Tralfaz

Would it be possible to load a song into something like Sony's Acid software and have it determine the beats per minute? They have a free version is available for download. Just wondering... Al

Meet Jedi Dex. He is the second character in my Star Wars Fan Film. The first character is the AT-AT. I recreated the body from a Jedi model that was originally downloaded from Sci-Fi 3D, then converted to an Anim8or file. The face and head come from the Dex A:M model. There are still a lot of things that need to be done to Jedi Dex, like fixing a lot of bumps, creases and proportions, texturing and rigging him. The colors you currently see were used to differentiate a lot of the different groups in the model. I did play around with texturing his vest though. C&C always welcome... Al [attachmentid=22990] [attachmentid=22991] jedi_dex_360.mov

Well, I had a chance to try the tutorial William. It was excellent and easy to follow. Not sure if I have done something wrong though, or if this is normal or not. I was working on a vest, and set up my groups (front, back and flap). Flattened each one individually and stamped them with the blank.tga file that I created. When that was done, I took the screen shot and brought it into Adobe Elements, and scaled it up to a width of 2000. Since constraints was turned on, the height ended up at 1499. Saved the image back out as a .tga file and replaced the blank.tga file with the new file inside A:M. When I rendered the vest, I got what looked like some type of distortion or overlapping where the front meets the back. Went back to the decal, and the image looks much smaller than the original blank image. Any suggestions? Thanks... Al Vest with distortion [attachmentid=22749] Flattened vest (flap, back, front) [attachmentid=22751] New .tga loaded into UV editor [attachmentid=22750]

Thanks for the link to the tutorial William. I am going to follow it through and try it out on my model. Just curious, where exactly do I find the video demo? I found CDs for sale, but did not find any demos? Thanks... Al

Hi Apophis: I guess my answer is going to be pretty simple (sort of) as I have never used Maya. I have used other freeware software modelling and animation programs. A:M is my first commercial modelling and animation program. When you get to College, what software will they be using in the course you will be taking? Or is it mainly theory that is software independent? If your course is catering to Maya, then I would say stick to Maya. If the course is catering to Animation Master, then I would go with A:M. If your course is software independent, then I would say go with whichever software you are most comfortable with. I would think that your time would be better spent learning the character animation aspect of your course, then having to try and learn the software at the same time. As for employers, I don't think they would really care too much about which software you used to create a demo reel. They will be looking more at the animation quality and talent of the individual. You can always learn a new software package. Your future employer may not even use Maya. That being said, there are some pretty smart folks around here who can answer just about any question you may have about A:M should you decide to go that route. The decision is ultimately yours. I hope this has helped a bit. Best of luck in your future endeavours... Al P.S. The A:M is awesome!!

Dang, that's great work!! Al

I've searched through the forums and found some great tutorials on flattening models for decal preparation. I have had some success using this technique, but am not sure how to proceed with a particular model. The tutorials that I found deal mainly with the face, and not the whole head. Can someone explain or point me in the right direction on how to flatten an object like a pair of pants for decalling? Is it possible to flatten the pants so that both the front and back of the pants are visible at the same time? I tried flattening and decalling the front first, then the back, but you can definitely see where the different decals were applied to the two areas. Also, since this is kind of in the same area, what kind of tools does 3D Painter allow you to paint directly onto the model with? For example, can you airbrush directly onto the model? Can you create color and bump maps right on the model? Are there any tutorials (preferably video) that shows this process? Thanks in advance... Al

Had time this evening to try some of the suggestions. The leg is looking a whole lot better now. As suggested, I added the 5 point patches, reduced the number of splines overall in the leg and removed a ring around the knee. I will do final tweaking and fitting of all the parts of the character after they are brought into A:M from Anim8or. Thanks once again for all your help... Al [attachmentid=22647] [attachmentid=22648]

Thanks everyone for your quick replies. I was hoping to be able to bring in a model that I already had from Anim8or and just clean it up. I had already cut down on a lot of the polies in Anim8or before exporting to a .obj and then importing into A:M. Not quite as easy as I had hoped... I will take a look at this tonight when I get home from work. Al

I am working on the legs of a person, and I have this unwanted crease that I just can't seem to get rid of. I have tried deleting CPs and re-connecting them. It will get rid of the crease in one direction, but then the crease will appear in a different direction. For instance, If I get rid of the vertical crease, it will appear horizontally and vice versa. I have attached a shaded view, shaded wire view and a close-up shaded wire view of the problem area. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks... Al [attachmentid=22630] [attachmentid=22629] [attachmentid=22631]

Excellent video Stian. Very cool to see the car appear before your eyes and how it was created. A tutorial on how you model your cars would be a great asset that anyone would be happy to have. Al

Update: I fixed the legs bowing out at the knees and added more body and head movement. Not sure if this helps to convey that the AT-AT is a heavy piece of moving machinery. C&C always welcome... Al [attachmentid=22525] at_at.mov

