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Welcome to the A:M Forums. We are glad you are here. If you are returning, we are glad you're back. If you are just getting started please make sure you spend some time in the Newbies forum and read through the A:M Manual (The Art of Animation:Master and The A:M Technical Reference). Ask questions. Join in the discussions. Give and get feedback. Explore A:M! This Welcome topic is a continuation of introductions to the forum from previous years. Click here to read some of the past introductions General Overview of Animation:Master Anyone can create 3D pictures and animation at home or in the studio with Animation:Master. Animation:Master includes everything you need to create fabulous computer graphics; complete sculpting features, powerful animation tools, superb rendering, and all this is compatible with the most popular computers (PC and Macintosh!). Its cross platform compatibility makes A:M an excellent choice for the individual or studios with multiple operating systems. Animation:Master, the 3D motion picture studio is the most powerful and affordable spline based modeling and animation program available. Specifically designed for classic character animation, the drag and drop, customizable interface and powerful motion tools give you the control that is required to tell your story. A:M is geared toward character animation and gives you the ability to build libraries of actions and characters to be reused over and over. Features (Don't forget... with A:M you can build and explore your own personal features too!) Spline Based Modeling, Animation, And Rendering - for smooth organic models and natural freeform motions. Bones Mode - for easy IK construction. Inverse Kinematics - to interactively pose articulated characters. Skeletal, Morphing, And Bending Actions In Combination - all three kinds of object and character motion can be overlapped and used in unison. Time Based Motion "ease" - for accurate acceleration and deceleration of movement. True Patch-based "uv Decal" Mapping - using bit mapped images that are locked to a surface and distort properly when an object bends and twists. D3D or OpenGL - real-time rendering. Motion Libraries - so that a complex action needs to be built only once and then used over and over again. Includes motion capture input and motion control output. Lip Synch Key Framing - for assembling lip shapes with automatic inbetweening. Technical Support - Top notch and totally free with an active forum where users meet 24/7. Interface Integrated, User Friendly interface, with easy turning, zooming, and navigation features. D3D or OpenGL accelerated for a smooth tactile feel in all areas of the interface. MFC based interface allows for completely customizable options including color schemes, tool bar placement and customizable keyboard shortcuts. Drag and drop interface technology fully implemented for easy object manipulation. Create scenes with as many characters, lights, cameras, and props on the stage as you like. Modeling , creation of Actions and choreography can all be done in the same window from any view . Proportional Zoom; finer zoom control in choreography. Centered Turn; turn about the local coordinate system. Global Axis Translates; option to move control points in world space instead of screen space. Multiple, re sizable Windows; have two action windows, or set up three modeling windows in a traditional tri-view layout. Drag able, dock able panels; put the panels anywhere you want on the screen or hide them completely. Simplified Operation; tools operate in a more "standard" fashion. Save Interface State; projects maintain their window's layout for next use. Interrupt drawing to increase drawing speed. Specify automatic reload of last project at startup. Limit memory usage. User controllable rotate snap angle. Object Instancing Intuitive Object Manipulators; uniform for lights, cameras, characters, props, etc. Markers/Rulers Fully editable Timeline Window Customizable Folders in the Project Workspace Multi-Select in the Project Workspace A:M Community chat window and Forum Modeling No more inefficient polygons! Model with flexible Hash patches. Start from a Library of example characters. Curved lines move easily to allow for quick manipulation. Complete selection of real-time tools combined with point-and-click sculpting makes object creation easy. Model over a Rotoscope image. As many Rotoscopes as you like can be loaded into any view. Seamlessly integrates "bones" into low-density, uni-body models. Characters (or objects) are built as a single model, then bones are inserted any way you like to for the "skeletal" IK basis for your character. Un attach; disconnect "attached" points while modeling. Insert Control Points; automatically adds control points to those hard to get to