Laconic

Cool! Thanks! I'll play with the manipulators and see what I get. Cheers, T

Thanks, gentle people! Much appreciated. I'll take these to note. T

Hello, I'm experimenting with depth of field in my animation. The problem I'm having is that I can't figure out how to actually determine distances within the program. My settings are in centimeters (cm), but I can't accurately determine lengths so that I can have the proper objects in focus. Are there ways of measuring how far an object is from the camera, or is using the side 'rulers' the best way? Any tips are greatly appreciated.... Cheers, Tim

Hello, I'm busily working on my animation, and I'm interested in making my renders able to be played in a standard or widescreen DVD format. Can anyone point me to the correct resolution, acpect ratio, and rendering settings for being able to view the animation on a standard or widescreen DVD screen? Cheers!

Hi! I'm an active San Francisco A:M user and I would love to meet and interact with others using the program. How can I contribute? Tim

Thanks David. I'll try this. By the way, you are the RIGGING MASTER! Loved your tutorial on face rigging, even if it's a little more advanced that I'm at, now.... T

Hello, I'm practicing rigging and posing in A:M 12.0 on a Powermac G4. I need help in understanding how to maintain the relationship between bones while I'm building a pose. Here's my situation: Let's say I have Two (2) bones: Bone 1 and Bone 2. I'd like a pose where they move in relation to each other in a Percentage Pose. I right-click on the object name in the workspace and choose [New][Pose]. This opens a pose slider which is set to 100%. I then set up relationships between bones using "Orient Like" [bone 2 is set to "Orient Like" Bone 1,] When I move Bone 1 with Bone 2 related, it works fine and the bones moves as they should with the relationships. When I move the slider to a new percentage and then move Bone 1 again, Bone 2 doesn't move according to the relationship I just set up. Still, the relationships are visible in the Project Workspace. I hope this explains my issue. Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong are appreciated.

Hello! Thanks all for the super advice! On we go! T

Hi! I've modeled my character for animation in the T-pose. I plan to use Anzovin's "Setup Machine" so I can start posing and animating my character. My question is: Should I do all the coloring and decaling of my character BEFORE rigging and animating, or should I animate my mesh, save the actions and then add them to a character who has been "decorated" after the movements are done? Any ideas would be appreciated, regarding flow. Tim

Thanks All! I will try putting more than one image in a decal. Tim

Hi! I'm currently learning about Decals. I noticed that when used as a decal, any particular image can only have one property (i.e. Color, Bump, Displacement, etc.) Let's say that I have a color image and I made the same version of it in grayscale, to render the exact decal as a bump, as well. Are there any tips on how I can position the color and bump images exactly on top of each other? It does not appear that a decal can be moved once it is applied, so I'd need to know how to apply two with certainty that they would overlay each other as if they were one image. Thanks, Tim

Thanks, All! Your help is much appreciated! Cheers!

Hello All! I have created my first model mesh and I'm happy with it. I created the model in centimeter measures, and now I'm ready to add my decals. I plan to create the decals in Photoshop. Here are my questions: 1) If my model is 1000 cm tall according to the rulers in A:M, should I also start with a 1000 cm file in Photoshop, so that when I'm decalling, the proportions are correct? (Ignore the fact that I might only decal some parts. I just want to know if the measurements in Photoshop should be the same as in A:M). 2) If the answer above is yes, what should the pixel density/resolution of the file in Photoshop be? (300 dpi? 72 dpi?) 3) Finally, is the .tga format the correct format to save into, in Photoshop, for importing into A:M? Thanks for your help! Tim

Hi, I'm following the "Flower Power" exercise in the "Art of..." book. I'm unable to correctly place control points near the y-axis because the points are snapping to the points on the grid. How do I toggle the 'snap to grid' feature in the modeling window? Cheers!

Thanks! This was very helpful...

HI! Thanks, I'll try that & get back, if there are problems. T

Hi! I've been working on "The Door's Stuck" animation chapter. I've devised the script so that Shaggy tugs on the door slowly once or twice, then tugs three times in quick succession. All of that gets me to frame 00:06:00 or so. At 00:06:00, I'd like Shaggy to turn his head to the camera as if to say "What the Heck?" So, at 00:06:00, I did a "Make KeyFrame" and at 00:06:10 I set a key frame and turned his head toward the camera. My PROBLEM is that now his head starts turning to the camera from the first frame (00:00:00) instead of at 00:06:10, where I'd like him to start turning. Please help me figure out how to isolate moves between a set of frames, so that I can just have Shaggy's head turn between 00:06:00 and 00:06:10? Thanks!