Kelley

OK. Thanks for all the come-back. I'll press forward.

Dhar: I agree that in forming speech, a little tends to go a long way. A lot of the sounds are formed back in the mouth, and people slur over syllables in everyday speaking. Rodney: How does Exercise 12 dovetail with Exercise 7? When I opened up the "+" sign by the words in the left-hand vertical column [of Exercise 7] I found bunches of phoneme values for every word. Was I supposed to choose the best of these...and will the phonemes I build in Exercise 12 override the Exercise 7 phonemes?

The deed is done. Thanks.

I want to delete the bones from my Cheech Wizard model, and practice with TSM2. Is there a quick way to get rid of existing bones, [like in the Action Window you can 'Clear Action'] or must they be deleted one by one?

I did the "Can You Say That?" tutorial and rendered it out, [never mind that it still looks like it was dubbed from an old Godzilla movie] but I'm wondering what to do from here. How do I get one of my characters to say the right thing at the right point in the Choreography? Should I save it as an Action>Library and drop it onto the character at the right frame?

Thanks Ken. I made the change...but the burned-out look had gone away. [i had closed out and then re-launched A:M] I'll keep an eye out to see if it stays allright.

On occasions, the Shaded, and Shaded Wireframe, image in the Modeling Window appears to have a high intensity light illuminating it, and it's difficult to see what's going on. Other times, not. What causes this? [attachmentid=16750]

"User properties" in Properties window OK. Thanks. I'm going to give TSM2 another shot. This time with the Quadaped Rig. ps: Just checked the 'cheapdino9', changed TSM Constraints to On, and it works perfectly.

Maybe that's my problem with TSM2. Refresh my memory: where do you go to check to see if constraints are ON or OFF? Thanks.

robcat: Thanks. I checked out the book on amazon.com, and the users gave it mixed reviews. Seems it's heavily slanted to Lightwave. But...it's cheap [used] and I may go ahead and get a copy. Did my e-mail get through to you? [quick re-hash here: bones detached most everywhere in the Actions window, and mesh didn't follow. But in the Choreography I got outstanding success. See attatched] Also sending latest on Beast. [attachmentid=16564][attachmentid=16566] AHA! THAT 'Tutorials Section'! Thanks. Just looking over the table-of-contents, I want to download/print-out the lot....and thanks again!

trajcedrv: "I would wholeheartiedly recommend video tutorials on rigging the face with bones made by itsjustme (David Simmons)... (they are somewhere in the tutorials section)." Not too sure where you're pointing me here. Is it in the Hash site 'Tutorial Resources" section? I found an "A:M Resources Matrix" page. Same question with the 'rigging section"...

Can anyone out there reccomend a good text on bones [theory and practice] that would have information applicable to A:M?

...and a good thought, at that. I'll give it a shot. How do you plan to act as a director from a distance? Would a voice actor do several readings?

Again...Thank you all. Your responses are much appreciated. Let me say at the outset, that I work on a golf course grounds crew in the summer. During the winter I hibernate in front of a warm computer monitor and build models. The season has started for this year and I am coming home happily exhausted. [Getting back into shape] So the pace of my A:M work [and responses] may become a bit slower. But I have two essential goals: learning to build a stable rig, and getting Pose Sliders to work for me so I can get my 'Tubs' character talking. So: [1] Will Sutton: I checked the A:M Extras CD and the 'Musana Warrior' does not seem to be there. Any other thoughts? [2] Stuart Rogers: You're right. It was not you who made the comment, it was Robcat, and I think I read more into it than he intended. Sorry. [3] Robcat: First, where might I go to check that my IK model is not in FK mode? Second, I will follow the links you gave me for examples/tutorials. It may take a few days to work through them now that I'm working. And lastly, I'm hand painting a texture for Beast. By the time that's done, I should have a trial rig installed. If I'm still having problems [as I darkly suspect I will] I'll post the model for inspection. And BTW, I printed out the instructions for TSM2 and while I thought I followed them to the letter, my results imply that I missed something.