splines. Perspective Modeling; option to model while viewing the object in perspective. Nested Hide; hide more points when some already hidden. "Lasso" or free form group tool included with standard group tool for easy selection of multiple control points. D3D or OpenGL shaded real-time mode when modeling instead of wire frame. Patch Hooks to reduce resolution and eliminate creasing Bias Handles for easy control of spline curvature. Optimized Polygon export. Unique object manipulators for translating scaling and rotating. Specific grid sizing for use in creating precise scale objects. Grid can also be toggled on and off. variable lathe cross sections. User definable Undo and Redo. Uniform Normal Face Control for Polygonal output . Paste and Extrude offsets. Cut, copy and Paste Flip or Mirror a selected group of points around any axis. True Type Font and AI Import Locked Control Points Copy/Flip/Attach Polygon Import Lock Control Points "Distortion Mode" Deformation Tool Animation Patch-based animation allows smooth, flexible movement. Complex movements are simplified; unique bones motion offers lifelike bouncing and twisting. Complete skeletal and muscle control features. Inverse Kinematics (IK) for creating skeletal based motion. Character animation with lip-synch made easier. Stride length to prevent a character's feet or tires from slipping as they move. Action Overloading; applying layers of Actions to a character so that it can "walk", "talk", and "clench" its fists simultaneously. Action Range; choose only a range of frames, Hold, or Wait from an Action Rotoscope facial movement in Muscle with sequenced backgrounds. Poses. Lock Bones. Sophisticated Key frame controls. Many different kinds of real-time constraints for perfect anchoring, picking up objects, and animated paths; Including: Aim At, Kinematic, Path, Translate To, Orient like, Aim Roll At, Spherical Limits, Surface, Scale Like and Scale to Reach. Flocks, Crowds and Swarms Powerful Channel Based motion control. Scrub Bar. Action Undo. Action Objects; for animating props, even other characters seamlessly within an action. Force Objects;apply dynamic forces any way you like. Rotoscoping Action Blending Copy/Paste Mirrored Action Pose Sliders (frame ranges can be saved in a pose). Kinematic Rotational Stiffness "Continuous Play" Scrubbing Animated Camera Rotoscopes Onion Skinning Kuper camera motion data import Hard and Soft Body Dyanmics; including cloth, springs, masses and collision detection between objects. Automatic assignment of geometry to bones Smart skin for perfect joints Relationships for creating smart characters. Weighted CP blending Animated distortion boxes Rendering Ray tracing of transparency, reflections and shadows for visually realistic results. D3D or OpenGL real-time previews can be saved as output. Super fast, High quality hybrid renderer. Selectable Specular Color. Mirrors with adjustable settings. Alpha buffer rendering for combining computer animation with live action. Anti-aliasing. 32-bit, variable, unlimited resolution rendering. AVI animation playback within the software. Bound Rendering; Quick Render or Ray Trace only a portion of the screen. TV Safe and Title Safe indication. Transparency Averaging. Anti-aliased Image Maps. Shadow Maps Gamma Correction. Show or hide render in progress. User selectable reflection limit. Motion Blur. Extensive render status meters. NTSC safe color. Photon Mapping. Soft Shadows Film Grain Bloom Soften Dither Dynamic Range (gamma correction) Field Rendering Line Geometry No "anti-alias" option (Game Sprites) Film Tint and Film Grain; presets like "black and white" and "sepia tones" Stereo Rendering Shadow Buffers and "Shadow Only" Buffers Exportable lighting maps, vertex colors for game engines Selectable Soft Shadow Color Fully Customizable Toon or Anime Style Shader/Render Materials and Object Attributes Ability to apply custom textures, images and object Attributes to individual patches. Image Maps Locked to the surface through use of UV coordinate system. UV Editor for interactively adjusting how a map lies on geometry. Glass with Refraction and Caustics. Image types include color, bump, transparency, reflectivity, diffuse, specular, ambiance, mirror, gradient and cookie-cut maps. Textures you define, modify, save and reuse. Integrated Algorithmic Perlin Materials Editor. Flatten; unroll a segment before applying Decals. System Color Dialog uses your platform's standard 24-bit color dialog to choose and change colors. Displacement and Fractal Maps. Edge Transparency. Environment Maps. Gamma correction can be applied to Image Maps. Supports 32 bit Image Maps Frame Control of Animated Maps; so that image maps can cycle, skip frames, hold, wait, or "ping pong". Unique Decal (image map) manipulator allows you to scale, reverse and position an image