Exercise 4: It's a Pitch

[TNT]

Actually, when he rears back, that is the anticipation of the pitch.

 

I questioned they guys at work about how the pitching arm should arc and they gave me several pointers. I think it's better.

 

I hope they were either baseball pitchers or animators.

 

anyway this is sort of the way I see the throw

 

pitcherpath.mov

 

But what you have is good . Table it for now and move on to the next big challenge in TaoA:M.

 

That really helped explain it!

My arm is still all over and not a smooth arc.

I saved your markup for later reference.

 

Thanks for all the help you give.

It is really appreciated and needed.

And now.....to try to walk!

[marcoblbr]

Rodney, thanks for the comments on exercise 3. I didn't know that window hint ;-)

 

So, here's my exercise 4. I included a ball to make it more realistic. To fit the actors hand, I had to do each single frame.

 

Just one thing I wanted to add... In frame 1, my actor is in position to throw the ball, as I followed the example! But after I completed it, I wanted to add some more frames in the beginning so that he first pick up a ball on the floor then go to that position in frame 1 to shoot it!

 

There is an option, edit -> move frames. I put the offset for 20 frames, but didn't work out! Is there a way to do this??

 

Also, it would be a lot easier in the first frames if there was a way to lock the ball in the actor's hand so that if I moved the hand, the ball would move automatically! Is it possible?

 

You learn a lot by watching the videos, but you do increase your level a lot more by reading this forum and seeing what others have done!! And it is a great challenge to try and make animations similar to the best solutions! I'm glad to me a member of this forum! :-)

 

And here's my little movie and a picture of a scene! The AVI was 500kb but it didn't accepted that format here so I put the .MOV, which is 2.2MB! :-(

marco.mov

[marcoblbr]

After almost 15 hours I finally finished my animation of exercise 4. Suppose that you have not only the pitch, but also a ball, a hitter, a baseball field and a bird!! That's the result you get...

 

I'm glad I was able to do something nice! I had a lot of trouble making the hitter... I had to do it frame by frame because each frame I advanced, the baseball bat would come out of the actors hand. I even tried to get the model of my actor and put the bat on his hand but when I put it in the animation, it had no skeleton so I couldn't animate!

 

Well that's it! Hope you guys like it...

 

Also, when A:M finished rendering (45 min), the MOV file was 44 MB. Using the program Total Video Converter I was able to convert to another MOV that is 2 MB with quality near as perfect as the original! So it is a good call if the files gets too big!!

 

Until next exercise :-)

exer4_marco.mov

[TheSpleen]

nice job!

[GizmoMkI]

Fowl ball! Nicely done.

[Rodney]

Fowl ball!

 

Hehe.... too funny.

 

 

Marco!

That was awesome.

Way to go above and beyond (literally and figuratively)!

 

I wonder how much of that file size was the sound?

Thats a pretty impressive compression rate.

 

Keep that up!

[Rodney]

Also, when A:M finished rendering (45 min), the MOV file was 44 MB.

 

I should add this information here.

It may be to everyone's benefit to render out to sequential images the first time through as memory management will be more friendly if memory can be regained after rendering each frame. This as opposed to storing more in memory in order to facilitate the creation of one large single file.

 

Then once you've got the sequential images you can run them through A:M's 'Save As' function and save the sequence as the MOV file rather quickly. JohnL3D has a tutorial on accessing the 'Save As' option via the Project Workspace in the tutorials forum.

 

There are many benefits to rendering to sequential files.

For instance:

 

If something bad happens (such as you lose your power while rendering the last few frames of animation) with a single MOV file you'd have to start the rendering all over again. With sequential images you just continue where the rendering left off.

 

Once you've rendered to sequential images you can easily transfer that sequence to a number of different file formats, codecs and such and have your original images untouched.

 

You can easily use those still images for other things like forum postings and promotional material.

You can easily replace or remove frames as needed.

You can reorder sequences as needed.

etc.

etc.

 

Cautionary note: You'll have to rename the images if you interupt the sequence

 

I've forgotten all the other benfits at the moment.

