seany242 Posted January 3, 2009 Posted January 3, 2009 I just got Animation:Master 2004. And I know everyone is going to tell me to look through the tutorials. But my question is... what do I do after that? I want to know how to create my own animation, whether still frame or music video, but I'm a complete newbie. I know next to nothing about animation but I really want to know how to design cool things. Could someone tell me how to do this? I was looking at Thom in the wireframe mode and I moved all his segments around and everything. Which project do I go to to make things like him? How do I create segments? Can someone please help me with this gigantic challenge? If you could, it would be greatly appriciated. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 3, 2009 Hash Fellow Posted January 3, 2009 I agree, this is a bit of an overwhelming thing you have picked up. There's a lot to know. But (here it comes) start with the tutorials in "The Art of Animation Master". Actually do them, don't just look. Those feed it to you in small bits, and when you have done those you will know enough lingo to ask questions that other people here can make sense of and can give good answers to. If you get stuck on them you can ask quesitons about the tuts here too. Quote
Admin Rodney Posted January 3, 2009 Admin Posted January 3, 2009 Sean, Robert is very wise to suggest the exercises. Its not just good advice... it works! I have yet to meet anyone who has completed the exercises that hasn't got the tools and information necessary to successfully animate their own stories. There is more... lots more beyond the manual, but the better you do in the exercises the more successful you'll be in your own projects. Some exercises are ridiculously easy. Some are down right hard. But work your way through the manual and you'll be animating from day one. Quote
seany242 Posted January 3, 2009 Author Posted January 3, 2009 I am doing the excersises. I am rendering excersise 2 right now. Its taking me forever! More than 2 hours. Quote
Admin Rodney Posted January 3, 2009 Admin Posted January 3, 2009 I am rendering excersise 2 right now. Its taking me forever! More than 2 hours. While such a render time is certainly not unheard of there are many things that contribute to longer rendertimes. Just the setup of the Project file alone can make a difference. In this case I suspect your 2004 subscription is contributing to the excess render time. Back in 2004 the Project file was set up differently. Delete the material that is used with your curtains and you should see much faster rendering results. Procedural Materials take considerable time to compute and render. Of course, the resulting textures rendered with the materials will tend to look much better! That's the price of higher quality rendering. If you don't need that high of quality then you can render most images in seconds and animations in minutes. Its good when we run into the occasional frustration as it demonstrates opportunities for improvment. If the rendering is taking too long... we need to change our settings and/or expectations and improve it. Quote
seany242 Posted January 3, 2009 Author Posted January 3, 2009 ok, how do I delete the curtain material. And, what do I do when im done rendering something? Quote
seany242 Posted January 3, 2009 Author Posted January 3, 2009 OMG!!! After it rendered, I tried saving as the original file but it said "Can not save over the top of itself, please rename fiel" and then I saved it as something else. Then when I closed the program and reopened it, I couldn't find the second file on my computer and when I tried opening the original file, it said Invalid Choreography file: C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\cancan.avi (I named the original cancan and the second Cancan2) I hope I didn't waste 3 hours and 10 minutes of work!!! Quote
Admin Rodney Posted January 3, 2009 Admin Posted January 3, 2009 it said Invalid Choreography file: C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\cancan.avi There are good reasons for those messages. An .AVI file is an invalid Choreography file because its a movie file. You apparently are trying to open your movie in the wrong place. An .AVI movie has to be played in a video player. (A:M can do that too of course but both Windows and Macs have plenty of those) A valid Choreography file will have the extension .CHO. (You don't need to worry about that now though!) If you open your folder (My Documents) and open the 'cancan.avi' file located there, Windows (Media Player or other program) will automatically play the movie for you. C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\cancan.avi This is the location of your movie. Its apparently the location you told A:M to render to. Note: I'm not sure where you saved your CanCan project files as you haven't provided enough information to know. I have to assume its in the "C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents" directory as well. Project files have the extension .PRJ and can be loaded into A:M via the Project menu. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 3, 2009 Hash Fellow Posted January 3, 2009 I hope I didn't waste 3 hours and 10 minutes of work!!! A mere blink of an eye, in animation land time that is. <_> Quote
seany242 Posted January 3, 2009 Author Posted January 3, 2009 when I try to view it in Quicktime its says Error -2048: Can not open file cancan.prj because it is not a file Quicktime understands. It pretty much says all the same stuff for realplayer, windows media player, and when I do Project, open (on the file you sent me), it just shows the first frame of the animation, nothing else. Quote
seany242 Posted January 3, 2009 Author Posted January 3, 2009 nevermind I have solved my own problem. I saved it to my documents and then clicked on it in my documents and it worked... The document looked like the quicktime Q and underneath it was .avi. Thanks for the help Quote
