Search the Community

Hi - after a few character models, I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of this program.... sort of I only have his beak done, but I thought I would post my progress as I go along, so I could get any suggestions from anyone to improve it. Pelican Image 0001 Thank Eric

Just finished rendering the short anim for the gorilla model and stuck it up on my site w/ the 360 and some final images. Thanks again for answering all my forum posts while working on it. It's the 3rd model over on the top. =www.3dcharacteranimation.biz -Eric

There are some services behind the scenes that can be utilized such as annotating content, project management, etc. *If* they leverage some of the project management technology they've been developing over at Animation Mentor then that would justify some cost. It remains to be seen how this might change given newer technology coming on line via Windows 10 etc. (although with Win10 that is mostly related to annotating within the browser) When any service like this comes along my skepticism kicks in and I try to weigh the various pros and cons. My flaw though... I want to be optimistic. I'm specifically interested in how they will approach the collaboration of online projects because I've got a few thoughts on such things of my own (not that I would or could ever implement them). The service is what would keep folks buying into the program. I assume there may be some free access and other access that would allow additional services (much like the other creative collaboration services popping up online). The primary process is one of notifying folks that the project owner is looking for assistance on a project. This is where they specify that they need 1 modeler, two textures... whatever... at a given time on their project. A percentage bar then lets everyone know how the project is progressing so they can view its current status. A popular project might have a multitude of people wanting to join in while a lesser known project might struggle until it finds a proper champion or someone that can help get the project off the ground. What's in it for the folks behind the scenes is another question but the underlying answer for any business is always going to be profit. Profit potential can come is a number of varieties but I'd say this is in line with where the authors believe animation content is heading; which they state as moving more toward social collaboration. For those that don't care to read their FAW they also state "Artella will be free to join and cost a low monthly subscription fee for projects, we do not plan to offer discounts as our goal is to make it accessible and affordable to all." The primary thing Artella has to do is pay for its cost of operation. If Animation Mentor can use it as a recruiting tool then that might also keep costs down as it can be reasoned that a good number of the students at Mentor will be likely to join in projects posted to Artella. My projection: If a good number of paying gigs (perhaps initially sponsored by Animation Mentor) can be maintained then it should prove to be quite popular (folks would get involved in free projects and vie for positions in the paid projects. If others (individuals and companies) routinely sponsor paid projects on the site it will be successful and especially useful for project collaborators. .This isn't to say that much could be gained by joining in on the free projects but we must remember that a goal behind the effort is to profit; yes for the folks behind the site would surely like to make money but they won't make any if the system doesn't find a way to for the creative talent to profit. Artella will not be paying any of the talent. That is up to the owners of each project. The added aspect of course is that profit (on the part of the collaborators at least) doesn't always equate to money. For the direct info: http://artellahq.tumblr.com/FAQ

A friend of mine and I have been wanting to re-create the battle of Wolf 359 in 3D format for quite some time now. It has been a year since I first purchaced A:M and I am still loving to work with this product. I feel I can start working on something that could take years to get done. But it will be done right. The Battle of Wolf 359 has been a major battle that has been torn apart, analyzed and theorized about for years, but no one has ever tried making a rendition of it other then a version made using Bridge Commander. My friend, Mark Nguyen and I wish to create one possible version of Wolf 359. A possible "chronicle" of events. I have created a teaser which can be seen at the following webpage: http://nekosei.com/stw359/wolf359.html Please do check it out. But that's not all. I would love some help with this project, so I am bringing this to your attention. We will need ships built and/or donated. I wish to ask for you to build one of 20 ships that we need. I've been hunting for the best schematics I could find and will offer them for your use in building. I am also attempting to find a set of decals that we can all share, and a font for the starship names and registries. "But there were 40 ships at wolf 359." Yes, there was. This is where a kind of reward comes in. As thanks for building a ship for us, we would allow you to build a second starship, either using your first model and modifying it, or from scratch if you prefer. So long as it's a design that could be from that era or slightly earlier. Obviously there were no Soveriegn or Defiant class ships then. Likewise it is doubtable an NX class ship would have been there. This offer isn't official yet, as we're not 100% sure of the exact types of ships we *need* yet. It could turn out that we need 25 specific kinds, and 15 randoms. But I do know this: We will need ships for a "decommissioned fleet yard", so just about anything from the past can show up in that scene. All help will be appreciated, full credits will be given on both the website and in the final animation. If anyone is willing to help, please let me know in this thread. All comments are appreciated reguardless.

