The Art of Animation:Master

[triath5147]

I say bring it on than! I've been using AM since AM99 V7? I updated last year to AM2003 and am in need of all kinds of help in the area of cinematics. I am not a master of modeling or animation by any means, since it is all self taught, but I am willing help out, and in return learn alot of new ways of doing things on the way. I have been exporting characters and props from AM into different game formats since i bought AM in late 98 or 99 to make actors for the genesis game engine.

[-TC-]

Exercise 6 - The Doors Stuck.

And, i have to post a screenshot again

Oh, and Rodney, I havent got my Certificate. Its okay if you havent sent it yet, but if you have then i havent got it. I now you're a busy man.

[Rodney]

Screenshots are fine!

Another option pioneered by Dan (Hello Dan!) is converting to .gif animations.

 

I'll get your certificate(s) out as soon as possible.

The whole certificate system is not yet set up... and all certificates are not completed yet.... That is the primary reason for delay.

 

I have been resisting sending out certificates past #1 because I haven't got all that in place yet. I do apologize for not getting your first out though!

 

I'll try to get that out today!

[Rodney]

All,

Thanks to the interest, I've slipped back into certificate mode for a little while.

If I can get my FTP application working I'll upload all Exercise 1 certificates today.

 

Barring that I'll still get a few posted up there.

 

If I owe you an Exercise 1 certificate and you do not recieve a notification from me today please remind me!

[Rodney]

That is one vote for advancement!

I'm in certificate mode for a little while so there is hope that we can get this thing rolling again.

[-TC-]

Cheers Rodney. I'll check my e-mail.

Ill also try out the .gifs.

And ive almost finished exercise 7

[Rodney]

And ive almost finished exercise 7

 

Tom,

Very Nice... I look forward to your animated gifs!!

 

I finished your Exercise 1 certificate and attempted to upload it last night.

I am still having some difficulty with my current FTP application.

Hopefully, that will be resolved soon.

 

I'll email you the location it is/will be as soon as I return home.

[-TC-]

Thanx Rodney.

I would upload the .gif of Exercise 2 but its over 1mb and this forum wont let you post anything over 1mb and neither will most uploads sites.

Hopefully the other gifs should be less so ill get them posted asap.

[vf124]

I've slipped back into certificate mode for a little while.

 

Good for you Rodney...hope you get your ftp up & running...TC keep on keepin' on...looks great...

[-TC-]

Thanx vf124.

Ive now uploaded a .gif of exercise 4. i posted it as a link.

I converted the others to gifs and they are over 1mb, so i dont think i'll be posting them up.

 

Anyway, heres exercise 7 -

[Rogue66]

HELP PLEASE! I'm terribly new at all this. The program, the forum, everything. I'm on exercise 3, but I don't know how to save my bunny. Everytime I save him, and I try to open it, my puter says windows doesn't know what the file is, nor does it know online either I've got A:M open still with my lil rabbit waiting LOL. I was doing a pose (trying to anyways) from page 34, and he was so cute! Poor lil guy looks like he's about to hurl! AND I WANNA SAVE IT FOR POSTERITY! You have no idea just how long it took me to accidently get him to look like that It's probably right there in front of my face, and I'm just not gettin it. * Ok don't panic,,, breathe,,,,, Any help would be GREATLY appreciated

[Rodney]

Rouque66,

 

To save the cute little guy for posterity I would suggest a screen grab.

Under Windows on a PC, all you need to do it press the Print Screen button and paste the copied screen into your paint program, word document, or any other application that will accept copy and paste via the Windows clipboard.

 

Specific steps:

- Press Print Screen key (It is usually above the Delete Key to the left of the number pad on your keyboard)

- Open up the application you want to paste the screen into (Paint, MS Word, etc)

- Select Edit Paste from the menu of most applications. Holding the Control (Ctrl) and V keys down will paste as well.

- Save the picture or document.

 

Now concerning saving your project, model, choreography or otherwise. When you select FILE SAVE AS just make sure you are saving the Project in a location that can be saved in with a name that is allowed by Windows.

 

Thats what I can think of off hand.

Good Luck!

[Rogue66]

WOOOHOOO! Whew, saved by Mr. Rodney Sir! TYTYTYTYTY, oh and Thanks Saved em twice,, cause I could Now on to the next crisis LOL

[Rogue66]

OOOPS, Thats Mr. Baker Sir!

[-TC-]

Glad to see you got your problem sorted Rogue66.

 

And heres exercise 8......

[Rogue66]

I wanted to post a pic from exercise 3. There must be something I'm really messing up. I can't get it to add a file attachment. Does the pic have to be in a certain type or something? I know no bigger than 1mb. Oh Mr. Bakerrr??????

[jimle22]

Just starting out with the exercises. Have AM:2004. Need the assistance and guidence. Thanx.

[Rodney]

James,

 

Anything in particular we can help you with.

From my perspective the first step seems to be the hardest but in the case of The Art of Animation:Master we are fortunate because the first exercise is straightforward. Some might even say easy.

 

So my first advice would be to dive right into Excercise 1!

The exercises are built in a building block fashion and each one will help you with the next.

