The Art of Animation:Master

[KenH]

Chocs away Sir! Now where the devil are those gerries!

[vf124]

YIPPEEE!!!

 

Looks great Morphy...

[Rodney]

...it never fails... I can spend hours trying to figure something out, and within minutes of posting a long, boring plea for help, I suddenly see what I was doing wrong...

 

HA!

 

There is a reason you don't see a lot of problem-type questions from me ;o)

I cannot count the times I started typing a post only to have the answer, or a workaround, pop into my head.

It must be something about typing out the problem that helps formulate the solution.

It also helps that there is usually more than one correct answer when it comes to A:M.

 

One shouldn't forget the other side of the equation though. It might still be good to post that solution. Someone else might be having the same problem.

... and usually it's not long until some asks! Then you've got the (or at least a) answer ready for the occasion.

 

I love seeing "nevermind... figured it out" type posts with an explanation following. That means the poster is really grasping the full measure of how Animation:Master works. Also, a problem someone figures out for themselves will usually settle in deeper in memory than one passed on from someone else.

 

It makes me laugh... but I too have launched my share of HELP!!!-type posts. Usually, I see the answer.... just after pressing.... Send.

[Morphy]

Someone else might be having the same problem.

... and usually it's not long until some asks! Then you've got the (or at least a) answer ready for the occasion.

You've no idea how much I'm looking forward to the day when I see that someone's posted a question and think, 'AHA!! I know the answer to THAT!!!'

 

It will be nice to be able to help other people, as payback for the help I've got from others. I still feel like too much of a newbie to be much use, but now I have at least ONE fix, if anyone else gets stuck in the same place.

 

At the moment, I still find it hard to talk about A:M without getting all gushy. I KNOW that I only made my little plane by following a step by step tutorial, but still, it's the most complex thing I've made on any program, even following tuts.

 

I have my own copies of Amapi, Carrara, plus some open-source programs like Blender, and in the past I've had the opportunity to play around on Max and Maya. Basically they all just convinced me that I didn't have the talent to make 3D models. I really think I've finally found a tool I can use and enjoy using.

 

Tomorrow I start work on the giraffe!

 

Thanks again, everyone.

 

Morph

[Morphy]

Exercise 11 - Giraffe.

 

I think I'm going to have to do a few more exercises like this before I get the knack of attaching limbs to bodies.

 

For some reason, the decal didn't 'take' on certain areas of the model. In the modeling window, these bits looked as if the model had been painted, then the paint taken off with acid or a blowtorch. It only happened on the 5-point patch areas.

 

But when I did the render, it was fine.

 

He's not the healthiest looking giraffe in the world, and at some stage he's had a terrible accident that has left his front knees horribly deformed, but I love him anyway. This is the first 'living creature' that I've made in any program ever, and I'm delighted.

 

One of these days (or months, or years, I'm gonna achieve my ambition to model and animate my dream gal!!!

 

Morph

[modernhorse]

Go Morphy Go! Looks swell. All giraffes have knee problems anyway don't they?

 

I'm stuck on the Stuck Door exercise at the mo. Giving me fits. Then of course I couldn't help but to make it more than prescribed in the book so .... its gonna take a bit longer.

 

Doug

[Rodney]

Good Show Morphy!

 

Little touches like adding the background really make a difference.

Makes me think your Giraffe is happy living in the wilds of Africa or something!

 

Nice!

[Morphy]

Thanks, Doug.

 

I managed that stuck door exercise, so if you think there's anything I might be able to offer help with, just ask!

 

Rodney, yeah, I think even a sky backdrop can make a big difference. I just dragged the pic into the choreography window and set it as 'rotoscope.' I'm really looking forward to learning stuff like how to do proper backgrounds and play with the lights and cameras.

 

The first time I flicked through the manual, the giraffe tutorial really scared me, and I half-suspected that it was the point where I'd discover I just didn't have whatever it takes to do a project like that. Managing it (even if I was just following instructions every step of the way) has been a major confidence boost.

 

Another few days should see me through the rest of the exercises, then I want to do one or two of my own, based on the ones in the book (to make sure the lessons got through my thick skull), and then I guess the next stop will be the tutorials over at AM Resource Matrix.

