phatso

Lots better. Now add some shadows? This is your first try? I hate you.

Looks like you got tripped up on the 00:00:00 keyframe thing - I assume you didn't intend a monster camera move just into the animation. (Or was that switching cameras?) The first thing you always want to do, at least in my own experience, is set up the scene at frame zero. When I mentioned keyframing the whole actor, I should have said that I was talking only about frame zero. From then on, as KenH said, you can get into trouble keyframing all bones. Let's broaden that: You see the three buttons that let you select a single bone, a kinematic string, or the whole model? Keyframing will go faster, with fewer "How the hell did that happen?" moments, if you always pay attention to what you're keyframing.

You can select the whole rig in the lower toolbar (the button that looks a bit like a windmill) and then click to make a keyframe. Another way of selecting the whole model is to go into the workspace window and click on "shortcut to..." the model.

There's an advantage to using the primitives supplied, tho. If you just make a box with sharp edges, they will render that way - which isn't natural. Real edges are rounded. It takes a lot more work to make primitives with rounded edges, but wonder of wonders, the ones in the library already have them.

One suggestion - from one who couldn't do that to save his life to one who can, but for what it's worth - the thing that makes lipsynch fakey is that it lags the action. A baseball batter has to start swinging before the ball gets to the plate; same for mouth movements. I find that taking the whole soundtrack and advancing it 3 or 4 frames (or retarding the action 3 or 4 frames) puts a living soul into the actor in an almost magical way. Fine print: I'm assuming the video/audio timing I see in the downloads is the same as what you uploaded, which of course isn't necessarily the case. If you already knew about this, please don't assume I'm trying to be insulting.

Just a thought - have you turned the balance sliders off? (properties window, break open the rig) They greatly speed up making walk cycles but get in the way of some other things, especially when the feet go above the hips.

Yaaak! I can spell better than that, honest!

Ah, but! This question occurred to me to, not with respect to A:M but with use of Keekat, Shaggy, Thom, and the models on the A:M extras CD, many of which are 3rd party. Would somebody who knows please give a difinitive answer about commercial use of these items? Especially - what if I use their splinage as a base for a rather different-looking model?

Hmm. Wiped A:M off the hard drive and reloaded, now it works fine. I guess not every part of it resides on the CD.

You (they) will find any worthwhile animation program a little frustrating at first. The ones which are super-easy to learn quickly become frustrating in a different way: they're too limited to be useful, which means the time spent learning them is wasted (I speak from experience). So, given that it takes a while to master any good program, which do you choose? You choose one that is easy enough for a beginner to use but capable enough for a master to use, so you don't have to go through the learning process again and again as your skills improve. As far as I know, Animation Master is the only such program. The fact that it's inexpensive to buy is just frosting on the cake. You will be doing basic animation literally in minutes. You will outgrow A:M... well, never. A:M works well with windows - a wireless mouse with a wheel is best. Any halfway good computer built in the last couple of years will do. It's worth maxing out the RAM and you need a decent (but not especially expensive) video card. Most video cards are capable of driving dual monitors, which A:M supports and I very highly recommend. Cheapo that I am, I'm using CRTs, which are cheaper than dirt these days.

All of a sudden, paste keyframe mirrored doesn't work. I can paste keyframes the regular way, but when I try to do it mirrored, nothing happens. (No, it's not greyed out.) I'm using V12 (my upgrade hasn't arrived yet.) What am I doing wrong? While I'm at it - when I'm working on an action, the "play" button is greyed out. I have to click on "shortcut to...", then on a render button, then esc to get out of render. That makes the play button available. I've tried reloading the program, taking the CD out and putting it back, and everything else I can think of. Please do take pity on po' little me.

If you haven't done this already, try animating the motion you want using one of the models supplied in the A:M library. If it works with that model, but not with yours, then you have rigging problems.

I wonder if the whole problem here is that you're not establishing a keyframe at 00:00:00? You would think this would happen automatically, but when I first started animating, I was careless about choosing where the frame counter was. I would go to some frame down the line a bit and do some posing, then discover that I hadn't established a starting pose - very difficult to correct after the fact. One more thing, since you're doing an action that is going to repeat (cyclical) - once you've established the first pose at frame 00:00:00, before you do anything else, copy the keyframe to the last frame. This will insure that, as the cycle loops, the start pose and the end pose match up. Then you can make all the changes in between.

