I'M A NOOBIE AND I NEED HELP!!!

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

I'll explain everything... I'm in 7th grade and doing a project about invertabrates and my group is crustaceans(crabs, lobsters, etc.) and we got to chose how to present it. Well of course i chose animated movie and i really wanna become an animator. So anyways i've spent like a week modeling my crab and it looks wierd. and now i have added bones and i am trying to add bones to the pupil of the eye to make it look around and stuff like that but i can't and i looked at the provided models with A:M like shaggy and it had a null thing and i don't know what a "null" is how to apply it to my pupil...wow... so right now you are probably like ...so please help!

[cfree68f]

first off...

 

breath....

 

second

 

lets see some pictures. (shaded is nice but wireframes and screen grabs of bones is nicer)

 

Check out my tutorials.. and also the ARM site.. you'll find all the info and pictures you need there...

 

my site is..

 

http://www.colins-loft.net/tutorials.html

 

 

 

the arm is... http://www.lowrestv.com/arm/

 

Hope that helps

 

C

[robcat2075]

Welcome to A:M!

i am trying to add bones to the pupil of the eye to make it look around and stuff like that but i can't and i looked at the provided models with A:M like shaggy and it had a null thing and i don't know what a "null" is how to apply it to my pupil

 

You mean the eye target?

 

you can add a null with rightclick>new>Null while in bones mode

 

Presuming your eye bone is pointing out of the middle of the eye already you can make it point to the null with

 

New>Pose>ON/OFF

select the eye bone

rightclick>new constraint>aim at

click on the null

 

make sure this pose is ON when you use the character in a chor or action.

 

 

But read colin's tuts anyway, they're good.

[Slipin Lizard]

You're taking on quite a challenge for your first AM project, but that's good!

 

Thats great that you want to be an animator! Animation is fun, but it takes a lot of work, and a lot of practice. But stick with it. The more you model and animate the better you will become. At your age if you keep going with it, by the time you're in high school you'll probably be ready to work on feature films!

 

In the meantime, as far as your class project goes, this is what I do when working on corporate video content for a client and I have a great idea. I get all excited about what I am going to do for the project, and usually write down my idea, and plan it out a bit. I try to get a feel for how long its going to take, and if there are any areas where I might run into problems, like trying to learn a new program in time for meet the deadline for the project. If my really cool idea looks like it might take too long or be too hard, I come up with a second idea, a back-up plan. It may not be as good as the first, but I know it will work and client will like it. Sometimes I'll actually finish the back-up plan first, and then I'm free to explore the really cool idea. If I get it done on time, great. If not, I go with the back-up plan and at least I get the job done, and usually the client is still pretty impressed.

 

You have got at great program, Animation Master, for learning animation. While in the animation industry people tend to work on specific areas of animation, such as modeling, rigging, or animation, Animation Master will allow you to explore all these areas and more.

 

Keep coming back to this forum, and keep us posted on your progress. Show us your work, post some pics of what you're working on. If you don't know how to post pics, just ask. The only dumb questions here are the ones that don't get asked. We'd really like to see what you're up to, so when you get a chance post back with some pics.

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

Wow guys thanks um i donno how to post pics cause it says the file attechment is to big so i'll give you the photobucket website. Oh.. and i got another BIG problem...bones...i put bones in all the spots i wanted to and auto assined them and when i tested it and moved right claw, the mouth would like jerk out and then when i would move the left claw the claw would move but then all the left legs would move with it!!!!!!!

 

Here are the pics

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a148/Fly...eBoy/crabby.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a148/Fly...ieBoy/crab2.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a148/Fly...ieBoy/crab1.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a148/Fly...kieBoy/crab.jpg

 

Here is are some pics of what happens

 

oh and the left claw doesn't affect the legs but the legs affect the left claw and the other legs (when i move a leg, some otherlegs would move and the left claw too).

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a148/Fly...y/craberror.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a148/Fly...eBoy/error2.jpg

[robcat2075]

i put bones in all the spots i wanted to and auto assined them and when i tested it and moved right claw, the mouth would like jerk out and then when i would move the left claw the claw would move but then all the left legs would move with it!!!!!!!

 

My first guess is that the heirarchy of the bones is not right.... some bones are children of bones that they shouldn't be children of. So when you move one bone it takes a bone with it that you didn't want to go with it.

