Jeetman

OK John McCain didn't know how many houses he owns. Vern feels this is important. But what about this: I'm thinking the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES should know how long a president is allowed to be in office (No Obama, it's NOT 8 to 10 years LOL it's 8 and that's ONLY if you're re-elected for another 4 years). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwQvb_anYl8 I'm also thinking that the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES should know how many states there are in the USA (NO OBAMA!! It is NOT 59 LOL it's 50). Maybe if Obama showed more respect to the flag and counted the stars, he'd have known that hehe. Some of you may say he says 57 but he then adds that he hasn't been to Alaska or Hawaii bringing his total states to 59. Checkout the youtube link if you think he just made a mistake. The guy's not presidential material IMO. I can see McCains gaffe but these gaffes are scary. Also, I'm SOOO glad the Democrats picked Joe Biden and not Hilary. Now they WILL LOSE!!!!!!! George

Hi Gene, The thing about A:M is the vast versatility of it. You have at your finger tips a massive program that covers so many different applications, it's amazing. When I first started using A:M my focus was on modeling (I do more animation work now). I do 3D mechanical modeling at work using my company's software (Autodesk Inventor) so when I bought A:M for my personal use, I had already had experience with forming 3D shapes to create 3D objects. That's the key in my opinion to 3D modeling; Think of creating three dimensional shapes and sculpting out (through spline manipulation) your idea. Learning about using rotoscoping will help out immensely with modeling. The single most important learning curve to modeling (besides an artistic eye which you obviously have) is creating smooth meshes. Once you fully understand the principals behind splines and the awesome array of tools and methods A:M offers to create and manipulate them, then it's just a matter of thinking about what you want to make. Go through TaoA:M and if you're having trouble check out the excellent tutorials by Holmes Bryant and others and if you having a specific problem that you can't find the answer to, just post it and we'll do our best to help you out. George

Excellent job on the models Jody!!! After reading the story and comparing the ship, it fits in perfectly! Great work!! George

This is a great come back!!!! From what I can see of the animation, it's pretty good but the resolution makes it hard to tell. I think the dialogue is kinda funny. I don't see the big deal about McCain not knowing how many houses he owns actually. He married a very rich woman. I'm betting his wife's the one who probably purchased them but I could be wrong. I see the animation portraying McCain as a doddering absent minded old guy. If this was the intention, it's spot on. I sent an email to Bruce to see if he'd let me get a copy of his Obama model. I want to counter this animation with one about Obama. I promise it will not be bad and it will be quick (I do have SO animation to finish too). George

What a scary thought Sorry couldn't resist!

OK but I don't think jpg's store sound. The problem I had though was it creating the .jpg.sinfo file WITHOUT the regular .jpg file.

It's funny you mention this because I've had an additional problem. When I tried to render to a Jpg format, all I got was a single file that had a ".jpg.sinfo extention. I thought somehow AM created the extra extention and all I needed to do was delete the added extension but when I made it a jpg and tried to open it, I got an error saying it wasn't an actual jpg. I had to render a few times to get an actual jpg. It hasn't happend to me a lot but at least 2 times now. George

Actually Vern, (no offense) but from what I've seen from CNN, MSNBC, ABC and CBS's coverage compared to FOXNEWS, I'll take Fox news. I'm a traditionalist, Independent conservative that leans right and prays to God Obama loses. I know you said not to focus on just one point but character means a lot to me. One important point I vehemently disagree with Barrack: Any person that can justify letting babies die alone in a soiled utility rooms by voting "against saving babies of botched late term abortions just to protect pro-choice has a serious moral flaw to me. This to me is a big story and Fox news has been the only one to give it the attention it deserves. This one issue alone is very telling of Obama. Everyone should know about it and decide for themselves if it effects their judgment. Fox news does cover big stories like this and lets us decide. And if you want to talk about biased, the mainstream media (NBC, ABC and CBS) are ALL leftwing biased (Add MSNBC and CNN to that mix as well). OK, OK I'm done with the hijack. George

Actually, The majority of FOX coverage I've seen speculates Tim Kaine and Joe Biden most likely veep pics. From what I've read, Tim Kaine has just as little experience as Obama. What a great pair they'd make. Not trying to hijack the thread but Just curious and seeings how this is a political thread..... Did anyone else watch the Saddleback debate? I know there's speculation that McCain heard the answers but I was wondering what others thought of the debate. George