[Rob_T]

I've looked at some of the other entries... and now I'm glad I don't look at the other entries before I try a lesson. Wow a bunch of these are really good.

 

I thought about going the extra mile in the way I did with the last few lessons but I'd like to speed up the learning process and using programs I already know to spruce up stuff from Animation Master isn't going to teach me Animation Master any faster. So I stuck to the basics.

 

I made the pitch a little different than what is in the lesson. I was a pitcher when I was a kid and I never liked that delivery. LOL.

 

I also added a few signal shake offs and base checks to make things a bit more interesting. I panned the camera right and back a bit just to see what would happen.

 

I'm not "delighted" with the outcome. It isn't bad. I just don't think it's great. There are a couple nice moments. I put too many frames in and that really slowed the pitch itself down too much. Once I get a better feel for time intervals I might go back and redo it.

 

My biggest problem was keeping limbs and hands from disappearing inside the body of the Knight or inside each other. Two things I wished this lesson covered in more detail.

 

1) If it exists, a way to use constraints (and more on constraints in general would have been nice) to keep one part of the knight from disappearing into another.

 

2) If I make a mistake and want to go back and delete a keyframe... well that wasn't realy mentioned at all. How do you tell which frames are keyframes and which are tweened? Do you have to delete all frames until you reach the mistake you made and then re key everything from there? Should I write down what frames I'm making key frames so if I find a mistake later on I can go back and alter that one keyframe without having to delete a whole bunch of work?

 

I'm used to Premier Pro where Keyframes are vital to effects and editing and they are always enumerated in the timeline by a diamond or circle or coloration chance (depending upon the timeline as there are several within the program) so I'm looking here for some kind of indication of the keyframes.

 

What happened was I got to the end and noticed that the pitching arm at one point went inside the knights body and pretty much disappeared. Since I couldn't remember what frame I made the keyframe (once I got rocking and rolling with the positioning and keyframing workflow I just had at it with abandon) at I had to go back and do a rather nasty patch job. Since deleting keyframes wasn't discussed I was afraid to touch it at all for fear that I would acidentally undo a bunch of work. So at the end, the fist pump\hat tip is kind of dirty.

 

Anyway. It was interesting. Not my favorite lesson so far but I think it came out ok.

 

Here it is.

 

http://s172.photobucket.com/albums/w37/Qui...esson4pitch.flv

[Rodney]

Sorry Rob, (for me) the link to your Photobuck says,

 

The action that you were trying to perform has failed.

 

 

My biggest problem was keeping limbs and hands from disappearing inside the body of the Knight or inside each other. Two things I wished this lesson covered in more detail.

 

I'm not sure what the lesson would cover .

There's not a lot to say except 'Avoid passthroughs. When you find your objects intersecting make sure you adjust'.

 

Admittedly, the Knight is not an optimum model for staying away from passthroughs in this exercise. But thats actually a good thing because the focus isn't on passthroughs as much as animating/arcs.

 

Note: It's fun to try this exercise with some of the other basic TaoA:M Models. Animating various models using similar poses/actions can help a lot when it comes time to model and rig your own characters/models.

[Rob_T]

Sorry Rob, (for me) the link to your Photobuck says,

 

The action that you were trying to perform has failed.

 

 

My biggest problem was keeping limbs and hands from disappearing inside the body of the Knight or inside each other. Two things I wished this lesson covered in more detail.

 

I'm not sure what the lesson would cover .

There's not a lot to say except 'Avoid passthroughs. When you find your objects intersecting make sure you adjust'.

 

Admittedly, the Knight is not an optimum model for staying away from passthroughs in this exercise. But thats actually a good thing because the focus isn't on passthroughs as much as animating/arcs.

 

Note: It's fun to try this exercise with some of the other basic TaoA:M Models. Animating various models using similar poses/actions can help a lot when it comes time to model and rig your own characters/models.

 

Wow. Really wierd. I tried the link after I posted the forum post and it worked fine. Here is the actual link.

 

http://s172.photobucket.com/albums/w37/Qui...esson4pitch.flv

 

Before I used the link inputter with the scripts here on the forum. Maybe now you can just copy and paste the URl. Sorry about that.

