Working on Vista

[TRN]

I havent worked on A:M for about 2 years but now im getting back to it by the influence of the 11 Second Club. I guess Hash doesnt support the phone help anymore since the number is only good for redirection back to the internet.

Anyways... I have a new computer but now with Vista Home Premium. The program works smoothly but has a little bit of glitches. I'm not sure if I should upgrade since I have V11.1 now that i decide to be up-to-date. Should I Upgrade or not??

So im working on a 11 second animation short thats due before December 25th and I'm having trouble with the actions. Im using KeeKat and i made 2 seperate actions for him.

First I got done with the lip sync action and then I created another seperate action moving his eyebrows.

I opened a new choreograhpyto test him and placed KeeKat in to it and drag and dropped the 2 action files into him.

Then I popped up the Timeline and moved the 2 red blocks (rather one) to the start of the clip so they both go at the same time.

Both of them worked together, the eyes and the lips animated perfectlly in sync. I also have the sound file on both actions.

 

BUT, then when I made a new scene in a new Choregraphy with houses and props, i drag and dropped KeeKat and actions in when I was finished.

This time the actions where messed up. The lips where moving but was making multipule lips like over staking one another and the eyes where moving at certin frames and not moving smoothly like i made it. I rendered a sample vid to see if it was just the computer being slow but it wasnt.

What could be the problem? Can you even put individual actions together to move cartian parts at the same time?

Also Should I upgrade?

[frosteternal]

Also Should I upgrade?

 

 

Upgrade!

 

You won't regret it!

 

It is the best 99$ I spend each time.

[Jeetman]

First I got done with the lip sync action and then I created another seperate action moving his eyebrows.

Also Should I upgrade?

 

If I understand you, you created two separate actions for lipsync and eyebrows? Why not just create one action that does both in the same action?

 

And about upgrading, trust me when I say that you will be very satisfied with the upgrade. There are new features, a better interface and it is much more stable than it ever was I think. It well worth the money trust me.

 

George

[TRN]

Is there anything new in A:M if I upgrade?

Like faster rendering, easey controlls, better skins...?

Whats the difference between 11.1 and the newest Version?

[TRN]

If I understand you, you created two separate actions for lipsync and eyebrows? Why not just create one action that does both in the same action?

 

 

- yea two seperate actions. I could have just used one and did everyhting together, but I didnt know that for some odd reason and I really like what I did with the eyes. It looks perfect.

 

So is there a solution to this or do you think I should combine the whole facial expressions in one action file????

[Jeetman]

Is there anything new in A:M if I upgrade?

Like faster rendering, easey controlls, better skins...?

Whats the difference between 11.1 and the newest Version?

 

There's faster more stable rendering

easier controls and a cool feature that colors the bones that have keys on them so you know just by looking at the bones which have keys and which do not.

It has a hair and cloth feature that I don't think they had in 11. If they did, it's fine tuned in the latest version. There's new models and it comes with the latest free models CD. There's a very cool svn feature that Allows you to work on projects as a team.

 

There's more but these are the ones that come to mind.

 

Upgrade. Martin will be very happy and so will you.

 

George

[Jeetman]

If I understand you, you created two separate actions for lipsync and eyebrows? Why not just create one action that does both in the same action?

 

 

- yea two seperate actions. I could have just used one and did everyhting together, but I didnt know that for some odd reason and I really like what I did with the eyes. It looks perfect.

 

So is there a solution to this or do you think I should combine the whole facial expressions in one action file????

 

It's hard to say without seeing the problem. My first guess would be that you had the same keys being used in both actions and they are competing with each other but that can't be the case if you have just lipsync and just eyebrows in each action.

 

If you post the project I'll take a look at it tonight and see if I can figure it out.

 

George

[TRN]

Yea maybe that could be the problem but the eyes and the lips are totaly diffrent things and points...You know what i mean?

Well im going to give you the whole file containing the project and actions.

First try to make a new coreography and add KeeKat and the actions.

Then with the saved house scene, add KeeKat and add the actions again (anywhere in the scene) and then you will see what the problem is.

The problem might happen when you make the test Choreograhpy with KeeKat i dont know.

But here you go.

O YEA!---I almost forgot!

The scene goes by animation something where a guy brings a fruit cake to an old when she immedatly relises it was the same cake she gave him last yea.

( its from the 11 second club)

 

SOOO...Im paying attention of th lady talking. So the lip sync for keeKat is labeled "Old Ket Talk.act" and the eye action is labeled "Old Face.act" Hence an "Old" lady is saying this line. i just started this animation so i just completed the first 5 seconds on the ladys eyes and lips. Is that information detailed enoughs

 

ALSO, I have 2 projects, I just wanted to see which one I liked. The one labeled "11Seclub Dec KeeKat3" was my origional. but then i realized i wanted more of a simple house scene so the one Labeled " 11 Sec" is the new one but has the same effect.

 

Good Luck and thank you!

[TRN]

Here are the files...