in real-time . See through Decaling. Maps automatically cached for interactive map editing though use of any third party paint program. Tile able Image Maps. Spherical, Cylindrical and Planar Projection Mapping. Animatable Material Attributes. Material Effector Objects. ATX class 3rd party Material plug-in support. JPEG and TIFF support Transparent Density Translucency Reflection Falloff Material "Bump" attribute" Effects Volumetric Lights. "Dust" objects for animatable smoke, fog and steam. Glows. Lens Flares. Depth of Field. Turbulence. Light Projection Gels. Hair. Particles; streaks and blobbies. Particle "Sprites" for stunning special effects. Other Features Motion capture input from a number of different sources Controllable, targetable, colored lights with colored shadows. Multiple Cameras. Non-perspective camera for scrolling game screens. You can perform most functions, such as modeling, animating, and texturing from the camera's point of view. Audio load/save for synching. Complete Game and Export SDK including real-time model and map export, action export, viewer and source code. Multi-plane style layer compositing and cameras. Lip sync Dope sheet and Phoneme creation tools. Supported Image Formats: Load: TARGA, JPEG, TIFF, PICT (mac only), PNG, EXR, AVI, Quicktime. Save/Render: TARGA, PICT (mac only), PNG, EXR, AVI (pc only), Quicktime. Manuals and Video Training included: - The Art of Animation:Master and A:M Technical Reference - Video Training Tutorials - Community Tutorials Forum Get started with A:M now!
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I downloaded a few models @Darrin S All that I've downloaded have worked. Thanks for sharing! Edit: Actually... I spoke too soon. I had only downloaded models and not projects. In order to include files such as models in a project you'll first need to embed the models. That can be done via the menu just prior to saving via Project > Embed All. Without that embedding the Project files will be missing external resources. Edit 2: I see that your individual files/models are likely what the projects are looking for. What you might want to do in that case is Zip up all the files into a single Zip file and then post that. Then all of the projects and models can be maintained in one single zip file.
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As I am nearing the end of another animation project I wanted to say thank you to Robert Holmen. During the last several months we have gone through the animation frame by frame. He has used this technique as a teaching tool and have learned so much. I can not tell you how many times I have said wow through the process. Anyway thank you Robert!!
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[MOD Note: PRJ files for two versions in posts farther down.] newworldexplode.mov mp4 version: newworldexplode.mp4 another rough idea can post project later
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Can we get the project file for this?
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Note: this post is incomplete yet and needs some editing. Starting a new MFC "Single Document Interface" style program in Visual Studio 2022. The second video in this playlist of MFC tutorials demonstrates the basics of getting a plain-generic Windows program authored in Visual Studio 2015 This post is to document the difference between what is shown in that video and the current situation in VS 2022. Video time - 0:35 Add new Project to solution (this presumes you already a "solution" loaded in VS) (In this image I am adding the new Project to an existing folder in an existing solution) Choose MFC App, then Next 0:40 Enter Project name (location should default to being in your existing Solution) 2:10 Choose Project options This screen mimics the choices in the video 2:12 The VS 2015 screen in the video at 2:12 has no exact match in VS2022 2:14 This VS2022 screen is default auto-populated with names based on the project name. 2:17 The VS 2015 screen in the video at 2:17 has no exact match in VS2022 2:19 Choose Interface features This screen matches the choices in the video 2:32 Choose Advanced features This screen matches the choices in the video 2:37 Generated Class Options This screen is default populated with class names based on your Project name. 2:51 Created Project 5:30 Compiling the Project now should run default MFC "Single Document Interface" window: 12:15 i had to delete the "Save" Button from the _256 toolbar 17:30 Choose Project>Class Wizard instead of "Add Class", then choose MFC in wizard 18:00 Choose from drop down list first then edit ClassName Then OK, then OK in Class Wizard window
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Can I send you...trustfully the Android wrapped up project in a single .zip file and you can find those to help from there?
