Darthlister

The above is frame 0; I'm really liking the look so far, but I'd like the weeds to sway a bit, as if in the wind (also going to want to ripple the water eventually, but one personal crisis at a time...). The issue is, if particle render is turned on in chor at all, it slows the machine to a crawl, which baffles me as cpu/mem never hits so much as 40%, but most of the time, I'm looking at the blue windows "Leave me alone, I'm workin' here!" circle.

OK. Having a hard time getting this. Got a good amount of materials, both textured and simple bmps, as well as quite a few tufts of grass/hair. No matter what I try to turn off in the chor window so I can manipulate the grass to be "blown" in the wind, my 8-core, 16gig, 660gtx machine acts as if it can't handle what I'm trying to do. Not sure what I'm doing wrong--how would one be able to manipulate individual "tufts" of grass? Not sure how to get the frame-by-frame rendering down to the barest minimum Thanks, Rich

After cramming textures, gradients, bumps, etc. fro 12 hours, I think I'm getting there..any opinions would certainly be welcome. Am I on the right track? Need to learn water (cloth?) and still can't get the gradients to function exactly like I want, but will keep plugging...

I dunno why I'm having a hard time getting the relationship between the greyscale map, the color map, and the model. I'm not an idiot, I swear >>For the most part all you need is two layers to get most of the job accomplished; a height map (greyscale) and a color map. This looks similar to that I've been doing in PShop, creating the TGAs for the Spaceknight flame, where the black is transparent. So, the lighter the grey, the higher the elevation? And you take a already existing texture, like crumple,dented, or planet, and somehow use the greyscale to tell the texture where to go on the model? >>Assuming you didn't want to paint any textures in an another program I'd say you could use A:M to create something similar. Nah, I wouldn't mind using something like PShop. I like what I've been able to do with it with the flame, but I'm just not sure how it's applied to the texture and/or model. Is this the same as texture mapping? Thanks for the advice, Rich .

Rodney, Thanks for the head's up. After playing with the gradients, I think I've got the barest handle on how to make that at least function. It doesn't look like I can have seperate bump textures for each level though--would you do a seperate gradiant for color and one for physical texture? As for layering, I'm not quite sure how one would layer a texture.. Thanks, Rich

Hey all--- Working on an outdoor scene with a grassy plain that rises to a mountain. I'm looking at a grassy texture, then a rocky, then a granite-like one for the sheer mountain. Question is, how to effect a smooth transition from grassy to rocky to granite without them obviously being patch breaks. Just getting into texturing heavily and any head's ups or links to getting started would be appreciated. Thanks, Rich

Ha! That's the reason I'm still on armored Spaceknights--to avoid tackling the more realistic human form Oh, well--gotta start sometime, I guess. Rich

Rob, yeah, a little thanks. My question is, though, what's the difference between kinematic constraints and doing the same (?) thing a little simpler with Translate to/orient like? I was under the impression that a kinematic constraint more or less took one bone and treated it like it was connected to the target bone, as if the two were connected in any regular chain. Also, I probably need to study rigging a little better. I built both figures with very little understanding of the foundation of the rig. Rich

Hey all-- Been a while since I've updated this; make a bit of progress. As always, any input is welcome. Thanks, Rich ROMFirefallextended.mp4

Absolutely, thanks. I'll be posting the extended clip here and on my YT. It's rendering now, but after looking at it so much, I can't be objective. Rich

Nah, I have a char who's firing a rocketpack, but he's lying on his side

Hey all, Looked for this in the techref, but couldn't find it. Can you specify a gravity point (the point where particles are attracted to in the gravity attribute), or does that attribute automatically just send particles along the Y axis? Thanks, Rich

I'm not sure I understand. You can change the time range and sim another part of the same chor. Ooops, thanks. Duh. Prolly oughtta go back to sleep

Ahh, interesting. Thanks. At this point, can only one time range be set? If you have more than one scene with gravity, do you have to copy the chor and use a different range? Rich

