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Hello all, it is with Great Pride and Joy that I announce the final version of Duck Sauce ("A Mystery that Squeaks") is now available on A:M Films. http://amfilms.hash.com/search/entry.php?entry=895 If you don't know the background already, Duck Sauce was produced as part of the 48 Hour Film Project, in which filmmakers, given a genre, prop, character, and line of dialogue, produce a complete short film, from writing to post-production, over one weekend. This version, though the writing and voices remain the same, contains revisions in some animation, new music, and was completely re-rendered. These things did not, of course, happen within the 48 hour time period. The original film was shown to thunderous applause at the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring, MD, and this version (well, almost) was shown to an as-yet-unknown amount of applause at the Portland Indy Animation Festival in Portland, Oregon. If you like it, please tell your friends. If you don't like it, tell your friends anyway and let them get screwed the same way you did! Thanks, Zach (on behalf of Godfrey, robcat2075, pugless, and zacktaich)

I had some of this information up on my WIP page, back when I started this thing, but I deleted it last time I updated my website... I modeled it in a couple of days, the head taking the majority of the time. Before modeling I watched the behind the scenes a few times, and I also did a number of pencil studies of from photos of Weta's maquette. I probably have a whole day of sketching and researching (which would be typical). I did all of my UV mapping (and wrote the tutorial webpage)in a day. And I spent another day (if I remember correctly) painting the textures. I uploaded them as I worked on them. I spent a few hours working on the sprites for the first image that I posted. But after rendering an animation, I realized that they needed a lot of work to look realistic. So I totally redid my fire and smoke for this last example, tweaking it over and over, rendering a shaded mode version as a .mov to get a look at the motion of the particles, then reworking the settings. I spent all day before I got what I wanted.... The rigging took a while, even though I used the TSM. And the wings I had to do from scratch...Probably a good part of a day. I did the wings the same day I tweaked my fire settings, somy timeline is a little screwed up... (sorry I didn't take notes) I didn't work on this model full-time, since I had other projects plus a full-time job. but it would be about a week long project done all at once, I guess. So that would make it a $3,000 model, if it were a contract job (just in case someone wants a custom model of similar complexity). The good news is that I've told Martin that he can distribute this model on the next Hash CD--so everyone will get a chance to play with it

Thank you. My next project may be a PSA for the Young Marines. I'm thinking a lot of volumetrics around the disiplined recruits. I think it will be statement driven, not story driven, which I think is going to be difficult to edit/choreograph it all together well. This one was just a whole lot of fun to take from concept to execution. Now if only I could start a career with this.... Rob Milliken

This project is no longer a WIP, it is finished. See the entry, "Laugh Pack Attack" in AM:FILMS for the final results that could not have happened without the people in this forum who offered their assistance. Rob Milliken.

tried the idea om a simple test project and it worked quite well. Thanks johnl3d

Oh, yeah, tottaly. Seriously, the first time I saw the first pic, I thought it was drawn. Then I realized it wasn't. Kik-arse dagger, BTW. Go Baron! So, wether I missed it, forgot it, or skiped it altogether, what is this going to be, anyway? Movie? Short? Somethin' else? Just curious, and lazy. (Actually I'm not lazy...well, yeah, I am... but I'm also working on a project, so I have an excuse. )

QUOTE=SHADOWMASTER]I've seen a number of toon rendered things, but this is the first 3D model I've seen that actually looks drawn. Thanks for the complement, SHADOWMASTER. Now you know why I don't want to deal with a modified toon renderer at this point for this project. I know how to get the effect I want, I don't need to spend time to try and re-learn it. Well in weekly progress, I've got 'Father' done. I ended up ripping out the automated skirt rig leaving only enough boning to hand animate it. Will be doing the same for the 'Son' and probably 'Fay' as well. Also, went and animated 'Father' to have his own character walk. Next up, I'm gonna be modeling the dagger since the 'Father' needs to wear it in the first shot. Baron, my fiancée came up with a totally cool design for it. Yeah, Baron!

Thanks for the comments. I had planned on doing that as well, but only had about 30 minutes to set it up and render the pic (already had the robot model). Still had to make the wine glasses (love the new refraction), cheese, and toothpicks, then make the card for approval. Plus this was kind of a freebie project as a favor to them.