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The past year has been right out of the pages of "Mr. Toads wild ride". Got laid off August of 23. Trying to find a like position in the tech industry has been impossible. By this march it really looked like I was going to lose the house and everything else. But I took the painful step of cashing out my 401k to cover expenses and then managed to parlay I prior contact into an hourly consulting project that put myself and another gent to work full time. Now I am a co founder of a software company building a product and on the investor hunt. Which brings me to here. Since we spun up our corporation my linkedin feed has been flooded with cold queries from salespeople. Normally I ignore them. But this morning one came thru that got my interest. For some context one of my challenges with my business is putting together demo, training, and pitch videos for our software. I have been experimenting with a whiteboard video but in the back of my mind I always think of how AM would be a better way. The sales message I got this morning was for this company (inovitagency.com) . So my question is this: what.are your thoughts on AM fitting into this market. This company isn't the only one out there doing this. They are the 3rd that have pitched to me in the last 6 months. There is an obvious need (I for one need it!) So can am be used efficiently to fulfill and build a pipeline of short contracts?
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I'm researching software for the initial workup of a game app proposal and have been asked to investigate software to build the proposed application. At this time the project is pre-pitch/prefunding with much of the material confidential so I can't go into detail on specifics of the game itself but the following is basic criteria: The team is affiliated with an Educational Institution and likely eligible for education/student licensing. The team consists of approx 14 people most of which are technical experts in the games subject matter (not gaming, graphics or software development). -- Depending on funding/green light to go ahead the team may involve students and previously established (paid) programming outlets with that expertise The game proposes to target 'Clash of Clans' quality and playability (probably more 2D than 3D) but graphics may be created in 3D and rendered to 2D sprites etc. I've mentioned Unity and Unreal Engine as possible software development platforms (although they may be slight overkill for the initial app) I believe it unlikely the app will cross the threshold requiring licensing payments to Unity/Unreal Engine but that is all guesswork from me. Here is a breakdown of some various software and the level of appropriateness to the project from my perspective: Unity/Unreal Engine - Likely more complex than required but would be excellent should the app garner support and need to be extended Flash - Possibly incompatible unless HTML gaming is an option for the project (unsure if institution already has appropriate licensing as most have students foot own license from Adobe) Game Salad and similar- probably too low end but could be an option especially if the student/game programmer is familar with the software - Game Salad's licensing may not be ideal however. Added: Python/Pygame is another option but is very technical and lacks GUI support. This is the gaming approach I am more familiar with than other mentioned above. Let's see, what else can I say... The game is to be developed for iOS and/or Android. Should the game development be green lit a mockup demonstrating basic play may be created in one software while the final game developed in another. Any information you can provide will be much appreciated. Thanks!
