detbear

Took me about 4-5 years to develop my video. 28 minutes in all. I had to have some key people assist, although....I did most of the work myself. LOTs and LOTs of research and development. The rendering hours alone were extreme. 5 of the 28 minutes were live action puppetry, but the other 23 minutes are all CG. William

JBB, I love the Red Giant plugins. They've helped me a bunch in the past. Two thoughts on this issue: 1. I have had to go to some really crazy lengths in the past to get Hash to do certain things step by step. Even if it's 200 frames, that seems do-able with a little time. As long as the end result is awesome, it would be worth the effort....especially since there's no other way to get an obj sequence out of hash unless an Mdd sequence could be converted over somehow. At least...none that I can think of. 2. ****I have noticed that the obj export plugin has been "peaking" all the splines for some reason in V16. Because of this, the OBJ exports aren't smooth but rather rigid. Anyone know why that is happening?

Hey Will, Looks really promising man. I like it. I think the cloth is very close. Depending on how "perfect" you want it. If you follow your earlier storyboards, the fight scenes will present a much more complexed set of challenges. Unless he throws his drape off to take on the Hyenas and such. Looks both impressive and promising. William

Robert ---- Looks as if it was on Euler. I shifted it back to Quaternium in all categories. It still has the same problems. My guess is that the mis-directed keying damage is done and I'll have to start over to get rid of it....if in fact the "Euler" set interp was the issue. Fuchur ---- Where might I find the magic 'Global Space' settings? I've not had a direct encounter with that animal as of yet.

I'm animating a character. I rotate a bone using the "red" / X axis. But in the graph editor, it shows that I'm rotating the "Green" / Y axis. Anyone experienced this camelion/ rogue switch.

My favorite method(and I have many)..... is the following: 1.Flatten the model in an action or several actions. 2.Use a Generic, "all white" image to stamp all the parts. 3.Once my model is white due to the stamps and UV, I export the new decal image to either photoshop or 3dpaint. 4.Then I paint, clone, paste, or whatever else it takes to get the textures I need. The lines always seem to come into 3Dpainter or photoshop very clean.

Hey, Yes...you are partially correct. I was hoping to make my own set of hot keys that would convert shortcuts into whatever "freelancers may be use to." Most animation freelancers work in 3 or 4 Apps depending on what week or day it happens to be. If the navigation tools and a few other shortcuts are the same, it just makes it easier for them to step right in. Honestly, I like the way Hash navigation works better, but when you hire an animator for a week to animate, they have very little time to get up to speed. So this small transition help would be cool. Can you save a set of hotkeys?

In Hash pressing Shift + middle Mouse button will give you the "Turn tool" for rotating in the scene/ model/ action/ view, etc. HOW can you customize this to be Alt + Left Mouse button? I haven't learned that golden knowledge during my last 11 years of Hash use. Anyone know how? I Know how to change short cut keys via the "Customize/ Keyboard" window.....but I haven't figured out how to make the "Mouse buttons" work in combination there in order the re-customize the view interface ......(Turn, Move, zoom)

Hey all, Just noticed this thread. While Making "Adventures With Boomer", I had this happen a whole bunch....Mostly in the face which probably had more weighting on cps than other parts of the body. Sometimes it wouldn't show up until the render and I would have to do long renders over. The smooth spline curves would "peak" at random places. What I did find is that I would sometimes have to go to select the area of cps by drag selecting the area. Even frame by frame. Sometimes this would bring the smoothness back, but I never did figure the thing out. Seems like a bug. William

Moel, Welcome.... Thank you for asking. I used Hash to create a 1/2 hour children's video. I attracted some animaters who had been working professionally in other Apps. They were very impressed and pleased by the easy learning curve. (This was done in V.15) V.16 is even faster with the 64bit option. You can view the trailer of my video here: www.wybooproductions.com ALSO SOME INCREDIBLE NEW Improvements and features for those of us who blend Hash into a pipeline: 1.The .obj pluggin has undergone great improvements which allow for import and export with really good results. So if you love modeling in Hash with it's elegant spline modelling tools and want to export....You will find it very useful. The new improvements allow for importing UV maps also, which saves a bunch of time. 2. One of the brand new features that make rendering realistic lighting JET SPEED.....is the new Fake Ambient Occlussion Plugin.....This comes in a Free and Pro version. I have gotten the same and sometimes better results than using the regular AO in Hash. I literally did the same render in 1min. that actuallly was taking 1hour with normal AO. The above are just a few improvements...There are a bunch more. Most important, there are friendly users here on the forum that excell in helping with issues and "know how." Cheers, William

SUCCESS!!!! IF someone is having trouble importing a Max .obj with the UV map still on it, try what I did below....It worked in my case. After a multitude of attempts/ tests/ etc.......I began to examine the .mtl exporting out of MAX. HERE is what I found: You cannot have more than One texture on a model. Apparently, in order to get the maps to import into Hash, all of the materials in the 3DS Max Material editor for the model must be in one stamp. Erase all the other materials. For some reason, Animation Master will only import maps with objs if they contain only one material. In my case, I went back into the MAX model and erased all the other materials. They are ones that I can add/ create in hash anyway.

Well, I tried numerous things and one thing works well...getting the obj into Hash without the UV map The same files will open up in other Apps with the Mapping, but not in Hash. When I try importing an obj and mtl, AM crashes. Very frustrating.

I wonder if I do a second export......a .mtl export and then place that in the folder...will it pick it up and import it?