Hello A:M community, my salutations as a new member and hopefully a new customer. I will continue my search readin thewebsite and related websites, but before or during this time I want to ask and hopefully get some answeres from experianced or begginer notices on the product and if I really should get it. I would love to start by Introducing myself, I am sirius, it is not my real name but itis rather a catchyname, I hope I shallbe spending much time here, and may I also add some of the movies or demo trailers of developement of movies I have seen here are great Now right to the point, I am working on a project for a movie/trailer introduction for a game in developement. My apologies but I am not allowed to release the name. But my placement was in control of the animation and movie section within my team. I have read stories, and seen many videos on the product and am very impressed. Knowingly I am a newbie to animation with outside tools, I have used maya and am learning still many documents in mayas' animation toolset. But I wish to save myselffrom many days of reviewing and reading over document over document of alias maya files and want to cut to a short almost "easy way out" In the animation industry I am nothing but what is called a newb and I am loking to further advance my skills by learning bones and althe joly good stuff. My goal is to start low but reference as much I can to become skilled from the communities influence, but I want to know about a quote I will state! Anyone can use it My only question is what about people such as me that have little or no talent at all in animation, that are looking for programs that can be used to teach us basics about animation and complicated parts so that we can use these skills to benefit us in further projects. I am a modeler and have that placed as a down frame so I am ready and willing on the modeling section using maya and a setof many other tools All I wish to do is get going and practice with animation before my project gets going. Complicated animations in a way is what I am trying to express here, such as sword,gun fights that can be compared to an almost animation capture such as tools likedevilmay cry have used for animating in game scenes, my real question here is, can anyone even someone with no talent in animation be able to use and learn from this tool ? That is my main concern, because maya costed close to 7 grand I want to make sure my investment into thisprogram will benefit me as well as thecompany I am purchasing from? Much appriciation in advance yours truly, Sirius

This is my first attempt on something that I've done. I have gotten really addicted to Bioshock and love the Big Daddy's. Included i have a picture of a big daddy Front and side view of the original, and the front and side view of the one I'm doing. Please tear me away on your opinions and bashings. I haven't finished it yet, but what I have been doing *what you can see* has taken me around 7 hours more or less. Now as you can see, the base of the body isn't what it will actually be, it is just there to give me a general idea of where things will go. If you have any opinions that you would like private, or would like to help me, by making a 'little sister, or a splicer' then send me an email (Dragonboy1221@hotmail.com) Make the subject line "hash" so i know.

Hello, I've made a few sets for an animation project, and since this is my first time doing this kind of thing, I would like to get feedback (suggestions, stuff you like, stuff you hate). Anything will help. Thank you very much. p.s. the two city areas are supposed to be lit like it would be sunset...if they don't look that way, please inform me of my error. Also, the other images are from inside the mech.

So I'm working through the different tutorials and right now I'm designing the flower. The problem I'm running into is my stem/bud won't move with the bones, but it seems everything else does. I've attached a picture of moved bones and the stationary stem/bud. Any ideas? flower.bmp

Hi, my name is Jared Claybrooks, and this is my first animation project of decent quality. The subject matter is one of the boss fights from the game Earthbound. Ness, The Protagonist. Titanic Ant, The Antagonist. An image of the action. The whole animation won't be too substantial, maybe a minute and a half. I'd say that right now the project is about 60% complete, and could use some critiqueing before it's finished. thanks!

