Tralfaz

Another update. Added a rug, extra slipper and book for Schlitzy to read. Tried playing with moving the camera and constraints to switch the book from one hand to the other before dropping it on the table. A lot of the extra stuff does not appear in the video right now, due to the longer render times. As for the gentle breeze, I pretty much followed the waving flag example in the book, except toning down the force of the wind. (Width = 50 cm, Fall-off = 200 cm and Magnitude 50%) Thanks... Al [attachmentid=20874] [attachmentid=20870] al_wip_001.mov

I tried importing a .3ds model into a chor as a prop, and it worked quite well. In fact, a whole lot better than importing into a model. Is there any way to now take the prop in the chor and save it as an A:M model? Thanks... Al

Quick update... The tips you provided helped quite a bit! I hope to have the first stab at animating my WIP done by the weekend. Thanks again... Al

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions. I will give them a try when I get home from work tonight. Al

My computer is a P4 2.6 GHz with 512 MByte RAM, ATI 9000 Pro video card with 128 MByte RAM, Windows 2000 Pro with all the latest service packs and patches. All drivers are up to date. I am working on a WIP project using Schlitzy. What I am finding is that A:M seems to be getting slower and slower as more objects are added to the project. I am now at the point where I would like to start animating Schlitzy in a chor. The response time between mouse click and something happening on the screen is better than a second. I have tried creating a new project with only Schlitzy and the main objects of the scene, but response time is still pretty slow. Does anyone have any recommendations as to improving the response time while working in A:M? BTW, I am using A:M 12n+. It is kind of weird sometimes. For instance, I will go to delete an object, and the warning sound comes from the speaker almost immediately, but it takes a second or two for the window to appear asking me to confirm if I want to delete the object or not. Thanks in advance... Al

Update: I added the window frame and curtains. Below is a quick animation to try out the cloth feature on the curtains. C & C always welcome. Thanks... Al [attachmentid=20636] [attachmentid=20634] cloth_test.mov

Thanks for the C & C folks. I am indeed hoping to animate this scene Nancy. I have an idea for it, just have to see if I can make it happen. The background plane is set quite a ways back from the open window, and is at a 90% angle to the ground. It may be the photo itself on the layer. I tried decreasing the intensity of the layer to make it a bit more subtle. One of these days Dhar, the light will go on in my head and lighting will start to make sense! I added a blue rim light like you suggested. I am always open to any suggestions. I didn't have time for any further additions to the scene, as my wife and I are going out tonight to celebrate our 22nd anniversary. [attachmentid=20598]

"Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed." Your Batmobile is looking great! Keep up the good work on it. I tried to load the HA:MR file, and get the following error. When I click on OK, IE closes its window. At work, I am running Windows XP SP1 and IE 6. [attachmentid=20590]

I wanted to take a break from the tutorials and put some of what I have learned into practice. So far, I have modified Schlitzy by getting rid of most of the hair. Built a room, still need to put trim around the window. Added a layer behind the window for the moonlit background. Added a decal to the floor to simulate hardwood, and added some reflection to it. Finally, played around with the lighting (although, I'm still not sure what I'm doing with them). C & C always welcome. Thanks... Al [attachmentid=20568] [attachmentid=20569]

If you are unsure of using Regedit, you may want to export your registry settings before actually changin them. That way, if you kind of mess things up in the registry, you can import your original settings. NOTE: Making changes to the registry can sometimes lead to disastrous results. If you are inexperienced or unsure of what you are doing, you should leave this to someone more experienced. I have exported my registry numerous times, but have been fortunate enough to never had to import the settings again. Use the instructions below at your own risk. I cannot assume any responsibility for their accuracy or how they are interpretted or used. That being said, open regedit. Make sure that "My Computer" is highlighted at the top of the registry tree in the left hand view pane. You can then click on File -> Export to display the "Export Registry File" window. Enter a file name and click on the Save button. Close regedit. You can now go ahead and make any changes you need to in the registry. If you need to restore your original registry settings, then open regedit again. Make sure that "My Computer" is highlighted at the top of the registry tree in the left hand view pane. You can then click on File -> Import to display the Import Registry File" window. Locate your saved registry file and click on the Open button. Close regedit. Hope this helps and good luck... Al