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[formerly "GeazerBot] I'm dusting off a project I've neglected for over a year. I want to rig him up for animation, but need a somewhat simplefied or restricted motion given how he is constructed. His knee and elbow joints need to rotate about a single local axis as they are simple hinge joints. Anybody know how to restrict the movement accordingly? Same goes for the "toe" joints on his feet and most of the finger joints. Oh, yah...he also only swivels around one axis at his waist as well. All the other joints are ball and socket joints, so they can have a very wide freedom of movement accordingly. http://wjgaylord.brinkster.net/GeazerBot_f-b.jpg This "poses" (pardon the pun) a challenge if you want to use a labor saver like The Setup Machine. There is no spine to speak of, which is the main challenge. This may be an opportunity to learn more about such rigs. I do want to be able to smoothly vary between forward and reverse kinematics in the arms and I want the typical null targets that make animating the legs easier, too. Any suggestions? I have Raf Anzovin's "Dem Bones" tutorials, which are very helpful, but take a bit of time to digest. I have used both the Anzovin TSM rig and the AM 2001 rig. Any updated tutorials on constraint setups for such rigs? Bill Gaylord
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After doing the 2001 slit-scan project (https://forums.hash.com/topic/53303-2001-slit-scan-effects-simulated-in-am-with-mufoof/) using resurrected 2001 artwork (https://youtu.be/dujQGB-2EXw), I wanted to try some other graphics. The Mandelbrot Set is a wonderful source of interesting imagery. My college roommate, Mike Segor, who also went to that 1968 showing of 2001, had sent me some Mandelbrot work. Grist for the mill. He also contributed music for the final movie. The artwork: John Knoll has a fascinating video about slit-scan techniques (and shows a graphic of the Trumbull 2001 set-up at 5:07): https://vimeo.com/391366006 He discusses various approaches including circular slits and other, similar, symmetrical geometry like the Dr. Who Tardis/police call box/tunnel sequence. For this experiment, I decided to start with the 2001 slit-scan technique and then try circular slits. Did not use the soft-edged slit approach as much rendering on this project was complete before that idea was tested. The movie breaks down into these parts: Vertical slit scan created on left half of screen, flipped and inverted onto right half of screen; Composite=Add. Has the expected acceleration effect created by moving the slit-screen model element across the artwork during MUFOOF frames and moving the artwork between frames: Circular slit scan (full screen effect), artwork movement between frames; has sweep, is pretty, but no dynamic acceleration: Another circular slit scan clip overlaid on first circular slit scan clip with Composite=Difference; more dynamic because of counter-movement, but no real acceleration: Circular slit scan with slit-screen movement Right to Left during each MUFOOF frame, artwork movement between frames; has dynamic acceleration but is asymmetrical: Circular slit scan, slit-screen movement diagonally Lower Left to Upper Right during each MUFOOF frame, artwork movement between frames; has sweep and dynamic acceleration but is also asymmetrical: I made other attempts at a symmetrical set-up, but they did not give a dynamic acceleration effect: 1. Moving artwork away from camera faster than slit-screen (z-axis), exposing more artwork, in each MUFOOF frame; moving artwork between frames (x-axis). 2. Changing size of circular slit, exposing more artwork, in each MUFOOF frame; moving artwork between frames. 3. Moving circular slit from below centerline to above centerline in each MUFOOF frame; moving artwork between frames. Has the virtue of being symmetrical horizontally, though not vertically: 4. No slit, just an open circle in screen and no movement of screen in MUFOOF frames; moving artwork between frames. Has sweep but no acceleration: I wanted to try one more effect before giving up on finding a symmetrical set-up that would give dynamic acceleration — rotation of artwork 360 deg around the z-axis during MUFOOF frames, moving artwork left to right between frames, and using the open circle shown above. This idea went down a whole new rabbit hole where I spent several days, but it led to what appears to be a generalized solution for simulating slit-scans that create dynamic motion. Initial results looked very strange. Then I realized that as the animation progresses, the artwork moves left to right as intended but the rotation point travels with the artwork and rotates it out of the camera FOV. After thinking about that problem, I decided the solution might be an additional bone to rotate the artwork (which I named Pivot) while the artwork itself is assigned to a child bone of the Pivot bone. That worked and the result has dynamic acceleration. A still from the final part of the movie: Here is the movie: https://youtu.be/aD8xUaaGIF4 Here are files for the open circle scan with pivot rotating the artwork 360 deg during each MUFOOF frame, artwork movement Left to Right between frames: