Kelley

Looking at the last rendering I posted, you'll note a red door/gate with iron nails at the end of the street. ['gotta look close for the nails.] Todays posting is somewhere behind that gate.

While mulling over which of the advisos to tackle first, I had the following epiphany: combine the sword and scabbard into one model, install a bone in each and make an action. Since both are curved, a straight pull won't work. I made a 5-frame action in wireframe so I could watch the blade move within the scabbard [and many screen snapshots] then, as a second version, expanded it to 11-frames in the timeline. The 11-frame version is attached below. [tho' it will get better lighting.] STREET_TEST_02_final_qual..zip

Here's the assassin in place.

Aha! Three very plausible solutions. The Channel Editor is a bit over my head at the moment, but I'll noodge these about and see what I can make happen. Thanks.

Anyone have any advice on how a character might draw a sword without it moving through the mesh of the scabbard...without having to fine-tune frame by frame?

Rusty: He's [and it is 'he'] definitely the bad guy. I think of him as an assassin. I'm in the process of rigging at the moment. 'Love the possible action moves. 'Will have to think seriously about some of those moves. Eric: Thanks for the kind words. I'd love to be able to say when some viewable movie will see light of day. As I've mentioned before, I'm a modeler, not an animator. With the urgings of Martin, I'm tackling more animating. And I'm doing better. But once the character is built and rigged [with my own somewhat primitive boning system] and the sets are made, each additional task is a leap into the unknown. While I struggle with those tasks, I get either bored, or frustrated, and want to take a break. I get a new idea. It seems simple...and I'm off and running in another direction. I have a heap of half-finished movie projects. What I'd really like is to partner-up with somebody for one or two short [like six minute] animations.

Another project that got out of hand. Taking a break from animating a talking fish, I built this character. I've always itched to make this style of cartoon head/mouth. Then I decorated him. ['should have seen the early signs of "project inflation" right there] Then dug out some old buildings and made a street...and then...

Definitely go with the last, the biggest, the flashiest!

Thanks, Ken

Well...it's a start. TEST_01_zipped.zip

Not too far back there was a thread here about deleting Pose Sliders. Now I can't find it. I can delete in the Relationships Folder, and in Actions, and in Choreography Actions. But the slider still shows in the drop-down list. Can someone point me to the thread?

Especially nice in the detailing of the ears. The eye sees more than is really there.

mtpeak2: Thanks for the comeback. I've opened up a new .prj with nothing but a test set of lips. I'll try again from scratch. Ken: I had not even got around to making the poses go in the chor., I had built them and checked their motion in the Action Window. Then saved, closed out, and only now am coming back to pick up the project.

Nice character, Dhar.

No, I didn't alter teeth or tongue in any way. Just moved them to different places, in different poses. I'll try closing all windows except the Action Window that I'm building the sliders in. Not too sure what you mean by "...and delete all actions from the project." You mean from the actual .prj file? Should Poses Sliders be made first, and other actions later? Or, Actions made, deleted from .prj, and re-imported later?

I set aside the Fish Project for a week or so and worked on other stuff. I had the Pose Sliders all built and ready for a sound file. When I opened the .prj today, none of the sliders worked. These three were the worst. The teeth, and tongue, which were to show briefly on TH and FV were the worst, moving out through the mesh. In all of them, the lower jaw worked very little-to-none-at-all. This is major discouragement. Has anyone else experienced this?

Maybe I should talk to Jeff Lew about a "Bean on Bean Smackdown".

About twelve years ago, when CD's were a hot new technology, I had a client who needed a logo/avatar for a "CD Studio". "The Bean" suddenly appeared as a doodle in the margin: a blobby character with pipestem arms and legs, no features, surfing on a CD with a stack of three over his head. He was never submitted, but I have somehow retained a fondness for him. Over the years, I have built, and re-built The Bean in evey 3D app. that passed through my hands. Now it's A:M's turn.

Applied to patches. If I ever find an application for the character, I'll go back and groom the hair.

Thanks, Ken. And Seamus it is! PS: The 'color settings', as far as I could see, was in Properties under Surfaces. At least when I right-cliked on the name, it came up with black showing in the color chip. Once changed, the beard changed. Here's more of what I had in mind. Thanks again.

Kel? Naw, not Irish enough. Here's the guy with hands. And lots of new colors. Most applied as materials. Had beau coup problems with one color knocking another off adjacent patches. In the end, he got re-done. Also, somehow, it seems that I've changed the default color of patches to Black. Hence the black hair in the beard. I applied a white decal to the areas, but it seems that Material trumps Decals. Can anyone tell me how to re-set?

Seamus is not bad, but what would be appropriate for one of the Fair Folk?

Started fooling around with building heads. Nothing much to brag about yet, but this little guy happened yesterday afternoon. A bit lumpy, but maybe I can get the mouth to work. So I biult the body. The hands will follow tonight. s'Got a vaguely Irish look to him. What should I call him, Ken?

Robcat: Here's a composite of the Trooper lifted out of the saddle [and at a slightly different perspective]. Should give a better view of what's going on. There's not a lot of detail on the saddle under his butt, but then, he nevers gets off Beast. [seems I also lost a few textures on the equipment boxes behind him.]

Don't rightly know. At the moment, our Sentinel is on an large arid astroid erratically orbiting a huge Jupiter-like gas giant which is the only companion to the last red-dwarf star at the edge of the Universe. There must be some atmosphere. Our guy has to breath. But beyond that I'm open to suggestions.