Hi all, Working on a scene where some action has to happen, then a parcel of boulders have to fall onto a character. Having used newton sim in the past, I noticed that, no matter where I wanted the gravity sim to start, it always starts at frame 0. I've tried turning the falling objects off until I want them to fall, but always get a "Unsolvable Problem with shortcut to.." etc. error. I figure I'm missing something in the sim settings, but darned if I can figure where. Any help or pointers in the right direction would be appreciated. Thanks, Rich

Been a while since my last update, so here goes: still treaking the fire effects and char movement. Took a look at the alpha fire effects on Videoblocks, but not sure how to fully take advantage of the compositing capabilities of A:M and the alpha channel, so any head's up toward a good tut would be appreciated. Also been fooling around with taking our fiery spaceknight and compositing him out onto the parking lot outside my building. I got the lighting pretty close, I think, but couldn't figure out how to bring the shadow cast on screen into the live picture. Thanks for looking and as always, any advice on how to do whatever I'm trying to do better would certainly be welcome. Rich faceoff.mp4

Heya, Rodney, thanks for the critique. Do you think it might be the perspective, the model movement after he hits the ground, or something else? I had a little trouble figuring out the movements after he hits. Sort of a "how would a guy just getting used to the heavy armor move?" . Also had some stringy grass in earlier shots of the cave in close to where he comes down, but those seemed out of place Thanks, Rich

Hey all. Still working on this project a little at a time. Below is a bit of the newest. Eventually gonna take a look at the alpha channel fire when I get a chance, but for now still working with part. emitters. Comments, suggestions welcome as always.. Thanks, Rich ROMFirefall.mp4

Hey all, Dunno if this ever got an answer, but is there some limit on the number of light sources in a given chor? Just added a model to a chor that already had a different one (admittedly, both are lightsource heavy) and lost all environmental lighting. removing the 2nd model from the chor re-established them. Any pointers on how to avoid this would be appreciated. Thanks, Rich

It's interesting; revisiting the original books, Uncle Sal is at times very inconsistant in his penciling. Sometimes it's clear that the FF armor is much bulkier that Rom's, while at other times that disappears. I've been looking for a way to improve the fire effect, to make it look a little more like fire in the real world. I'll have to check out that site. Thanks. Rich

Thanks for all the good feedback everybody. After dreaming about rock materials, I figured it best to take a different direction for a while, so I finished Firefall. I'll def get back to the silver guy in a bit, though. Just not sure where I want to go with the whole project. I satisfied with the modeling so far, but having uncertainties about story construction, camera movement, etc. Anyway, this is a couple of pans featuring the cave where Firefall first shows up. Looking for feedback on the model, walk, fire effect, movement, etc. Ahh, just tell me whatcha think. Thanks, Richfirefall.mp4

Well, that was weird. Let's try that one again, eh? Thanks for looking, Rich ROMfall.mp4

Thanks for all the feedback. Finally got an updated clip. Completely redid the opening clip, added materials (OMG the rendertimes ) tried to cut down on the wildly swinging camera, although a couple of pans remain. Tell me what you think. Thanks, Rich

I did just notice something odd--in the camera view, we can see a good part of the top of the hand, whereas in the render, it's almost as if we're seeing it from the side. If the render were taking place at a lower angle, that would also explain the hill being out further. I don't see how this can be, though. These are the same frame. I also had a similar issue when the hill was decaled instead of materialed. When I get in tonight, I'll kill all the mats and render the same frame with just the bare model and see how it comes out. That is curious... i presume you have eliminated a displacement possibility from any maps or materials. And both of those shots are the same frame. Just to try... delete all materials and maps from that model and see what happens.

Hey all, has anyone seen anything like this? Did a search, but the closest thing I could find was material displacement, and I don't think this is that, but you judge. Below is the view from the camera Whereas, this is the actual render Having a hard time figuring out why the "wall" is further out in the render than in the camera preview. Using "use camera settings" in Tools/Options/render. Any ideas? Thanks, Rich