Pose Sliders going into meltdown...

[Kelley]

I set aside the Fish Project for a week or so and worked on other stuff. I had the Pose Sliders all built and ready for a sound file. When I opened the .prj today, none of the sliders worked. These three were the worst. The teeth, and tongue, which were to show briefly on TH and FV were the worst, moving out through the mesh. In all of them, the lower jaw worked very little-to-none-at-all.

 

This is major discouragement. Has anyone else experienced this?

[Luuk Steitner]

This is why I make lots of backups of the prjs I'm working on... just for the occasion something goes wrong.

[mtpeak2]

When you created your poses, did you modify the teeth and tongue too?

 

Also, I have experienced that, when creating a pose, having another action or chor window open, the pose doesn't stick. I close all windows, except the one I'm working in, and delete all actions from the project. Saving just the model will not lose the actions you deleted from the project.

[Kelley]

When you created your poses, did you modify the teeth and tongue too?

 

Also, I have experienced that, when creating a pose, having another action or chor window open, the pose doesn't stick. I close all windows, except the one I'm working in, and delete all actions from the project. Saving just the model will not lose the actions you deleted from the project.

 

No, I didn't alter teeth or tongue in any way. Just moved them to different places, in different poses. I'll try closing all windows except the Action Window that I'm building the sliders in.

 

Not too sure what you mean by "...and delete all actions from the project." You mean from the actual .prj file? Should Poses Sliders be made first, and other actions later? Or, Actions made, deleted from .prj, and re-imported later?

[KenH]

Have you altered any of the same things in the chor that are altered in the poses? I suspect you have and they're conflicting with the movement in the poses.

How do the poses behave in a fresh chor?

[mtpeak2]

By modify, I meant move them in the pose.

 

If I have a project set up with models, actions and chors, sometimes I will delete the actions from the project so they don't interfere with editing the pose. If you just save the model file only (not the prj), you can close the project and reopen it (or revert it) and the actions that were deleted will be back in the project. But, if everything is embedded in the project, this won't work.

 

The best way is to just open the model, you are setting up the poses for, in a new project that has nothing in it but the model.

 

Test projects I'll embed everything, large projects I'll save everything separately, in versions when needed.

[Kelley]

mtpeak2: Thanks for the comeback. I've opened up a new .prj with nothing but a test set of lips. I'll try again from scratch.

 

Ken: I had not even got around to making the poses go in the chor., I had built them and checked their motion in the Action Window. Then saved, closed out, and only now am coming back to pick up the project.

[yardie]

mtpeak2: Thanks for the comeback. I've opened up a new .prj with nothing but a test set of lips. I'll try again from scratch.

 

Ken: I had not even got around to making the poses go in the chor., I had built them and checked their motion in the Action Window. Then saved, closed out, and only now am coming back to pick up the project.

 

After 5 years of using AM I have found that when some task you perform in AM does not work the way you want it to, then it is best to start again from scratch. We all have tendency to cling to or 1st attempts when we are new to anything. The problem is with the computer having to do many millions of calculations when you set up a pose. If something small should go wrong that you do not notice then the chances are you project will not work so well the next time you run AM.

 

My tips for making poses are to

1) work with just the one model in a blank project.

2) After making the pose and save the model and test the pose.

3) Shutdown Animation Master.

4) Reopen Animation master and reopen the model and try out the pose.

The pose should work and can be tried in the chory or with other models in an action.

5) If you then want to save the model in a project, then crack open the models properties and makes sure the option to have the model embedded in the Project is on.

 

6)Watch what you have copied onto you clipboard. If copying and pasting take a longtime then save the task at the 1st instance.

7) Once you restart AM flip copying and pasting should work fast.

8) Finaly if you do not have a super fast and stable pc Save and Shutdown AM frequently when performing tasks that take up a lot of CPU power. Don't wait for things to go wrong.

 

I have used this rule consistently with AM for the last 2 years and I have been amazed to find stuff I thought did not work doing it's stuff.

 

Because you CPu has to make many millions of calculations Having other objects in the open project might interfere with the computations.

Try and keep to working with just one file at a time and then build your project up.

You will also find that if you scrap tasks that are not working out early you will get faster @ creating and completing tasks.

The logic behind this thinking is that your not spending many hours fault finding . You just doing what you want to do.

[Kelley]

Thanks for the in-depth. I'll print this one and add it to the book.

[Gerry]

Yardie-

That's all good advice. It's very helpful to see it all written down plainly and matter of factly. Thanks for that!

[yardie]

Thanks for the in-depth. I'll print this one and add it to the book.

 

What book. Hey I hope your not make yourself money from my tips because I sure have loads more and I would like my share for doing most of the hard work