Tralfaz

Thanks Largento. I will check them out. Installed my old A:M 14c on my PC tonight. I am running WIndows 7 and had a bit of a hard time finding the Visual Studio 2003 redistributable DLLs, but got it sorted out. Taking me a little while getting accustomed to things again. Will probably go through the exercises in The Art Of Animation:Master again. Still waiting to find out if I can get the trial version of the newest A:M. Until then, will keep up with my old software.

Thanks once again folks. I've put in a request for a trial version and will check things out once I get the new version. I was checking my model folder and I still have all my old A:M projects I worked on. Very cool. Thanks David. I found the two manuals and will go over them again. Also found the old exercise videos to help refresh my brain on how things work.

Thanks for the quick response folks. If I do come back to A:M, then I would most likely be giving up the polygon modeling. It's just that I have so many models that I have made and rigged right now, it would be kind of hard to say good bye to them. But, this might just be the way to go in order to do the animations that I want to. I suppose I could still use FaceGen and/or Poser to create human characters, then bring them into A:M, and use the Snap To Surface to recreate the model in A:M. I still suck at organic modeling. I would imagine the renderer has improved from when I used it. Does it support things like sub surface scattering, ambient occlusion and global illumination? Actually, is there a manual I can download which would probably answer a lot of my questions instead of bothering you folks?

Hi, Not sure if this is the right place to ask this stuff. If not, feel free to move it to the proper location. I used to use A:M a number of years ago and moved on to polygon modeling (yes, I know polygon isn't a nice word around here). I want to get into doing some animations and am looking back at A:M again. I remember how easy it was to rig and weight a character was and especially to animate it. So, my questions are: 1) In the software that I am currently using, I have the ability to move a point along an edge without having to guess where to place it. Does A:M have anything that would allow you to move a control point along the surface of a spline? 2) Also, in the software that I am using, it has a knife tool (which I use quite a bit, especially looping when cutting). Is there anything like that in A:M now where you can cut through a patch without messing up the geometry? 3) Does the dictionary still exist for lip syncing a character to dialogue in an audio track? 4) Man, it's been so long I just can't remember. It is possible to render in HD format and quality? 5) I think I remember reading about being able to import an OBJ model, then create patches directly over the polygons. What you are left with is an animateable patch model and you can delete the OBJ model. Am I correct on this? 6) I have an Intel I5 computer with 12GB RAM and a mid-range NVidia graphics card. Do you foresee any issues with performance in modeling complex scenes or rendering? 7) Are there any gotcha's that I am not thinking of or should be aware of if I come back to A:M? Thanks in advance... Al

I loaded my old version of A:M (actually 14.c, not 13) and was looking at the materials. I see where you can set diffuse color, etc., but can you use diffuse maps, specular maps, bump maps, etc? My memory isn't what it used to be. Al

Thanks everyone. I've been using a poly modeling program for the past couple of years and have gotten used to all of the tools and shortcuts. It will be a bit of a learning curve again to get used to patch modeling. Animating in A:M is so easy from what I remember and nothing else comes close! Al

Thanks for all the info folks. Lots to digest and see where my path will take me. Al

I am looking at coming back into the fold but was hoping some of you could answer a few questions for me. Back on v13, A:M used to really slow down if I had 10K patches or more. With the newest version (especially the 64bit), has this been taken care of or does it still slow down at 10K? If I purchase the v16, does that still qualify me for the v17 beta? What type of improvements have been made since v13? Ummm... I guess those are really the main questions I had to ask. BTW, last I heard, Martin had gone on a safari, returned but was rarely heard from. Hope things are going okay for him and he is still involved with A:M. Oh yeah, I had to laugh when I found myself in IMDB for doing some foley work on TWO! Pretty cool. Thanks in advance... Al

Shades of "Zombies Of The Stratosphere"! Excellent work again Robert.

Hmmmm..... sounds like a very profitable lawsuit here....

"Sweet Enola Gay!" Not another Half-Century Club" member!? Hope you have a great birthday David. Sit back in the lazy chair and have all your family members wait on you hand and foot, cause this is your special day. Al

Argggg...... a half-century. Been there and it isn't as bad as everyone says... Seriously, Happy Birthday Robert. From one who has seen 50 and is now approaching the double nickel! Al

That looks great Eric. Well worth the wait. Al

OOOOOHHHH... It's the next day now, and I can hardly wait to see the animation! Looking forward to seeing it Eric. Al

Yup! That sounds like an Irwin Allen production! The big mossy monsters, space creatures and time travel don't come in until later though.... Al

Yupper Robert. The Seaview it is... Al

Hey folks, I have been truly inspired by Mark's ocean rig, and Eric's Nautilus using the rig. So, thought I would give this a try as well. I've started modeling this submarine to use with the ocean rig and hope to have something that looks 1/10 as good as Eric's. Anyone able to guess which submarine this is? Al

Thanks everyone. Funny thing about the mole. A few years back, I had a biopsy done on a growth on my leg. Turns out it was benign and the doctor decided to leave it. Then a few months back, I noticed that the growth on my leg had quadrupled in size very, very quickly. That prompted me to get in to have it looked at. The morning of my appointment, I had my wife check me over for anything else that looked unusual. She circled a few marks, but expressed concerned about the mole on my back. Went to the specialist, and she was only going to look at the growth on my leg, as it was what I had been referred to her about. This doctor is a really nice person, and after looking at my leg, she asked me if there was one mark that my wife was worried about. I mentioned my back and when she looked at it, she immediately said she was more concerned about my back then my leg. She then took a quick look at the other marks, and they all looked normal. She did a biopsy on my leg and back. The leg was benign and the mole was cancerous. Had both removed and things are good now. The funny part of the story is that had my doctor removed the growth on my leg a few years back, I would never have known about the mole on my back and things would be a lot more gruesome than it turned out to be. Al

Thought I would do another model from 2001 - A Space Odyssey. This time, it is the Aries Lunar Lander that took Heywood Floyd from the Space Station to the moon. I've modeled it once before using a poly program. Now, I am going to do it in A:M. I think this model is going to take a while to do. Been having some problems with my health lately. Nothing too serious, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, pre-diabetic, and a bit of depression from having a cancerous mole taken off my back. For such a small mole (around 5mm), they took a pretty big chunk out of my back, ended up with a 2.5cm incision. Anyway, some of the meds are really affecting my ability to think properly. BTW, not looking for any sympathy or anything like that. Just need to get some of this off my chest. Al

Agreed!! That is really excellent! Shows what you can accomplish when you know what you are doing. Definitely put me down for a copy of your book. Al

The Nautilus looks fantastic Eric. The rivet detail is just great! Al

Figured out that I needed to download the tutorials from the website that accepted my payment. Just missed the link earlier. Anyway, have downloaded the 3 video tutorials on character modeling, and am watching the first video. It is really well done and very easy to follow. Picked up a few pointers on manipulating CPs that I didn't know before. Definitely want to try modeling a character when I am done with the videos. I would highly recommend the videos to anyone who wants to learn more about A:M or wants to learn organic modeling. Al

... yeah, but she has a nice personality ... Al

I just ordered the 3 of the training videos from work, but used one of my home e-mail addresses. I am assuming that an e-mail will be sent to me with the download links, as I did not see any way of downloading them after paying for them. I've ordered some training manuals from 3DTotal, and was able to download them immediately after payment. Al

Your Falcon is looking amazing Eric. You put Hollywood to shame! Al