[Rodney]

Thats got it.

 

I like what I see.

You've got all the basics in there; Preparation, Anticipation, Delivery and FollowThrough.

The rest would be resolved in the refinement of it all.

 

You've certainly met the goal of this exercise.

Here are a few thoughts to consider should you want to pursue this one further:

 

 

Much of the refinement I'll talk about here isn't really in the details (hands and head) of the shot.

Its in the broad movements, poses and changes presented to the audience. Its about considering where the viewer's eye is drawn to.

 

How can secondary animation (overlapping animation) help highlight the primary focus that you want?

 

Can adding more weight to the character help? (What if he's heavier? Lighter?)

How does a change or shift in weight effect his balance?

After throwing the weight of his body forward so quickly (violently?) how does he effectly recover?

Just how much energy did it take to throw that ball?

Can you draw that/push that/pull that element of physicality out?

 

Perhaps the most effective means to refine the shot is to draw/sketch/stick figure it out.

Sketching loosely as you feel the weight and essense of the character.

Perhaps you've already stood up and acted the pitch out?

 

Another effective technique is to work in silhouette with the character entirely one color.

You can get that effect by cranking up the Ambiance on the characters Surface properties or via the Choreography.

 

Then with less distractions you its easier to work with the character's actions toward absolute clarity (clear storytelling) in the shot.

 

You've got some very nice elements pushing toward that storytelling; the beginning head nod and the celebratory fist clench at the end. Perhaps most imporantly you've expertly conveyed to us exactly what happened with that ball.

 

Is there any doubt about the results? I can almost hear the umpire yell... "Strike 3. Yeeer out!!!"

 

 

Great job!

[Rob_T]

Actually, standing up and acting it out is exactly how I planned the shot. It's funny you said that. I had the vision in mind for how I wanted it to look and I'd say I got about 80% or so of what I wanted. For starting with a new program I'm pretty happy with that. The biggest issue I had showing inertia (follow through) was after I had already keyframed the pitch itself and it was so sloooooow that I was discouraged about the idea of showing a big follow through. My biggest issue on this project was, as I said before, not understanding how to delete keyframes and misjudging the amounts of time actions would take.

 

If I had known how to erase the keyframes I would have stopped when I saw how slow the pitch was and gone back and re-did the time index to make it faster/more violent. Since I was stuck with a slow pitch (without possibly having to redo the whole lesson) I stuck with a small follow through. I was also afraid that a larger follow through would send the knight further out of frame which would highlight my next mistake; the problem I had panning the camera.

 

When the pitch started the knight was actually front/center on the camera, but after the follow through he had actually walked a small step out of frame so that's when I panned the camera. The problem was that I should have gone back and keyframed the camera to front/center just as the pitch was thrown because changing at the end as I did, without a keyframe, caused it to slowly pan during the entire shot. It was distracting. So I zoomed ithe camera out some so the pan wasn't so apparent. If I had known how to delete the keyframe I would have deleted it and fixed the pan the way I wanted; so it was a compromise.

 

And that's really what bothered me about the lesson. Like I said, I think it came out ok and now with a day's distance from the result I like it even more. What bothered me was the compromises I was forced to make because I didn't understand how to delete the keyframes and fix my problems and I wasn't inclined to go back to jump street and start over after all that posing.

 

The head nods are the pitcher communicating with his ... nonexistant catcher as to what pitch he's going to throw. I don't know how much you know about baseball but that's how they communicate. The catcher makes hand signals to indicate different kinds of pitches and the pitcher shakes his head no or nods it yes to indicate the pitch he's chosen to throw. So I put in two no's and a yes... then he checks the bases to make sure none of the runners of first or second are too far away from thier bases and planning to steal a base... then he throws the pitch.

 

So yeah, I guess I had a story in mind and I guess I did tell it fairly well. A little ball park ambiance and some sound effects and it would go over fairly well I'm sure.

 

Thanks for the input Rodney. So do you work for Hash, are you thier forum moderator hanging out the welcome mat or are you just the nicest guy on the internet?

 

Also, I would like to know more abuot the specifics of doing this:

 

Another effective technique is to work in silhouette with the character entirely one color.

