Me again !

[Walter Baker]

Me again, sorry.

I worked on this all day yesterday, changed settings, did every thing I could think of, even Reset AM to defaults.

I just cant figure out why my rendering looks like this.

Any Ideas?

This is what my finished animations look like or just Black. After it finished then AM crashes.

Have to go to work now just to clear my head. LOL

Wally

[rusty]

Me again, sorry.

I worked on this all day yesterday, changed settings, did every thing I could think of, even Reset AM to defaults.

I just cant figure out why my rendering looks like this.

Any Ideas?

This is what my finished animations look like or just Black. After it finished then AM crashes.

Have to go to work now just to clear my head. LOL

Wally

 

Dear Wally,

 

Hello from our cabin at Big Bear Lake where it it 5:45 and I'm baking Cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

 

First off... what you posted was a screen capture of A:M's rendering window... not what actually rendered. It says that the animation was rendered (100% complete) so what happens when you click on Untitled000.mov? Does you animation look okay? This is what really counts. What you sent is just a display glitch which is annoying but not really important in and of itself... if your animation rendered okay. It does mean that something is wrong however.

 

BTW, it is not really a good idea to leave the file name blank which it looks like you have done given the name Untitled000.mov. Lord knows what folder his was saved to. You might have to search your entire disk for Untitled000.mov.

 

You did not post what type of pc you have nor what version of AM you are using so I'll assume Windows Vista and AM V15.

 

I do not think that this has anything directly to do with render settings except that some may use more memory than others. My first guess is that you are running out of memory. I would try rendering 15 frames the way you are currently doing it to insure that you still see the same thing with 15 frames, then render 15 frames at the smallest size possible and see what that looks like. Or just render the entire thing at the smallest resolution (the 15 frames is just to make it faster to do) If it looks okay at the the smallest resolution then this implies that memory is the problem. If it still looks messed up this means that it could still be memory... but we just can prove it.

 

I would make sure nothing else is running when you render and also reboot just before you render (in case something is leaking memory). I would also make sure you have plenty of free disk space -- 10 Gigs or more. Assuming you are on a Window's pc I would increase memory cache to the maximum amount it says you can. Finally I'd render to a Targa (tga) sequence/uncompressed as this may use less memory (however, as I said, your rendered animation may be fine).

 

Hope this helps,

Rusty

[NancyGormezano]

I do not think that this has anything directly to do with render settings except that some may use more memory than others.

 

Yes - the problem is probably that you are hitting the "render animation preview" button instead of "render to file" button - so you are most likely running out of memory. (not sure if video card memory as well is getting messed)

 

If you render to file directly - you will probably not have this problem.

[John Bigboote]

CUTE KID!!!!

[Walter Baker]

Hi Folks

Just got home from work, have been thinking about this all day and think I have an idea about it.

1st I did the above on my iMac with AM v15.

at lunch I work on my laptop PC AM v15 and I have found that of the 3 different animations I have done I used a photo, or, as above a video clip, as a rotoscope.

Today I did just a simple one with Thom and no rotoscope and it worked fine. So my thoughts are that the Choro. window is a bigger size than a photo or a video clip, and as such it renders all the outside stuff in the choro. as a mess.

So is it possible to adjust the camera window, or the choro. window to fit the size of the photo or video? or for that matter to adjust the rotoscope up to the size of the choro. window?

I am going to test it here in a few minutes to see if my theory is correct. ( gosh I felt like Spock when I wrote that)

A note: I sent the above image to show how the render window looks, the final animation looks the same or else it comes out totally black and then AM crashes.

Another note: I bet those cinnamon rolls were great !!!!!!!

Now here goes, I will let you know if I ma correct or not.

[Gerry]

Let us know how your tests go. If you're rendering from a camera view the render will be the exact size of the camera settings, so there's no chance there's out-of-frame garbage rendering by mistake. However I've never rendered with a photo rotoscope so there may be issues there.

 

Also note that AM on a Mac is a sensitive little critter. Always do the following when rendering: Close all other apps and windows. Close all AM windows except the chor. Save before rendering. You're better off rendering to a targa sequence than a QT though it's usually fine, it's just that if the render has problems midway through, the first half of the render will be intact.

 

And like Rusty said, name the file in the render settings! You need to know where to find it when it's done.

[Rodney]

This is what my finished animations look like or just Black.

 

When your final render turns out black this is usually an indication that you've got your Alpha Channel setting on. (Its not black... its transparent... but to the eye they look the same)

 

There are two ways to attack this:

 

1) Turn the Alpha Channel setting to Off

You do this on the Render Panel. Look for it at the bottom.

This is the best way to do it if you don't need the Alpha Channel/transparency in your images at all.

 

2) Go into your Rotoscope Properties and set the Image to display in the Alpha Channel.

Then you can render with the Alpha Channel on and the image will appear in the final render.

If the setting isn't on A:M things you just wanted to use the Roto as reference and not have it render at all.

 

Note: There is another setting there in the Rotoscope Properties; 'On Top'. Don't set the Roto image to be 'On Top' unless you want it render over the top of everything.

 

Where you would want to use the Alpha Channel would be if you wanted to render the CG object separately and then composite it over the Live Action. This can be a useful way of organizing a project if you've got a lot of individual images/layers.

 

The quickest way is to turn the Alpha Channel setting off.

[Walter Baker]

I think my brain is sweating

I did the following images from the animations on the PC

The 'not so good' is the first render, nice in the center but a mess on the outside

The 'better' is after I scaled out the rotoscope to fit the chor. window but it somewhat distorted but more what I want

 

I will try the alpha thing tomorrow Rodney after my head goes to Neverland.

 

Thanks for all the help and advice, I will keep working till I get it figured out and let you all know

Wally

[Walter Baker]

Hi Gang

Well I did get it he way I wanted, not sure yet what I did or how but. I did.

Here is a little clip of two tests combined in iMovie.

with sound

the_Search_test4.mov

[John Bigboote]

Cool! More! More! We beg for more! You have a neat little sci-fi thing going there! Good job!

[Gerry]

yes, this is way too cute! Looking forward to more.

[Walter Baker]

Thanks

Now to understand what I did and how it worked,

I now must heed the wisdom of Vern, 'One must repeat, repeat, repeat until it is settled.' or something like that.

[Gerry]

I now must heed the wisdom of Vern, 'One must repeat, repeat, repeat until it is settled.'

I keep telling myself that!