Roger

I've decided the best way to make progress is to try small projects, not necessarily related to my main film, to at least keep my skills up. The kind of thing that could be completed in a night or weekend. Hence, a fishbowl. I was curious: how would the rest of you go about handling water inside the bowl? Model it as a separate object, or try and use the fluid feature? Or some combo? I'm going to post my fishbowl model by midnight CST, if anyone is interested. At least the glass part.

Yeah, I kind of assumed this would not lend itself well to telling a story but might work for storyboarding or doing something on a tight deadline.

Anyone out there using Truebones on a regular basis? Just wonder how viable this is for roughing in animation, or finished product.

This is just BS. I don't have a Facebook account precisely for this reason, to avoid data mining, so why do I want the OS that I paid for doing it behind my back? It's too bad there is no good way to run AM on Linux.

Cool! I won a caricature! Congrats to the folks that won, I really liked Fuchur's ladybug. Robcat, very well done video. Perhaps you have a 2nd career in your future as a TV/Youtube host? I'm glad I entered, this was my first ever Hash image contest. I wish I had not waited so long to get started but there's always the next contest. I'm sure I will do better on the next one.

I'm on my break and thought I'd check in...any luck with the new camera?

You can get an HD camcorder for $25? I guess image sensors have gotten really really cheap.

Robcat, you're killing me with the suspense here.

When should we expect the votes to be tallied?

I would also suggest classes that support entrepreneurship. The days of being able to work at a single company until you retire are long gone.

Looks good so far.

Based on my personal experience, I'd advise anyone against studying art unless you're already independently wealthy. You're better off getting a degree in something marketable and then minoring in the arts or pursuing it on your own time. Plus, no one will ever say "and hey, if that medical school thing doesn't work out, at least you'll have a nice hobby!". And definitely think about the local CC for the first 2 years. It's amazing the difference in cost. No sense paying $400/credit hour (or more!!) for Speech 101 when you can take it at the CC for $40/credit.

I do most of my browsing on a linux system with Opera. But perhaps it is time for an upgrade.

I can't remember if I've seen this or not, I might have run across it on Martin's site. It is entertaining, it is interesting to see what was possible on limited equipment. Motivational in that we have literally hundreds or thousands of times the CPU resources of 1989, even on a low-end machine.

I've noticed ever since we switched to the new forum, it seems laggy as all get-out. I'm on a Core Duo system with 2gb RAM and while I realize that that level system is getting a bit long in the tooth, it isn't hopelessly obsolete. Just wondering what accounts for the slowness. Does the new forum software use a bunch of Flash?

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, it sounds like you're lucky to be alive. To answer your question, with the subscription you do not need a disk in the drive. Unfortunately, after the year is up you can no longer use that copy of AM and you have to renew for $79. You don't lose your data, though. I don't think you still need the serial, at least I have never had to enter it since switching to the subscription model. They still have the non-expiring CD for $299, if you don't want to have to worry about your subscription running out in the middle of a project.

My subscription ran out, I'm low on cash and can't afford to update right now. Are there any problems with AM 2006 on Windows 7 with the latest update?

One of my hobbies is retrocomputing, I wondered if I had in my collection of old AM disks a version that would run under OS/2 via the Win 3.1/3.11 compatibility layer, but the oldest version I have is version 3 which I am pretty sure is Win95 only. I would probably have to go back to the days of Playmation to find something that would run under 3.1 or via the win 3.1 compatibility feature of OS/2. Keep in mind, this really isn't for any practical reason, just for fun I guess.

The oldest versions of AM I have are the hold MH:3D version 3 and AM version 5. Version 5 is probably the oldest version I would consider the modern version we all know and love. I'm trying to remember if v3 was a win 3.1 release or if it was the first to require 95. I know v5 was 95/98/NT. Anyone out there know?

Well I think I'm going to have to settle for "honorable mention" as I've got about 7 or so hours to work on this, seeing as I got a late start and have to use v12 as my current copy of AM is expired. Wish me luck.

Hello all, I'm looking at getting a new keyboard, and I've narrowed it down to 2 similar models, one with numerical keypad and one without. I don't do a lot of number-crunching/spreadsheet stuff, but I've noticed when I do it is nice to have the numerical keypad. I don't recall using it much with AM, but before I lock in my decision I want to make sure I'm not missing anything with regard to some super-productive modeling method (or other feature) that relies on the numerical keypad. What is your opinion? Do you use the numerical keypad much with AM? Thanks in advance, Roger

Sure, an insect is good too. Lots of potential there, since there are so many types. That would be fun.

I would do a flower. I'm not sure my splining is up to snuff for a recognizable Thor.

Speaking as an average AM user, Renderman is probably over my head (at least for now). And I'd have to agree that Robcat is most likely correct for the reason people get frustrated with a given renderer. Lots of people go with whatever the default setup is for lighting or a very basic setup and then wonder why they have poor results ( lighting is something I struggle with and lighting a scene properly is a discipline in and of itself).

I can confirm that AM will run on a system with an Atom, as I have an Atom-based netbook that I put AM on. It's just a bit painful. The newer quad-core Baytrail Atoms or the upcoming Cherrytrail (darn Intel code names) might be more tolerable, but I think a standard i3 or i5 desktop or even mobile cpu would blow the doors off even a quad-core Atom. Still, amazing what a few hundred $ buys these days.