Kelley

Thanks, guys for the come-back. That cleared things up a bit. I had always seen the matter of 'direction' as being one where Spline A had a left-right direction, while Spline B might have a right-left. And no way tto tell which is which, or what the import of that diection might be. Once rid of that basic misconception, things look much better. Nice bit of sleuthing, Robcat, on seeing that table top as one whole spline that ran all the way around.

Well, timing is everything in life. You reccomended I contact Bristol Community College; do they use A:M there?

I would love to find some fellow A:M users down here on the South Coast of Mass. I live at the tip of the red arrow, between Fall River and New Bedford. I know that confidentiality precludes giving out names and phone numbers, but if I could discover whether or not we have other users close by (or, reasonably so) I'd get on Craig's List, or tap into a friend's Facebook page. Any help would be appreciated.

Can someone explain the 'direction' of splines? I have never understood that.

Here's two pics of a single rail railroad that I ventured in the early days of "Scarecrow of Oz".

Or...start with color and have the snowfall turn everything to a White Christmas?

Too true. The crew of five were all lost. Even though the C27 probably wasn't as high as I have it, still...it's a long way to fall. And into the North Sea. Thanks for the kind remarks. John B: There's a zillion books out there already. That's where I get these anecdotes. This is well ploughed ground.

Bought a WWI flying game a few months ago. Given my weakness for flying things, it spills over into A:M. Got an itch to play with Hansa-Brandenburgs...here's the result. On Dec.11, 1917 a flight of three W-12s led by ObLtn. Friedrich Christiansen, was on the homeward leg of their patrol. Nearing the coast, the No.3 plane, the 'Tail-End Charley', spoted an Asta-Torres airship and dove to the attack. Christiansen and his other wingman turned back to join in, but by the time they arrived it was burning. Neither plane could add much to the process as the C27 was already going down. Being Flt. Leader, Christiansen claimed the kill, and it was confirmed. After the war, in subsequent statements, he acknowledged the role of his No.3, and some accounts credit each with half a kill.

Exported in .3ds format. Worked like a cham. Thanks all!

I'm not seeing an 'Export' option in the menus, just an 'Import'. Is it possible to export an A:M model in a file format that 3D Studio Max, or G-Max, will recognize?

Partly. Anthony Fokker was a Dutch pilot who started building his own versions of the things he had been paid to fly. He toured Holland and Germany extensively and built strong ties to German Officer Corp. When the war came, and he was supplying more and more planes, the bulk of them were built in new factories in Germany. But Fokker himself, and the company, remained Dutch. After the war, that really p****d off the Allies, who really wanted to find an excuse to slap Fokker around a little. Nancy: Yes, there should be a prop disc of some sort. As I am going to do a few more WWI planes, it's time to dig out the tutorial on Multiple Frames One Frame.

And then what? Fact is, I have no immediate use for it, but if anyone here would like to play with it, I'll post the model and textures. I did build it, it's not from the game. Of course, when I post the pic. on the 'Over Flanders Field' site, the guys there are going to grouse because it can't be imported into the game.

Just found a great flight-sim game called "OVER FLANDERS FIELDS". So I've been hanging out on their Forum, flying and soaking my head in WWI lore. With A:M at my fingertips, I had to try a few planes. Here's the Fokker D.VIII. Some accounts claim this successor to the justly famed Fokker D.VII was unresponsive to the controls and under-powered due to the Oberusel rotary engine. [Fokker Triplanes shared that engine and problem] Other accounts say that if the war had lasted longer, the D.VIII would have emerged as the deadliest fighter of either side. It suffered from construction problems at first. Fokker's normally high standards had eroded, [he also contracted out a lot of construction.] but when that was addressed, the problems ceased. Technically, this planes was the E.V. ['E' for Eindecker, or Monoplane; 'D' for Doppeldecker', or bi-plane.] But after it's teething troubles, the appelation was changed to D.VIII to disguise the bad rep., and to piggyback on the reputation of the very successful D.VII.