You can get that effect by cranking up the Ambiance on the characters Surface properties or via the Choreography.

 

Is this in an upcoming lesson or can you give me a bit more instruction on how it works?

 

Thanks again.

[robcat2075]

On the plus side, I think you accomplished the basic task of this exercise which was to get the character into different poses on different frames

 

however...

 

I put too many frames in and that really slowed the pitch itself down too much. Once I get a better feel for time intervals I might go back and redo it.

 

Yes, way too slow. Since the tut gives exact frames and poses to put on them there's no reason not to get the right speed on this. None-the-less, you've tried an experiment and understand the reason for it's not-quite-complete success, so that is good.

 

My biggest problem was keeping limbs and hands from disappearing inside the body of the Knight or inside each other. Two things I wished this lesson covered in more detail.

 

fixing pass-thrus:

 

 

Basically, don't pose the character is such a way that pass thrus happen. This is the way all animators since the dawn of CG thru whatever Pixar is working on now solve pass thrus.

 

 

2) If I make a mistake and want to go back and delete a keyframe... well that wasn't realy mentioned at all. How do you tell which frames are keyframes and which are tweened? Do you have to delete all frames until you reach the mistake you made and then re key everything from there? Should I write down what frames I'm making key frames so if I find a mistake later on I can go back and alter that one keyframe without having to delete a whole bunch of work?

 

If you select a bone you can use the next key/previous key buttons to jump among the keys for that bone. Key filters affect how these buttons interpret waht is "Keyed" (a single bone or multiple bones). see following...

 

I'm used to Premier Pro where Keyframes are vital to effects and editing and they are always enumerated in the timeline by a diamond or circle or coloration chance (depending upon the timeline as there are several within the program) so I'm looking here for some kind of indication of the keyframes.

 

Yes. That is important. The PWS and Timeline windows are not introduced yet since they are not essential to do this exercise as written.

 

I recommend you watch the "Keyframing Options" video in the tuts link in my signature which will demonstrate the timeline and explain the function of the keyframing filters.

 

personally, I think the timelines should get more coverage in TAoA:M, but they may be TMI for some new users.

[Rodney]

Rob,

Definitely view Robert's introduction to keyframing.

You are more than ready for it.

 

Deleting a frame is a concept that works a little different here than in video/image editing programs such as Premiere. The plus with Premiere is that hitting the delete key lets you remove that extra frame that's gumming up the works. The downside is that no new information is introduced. You can only work with the images you start with.

 

Interestingly enough you can do a lot of frame editing of images in A:M too. For quick editing of image frames though a dedicated program like Premiere is hard to beat. However, a good reason to use A:M for such things is in how it gets us use to manipulating images (not just 3D shapes) in A:M. With that understanding there is practically no limit to what we can do.

 

There are programs on the market that do less than A:M in this area which cost thousands of dollars. These programs are tooting their horns that they've got something cool and new. Interestingly enough, A:M has had the capability for approaching 20 years.

 

Regardless of whose got the features, the real power of animating in A:M lies is in 3D space. Accessing the Timeline helps us get into the height, depth and breadth of it all.

 

Through keyframing, frames of animation (moments and movements in time) can be removed before they're even rendered. Moving a key frame forward or backward in time does the job of deleting or inserting key frames for us. Then of course you can adjust the rendered frames later as you wish in A:M or another program.

 

I'm with Robert on emphasizing the importance of the Timeline but I cannot help but think there is a good reason not to learn it too early. Especially as the computer will be doing a great deal of the animation (inbetweening) for you. Could you bypass that stage and still learn? Sure. But having struggled a little in the beginning to manipulate the frames without a direct view on the timeline (the graphic representation of things moving along arcs in space) I think it helps to understand what is available to us all. It also provides a solid foundation in the basics that I'm not sure can be had working in the timeline alone. It might even provide a glimpse into the differences between work and fun.

 

Thanks for the input Rodney. So do you work for Hash, are you thier forum moderator hanging out the welcome mat or are you just the nicest guy on the internet?

 

I've been asked this enough that I've debated just saying 'Yes' and calling it done.

