detbear

I think you can import animation files into A:M composite as well Jason....I would just experiment by importing a .MOV file in as an image sequence. Right click on images in the PWS and choose import image/ image sequence.

Hey, Hash is an incredibly powerful 3D software.....It is a valuable part of my pipeline for sure. I think that A:M Composite does work with shadows. The tech ref I've seen deals mostly with Open EXR files. However...I think Targa's also work. For my projects, I've chosen to work in After Effects for compositing. BUT A:M composite is up to the task. SHADOWS ON OBJECTS: I always render the objects/ characters with shadows on them. I normally do a separate pass for just ground shadows and then I place them under the character layer in post..(This allows me to make the shadows as soft as I need them by applying effects and also making color adjustments to them so they better fit the scenes)..Great render time saver as well ......I place these on top of the ground/ Background layer. Sometimes I have 5 or more layers depending on how complexed the scene... I heard a while back that making a good pass of an object/or characters shadows(shadows on the object itself) requires a "non-textured" version of the object as a stand-in. Not sure how all that works in A:M though. William

Awesome Robert!! I needed a similar effect a while back...Can't go back now though

Hey, I've currently been using shadow passes all over the place in A:M..... Mostly for ground shadows....Ground plane must be set to "Receive Shadows Only" in it's options panel...... ALSO and important....USE .TGA FILES.....Then in the render settings set both the ALPHA and SHADOW buffers to "ON".... Leave the other buffers(light, etc.) at "off"......When you render set the multi passes low at maybe 2-3 passes...Then later you can soften them in a post App like After Effects... BTW.....You won't see the shadows until you go to composite so test a frame or two first... Cut all the render settings off in the render settings except the Multi-pass and shadows. THIS is a simple way for ground shadows that requires some compositing know how....... FOR shadows on the characters...I have found that rendering the shadows along with the character works best in A:M....Haven't seen a fast way to render just the shadows on the character itself.... Cheers, William

If you have a post App like after effects, you can get a bunch done in the color corrections filters/ effects. But straight out of Hash normally gives great results. My current project is being rendered at 720p or 1280x720HD in the Hash settings. Because I am layer rendering different aspects of each shot(Characters, shadows, backgrounds, props), I am using a post APP to bring things back together for final edit. THIS is important to understand aspect ratios and how to "Letterbox" things depending on how you want people to see your work. I wish hash would give an option for setting distinct Aspect ratios as well as resolution. For instance 16:9, 4:3.....etc. Currently it only allows for typing in a numeric digit which I have no idea how this matches up with the 16:9, 4:3, etc. I'm sure it matches up, but I don't know how. I guess "1" equals square pixels and so forth but I don't know.....As I'm typing this, I'm thinking it would be cool to have a chart of the equivalent matches for the Hash aspect numbers to actual aspect ratios.....16:9, etc. Cheers, William

Just a suggestion to try......You could try google sketchup and see if their "warehouse" has an obj of Chicago. If you have Sketchup, you could export the model as an obj and then import to Hash......BUT transfer times could be loooooonnnng...depending on the complexity of the model.

interesting water

Yeah....I was splitting it in half instead of trying to run the "stepped" style. The scene doesn't change much, so I figured that there would not be a huge difference which frames were being rendered......... Maybe there is some other element inusing the stepped process that just makes it work better...

Sketches look great Will.... I especially like the Heyena. Cool.

This seems to have been a card/ driver issue....It has been resolved or at least works....Had to update the card drivers. Also I had to switch off of "Open GL" real time driver to the other option. THANKS for all your help on this one.

I tried that but seemed to be slow...So I was wondering what actually qualifies as an "Instance" in XP or Vista......AND how do you affirm that a single core is being used for each.....OR does window automatically do that. William

However..... When I opened the program twice and tried to render simaltaneously on both,,,,the second one seemed much slower..So i stopped the process. Figured I would inquire here for some better info on how to properly do it.

Hey Guys.... Do you simply open the app three different times and render the same thing... Or do you have to install the app in several places?? My machine(s) have i7 Quad core ....with 3-6 gigs of ram

Hey everyone. I read that it is possible to run more than one instance for a second render if you have more than one core on your processor. How can you do this without slowwing down the other render? If I simply open the program twice and run the same render, the second render is much slower and seems to bog the firstdown too.....SO I figure there must be some other method of opening the software......OR is that just how it works. Are all renders(3-4) slower than just running 1 single render. That seems to defeat a multi-instance render. How do you set this up properly on a multi-core Vista or XP machine?? William

I could've made a mistake, but I tried all the above and it still doesn't work. IT ACTIVATES WITH THE KEY....but the program crashes when you try to use it... The only version that will work is "V15i". It's like my activation code is locked to that particular version(15i).

BTW.......This second web license is installed on a different machine than my first web licence.

Hey Everyone. I had to get a second license(web) and installed v15i. However, I need to have 15f instead. Can anyone walk through a step process how to do this on a pc/ vista 64 computer. I have installed, re-installed, tried to copy paste things.... Where I have come back to is I re-installed V_15i again. It is the only one that has worked(obviously)..... The other installs I tried installed fine and even said "successful" after copy/ pasting the activation code. But when I open and begin trying to work in 15f, it errors, and crashes. Where do I create these new folders and paste file(s).... Is there a step process anyone can fill me in on. I have tried what I could find on the forum, but it hasn't worked. Must be some steps I'm missing or something. As of now, 15i is installed and works.... but it has too many glitches for my current project which works fine in V15f. Nothing personal against 15i or any updates for that matter, but I need to stick to 15f to finish out this project. Please can anyone help. William

That's fantastic....Love the tracking match...

Robert.... Looks really nice man.. Great work.

This works with Klieg lights for sure. It's been done. The key is to run a shadow pass with a single light for the shadows. Then of course you need to use a compositing software to bring the two together.... You can blurr sharp shadows in a compositor like After Effects to overcome the sharpness factor. With incredible results.

Hey guys, That's awesome information. Thanks for your help. For this sequence I'm going to go ahead and keep the Motion blur and Multipass in there. I guess I'll just have to take some extra long lunch breaks for the render times... Well more like days away from the computer... The results are worth it. I am in the process of trying to get Net render on my machines which will obviously help. William

I know I want the Multipass setting on, but should I just go ahead and shift the Motion blurr off... It's a 24frames per second shot.

I just want to make sure that the areas of "Lesser" motion remain as "Crisp" as possible without also having some blurr... At 1280 x 720 I'm not sure if 25 multi-passes is enough... But it is a LLLLooooooong render. William

I had this same thing happen to me a while back. Seems like I got it to appear somehow, but I can't remember....At that time I was thinking it was my video card so I didn't investigate it. It was back in V14 I think.

Hey Everyone, I have my render settings with Multipass at 25 passes and I also have Motion Blur ON at 20%... Should I avoid having motion blur on at all since I'm using Multipass??? William