Yves for some strange reason I've been having a little trouble with my favourite 3d software when I first tried your natural light setup.I was getting good quick renders in the cho but when I rendered to a file the image was much darker than it should be. I suspect the project file may have become corrupted in some way because eventually it caused AM(10.5) to crash every time it was loaded. After having this problem with two versions of the project I became desperate yesterday and was about to post screen captures so you could see. However AM finally settled on the third attempt of the project late yesterday afternoon so I can now show off a naturally lit Naiomi. I used spotlights instead of bulbs because they seem to give me greater control over the shadows. I had to change the specularity in the model and the hair fell apart with this lighting. Despite this I am pleased with how it is turning out and your setup is now a prized addition to my little bag of 3D tricks. Thank you once again for making a better cg artist out of me. For those who have not seen my indoor version here it is. I consider the first part of the Naiomi Campbell project and I will like to thank everyone supported me despite the entish (tree beard) approach I took to it. I will now move on to animating her. That will have to wait for now because I want to refine my animation skills first. In addition I have a few outstanding rigging tutorials from the project and a face to finish for the list. To top this off my vacation ended yesterday. It may take sometime but I will finnish the project. In the meantime keep an eye out for my animation "lab rat" ole Joe in this part of the forum. Thanks again Luv Pat

Well, I halted my project for a little bit. Just got busy doing things but here's an update. I know it looks more like a baby now but it's a creature I'm working on. Although he is younge. Hope to finish him soon.

Windows versions can be found here: 2004 CDROM (Orangutan) dongle (HASP) Version Multi-User Dongle Version FTP area V11.0 Features V11.0 Online Technical Reference V11.0 requires dongles to be programmed for year 2004. If you receive a hasp or "No Authorization" error you will need to have your dongle upgraded for the 2004 subscription. Contact upgrades@hash.com for more info. Run the RUS Utility to get your HASP ID#. After receiving an update code from support@hash.com you can use this utility to flash the HASP. ----- Fixes since last version. Fixed problems right clicking in tools options rendering advanced with no project open Fixed problems with multiple hair systems and object collisions {Jack West} Fixed problems with shader plugins {Jeff Lee} Fixed problems with loading embedded objects before a linked object saved with an older version {Weg} Fixed rotated model bones making bounds incorrect fixes clipping problems {Silvio Terra} Fixed problems with reflections and environment map materials {Zak Taich} Fixed specular color not set on model, but set on group. {Hiromoto Akinori, Maruyama Akinori} Fixed problems turning off maniputlator properties while editing one of its properties {Silvio Terra} Highly curved 5 point patches no longer obscure the hair. {Jeffrey Bolle} Surface constraint targets will include the chosen bone and all child bones. {David Rogers} Muscle motion on patches with hair does not affect how many or where hairs are emitted. {John Keates} Grouping masses in dynamics mode, and no model chosen no longer crashes. {Kalle-Samuli Riihikoski, Dick Johnson} When the dynamic options of hair are set, channels are no longer created. {Silvio Terra} Copy/Paste Bone rotation not working properly. Compensate mode not working properly when adding constraint. Can't see NULL Objects when in shaded view in Skeletal mode. Can't see TVSafe in shaded mode. Timeline expanded state remembered Changed snap to frame to be default in timeline (No longer need Snap Grid on), to snap to sub frames hold down CTRL key. Turn will turn around last selected object in chor if nothing is selected. Added Hide in Timeline list for sounds Sounds can be dragged into folders under a chor Timeline remembers composite or channel state Selecting children of choractions makes choraction the current action Fixed crash when you render to file of a file that is open in another program like an AVI or Quicktime Deleting a chor will delete folders within it. Fixed switching between actions not keep last frame in the frame edit ctrl for that action. All objects from the objects folder drag properly into a chor in the pws.