 

Morph

[Sacman]

Morphy,

 

I cannot wait to see what you do when you get past the AoAM. you have such an amazing amount of enthusiasm. It is infectous. I read these posts every day and see how quickly you have progressed through the book and am amazed. If you have a sec go back and read through your own posts over the last coupla weeks. You go from It's here and I'm nervous to ripping through the excercises one or two a day it seems like. With that kind of drive and enthusiasm I can't help but think that you will be producing some really fantastic stuff in the near future. I cannot wait to see.

 

Keep up the inspiration,

 

Wade

[player character]

One of these days (or months, or years, I'm gonna achieve my ambition to model and animate my dream gal!!!

 

Yeah, you and a million other geeks Now if only the robotics people would quit dragging their feet.

[Morphy]

Thanks, Wade!

 

I have to admit to still being on a high after finishing my giraffe. I really thought that was the point where this was all going to stop being fun, and I'd discover that I don't have the brains, talent, or whatever it takes to model. (I started to feel a bit like that today when I was trying to weld the legs to the body and work out five-point patches, but eventually it worked out OK)

 

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I'm 'cash poor, time rich,' so I have to admit that I thought long and hard before buying even as relatively inexpensive an app as AM. In fact, I *nearly* bought it about a year ago, but chickened out - I decided I'd wasted enough cash on 3D apps only to find I couldn't get the hang of them. Even following basic tuts, I'd always reach a point where I just couldn't figure out how to do the next step.

 

This time, it was the site with the AM movies that changed my mind. Now I'm kicking myself that I DIDN'T buy AM a year ago. During that time I've been using Poser to make my little anims - which I think is a good app for character animation, but I really want to create my OWN characters, not buy somebody else's.

 

I don't know why, but for some reason AM is the first of these programs since Poser that's 'clicked' for me. Which is odd, because in the past I've avoided patch modeling like the plague, thinking splines were far too hard and only for experts and geniuses.

 

I know I'm still a newbie splashing around in the shallows of what AM can do, but I'm looking forward to finding out more and more.

 

But as you can see, I still can't talk about this program without sounding like Hash Inc are paying me!!! I know I only made my giraffe by slavishly following instructions, but even so, I'd thought that to make a model like that with splines would take weeks - not hours!

 

 

Thanks again!

 

Morph

[Rodney]

I'd thought that to make a model like that with splines would take weeks - not hours!

Yes my friends, you too can model a giraffe in less than 5 hours.

 

How you say? Just visit http://www.hash.com or order online today! Prefer email? Send an email with your order details to: orders@hash.com

 

Just make that call today... (360) 750-0042. Operators are standing by.

 

Yes it's true: "software even an artist can afford."

This has been a non-paid advertisement from the New Users Forum!

 

 

Anyone else want to join in the fun and complete the Exercises from The Art of Animation:Master! You'll be glad you did.

[KenH]

Great progress Morph! I get that "patches not getting textured" too. I think the secret is to not double click but to right click and apply that way.

[Morphy]

Well, I guess I got over-confident after I made my giraffe.... I thought that was as hard as the A of AM tutorials would get, but exercise 13 (appropriately called 'show some backbone') almost beat me.

 

In fact, I'm not sure I would ever have managed it using the book alone - I had to resort to the video for step-by-step instructions (for anyone who hasn't looked, the vids are sometimes quite different from the methods given in the book, and are *always* clearer)

 

First, when I loaded up the 2001 skeleton, it looked *nothing* like the skeleton in the book or the video. Not even slightly. At first I thought that the bones were all pointing in the wrong directions, then I thought that they were pointing in the wrong directions AND some of them were missing.

 

After messing around in the project workspace, I found that what was actually going on was that a lot of the bones I expected to see (thighs, shins, biceps, forearms, etc) were set invisible, while various mysterious and arcane bones were visible. Once I discovered this, I was able to get my skeleton to look like the one in the tuts, but it was an unsettling start.

 

What was even more annoying was that during this exercise, AM crashed quite frequently. I learned to save the project about every minute or so!