(Robcat quote) Just that first sentence tells me "knee target Problem" Something has gone wrong in the constraints that tell the knee where to point. Perhaps as Stuart suggests you're mistaking FK for IK; that would create instant knee target trouble. "Knee Target Problem" indeed. How to fix it? Is there a place where I can enter some constraint figures to keep the knee facing forward? As for the FK/IK confusion, I don't think I'm getting it wrong. At least, I don't think so. FK, as I understand it, would involve moving the Thigh Bone to its proper orientation, then the Shin Bone, then the Ankle, then the Toes. I have not been working from the top down. I've installed the rig and tried to lift the leg from the Foot Target. I have TSM2, and as Stuart pointed out, it is not the panecea that us newbies hope it would be. In the rig I'm attempting right now, which is building bones up from scatch, how would I go about installing Knee and Foot Targets on Beast? (Robcat quote) It's telling you you've installed the rig improperly or are using it improperly. I know you were careful, i know you read the directions but... you've altered a heirarchy, mistargeted a constraint, misnamed a bone, changed a pose from Off to On or vice versa... I appreciate your faith in me here, and though it's posible that I got the instructions wrong, I know it's not from altering a hierarchy, etc., because it goes squirrely right from the very first. I never have a chance to mess with those possible pitfalls. Do the Hash models use the 2001 rig, or do they go at it another way? Thanks again for the advice.

robcat: Thanks for your come-back. Here's what I'm trying to do: Everytime I install a 2001 Hash skeleton, and try to pick up the foot, the leg turns into a scrambled mess...flipping in all directions. I can avoid some of this by not lifting the foot, but by pulling down and then swinging it forwad like a pendulum, and then, lastly, adjusting the bend at the knee. KenH was kind enough to bone two characters for me with TSM2, and while I had similar problems, they were much less. In both cases the Toe Bones, and the Ankle Targets drift away from the mesh. Strangely, I've never had difficulties with any bones above the belt. [What is this telling me? If anything.] But if I use a Hash model that comes with the A:M, the models act flawlessly, foot bones and Ankle Targets move right along with the mesh. So it's my hope that I can build a more stable model by installing Spherical Constraints. In reading the toot in A:M2000 I just discovered that Sperical Constraints are accessed in the Action Window. I had been in Bones Mode. Howe're...I will appreciate any advice on this. And thanks again. [attachmentid=16400]

Relationships? It's just one damned thing after another! [but Thanks!]

What has to be activated for Spherical Limits is show up in the Properties?

Anyone out there between Cape Cod and Providence, RI?

I'll have to keep this in mind, but in this case, it's a new model. It has not been put in the Choreography, nor has it had an action made for it. Thus: nothing to close.

A quick footnote: Selecting All, and hitting the 'O' key didn't seem to do anything, but the Page Up worked wonders in smoothing all splines. Thanks. [attachmentid=16244]

Thanks for the come-back. At least I can cure the kinks. As for the model...well, it only took a few hours, and will take less to re-build now that the main decisions have been made. I find that the CTRL_Z works if you use it right away. Trying to undo several steps is a very iffy thing. Three or four hammers on the CTRL_Z keys are usually necessary to undo one step, at least on this machine...and the further back down the chain you try to go, the less effective CTRL_Z gets.

Deciding to take a break from the Bird/Flock problem, I set out to build a dino-type beast. But of late, my smooth splines are coming out with kinks. How to stop this from happening? Thinking that it was a Bias problem, and that setting the In Magnitude & Out Magnitude would smooth out the splines, I selected all CP's and set the value from 100% to 0%. Big mistake. So...[1] How to stop splines from kinking? and [2] can this model be saved? I tried Selecting All CP's and re-entering 100% in both boxes. No go. [attachmentid=16243]

Lately I've had splines leap away from a CP and go as far as A:M can see. [ I'm using A:M v.11] I've zoomed out as far as A:M can go, and no end in sight. Sometimes it's happened as I've connected two points with another spline. The ones in this pic happened when I extruded a ring of eight CPS. Is this a problem? They can't be selected or deleted. But when I rotate the model, they disappear in most of the views. [attachmentid=16238]

Actually, this one is not a very complex scene. I cobbled together a few Easter Island heads with the intention of getting my feet wet building Pose Sliders for speech. Like most of my 'quick and dirty' projects, it's taken on a life of its own. Time to get back to Tubs, et al. [attachmentid=16237]