Luuk Steitner

Awesome!

Looks good so far. Maybe you could make it illuminate in parts, starting at the top. 3 parts animated over 3 frames may be enough to make it more look like it really strikes down.

If you have the time line window open you can drag the action to the position where you want it to be. Or, in the properties window set the start and end position for the Chor Range property.

I'm assuming you're trying to apply a A:M Track action? You'll have to make sure the exported bone names match the names of the bones in your face rig. If you're controlling the face with poses, you'll have to make sure you name the poses exactly like the poses on your model. Did you read the A:M tutorial that's included with A:M / Zign Track? That covers pretty much all the steps you'll have to take to get it working.

Maybe you've locked the CPs? That's Ctrl+L on my PC but I'm not sure if that's the default shortcut for this. (you can check in the customize keyboard settings)

Thank you Jason! The new A:M films site looks great!

Something's wrong with the video. It's only 4.8 K and does not play.

My plan for 2010 is to have more time available to work with A:M. Right now I hardy get to use it because I'm to busy with other projects I have to finish. I do have a plan for a short movie I'm hoping to get started on this year.

Wow, that was great! I enjoyed watching it!

O that's just great! I want to open them all right now

Two servos alter the pivot hinge positions of the wings. This will change the angle of attack of the wings. This way I can control forwards/backwards speed and yaw. Varying the flapping frequency will make it climb, hover or descent.

Thank you Luuk ! Well I can always send a card by e-mail to avoid printing and stamp costs by sending the papercard to the thousands of hashers who want one But for another dutch speaking hasher I am willing to make an exception and send a old fashion stamped paper version. Geef me jouw adres door met een persoonlijk bericht en een paar dagen later vind je er eentje in je brievenbus. Dat is aardig maar persoonlijke berichten versturen werk niet meer via dit forum. Je kunt wel m'n adresgegevens vinden op m'n website via de links onderaan m'n posts. Bedankt!

Yes, I'll be using Autocad to make the final drawings so I can CNC cut the parts. The great thing about A:M is that I can see how well the mechanics does work before I build it. Huge compared to this one? By the way, I should not get full credit for the design of the mechanism. It has been done by other ornithhopter builders before so I have based this design on other models I've seen. I've altered the design so it would work for my dragonfly.

This project is progressing very slow but I've got some more progress to show. I've got all wings hooked up now and the simulation is exactly doing what I was hoping for. I've also finished building all four wings (just the carbon frame for now). Here's some pics and animation: test02.mov

That's a nice card Marc. Should we all give our addresses to you now?

The image folder in the PWS has a preview resolution option. It defaults to 640x480. Raise this resolution and your decals should have more detail in real-time. EDIT: I've just tested this and for some reason it does not work for me now. I have done this before and it used to work so maybe I'm forgetting something.

Well if you want to order this one (physical version) you'll have to be patient. It may take a while to finish the first one as I'm spending most of my time now to get Zign Track 2 ready a.s.a.p. I've donated the dragonfly on my website for the extras DVD a couple of years ago, so that one is for free

Nice! I don't think they would have flapped over such a large angle. The first reason is that the actual lift provided there would me minimal, second this would distort the turbulence effect they need to fly.

It's in the way they use their wings. The wings are not gliding through the air generating lift like birds or airplanes, but each time a wing flaps it is creating a high pressure turbulence below it and a low pressure turbulence above it. The pressure difference these turbulences generates lift. This can only work if the wings flap fast enough. No problem for a small dragonfly, but if a Meganeura would flap it wings fast enough in this atmosphere it's wings would break, or at least bend so much they will not work properly. Right now this is just guess work, so I may be wrong. It's almost impossible to make a reliable calculation on this since the only evidence for Meganeuras we have are the fossils. The fossils do not tell us how strong the wings exactly are but from the image visible we can see the wings had an even weaker construction compared to modern dragonflies. From my experience in building many rc airplanes and ornithopters it get's an easy guess. But it's still a guess. If this is all true, the only way to make the Meganeura fly with an acceptable flapping frequency is to raise the air pressure. Two times the current atmosphere pressure seems enough to me. I guess we'll find out soon.

I'm starting a new project in my (rare) spare time. I'm planning to build a Meganeura, an ancient dragonfly that was extinct a long time ago. These insects had a wingspan of 70 - 75 cm (~ 2.4 ft). I'm not not building one in A:M, I'm building one for real, RC controlled and supposed to fly. Well, actually it doesn't have to be able to fly in our current atmosphere, this is an experiment to see if a dragonfly of this size could fly with the atmosphere pressure as it is now. The reason for this is that some scientists have reason to believe the atmosphere pressure was much higher in those times, estimated about twice the current pressure. I think it would be almost impossible for a dragonfly of this size to fly with the current pressure (I won't go into too much technical details here), so if this experiment shows this is true (I will be testing with high pressure as well) this may add some proof to this theory. First I have to make sure this machine flaps his wings just like a real dragonfly and not like a ornithopter (common robotic bird build by hobbyists). The mechanics for this will be quite accurate so to prevent I will have to build many models before I get the correct wing movement, I decided to build a model in A:M first, rig it and simulate it. I've started this today and so far it's working out quite well. Here's what the Meganeura must have looked like (this is a model): Here's the rigged mechanic I've build so far: I took a lot of time to get a rig I could easily simulate. I started out with only one wing and got this working. You may notice it is not 100% correct yet. I 'm not sure if I will be making sure the tiny details are correct too, as long as the wing movement is good enough I'm happy. The first test is already very close to the movement I was looking for: test01.mov When I got everything simulated like it should I'll be redrawing this in AutoCAD so I can CNC cut the frame and gears. I've already started on building the wings using carbon rods.

The decal position is not a property you can animate. You can use an animated decal that contains all the positions you need and control the displayed frame in a relationship.

Yes this is possible. I do this all the time now. Why don't you try AO on an older project? I believe you have some good ones you can try this on. Most likely you'll only have to change (dim / remove) some lights to get the look you like.

Wow, that's a cool and funny video. How much did Heineken pay you?

That's a great looking boat Paul! It's quite a coincidence, I have been building a boat exactly like that this weekend, the only difference is mine is "real" and radio controlled

What kind of material did you use for this model? Did you use glow? Is depth of field turned off?