Thanks John for gettin in. I was overbusy with some paperwork. But I need a break so here are my explanations: The shading model is based on Oren-Nayar. So the roughness attribute controls the diffuse falloff in the Oren-Nayar way. The Diffuse-Falloff attribute is actually not used. It is a remnent of an old way I tried to control the diffuse falloff but the Oren-Nayar method gives way better results. The fact that it is still there is an oversight. Saturation start and end control when the raises in saturation will start and end in the shade calculation: 0% is where you get full light on the model and 100% is where is the terminator. If you set start at anything less than 0%, the saturation shift will already be affected at full light and if you set the end at anything more than 100%, the saturation shift will not be complete at the terminator. Hue shift from saturation controls the lag or the negative lag of the hue shift relative to the saturation shift. In real persons photograph, the two are realtively in sync. But some painters like to start the hue shift fefore the saturation shift (or is this the reverse? I'm not sure now. Anyway, you can experiment). One notable example of this are the Bisley paintings. So if you want the hue to start shifting before the saturation starts raising, you set to some negative percent value. The hue shift is an interpolation between the skin hue and the blood hue on the hue weel. It always take the shortest arc between the two hues. I think Saturation strength and Blood showthrough are self explaining and you can get some really weird gradient effect by pushing them high. Now, about controling the ambiance surface attribute: I've started working on this concept several years ago when Andy WHittock was gladly programing plugins and I never touched the SDK yet. At this time, I analysed skin photographs. First of real peoples photographed in different lighting setups and then of well recognized painters. From this I developped a model of how the skin react to light. Because of this method, I could not compute the effect of SSS and the shift in ambiance because ambiance is a CG concept that have no equivalence in reality and evem less in photographs. Even in CG, once the effect of ambiance is computed, the only information you are left with is the color which can be translated into hue, saturation and value or somethiung equivalent but not into ambiance. And even there, the available SDK didn't have any ways to control the ambiance attribute of a surface. So I implemented this model in an application that could output gradient specifications which could be used with the A:M gradient shader. But the gradient shader does not work with color mapped or materialled skins and that was a problem. The solution was to program a shader which would take any current skin color that is already there and proces it so that it produces the same shifts that are apparent in real skins. This brought me to devise en even more abstract model of how light interact with skin and the result is this plugin. Now that the SDK offers an ambiance shader, I may get back to this project and develop a skin shader v2 eventually. I actually haven't test if the ambiance shader API do gets called beyond the terminator. I would guess it does. Please don't hesitate to ask any further questions. Whatever comes out of this will likely gets posted on the plugin page as explanations.

The feet will be remodeled flat on the ground. But I will only do that at the last tweak moment.. BTW, I already have the pumps that goes with those feets. (And yes, 'en pointe' is spelled correctly). She is actually 180cm, that is 6 foot tall. But Il will have to double check the head size just to make sure everything is practically (if not estheticaly) in proportion. Hmmm... I don't think you will ever see a woman like that in a bodybuilding competition. Thanks. No, I did use maps only for hair color. The length of the hair is controlled by the length of the hair guides. I found I had more control of the hairdo with this technique. Thanks. I've been struggling with the aponeurosis of the latisimus dorsi. Thanks. What happened to her is that as I was modeling her, my attention got diverted into trying to find ways to get realistic skin shading. That brought me into this skylight thing that was abundantly discussed at that time. And then a huge veterinary multimedia project took over where I used A:M and then from project to project, this model eventually got stored on a CD-rom somewhere. Funny coincidence that now that my skylight solution is done and my skin shader is also done, that I revert back to this pet project of mine. Looking at other splines will help for sure. But practice is still the best way to get this flow feeling. After you've done your 10th model and actually observed the shortcoming of your different solutions, you will definitely be in a better position to feel it than now. And once again to all the others, thanks for your nice comments.

John, you know I have great need of your render farm, et al, I will be done with all 15 of my characters around 2027 maybe in march or april of that year... will you still have the render farm then??? I did a fix on the shoulders of my rig and eliminated about 30 fan bones now the shoulders only use 12 fan bones... but I still crash because of the textures loading so, on a tip from Vern, I will reduce the textures just enough before the details "I want" dissapear or become to blurry. The meeting really did get me to understand that if I was working on a network or with other users on a project, I must consider the volume of my characters also... patchwise, texture-wise, and rig-wise. Thanks all you "incompetent super-heroes" (Verns next movie?).