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

And how am i supposed to undo it? and how am i suppoed to do the "aim at" thing cause when i did it it worked but then i wanted to add more bones so i minumised it and went to the bones and when i did and tested it, the eyes didn't work.

[robcat2075]

And how am i supposed to undo it?

In the ProjectWorkSpace the bones folder for your model has the whole bone tree. you can see what bones are children of other bones. You can drag them under or over other bones. You can also rename the bones to something useful there.

 

 

and how am i suppoed to do the "aim at" thing cause when i did it it worked but then i wanted to add more bones so i minumised it and went to the bones and when i did and tested it, the eyes didn't work.

Not sure I understand, but remember, after you apply these constraints, close the window and test it out in an action or in chor. don't move things around in the constraint (AKA pose) window or you'll mess things up.

 

Also, I've found that if I've just applieda new constraint, I need to close the action or chor I'm testing it in and reopen it before the new constraint takes effect.

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

Also, I've found that if I've just applieda new constraint, I need to close the action or chor I'm testing it in and reopen it before the new constraint takes effect.

Ok ...WHAT?

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

Here is a pic of my project work space

you might not be able to see it

 

http://h1.ripway.com/FlyingMonkieBoy/ERROR3.bmp

[robcat2075]

You have bone 17 as a child of Bone 15, even tho it's a different leg.

 

In fact, 17-24 are all children/grandchildren... of Bone 15, so if you move 15 they will all move too, where ever they are in the character.

 

In the PWS, Click and drag Bone 17 onto whatever is the parent of Bone 15. that will make it a sibling, not a child of BOne 15.

 

Make thing easier.... rename you r bones to somethig meaningfulful like

 

leg Left 1 innner

leg left 1 outer

leg left 2 inner

leg left 2 outer...

[Slipin Lizard]

I don't know enough about rigging, only that its hard... Robocat's a whiz though, so keep plugging away. I just wanted to say hey, thats a really great looking crab.... you're in Grade 7? Man, you're off to a great, great, start. There's a book about AM by David Rodgers, called "Animation Master: A Complete Guide 2002" that's really good. The Anzovin Quick Start 2 CD is really good, well worth the money and it covers rigging. David Rodgers is coming out with a new book, that is updated, so you might want to wait for the release of that.

 

Keep going!

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

OK guys...thanks a lot...a whole bunch

But i still don't know how to do the "aim at" thing

 

I right clicked then click new>pose on/off and the screen poped up and then lyk i did the aim at thing on both eyes and saved then i exited and my normal bones screen was back and then i clicked on the toolbar New>Action>Model5 and when i tried it, it didn't work...what am i doing wrong....oh and you know how i'm a noob??? What's rigging? ...yeah

[KenH]

It may be a refresh problem. Press spacebar in the action window and try again.

[robcat2075]

I right clicked then click new>pose on/off ...

... when i tried it, it didn't work...what am i doing wrong....oh and you know how i'm a noob??? What's rigging? ...yeah

 

the new pose you created needs to be turned ON in the properties for the model. It's under "User properties"

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

how do i turn it on???

[Slipin Lizard]

Do you have your properties window open? To check, look under "View" on your menu tool bar, and see that there is a check mark beside Properties. If not, click it to open. The User Properties are near the bottom, you should see "Pose" and beside it "not set". Click it to turn it on. Also, you can open your Pose window as well (View/Pose) and turn on your pose there.

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

OHHHH....THANKS!!!! MAN HOW DO YOU LEARN THIS STUFF?

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

Ok guys....i think i'm done with crabby (what an original name...) Thanks for all you help

 

http://h1.ripway.com/FlyingMonkieBoy/Thanks.bmp

 

Again thanks

 

Oh yeah and i might be coming back to this forum to ask questions about chor. cause remember that i'm a noob...

[Bruce Del Porte]

Great first model!

 

Congratulations

[robcat2075]

MAN HOW DO YOU LEARN THIS STUFF?

 

There's a small book that came with your CD called "The Art of Animation:Master". Do the tutorials in it. The questions you've asked so far have answers in those tuts. Like-wise with the questions you are about to ask.

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Everything got deleted!!!! noo....i closed everything and exited and it goes would you like to save before you exit and i clicked yes but when i opened it everything was gone.......

 

HOW DO I UNDO IT HOW DO I UNDO IT!!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

 

oh thank god....i got it back

how do i add crabby to my model folder?

[Odog2020]

To make the model a .mdl file, you have to..