11_sec.prj

11_seclub_Dec_KeeKat_3.prj

Fruit_cake.mdl

House_set.mdl

Old_Kat.mdl

Top_Hat.mdl

[TRN]

Sound File... yea im not sure why the actions didnt upload individualy but im sure its in the project itself.

11SecClub_December_Competition.wav

[Jeetman]

Sorry I couldn't get to this last night. I'll check it out tonight after work and see if I can figure out what the problem is but I'll need the action files unless you embedded them.

 

George

[TRN]

The action files should be embeded in the project. I tried to upload the action files but when I did the uploader didnt count them as an uploaded file.

[Jeetman]

The action files should be embeded in the project. I tried to upload the action files but when I did the uploader didnt count them as an uploaded file.

 

Hi Tim,

 

Well I wish I could say I found the problem but I can't. I had no problem with opening a new Chor and importing the kee Kat model and then loading both lipsync files into two shortcut clones of Kee kat. The lipsync played fine. The eyebrows action wasn't embedded so I couldn't test that.

 

I then opened the 11 seclub_Dec_KeeKat_3 project and they had frame rate issues (lag) because of all the files that were open. If that's what you were referring to you which I doubt if you're using Vista. But if it is an issue, remember that you can set the detail level on screen by hitting the "page down" key. You can also set the models "draw mode" in the drop down next to the model name and choose "bound".

 

I took your shot you set up with the KeeKat in the door way and adjusted your 2 camera angles a little and added a light so one camera has an over the shoulder shot for the male character and the second camera has an over the shoulder angle for the woman character.

 

I then constrained a 3rd camera to the camera that is aiming at the male KeeKat and set the enforcement to 100. At the camera change, I set the enforcement to 0 and constrained the 3rd camera to the camera aiming at the female Keekat. I copied the keys when need to switch back and forth. It's a quick way to create camera changes with out having to use an editor for post production work.

 

I also did a quick test of the house set (which looks really good btw) to see if I could duplicate your problem but I couldn't. It worked fine.

 

My guess is, your problem might be a compatibility issue with Windows Vista and your version or 11.1 might have a bug that was fixed in the later revisions. I'm using the latest released version (14) and I'm having no problems.

 

Sorry I wish I could have had an answer but my only suggestion would to be to upgrade. As I said in my previous post, you will not be disappointed.

 

Here's my render tests.

 

Good luck on the 11 second club contest. I keep saying that I'm going to join but I'm very busy with TWO atm.

 

test.mov

 

test2.mov

 

 

George

[TRN]

Hey George, thank you for doing that for me.

 

I dont know why the eye action wasnt embeded and why you didnt get it.

I guess it is Vista and/or V11.1. I wanted to upgrade but now Hash decided to make an online subscription.

The camera work looks fine as well as the house scene. I never herd of bounding before but ill look at that.

And the camera switching is pretty cool and I'mm meaning to know how to do that actually.

Well you did your best on this little problem and i thank you again for helping me.

And what is TWO about?

[Jeetman]

Hey George, thank you for doing that for me.

 

I don't know why the eye action wasn't embeded and why you didnt get it.

I guess it is Vista and/or V11.1. I wanted to upgrade but now Hash decided to make an online subscription.

The camera work looks fine as well as the house scene. I never herd of bounding before but ill look at that.

And the camera switching is pretty cool and I'mm meaning to know how to do that actually.

Well you did your best on this little problem and i thank you again for helping me.

And what is TWO about?

 

Check out the forum. There's a bunch of threads about it. Basically it's an animated version of the story after the Wizard of OZ. It's called: The Tin Woodman of OZ (TWO). Martin is producing it and it's planned to be a full length feature production. It's being made by a lot of talented dedicated volunteers who have created the models and or rigs, sets, effects, lighting and animation.

 

We are fortunate to have an extremely talented texturer (decals, bumps, etc). Nancy Gormezano does a phenomenal job with textures.

 

There's still a lot to do so contact Martin if you're interested but you have to have the latest version to have svn access.

 

You mentioned a subscription plan for upgrades. I thought that idea was scrapped. As far as I know you can upgrade for $99.00 the same way as it's always been. In fact I'll be upgrading to 15 right after New Years.

 

George

[KenH]

A quicker way to switch camera is to set the camera splines to "HOLD" (Highlight the keys and press 7 on the main keyboard) .......then you can just move your camera to the second pos to make the switch. Simple

 

TWO is the Hash movie project Tinwoodman of Oz. Where have you been!?

 

Edit: George....where have you been!?

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...mp;#entry256111

[TRN]

Ok i see it now.

Ill just keep sending E-mails to Hash about the upgrades. I would call but like I said before the phone calling is useless now that its all on a machine.

Yea it has been a while since the last time I have worked on A:M. I think 2 years, not counting little modeling here and there for pictures being made...

I just forgot a couple things about the program and the lack of being updated like I was before. But I'm back now and loving every minute of it!

I checked out the TWO project and its pretty cool.

Lots of people are doing a great job with the tests.

Im thinking of joining.