I would just like to clarify a small point so there is no confusion: First off I am not jealous of the "hair ball" created this weekend. I came to terms many years ago with my lack of hair and it is no longer an issue with me... at all... not a problem whatsoever... nada... no probs. The fact that my lack of hair is even mentioned, by anyone but myself, is irrelevant to any type of important discussions regarding A:M, and is only an attempt by excessivly "hairy" people to keep us hair challenged individuals "in their place". As for missing my presentation when you left early John... no worries, I didn't really have one... I just showed the animatic of my Incompetent Secret Agent project which is available online here: Incompetent Secret Agent Animatic I did show earlier, the only thing I used AM for in months... a door that opens and closes. Took 36 hours to render. I wanted to know why it took so long: Apparently having 3 or 4 raytraced lights with volumetrics will really extend the render time... good to know for future reference. Earlier in the afternoon I also discussed the fact that the theory of black holes is incorrect! Things can escape from a black hole... I did... somehow I managed to escape for a short time on saturday, although I was horribly frightened by that bright ball of light in the sky. Rich made me give a try at making the "hairy ball" work properly even after I insisted that "I don't know anything about hair!". Apparently my skills with trial and error are still very powerful. Not having a number pad slowed us down somewhat. Once again I am not sensitive about my hair and no one should mention it anymore because I am not sensitive about it so there is no need to call attention to it. That's not why I wear a hat. Vernon "baldy, clean-head, cue ball" Zehr

MAAMUG Meeting #2 - By John Hubickey Can also be viewed at: http://www.hubukai.com/animationmaster.asp The second Mid Atlantic Animation Master User Group meeting went extremely well and was hosted by Don Davis. We started the meeting between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.. Chris and I arrived at Don's house at approximately two o'clock. There was an abundance of food Don had prepared for the meeting and I think the best part was Don's special chili! After having two or three bowls of chili we went in the living room where Rich was projecting some of his work up on the wall. Rich started off the meeting by showing us some of the detail of the male human character he has been working on. The level of detail in Rich's model was amazing. I would have to say that Rich's modeling and texturing skills are approaching the level of the characters in the final fantasy movie. Some of the textures Rich is using on his character are extremely large which gives him the incredible detail that he is shooting for on his models. I will try to get an image of the character Rich is working on to post on the web site. Pause, go get a beer... After Rich's demonstration we proceeded on to hair and the dynamics of hair. One of the questions that I had was how do you get hair to react to forces and gravity. Rich and Vern both answered that question by using a simple primitive and showing us all how to adjust the hair settings. It got a little confusing because hair has so many possibilities but we worked it out and rendered a short 4 second ball of flopping hair that Vern was extremely jealous of! ;-) During the whole discussion we also watched some of the Jeff Lew animating characters DVD. This DVD looks extremely helpful and I personally am planning on picking up a copy in the near future. Pause, go get a beer and in another bowl of chili....(Yum) I showed some of the stuff that I was working on since the first meeting. I was extremely happy because the first meeting encouraged me to begin working on one of my projects. Now I had some animation master fans that I can show my initial renderings and animations to. We also got a Skyrig demonstration from Rich. I love the effect of the Skyrig because it gives you a very realistic looking render. Thanks to Rich, I am now using the Skyrig lights. Here is the link to the Skyrig setup and instructions on how to use it. http://www.shipbrook.com/jeff/animas/skylight/ http://www.shipbrook.com/jeff/animas/skyli...structions.html Unfortunately I missed Vern's demonstration as Chris and I had to leave a little bit early. Maybe it for lucky Vern will post is project so we can all take a look at. The second Mid-Atlantic Animation Master User Group meeting was another success thanks to Don Davis and his spectacular chili and cooking skills! We are planning on having our third meeting in approximately three months.(November-ish) The details of the time and location have not been worked out yet but we will post them as soon as we have it figured out. OK, now everybody get to work on that hairball and we will hope to see you and hopefully some new people at the third Mid-Atlantic Animation Master User Group meeting. Sincerely, John Hubickey.

Well, here's the lowdown: -I am doing this as a solo project -I am putting together the elements I need to recreate some Clone War battles -I'm going to send my finished film into TheForce.net Fanfilms -The story is called Clone Commander and it follows a Commander through the war and you see what's going on from his point of view Please post any questions. I am still writing the script, but I am concentrating on the models right now. If any of you out there like Star Wars, I will be releasing all of my models on the internet for free after I release my film. By the way, I had ALOT of spare time and I've about finished the Dwarf Spider. Here it is:

Thanks for the comments, I find them all very helpful. As we all know, after looking at our own work day after day, it really helps to have some outside input. Yes it is a bit soppy. It was orriginally going to be about a school aged girl who draws to cheer herself up. That's why the room is kid's colours. Also I wanted to express the power that, kids have to enter there imaginary worlds. I changed it after I found the music. I liked the song, and it has a good beat to animate to, so I wanted the story to fit the song. I didn't spend a lot of time on modelling, texturing, lighting, etc, because I wanted the project to flow quickly, so I'd get it done, and my goal was to tell the story and not spend a lot of time up front. I would like to polish it, and add some to the end. The rider is the girl, she is drawing herself on a horse. I planned to have the horse and rider shift to colour, opposite the her and her boyfreind fading to black and white, but I liked the look of the line horse walking away I left it that way. In the expanded version the horse and rider will disolve into a colour scene, but that will come later. I am quite happy how the transition from drawing to animation worked. This part was the main theme of the project, showing how we can use our imagination to create our world. It was also the part I was least sure how to do when I started. it turned out to be quite easy, after a great suggestion from Iham Wrong.

