The Art of Animation:Master

[-TC-]

Yeah, I remember when i started off, i found this topic really useful for showing people how your doing with AM and getting comments.

Too post your result from exercise 1, you could take a screenshot, and cut out the bit you want, save it then upload it to your post. I say "take a screenshot" because you cant render as jpg. Just tga for images, and im not sure if people could see tga's if you upload them.

Hope it helps.

[ultraapa]

OK TC. When you upload are you meaning use the "choose" button when you add a reply. I tried it before but it did not seem to work. I'll try it again. If it does not work could you give this newbie more specific instructions.

[-TC-]

Nice pic.

Try that thing again, and if it doesn't work id be glad to help you.

Oh, and good look with exercise 2

[Rodney]

Glad to see you joining in Kevin!

 

I'm trying to tighten up the discussion on posting images here in the forum to make it easier to share work etc.

 

There is a longer term fix in the works... but for now... check out:

 

Posting Images in the Forum

 

There are parts about uploading and a part about screen capture as well.

Windows specific at this time but hopefully some Mac users will want to play as well.

[Morphy]

Hi, Ultrapa, and welcome to the thread!

 

I'm another A:M newbie, and I'm still kicking myself for not buying the program a year or two ago, which is when I first stumbled on the Hash website.

 

I finished all the manual tuts a few days ago, and trust me, if *I* can do it, *anyone* can do it.

 

We look forward to seeing you work your way though the exercises.

(you and I have something in common - we seem to prefer an, uh, 'well-rounded' model to a toon rabbit or knight!!

 

Rodney - I noticed your 'how to post images thread a day or two ago - it would be really good if it could be made sticky (or whatever it's called) so it's always at the head of the topic list. I would have found it really helpful when I first discovered the forum.

 

Morph

[ultraapa]

Hey,

 

Thanks for all the good replies. It is good to have this community. It definitely helps. I have now completed exercise 2. BTW, thanks for the upload information Rodney. I was just thinking, can you post .avi files or is that an internet friendly file format. Congrats on advancing in the tutorial TC.

 

Out of curiousity, I was wondering what everyone is using AM for. I am using it as a stepping stone to create video games. Of course, since I am developing the skills I will use it for animation and other things, but my end goal is to be able to create video games.

 

How about you guys?

 

I am trying to post the .avi file. It is less than 1MB. If it does not work you'll have trust I completed it !

 

I did notice as Rodney pointed out in his guide for uploading, the preview button sometimes does funky things when you try to upload.

CanCanDance_Exercise1_.avi

[-TC-]

I now present..............

The Last exercise in the manual !!

 

I think i will be ordering a copy of "The Complete Guide to AM 2002" in the near future. Until then, i will proberly just find tutorials on the internet and do them. What do you think of the guide morphy ?

 

ultraapa - For some reason it wouldn't let me upload .avi's so i just decided to post screenshots instead. Mabey you could do that to ?

[Rodney]

Kevin,

There is a warning about using PREVIEW when posting images/attachments. Perhaps I need to put it in BOLD and RED!

 

Morphy,

I considered pinning the subject... but, I don't want everyone visiting the A:M Forum to be constantly pelted by New User Forum pinned topics. If you click "VIEW NEW POSTS" up at the top of the page you get the Pinned topics at the top of the results page... from all areas of the forum.

 

I have a solution.... just need time to implement!

It is something of a pinned Menu Page with links to Topics of interest here in the New Users Forum. You can see a test post in the

Useful Links area. Click on parts of the blue banner and you'll see the basic premise.

 

Eventually, the individual Exercises might be separated back out again so people can pick an Exercise as they see fit... and it will be easier to help each other out and see progress. For now... keeping them together allows more interaction.

 

Always open to ideas and suggestions...

Should the Exercises be separated?

What should be highlighted in the forum for New Users (and old users too )?

What would help A:M Users in completing The Art of Animation:Master and mastering the skills of animating in 3D?

[Rodney]

Morphy posted an excellent option for adding animations in a post.

Use an AVI to GIF utility to convert the AVI to an animated GIF.

