The Bird Man of Alcatraz

Yeah, I'll see if I can scale it down a bit next time. Actually, the model has a very intricate wireframe; 9291 patches total. Look closely enough and you'll notice the ties at the end of the rigging lines. Furthermore, I've used a complicated displacement map to create waves, and simulated the flags with a wind force. I'd render out a tour of the ship, but I really don't have the rendering power. By the way, I've actually been working with A:M for well over a year now, and other animation programs for about three years.

I've been working on this model for a number of months, and I've finally rendered something presentable. It still needs some work, but I'm very happy with it as it is. This is the CSS Virginia, the first ironclad ship of the Civil War. I'm working on the USS Monitor, and I'll likely have it done in a few weeks. -The Bird Man

I've rendered out a few tests with the decal set onto a large grid. Here is one of them; its very simple, but I'll add the extra effects later-- Large Grid Test 1 The Babbage Patch tutorial briefly explains how to add white caps to the tips of the waves using material effectors, which I can't say I'm familiar with. If anyone could explain them a bit, I'd appreciate the help. After Effects and Rendering Water Material Effectors Tutorial by Jeff Paries Thanks a ton! --The Bird Man

It looks very good, but I've got one suggestion. The new video standards are all gradually changing to the 16:9 aspect ratio, and eventually the 4:3 ratio will no longer be used. If you want that logo to last a few years, I'd render it in 16:9. The 1080 and 720 options are both 16:9, if you want to use those. -The Bird Man

OK, so to actually create the displacement map, I have to render out this video-- http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y83/budgi...=WaterTest1.flv Then I import that video into the project as a video decal, and apply it to the grid? Where do I set it as a displacement decal? -The Bird Man

I'm actually using V11.1, so I'll use the dense map. Are there huge differences between V11.1 and the latest version? I'll look into upgrading, but I'd likely have to get a new computer first. My current one is rather outdated.

Thanks rickh, I'll look into that. Another problem I've run into; despite everything I've changed, the water is still flat. It has a nice texture, but I can't get it to work like you did MattWBradbury. Do I have to turn on some sort of displacement map? -The Bird Man

Thanks for the detailed instructions! I've followed your directions very carefully, and rendered out these two 5 sec. videos-- Water Displacement Test 1 Water Displacement Test 2 I'll try speeding up the water a little. -The Bird Man

I'm looking forward to trying out that 3D tracking software; thanks for finding it! I've found a rather interesting Wikipedia entry that explains 3D tracking-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_tracking By the way, Icarus is freeware, right? -The Bird Man

Where did you hear that? I don't believe there are any problems with NVidia cards. I've used NVidia cards with A:M, and they work fine. Radeons work well too, but don't feel as if Radeon is your only choice.

If I could ask something more of you folks, I'm having trouble creating the motions. According to the tutorial, you are supposed to edit the channels of the material, all within an Action. Likely due to a difference in versions, I can't find the channel editor. The A:M help says to look in the timeline, but the timeline didn't say anything about channels. Or are the channels shown on the timeline? Second of all, I'm a little mixed up on turning on the material displacement. I've found under the material properties a displacement percentage. Do I need to set that to 100% or something? Once again, I'm using V11.1. If anyone could direct me to the channel editor, or an alternative, and help me set up the displacement I'd appreciate it. Thanks! -The Bird Man

I don't know specifically how to do this, but the best way to do this is with chroma keying. This is better known as blue (or green) screen technology. I.E. If you want to put an animated character into a real picture, you'd animate with a lime green background. You feed the rendering into an editor, and remove the lime green background. Put the animated scene over the real scene, and bingo. The toughest part is syncing the two cameras; if your real camera moves, you'll have to precisely imitate the movement with your animated camera. Take a look at this short video. I think this is what you're looking for. Notice that the real camera shook at times, and the animated character stood still, making for a somewhat choppy and fake effect. If you are able to overcome that, however, you should end up with a realistic scene-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPwAK_Vl7P8 There is software that can sync up real cameras and animated cameras. I can't think of the name, but there is a plug-in specifically made for A:M that does just that. Its a few hundred $ I think. -The Bird Man

Wow, I was wondering why A:M was running so slowly... I've created a ship that has 9291 patches. I never thought that it had that many, nor would it matter. Maybe I should shrink it down a bit. -The Bird Man

I'll look into a new computer. DarkLimit, I don't actually have a dual-core Athlon; its the old type of Athlon, so your system is actually quite newer.

In the last few months, I've modeled a very detailed ship. I'll release the details to all of you when I'm done. Anyhow, it likely has at least 200 decals covering the outside. A:M doesn't have any problem with this, but my old computer has a hard time. I'm running an HP 2 GHz Athlon with 512 MBs of RAM, plus a Radeon 9200 SE video card with 128 MBs of memory. I'm running A:M 11.1. Anyone think I should get a new computer?