As you may know there is a group of us who meet fairly regularly in the Philadelphia area. We are called: The Mid Atlantic Animation Master Users group... or MAAM for short. Recently the idea came up to create animated versions of ourselves. I took on this challenge... uh... I was volunteered? Something like that. Anyway to start the ball rolling I did some stylized portraits of each person in the group. We have Hubakai, Entity, DDavis, Mechadelphia and of course myself, Heyvern. These are our Super Hero identities. During the day we are unassuming members of a small computer user's group but at night we become... I am not in the picture below. I was probably in the bathroom or getting a beer or something. Uh... well we don't have uniforms yet and we are still working on the logo. No specific plans for fighting crime. Maybe watch some movies on a big screen TV and eat nachos. However we hope to model these characters in AM and bring them to life. It has been a while since I used AM but I am going to take a stab at modeling... myself. We'll see how that works out. We have not completely decided on our "Special Powers" but so far we are in agreement that my character will be the comedy relief. I will be Shaggy AND Scooby in any animated adventures that may occur. Keep an eye out for updates. -vern

Hi, I deleted my project that I was working on by mistake. Does anyone knows how can I get it back? that was my first model and I really wanted to save it. Help please...

I'll add that a handy A:M feature is Backup. Backup will save the entire state of your Project, even external assets, in separate folder. https://forums.hash.com/topic/48860-v190g/#comment-418234

If your model is saved externally from the PRJ (i.e. "linked", not "embedded" in the PRJ) then that same model file gets over written with every PRJ save. Yes, that is how it is intended to work, although I agree it is potentially confusing and or alarming if you don't understand that. "Embedded" is introduced on pg. 11 of the TECH REF. Most PRJ assets* can be either Linked or Embedded. Embedded assets are saved in the PRJ files. Linked are merely file-path-referenced in the PRJ. If you make a model from scratch in a PRJ it is embedded unless you save it out separately from the PRJ. Then it becomes Linked. If you have imported a model into a PRJ, it will still be Linked unless you change its File Info>Embedded property to ON. Alternatively you can embed all assets* in a PRJ from the menu Project>Embed All You can tell if an asset is Linked by the floppy disc icon over it in the PWS as is the case for "grid" in the below example. *Note that Images and Sounds can never be embedded in the PRJ. They are always Linked and if you move a PRJ you must remember to move those assets with it.

Hello Hashers- Doing a simple "cookie cut" mapping effect and it is not responding like it should. Instead of clean cutting it has a bizarre transparency effect whereby it chunks up the grid (see photo). I have embedded the simple project if anyone would like to test it. Also attached is the tga image used for mapping in the event it wasn't embedded along with the project. Thanks for any insights! Tom whitee0.tga CookieTest.prj

Hi This is one of the first projects I did in 2000 with animation master. I am trying to get a reel together for my website and thought it would make a good intro. I did a new render of it with ao. You can see here the improvement in me and a:m over the years. I atached the old and new one. 3dfroglogoold.mov 3dfroglogonew.mov

My friend and I are going to be taping off sections of our schools steps to look like concentric rings when viewed from a certain point. We're just about done with everything we need to complete it. So, I thought I'd share it with you all, and see what you think.

Here's my finished clip. I meant it to be a WIP but I had it done in about 2 days. [attachmentid=21470] George X_Wing_Levi.mov

just a sneak peak of a nearly finished render!!! Model by woloshyniuk, Dark jedi models comming soon. test.bmp

flying ot falling into the flames...sort of beta.mov beta.zip had to try the beta