 

But eventually, after two tries, I got the exercise completed. Not with the same sense of elation as with the giraffe - I've said a few times that I feel like I'm splashing around in the AM shallows. This exercise, I think, gave me a glimpse of the stuff I'll need an aqualung for (can anyone recommend any tuts or even books on this whole 'boning' business? What to all those weird hidden bones do? I suppose I'll need to learn, if I'm ever to create a character of my own.)

 

Anyway, Thom is boned!

(lucky old Thom, that's what *I* say... No wonder he's jumping around and shouting YIPPEE)

 

 

Morph

[-TC-]

Nice work morphy.

I know what you meen about the vids, they can be really helpful if you dont understand something in the book, or just need to see how someone else does that exercise.

As for the tutorials, try Sherwoods Forest and A:M Resource Matrix.

 

And nice animation with Thom.

[Morphy]

Thanks, TC, and thanks for the links - I already had the matrix in my bookmark folder, but not Sherwood forest. With each of the last few tutorials, I've been trying to do just a little more than they suggest, and the results have been so dire that I see I still have a long, long way to go...

 

Thankfully the next few tuts in the book have been a lot easier than the bone exercise. I've just this minute finished number 15 (eat my dust).

 

I used 'her' because I thought she looked a lot cuter than the knight!

 

Morph

[Robert_Waring]

I'm doing the Giraffe now and I'm finding stitching the splines between the legs and torso to prove to be quite difficult.

 

I need to watch the video.

[Morphy]

Robert,

 

The bad news is, there *is* no video for the giraffe exercise.

 

I found that whole stitching thing really, really hard too. You need to try to get the inital body and limb setup as close to what you see in the book as possible, then really examine the pics in the book.

 

I actually had to get out a magnifying glass!

 

Something else that helped me: if you press 'T', then hold down the right mouse button to turn the model very, very slightly, the rotoscope vanishes and you just see the wireframes. By turning back and forward very slightly, it helps you to see more clearly what's actually going on in the 3D space. One of my big problems was remembering what control points were the front of the leg and what were the back.

 

Morph

[Morphy]

Finished exercise 16.

 

Not much to report... I found this one pretty straightforward, with just two hiccups - one where the manual uses quite a different term to what the program menu actually uses, and another when the program wouldn't allow me to enter the book's values for the turbulence force.

 

But generally, OK.

 

Morph

[Sacman]

That's where the hide and lock functions become very useful. If you have multiple CP's that are in lined up exactly in a particular view, change to a different view (often the top) and hide the offending rear CP's so that you can work just on the front part. Then when you are done select the part that is not hidden press 'H' to unhide, press the '.' to reverse your selection and hide the original part now you only have the back part visible. The hide and lock tools are vital to keeping my workflow smooth.

 

I did not use these functions very effectively early on and was terrified of the perspective view for awhile. Also if you are using the number pad to change views, '7' is the perspective view. If you have rotated your model to a good angle to view what you are doing and want to go back and forth between thatn and say the front view, Press '2' to get back to front and '7' will take you back to the last set perspective view. It took me a while to realize this and I wasted a lot of time turning the model every time I wanted to see it at an angle.

 

Keep truckin',

 

Wade

[Morphy]

Thanks for the useful tips, Wade.

 

I finished exercise 17 - the bowling ball (see below)

 

What a totally amazing program! So this is what 'rigid body' can do... I can't wait to find out what 'springs' and those other options are.

 

As of today, I've had AM for exactly one week, so since I only have two short exercises to do before I complete the manual, I'm going to skip TV tonight and see if I can get them finished. I think that will complete my initiation into the AM world, and it will be time to get down to some serious learning. And some not-so-serious playing

 

Morph

[Rodney]

As of today, I've had AM for exactly one week

 

Wow!

You obviously have brought a measure of talent with you as you came to A:M!

I think it does say something for The Art of Animation:Master to show how a structured set of instructions can help get someone familiar with A:M's toolset so quickly.

 

Two more exercises!!!

*sniff* They grow up and leave the nest so quickly!

[Robert_Waring]

Finished exercise 16.

 

Morph

I did the firepot exercise last weekend.. It turned out really well, but fire and smoke take a long time to render. I'll definately want keep that to a minimum for now, but it's still cool to do.

