New user with a LOT of questions

[Robert Nona]

First of all I just want to say hello, second I would like to apologise for the length of this post, I am a new AM user and have had the software for a month now, I find it to be a great piece of 3D software, however I have encountered a few problems along the way and would like to ask for some advice on a few issues.

 

Thank you in advance for any help given.

 

I am using HASH AM 2007 OZ CD V13r on a Compaq Presario SR1937uk, Pentium D 3.2ghz, 2gb ram, GeForce 7600 GT, Windows XP Home ed SP2

 

 

 

1.Matterials as bump maps:

 

When I use materials as a bump map, the bump map only renders if I use Multi-Pass, if I render without Multi-pass the bump simply is not applied, is this normal behaviour?

 

2.Materials as other maps:

 

Is it possible to apply a material to an attribute other than Colour or Bump, such as Diffuse/Transparency/Specular such as you can when using Decals?

 

3.Snap to Rulers:

 

In the modelling window you can snap to grid, is it possible to snap to a ruler instead?

 

4.Roughness:

 

Could someone please explain what the roughness attribute in the surface dialog box is for, what is the difference between roughness and bump maps because they seem very similar, is there a specific use for Roughness?

 

5.Bend/Twist/Taper:

 

I have used polygon modellers in the past and while I understand that due to AM using splines a lot of tools from these programs are not needed I do miss having tools such as bend, twist and Taper, is there any way to replicate such tools using the AM tool set, I have tried using the Distortion Mode and have managed to taper an object using this but the effect is uniform, is there a way to apply falloff to the distortion tool?

 

6.Merlin:

 

When using AM an icon for Merlin appears in the task bar, when I activate it a little wizard appears but then he does absolutely nothing he just sits there, what is Merlin for?

 

7.Context Help:

 

I have tried to use the context sensitive help (Shift+F1) but regardless of what icon or panel I click on the help file always opens on the same page "Welcome to The Animation Master Technical Reference" how do I make this feature work correctly?

 

8.Appearance:

 

I downloaded the Tech Videos from the HASH web site and noticed that the look of AM is different in some of the Videos, it uses tabs for the different panels, see enclosed JPEG.

How can I enable this feature?

9.Displacement Maps:

 

Is there a way to freeze a models geometry once you have applied a displacement map to it, so that the software doesn’t have to keep applying the map in real-time?

 

10.Lofting:

 

Is it possible to loft in AM, I don’t mean how the duplicator wizard works by using the same cross section on each segment, but rather to define two or more different cross sections and have the software blend them together to create a smooth transition, a square blending into a circle for example.

 

11.Extruder Plug-in:

 

Could someone please explain how to use the Extruder plug-in, I cant seem to make it work properly, I have used the Sweeper plug-in and this works fine, but when I use Extruder no mater how I align the cross section and the Path it always smears the cross section along the path rather than extruding it.

 

12. SVN Version Control:

 

In the options dialog box there is a tab for SVN Version control, what is this used for?

 

13.Undo:

 

While using AM I have noticed some odd behaviour when using undo, occasionally if I have just stitched two or more splines together and then change my mind, when I undo, the splines split but not to how they were originally, the points are now connected differently, why is this?

 

 

 

Thanks for reading this, sorry for all the questions and thank you for any advice.

[Rodney]

Robert,

Welcome to the A:M Forum.

I'll hit one of your questions and pass it on (Round Robin style?)

If others do the same you'll get introduced to lots of people.

 

8.Appearance:

 

I downloaded the Tech Videos from the HASH web site and noticed that the look of AM is different in some of the Videos, it uses tabs for the different panels, see enclosed JPEG.

How can I enable this feature?

If you go to Project on the menu toolbar the dropdown will give you an option; Workbook.

Select that and you'll have the tabs.

[UNGLAUBLICHUSA]

I will atempt to catch the ball from Rodney and toss it to someone else:

 

".Snap to Rulers: In the modelling window you can snap to grid, is it possible to snap to a ruler instead"?

 

I do not believe this is currently a tool in Animation master. What do you wish to achieve with snap to ruler? There may be an existing tool or workflow process that adresses that need.