circle-no-slit-scan-MUOOF-backward-mandelbrot1-rotateArt360-sys3.chocircle-no-slit-art-sys-MUOOF-backward-60sec-rotateArt360-sys3.actcircle-slit-screen-backward-artwork-moveL2R-sys3.actcircle-no-slit-screen-art-mandelbrot1-system03.mdlcircle-no-slit-mandelbrot1-rotateArt360-sys3.pre Mandelbrot artwork appears above. But wait, there’s more. After successfully moving the artwork in relative space using the parent Pivot bone and then moving it in absolute space using the child bone in the second action, I realized this approach could be used for any slit scan animation, including the original 2001 project. Proved to be a bit more complex than that simple statement. I revised the 2001 slit-screen/artwork model with a new parent bone (Pivot) for the Artwork child bone. Now the slit would be stationary, the artwork would move 6” during MUFOOF frames, and the artwork would be moved an absolute amount between frames. Test renders did not look right. In the old method, the slit-screen element moved and the artwork was stationary. In the new method, the slit-screen is stationary. Where should that slit be located? For simplicity I decided to try changing the camera location on the x-axis. Eventually I found that moving the camera +3” on the x-axis gave test renders that were substantially similar to the previous 2001 slit-scan results. However, the image did not reach all the way to the center of the screen. Time to modify the model and MUFOOF action to allow for further experimentation. I added a new bone (System2) to the slit-screen/artwork model to be the parent of all model elements so I could move the whole model during the MUFOOF action. At action start, the model was located at -3” on the x-axis (and the camera was returned to zero in the cho). I experimented with end-of-action values for bone System2; eventually +3” gave the desired result — these are the same values as in the original move of the slit-screen element, except now we are moving the whole model during MUFOOF frames. This model move is analogous to panning the camera slightly during its travel down the track which Trumbull mentioned. Here are revised 2001 slit-scan files using the new method: soft-slit-scan-backward-2001artwork-60sec-PivotSystem2.chosoft-slit-screen-2001artwork-system2.mdlsoft-slit-screen-backward-2001-artwork.actsoft-slit-screen-MUFOOF-backward-60sec-movePivotR2Lsys2L2R.actsoft-slit-artwork01.tgasoft-slit-scan-backward-2001artwork-60sec-PivotSystem2.pre Here is the movie created using the new method which is substantially similar to the demo movie of the soft-edged slit-screen in the 2001 post: soft-slit-scan-backward-2001artwork-60sec-PivotSystem2.mov As the I Ching says, persistence in a righteous course brings reward.
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The final step in the process is to export this animation data to the character. I first bake the animation in the choreography. I bake one keyframe per frame to maintain accuracy at this step. Then export the choreograph action file. Next, I needed to come up with a way to convert this data to a CSV file containing just the position over time data for the one axis of the bones I want to pass on to the animatronics. Fortunately, at the time we did this project, I had someone on staff who knew a little C++ and I had him code me an app. This app imports A:M .act files and allows me to select the bones I want to translate, define the axis and ranges, and even remap the values. Finally saving as a CSV that I can bring into the animatronic controller animation software. On this show, we were using a program called Conductor. It is the same software we used to use in the early days, and as I mentioned, it does not visualize any animation. Just stores position data on a timeline. I can import the CSV here and this tool does a great job at cleaning up the extra frames reducing to a manageable number of points without altering the shape of the curve and affecting the acceleration. This application becomes my second verification that I have stayed under my speed and acceleration limits because it has built-in a similar meter and warning function I created in A:M In the end, the file from this app is what is saved to the character on an SD card. There is a master show control system for the venue that simply sends a trigger signal to the character to run the animation.
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The frog features the most of all the characters. This is the only character also that used any IK type rigging. All the other characters use FK through pose sliders. For the eyes I wanted the environment to do some of the animating for me. I built a representation of the entire location in the project at full scale, and in my rig for the eyes, I created a null that is the focal point of the eyes. With this null I could place it at the various locations the audience is present around the lake using poses. Then fading between pose sliders, I can direct his gaze around the lake regardless of where the position of the head is at. This adds a complexity to the animation that nobody is even aware of consciously. With the head moving, rotating, and bobbing to the music, the eyes can stay fixed on your position while you are sitting in the Steakhouse at the edge of the lake. Good restaurant by the way.