 

Good Luck!

[-TC-]

Sorry Rogue66, cant help you there.

Although, the only thing i could suggest is uploading your image to an upload site like Pix8.net and then using the [ img ] tag in your post.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Do you have to post the topics in the right order ?

Oh, and rodney, sorry to keep nagging but i still haven't received my certificate,

are you still having problems with your FTP application ?

[Rodney]

are you still having problems with your FTP application

 

Yeah... but I won't let that stop me! If you don't have your first certificate by tomorrow... well.... well...

 

You'll have your Exercise #1 Certificate by tomorrow providing you check your mail and download it when I get it uploaded.

 

Since I have a few days off this could be the chance to get caught up once and for all! FTP or no!

[-TC-]

okay, cheers Rodney.

I'll keep checking my e-mail

[-TC-]

Ive got the certificate now Rodney.

Thanks very much.

[Sacman]

I struggled with posting a pic in the forums for a pathetic 4 months and no one could answer my question. So to answer anyone that happens to read this and specifically Rogue66, The file cannot be a .TGA (Targa) file. It can be JPG and I think BMP but must be less than 1MB. I believe GIF is also allowed. I would recommend JPG. That is the safest. Anyway once you have browsed and selected the file to add, DO NOT PREVIEW POST. That is where I kept going wrong. For some reason if you preview the post before you post it, it will not attach the pic even if you have made sure that it is still pointing to the right location.

 

I may have skipped an obvious point. When you want to attach a pic that is viewable in the Fourms, use the option at the bottom of the page to load it directly into your post. Do not click the IMG button at the top.

 

Good luck and hope I have not insulted anyone's intelligence. I personally had a very hard time with this most basic of functions.

 

Wade

[Rodney]

I struggled with posting a pic in the forums for a pathetic 4 months and no one could answer my question.

 

Wade,

 

I'm not sure who you asked... I'm frustrated by your frustration.

As that is one of my favorite questions to answer.

 

Somewhere deep in the bowels of this forum are screenshots of the attachment process. I'll either dig it back up... or recreate it.

 

Good description of the process though.

 

*Added: When you were living in frustration, the forum was still quite new. The replies from the moderators (not the community) where most likely based on the fact that they weren't having the same problems you were. I'm only blattering on at length because when you say "no one could answer my question" it seems that it was a small group of people to select your group of "no ones" from. My intelligence isn't insulted but my community defense mechanism is quite engaged. Next time... ask the community first and I'll bet you'll be dropping happy emoticons within... say a month or two instead of four! The fact that previewing the post on your part led to your troubles hardly seems justifyable reason to insult those who may have attempted to answer your questions but never had the chance.

 

Thanks again for the description. Together we can spread more good info than we can alone.

[Rodney]

TC,

 

Let me know if the quality is high enough for you.

 

 

Anyone else out there I owe a certificate to?

 

I think that Wednesdays will be certificate days for me.

That way when I'm not chatting... (ala Wednesday Night Chat Night) I can be setting up certificates!

 

We'll see how well that plan works.

[-TC-]

The quality is fine, but if there is a higher qualtity one, would you e-mail me that so i could take a look ?

[Rodney]

The quality can increase but the file size will too.

I thought I found a happy medium for those that might want to print in color.

I think the file was around 2MB.

 

The top quality one I came up with was about 50MB... overkill though as most printers won't be able to do anything with the extra detail.

 

I'll send to a copy around 2MB or whatever looks to be of a better printable quality.

[Rogue66]

Thank you Wade. That is exactly what I was doing. Trying to preview. I will give it another try. Once again thanks

[Rogue66]

Well,,,, here goes noting lol. Fun with exercise 3

[Rodney]

Ummmm..... is he doing the Karate Kid crane??

 

[Sacman]

Ouch Rodney. I am feeling somewhat slapped at the moment. When I was experiencing the problems with posting a pic, I had several people make an attempt to help but it was getting me no where. I sent two seperate requests to Hash for an explanation. The point that everyone misses when explaining how to post a pic is 'DO NOT PREVIEW'. Many peeps when new to posting (myself included) are overly concerned about what the post will look like so as not to come across as a goob. As such they will preview to see how it is going to look. This is what I kept doing. As such I could never get a pic to post. It was frustrating in the sense that every explanation I got was the standard 'select the file using the browse button at the bottom of the post and then post it'. No one ever said DO NOT PREVIEW. That apparently is what turned out to be Rogue's problem as well.

 

So I humbly beg your forgiveness and would request that in the future when anyone needs to know how to post a pic, stress the DO NOT PREVIEW point and all will be well.

 

Head bowed in shame,

 

Wade

 

Edit: Oops on the typo.

 

I really need to work on an avatar. I am sick of looking at that stupid smiley face!

[Rogue66]

hehe yeah Rodney, Crane Stance Waboose LOL. I dunno, I just started moving him around and thats what happened. It was fun. I might start a whole Karate Waboose (rabbit) series LOL. Ohhh this is so silly and fun.

[-TC-]

2mb is fine Rodney.

