Frustrated, looking for assistance....

[ars]

I am currently working on an animation project and have run into some serious time issues while working with AM.

 

Long time user, since the days of Playmation and Ive never had these issues before (Took a LONG break w/ AM).

 

Here are my issues:

 

Bias adjustments,

If my model has bias set, if I move, rotate or copy any model, the bias adjustments get lost causing TONS of wasted time in re-adjusting.

Is there any way to lock down the bias before a copy/paste so I do not need to rebuild everything?

 

Camera coordinates in world space;

Im using an orthogonal camera but it is a serious pain in the butt to position the camera where I want.

Im after a simple 45 degree down, 45 degree turn, almost impossible to rotate the cam by hand and If I attempt to type in my desired rotations, the camera picks its own arbitrary rotations when I hit 'enter'.

 

Animated focal length;

I can set the focal length in the chor. to animate over time but can for the life of me figure out how to get the results to render.

The focal length stays locked onto the first one set, the animated focal length DOES show in wireframe chor mode but refuses to render.

 

If anyone has ANY pointers regarding these issues I would greatly appreciate it since Im already past my deadline and these issues seem simple.

[Eric2575]

What version of AM are you using, and which operating system? I'm in the middle of a long render right now, so I can't verify anything, but it seems like some issues, like the bias issue, might be from an old version of AM or a corrupt installation.

 

Since I don't use the orthogonal camera much, I'll have to wait until my render finishes to try that out, but I do remember having some problems in earlier versions of AM when inputting values in the PWS. I believe the problems went away after doing a complete wipe of AM, manually clearing the registry, then rebooting and reinstalling. There were some instructions on the forum on how to do this, but it was a long time ago.

[ars]

Im using 15.0a.

 

I did have an older dongle verison installed but removed it when i was informed there was no way to upgrade it.

[Eric2575]

Wow, there goes my theory about an older version of AM. I'm running V.15 right now with none of the problems you describe.

 

Are you using Vista, XP, or Tiger? What kind of video card? Be shure to get the latest drivers for your video card. If you're running Vista, then there's your problem. I actually tried to run Vista for a while and got so frustrated with it that I went back to XP.

[Fuchur]

If you want to do it in that way, check the worldspace-icon (the earth-button next to activate bias-handlers and translate/rotate/scale-button).

It could be a problem there... but in general orthogonal-cameras arent easy to handle manual anyway...

It can be easier to work with rotation, if you use a Null-Object as target for your camera.

So just use a AimAt-Constraint on the camera and use the Null as Aim. You now just have to move the camera around to rotate it.

 

 

Bias-Value-Lock: Copying shouldnt be an issue (never had that before) but if you move points the bias-informations wont look right anymore.

I made a featureequest for that but I think it is low priority for now. So all you can do is to only make bias-changes if you are at the stage where everything else is looking right.

If you got that problem, I would export the model, use "embedd all" (can be found with a rightmouse-click on the project in pws) and import the model to the modelwindow of your original-model. Delete everything else but the parts you wanted to copy. It is a workaround and will only be useful for larger parts of the model so if you just have small parts, it wont save you much time if you ask me.

 

Animated Focal Length: If you use the Null-Object as Aim on your camera, the focus-point will be at the null-object. that means you can move the null-object far away to get the foreground blurred and visversa.

I never tried to animate the focal length in another way so I cant tell you much more on that, but in some circumstances the null-object can solve your problems.

 

*Fuchur*

 

PS: If you are using a Mac, I highly recommend v15.0b... maybe one of the problems is gone with that version. A clean reinstall could although solve some problems...

[Rodney]

Ditto for Eric's results with Bias settings maintaining their curvature in v15.

Only running tests with simple splines though.

 

Animated focal length;

I can set the focal length in the chor. to animate over time but can for the life of me figure out how to get the results to render.

The focal length stays locked onto the first one set, the animated focal length DOES show in wireframe chor mode but refuses to render.

 

Make sure you have 'Use Camera Settings' toggled on in your Render Panel or you'll get the Render Panels settings in the render. Also... probably not your problem but... just in case... make sure you have selected the view from the proper Camera prior to rendering. If you have more than one.

 

I'm not sure about your Camera coordinates issue. I'd have to know a little more about your project to know what the best solution would be. Perhaps you would be better served by rendering from 'Birds Eye' view?

That will give you the angles you are after automatically (I think).