Please tell us more about your project. (I'm forgetful. If you've told us I need reminding) Are you doing this as a solo project or collaborating with others? Nice Dwarf Spider thus far by the way!

Pretty darn good! I'm glad to hear that you never gave up on your project. I tend to start projects and have tons of ideas, but some how always get side tracked. Good job! My only crits are: I would like to see your lighting changed. It makes the feel of the animation flat. I would also like to see more improvement on the textures. Get away from the computer generated stale look. The animation timing seems a bit too slow or off. Maybe rework it a bit. Just my 2 cents worth. Great effort! Have a great day

Pretty darn good! I'm glad to hear that you never gave up on your project. I tend to start projects and have tons of ideas, but some how always get side tracked. Good job! My only crits are: I would like to see your lighting changed. It makes the feel of the animation flat. I would also like to see more improvement on the textures. Get away from the computer generated stale look. The animation timing seems a bit too slow or off. Maybe rework it a bit. Just my 2 cents worth. Great effort! Have a great day

Hi gang. I finally have a showable version of my first music video for crit. This is the project that led me to A:M 3 years ago. After 2 starts, 1: in Strata and Poser, 2: in A:M 9.5 (enough said about that), and now in A:M 10.5. Even though it is quite rough, I am quite happy how it turned out. I would love to hear what you like and don't like, and don't worry, I'm not easily offended. I made it as small as possible 5.4 megs for 1.5 minutes using the On2 codec. If you have trouble veiwing it, please let me know. I can post a Sorrenson 3 version, but for similar quality it comes in at 8.8 meg. Here it is Just My Imagination

You may be doing it right. Sometimes AM has a problem with refreshing the changes and showing it in the view. So, when you expect a change press spacebar or else try saving the project and re-opening it. Hopefully it should be sorted soon.

This discussion is designed to serve two purposes. First, to highlight some excellent resources, and second to point everyone to related 'breathing spaces'. Breathing Space is the term I use for when you have been working at a project for a long time without taking a good break. Ideally, that breathing space should be as far as possible from the task that you are trying to take a break away from. However, it isn't so far away that you stop working on the project. If you wander too far away... that's a vacation! For more than a few people that means the end of the show. Move just far enough away to get a refreshed perspective on the task at hand. Take a breather... then head on back to work. Note: This discussion is designed to add to New Users storehouse of knowledge and prepare them for success. Additions to this discussion should have at least some connection to the subject of animation however far that connection might be. When posting, if the connection doesn't seem obvious please state how it applies. Thanks! http://www.sambuntrock.com/guy_like_me7_web.mov

Thank you all for your comments. To tell you a little more about the project, this was comissioned for a book cover illustration. Because it was for a Mathematics first grade textbook, the publishers wanted something that was about making math fun for kids. The art director was crazy about, yep you guessed it, "Finding Nemo", and so he along with the editor, decided they wanted an underwater scene with playful characters. After a few character sketches and a couple of Adobe Illustrator color layouts, this little character came about. Gotta tell ya the truth though, one thing is to do a character in 2D and another is to bring to life in 3D. So really, I should be thanking you guys for the help, because in all honesty, I've learned almost everything about AM here in the forums studying and learning from all of you. For all interested in how I got the job, it was really a matter of being in the right place at the right time combined with a little persistance. I say this, because a few years ago, I decided to pursue a little more aggresively my illustration career. Being a full time graphic designer, I thought something was missing, after all illustrating was, and still is, my first love. So I put a mini HTML slide show together showing off some of the work I had done previously using "Ray Dream Studio". Among the piesces was an underwater scene I had done. I sent it to every email I could find, targeting specially book publishers (since this is where I had the most experience with). Out of dozens of emails, only one called me up, but it was the right one, and I've been busy ever since. I hope this answers your questions. By the way, thank you William for the compliment. Cute is good (I think).