Rodney

I'm pretty sure I ran into a bug/crash while creating this runthrough. Exporting a model from an Action via the Right Click > Export Model is failing. Steps to reproduce: - Create a simple model (doesn't need bones) - Open that model in a new Action - Right Click in the Action Window > Export Model Don't have anything important open at this time that hasn't been saved as this should lead to a crash. For the curious, how I like to use this export of a model via Actions is to set the default pose of a character or object as a dedicated model. That model then will always return to that state if I remove all other influences so I can easily return to that pose. In this case it was a pose of Shaggy sitting on the giant's throne. Pose him in that key position and then start actually animating the performance directly in the Chor. I'm going to reinstall A:M to make sure it's not just random cobwebs in the system.

This was an exercise in building a tunnel and large chamber/throneroom (presumably of a giant). ShaggyintheThroneRoom.mp4 I ended up fighting lights more than doing anything else.

Thanks Robert, I'm definitely looking forward to the next release. I haven't been able to get into A:M Reports for some time and it refuses to reset my password. I think I'm locked out.

Thought I'd put together a desktop that focuses on The Art of Animation:Master and ran into a new aspect of the patch image bug. The animated TaoA:M pages on the screen should stop at Exercise 1 but... AnimationFirst_Desktop.mp4 Apparently because I have Save Upon Render on in Options the project is saved which reverts the patch image keys out of the project just prior to rendering. A short term workaround is to turn off the Save Upon Rendering option to allow the keys to persists long enough to render. When the project file is saved you'll still lose the patch image data but you'll at least have your render. AnimationFirst_Desktop_freezeframe.mp4

Some general documentation and encouragement regarding spline patch modeling: Animation-First_Philosophy.pdf

Here's a simplified version of this treegen project. Funny error in the project file: The leaves of the trees are assigned to the bush groups so moving the bushes moves the leaves. Because all the trees and bushes were generated in one go the lightest leaves are all on the rightmost trees and bushes I do like the lighter patch density of this approach. Not a full success but not an abject failure either. I did a little more with this but I'll spare you for now. SimpleTreesandBushes.prj

There are better ways to do this, including our very own Treeez plugin but I had to give tree/plant generation a try. And I learned some things in the process which is always a plus. I do not recommend using anything more than a simple patch for most leaves but in this case I wanted to see how a more realistic leaf would work. A:M handled the number of patches quite well but it was overkill on so many levels. If we have a shot that needs some 'hero leaves' then sure, we should model those appropriately. Otherwise, keep it simple. The branches were interesting and I devised a plan to ensure the base of branches always had an origin in it's parent branch. That lead to some false starts as root CPs all moved to the same CP on the parent branch... and later, to different CPs on that same spline ring... All this did was ensure the base of branches tapered unrealistically. Attempting to leverage the number of leaves that was being generated I suggested all leaves should point in different directions and be further spaced apart. This yielded a nice exploding bush. On the left are the two shapes I fed GPT. Interestingly, GPT suggested the shapes be placed with a pivot base and I agreed. It then created a version of my shapes that had their base on the 0 axis. Nicel done GPT. The leaves having a lighter side is intentional as I instructed GPT to have lighter greens toward where light might come from and darker greens to to opposite. Those colors being assigned to the actual geometry via the patches. Disclaimer: Leafy trees embedded in Project files are pretty dense. proxy_tree.prj

I kind of stalled out on creating a cockpit with all the bells and whistles/buttons but decided to put Thom to work pushing the warning button. Still very much a work in progress. The HUD demonstrates the bug with patch images flipping back to their original orientation after saving. thomflies.mp4 cockpittestA.prj

I'm still plugging away, mostly with backgrounds sets. This latest was more of a reflection exercise as I usually avoid blurs and reflections. I was fighting this shot for quite awhile trying to get just the right camera angle... just the right reflections... etc. etc. The moon is one of my (pat. pending) 5 point patch circles. (and it'd be good to keep the moon in place for parallax purposes) I made no attempt to update the proxy trees. Project file should have everything embedded. LakeFrontPark.mp4 LakeFrontPark.prj

I've been having a blast and exploring a lot. Here, have a pic: Okay. What exactly is this? This is just a quick illustration of a utility I threw together that allows for extracting parts of models based on Named Groups, saving them out as separate models. the shape on the top is the original model and the 3 shapes on the bottom are those three sections extracted from the model and drag/dropped back into the Chor. A simple example but particularly useful for complex models where we might have parts that lack detail and we want to extract that part to plus it up and drop it back in separately. The simple interface: For the moment I'm keeping all groups inside the extracted models to ensure that groups that effect the extracted splines and patches still get the effects of those assignments. This does tend to cause an error in A:M when Groups don't have any assigned CPs and I'll likely add a pass that removes those Groups in the extracted models. As a more complex example, let's say we have this town square with a number of proxy buildings, pave stones, fountain: If barely seen in a shot the proxy will likely be fine. But for those objects we need to plus up we can extract those and plus them up. If we extract the Barber Shop for instance: We can steadily improve upon it until it meets the needs of our production. This update is still in the 'proxy' arena but its starting to look a bit more like a barber shop.

I've been having some decal issues although I haven't explored the whys and whatfores. I can decal simple geometry but some attempts at more complex geometry created the decal but didn't place it onto the mesh. I'll see if I can drum up a test case but I haven't explored further things like flattening etc. to make sure it's not an isolated event. The specific case I am attempting is to decal several shelves full of books all at the same time. (I'd drop by at Live Answer Time but... Star Wars: Baby Yoda's Revenge is on the schedule.

Really looking forward to the next release. Installing older releases is the workaround for various issues in the meantime. Any recommendations for the best release for decaling?

@LucasGabrielzip I joined your discord. My take would be to use discord to collect your project and produce daily work toward the completion of your projects; posting the highlights back to this forum when you hit specific milestones. Use the space to move your project forward and... by all means provide a space for those who prefer discord to hang out and explore. Discord is a great place to chat and get realtime feedback. I suggest 'personal project' approach because several years back I created an Animation:Master discord and while it got a few visits initially the main thing it accomplished was just lessening my posts here in this forum. (which could be a good thing depending on your perspective!). That A:M discord is still sitting there silently and is available if I ever need to use it but doesn't serve much of a purpose beyond holding links to some old resources. It's not my personal/private discord as I have one of those that also is rarely used One never knows when they might want to chat with themself. ;). Don't read me wrong, I'm a fan of discord and spend an inordinate amount of time there in support of the Opentoonz community. I keep track of some 20+ different discords as well. Opentoonz and most of those others however don't have a dedicated forum like A:M Forums does which makes the need for a discord for them considerably more important.

Wow @Yopachi, I didn't realize how much I needed to see that. Outstanding essay that captures so much or the Animation:Master experience (and early 3DCG history) in such as short video.

Here's that same GPT generated airplane with some minor tweaks (mostly to control point positions):