities of vital importance. Hopefully as the industry moves closer and closer to these renderers, A:M will develope improved ways to export for that purpose. IT already has a great .X export which is very good from what I've seen and heard.

Recently, I was invited to visit one of the largest 3D printing facilities in the South East. These guys print unbelievably large components. They also use realtime simulations in correlation with their developments. AND GUESS WHAT SOFTWARE THEY ARE PUTTING THE BIG BUCKS INTO!!!! UNITY. SO with the large industries placing their large budgets into Unity.....It wouldn't be a bad idea to become familiar with it

Supersonic is just my way of saying it's faster than anything I've ever used. AS FAR AS THE "Stars" THINGY. That's a recent add. Even with the stars all the way up, it's still Supersonic fast ... THE WAY I see it is that Lumion is a much different type software. The things I love about Animation Master, would never effectively work as easy in Lumion. And also the other way around. Lumion is an environment builder to bring CG assets into....ALL the things that normally drive the renderer into the dirt, are streamlined in lumion almost automatically. Wind, caustics, volumetric lighting, water, reflections, Shadows,displacement mapping, particles like leaves and atmospheric dust in the air, etc. I do like the concept there of having a time set render feature....ALTHOUGH I think the results would be yuky.

Thankfully, I get the upgrade because of my current Lumion License. So I'm very excited about the announcement today. The promo teaser (at the end) claims a 50% faster render on the same hardware. It's already SUPERSONIC fast, so the speed improvement alone is extremely amazing. Physically based materials will be a great feature as well. The water reflections also add more realism. Currently I'm working on a very large scale architectural project. This may come at just the right time. Even though Lumion 4.5 is already working really well.

Hey, No. Vue & Twin Motion are two different softwares. VUE is a widely used matte painting tool for feature films. HOWEVER.....Vue is a very slow renderer compared to these newer "real time platforms". Don't get me wrong, VUE makes extremely great feature quality images. But you have to have a render farm to get the frames at a good speed. ABOUT LUMION 5: From what I understand, the programmers and staff at Lumion decided that they released too much about their previous versions. This time they're keeping it all secret until October 20th. In my opinion, they are wise in doing this because they are way, way, way ahead of the curb. I anticipate that in the future they will be adding compatibility with fbx and animation utilities. If they were to merge motion capture files and character transfers like BVH's it would be a really exciting move. William

Hey Guys, I have little doubt that Twin Motion works well. But for me at this time, I wouldn't think of switching over from Lumion. The Lumion team is very nice and they work to help on their forum. I find their forum help and support to be much like ours here at A:M. They are very quick to respond and help. I do use Lumion a good bit. I have Lumion 4.5 and get 5 when it comes out in 8 days. It is simply amazing. It isn't a modeler and it has no character tools as we think of them. It is specifically for importing and rendering models inside of it's environment producing system. Hands down....it's edge is SPEED. I would say the ease of use is a 9.8 out of 10. Whereas VUE's ease of use I would give about a 4.5. VUE's speed is well........Ghastly slow... Lumion is a powerhouse of a software that is very impressive. IMO William

One other thing is the water motion itself is way too fast like a sped up camera. I will tame that down to a more realistic speed in the displacement motion. Another set up I have allows for rolling over a fall so that it can work for water spilling off into a fall. That won't be needed for this shot though. Overall....beyond this shot, there are a lot of water scenes and interactions with it. For the Cinematic Sub Shot, the water withing the cane is relatively calm and "Mood" is most important.

Here's the video for above post... Sorry bout that!! Psuedo_Flow system 2014 I.mov

Thanks guys... I did a new test. Adding my submarine to the mix. I basically wanted to see how the two would mix. So the animation is pretty bad. I moved the water around a little...but it needs more shaping to fit the sub as it emerges. I thought this was a successful test, but it needs added effects like foam and wake around the object. see next post for video

Mark, You are so correct man. Even the large features are more and more costly to make. AND they are flopping right and left without the brainwashing marketing that only a select few studios can pull off. A massive marketing campaign convinces the public that everybody already loves their show. The hit song is a hit out of nowhere. The toys are on the shelf. The picture is on your kids fast food meal. And what da ya know......It must be the most wonderful film ever. I mean.....we're listening to one of the hit songs on the radio on the way back home from seeing it on the release day. Whether the movie stunk or not.......It's a hit already. The public is so saturated with entertainment(free) until the nuts 'N' bolts of the production is desperate for cheap labor. Thus, the artists are in trouble and small studios are faced with a public that says, "You mean you expect me to pay for watching your show???"

Does anyone know if the Enhance A:M plugin has a chance of being re-worked to work with the current versions of A:M?

This version turned out better than I expected. It has a more presentable textured surface. Psuedo_Flow system 2014 H.mov I added a simple sphere object under the surface. RODNEY: I have several versions of the set up. The displacement is happening along with manipulation of an underlying surface.

This is what I call "Psuedo Flow"...... It is a set up that allows control over the water flow and the surface. Psuedo_Flow system 2014 F.mov