[Creating a galaxy with particles]

Any chance for a tutorial on either of the galaxies? I'm completely lost at trying to make one. I don't even know where to begin.

[sprite galaxy]

I would like this model sometime. And maybe you could post a higher-res. render?

[sprite galaxy]

Hmm, that's looking good.

[Creating a galaxy with particles]

I like both galaxies, but I particularlly like Julian's. Is that project file or model available?

[Creating a galaxy with particles]

Anything new on this? I also need to create a galaxy for animation. I could just use flat pictures and rotate them around, but what I have in mind would require the depth and angles of a 3D galaxy.

[Fix for "access denied" error messages?]

I still get those "access denied" error messages when I try to copy A:M model files and sometimes project files from a remote computer (my notebook) to the local computer (my desktop) through the local computer.

 

There are no problems when I do the same copy through the remote computer, but doing it through the client returns and "access denied" error message.

 

Has this been fixed in version 11? Are there new workarounds to this?

[Q0204 Animation Contest]

Thanks for the warning. I appreciate that.

 

Also thanks for zipping them together. That makes it really convenient.

[TGA sequence bad naming covention]

I like to separate the number from the name a little with a hyphen. Thus "Camera1-0000.tga."

[Making Your Presentations Zing!]

Very nice, and remember my motto "Embrace simplicity, resist complexity and shun the hype"

 

One of the points I'm making in my talk is "Special effects: just because you can do them, don't." At least until they develop the skills.

[Making Your Presentations Zing!]

Huh?

 

Maybe it's because I haven't had my coffee today—or the past four years—but that just didn't make sense to me. The wires aren't coming out of the conduit.

[Spiderman 2 = Awesome FUN!]

I'm going to see it tonight.

[Images no one could love...]

LOL! That's kind of similar to what I was seeing while placing the 3,223 rubber duckies that were eventually cutout to 1,916.

[Making Your Presentations Zing!]

It was probably the electronic/electro-mechanical side of my brain seeing something that needed to be fixed since that's been my occupation for the last 15 years.

 

Aah! Rule number 1: don't trust an engineer in matters of art.

 

(Anyone thinking of that poor Chinese guy from American Idol? "Sha-bang"? That's the only episode I've ever seen.)

[Making Your Presentations Zing!]

I appreciate your thoughts, Glenn. However, of the dozen or so in my office who have seen the slide, most saw the wires last (the first thing was always "Zing!"). So I'm not too worried about it.

 

BTW, I uploaded an animation preview here (916 KB QT).

[Strange environment map behavior]

While modeling the gears for my "Making Your Presentations Zing" cover, I noticed a very strange behavior of the environment maps. I had both gears in the camera and rotating around their respective Y-axes. Because the gears have a flat plane that really doesn't move (it just turns but the plane never changes angles), one would expect the environment map to not move just as a hubcaps do not "spin" a reflection when the tire is spinning. However, the environment map does move and it causes many problems by doing so.

 

Try this simple test to repeat it.

 

1. Model a sphere.

2. Apply an environment map to that sphere.

3. Drop it in a choreography and animate it rotating along any axis.

4. Render final quality so you can see the environment map reflected on the object.

 

The environment map rotates with the sphere.

 

This is quite contrary to what should happen. Reflections only move when the mirroring object's angle changes.

 

Any way to avoid this bug? Is this fixed in version 11?

[A new dinosaur]

That is really looking awesome! I'd like to talk with you about using this model for some of my stuff.

 

You may also wish to consider Enhance:AM. I like this more than SimbointAM. It's not free, but I think it's only $45.

[Making Your Presentations Zing!]

I have been asked to speak on presentation design at the upcoming Answers in Genesis Creation College in West Harrison, IN. My talk title will be "Making Your Presentations Zing!" I'll teach graphic design principles, eye candy skills, dos and don'ts of design, and more. I'm going all out on this design and using Apple Keynote to present for its advanced multimedia technologies and awesome transitions. The gears and globe were modeled in Animation:Master. The globe will slowly rotate in the Keynote version.

 

Cover (JPEG)

[Connecting to forum and hash site.]

Yes! I was on T1 at the office today and had terrible problems with only the Hash site. I called and mentioned that but they weren't experiencing any problems.

 

I suspected our internet at the office because I'm in a building across from the main office and everything, including the toliets, goes through one T1 connection to the main office. So I tried it at home through my dial-up. Same random problems "Hash.com cannot be found" or similar messages (depending on the browser).

 

I'm tried in both IE and Firefox (my normal browser).

[A:M meets presentations]

 

Well, I'm speaking at an educational conference of sorts. Everyone attending will be there to learn the skills to give specific talks and lessons. Mine will just be the most fun presentation of them all.

 

If they just remember the cool stuff they will see, I'll be happy.

[A:M meets presentations]

Wednesday, I was asked by one of my organization's VPs to speak at an upcoming major conference hosted by my organization. As a presentation designer (my daytime job), I will be speaking on "making your presentations zing!" I'll cover basic design principles and skills, presentation technologies, and then the best part, eye-candy.

 

I want my own presentation to make the audience go "WOW!" so I'm using A:M to create 3D elements for my presentation.

 

I already have some ideas in mind, but I'd like some tips and how-tos.

 

Probably all Mac-users have seen Microsoft's cool 3D logos for the Office suite. How can that same 3D, glowing gel effect be achieved with A:M?

 

Anyone have some models or special effects that you think could really enhance the presentation without distracting?

 

I'll be doing a lot with alpha channels and animations. I already noticed some strange black halos around objects. Could this be from rendering only single-pass? Would multi-pass smooth out these edges?

[10.5r - Tool Tip]

Yup. I've had that problem since 9.5.

 

I've also heard about an OpenGL bug in WinXP that causes the wrong tool tip to be displayed. AFAIK, Microsoft hasn't fixed it yet.

 

Yeah, I think Steve from Hash said the same thing. When I questioned, "But why don't other apps do it?" I was struck silent when pondering Steve's reply, "A:M is probably the only OpenGL app you're running." And it is.

 

Maybe Windows Longhorn will fix this?

[Render farm]

www.RenderMuscle.com

 

Mike Ulrich rendered my "March of the Rubber Duckies" animation.

[Dark Realtime?]

Yup. I get the same problem when I use a Skylight rig. I worked around it by turning off the skylights and turning on the default chor. lights.

[Fields of Grass]

Know that using a high-res decal will slow down A:M. I ran into it when I was using a high-res image for the grass. I now wish I kept that for it's quality rather than switching to the combiners that I used.

[Decal Help?]

I can see that working on the DVD case because it's a fully-beveled cube primitive. A book, however, only has its spine beveled with the other sides being completely flat. I guess I'll have to remodel the book with a few more splines.

 

Thanks for the info!