I work for Hash in the same sense that I work for you.

...and that definitely keeps it fun.

 

 

P.S. I haven't forgot about the HTML tab. Start a new topic on it!

[robcat2075]

Update... I thought of two more!

 

 

 

D is a last resort

[Rodney]

 

 

 

This is one of the reasons I love hanging out here in the forum.

Cool stuff like this gets posted all the time.

 

Yet another solution might be to leave the passthrough as is and 'cover it up'. This may be necessary in cases where you've already rendered your image out. Masking can be done by way of carefully selecting the camera angle, introduction of another object to conceal the error or through blurring/smuding/painting the error out.

 

For something as simple as this exercise I'd probably try to do something like Solution B above. An added benefit being that the solution produces movement in an arc. In a more complicated situation where the rig/model doesn't allow an optimum solution or after the image has already been rendered you might have to come up with an inventive way to work it out.

[Rob_T]

The information on the pass throughs is useful but in the case of the Knight it isn't real applicable. At the end of the lesson the manual says to "make the animation my own" or some such thing and I read that as encouragement to alter the lesson. So I did a different pitching style; and that was a mistake. Primarily because the kind of pitch I wanted the Knight to throw (and did throw without too much embarressment) just isn't well suited to the model. His short, skinny arms and barrel chest make it nearly impossible to hold his hands to his chest, while contemplating the pitch and checking the bases, without causing a pass through.

 

I certainly could have used option "B" and left the arms out further but that would have defeated the look I was going for.

 

In the end though it was my inability to edit keyframes and being too lazy to start the lesson over that is really at issue. When I posed the Knight there were no pass throughs; they were all caused by the tweening and by the time I noticed it I didn't know how to delete the keyframes responsible without risking having to start all over again.

 

Robcat I watched your tutorial and its wonderful. I didn't even notice the timeline element to the project workspace. The program default has it minimized to the point I didn't even know what it was. Your tutorial has really explained a lot. It's also made me a bit in awe of all the stuff this program has to control.

 

Rodney I was playing with my libraries and I expanded them all the way out. The tab I know to be "Tutorials" turned out to be "HTML Tutorials" once I expanded the liibrary all the way. I assume that's what you were referring to. I tell you what, if I ever get good enough at this program to make a tutorial I'm dedicating it to you. I doubt, from the complexity and sheer volume of stuff that I have to learn, that it will be any time soon.

 

If you still want me to start another subject on HTML Tutorials I will, the function of the program is definitely broken and it probably wouldn't hurt to let folks new to the program know not to try and open too many of the included tuts unless they enjoy crashing the program; but I think the mystery, at least for me anyway, is solved. Thanks.

[robcat2075]

The information on the pass throughs is useful but in the case of the Knight it isn't real applicable. At the end of the lesson the manual says to "make the animation my own" or some such thing and I read that as encouragement to alter the lesson. So I did a different pitching style; and that was a mistake.

 

Reality... In real life when you throw a pitch in the manner you are wanting to animate, does anything pass thru anything else? No. Impossible.

 

So the idea that the knight, an extremely human proportioned character, cannot be posed to pitch in the same way...

 

I bet you already know what I think about that. All the real-world rules of dimension and space still exist in A:M.

 

 

I can guarantee you that if you are getting a pass thru, you are posing something, at some point, that is NOT like the action you are trying to emulate. You think you are, but you're not.

 

This is not unusual for someone starting out. It is hard to pose a 3D character that you can only see on a 2D screen.

 

As you do more posing and gain experience in manipulating a character you will start to catch the gap between what you posed and what you wanted more easily.

[Rodney]

Rodney I was playing with my libraries and I expanded them all the way out. The tab I know to be "Tutorials" turned out to be "HTML Tutorials" once I expanded the liibrary all the way. I assume that's what you were referring to. I tell you what, if I ever get good enough at this program to make a tutorial I'm dedicating it to you. I doubt, from the complexity and sheer volume of stuff that I have to learn, that it will be any time soon.

