Tralfaz

If you need any other blueprints, let me know. I have an original hard cover copy of the Star Trek Technical Reference from the original series. Bought it many, many, many moons ago. Although, I am pretty sure that anything in this book is already on the web, it may make things a bit quicker and easier than searching for them. Al

From the CelTx website in the FAQ: Can I use Celtx for free? Yes. Celtx is distributed under an open source license, so you can download it, use it, and distribute it for free. Al

My red/cyan 3D glasses just came in today, and this is the first spot I went to. This is soooooo cool! The pictures looked great, and Luuk, your Matrix image was fantastic! Al

If that doesn't work, you could try manually editing your project file with an ASCII text editor, and then copying the pose that way. You would definitely want to make a backup copy of the project first in case this method did not work. Then you could go back to your backup copy of the original project and nothing would be lost. Al

The Dictionary.dic file is just that, a phonetic dictionary of words that tells Animation:Master which phonemes to use. I am not entirely sure what the Index.i file is. My guess is it helps A:M find the words quicker in the dictionary file. The Dictionary.dic file should have been copied to the directory where you installed Animation:Master. The Index.i file gets created the first time that you use the Dope Sheet. 1) Check to see if the Dictionary.dic file exists in the directory or folder where you installed Animation:Master. 2) If it does not exist there, then you can copy the file from your install CD. 3) Check to make sure that the date on the file is a valid date. When I first installed A:M, for some strange reason, the date of the file was something totally weird (e.g. instead of 2007-02-18, it was something like 20193753). Whenever I tried to use the Dope Sheet, it would continually say something about the Dictionary.dic and Index.i file not being there. To remedy this, I opened the Dictionary.dic file in Notepad (I use Windows), and then saved the file, which put the correct date format on the file. Things were fine afterwards. Both Dictionary.dic and Index.i are both ASCII text files, and can be opened, viewed and saved with a standard text editor like Notepad. Hope this helps... Al

HUH??!?!? I think it is time to up my medication again, cause this makin' again no sense. Meeza confoozed... Al

Had the same problem with black images when trying to do a multi-pass render in stereo, so just went with no multi-pass. Did two versions, because I don't own the red/blue 3d glasses. The second image is cross-eyed type. Al

"Dang Lieutenant Dan!" This is truely awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping work (whimpers from envy as I type this). Please keep us up to date as things progress... BTW, who is the person in the shop window. Looks a bit out of place compared to your other two characters... Al

I bought a used copy of A:M 2006 off eBay, and it did not come with the 3D glasses. A day or two ago, I ordered my upgrade to A:M 2007. Does anyone know whether the upgrade will come with the 3D glasses? If not, anyone know where I can get some?

I had no idea it came from Wizard of Oz. Learn something new every day... Al

I remember seeing the movie Zardoz a long, long time ago. No idea where the name Zardoz came from though. Al

The name Tralfaz comes from the Jetsons. You know the show... "Meet George Jetson, Jane his wife, His daughter Judy, His boy Elroy." Well in the show, they had a dog called Astro. But Astro was not his real name. Elroy found the dog in the park and brought him home and called him Astro. There was one show where Astro's original (and very rich) owner tracked him down and wanted to take him back. It is in that one show where Astro's real name was given, and it was Tralfaz. Used to collect all sorts of useless trivia like that. A group of us would go out to our favourite bar after roller skating and try to stump one another with odds and sodds like this. And this was all before Trivial Pursuit. The one rule in our group, was you could not ask a trivia question without knowing the answer. Al

Holy Crap! Hate to be the driver of the white car. Hope no one was seriously injured. Al

Looks really good. Is it possible to post another render side by side, one with SSS and one without, so I can compare the difference between the two? Thanks... Al

No problem Gerry, glad you were able to get one working for you. Hmmm, never been called Tralf before... no objections here. Here is a bit of animation trivia? Any idea where the name Tralfaz comes from? Al

Any particular version (e.g. A:M v13) for the model and what time frame are you looking at? Thanks... Al

Hi Gerry: I am not at home so I don't have the Extras CD with me at the moment, but I believe there is a laptop model on the CD. Al

Thanks for the tips folks. I have not sent in a bug report yet, wasn't sure if it was something I was doing or not. 1) Did not check normals 2) There is only one decal applied to the floor. 3) Not sure what you mean about a decaling the spot. The black spot does not appear until the 12th pass of the render on the specific frame. 4) Yes, I tried rendering to a .tga file and the same thing happens. 5) Have not tried changing the resolution of the decal. The image is in .jpg format and is 512 x 512 pixels, 96 dpi horizontal and vertical resolution and 24 bit. 6) No bump maps were used. 7) Not sure what you mean about low magnitude percentage, just went with default values when the decal was applied, other than having it repeat itself to cover the floor properly. 8) The planks are not separate meshes. The floor is essentially a 4 point mesh (created using the 'perfect' mesh techinque) with a single decal applied to simulate the floor surface. I ended up going through the frames that were affected with Photoshop Elements and manually removed the marks. How do you go about turning off the decals in the final render? Things I've Tried: 1) When I render without multipass, the mark does not appear. 2) Rendering multipass (9 3 x 3), the mark does not appear. 3) Turned off all objects except for the one containing the floor, and the mark does not appear in multipass (16 4 x 4). 4) Turned off only the dog, still multipass (16 4 x 4), the mark does not appear. 5) Turned back on the dog, turn off reflections, multipass (16 4 x 4), the mark does not appear. It would appear to be a combination of the dog and reflections that is causing the problem. Al

Hi there, I am rendering a scene for an animation, and am having a rectangular artifact appear in the final image. The animation is being rendered out at a multipass of 16 (4 x 4). The artifact does not appear until the 12th pass of the image. I am using A:M 13.0n on Windows XP Pro SP2. I have an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro video card and have all the latest drivers for the card and Windows. Out of 150 images rendered, 14 of them have the artifact in the same location and same height, but vary in width. Sometimes the frames affected are sequential, other times they are not. For instance, the frames affected are 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 then skips to 27, 28 then skips to 30, 31, 32 then skips to 34 and finally 39. Frames are being rendered out to .bmp format. Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks... Al [Edit] I just rendered to a .tga file and the same thing happens. As soon as pass 12 starts, the solid black rectangle appears. [/Edit] Frame 15 without artifact Frame 16 with artifact

Nice job on capturing the lines of the Vette. Tires and rims look great! Al

Quick Update: Changed the wall color (not sure about it though) and added fire in the fireplace. Al livingroom.mov

I was asked about whether the chair models were available. I don't think I am good enough to be selling the models and would prefer to give something back to the A:M community, so here they are along with the fireplace. Feel free to download and do whatever you like with them. I just ask that you do not sell them or post them as your own work. Thanks... Al chair.zip

Thanks for the comments folks. Quick update, added two chairs and a sofa. My wife agreed with you gra4mac about the crown molding and baseboards. I will search the internet for some pictures and try to come up with something in between. Al

I have been playing around with making a modern style living room. There is no furniture in it yet, but am thinking of something along the lines of the picture below. The lighting is just the standard chor lighting for now. C&C always welcome. Al

Excellent work Satyajit!! Great visuals and animation. I will need to watch it a few more times in order to see the video and not read the subtitles. Looking forward to see what else you will be working on... Al