Search the Community

Here's the project.

Here's a side render. Steve, as for a tut, it's been just playing with the settings of the emitter to get what you are looking for. The modeling is pretty basic. I'll post the project file for anyone who is interested in it.

During the last couple of weeks I have done some experiments with realistic Ocean Waves in Animation Master. For now there is only one image to watch, but I'm working on a short animation that I hope to be able to show in a day or two. (The image is rendered with the simplest possible environment. No sky sphere, one single sun light and a simple reflecting gradient material.) Click here, for more information on this (The page will be updateted as the "project" evolves.)

Hey SpaceToast, I just took a look at the images for this project. They are really amazing! I was just wondering how you have gone about getting this look? You said you were using glows, are you using them on everything? Is it coming out of A:M's renderer this way or are you running it through something else after? Can't wait to see the finished short! -Alonso

I just checked the zip archive, its in there.. project file is called modelshopb.prj and turns out there is a second copy of itself in there... you can just ignore that :-D Here's the link again (5.5 mb zip file)

Here's the link to the ball project. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5959&st=0 http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7303 P.S. The lightening looks good. I like it.

Great characters. I really like how different each are from the other. It'll be very interesting when you have an enviroment to drop them into. If the crew's ship is any indication, it should be fun. The expressions of the green guy are very nice, should be able to get some good acting from the character. I like the colors of the uniforms, could lend itself to some pretty neat visuals. Such as in a dark, very dark place, you could use the 'typical' eyeball white (like in comics and 2d 'toons) and add the white of the uniforms to this fx and have a totally black scene with only the whites of the eye(s) and the white of the uniform visible. This could be a good back-ground info, as the whites of the uniforms would make it easier to pick out the crew in the blackness of space if an accident happens. Too bad the acronymn (or OrangeWorld Legion) for the crew is "OL" instead of "OWL" -- that could add a bit of word-play and visuals that OL just doesn't have for moi. IMHO, having a symbol for them makes it seem a bit 'super-hero-ish." Some kind of graphic logo would serve the job better. Or if you look at military dress uniforms, the actual branches of the services distinquish themselves apart by the overall look of the whole uniform. If done right, you can have a look for the uniforms and give some visual indicators of the crew's status (rank) and job by tweaking the uniforms a titch. I feel that little things like this may not be overtly noticed by viewers, but add to a sense of 'realism' when the overall scene/series is taken as a whole. And you could take the visual look of the uniforms and extend it to the way the ships/interiors and such look. This could be really good if there's some kinda dog fight in space. Good luck with this project, I'll be looking forward to seeing how it develops.

Rodney, Here's a two eye setup of the cartoon eye for people to mess with. You can dilate each eye individually or together and you can manipulate both eyes at the same time or individually...there's an on/off pose for manipulating them at the same time in the model's (tooneye) "User Properties". I also applied the porcelain material this time and re-sized them. When you first open the project the "botheyesmanipulator" is set to "on". In "Action1" grab the center null to move the eyes around. If you turn the "botheyesmanipulator" property off then you can use the right and left eye manipulators independently....it could be done better, I'll mess with it again tomorrow.

David, I gave your project file a looksee... I like! I was going to post a pic or two so others can see what is going on. I attempted to place two eyes in a chor with one constrained to the other. I failed to take baby steps though and managed to come up with a circular contraint problem when I attempted to get the two pupils to react together... In short, I went a little to far beyond the simplicity of the setup and got myself in a corner. I'll try again when I have a little more time to play. I still think the setup would work great with a solar system of planets too!

I know this is a little earily for one of my weekly posts but -- Okay, discussion time.... To upgrade or not to upgrade, that is the question. When I started on the 'Stolen Child' project I made the mental decision not to jump to the next version mid-stream. After all, every time I've tried to upgrade in the middle of a project with *any* program, I usually find that I've hosed myself. So, I told myself that I wasn't going to make that mistake again. Simply to avoid temptation, I've gone out of my way to *not* get v.11 until after I finished the short. But.... Going through some of the documentation, they've added some new controls to the Dynamic Constraints (ie Collision) that looks like it would make my life easier and keep from pulling my hair out too much when it comes to hooking up and animating the skirts of the major characters (of which they have a lot). In the past, the problems that usually crop up with upgrades tend to be with; a. Smartskin (which my models have none). b. Muscle poses on the pose slider (if I upgrade I will have to reset them). c. Modifying animation done in previous versions (bad gen-locking problems, especially if a new bone has been added anywhere along the chain). <-- Note; playing the animation is fine, I just run into problems if I try to modify it after importing from earlier versions. At this point in the project, I've only completed half of the major character models and have done none of the animations for the short. Any animations completed so far have only been to test the models. Also, I know there was some talk about working on the Toon Renderer in future versions, which, for the most part, I think is a grand thing to do. But to change the Toon Renderer right now for this short would be a *disastrous* thing. Have there been any changes to the Toon Renderer from v.10.5 to v.11? Would the Dynamic Constraints really be worth the headache of trying to upgrade from v.10.5 to v.11 at this time? Can anyone think of any other problems I might encounter upgrading this project from v.10.5 to v.11? Any and all feedback would be really helpful! -- Thanks!