Hi Bruce: I was trying a full edit on the first post in the topic, as shown in the picture below. I can't seem to find the description anywhere that it can be changed. I tried hovering over all of the icons looking for any clues there, but didn't find anything. This is going to end up being one of those things that is staring me right in the face. I am using FireFox 1.5.0.8, in case that has anything to do with it. Thanks... Al [attachmentid=22499]

Is it possible to change a topic description once the topic has been posted? The reason I ask, is that it would be nice to update the topic description when I have updated a WIP. For instance, in my AT-AT WIP, when I posted an animation of the walk cycle, I could have changed the topic description to something like "2006/10/21 - Created first basic walk cycle". At the Anim8or forum, you could do it be editing the first original post, and then change the description there, but haven't seen anything like that here. Thanks... Al

Thanks once again Jim. I found out what the problem is (or at least appears to be). In the Render Options, I had the Gamma set to NTSC/RBG which gave it a value of 2.2. When I set the Gamma to none, the value went to 1 and the render came out fine. The render also looked okay when the Gamma was set to PC. I remember reading about the black backgrounds being caused by the alpha setting, but I can not for the life of me find it in any of the render settings. I looked at both normal and advanced screens. Thanks... Al [attachmentid=22494]

Really nice job on the cars Stian. Would it be possible to see a wire of the model? I agree with Dhar about being able to see them animated by Dustin. Thanks... Al

Thanks Jim. I know what you mean about making the body seem like it has a lot of weight. As for the render, the weird thing is that there are no differences between the movie render and still image render, other than changing the render to .jpg instead of .mov. It is using the default chor light setup. When I get home tonight, I will try creating a new chor and adding the model to it and see if there is a difference. It is always possible that I tweaked something by mistake without realizing it, and that may have an effect on a still image vs. a movie. I kind of need to resolve this, as I prefer to do my final animations as still image sequences, then import them into Vegas where I can than add all of the sound effects, music, etc. along with final tweakings of the different layers. Al

Update: "It's alive!! Alive, I tell you!!" It took a while and a lot of trial and error (mostly error), but here is the basic walk cycle for the AT-AT. Thanks to ars for asking about telescoping bones and robcat for his great answer! The body needs more sway in it, but I was concentrating more on getting the legs moving properly. Have a question that I hope someone can answer. The attached picture is pretty washed out, however when it renders in a .mov format, it is just fine. Any ideas as to what can be causing this? Nuts, I just noticed some unwanted outward bending at the knees. I forgot to put the euler constraints back on after I replaced the bones with robcats solution. C&C always welcome... Al [attachmentid=22479] [attachmentid=22478] at_at.mov

D'oh!! Now don't I feel like a horses butt! Thanks very much Scott. Worked like a charm. Al

Hi Scott: I tried what you suggested, and you can see by the accompanying screen shot, the pose slider still exists in the Pose Sliders window when I am in Action mode. Al [attachmentid=22470]

This is probably staring me right in the face, but can some one please tell me how to remove a pose slider from the Pose window? I have been unable to find any way of doing this, other than manually editting the project (.prj) file. Thanks in advance... Al

Hi Keith. Good luck with your operation next week and hope things work out okay for you. Best wishes... Al

What you want to do, is right click (or whatever the equivalent for a Mac is) in the model window, then select Plug-ins -> Export (or Import if importing) -> Object Model (*.OBJ)... Al [attachmentid=22306]

Thanks Satyajit for starting this thread. This is a great opportunity to learn how things are done from concept to completion. I know the TWO project is on the go, but I joined the forum not too long ago and it was well under way. I really like the design of your characters and the way things are laid out in the story boards. Just curious... When you did your story boards, did you sketch them out on paper than scan them into your computer or did you do them all electronically? Al

Thanks for the C&C folks. Ken: You are right about more panelling being needed on the head, as well as other parts of the body. Those items are yet to come. Ken and Dark Jedi: I am basing my AT-AT on the blueprints from "Star Wars : The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels". I had trouble with the proportions on the head the first time I built this in Anim8or. I scrapped and rebuilt it a couple of times. Taking a closer look at the blueprints and the model as shown below, I noticed the main guns on the bottom of the head are too big. [attachmentid=22038] Jim: In my little film, I hope to do more than just walk with this guy. Ethan: I am looking forward to texturing the AT-AT. I finally got a Wacom tablet and have been playing around with it a bit. It is going to make creating the textures a whole lot easier than with the mouse. I used the tablet for doing some airbrushing the textures for the P-51 Mustang I built for Exercise 10. I am also kicking around the idea of purchasing Pixosaur's 3D Painter for Animation Master (or maybe for Christmas). And just for fun, when I was originally looking for pictures of the AT-AT on the internet, I found this one and saved it. It still cracks me up when I see it. Reminds me of our dog... [attachmentid=22039] Thanks... Al