[Morphy]

Well, I finished the tutorials last night - the flag and the flock.

 

I'm very impressed at what the program can do, but have to admit I'm not sure I feel able to actually do anything with it yet.

 

A of AM is great for an overview of the program, and for learning the basics of how the interface works, but the problem with tutorials in general is that there seems to be a lot of 'click this. Enter a value of 17.45 in the qwerdlethump generator...'

 

But sometimes no explanation of what exactly the qwerdlethump generator *is*, or why 17.45 is the appropriate figure.

 

I think I need to go through some of those tuts again, this time deliberately messing them up, entering different values, and chosing other options as well - just to see what happens.

 

I would also like a much more in depth understanding of what the program will do and how to do it. I've already ordered my copy of the tech manual, and have seen that there's a book available for AM 2002. I'd be grateful if anyone could advise me on whether it's worth picking up a copy, or if it's too out of date by now.

 

Anyway, here's the flag!

 

Morph

[Morphy]

After I did the flock exercise, I thought it might be fun to try doing a crowd instead - so here they are...

 

Rodney, I don't think I'll be flying the nest just yet! I predict that I'll be hanging round the newbie section for quite a while.

 

My immediate goals are to play around more with the lights and cameras in AM and get a feeling for how they work. Also to make some very simple models and get more understanding of spline modeling.

 

As a longer term project, I want to create a little figure of my own, however simple, and at that point I'd really like to learn a lot more about rigging - I've learned how to apply the 2001 skeleton to a humanoid, but what if I want to make... dunno, a dog or octopus or something? I'd like to learn more about what all those weird hidden bones do, how they work, how to create them etc.

 

Anyway, here's my crowd...

 

 

Morph

[Robert_Waring]

DEFINATELY pick up the complete guide to AM 2002. It's a great companion and I've been able to learn a lot from it, also, get at least the QuickStart Tutorial from Anzovin Studio. Both of those provide a lot of the "WHY" behind the examples, and I agree, that helps us as animators understand what we're doing instead of parroting examples.

 

There's so much to learn about AM, and I'm still waiting on my AM Technical Reference book I ordered a few weeks ago. That Cafe Press sure takes it's sweet time - SO I can't really comment on that book yet, but I've heard it's great to have around as well.

 

I've have always been someone who likes to have a lot of reference material around me because there's only so much that can fit in my tiny brain at one time.

 

Here's my work area along with my killer book and CD. The computer is custom built by yours truly, I call it my Thunderbird Greaseslapper 3000. (AMD 3000, 1 gig RAM, 120 HD, ATI Radeon 9600).. It works great with AM.

 

[Rodney]

Mr. Morphy said,

Rodney, I don't think I'll be flying the nest just yet! I predict that I'll be hanging round the newbie section for quite a while.

 

That's good news!

We are all new users to some degree or another as there is so much information out there and so many ways to apply Animation:Master's tools to get to the goal. Because Hash Inc. continuously improves A:M and adds new tools and functionality, we all get a chance to become 'new users' on a regular basis!

 

There has long been a plan to delve deeper into aspects of both 2D and 3D animation as introduced to A:M Users via The Art of Animation:Master... the more that people stick around and contribute in the New Users Forum the more information that can be collected and made available for use by all.

 

You've hit one area of that in your last post. TAoAM only scratches the surface and introduced A:M Users to the concept of flocking. There is so much more That is out there.

 

The 'Annotated' Art of Animation:Master is the New Users Forum way of adding to the store of knowledge of all things animation. As people discover new things about animation and Animation:Master that information can be added there to benefit all.

 

In fewer words ( ), like many other A:M Users, I wanna see more about 'Flocking' too! Nice Job!

[Morphy]

Thanks, Robert. The Complete Guide is now ordered, and so is the Anzovin 'getting started' bundle.

 

Nice PC! Mine is a boring beige model. and I'm not techie enough to even name most of its innards. All that I can ever remember is that it's 2.8 Ghz, 2 gigs of Ram, and that I don't seem to be in any danger yet of filling my HD.

 

Morph

[-TC-]

I was also wondering about AM 2002 Complete Guide, well, now i know.

Nice work again morphy.