I have just finished building a facial rig for Niomi. It consist of a series of poses that some what mimic the muscles of the face Which was inspired by this article @ http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000414/lander_01.htm among others. These poses are driven by a "funky user interface" as seen in other software packages. The core of the interface is made up bones and nulls whose translation and rotation drives the poses.This I learnt from Bill Young's visime project. (Thanks Bill).These are arranged to make animation as intuitive as possible. An outline of the model is used as a guide for animating on the fly. I intend to use this in conjunction with the traditional phonemes and expression. Here is an image that should make things clearer A tutorial version of the rig is also attached below.Please give it a try and tell me how it can be improved. I will do a full blown tutorial for newbies when I have the time but I am preoccupied with finishing Niomi right now. LUV Pat FaceRig.prj

Do you have an overall "look" to your design for your project? I'm not familiar with your stuff- is there another thread?

Well, after posting the eye tutorial I made I was asked about a cartoony eye and thought about applying the spherical constraint in this thread to the problem. It demonstrates a possible use for the constraint, so I thought I'd post it here. It's just a "proof of concept" type of thing, so don't expect it to be perfect...there are plenty of things about it that could be better. In the project, open "Action1" if it's not already open and move the visible Null named "eyemanipulator". That moves the pupil around and deforms the eyeball. To adjust the size of the pupil, there is a "pupildilation" slider in the "User Properties" section of the "tooneye" model.

It's hot out here at LegoDude's college summer camp, so I made this little fan to keep him cool. Set the movie to loop and you too can stay cool! (Unfortunately for LegoDude, when the conference ends, and he goes on stage to close things down, he's going to be melting in the heat, lose his footing, and get sucked into the fan... sort of a LegoDude meets Mr. Bill ending to a fun debut of LegoDude! ) If anyone wants the project, I'd be happy to share. Need to zip together a package so you'd get the decals (cookie cutter and transparency map). This represents about two hours of work, so things like on/off knob and (d'oh!) electrical cord are left to you to do! For my needs this fan is 'good enough' for the size and focus of the closing piece. CoolMeOff.mov

Thanks for the complements! I actually modeled him on Geri so I'm chuffed you recognised him(I guess you didn't see the previous modeling thread). Unfortunately no body to go with him. I'm working on another project which will make use of all Geri taught me though.

DL, Glad to see you back in action in the forum again! When I need inspiration and a reason to carry a project through with a critical eye on composition and detail I always think of you! Look forward to seeing more of those fish!

Hi Guys! Thanks your answers! I have some problems: Well, I'm living in Hungary and so I don't use the DOPE SHEET of A:M and I can't buy Jason Osipa's book! But we can help me, if you send me a not important lip sync project or action, or give me a link where I will can download it! Because I can study this project and it helps me that I can continue my project! Thanks before, Sharky

Hi guys, it's been a while since I last updated my fish project, Alot has changed over the months I had very little time to work on it... I also took the time to re-design my characters and get a feel for their personality and the way they will act and move.. This project turned out different than when I first started (character wise), I learn so much from your crits and by practicing, I modeled over 20 fishes just trying to get a feel for a design. it's hard sometimes to transfer what's in ur head to paper/computer... Alot of them will not make it into the final movie, but am happy with what I learned... My other fishes slowed down my machine alot which made animating hard cuz I have a slow machine... -----NEW------ PROJECT INFO------ I am very happy with what I came up with I narrowed it down to 2 characters, which are low in patch count and are fun to work with.... My orginal story and idea was to big for just me to do, so I changed it and made it more simple...Just a girl and Worm... Here is the girl her name is ~missy~..... the worm character will be posted soon...

I'm working on a project and on a particular bone, I get two sets of lines(RGB) and when I copy and past them, they get confused and cris cross. Anyone know how to fix this?

Great scene! I agree that the beam of light could use a little work, it jumps out and steals a lot of your attention. But still, well done. I'm casting another vote for seeing that gorgeous Balrog (if that's possible) in these mines. What a fun team project -- and the work is basically done.

Nice face! What I discovered when I first started using A:M to model (and I'm not a pro yet) is that the more I model with it, the better I understand how splines work as a 'group.' There's a bunch of tutes on the ARM (in the modeling head and body section) that I found helpful. There's the SAY head, that you can d/l a project and see how Young did the head. The best thing about that tute is using the "wrinkles" that happen for you. I found that by hitting a CP and then the comma key allows me to see the whole spline and how it is placed and connected. With the models that I felt was going to be trashed, I kept working with them and learned how to delete a spline in a few steps (select a CP on the splne you want to get rid of, hit the comma to select the entire spline, then the period to 'reverse' [complement] the selection twice. The first comeplement will invert the selection, the second re-selects the orginal spline -- my mind uses the paradigm that the second time selects the spline's CP's in "both directions." Then you can hit the delete key and viola! the spline is totally gone. I found that by deleting and then adding CP's and splines really got me thinking about splines and patches and when to hook, use 5-pointers and such. Good Luck and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Redo on the female giant...I like the varied hair colours. Christina: SkyCast is something we use all the time professionally so we'll keep updating it. Although it 'should' stay compatible . There are a couple of tutorials on the website, and I'm reasonably active on the forum if you have any questions. Skycast will scale any image you load as a base to 512 x 256 before running. The action is dropped onto a SkyCast light model in the choreography. These images are rendered in version 11. Xtaz: Yes, because the clouds have very little colour variation, I'll be trying to add more colour/richness with lighting. Frank: This is my 'simple' project. Expressions can wait for another day