 

As long as the GIF is under 1 MB... you can upload it here!

 

...and they really look cool!

[ultraapa]

I meant to say my words of wisdoms (such as it is) about what I have learned so far. Regarding exercise two, it became apparent from experient that all "actions" can not or should not be used with all models.

 

I have now finished Exercise 3. I have included a Picture of what I did from it.

 

Rodney, how do I get a certificate. I have completed and posted 3 exercises now.

 

TC - congrats on finishing. I was thinking about the handbook you are talking about, but I was wondering if it was still valid or not.

 

I tried to download the .avi file I put online and it seem to work for me. It played it in the Windows Media Player.

[ultraapa]

OK guys this is my last post for today and perhaps for a few days. I have some business in the real world to take care of. I am now finish Exercise 4. I have included a snap shot of the first screen. I had the boy throwing a pitch instead of the knight

Any thanks again all for being with me throughout this AM journey today.

 

PS.

 

Rodney, I really would like to have one of those certificates. I think I get four now ;-)

[Morphy]

Always open to ideas and suggestions...

Should the Exercises be separated?

What should be highlighted in the forum for New Users (and old users too )?

What would help A:M Users in completing The Art of Animation:Master and mastering the skills of animating in 3D?

Hi, Rodney.

 

My two cents worth:

I can see the attraction of having the exercises separated out into different threads, but I can also see that it might look a bit cluttered and confusing to a newbie user like me, who just happened to drift in.

 

As for helping people to complete the exercises, I think this thread is a superb idea. I don't think I've ever had a piece of software where I could log on and find people doing the exact same exercises I'm trying to do. It's very encouraging, motivating, etc etc.

 

The A of AM is great, but I found that I finished it feeling I'd been given a really great intro to the program, but still unable to actually produce any kind of movie of my own, and wondering where to go next.

 

What I personally would like (though I have doubts about how practical it would be) would be to see the idea extended a little bit wider - maybe another thread for people who (like me!) are working through the Complete Guide... or perhaps once a month or so we could pick one of the better on-line tutorials so we could try that and post our progress.

 

The book might be slightly more practical, as there are SO many internet tutorials, and what appeals to one person mightn't 'do it' for another.

 

Just a few ideas. I pretty much love the forum as it is.

[-TC-]

Morphy, what do you think of the Complete Guide to AM 2002 ? as i have now completed the manual and thinking of ordering a copy.

Any info would be great thanx.

And if anybody else wants to coment on the Complete Guide to AM2002, please do.

 

Nice work with the exercises so far, ultraapa.

[Morphy]

TC, I think The Complete Guide to 2002 is great. It's more than 500 pages long, and so far I'm only on page 144, but I'm finding it very, very helpful.

 

It's also easy. So far, I've found one short paragraph that I couldn't understand ever after lots of re-reading, but it was a non-essential bit of reference.

 

In the first chapter, it was clear that some of the controls/buttons he was referring to were no longer present in A:M 2004, but again, so long as you read the chapter in front of your PC with A:M running, it's not a problem. Mainly it seems that in 2002 you had to click buttons to get what is now the default in A:M.

 

There are lots and lots of tutorials, including the creation/animation of a complete figure. All the necessary models, project files etc are on the CD that comes with the book, but so far I haven't had to cheat and use them.

 

Also on the CD, there's a Quicktime movie of him doing each exercise. These aren't quite as good as the video tutorials for A of A:M (they have no sound), but on the occasions when I'm not totally sure I understand the text, watching the movie usually clears up the confusion.

 

Personally, I think this is the perfect next step onwards from the Art of A:M.

[-TC-]

Thanks for all that info Morphy, it was very useful.

I'll order a copy, when i get the chance.

[Rodney]

Morphy said:

What I personally would like (though I have doubts about how practical it would be) would be to see the idea extended a little bit wider - maybe another thread

 

You mean something like this:

The 'Annotated' Art of Animation:Master

 

The Annotated is meant to continue on where TAoAM leaves off, more or less.