Nice work Rogue66

[Rodney]

Wade,

 

No harm done as your spirit confirms you meant no ill will!

My apologies for going on the defensive here in public forum. I too am only human.

 

There are many who get discouraged quickly on both sides, whether requesting information or trying to provide useful information. Negativity tends to discourage participation and participation is key to keeping this information process flowing.

 

As you've pointed out... we sometimes struggle over some of the most basic things. One of the great things about the A:M Community is that it works together despite the variety of interests and agendas... and when one of us is down.... the remainder has always proved reliable to pull us back up.

 

So... Cheer up!

The best is yet to come!

[vf124]

Hey, Mr. Baker...here's my new keyboard player.... sorry can't get it to post...just a broken QT file...

[swampfoot]

I'm new to animation master and I completed the the first two exercises. I just need a little help with the third. I manipulated the bones in the rabbit with little effort but the poser slider for the hand won't appear properly in version 11. The poser slider appears blank. However, when I bring up the poser slider for the hand in version 10.5, the poser slider appears normally. I was wondering whether I need a patch or should I reinstall the program and redownloaded the version 11 update. Thank you.

[Rodney]

Mr. Swampfoot,

 

You do want to make sure that you have the most current update loaded.

In most cases that will ensure you have all the current (and latest) bells and whistles.

 

The last time I attempted to open a model and look at it's pose slider I only saw a blank pose slider as well.... I'll look again with the current version after I return from work.

 

For the latest updates go to: Lastest Updates Forum Area

[swampfoot]

Thank you, Rodney

I'll download the latest version 11g patch. Do I need to download the other patches or just the 11g. I figured I just need to download the latest one.

[-TC-]

Here most of exercise 10, just the decalling left to do.

There are some white lines at the back of the wings, im not sure if they are because i had to lower the quality of the picture, or wether its something with the model. But i'll have it sorted for next update.

[vf124]

Here most of exercise 10, just the decalling left to do.

 

TC, it's looking good...the plane was one of the more fun ones for me...

[lkwebb21]

help!!!!!

I'm new to A:M and I have competed every exercise up to 17, cosmic bowling.

The problem is that the ball drops right through the lane and keeps going down!

What am I missing?

[-TC-]

Slight update...........

Ive got most of the decalling done, ive just gotta do the wheels. There are some patchy bits but ill try and get them sorted. I made my own textures for the spinner because when i applyed the decall it got a bit messed up, let me know what you think.

 

vf124 : i see what you meen, this exercise lets you build something from scratch, rather than starting with a premade model, although, so does exercise 9, but thats not as fun.

 

I should have the rest of it done soon.

[-TC-]

Heres is the finished FW-190 Fighter.

Oh, and i was looking back through this thread and realised i haven't shown my finished work from exercise 9 so ill get that posted soon.

[Rodney]

TC, et al,

 

Exercise 10 is an excellent example of what decals can add to a model, even a very basic model.

 

I appreciate you showing a few stages of your airplane as it demonstrates what decaling can do to help bring a model from a basic render (without detail) to one of interest (with decal detal).

 

In many cases an intricate model need not be built in order to tell a story or fill a scene. In cases where additional detail is needed for close ups and 'hero' shots another model could be built and rendered for those frames and the low detail model rendered in the other frames.

 

For those that haven't seen it, our very own, Parlo created a tutorial that explains a bit more about using low detail and high detail models.

Proxy Models in A:M by Parlo (Sam Buntrock)

[-TC-]

Thanx Rodney,

and thanx for the link to that tutorial, ill check it out.

I'll get exercise 9 posted up soon since i forgot to post it before exercise 10.

[vf124]

For those that haven't seen it, our very own, Parlo created a tutorial that explains a bit more about using low detail and high detail models.

 

Thanks Rodney...I'm reading it now...

[Rodney]

The following have participated in The Art of Animation:Master exercises.

Names are listed in alphabetical order with the emoticon indicating completion of the entire book.

 

VF124

Dan Roberts

ChrisTom

TC

Robert Waring

Rogue66

Morphy

Doug Horning

lkwebb21

Swampfoot

Triath

 

*Are you missing from the list or not given credit for completing all the exercises? Contact me at: rodney.baker@gmail.com and set me straight.

[-TC-]

Well, heres Exercise 9 - Flower Power.

And heres a pic of the bones.

 

On to exercise 11 - Giraffe

[Rogue66]

Well if I'd a read this section of posts first, my question woulda been answered. OK, I will try to get 1, and 2 pics posted (now that I sorta can lol). You already saw a #3 lol.

 

Take your time Mr. Baker Sir! I'm not in a hurry for a certificate. I mean I'm sure you prob must be doin that "make a paycheck" thing like most of us lol

[Rodney]

LKWebb,

 

You still having the problems with gravity?

Please lets us know and we'll work through it. There are two things that immediately come to mind, 1) Forces/Gravity needs to be engaged 2) The models orientation needs to be such that gravity will be effected in the correct direction.

 

Since the second option certainly seems to be the case, I'd guess you need to turn on/up your force. If you haven't figured a solution out yet... we'll narrow down the possiblities and get back to bowling!