Roger

Is there reason for doing 2 shells? I just need the one - will the plugin not work without the 2nd circle? Do I need to place it in a precise spot on the X-Y grid, or just so it crosses the Y axis by a little bit?

Here's the antenna - still trying to decide if its better to put the eyes up there, or have separate eyes down by where the mouth will be (not anatomically correct, this is meant to be a cartoon snail)

LOL I found your tute by doing a search for shell - I've been playing w/ the duplicator for a good 20 minutes now - I get something that looks vaguely shell like but the problem is its open on both sides - imagine if the snail had a duplex? That's the only way I can describe it. I am also working on the antenna/eye stalks - not sure if its better to extrude a circle to make them or just lathe them from a spline. I guess it could go either way.

I'm entering a little contest, so I decided to create a *really* simple char and do a 30 second animation. I decided I would do a snail. So, I'm going to post him as he is progressing. Let me know what you think. Here is the first screenshot:

There was an option in older versions of AM to set the patch color of something - this was a quick and dirty way to get a "textured" model without creating a material - I used it to get a rough idea of what things would look like. Do they still have patch materials or no? I can't find them. I thought you could just make a selection, right click, and that would be an option - at which point you would get the color picker to pick the patch color. Its been a while since I've used it, the last version I can remember it being in was v12 or v13. Maybe it was just moved.

I'm going back to working on rigging for a bit. Anyone have any idea why if you select a spline ring, edit the cp weights, delete the current weighting, and then go to add bones to re-weight, why AM would pop the same bone in there twice by itself? For instance, I deleted the current weighting, then add bone1 and bone2, and they each weight to 50% - but then AM puts another instance of bone1 in with a ? next to weighing, toggles the first instace of bone1 to 100% and leaves bone 2 at 50%. I have no clue why its doing this or how to fix it.

How exactly do you adjust which way the normal is facing?

Well I may have fixed my own problem by doing a copy-flip-attach, if only I can get the 5 pointers to close on the other side. Roger

I am frustrated by rigging, so I thought I'd take a break to work some on modelling. Right now, I'm working on an old-timey looking padlock for a treasure chest. I seem to be having a problem with the 5 point patches causing creasing. Any thoughts why they are causing creasing on one side and not the other?

Thought I'd post a fixed (more or less) penguin. I still have to sort out the bones - but I'm hoping to get that done tonight, or maybe tomorrow.

See my thread in rigging and relationships - after looking at the Zundel tutorials it is making a lot more sense. Still a few things confusing me. Sorry I haven't posted for a while, been busy with work and other stuff. I've got a few days off and I've decided that I'm going to have at least one fully rigged character by the end of that time.

Select the parent bone and hit the Translate Manipulator button, then use the manipulator to move the the parent and all its children around. Use the Rotate Manipulator to rotate them. Use the Scale Manipulator to scale them. For your particular character, since it is pretty simple, you may be better served by learning how to build your own simple rig. Give it a try. Once you are familiar with the basics of building your own simple rig, installing some of the other rigs will be a little easier to understand. Robcat has a couple of video tuts to get you started: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=206902 http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=306495 And here is one on using the various constraints: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=249019 That is kind of what I was thinking, the penguin should not be terribly tough to rig. I will see where I go with that before trying the other ones.

I see what you mean regarding bone placement. That does make way more sense. I downloaded the 2008 rig and it seems nice, but there is like a 77 page PDF w/ it that does not seem terribly clear. I am trying to follow it right now to install the rig in my character but I am confused by some things: some bones seem to be set up so that other bones follow when you move the parent, others are not. For instance, when I move the top leg bone only the next bone down follows it, not the whole chain. Do I need to go and make sure that the hierarchy is set up correctly as well or should it already be that way? Is there an easy way to select several bones at once to move them? When I try moving them manually, I seem to screw up their relationships to each other. I understand that I am going to have to do cp weighting and set bone fall-off, that doesn't seem to be too bad after doing a few tutorials, is there anything else I need to worry about? Also, the million dollar question is: since I have one character that has a tail would I be better off using the TSM2 rig for both, or use the TSM2 or the char w/ the tail and the 2008 rig for the penguin, or should I use the 2008 rig for both and just add a tail rig by myself? (It does not seem that it would be that hard, but I may be underestimating the difficulty) Would I be creating problems for myself by using 2 different rigs, other than I wouldn't be able to reuse actions between the two characters?

I am rigging my penguin right now - I plan on using the 2008 rig for the dragon, but decided I wanted to try my hand at rigging at least one character by hand ( I am assuming I am still going to have to modify the 2008 rig for my main char, anyway) as a learning experience. Does the placement of the bones seem about right? I thought about putting 3 bones in the arm (upper arm, forearm, and hand) but 2 seem like they will work just as well.

Will this work w/ v15? I saw a v13 installer -

This may sound like a dumb question, but where can I find the 2008 rig? Did it come w/ the AM subscription I downloaded, or do I need to look for it on the ftp site?

Rigging my models now - following the Dave Roger's book as a general guideline, using my model instead of the one from the book. I have created a rig for the left leg so far, and am trying to copy it so that I don't have to redo it for the right-hand side. The tutorial I am following says to hold down the alt-key and click and drag in the PWS but when I do that all I end up doing is screwing up the hierarchy of my bones. I also tried to do this in one of the bones windows but that did also not work. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

Found it in render options finally. Let me know what you think - its a little dodgy but its exciting to have a rigged character moving (even if it is just a sack) flour_sack_hop.mov

AM keeps rendering AVI files even when I tell it to save as .MOV - not sure what I am doing wrong.

Yay! Finally something moving - I need to redo the cp assigning/weighting and play with constraints so the body stops doing goofy things when I try to move the bones, but its a start. I tried to upload an AVI file but it says I'm not allowed. Wonder whats up w/ that.

Well, my main character is just about done, here is a screenshot:

Updated dragon feet - I haven't spent nearly as much time on this yet this week as I'd have liked, but I have been tweaking the feet on my dragon, specifically the ankle/heel region. I think the foot on the left looks markedly better. I am going to make a few more tweaks, maybe add some nails/claws to the toes. I think its just about right but maybe needs to be a little narrower. Once I get that foot closer to where I want it I am going to delete the other half of the model and do another CFA (thank god for copy/paste I would hate to have to sculpt one side then the other) I have attached a screenshot of the new foot w/ the old one in frame for reference.

I'd skip the breasts and do thick eyelashes instead Thank you I'm starting to get the hang of where to use hooks and my 5 point patches seem to be fewer. I don't have many 3 pointers any more, at least. And no more splines looping back in on themselves. Ugh. I am probably done for today, I should hopefully be able to get close to finishing this model by tomorrow. I want to try and enter the Christmas contest - I've never entered one, I figure I probably won't win but its good incentive to stay on track. As long as the deadline is the 20th of Dec. or so I should make it.

Ok - here it is so far: eye sockets, attached feet etc. I still need to add a few details: bow, beak, eyeballs, maybe a suggestion of breasts?? ( I know of course this is silly but am wanting it to be obviously feminine)

You don't need to go to all that trouble on my account, but it would probably help me. I always have problems trying to join geometry w/ odd numbers of points. I try to keep my segments (for lack of a better term) w/ even numbers of points. I think I more or less fixed this spot, there probably is a more elegant way it could have been done. I have attached a screen cap of the fixed foot. And yes, I suppose my progress could at best be described as glacial. I don't have an excuse for that, I guess I need to come up with a schedule for this project and stick to it. Reality always seems to have a way of intruding, though.