Also, where did you purchase your copy of AM v11.1. There are some unscrupulous people on the internet that are selling cracked versions of AM v11.1. I think the company was called Cheap Software or something like that. The first time I purchased AM, it was v11.1 with an incredibly low price. I figured it was due to it being an older version of the software. However, when I downloaded and went to install it, the docs inside the zip file said to install the cracked Master.exe over the one from the setup program. If I recall correctly, there were no real textures, plugins or models to speak of. Since I try to be as legal with my software as possible, I e-mailed the company back and promptly got a refund from them. I then bought a legitimate copy (v12) from eBay and am very glad I did. Thanks... Al

Howdy folks. My name is Al and have always been interested in film and animation. I grew up in London, Ontario, Canada which is where I still live today with my wife, son and zany dog. By trade, I am a computer programmer, but have always loved animation and special f/x in movies. When I was a young teen, I would make little cartoon flip books. As I got a bit older and was in the camera club in high school, I tried the traditional stop motion animation using G.I. Joes. For the past two years or so, I have been using Anim8or for modelling and animation. A co-worker introduced me to Jeff Lew's Killer Bean 2 video which is where I first learned about Animation Master. The demo and tutorials of the application looked pretty impressive, so I bought a used copy of version 12 off of eBay. There are a few projects that I started in Anim8or, but do not think it would be capable of completing them properly. This is why I am trying A:M. I know I am a long way away from something like Killer Bean 2 or The Adventures of Briar Rose, but one day... maybe... My Anim8or Gallery Fan Film Project

Thanks for the kind words folks. I watched the two tutorials and found them very helpful Rodney. I guess I need to wrap my head around a different way of modelling. I can definitely see the benefits of having smooth control points when modelling organic objects. It will just take a while longer when modelling mechanical objects to start with smooth CPs and then tweak them afterwards. Thanks... Al

I had originally built a Star Wars AT-AT in Anim8or and would like to bring it into Animation Master. I have tried exporting it to a .3ds model and them importing it, but it did not translate very well. The other option I have is to re-create it in A:M. Since the majority of the AT-AT is made up of straight lines, is it possible to have A:M default to Peak instead of Smooth when drawing the splines? Here are some pictures of the model created in Anim8or. [attachmentid=20224] [attachmentid=20223] Thanks in advance... Al

Dhar: The double models is when I first noticed that I would get the Parameter Is Incorrect error. I had tried right clicking on the duplicate short cuts to delete them, but got the error instead. That is when I uninstalled the software and cleaned up the registry. I then did a fresh install from the CD, but still have problems. I was able to create a short cut to Sir Nigel on the CD and he did load without any problems into the chor screen. Since the model was okay, I then created a short cut manually to the Sir Nigel on my hard drive. It did not load properly. Hmmm, perhaps the installation did not go right. So I then copied the Realistic folder from the CD to my hard drive, overtop the Realistic directory from the install. Sir Nigel then loaded without error into the chor window. Now it is really looking like a bad install. I then copied the entire Data directory from the CD to my hard drive. I noticed some of the files had a +R attribute set on them so I manually set -R on all files in the Data directories and sub directories. Now, when I load A:M, I can right click on the folders and short cuts without getting the error message. Thanks everyone for all your help and suggestions. It was muchly appreciated. I was wondering though, if I install the upgrade to my E: drive, could I just copy the executables and dlls into my install directory without messing up my folders with duplicate short cuts? Al

Even if I double left click on the model, I still get the error when it is loading into the chor window.

Hello. I am very new to Animation Master and have just installed version 12.0n on my Windows 2000 PC. I have a P4 2.4GHz PC with an ATI 9000 Pro Video Card, 512 MByte RAM, several large hard drives (as I do some video work on the side). When I try to load some of the models, I get a "Parameter Is Incorrect" message. The same thing happens when I right click on the short cuts in the Libraries window. I can load SCHLITZY, but when I try to load Sir Nigel or any of the other Realistic Actors models, I get the error. I have tried downloading the latest version of A:M 12 from the Hash FTP site, but when that was installed, I ended up with duplicate entries in all of the libraries. E.g. 2 Shaggies, 2 Sir Nigels, etc. I ended up uninstalling the entire product, going through the registry and removing any Hash entries there, then re-installed from the CD. If anyone has any suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance... Al