I've seen a few tutorials out there that would be great supplemental exercises but a lot depends on whether the author of said tutorial sees it the same way.

 

There is a lot of room for growth and new ideas come and go as people wander in and out of the A:M Community.

 

I've joked with a few people about the inevitability of The Art of Animation:Master Volume 2! I have to be careful though because everytime I laugh at something like that... I usually end up championing the project.

 

One of the reasons why I'm steering toward the publication of an online A:M Digest is exactly to fill that gap between what you initially get when A:M arrives and what you can purchase from various resources. There is a lot of ground in between, and around, and laying about. A lot of these resources just aren't well known or fade in and out of view too quickly. Cost based or otherwise.

 

The Complete Guide is an excellent resource and it is listed in the Annotated.

If anyone has a good link I'll put that in there too.

 

Thanks for the input!

I'm listening.

[Robert_Waring]

I ordered the Technical Resource book for AM 11, and they shipped it on 6/22. I still don't have it. My word of advice to any of you who are considering ordering it, make sure you ship it something other than the "Nearly Dead three legged Horseback" method, or you'll be waiting a long time like me. I hope it's here this week.

 

I did receive my Pro Series Training Video 2003 yesterday. It's VERY good, but many of the videos are cut off due to time contraints, and one of them has a macintosh user (The CG/3D one on disk 2) who you have to watch him struggle with the windows interface. I just ordered another Anzovin CD, the non-linera animation one. Their training CD's are very good as well, and you get A LOT of value for the price. Highly recommended.

 

The Day Off the Dead video that comes with it is awesome!

[Morphy]

Hi, Robert.

 

Are you in the US? I ordered the Tech Resource book, and then based on what I'd read in the forum I settled down for a long, long wait.

 

But it arrived in just over a week. I'd been expecting it to come from the US, but it was actually sent from Germany (I'm in Ireland). I suppose if they're sending it surface mail to the US, it's going to take a lot longer

 

(A couple of weeks ago I ordered a copy of 3D Creature Workshop from the US. *It* was sent surface mail, and there's still no sign of it.)

 

I've also ordered the beginner's pack from Anxovin, and the CDs arrived yesterday - very speedy. So far, they look very very good, and I expect I'll be ordering more material from them, once I work through my current load of A:M stuff.

 

I think that for a program like AM, a CD is a great option. I can watch the movie for a minute or two, pause it and try to reproduce the work in A:M, then switch back to the movie for the next section.

 

I also have the 2002 complete guide, and I'm finding that in some of the modeling tutorials the textual instructions are a bit hard to visualise - I would be lost if the book didn't come with a CD showing all the tutorials.

[-TC-]

After some thinking, I ordered the Complete Guide to AM 2002, and i recieved an e-mail yesterday saying that it will be dispatched on the 11th and should arrive around 12th/13th.

[vf124]

...and one of them has a macintosh user (The CG/3D one on disk 2) who you have to watch him struggle with the windows interface.

 

Hmmm ... I dig macs

 

TC, congrads on your completion of the manual ... looks like Sir Rodney owes us some of his "beautiful" art work

[Robert_Waring]

No offense meant, one of my first computers was a Mac SE, before they had color! I just meant a lot of time is wasted watching him look for file, and/or navigate the windows interface. If he were on a Mac, a lot more could have been shown/talked about.

[-TC-]

Wow, that was quick, i ordered it on Friday night and it arrived today

Ive just flicked through some pages and from what i saw, i felt that i could learn a lot from the book, it looks great.

Anyway, im off to start chapter 1.

[Morphy]

TC,

 

I've spent the weekend working on chapter 5. I'm finding it pretty tough, and am coming to the conclusion that I have no natural aptitude for modeling!!

 

But I'm determined to stick with it. Here's my attempt (so far) at the 'Washer' character. I don't think he looks TOO unlike the one in the book, but I have an awful feeling that when I get to the part where I bone and animate him, I'll find that the splines are all wrong and won't animate right.