Thanks Vern. I turned it into an .mpeg because of file size. Here's a shortened clip as an .avi/Final Quality. [approx. 36 Mb] The wheels are doing the same. My computer should be more than up to the task; I had my computer Techs hand-build me a machine tailored to 3D and rendering animations. I'm puzzled because the tank treads move just fine, and that should be an equal render/playback overhead. TRUCK_WHEELS.zip

This is a Shaded-Wireframe, very rough cut of the "Moving Foxhole" movie. Cannot figure out why the truck wheels start and stop. The action doesn't seem to be moving so fast that the screen refresh can't keep up. Or is it? Untitled.mpg

Looking realy good, but I'd work on that fence if you want to keep the horse in.

Thanks Ken. While the scaling didn't do the trick this time, the cause was that the initial walk cycle was being installed out at around the 40 sec. mark. When I dragged it back to zero, then increased the number of iterations, the bar was still solid [only happens with this character] but the walk works.

My tall character walks fine when I slide the scrubber back and forth, but when I render [shaded] he simply slides along in the starting position. The little guy is fine. I have noticed that when I drop an Action on the tall guy and want, say, six cycles, they don't show as individual blocks in the PWS as do the cycles for the short guy. Is this pointing to the problem? MOTERCYCLE_TEST.zip

Pretty slick! Have you tried adding a transparancy to the drop? They look a bit solid now.

Now there's real weight! EDIT: Just watched "Lucha Libre". Wonderful! I was completely foxed by the wrestler turning the tables on the red-head.

Amazing. Can't imagine how they got turned on in the first place. Thanks.

All strong possibilities, for which I'd welcome a solution. Is there an easier, or at least a more intuitive, rig that you would suggest? Baring that, a good tutorial on IK? And are you telling me that in an IK chain you can move the Upper Arm without the Lower Arm and Hand flopping about? Oddly, fingers aren't affected. They stay as they were posed. However; while we try to solve the big, conceptual problems here, my immediate problem is howcum the last two digits on the thumb [gun hand] won't move? EDIT: Just did the obvious...checked your tutorials. Printed out the D. Rogers text. Your video looks good, but I can't get the volumn up high enough on my monitors to hear it.

Nancy: My reasons for using the lock is because my past experiences with IK have left me chewing the carpet in frustration. Grabbing a hand or foot and trying to push/pull it into postion is like trying to shove with a wet noodle. And if it gets close, but needs tweaked by swinging the elbow in just a tad, then parts lower on the chain flop wildly about, thereby undoing all the careful push/pull work. Foot targets start out centered on the ankle, but always drift farther and farther away until they're useless. Targets, Balance Base Rigids [and other similar] I understand only dimly beyond their descriptive names. How they work and why they should be necessary is terra incognita. For a while I used The Set-Up Machine 2, but that simply exchanged one set of puzzles for another. When I discovered the lock it was like a small 'eureka!' Now, when I begin to build an action, I start by locking every bone I can and as a result, I usually make the simplest skeleton I can. In this case, I tried to adapt the 2001 rig because I was/am having trouble making a Run action. So I thought I'd put it in a character and use the Run from the A:M CD and tweak the keyframes in the action until I had what I wanted. Turns out to be the long way 'round. mtpeak2: I use the 2001 because it's in the library. What rig would you suggest? 'Ease of use' earns high points. Deleting the Relationships folder did the trick, but the last two digits in the thumb/hand holding the MG still won't move.

I am trying to re-rig a character, and for the first time, [when making an Action] I find bones that will not rotate, or will rotate on only one axis. For example. In this instance, the arm on the right side of the pic. will move only fore and aft on the Y-axis. I can't move it up or down. On the other side, I can get the base of the thumb to move, but the two other digits won't. I can't even get the "rotate" symbol to show when I move the cursor over the bone. I have the bones 'locked' since I rarely use IK. I've tried IK both ON and OFF. I've unlocked the bones, but instead of moving in the screen plane, the arm section twists and spins around. LOCKED_BONES.prj

OhmiGawd! Our chance to see Martha Stewart running with scissors?