 

 

 

"12. SVN Version Control:

 

In the options dialog box there is a tab for SVN Version control, what is this used for"?

 

If you aren't doing programming I would not worry about that option.

 

"13.Undo:

 

While using AM I have noticed some odd behaviour when using undo, occasionally if I have just stitched two or more splines together and then change my mind, when I undo, the splines split but not to how they were originally, the points are now connected differently, why is this?"

 

This MAY have to do with your 'splinage' ( things are different than the polygon world in A.M.). If you used HOOKS and change your mind, the hook MAY jump to another nearby control point. If you post some screen captures that would help some.

[robcat2075]

4.Roughness:

 

Could someone please explain what the roughness attribute in the surface dialog box is for, what is the difference between roughness and bump maps because they seem very similar, is there a specific use for Roughness?

roughness creates an automatic "not perfectly smooth" appearance ranging from grainy to lumpy depending on your settings. It's advantage is you don't need to make a bumpmap for it. the disadvantage is that it is uniform, while a bumpmap lets yo create bumps in any shape you can draw. Roughness also slows rendering .

 

9.Displacement Maps:

 

Is there a way to freeze a models geometry once you have applied a displacement map to it, so that the software doesn’t have to keep applying the map in real-time?

it used to be possible to export it in one of the poly formats and reimport the result. haven't tried it lately. However, current displacement maps do not depend on the density of the underlying mesh so an exported mesh may not resemble the rendered displacement.

 

12. SVN Version Control:

 

In the options dialog box there is a tab for SVN Version control, what is this used for?

This is for people working on collaborative projects off of a central server.

 

13.Undo:

 

While using AM I have noticed some odd behaviour when using undo, occasionally if I have just stitched two or more splines together and then change my mind, when I undo, the splines split but not to how they were originally, the points are now connected differently, why is this?

I'd have to see a specific example. My advice is to save frequently, in versions, so if you dont' like something you've done, you can go back to some point before you did it.

[youngman]

3.Snap to Rulers:

 

In the modelling window you can snap to grid, is it possible to snap to a ruler instead?

 

 

I'll try and answer this one.

While there isn't a snap to ruler function that I'm aware of,you can use the following steps to model outside the grid so to speak.

(Please ignore the fact that I'm modelling a square in this example,which you would use the the snap to grid function of course!)

 

 

Hope this might be of some use to you.

 

Jay

[jpappas]

Hi,

 

Another option is customizing Snap to Grid spacing. In the Tools menu, select Options, then the Modelling tab. Here you can change your Grid spacing to whatever suits your needs. If you want each Grid to be 13.5 cm, you've got it!

 

-Jim

[Bruce Del Porte]

What's left?

 

2. I'm not quite following what you think you want to do. You can define "Diffuse/Transparency/Specular" within a material attribute giving you, for instance, a transparent hole instead of a bump.

 

5. You’ll probably want to become familiar with the rotate and scale modes and use of bias handles.

 

6. Merlin does nothing and is useless, ignore him, he isn’t worth waking up

 

8. That video was done using an older version and that interface was dropped, you can not activate it.

 

10 Two planes do not define a volume where the software fills in the transition, you would have to connect the control points between two cross sections and define the surfaces between them. Splining is a little different but you will see their power once you use them for a while.

[Fuchur]

Merlin is a thing from older days...

Once it was intended to let merlin show you what anmation:master does and how in some in-programm-tutorials of A:M...

since I havent seen many tuts of that kind and I never found out how to write them, Merlin is useless.

When you get one of the few tuts around, he can however show you what to do...

 

*Fuchur*

[the_black_mage]

answer to 8:

 

you can change how the interface looks, just goto tools then customize, theres lots for you to do!

 

 

EDIT: and to use tabs just click view at the top then click workbook, that will add tabs to the window(if its checked).

 

thanks for reading this, sorry for all the questions and thank you for any advice.

 

don't apologize, questions are the whole purpose of the forums, a thanks is all that is needed.