 

Oh well. I believe that you can learn almost anything if you stick with it, and I'm DETERMINED to stick with this. I really really really really want to be able to create some good models. In the meantime, I think I'm probably going to learn by making one big mistake after another - and hopefully learn a little more each time.

[Robert_Waring]

Your torso arms and neck look about 100 times better than my first attempt! Great job!

[-TC-]

I thinks thats looking good.

I haven't got to chapter 5 yet so im not sure how my attempt will go, but i have the feeling i might be trying that chapter a couple of times before i get it right. Nice work.

[ultraapa]

Hello,

 

The Animation Book that you guys are talking about; is that book of date? I was thinking about ordering but...

 

Are any of you guyst trying to specialize in an area like animation, modelling or directing?

 

I am trying to use all the skills and decide later if I want to specialize. I bought the technical reference and for me it is sorta like a dictionary with limited details on how to. It is more less something to refer back to as the name suggests.

 

I have completed exercise 5 and 6 and attached 5 below. I will attach 6 next.

[ultraapa]

OK,

 

Here comes Exercise 6. BTW, there is a DVD by a guy name Jeff Lew that may be worth checking out. I am thinking about ordering it.

[Rodney]

Looking good guys!

 

I have Wednesday off this week and (besides Wednesday Night Chat) Wednesday for me is certificate day.

 

If I don't get at least 1 certificate out to each of you then you are welcome to say mean things about me!

 

With a bit o luck I'll even get caught up!

 

Hang in there Morphy! You are well on your way!

[Morphy]

Ultraapa,

 

The book we're talking about is Animation:Master 2002 - The Complete Guide.

Like some other people, I was nervous about buying it because the '2002' made it sound pretty out of date.

 

In fact, I think it's one of the best software tutor books I've purchased for any program. In the first chapter (which deals with the interface) I spotted that there have been a couple of changes since 2002 - but if you've worked through The Art Of Animation Master, and if you read that chapter of The Complete Guide in front of your computer, it's very easy to spot the (very) few things that are outdated.

 

Once you get past that chapter, it all seems to be 100% relevant to the most recent version of A:M. In fact, I've purchased several 'up to date' software manuals for other programs, and they were LESS accurate than this book, because they were full of typing errors.

 

When I got to the modeling chapter of the Complete Guide, I started to panic because I sometimes didn't understand his instructions - but the book comes with a CD which includes videos of all the tutorials, and this clears up any confusion.

 

I really recommend the book very highly as the next step up from Art of Animation Master.

[vf124]

If I don't get at least 1 certificate out to each of you then you are welcome to say mean things about me! 

 

 

Okey dokey ....

[ultraapa]

I will try and purchase the 2002 Handbook soon since it comes highly recommended.

 

I have now completed Exercise 7 and 8. I have included Exercise 7. I found that this exercise was a little tricky because of the difficulty to actually "lip sync" the voice to the words that was said.

 

I'll post Exercise 8 next.

[modernhorse]

Like some other people, I was nervous about buying it because the '2002' made it sound pretty out of date.

I believe David Rogers has a site (I haven't visited it) where he has or is planning to update the book to keep it current, online.

 

That being said, I haven't found it to be that out-of-date with the current version. Yes, there are new features that aren't covered but that basics are there and its a very good book. I'm s-l-o-w-w-w-l-y working through it as well.

 

Rodney - should we start a thread for that too, so as not to clutter tAoAM thread?

 

Doug

[Rodney]

Rodney - should we start a thread for that too, so as not to clutter tAoAM thread?

 

Doug,

Excellent idea! I look forward to it!

[Rodney]

If it's not one thing it's ten...

I'll not bore you with the details though.

 

I've started to upload certificates...

 

I have about 15 certificates waiting for confirmation of completion dates.

I just have to research your posts and plug them in.

 

I did post about 6 certificates (not 6 eachyet !! ) for the following:

Chubb Wells

Christine

Wade Sacca

Robert Waring

Morphy

Doug Horning

 

... Lets see who am I forgetting...

 

I'll be contacting you to point out the filename and location.

The general format though is: Username+Certificate#.pdf

 

...Need...more...webspace...