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

 

Ive almost finished the giraffe now, just the texturing left, so ill post it up as soon as i finish.

[Morphy]

Ive almost finished the giraffe now, just the texturing left, so ill post it up as soon as i finish.

Well done!

 

I suppose different people will find different things more difficult than others. For me, I think the boning tutorial gave me the most problems, but the giraffe was a very close second - especially connecting its legs.

 

Amazon were very fast with the Complete guide - I've had the email to say it's been dispatched, so I expect to have it tomorrow or Tuesday.

[-TC-]

Well, ive now fininshed the giraffe, there are still some places where the decal has gone wrong, but im not too bothered about that at the moment, coz most of it looks good, i think so any way.

So.........on to exercise 12

 

Morphy - i see what you mean, i have gone over some of this exercise again, mainly just to learn more about patches. Ive not done the skeleton exercise yet, that should be fun

[Morphy]

Well done, TC!

 

You'll probably find that you manage the boning exercise with no problem at all. I don't know if it's something odd about my own installation or if it's a general change in AM 11, but when I load the 2001 skeleton for the exercise, it looks nothing like the one in the book or video.

 

This totally threw me, until I realised that for some reason some of the bones that should have been visible were invisible, and vice versa. I had to go through them all in the Project workspace, changing them as necessary before I could even start the exercise.

 

Also, the book gets you to adjust a lot of hidden bones that aren't even mentioned in the video. I tried to follow the book exactly, but with no luck - after two attempts, Thom just refused to move when I give him actions.

 

Then I watched the vid, following step by step, and it worked fine.

 

Nice Giraffe - I'm still slightly mind-blown by AM's 'decal' approach to adding a texture,which makes it all so easy. In the past when I've tried to understand how to texture a model, it was a wildly complex affair involving UV mapping, which basically produces an 'unwrapped' skin of the model for you to paint on... I played around with it, but never really got anywhere.

 

I'll be very surprised if AM doesn't also have some UV mapping method, because while decaling is very quick and easy for some things, I would imagine that for REAL detail that will stand inspection from all angles, UV is the way to go. But I'm speaking as a newbie, and am willing to be corrected!

 

Best of luck with boneless Thom!

[-TC-]

Thanx morphy.

I too was very suprised at how simple it was to give a model textures. Its just a case of positioning the decal, then applying. I havent got the hang of more complex textures yet, but that marble exercise might be useful.

There is a UV tool in V11, heres a tutorial,

DECALING in Animation:Master Version 11.

Hope it comes in useful.

 

Ive finished exercise 12 now......so on to "Show some Backbone"

[Robert_Waring]

Well, ive now fininshed the giraffe, there are still some places where the decal has gone wrong, but im not too bothered about that at the moment, coz most of it looks good, i think so any way.

So.........on to exercise 12

 

Morphy - i see what you mean, i have gone over some of this exercise again, mainly just to learn more about patches. Ive not done the skeleton exercise yet, that should be fun

Wow! Fantastic work TC! Impressive.

[Rodney]

Morphy/Robert,

 

You are confusing the heck out of me...

Are you related in some way?

 

Inquiring minds want to know.

 

For those just peeking in:

(Robert's signature block somehow got tacked on to Morphy's post)

 

 

Oh... and if no one has checked it out lately....

The 'Annotated' Art of Animation:Master has been updated.

Check it out: Here!

[Morphy]

Hi, Rodney.

 

I'm even more confused than you are! I posted a reply to TC's post, but what I wrote had no similarity whatsoever to what has appeared as my previous post here.

 

Oh, wait...

 

In fact, it's even weirder than I thought... When I read the messages in the usual way, I see a post by 'Morphy' which is pretty incomprehensible, and not what I wrote.

 

But when I come to this 'reply' window and start composing a reply, if I scroll down to look at previous messages, the weird 'Morphy' message is totally absent, and instead I *do* see my own post, but sent by 'Robert_Waring'

 

Very very weird. I am not Robert_Waring, and don't know anyone of that name.

I'm a bit of a klutz, but I never broke a message board before. Honest!!

 

 

 

Morph

[Robert_Waring]

I'm not related to morphy in anyway. Not sure what's up with the forums.