As much as I dislike Obama's political views, I have to say I find this animation very distasteful and seeing the President of the United States booted out screaming is also very disrespectful to the office IMO. I just wish we could be more respectful in this area. We have enough satirical situations we can draw from without being totally disrespectful to the highest office. Again, IMO. George

Man that's a serious bummer. I really hope you didn't loose too much. George

Is this after you render? In the normal display mode pics will look pixilated but should look fine after render. George

I've noticed it and have incorporated it too in my animations. George

Jody, That's comming along very nicely. Can't wait to see the finished model. Good work!! George

I actually got to see this thread for the first time thanks to Stian. I'm speechless. This is REALLY awesome!!!!! The models, the lighting and the animatic are all professionally made IMO. GREAT WORK!!!!! George

Gerald, I don't have the codec you're using to view this. George

Darkwing, I read your story and It's very cool!!! The story pulls you in and I was really enveloped as it progressed. The only part that didn't make sense to me was the pilot. Maybe that will be explained later but as it is now, the pilot (Neil Williams, Man 3) is portrayed as being in control and flying the passengers as if he was commissioned to. The impression I got was "a happy guy just doing his job". We find out later though that he's in the same (or at least appears to be the same) position as the others. If he was abducted, knocked out, awakened and told to fly or be killed, I don't think his demeanor would be as you have him (unless he is also a part of the experiment). All in all though, great work on the story!!! George

awesome!! Not to be a party pooper because the rig is outstanding but you are trying to perfect the rig so I did find one more issue but I'm not sure exactly what I did to make it happen so I'll give you my best recollection of what I did. When I was playing around with the finger controls (to form a semi closed fist to a tight fist and relaxed again) I some how adjusted something that prevented me from controlling the fingers. After a few adjustments, the fingers started to distort and no matter how much I tried to tweek the "x", "y" or "z" rotations, I could not get the fingers to work. Also, something very strange happened that completely confused me. The fingers kept moving as I scrubbed past the last frame. There were no keys so it made no sense to me. Here's the action of the jab I did. It's only a quick animation but you'll see what I'm talking about. load the action and scrub the frames. The fingers are behaving strange and if you scrub past the last frame, you'll see the fingers are still moving. Here's the action created in ver. 14.0c jab2.zip George

Mark, Just played around with the rig and man it is awesome!!!!! I created a quick jabbing punch and noticed that when I switch to IK Arm and rotate the chest controller, the hand target is a child of the chest controller. Would it be possible to separate the hand target so that when IK arm is on, I could rotate the chest controller without moving the hand target? Maybe an IK switch for the chest controller (No Idea how it works)? The reason for this would be to give total control of the spine without affecting the hand target position. This would be very useful for IK apps like leaning on something or getting your hand stuck. When throwing a right straight punch (jab) for example, the hips/legs and torso rotate counter clockwise while the hand shoots out straight (like a piston action). Unless I missed a control option, this is not what's happening in IK Arm mode. The hips and legs rotate perfectly but if I rotate the chest controller, the right hand target moves with the chest controller. Other than that, I LOVE this rig!! Thanks, George [Edit] Just noticed the shoulder geom is also a child and shouldn't be to keep the hand target from moving. One more request if possible.... One control I use a lot with the squetchy rig is the shoulder shrugging one (not sure what it's called) it's an on off switch that allows you to shrugg the shoulders without raising the arms. It was requested by Robert Holmen and implemented in the squetchy rig. If possible, could you add that control? Thanks again, George

Now that you mention it, with hair, it makes me think of Creepella from the Flintstones hehe

Gerald, It's looking good.

Thanks for the explaination Rodger. I'll try that the next time I get the chance. Thank you also Masterfunk. George

You got my vote. Just checked out the website. The comic strip is top notch and I love the progressive pics of the 3D ship. That's outstanding work Largent and Stian, that ship is fantastic!!! George

Eric, This is looking great!!! I was wondering what made the first set of chompers anatomically incorrect? Was it because of the overbite? George And aren't you suppose to have your wisdom teeth pulled? hehe.

Seeing how this is a thread about smoothing splines, I have a question too. First to Vern, Thanks for all that input. I've always wondered how you super modelers created stuff and the methods you put forth are great to know. OK, I'm not working on this now because of my commitment to "SO" but it's been bugging me for a while and since this thread addresses it, I figured I'd see what the masters say.... I hope Stian and Al respond as well. Here's the Robot from the Lost in Space show. Here's a quick version of the robot. This isn't in porportion it's just for reference for my modeling question. How would you cut in the holes for the arms, voice box and controls? Everytime I try to model the cut out, it makes either serious dents or loses the shape. Thanks, George