Anim8or Community

 Hello there.
 I've been working on this short movie for a wee while now, and last night i thought i'd make a short preview.
  Some things could use tweeking.
 The movie itself is now at 9 minutes long. Mostly done, but more sound to be added, and movie needs ending.
 I've just realised that youtube have a 10 minute limit, so i may be able to finish it under that time, or i may have to release it in parts.
 We'll see....

 Heres the link


and i've posted a pic, which hopefrully will be shown below.

 Bye for now
johnar

 See if any of your softwares has chromokeying.
 If so, there will be information with your software on how to use it
 Its a bit too involved for me to explain here.

 Chromo-keying removes a chosen colour from your pic/video, leaving transparencey where that color used to be.

 Not too bad.
 The cut tool is a very handy tool.

 Or;

 Theres a 'draw line' tool?. (i think thats what its called.  Down the leftside toolbar, while in point edit mode, its a knife.
 Select that, and the edge selection setting. (ie: points, faces or edges, choose edges.)

 Now you can cut new lines into your object.
 To keep the inside of the jaws 'sharp-edged' while subdividing the whole spanner, just cut a new line really close to the existing inside-jaw lines.

  Hopefully you can follow that. Sorry i can't post an image right now.

 By cutting a new line on the inside of an existing line.

 Then go 'build -> convert to subdivided'.

 Hope that helps.

 To complete your movie, with post production editing and sound, you'll need a video editing software.
 (there are some free ones, but not sure of names off-hand).
 (google?)
  'Sony Movie studio' is not expensive, and is built up from 'Sonic Foundry Vegas Video', which is now quite old, but absoloutly rocks.

 Adding sound, and being able to edit together your final 'Anim8or rendered videos,  will really take you to that next stage of movie-making. 

 This tut will also explain, (i hope),  a basic theory about using morph targets.
 The only difference is that, instead of morphing a cube you would be applying the principles to a face, and its expressions.

 

 Nice. .  That method gives excellent results. Little bit of mucking around if the animation becomes a bit more complex, but aprt from that, it looks like it gives a decent result.
 I got home the other day, thinking i had this floor-skating thing sussed. But then when i tried to get it right through double keying etc..., i realised that it wasn't as straight forward as i had thought.
 (i remember, quite a while ago, when we discovered that a double key would bring your character to a dead stop.  Then a corner key further down would hold is position till then. Over time i must've created the false illusion that i could now stop floor slipping altogether. Hmmm.)
 I got it in the end, by means of a 'measuring stick'. (step stick).
 Just a longish black rectangle, with white markings, each exactly the same size as the characters foot, and spaced exactly the distance apart of the characters 'stride'. (i used morph targets on the stick to stretch the distance between his stride till i got it just right. The stride also needs to be the same for both left and right steps. (sequence mode adjustment).

 Put character in scene and position it. Then add 'step-stick',  side view of the character,, and position under his feet, with front foot perfectly in white area. Key position, copy position key and paste on next frame.
 But heres the mundane bit. Every third frame i would make sure the position of the foot was the same as 3 frames earlier.  (Turn off Y and Z position axis, slide character on X axis back to the right position if needed. Key position each 3rd frame)
 Continue till back leg has travelled to front. When new front leg, (foot), touches ground, key position, and again, copy-paste that key to next frame, and repeat as before, keying every 3rd frame.

 So, there is still a bit of mucking round, but results are reasonably ok.
 I should post an example vid, but can't do right now. Am in town and don't have it on my flashdrive.
 maybe 2moro.

 
 

 Cool. I'm gonna have a bash at 1 too.

(My mechanical versions are posted in Works in Progress forum.)
 
 Cheers for the comment headwax.