You set the timing by choosing the number of frames between poses as you coreograph. I assume you have the timeline window visible. Let's say you're doing a 1-second animation. If your finished animation will be played back at 30 frames per second, you start at the first frame and place your model. A dot will appear in the timeline at frame 1. This dot is a control point which represents the model's position at frame 1. Then go to frame 30 by clicking on 30 at the top of the timeline or typing 30 into the window at the bottom. Move your model to where you want it to be at the end of the animation. When you move the model, A:M automatically defines frame 30 as a keyframe. A control point will appear at frame 30 and a slanted line will connect the two control points. Now go to frame 15 and move the model to where you want it to be halfway through the animation. If you want the model to move slowly, then quickly, this will not be halfway along - it will be nearer the initial position than the final position, because speed of movement is defined as how far an object moves per given number of keyframes. A:M will define frame 15 as a keyframe and fit a smooth spline that connects initial, middle and final control points. If you want a smooth increase in speed, you don't need to make any changes. If you want an abrupt increase, click on the middle control point and change it to "peaked" (see manual). Want the object to start faster? Reduce the number of keyframes in the first half. (This can be done by making a new keyframe or moving the middle control point.) Want the whole thing to go faster? Do it in 20 frames instead of 30. This is what those people meant by "timing" - choosing the number of frames, and thus the time, required for the model to move from one place to the next. (Or, as you get more accomplished, from one pose to the next.) I should mention - as you work with the timeline, you're going to wind up creating unwanted keyframes and your model will jump all over the place. Before you even start, locate the key buttons in the toolbar, which allow you to manually create and delete keyframes. When you delete a keyframe, A:M automatically corrects the spline between keyframes on either side, restoring smooth movement.

Just for future reference - when you have two poses that are on opposite sides of "normal," you can put them on the same slider, with the normal pose in the middle.

I've had the same problem. The timeline fits a spline between keyframes, however far apart they may be. I used to go into the timeline and set the points to "zero slope," but now I just add words to the dope sheet to force mouth closure: "hmm." The character doesn't actually say that, but it keeps the mouth closed. This is a seat-of-the-pants workaround but I bet it's not the right way. Rodney? Somebody? By the way, replacement words can save a lot of time. You can add words to the dictionary, but I find it easier to just type in words that are already there. "Isaac Newton" becomes "I say egg new ton". "Ben Franklin" becomes "been frank line." They look the same as the original words.

I've got version 12, which is a lot newer than the one that frustrated you. Even so, at first I would often get to where I would say to hell with A:M, this is too hard, I'm going to something else. Then I'd try another package and I'd be back to A:M in ten minutes. The other programs were 1) too limited to be useful, or 2) too hard to learn, or 3) too finicky to use, or 4) lacking the special A:M features I know I will want when I get really good at this. Interesting to note, too, that the polygon programs all included fakes, fudges, workarounds and voodo to let them imitate what A:M's spline modelling does naturally.

If you have a "groped" object, shouldn't it be pink?

Oooh! Oooh! That flattened cartoon eye is exactly what I need for the anime model I'm working on! Thanks for pointing this out.

When I have the problem you describe, it's because I've been careless lining up the points or placing them exactly on the centerline of the grid. It always works right when I do the following: 1. Line up all the points of the central spline vertically. The easiest way to do this is: A. Select the central spline (click on the spline, hit comma key) B. Click SHOW MANIPULATOR PROPERTIES button on toolbar. This opens a window next to the spline. C. Select SCALE mode (hit S key) D. Type "0" (zero) in the window for the scale value of X-axis, hit Enter. This lines up all the points of the spline. 2. Select NORMAL mode (hit Esc). Use the mouse to place the selected spline precisely on the grid centerline. Zoom in as much as needed to get it right. (Or you can activate the SNAP TO GRID button.) 3. Copy/flip/attach the normal way. Note that if there is anything in the model window that you're not copying, or anything hidden, the c/f/a may not work right. When that happens to me, I either just copy everything and then delete what I don't want, or temporarily Edit>Cut what I don't want and then paste it back in afterwards.

Note to the kids - I'm 16 years older than Rodney and they even had 'lectricity when I was a kid. That was when standard house wiring measured CXVII volts.

Spacecomics - thx for the offer, I'm a LOOOOONG way from doing the actual animation. Gotta finish the scripts and then do the sound track first. This is kinda a do-it-all-yourself project so things are slow. But I'll let you know when I get that far. Rodney - so you too know the nice feeling when the cartoon light bulb comes on over a kid's head! Every year a coupla the kids come back from MIT or Caltech or someplace and tell us it was our class that lit the fire. I'm just about done with the model of the boy's head, which has been a real %!+@# as I had no prior sculpting experience. There are plenty of anime-style girl models available, so that won't be a problem. I'll start a thread when I have something to show. Meanwhile I'm going back thru TaoA:M and then the boot camp. Like love, they're lovlier the second time around.

You want to delete splines - which is what the "detach" and "delete" buttons on the toolbar are for. (They do not work the same as the delete button on your keyboard.) For simple models - do that. For complex models - what Paul said.

I have a lot of problems with 5-point patches. 2 questions: 1. This is prolly something mathematical, which means maybe Martin could list some "dos" and "dont's" of 5-point patching? In addition to what's in the manual, which doesn't really address this? 2. Does this problem still exist in V14? Maybe the answer to question 2 would render question 1 moot...

The models which work best in A:M are ones created in A:M, because of the difference between spline models and polygon models. There are lots of free ones on the A:M extras CD, which if you don't have you can download. These are created by experts, and the human ones are fully rigged so you can animate right away. You can stretch/squeeze/recolor/cut and paste parts to make custom models. (This may necessitate re-rigging.) And you can pull them apart and see how they're made. That will hasten the day when you can model well on your own. Also, if you snoop around this forum long enough, you will find links to people who offer other A:M models.