Roger

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.

As much as I'd like to be able to get my AM fix on the train, I don't see it happening. There's just too many things that would be too fiddly to do. I've also never heard of lazy select. How exactly does that work?

I don't know how well AM would work on a tablet unless it had a 14" or 15" screen, and even then it would be difficult. I can't imagine being able to use it tolerably on anything less than a 10" device, even if it had larger buttons.

I've seen this on other websites, it looks cool as heck. I'm surprised this came out of Microsoft. I could see using this with AM so you end up with stop motion on steroids. Especially if you could combine it with haptics. I'm curious what sort of power it has, if it is a self-contained PC and not a peripheral. I can't imagine it being more powerful than a Baytrail Atom without burning up a ton of juice or needing a ridiculous battery. So, more of a toy and not really a workstation device, unless they plan on pricing it around $1500-$2000 then it might have a Broadwell i5/i7. That's not going to fly for anyone but pro users, though, and seeing as how one of the killer apps looks to be Minecraft, I don't see how they can sell it for more than $300-$500 and hope to have adoption with your average middle class family, seeing as how you'd need several devices per family. So perhaps there will be subscription/service which subsidizes a $200-$300 device? That's the only way I see this selling.

I will freely admit that the few issues I have with AM are a result of not getting enough consistent practice in with it. I need to step up my game. I am in the difficult position of trying to "serve two masters", among other things. I'm not sure I'm crazy about the idea of selling content packages, that sounds too much like Daz 3D but if the choice is that or AM going away completely, then I'd rather see it stick around. I don't know that I could do a 7 day production cycle, but I do think any follow up film to my current film will progress much more quickly. I guess we will need to see where things go.

Marketing on Steam could be a dual-edged proposition. There would be a massive influx of users, but if the support is not there they would drop out and spread negative word of mouth. I don't know exactly what the current state of Hash is but I gather it's essentially a skeleton crew at this point? I do think the interface in AM is easier than most 3D apps, once you get used to it. I know that when I come back from a gap of working with it I pick things up fairly quickly. The only real problem with AM as the "kitchen table animator" program is that no matter how good the software is, you're limited by the amount that one person can do. A feature film at Pixar quality would take a single person a lifetime or more. The main stumbling blocks (as I see them) is even once you get a handle on modelling, there is a lot more that goes into a short film to get it made: rigging, lighting, texturing, actual animation. Each area is something that takes a significant time to master. When I saw Mixamo I thought that was the answer to my prayers but it just will not work with AM. The only thing that is going to work there is slogging through the pain of rigging. I just don't see a hybrid modeller with polygons being an option. I don't think it would be possible to integrate it with spline-based models. Import of static props is probably as good as it is going to get with respect to that. I've seen so much change since I started mucking around with 3D software, I never thought you'd be able to walk around with the equivalent of a workstation in your pocket (although you can't really use a smartphone for doing 3D, in terms or raw horsepower it is equivalent to a mid to late 90s PC). I would very much like to see AM around for another 20-30 years, but I'm not sure exactly what form that's going to be. While I don't think Martin would abandon it (and by extension, us) he may reach a point where he's interested in doing other things (which you could argue he's at now, with medical school and all). I guess things can continue on as they are, but there will come a point in the future where that may not be the case, since nothing lasts forever. And I'm not being critical here, I can definitely identify with getting a bit of wanderlust after doing one thing for a long time.

It sounds like an interesting idea. I actually think it is more difficult to go back and fix something you screwed up, so a mode that didn't allow non-optimal splines might not be a bad idea. I'm better than I was but I still make mistakes when modeling, and it can be hard to find where I've made the error or sort out how to fix it.

I will take live-action film/video over 3d any day as far as speed of output. There's a reason they can shoot a low-budget feature in 3 to 6 months where it can take that many years to do an animated feature.

Why would they do this? I don't get it.

So I finally got around to installing my AM v18 update, thought I would check out some of the tutorials however they just pop up a "404 not found" error when launching the tutorial. Are you supposed to just download them from the website instead? As rusty as I am I thought I might benefit from a refresher.

Yeah...I don't see the enterprise migrating to Windows 9 anytime soon. We just got standardized on Win 7 at my firm. I hope to be retired by the time I have to learn another Freaking version of Windows.

I may need to look into this. It's either this or start using amphetamines.

Just looking through here and noticed the gibberish in the middle of the posts. Something up with the forum? URLs that didn't transfer, maybe?

While I'm not doing this now, I have done it in the past and I would suggest you be very careful with "suggestion creep" by clients. Meaning, you quote say $1000 for a job and know it can be completed in 20 hours, giving you a profit of $500 (assuming half for overhead/taxes). They start asking you to change a something here, something there and before you know it you're working for minimum wage. I would suggest if you're going to bill in the low end range, make it very clear that since it is such a deal, they get what they signed off on with no changes or they can request changes but it will cost them. For your part, make sure you underpromise and over-deliver. If you think something will take a month, tell them 2 or 3 so that way when you deliver in 6 weeks you look like a hero. You don't want it to be the other way around, that's bad for your personal and business reputation. I call this my "Scotty" theory of deliverables (as in Scotty from Star Trek...he'd always pad his estimates of how long it would take to fix the warp core...the downside of this is if they figure out that's what you're doing). Be wary about working for very little pay or no pay on the promise of future work later. They will expect to pay you less later, too. Get a portion (1/3 to 1/2) up front and the rest on completion. If they aren't willing to agree to that, they're not serious. I would suggest billing such that you're making at least $20-$25 an hour after all your costs. Otherwise, why bother?

I have to say, it would eliminate a lot of the bother with product activation, or using AM on multiple systems, since you could only use it on one machine at a time, but have it available on several systems. Tablet/laptop and desktop, for instance. But I imagine Martin would have to give a pretty decent size cut to Valve, so I don't see that happening if only for that reason.

I'm glad he's recognizable, at least. I let myself get to caught up with it being "perfect", between that and waiting too long to pick it back up, that was what did me in as far as making the deadline. I think if I can knock out the details tonight, add a "skirt" or bumper to the base, he should start looking pretty close. I'd like to redo the head, and if I wanted a photoreal version then I'd probably have to spend maybe another week getting the textures and lighting right. But even with a half-finished model, if you knew what it was right away then that's a success in my book. Just need to finish now.

Well here is what I was trying to bang out last night. I think you might be able to guess what it is. I didn't feel comfortable sending it in, though. I'm going to finish it today and post in the WIP thread. Even if I missed the deadline, I think it's worth doing still. I wish I had started over from scratch a few weeks ago, I might have gotten him done in time. I was really wedded to doing a strict recreation but then decided "screw it, I'll just do an interpretation of the character" but by the time I'd settled on that I had let too much time go by. I think it would have been tough to finish the eyes, ears, tail, gun/snout and properly texture him with only an hour to go.

I thought I was going to be able to knock something out at the last minute. As usual, what I think and what is the reality of things are completely different. Rather than turn something half-ass in, I think I will keep working on this and just post it later, and wait for the next contest.

Is there any way to bevel after the fact? I'm racing to finish my contest entry, and one of the parts is looking really awful with knife-like edges, but I'm not sure how best exactly to bevel it. I could try adding more CPs and then smoothing the points, and seeing if that helps. It looks really rough right now, though.