 

-right click on the name (in this case Crabby) in the Project Work Space

-select 'create shortcut in library'....it will tell you that you need to save the model, so save it as a .mdl file

-and you are done

 

Pretty sure, I havn't used A:M in like a month and a half.....

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

ok it worked but i have another problem...again...

I have a pic. of a beach and want to use it as a background for crabby when he does stuff but how can i make the floor become like the sand or replace it with the sand???

 

http://h1.ripway.com/FlyingMonkieBoy/help.bmp

[Odog2020]

ok it worked but i have another problem...again...

I have a pic. of a beach and want to use it as a background for crabby when he does stuff but how can i make the floor become like the sand or replace it with the sand???

 

http://h1.ripway.com/FlyingMonkieBoy/help.bmp

 

I am not sure if this would be helpful but you could try it.

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15900

 

Also you could make like a 4 patch, or even a one patch, I will call it a blanket, and then just place the sand on it as a decal, that way you could have more controll on where it is placed and stuff like that.

 

Hope that helps, these things always elude me.

 

James

 

BTW the picture on the link was just an X, or it could just be the computer I am on. Good luck

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

well how do i make my pic. turn into my background???...I'm confused..

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

HELLO?

[KenH]

well how do i make my pic. turn into my background???...

 

Load the image into AM.

Right click on your camera in the chor.

Choose New>rotoscope and pick the image name in the list.

The image should now be the background of your camera with crabby in front of it.

[Paul Forwood]

A tip to follow when you can't see the results of some modification that you have made:

 

First try pressing the spacebar to refresh the screen.

 

Because there are a number of refresh glitches at the moment you may still not be seeing what you expected. To work around these refresh bugs it is a good idea to save your project and then immediately open it again. Its a good habit to get into. Save often and reload often.

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

ok i'll try those

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

it is not working!!! oh and if you put a tennis ball in the microwave will it explode?

[robcat2075]

First... indoors voice, please.

 

ok sample project:

 

image placed as rotoscope on camera.

angled camera to match perspective of image

ground set to be front projection target.

 

cube appears to be on beach.

beach.zip

[Slipin Lizard]

Don't forget to send your cheque or money order to:

 

Robocat Savior of Newbies Inc,

100A+ Mercy St.

Hope,

Salvation,

THK S2U

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

Ok i kinda get it...but how do i like apply it? because when i render it, the defalt ground comes up and cuts off half of the pic.

 

Beach Pic

http://putfile.com/pic.php?pic=2/3914101956.jpg&s=x7

 

Wired Mode

http://h1.ripway.com/FlyingMonkieBoy/Yo.bmp

 

Rendered Mode

http://h1.ripway.com/FlyingMonkieBoy/Help1.bmp

[oakchas]

FMB,

 

I'm getting exceeded bandwidth errors on your last two links....

 

You can post your pics thru hash... but you will have to convert them to jpg format....

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

how?

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

oh and what is a keyframe??? I want something to move on frame 00:01:00 and its action stops on frame 00:05:00 but when i play it, it start on frame 00:00:00...how do i fix it?

[robcat2075]

you convert images from one format to another by loading them into a paint prog and resaving them in the new format

 

oh and what is a keyframe??? I want something to move on frame 00:01:00 and its action stops on frame 00:05:00 but when i play it, it start on frame 00:00:00...how do i fix it?

 

Exercise 4 "It's a pitch" in the book that came with A:M.

 

You really should do that. It's all about setting keyframes.

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

No i did it i'm talking about force keyframes

[Slipin Lizard]

This is a repost of the same answer I gave someone to the same question:

 

I can totally relate as I had the same problems when I first started using AM. However, having used After Effects extensively, I was familar enough with keyframes to be able to unravel what was going on. When you have a character or object you are trying to animate, you must tell the computer not only where the animation takes place, but where it doesn't. In a way, you sometimes sort of have to think backwards as you animate. A really simple example would be to take the Thom character, and have him facing the camera tilting his head side to side for 3 seconds, then stop tilting his head and wave at the camera with his right arm for 2 seconds. This means your entire clip with be 5 seconds long, 3 seconds of head tilting and 2 seconds of waving. You start by moving to the 1 second mark and tilt his head to the right, then to the 2 second mark and tilt his head to the left, and finally at the 3 second mark bring his head back to center. You play the animation and all is going as you would expect. Now at the 3 second mark, you start to make his right hand raise up and begin to wave, and set some back and forth keyframes up to the 5 second mark.