[ultraapa]

OK Guys,

 

Here is Exercise 10 FW-190 Fighter

[Rodney]

ah... ultraapa.... there is one I missed....

 

Sorry 'bout that.

I'll get right on it tonight.

 

For all certificate getters... please email me with any information that you require to be added to your certificate. Needed information:

- Name to be placed on certificate

- Date completed exercise (If other than the date of your post)

- Other requests and wish lists (such as VF124's trophy... slightly worn with time)

 

Anyone else......

[Morphy]

Looks great, Ultraapa!

 

Fun, isn't it?!

 

Morph

[vf124]

- Other requests and wish lists (such as VF124's trophy... slightly worn with time)

 

wow

[Sacman]

Hey Rodney, even though I love to troll this post and stick in my two cents now and again, sadly I completed some (not all) of the excercises long ago in a very half-hearted way. About my only useful contribution to this discussion has been the DO NOT PREVIEW post. That being said, you do not owe me a certificate for anything. As I read through these posts, I keep wanting to go back and do them so I can play too, but between a family, my personal projects and that damn America's Army game, I never find time. Maybe one day.

 

Thanks

 

Wade

[-TC-]

Nice work on the FW-190, ultraapa.

Oh, Rodney, u missed me.

[ultraapa]

Hey, thanks for the compliments!!

 

I have been searching for an inexpensive book on Animation. I have found plenty of books on other applications readily available but nothing on Animation Master without ordering. In addition, I have been trying to find some inexpensive books

;-). It looks like I'm going to have to shell out the cash for the 2002 Handbook.

 

Has anyone looked at the online tutorials?

 

Here is Exercise 11. I did it a little bit different than the FW-190 Fighter. Instead of decaling I used materials to make it look like it was carved from wood.

 

I also finished the lip posses for Exercise 12. I have nothing to show for that. It really was not an exercise to display any modelling.

 

I would say that modelling and animation takes a bit of talent to master. For me, modelling is somewhat more difficult. Actually, I have some questions for you guys but this post is already too long so I'll save it for next time. Here is Exercise 11 - the wooden giraffe.

[Rodney]

TC,

Sorry. I may have missed you... but I haven't forgotten you!

Technical difficulties have made even posting to the forum a bit difficult of late...

 

I should launch an email your way in a day or two.

[-TC-]

Thanks Rodney,

Nice work on that Giraffe ultraapa.

[vf124]

Technical difficulties have made even posting to the forum a bit difficult of late...

 

 

[Rodney]

Not to worry.... acts of God notwithstanding.... I won't be gone for long.

In the meantime... Enjoy a few minutes of posting without constant posting from me.

 

Note: I did say minutes though as even in my current state of disconnectivity... I'm still hard to get rid of.

[ultraapa]

Thanks TC. How is the 2002 Handbook coming along?

 

Here is Exercise 13 Boneless Thom. I set him up so that he looks liike he's falling.

[ultraapa]

Just Finised Exercise 14. I call this "Marble Man" ;-)

[-TC-]

Nice work again ultraapa, you're gonna finish the handbook in no time.

The 2002 Guide is great, i havent got much done yet because i've been busy, but i've flicked through the pages, and it seems like a very helpful book. Im in the middle of chapter 1 at the moment which explains about patches, and making simple shapes.

[Morphy]

Hi Ultraapa,

 

Once again, great work. You're really zooming through the book, and I can assure you that by now you've finished all the most difficult tutorials.

 

TC, I'm a little ahead of you on 2002. I've made my complete Washer character, and moved on to the chapter on making sets. I got a bit bogged down in making the TV remote control, but that was because I got bored, not because it was difficult.

 

I've noticed that he's started giving a lot less detail in the text of the chapters, but thankfully the CD videos fill in the gaps.

[-TC-]

Morphy, glad to hear you finished that washer model. Could you post a pic of it ?

I can see how you could get bored with that remote control, its not too exciting, but i guess it helps.

 

Ive got quite a bit of spare time now, so i will hopefully get more done with this book.