Hey Will!!! No....I am not getting the .mtl file in the export....Not sure what settings to use. I have the "export material" box checked and "Library" thingy checked....but still only exports the obj only.

Your example imports great with the use of the additional PNG/ texture file.... Trouble is, My exported obj out of Max doesn't have but 1 file(The OBJ file). There is no separate material file that is also exported. I guess I'm not exporting the texture out of max correctly. I have the "export texture files" box checked in the export options. NOT sure how to do it correctly out of Max I guess.

That's the trouble.....When I import the .obj model into AM, there is no Decal with it nor any image.

Hey, Robert......I have tried the v.16 obj plugin and it is AWESOME!!!! Works very well, and I am very thankful that it remains in development for Hash. I'm really impressed with the smoothness of the import...And this is a complexed model. The model that I am exporting is out of 3ds Max and has the Mapping on it(in Max)... BUT I don't see any evidence of any mapping on the model in A:M.... PixelPlucker.....That's awesome....I will check it out. ALSO.....Maybe I'm not doing something right exporting out of the other App. Thank you guys for helping me on this one.

According to the last post on the AM forum link below, it is possible...But I don't know how to do it. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...l=obj+UV+import

Hey Everyone, I've worked with .obj export & import many times, but I have run into a new question: I have a very smooth obj imported model(Must have been created with Quads rather than triangles ...... Anyway, heres my problem: 1.I want to use the UV map that the model has in the other App. 2.I exported it as an obj 3.I imported it into Hash 4.The model mesh is awesome....but no texture/ UV map. 5.How do I know if the UV info is still there and How do I get the stamp onto the model in AM. BTW: I know some may be thinking that I should use a .3ds instead, but I can't get a .3ds to export from the other App. William

When you do get going with it(radiosity)....... you may experience some incredibly long render times. Especially when it comes to long animated sequences. The photon computations are heavy on renders. At least this is my experience with radiosity. Hopefully, I just haven't optimized the process and you will not have this problem. There are probably more people here with better techniques to avoid the render hit. If you do run into this, see if you can composite a still render of your backgrounds with the radiosity and then try to match the moving characters by rendering them with other lighting schemes that are not so heavy on the render side. Maybe there's some tricks to help with this that I'm unaware of. Cheers, William

Cool shot!!! Good staging. And I especially like the lighting too.

Holmes!, Remember that your reel is only as good as your worst piece on it. I think you can x out much of what you have in this and you will have a much stronger reel. Your reel is way too long. Music is a bit strong for me....But that's your artistic choice. HOWEVER...remember that you never know who is going to be reviewing it...So it is safer to have nothing that distracts or annoys a recruiter. A recruiter rarely "REWINDS" to watch again. They have hundreds of reels to go through weekly. If you don't get there attention on the first view....Errr, well.... SO IT's actually better to have 3-4 animations that are top-notch than 10 animations that are mixed quality. AVOID using all of that animation of characters talking and yet you can only hear music blasting. Its better to show your lip sinc animation ability. If there isn't any...cut it from the reel. CUT out that shot that starts right when you press play....You need to begin with the Name Tag. Plus...I think the witch coming through the door is not as strong of a shot...especially to open up with..You want to start with a great piece and end with a great piece. Although nothing on the reel should be weak....the weaker ones should come inbetween the start and finish ones. CUT OUT the shot where "liquid" is pouring down on the tin man. ALSO.....Don't cast the viewer into a scene where all of a sudden the person reviewing your reel has no idea what's going on even though the animation may be good. IF ALL POSSIBLE....use the shots that are understandable....as well as good animation. This means shots that begin in a way as to allow the viewer/ recruiter be able to see whats happening. THIS IS NOT ALWAYS EASY. I remember one time having what I thought was a solid reel and a well respected animator hammered me on this same point after reviewing my reel. I wanted to crawl under a rock I think you have about 4 pieces in here that if you cut the rest, it would be stronger. Hope this helps, William

It's amazing to me the time people put into such minute details for models that will be animated and the viewers don't notice the difference. There of course has to be enough detail, but much of what takes hours upon hours to produce makes little difference in the final product. This is why Directors make some of the decisions they do and anger their artists. Directors realize that the audience sees only what it sees. If it's a STILL image, that's a different ball game. But animation blots out a bunch of the detail. Normal maps VS. Bump maps. My experience with normal maps is that they are heavy on the render. I eliminated them on several occasions and went back to bump percentages. My method is Stamping two maps onto a model. A color map stamp and a "Bump" version of the color stamp...... Which is pretty much the standard process for most models. Some add a specular map also, etc. Then I adjust the bump levels in the "Decal" manager within A:M. The less bump percentage, the faster the render time in my experience with it. As far as the boot example above....I think it will be fine using a color stamp and a bump stamp...especially if it is going to be moving with motion blurr, etc.

That could have been me...can't remember if I posted anything about it. However, I did have this issue at one time. It was a V.15 bug I think. I normally just use MOV's and/ or TGA sequences though. A work around is to render out TGA's and composite the audio in a post app like After Effects or Premiere.

Hey everyone, This is a basic question I have about the channels under the choreography of the PWS. Specifically the choreography action channels for the characters bones/controls keys. I have a character that I've animated in the choreography already. BUT...the bone/ control keys are seperated by unrelated controls..... Is there a way the move the channels around so that all the say.....left wing controls are stacked together. This will allow for much easier selection and tweeking the keys. Is this possible to do? William