Thanks. I'll definitely have to work on those camera angles. I was aware of that looking kinda screwy. Not to be repeated though. And finishing it was the achievement. I started the project way back (so far I can't remember). Just to finish something is good. Usually I've got dozens of unfinished projects.

Well, I've been working on this project a bit. Tweaked the mesh for Tauri a bit (mostly in the head, neck, shoulders and hips). Adjusted the gradient edge material and render settings. Here's the latest render of Tauri in a scene. The things in the scene with her are cacti-like plants. This may not surprise the old hands at A:M, but they are all the same model. I added some relationships, actions, muscle-mode poses to it and placed about 8 "instances" of the cacti in the scene. Then I gave each cacti a different setting to the Height, girth and twist poses. They are all percentages and 50% is the "orginal" pose/shape of the cacti. So I can make the cacti shorter or taller, wider or thinner and even twist it clockwise or counterclockwise. I think I "get" relationships now. What I like best about what I've done, is that I can have the cacti look like the same species of plant, but give each one some individuality w/o having to remodel the wheel, so to speak. This is now "offically" a project, I have a storyline figured out. Will storyboard it tomorrow (I'll be going to the N. California coast with the spousal unit, so I can be amonst the ocean and storyboard a desert scene. go figure). There's a song I want to use as a soundtrack. It's by Robyn Hitchock named "Catherdal" from his "I often Think of Trains" album. I'll have to model some rocks, desert ground, bg mountains. Then there's the other characters, a hummingbird (based on the Violet Crowned Hummingbird) and a 6-legged newt/gecko-horse beast of burden. As far as props go, there's a blanket, an amulet, fire, saddle and some camping-type eating utensils. Then there's the Catherdal itself. I want it to be intricate and slightly Gothic/Victorian looking ( thinking of the Palm House at Kew Gardens and the Albert Memorial, both in England) and looking like it's made of Crystal/Prisims. There's going to be lights inside and will provide a distinct glow to the enviroment. I'm hoping to have this in some kinda shape by the end of the year. --- I'm still having massive problems with moving Tauri's arms around and having the frickkin' elbow mind itself. I'm missing something, I fear. Should I leave the Arm IK on or off? Does any one have a rig description that works for them? I may buy the Setup Machine when the refi comes through. Still feel that understanding how the 2001 rig works is important. I really wish there was a complete description of the Hash 2001 rigging that I could look at. The links in the ARM either is for a rig that has all different names for most of the bones (and different constraints, I think) or just not accesible ( 404 or downloads nothing but a directory structure and files my Mac can not read). The biggest help with the video tuts from the Art of Animation Master. But then, it was a more of a move this here, do this, do that without any detailed explaination of why is it done that way. And the elbow bone is a complete mystery to me. It moves all over the place, and when the roll handle is turned just by a degree or two, the forarm and bicep area of the arm just goes spastic on me. I can get the arm to look good in keyframe "a" and then I move forward to keyFrame "b" move the elbow so the arm looks good, repeat for keyframe "c" and "d" and then I go back to keyframe "a" -- and it's all frelled up! I would like to start working on giving Tauri some expressions (I have a eyeblink pose made, but that's just rotating the bone that controls her eyelids), I think I should use poses and muscle but I look at her mesh and just brain-fart, I don't know where to begin. Any help with using the 2001 rig and where to start with making facial poses would be greatly appreciated! I'm hoping that once I get tauri working well, I can then move her skeleton/rig to Kenth and hopefully have a bit easier time of things. Darn this learning curve thanks for reading this far, and thanks very much in advance for any and all suggestions, criticisms and /or help!

This is somewhat of a trial and error process. I'm not happy with the density of branches near the trunk. I'm going to reduce the number of main branches and add more of the short secondary branches. This should give me a much better looking tree form. I'm also not happy with the uniformity of the arrangement. Doesn't have the aesthetic appeal I want. I'm going to arrange the branches less uniformly to give it a more natural look. More of a bunching of branches and leaves here and there, with some more space between "bunches". One reason this project is taking so long is the number of "rehearsals" it's taking to optimize the look vs. performance. The number of things to tweak each time is pretty huge. Definitely not an efficient workflow sort of thing at this point. That would take a software utility to build it for you, with some nice features to allow you to tweak it efficiently. I think I'm really pushing AM's limits in terms of the sheer number of constraints and relationships involved. Some of the branches are loosing their texturing during the camera rendering. And this is only one tree... May have to send another sample to Hash to figure out what's happening and fix it. Bill Gaylord