detbear

As Robcat said.......it will require the ability to paint the correct images required. That is a complex skill in itself.

Awesome!!!! That saves a whole lot of complex geometry to achieve wrinkling on cheeks, eye brows, clothes, finger joints, etc. Getting that system into a facial rig would add a lot of great detail without having to add the additional splines. Very cool.

Looks Awesome Tore. I'll have to check out Shadermap. I've experimented with this some also, but not with Shadermap.... If you use photoshop and have an Invidia graphics card, there is a free plugin that automatically converts an image into a normal map. I can't remember the link at the moment, but it should be easy to find in a google search. Normal maps are quite powerful to use in this way. I WISH A:M could add animated maps for creating animated wrinkles and such. That would be a huge help.

So I have used V.18 for a long time. On my older Vista system(Never had a problem) But I switched many months ago to using my Windows 10 cpu. Suddenly this week, everytime I render, my computer cuts off randomly. This has begun to repeat over and over. I don't have time to do any R&D. Has anyone else had this issue on Windows 10? or V18?

Dragable poses are similare to the "pose menu" set ups that professionals use in large studios. For instance, you can pre-establish a list of hand poses that can be dragged into an action or choreography. Back in 2008, I set up face, hand, etc. poses for many characters. That way if I wanted a hand to Point, or make a fist, I could just drag that pose onto the character and it would save the time of having to bend all the fingers into position. PLUS, after you drag it in, you can adjust it to your liking. It basically sets a key for the bones into that position. You can also make drag poses for entire character. It's very flexible. Some Studios have entire libraries with thumbnail images for each pose. They program it so that you can click on a thumbnail and it sets the key and pose on the character. Kind of like a selection set of poses. So you can actually dial up the face poses for instance and get your character into a "frown" automatically.

AWesome! Looks great Mark.

Robert is correct. It seems like this is one of those questions that continually surfaces again and again. Every time I have to get that function to work, I have to look back and remember how it's done.

So it needs to have actual text saying "summer" somewhere on the image?

When I convert a poly model into Hash via .obj import, this seems to be where Spline patches and Polygons express their deepest hatred for each other.

I first noticed this on windows 10. It locks on both progressive and "Locked" render modes. It is very annoying, but I have just been working around it. I'm using V.18p

Mark, I think you are correct Mark. I do seem to recall that one now.

Yeah.... he did the "punching babies in the face" thingy. I think. Wasn't that it? xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xACkzcvUQsE

I'm so glad that worked for you. It was fun to set up. Let us know how everything turns out with it.

BTW...... Mark... That looks really cool man.

What I worked up for Tommy was to capture what I feel is appealing for most people in regard to the style in his example. I use a similar set up to capture a more realistic look to my Lego animations. To make the toys seem more real on the screen. As if they came alive on your desk and you video'd it with a smart phone. There is a "Clay" style look that seems very appealing to many artists and Audiences. It's certainly not the only style, but it does carry a realistic vibe. The allure seems to be that you can reach into the screen and pick it up with your fingers. And yet when animated it moves and breathes and gives the illusion of life. BUT appeal is in the eye of the beholder. It's just a style that I like. Seems as though others do also. That was the essence of where I saw this original thread going. It is not as complexed lighting wise as it seems, but texturing and shaders do play an important role.

Yes.....That is cool stuff

If you can scan a real world object and get an efficiently usable model with the exact dimensions, that sure beats a "By Hand" method in many circumstances. Gets the job quickly into the environment. Even if you have to tweak or repair it a bit. Entire rooms and environments can also be scanned for interior levels on games and other CG projects with new scanning technology available. It's a very exciting time for these things.

Hey Martin, Glad to see you back around the forums.

I recently passed 1,030 subscribers and my top video(Made with A:M) has over 120,000 views. Two of the others have 50,000 and 30,000 I think. xhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IWYZcI7egE Youtube is not a "Post it and they will come" medium. It takes much work. The hardest part is getting your 1st 100 subs and your first 1,000 views. From there things begin to get better. But for most of us it is a slow process. Once there are a certain number of views, Youtube ascribes more attention to it and it shows up more in the "recommended" feeds for more viewers to "Click." This is why it takes so long to build an audience no matter how good or bad your content is. And for most people, it takes a lot of work to get their content in front of a large viewing audience. Youtube is hard work in order to get seen. HOWEVER, there are some who get a quick break here and there. We all hope for that magic bounce into getting the "Million" plus views on our hard work. ALSO, a few years back, Youtube changed the algorithm to a "View-Time" dominated setup. This means that a "Cat" video shot on an iphone that is 3 minutes will make more money than an animation lasting 1minute. The cat video took only 3 minutes to make and a few additional minutes to post. Whereas the animated short took 3 months or more to produce. This makes producing animation for the Youtube platform unprofitable in many cases. Especially when you probably aren't going to get enough views to cover the time spent. So if we want to make money on Youtube, we have a better chance with cat videos

However....I must say that there are times when rendering a green or "blue" screen with a render is necessary. Hash's "Alpha" channel is not always functioning on import into certain Apps depending on what file type you rendered it in. New versions of A:M often change how these exports work, etc. So it is important when using hash to test a few frames with the post App of your choice. For instance, if you render a .TGA out of Hash with an Alpha and then import it into Adobe Photoshop CS4, the Alpha channel isn't going to be Automatically "doing it's masking thing." And it takes steps to get that to work within This same Alpha channel in the .TGA will however work in After Effects, but you must set the frames to "use" alpha. The worst case is when you have to somehow "Re-mask" things based on a channel that exists within the file, rather than it being interpreted automatically. I like using .PNG format because it seems to transfer better into more external Apps with the least amount of troubles.

Agreed

I think the obstacle for those using A:M is the "Age Old" question of how many hoops or bridges you have to jump over to go from A:M into the renderer. There are problems that you have to overcome if your software does have a plugin for a specific render engine. For example: MAYA to Octane has a direct/ built plugin. But there are issues in the process. So if there is no direct plugin, the bridge process adds even more complexity. This is an area that would benefit A:M, but just like Robcat and others have pointed out, it takes resources and time. I wish that it could be done. Renderers are so amazing now adays. And they are getting better by each passing month it seems. And yet, A:M has little access to any of it. This is the hurdle that I wish could be solved. And yet I'm fully aware of why it may not happen. But I don't think there's anything wrong with wishing and hoping......right?

I use Inkscape a bunch. It's a thousand times better than illustrator IMO. And it's free to use. It is very easy and practical. That is a neat feature for A:M.

Hey Ken, I mentioned Marmoset a while back. It is the "Go to" tool for showing models and building Physically Based Materials. I think you would have to do some R&D to get the it to work from A:M. Would probably take obj exports with UVs. You'll need to build materials within Marmoset I think. It has become an industry standard for character artists in the industry.

This is a real Achilles Heel for Hash. There just isn't an efficient means of transferring this data in a usable way. I stress "Efficient". It can be done, but it's just way too time consuming and difficult with all the workarounds and such. Once the models are cut down, details are lost. There is hope and I'm glad to see the work via Blender. But then again, there's a huge learning curve and it takes time. Lots of time and R&D.