[-TC-]

Thanks for the coments Robert and Morphy.

Ive done the Skeleton exercise now.......

[Rodney]

TC,

 

I'm curious...

 

Did you experience any problems with that last exercise.

Several people reported problems completing the exercise. Since Exercise 13 changed considerably from the 2002 to 2003 editions of TAoAM, the problems might be related to the changes therein.

 

At any rate.... nice Thom... very colorful!

 

 

...and Morphy!

Very very weird. I am not Robert_Waring, and don't know anyone of that name.  I'm a bit of a klutz, but I never broke a message board before. Honest!!.

 

You are so in trouble!!!

 

And lest we forget our manners:

Robert... meet Morphy. Morphy... Robert.

[-TC-]

Rodney, i didnt experience any problems with the last exercise. Everything seemed to work.

 

Ive finished playing with marble now ...............

[Morphy]

TC, when you did the bones exercise, did the 2001 skeleton look the way it did in the book's illustrations? I'm just wondering if there's something wrong with my AM setup.

 

Today the postman brought me *both* The Complete Guide and The Technical Reference, so I'm ready to continue my education! I'm planing to systematically work through the Guide over the next month or two, then move on to the Tech Reference to get up to speed on the new V11 features.

 

Morph

[vf124]

TC, nice giraffe ... mine looked like a dog ... a wacked out dog ... maybe you should of done a tutorial for the Hash folks

[-TC-]

Morphy - Yeh, the 2001 skeleton did look like the illustrations in the book, i didn't have to unhide/hide anything, apart from when it said in the lesson.

 

vf124 - At first my giraffe wasnt lookin great but after messing around i got it sorted. Nice idea about the tutorial thing, mabey some other time

 

Oh, and heres exercise 15.

The quality was lowered when i converted it to gif.....

[Morphy]

Nice work, TC. You're getting near the end of the book!

 

Yeah, I also found that the volumetric exercise lost a lot of detail when I converted it to a gif.

 

Thanks for the note about the skeleton. Now I'm totally baffled as to why my A:M is behaving differently to everyone else's!!

 

I've spent most of today working on 'The Complete Guide' I've only completed the first 2 chapters, but so far I think I would definitely recommend it as a next step from The Art of Animation Master.

[-TC-]

Thanks Morphy.

I was thinking about ordering The Complete Guide to AM 2002, and i found this...

3D Character Workshop. Its a book about designing and making characters and it covers 3 programs including Animation Master.

 

Exercise 16...............

Just 3 more exercise to go

[Morphy]

TC - Just 3 to go? I think you'll get them done in no time - they're all very plain sailing.

 

Funny you should mention 3D Creature workshop... When I was ordering The Complete Guide from Amazon, it came up in the 'also recommended' section.

 

I read the reviews, which were quite mixed, and discovered that a major complaint was that the book covered too many software packages, which I presume means it will mostly be about poly modeling, not spines - but I did ALSO discover that it had a chapter or two devoted to modeling with AM.

 

I wasn't going to bother with it (too expensive for just one or two chapters!), but then later I found it recommended in the AM Matrix booklist. I took another look at Amazon.co.uk, and found there was a very cheap 2nd hand copy for sale, so I ordered that. I'm still not sure that it will be any good, but when it arrives and I get time to look at it, I'll let you know what I think.

[-TC-]

I was thinking of ordering the Complete Guide to AM 2002 and 3D Creature Workshop, because amazon have an offer on at the moment. I saw somebody's review and they gave it 1 star, but it said that it was for an earlier edition.

I'll wait until i have completed the handbook and heared what you think about it.

 

Heres exercise 17..........

[ultraapa]

I finished Exercise 1 sometime ago. I purchased the software about a 3-4 weeks ago now, so I am relatively new to the AM. This certificate idea is a good one, so please send me on .

[-TC-]

Welcome to the AM forums ultraapa, and good luck with the exercises.

I have now done exercise 18, just 1 more to go

[ultraapa]

Thanks TC! Its great that there are others out here are doing this along with you. I am not sure how to post my progress, but I'll give it try. I have finished Exercise 1 again. This time I used a different character than KeeKat. I think this is a bit more interesting.