[Rodney]

10.Lofting:

 

Is it possible to loft in AM, I don't mean how the duplicator wizard works by using the same cross section on each segment, but rather to define two or more different cross sections and have the software blend them together to create a smooth transition, a square blending into a circle for example

Once upon a time there was a utility named A:M Loft that performed that task.

Sadly its no longer supported.

 

Emilio Leroux's Sweeper has some of the basic functionality but it falls short of 'lofting'.

Otherwise its quite amazing.

 

Unless creating relatively basic shapes (often more easily created via other methods) you'd probably have to use stitching anyway.

Create your cross sections and just stitch them together.

[jpappas]

2.Materials as other maps:

 

Is it possible to apply a material to an attribute other than Colour or Bump, such as Diffuse/Transparency/Specular such as you can when using Decals?

 

I think what Rob is asking is if we use a Material and change it's type to Turbulence with Perlin, or fBM, etc... which can be used to create a complex grayscale for the Diffuse Color (if one attribute is white, the other black), we then have the options to use this to drive Bump or Displacement in the Material properties, but can we use this Turbulence grayscale for other map types like Specular Size, Intensity?

 

I know more about Decals than Materials so I'm not sure, but I think I remember Marcel Bricman in the BitMapPlus thread saying his GradientZ plugin could do this, take any Material as input and output it to any other type. Can anyone verify?

 

-Jim

[heyvern]

Yes you can use materials for any type of attribute.

 

Materials have the same surface attributes as a model or group. So you use the combiners to create interesting "patterns". It is the attributes of the underlying combiner that define how the material "looks" on the model or group.

 

For example to create a black and white chess board effect you use a checker combiner with a black color attribute and a white attribute. But those surface attributes also have all of the other surface properties, specular, ambiance, transparency... etc etc.

 

By mixing and combining these you can create incredibly detailed and complex materials. Keep in mind that very complex material combiners can create long render times.

 

I created a pretty convincing "semi-translucent" foam packing material (the "rubbery" kind used to pack electronics) using materials with several "layers" of translucency and transparency.

 

Hope this helps.

 

-vern

[jpappas]

Vern,

 

Thanks for the explanation, I really need to play with materials more! Once that sunk into my head I made a very simple example using fBM Turbulence to drive both Diffuse and Specular, notice how the specular is broken up.

 

-Jim

[Fuchur]

"5.Bend/Twist/Taper:"

 

I hope I understand what you mean... I think you are talking about drawing a curve and the geometry will be deformed like the curve, right?

Such a tool isnt there in A:M, but it is often not needed due to the much lower resolution of Patch-Models.

So lets assume you are modelling a technical object with many details in it and you need something like that... the magnet-mode could help you there...

The magnettool has a fall-off-value which can be set like you want it to be set... (but only for all 3 axes at the same time)...

 

First select a bunch of CPs which you like to be in the middle of the curve, for example.

Now activate the magnet-mode-tool. Go to rotate-mode and rotate the selected cps...

The geometry will be deformed in a smooth way around the selected cps (depending on the fall-off-value...)

 

A falloff for Distorting-boxes isnt there. But you can of course hide the parts of the model which shouldnt be affected by the distortion box. That like a very hard falloff. Due to the continuity of splines, there will be some sort of softer fall-off anyway.

Than the D-box will only manipulate the visible CPs... You can set different D-Box-Resolutions at the options-menu du produce you own fall-off of course.

 

This tools however are more of a poly-world-toolset. There you often have to manipulate existing geometry... in Patch-World you most often model the things from scretch and so you dont need a bend tool too often...

 

Hope that helps a bit...

*Fuchur*

[heyvern]

A falloff for Distorting-boxes isnt there.

 

When I use a distortion grid or box during modeling I always select more points than I really want to distort. I increase the grid resolution so when I distort the areas "inside" the box that I want to change there is a natural smooth falloff.

 

This would of course depend on the patch resolution of the model.

 

I haven't tried it with an animated distortion.

 

-vern

[Robert Nona]

Thank you everyone for the advice, that answers my questions, time to get stuck in to hash now and keep on learning, thanks again.

[the_black_mage]

one tip i can add, mess around, that will get yo familiar were somethings are for later stuff.