 

If you still want me to start another subject on HTML Tutorials I will, the function of the program is definitely broken and it probably wouldn't hurt to let folks new to the program know not to try and open too many of the included tuts unless they enjoy crashing the program; but I think the mystery, at least for me anyway, is solved. Thanks.

 

I don't want to distract you from more important things but I feel the real power in the Tutorials tab isn't in watching the limited tutorials where the Wizard points things out. The real power in it is that we can use any HTML there to link to information and images complement the projects we are working on.

 

Similarly, this functionality is similar to the File Info properties URL found in every Project, Model, Action and Choreography. Animation:Master is HTML aware and most of us don't even know it.

 

the function of the program is definitely broken and it probably wouldn't hurt to let folks new to the program know not to try and open too many of the included tuts unless they enjoy crashing the program

 

I can't speak for those on a Mac but on a PC the HTML works.

As all of the interpreter isn't operational the tutorial itself (which is just a modified webpage) with special markup functions designed to interact with A:M's interface may no longer work. If tutorials are crashing I'd be interested in finding out more.

 

I do understand why Hash Inc didn't spend a lot of time working to further optimize the HTML tab/tutorials. Apparently I'm one of very few that cares if it works.

 

I've tested a few methods using A:M's internal browser that have some pretty cool potential.

For instance, compositing images automagically, moving elements of a rendered image around in the composite in real time or resizing (scaling) the rendered images on the fly while inside the HTML window.

 

Personally, I'd like to see the HTML tab display a limited set of .Tut files (the text format that must be used) that would link the user to HTML pages here in the forum. Then we could add content to those.

 

Zzzzz... Yeah... boring stuff I know.

 

if I ever get good enough at this program to make a tutorial I'm dedicating it to you.

 

Thats a deal. Take whatever time you need.

I look forward to your tutorial!

[Mad0dog]

Name: Mike

 

Exercises Completed: Four - It's A Pitch

 

Date Completed: Sept. 5, 2009

 

Instructor: A:M Manual

 

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: Took a bit to do. It's confusing at first to 'think' in 3-d space and along the idea of 'key frames' and how they change with the in-betweens, but I'm training my mind and it's slowly coming along.

 

Pitched.mov

[Arlnee]

Lesson 4: It's a Pitch

 

Remarks: It was a pitch, all right. Oh, wait :-P

 

This is attempt 3 to get this going. I kept finding weird things like extra keyframes I did not want (learned where the "delete keyframe" is) and it took a few times before I got the hang of fixing frames like in the tutorial, where things weird and strange happen in between when you don't click on the bones all the time, even the ones you don't move.

 

Got it all together and of course, once rendered, discovered that his left hand doesn't know what the rest of his body is doing. Rendered straight through him. But the rest of it was what I wanted it to be so I'm leaving it, with a note of what to look for next time.

 

lesson4.avi

 

ETA: Am unable to save to .mov file for some reason; the Hash A:M program is not offering that option to me. Hence saving to .avi (which will not upload here) and linking to my own space.

[robcat2075]

Lesson 4: It's a Pitch

 

Remarks: It was a pitch, all right. Oh, wait :-P

That turned out pretty well! Just a hair more time between the release and his reaction would give the batter time to hit the ball.

 

 

I made a video on Keyframing Options you can find in the tutorials link in my sig, that may help you understand keyframing some more.

 

 

 

 

ETA: Am unable to save to .mov file for some reason; the Hash A:M program is not offering that option to me. Hence saving to .avi (which will not upload here) and linking to my own space.

 

Are you able to play .mov files?

[robcat2075]

Name: Mike

 

Exercises Completed: Four - It's A Pitch

 

Date Completed: Sept. 5, 2009

 

Looks like you got that working too! the camera move is a tiny bit much but good job none-the-less.

[Arlnee]

That turned out pretty well! Just a hair more time between the release and his reaction would give the batter time to hit the ball.

 

Yeah, I saw that too... I had intended to put the time in but when I finally got it doing what I wanted to and realized I'd have to go back and add it in, I just put that in my "next time" file.

 

 

Are you able to play .mov files?

 

Oh yes, I'm able to play them. But when I bring up the dropdown menu in the render to file area, it offers me TGA, Jpg, AVI, QUICKTIME, BMP, and a couple of other image options. .MOV is not among them. Weird.