But hold on, now when you play the animation he starts raising his arm right away, why? Because when you set the first keyframe for the arm at the 3 second mark, the computer sees that as the first keyframe to move to from 0. Instead, you want to set the force keyframe on the arm in its unmoved position at the 3 second mark, then begin the wave action, say setting the next keyframe at 3 seconds 15 frames, then one at 4, then 4:15, then finally at 5 seconds. Now the computer knows not to start moving the arm before the first keyframe at the 3 second mark. In After Effects, its what we would call a "hold" keyframe, that does just what it says, holds the position of the animation until another keyframe specifies otherwise.

So try doing really simple animations first, and then work your way into more complex ones. You'll get the hang of it quick enough. AM tends to have a lot of automation when it comes to setting keyframes, and at first it may seem a bit counter-intuitive. However, I've used Maya and find AM a lot easier for animating and setting keyframes, you just have to remember if you start moving something in the middle of an animation, and haven't set a force-keyframe prior, AM will start moving it from the begining of the animation.

 

A couple of things to mention:

 

-its good to see the graph below the timeline so you can see that you are indeed creating keyframes.

-you can create a keyframe for something just by nudging it up, then back down, using the up and down arrows..

 

MOST IMPORTANT: animating takes a bit of practice, so instead of trying to animate a character, animate a simple object like a ball or square. Get it to do EXACTLY what you want... move up, down, stop, roll, whatever... but get the hang of it first, so you understand how it works, then dive in to your character animation.

 

Good Luck and keep going!

 

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

WAHHH.....I DON'T GET IT...I TRIED BUT IT DOESN'T WORK...OK I'LL TYPE OUT ALL THE STEPS I DID AND CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT I'M DOING WRONG?!?!?! ok... first i go to frame 00:07:00 and click force keyframe while its arm bone is selected then i go to frame 00:08:00 and them move it up then when i play it, the arm moves from 0!!!

[robcat2075]

Hold down the Shift key when you hit the keyframe button. a box will come up. choose the second option.

(Regular force keyframe only makes keys on bones that already have a key.)

 

OR

 

go to frame 0 and nudge the bone up and back with the cursor keys first.

 

 

 

 

(also make sure the "key translations" and "key rotations filters" are ON)(they are at the bottom of the screen)

[luckbat]

And maybe consider switching to decaf.

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

YES IT WORKS THANK YOU!!! but can you please explain why? i wanna learn...oh and i don't drink coffee thank you

[robcat2075]

BTW, you should have a timeline window open so you'd know that when the keyframe you tried to make at 7 didn't do anything it was because a keyframe had never been made there inthe first place.

 

ALT-1 makes the PWS appear. double click on it to make it a free-floating window. drag teh corners out to full screen size. It shows you a big huge timeline on the right.

 

Use ALT-1 to toggle this big window on and off whenever you need to see it.

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

Ok u know how i'm a noob and all??? What does all the btw and whatever mean? Oh and i made an action for his walking thing, and in the chor. i made a path for crabby to walk and did all the stuff and the hand thing and so the walk is supposed to stop at frame 00:07:00 so he can wave but when i add more frames, he will continue walking until the last frame! how can i make him stop walking at frame 00:07:00 and then at frame 00:07:20 he waves?

[luckbat]

BTW = "By the way"

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

???

[FlyingMonkieBoy]

But i donno how to find a keyframe on the timeline and how do i make him stop walking on frame 00:07:00?!?!?!?!

[robcat2075]

Ok u know how i'm a noob and all??? What does all the btw and whatever mean? Oh and i made an action for his walking thing, and in the chor. i made a path for crabby to walk and did all the stuff and the hand thing and so the walk is supposed to stop at frame 00:07:00 so he can wave but when i add more frames, he will continue walking until the last frame! how can i make him stop walking at frame 00:07:00 and then at frame 00:07:20 he waves?

 

It's hard to know without seeing your timeline

 

Lets see...

you made a path

you constrained your crab to it

and then you dropped the walk cycle on him , right?

 

I'm guessing you mean he just keeps walking in place after 7:00?

 

In the timeline there's ared bar that show how long your walk action is running. make sure that stops at 7:00

 

If you mean he's still moving along the path after 7:00... the path constraint has a property called ease in it's property box. Set it to 0% when you want him to start moving (0:00)and 100% when you want him to finish( 7:00)