In my trawling yesterday. I found this, it does echo a lot of what has been said here too.... simon >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 10.5. Industry Tip: Animation Project Management Project management concepts are not limited to the dry, dull, world of corporate business. You can apply them to any size animation project to help you meet your deadline goals. Tim Kelly, lead visual effects instructor at the Art Institute of Las Vegas, offers his advice in this area: Remember to constantly review your sketches, scripts, storyboards, and any other pre-production materials during production. Nothing is worse than finding out at the last minute that you missed a detail, causing you to have to go in and redo your work. If you're thinking of skipping preproduction planning, reconsider. Time spent up front can save you time on the back end. Start scheduling early, and continually check and update your schedule before and during your working sessions. Usually, your client will want a schedule before you start working, and you will be held to it. Be realistic with your schedule, but at the same time keep yourself under reasonable pressure to get the job done. Pad your time estimations, keeping Murphy's Law in mind. Build extra time into your schedule for revisions, glitches, bugs, errors, crashes, and so on. It is not unrealistic to add an extra 20 percent into your time estimations for unforeseen complications. As for items to include in your schedule, don't limit yourself to rendering. You'll probably want to include the time necessary for conceptual artwork, scripts, storyboards, animatics, modeling, texturing, rigging, character animation, lip sync, lighting, test renders, revisions, file management, system upgrades, backups, client correspondence, editing, color correction, video transfer, and so on. Keep your files organized. Create a single master folder for a project. Consider keeping your daily work sessions in a subfolder with a name and date on it. Within that folder, consider creating additional subfolders for scene files, reference, and so on. Consider building a project-specific texture library, in which each character, set, or prop has its own subfolder. Consider creating a separate folder for renders, with subfolders for each shot or element. Pick a naming convention at the beginning of a project and stick with it. If a texture is named house_wall_v01.tif at the beginning, you should follow the same naming convention at the end. Including a version number, v01, helps to differentiate between multiple copies of the same file. Whenever you make significant changes to anything in your project, save a new file and name it to reflect the change. Back up your project on multiple, physically separate mediums. For instance, you can make a copy of your project directory on a second system drive, and then make an additional copy on a DVD or external hard drive. If a project is particularly critical, consider storing your DVDs in a physically safe location, such as a fireproof safe. Whatever backup method you choose, never rely on a single backup. When a project is wrapped, create several master backups of all the project materials. It is not unusual to reuse parts of one project on a second project. Although such backups may seem a bit paranoid and time consuming, consider how much time you will be putting in on the project.

ddustin and I are collaborating on a project, not so much working together, but helping each other out with tips and techiques, and thought we'd post a message here to get some feedback (suggestions , tips, and/or techniques) as how to proceed. The animation in question would be a short, not really a movie per sae, more of a commercial. The camera opens up onto a small building (very small, appears to be big enough only for a single person to stand inside). On one side of the building is a window with a conveyor belt running out from it, to the back of a delivery truck. packages would be sliding along the conveyor into the back of the truck. A character (I'm thinking the Homer Simpson aka The Fat Guy) walks in the door of the building. Inside the building is a huge warehouse. Because it's meant to be a cartoon, the dimensions of the inside are greatly exaggerated. There'll be conveyor systems all around the warehouse, with packages sliding along in various stages of readiness. Along the conveyor will be stations where robotic arms will be working with the packages. packing them, closing them, sealing them, etc... Along they'll slide to the end of the conveyor where they'll be weighed, a shipping label will print out, and be applied to the package, and it'll slide out the window. The parts I (we) need assistance with is the modeling of the delivery truck for outside, and a method to get a steady stream of packages sliding along the conveyor. I don't want to use anyone else models, (other than the FatGuy) but am looking more for assistance in the form of suggestions and tips on how to model the delivery truck, and how to get the multiple packages moving along the conveyor. I have the outside of the warehouse modeled, and in a sperate set (choreography) the inside of the warehouse. I also have in place the conveyor system (nothing fancy, I'm not looking for photorealisticness) as well as various packages modeled and textured (again, nothing fancy). I have a model of the robotic arms (rigged for animation), but haven't placed them yet. Still to be modeled are some basic shelves for the warehouse (easy enough), and a computer station where the package will be weighted and a label printed. Again, any and all suggestions and tips on the remaining modeling would be greatly appreciated as well as ideas on how to keep packages moving along the conveyor...

I wanted to do more projects with Animation Master so well here we go!!!

I created a sprite emitter material based on the one given in the manuel. I works in the project file I created it in, but does not work in other project files. I have no clue why.