[robcat2075]

Oh yes, I'm able to play them. But when I bring up the dropdown menu in the render to file area, it offers me TGA, Jpg, AVI, QUICKTIME, BMP, and a couple of other image options. .MOV is not among them. Weird.

 

Now where could that be hiding.... I know it's here somewhere....

[Arlnee]

Oh yes, I'm able to play them. But when I bring up the dropdown menu in the render to file area, it offers me TGA, Jpg, AVI, QUICKTIME, BMP, and a couple of other image options. .MOV is not among them. Weird.

 

Now where could that be hiding.... I know it's here somewhere....

 

 

oh hell XD I don't use Quicktime because it used to crash every other computer I've had and I just avoid it like the you know what. Never bothered to find out what the extension for it was. I'll try it on this thing but if my record stands, I'll probably have to stay with the .avi files.

 

Thanks though! Color me no0b XD

[robcat2075]

oh hell XD I don't use Quicktime because it used to crash every other computer I've had and I just avoid it like the you know what. Never bothered to find out what the extension for it was. I'll try it on this thing but if my record stands, I'll probably have to stay with the .avi files.

 

Thanks though! Color me no0b XD

 

If you're able to play movs you must have it installed and it must be working.

 

I recommend QT over AVI. It is dramatically more powerful and flexible.

[Timekiller]

I'm not going to lie. I hate the knights joints. leg needs some work for sure.

pitch.mov

[robcat2075]

Looks like you got thru that in one piece.

 

I'm not going to lie. I hate the knights joints. leg needs some work for sure.

 

He's starred in numerous animations with few problems. If you ever use an Am2001 rigged character such as Knight , make sure you set "balance" and balance rigid" to zero. Before you start. Not absolutely necessary but easier to work with.

[Timekiller]

Looks like you got thru that in one piece.

 

I'm not going to lie. I hate the knights joints. leg needs some work for sure.

 

He's starred in numerous animations with few problems. If you ever use an Am2001 rigged character such as Knight , make sure you set "balance" and balance rigid" to zero. Before you start. Not absolutely necessary but easier to work with.

 

I don't know why, but I can never get his knees to point where they should. Might just be a mental block. I had a hard time with this project the first time I did it years ago. Oh well, when I get time I will do it again.

[robcat2075]

What part of using the "Left Knee" and "Right Knee" bones to point the knees is not working?

 

It works as I would expect:

 

KnightKnees0003H.mov

 

How is your result different?

[Timekiller]

Thanks for the help.

 

In general his knees move like you show. When I try to lower his hips and work the knees they tend to be uncooperative (end up with bowed out legs and can't move the legs in a way that looks natural). I probably just need more practice.

[robcat2075]

Post a chor with Knight in the pose that is not working.

 

I tried making a pose where the knees don't work right but I haven't found one.

[Timekiller]

Post a chor with Knight in the pose that is not working.

 

I tried making a pose where the knees don't work right but I haven't found one.

 

 

I won't be able to mess around with it until the weekend. I will see what I can come up with. If you look at the first frame of the movie I posed you will see that the left knee is not quite right.

 

Thanks for the help. I am sure I will get better at this as I go.

[robcat2075]

If you look at the first frame of the movie I posed you will see that the left knee is not quite right.

 

I guess you mean the actual knee armour? I'm not sure how you did that. If you post the chor from that it might be apparent.

[mtpeak2]

It looks as though the left thigh and calf are rotated on the Z axis. Try removing the Z rotation axis on the left thigh.

 

If you post the project, we'll be able to find out faster, instead of guessing.

[Timekiller]

It looks as though the left thigh and calf are rotated on the Z axis. Try removing the Z rotation axis on the left thigh.

 

If you post the project, we'll be able to find out faster, instead of guessing.

 

I am working on it again now. i am not sure how to post the project.

[robcat2075]

i am not sure how to post the project.

 

See those buttons that say browse and upload?

[Timekiller]

Guess I should be more specific. I am not sure how to take screen shots or video of what is going on when I move the knight around.