seany242 Posted January 3, 2009 Author Posted January 3, 2009 I am rendering excersise 2 right now. Its taking me forever! More than 2 hours. While such a render time is certainly not unheard of there are many things that contribute to longer rendertimes. Just the setup of the Project file alone can make a difference. In this case I suspect your 2004 subscription is contributing to the excess render time. Back in 2004 the Project file was set up differently. Delete the material that is used with your curtains and you should see much faster rendering results. Procedural Materials take considerable time to compute and render. how do I delete the curtain material and what do I do when I am done rendering something? Check out my 3 second animation! awww it says "Upload failed. You are not permitted to upload this type of file" How do I show this to you Rondey? Quote
Admin Rodney Posted January 3, 2009 Admin Posted January 3, 2009 awww it says "Upload failed. You are not permitted to upload this type of file" How do I show this to you Rondey? Most likely you tried to upload an AVI file? AVI files aren't 'internet/forum compatible'. For this reason most movies are rendered to .MOV format or... once rendered to .AVI or sequential images are converted to .MOV format. You can convert to .MOV easily with A:M. Steps to convert images in A:M: Right Click on the imported image sequence at the top of the Project Workspace and select [save As Animation]. From there you'll be given the option to save to MOV or AVI. You can also use this method to convert a MOV or AVI to TGA sequential images. Regarding the removal of the curtain material: There are two ways to remove the material. Both require you to delete the material in the Project Workspace. 1 - Delete/Remove the Material from the Stage model. or 2 - Delete the Material from the Materials area of the Project Workspace. I don't have the same project you have available so cannot post a screenshot. But if you look in the Project File via the Project Workspace I'm pretty sure you'll find the material. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 3, 2009 Hash Fellow Posted January 3, 2009 awww it says "Upload failed. You are not permitted to upload this type of file" .mov is the usual format for movies here. Was yours .avi? you can convert it without re rendering by loading it into your Images folder in the Project Workspace, then right-clock>SAve animation As... click the ... button to change the type to quicktime and the extension to .mov click the "compression" button to pick Sorenson3. Don't pick "Animation" Quote
seany242 Posted January 4, 2009 Author Posted January 4, 2009 There is no Sorenson3 option. There is only: Animation DV-PAL DVCPRO-PAL H.264 JPEG 2000 MPEG-4 Video None Photo-JPEG PNG Quote
seany242 Posted January 4, 2009 Author Posted January 4, 2009 and when I try to save it as a .mov, it says "Unable to load file []." Quote
seany242 Posted January 4, 2009 Author Posted January 4, 2009 "There are two ways to remove the material. Both require you to delete the material in the Project Workspace. 1 - Delete/Remove the Material from the Stage model. or 2 - Delete the Material from the Materials area of the Project Workspace." could you expand on those a little more? Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 4, 2009 Hash Fellow Posted January 4, 2009 There is no Sorenson3 option. There is only: try mpeg4 instead and when I try to save it as a .mov, it says "Unable to load file []." what is the full name of the file you are trying to load, including the filetype extension? Is yours a .avi or are you trying to load somethig else? Quote
seany242 Posted January 4, 2009 Author Posted January 4, 2009 File name: Cancan2.avi File Extention: C:\Documents and Setting\User\My Documents\Cancan2.avi How do I save it as .mov in the project workspace? Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 4, 2009 Hash Fellow Posted January 4, 2009 File name: Cancan2.avi File Extention: C:\Documents and Setting\User\My Documents\Cancan2.avi How do I save it as .mov in the project workspace? Here's what I said before... be very specific about what is not working for you: you can convert it without re rendering by loading it into your Images folder in the Project Workspace, then right-clock>SAve animation As... click the ... button to change the type to quicktime and the extension to .mov click the "compression" button to pick Sorenson3. Don't pick "Animation" Quote
Admin Rodney Posted January 4, 2009 Admin Posted January 4, 2009 1 - Delete/Remove the Material from the Stage model. or 2 - Delete the Material from the Materials area of the Project Workspace." could you expand on those a little more? Sure. - Open Project Workspace via |View|Project Workspace on the Menu Bar - Find Material in the Materials Folder or in the Model - Remove Material by using your keyboard's Delete button - Save the Project under a different name such as: "CanCan with no materials.prj" (Can you identify the two places you can remove the materials in the image below?) Quote
seany242 Posted January 4, 2009 Author Posted January 4, 2009 Robocat I keep trying that but it keeps saying "Unable to load file []." And I dont have Sorenson3 on the list. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 4, 2009 Hash Fellow Posted January 4, 2009 Robocat I keep trying that but it keeps saying "Unable to load file []." And I dont have Sorenson3 on the list. Here's what I don't understand... If you can't import the animation into your images folder, there won't be anything in your images folder to right-click on to try to "save as animation" and you wouldn't get to to the list that doesn't have "Sorenson 3" on it. Without knowing more, at this point I'd just suggest rerendering your animation, choose quicktime not AVI, and as i noted before, if Sor3 isn't a choice for compression type, choose MPEG4. Almost anything will be a better choice than "Animation" Quote
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