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The first character we looked at was a giant toucan. We knew we wanted this to be an extremely dynamic figure, so to determine what kind of speeds and acceleration limits we would need to design within I made a quick animation using a model of mostly 2d cut-outs. Even though it was not necessary for the info we were gathering at this step, I still modeled at full scale. All the axes of motion were placed at the approximate real location we had determined in our napkin sketches during the initial conversations. Then this same project is what everything else was built on top of. All of it was created in a few hours. The great thing about the workflow in A:M is how easy it is to build a model that is almost made of nothing but the bones, animate it, come back and refine the sculpted model and even move the axis around later while utilizing the same animation data. I can almost work backward if needed. There is very little time spent on the front end to get to where I can work on movement. Lady Birds_test-01-sml.mp4 Tucan-Demo04_sml.mp4
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Unfortunately, I can't find the model and... the TWO SVN projects site appears to be down. Link: http://project.hash.com/movie/svn/active/ Here's what she looks like if we can find her:
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I had to give this one a lot of thought, but I've decided to work on a second project while still working on "Stalled Trek." I realize that this will put some more stall into Stalled Trek, but I think it's the right thing to do. The reality is that Stalled Trek is pretty ambitious and I want to get it right. As such, it's going to be a long time before I can finish it. Also, I'd like to have some more experience with the other aspects of the process (namely animating) so that my skills will (hopefully) match my ambition. I'd rather not have to go back and reanimate everything, like I'm having to go back and re-model the characters right now. So, while I continue to work on the "hard" project, I've decided to work on a simpler side-project, which will hopefully allow me to make more of my mistakes on it... rather than on Stalled Trek. I think this project will be a lot of fun to do, too. Not only because of the source material, but also because I won't be the Lone Ranger on this project. Some history: in 2003, a friend of mine pulled together a bunch of his friends and made a little home movie about pirates. Since we no longer live in the same part of the country, I wasn't going to be able to be involved, but thought I might be able to contribute in other ways. I came up with the notion of doing an animated sequence for the opening titles, using cartoon versions of the cast. Unfortunately, my life was in a bit of upheavel at the time and I finally had to accept that I just wouldn't have the time to pull it off. I had done the character designs, though, so we made some still images that were used behind the opening titles instead. Not nearly as satisfying, but what are you gonna' do? Anyway, fast forward to now and my friend and I were talking and he said that he'd had an idea for a sequel to his movie, but it would require a lot more to turn it into a movie and he wasn't sure if he wanted to take on all of the work of doing another one. I thought about it for awhile and finally asked him what he thought about the idea of doing it as a short animation. After some debating of the logistics, we both thought it would be fun and decided to do it. The great thing about this is that my friend is an artist, too, so there's going to be a tremendous amount of sharing the load. He's going to write the story, storyboard it, design all of the props and paint all of the backgrounds. (The only 3D will be the characters and the props and parts of the sets necessary for them to interact with. This will keep the amount of modeling down to a much more reasonable size.) He'll also record all of the dialogue (using the people who played them in the movie he made.) I'll *just* (ha!) do the modeling and the animating. :-) I'm not pretending it'll be easy, but dividing the tasks like this and having one another to bounce back and forth off of and spur each other on, should make it easier than just doing everything on my own. The look is going to be pretty cartoony and stylized. Like I said, the backgrounds will be flat and we're going to try to keep the story relatively uncomplicated and the number of characters to a minimum. The movie was done in black and white (my friend loves the old Errol Flynn movie "The Seahawks"), so this will be in black and white, too, which helps keep things simple, too. In the end, the cartoon should make a great extra for his first movie and an excellent bit of practice for me on my way to completing Stalled Trek. Since I'm not involved in the story (which my friend won't begin writing until next week or so), I'm not sure exactly what will be involved. I do have the character designs I did of the cast of the first movie and although I don't know if all of them will be used, I'll feel safe starting to model the main ones. Here's the character designs I did all those years ago... Not sure exactly how well they'll translate into 3D. I tried to keep them extremely simple back then and I think that'll help to make for simple 3D character models. Here's a couple of the "stills" I did back then. I think the look of this will be very similar, just with the characters and some elements in 3D.
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While working on my model (which is inside a project) I constanly used 'Save Project As', thinking I always have previous versions of my model if I dont like the current edition. Only now I realised that all project versions have the same version of my model. Is this how it should be? Maybe there is an option to have all models inside a prj file or smth?