 

Anyway, I will keep working with him and let everyone know how it turns out.

[Eric2575]

If you are a PC user, every PC keyboard has a key with the label "prt sc" on it. Hitting that key will copy the current view into memory - until you either paste it into an app or copy over it. Anyway, once you copied the screen, you still need to paste and save it to a image manipulation software such as Photoshop, PSP, or the free paint program that comes with windows. To do that, open your favorite image software, open a new file, and hit control "v" for paste. Once that's done, go to file, select "save as" and name your screencap file preferably as a jpeg. Now you can upload your screen cap to the forum. If you have a mac, someone else will help you out.

[robcat2075]

Guess I should be more specific. I am not sure how to take screen shots or video of what is going on when I move the knight around.

 

Really, if you post the chor itself we can actually see what's gone wrong with the bone. Screenshot won't help much more in this situation.

[Timekiller]

Ok, I am starting to feel like I am wasting everyone's time. I don't know what you mean by paste the chor. Do you mean the project file, something else?

[robcat2075]

Ok, I am starting to feel like I am wasting everyone's time. I don't know what you mean by paste the chor. Do you mean the project file, something else?

 

 

post (not paste) = upload a file to this forum. Using those buttons I mentioned before. So other people can download it and examine it.

 

LikeThisOne.prj

 

 

Chor = the thing that has your animation work in it. You animated the knight. You made those key frames in a choreography ("Chor" or "Cho") in a Project (PRJ).. And you saved your work in a file. You can save a PRJ with the Project Menu. You can save a chor with the right-click menu in the chor window.

 

If you saved the PRJ it will have the chor in it. Unless you saved the chor instead. A chor is a subset of a PRJ, but since we're just talking about animation here, a chor would be enough because the chor is that part of the PRJ that stores the animation keyframes.

 

Whichever you saved, post it.

[Timekiller]

Ok, I am starting to feel like I am wasting everyone's time. I don't know what you mean by paste the chor. Do you mean the project file, something else?

 

 

post (not paste) = upload a file to this forum. Using those buttons I mentioned before. So other people can download it and examine it.

 

LikeThisOne.prj

 

 

Chor = the thing that has your animation work in it. You animated the knight. You made those key frames in a choreography ("Chor" or "Cho") in a Project (PRJ).. And you saved your work in a file. You can save a PRJ with the Project Menu. You can save a chor with the right-click menu in the chor window.

 

If you saved the PRJ it will have the chor in it. Unless you saved the chor instead. A chor is a subset of a PRJ, but since we're just talking about animation here, a chor would be enough because the chor is that part of the PRJ that stores the animation keyframes.

 

Whichever you saved, post it.

 

Ok, I think I get it. I will try to pick up on the lingo a little faster.

KnightPitch.cho

[robcat2075]

I get a rather different result when I load that.

 

load your pitch animation, then resave the knight model under a different name and post that model. You save a model by right clicking in its model window. You can open it's model window by right-clicking on it in the chor and choosing edit.

 

Use a different name you will recognize so you are sure you are posting the model you just saved and not some other one.

[Timekiller]

I get a rather different result when I load that.

 

load your pitch animation, then resave the knight model under a different name and post that model. You save a model by right clicking in its model window. You can open it's model window by right-clicking on it in the chor and choosing edit.

 

Use a different name you will recognize so you are sure you are posting the model you just saved and not some other one.

 

Here you go.

Knightmod.mdl

[robcat2075]

Here's the problem. The legs are pointing about 90° from where the knee pointing bones are pointing.

 

 

When you look at the properties (see that window on the left. You have to click in the model's model window to see it.) for the model you were using (not the resaved version) what does it say in "last modified by"?

[Timekiller]

I was the last one to modify it.

[robcat2075]

So the model you animated with is not the original model you got with A:M. That's a clue right there.

 

your model says it's from product version 11.51. I'm not sure why but it behaves very badly.

 

the current model is from product version 12. This is the one that comes with the v15 download. Are you not on v15? what version are you using and where did that model come from?

[Timekiller]

I am using version 12. This is either the model that installed with the program or one off of the A:M master Extras CD I got when I bought A:M.