Anim8or Community

hi @CrashOveride,
for default .3ds exports only meshs, but you can user Third Tools...
in my case im trying uses .md2 / .md5 files, that uses 3d figure animations... i uses:
Ani2Pov for this check it:
http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php/topic,3982.msg28998.html#msg28998

http://texel3d.free.fr/projets/ani2pov/

Very nice renders.

With the diffuse constant at 0 you'll only get specular rflections which will be biased towards the camera. You could add a bumpmap or normal map of a noise texture to the wall to spread the light out a bit, or set the diffuse constant to omething > 0. But I don't know if the diffuse constant will help because Anim8or doesn't have path tracing (... yet ...) which is a much more realistic light model.

Just a quick update to show another method that seems to work great.

This render uses similar settings I mentioned before and use An8 Lights

AA = 100, time = 30min

This render however uses no "lights", its totally self illuminated (and different to the lightsabre shown elsewhere) and uses a much simpler material setting

AA = 196, time = 45min

the material set for this is
Ambient =0
Diffuse = 0
Specular = 1 + Texture
Emissive = 1 + Texture (For Model Light only)
Rough = 0
Attributes = class(glossyreflector)

So now there is no more huge numbers - but lights must be built-in to the object or use sky.

One odd thing, the light seems to radiate with bias toward the camera...

Trev

Good feedback, davdud101. I'm aware of the scene playback problem that happens on a lot of systems, but haven't been able to isolate the cause. It works OK for me almost all the time so it's difficult to catch in the debugger.

Do you have an example of the subdivision crash that you can send me?

The backward lurch is a side effect of simple Bezier splines. I have some ideas for eliminating it that should help.  Stay tuned...

You probably already know - pushing and holding the right cursor key sort of plays the scene without it hanging.

For me too it only hangs (display frozen) until it reaches the end of the scene. I never put loop scene on because then it hangs forever....

(I haven't run the latest version in anger yet, my comments are based on older v1+ versions)
 

Oh yeah, that I've used a lot. But sometimes you just crave to see the fruit of your labors without having to put in ANY more effort, lol

Glad to know it's not just me! I think those are the big two issues I've perpetually had with Scene mode- it doesn't play back at full speed (so you have to sort of guess and then render and hope it's right) and then it freezes DURING playback so you can't even get a decent preview without holding the right arrow key.

You probably already know - pushing and holding the right cursor key sort of plays the scene without it hanging.

For me too it only hangs (display frozen) until it reaches the end of the scene. I never put loop scene on because then it hangs forever....

(I haven't run the latest version in anger yet, my comments are based on older v1+ versions)
 

Looks quite darned good, LIL ZEBOS, I really love how the reflection in the cup seems to show MORE of the 'scene' around that's out of view.

If you're wanting constructive criticism, I feel as if a higher-density/higher res bumpmap on the bread/buns themselves, as well as on the table and wall, could go a long way to making those parts of the scene look more realistic.
There also look to be some little bumpmapped lines on the plate - not sure if these are meant to be scratches? but when I think of scratches on a plate from a knife, they tend to but very thin and not very deep. Otherwise they end up looking like gouges!

A touch of ambient occlusion (to increase the darkness in the shadows where the objects are closest together) and you're well on your way!

Nice work thus far - and welcome if I haven't said it already!

The name servers at my hosting site crashed yesterday. All links to anim8or.com were unavailable for half a day. It should be all working now (but the log-in issue KREATOR mentioned can still happen - that's another problem.)

- I'm running into at least one bug on my two most recent projects where if I have a subdivide on screen, general at Division level 3 or 4, and then I bring up the CAD Annotations and then enter Point Edit mode, Anim8or will outright crash. It doesn't seem to be a case of too-high poly count or anything because it'll be smooth sailing right up until it crashes.

- I love using edge properties, as they avoid having to create complex geometry and stuff for more refined models. However getting to them is hard to do, and getting them to seem to say set to their value is also tough (they'll visually stay the same but sometimes the number just won't be there depending on what the value is)

- For some reason the drag-select doesn't like working properly sometimes. Every once in a while (like last night) I'll open the software and drag select will only select a few things at a time regardless of what I drag across.

- Scene editor has ALWAYS, for just about as long as I can remember, been freezing up while playing back scenes. I'm not sure if anyone else has had this issue but it does it pretty much always for me. This is my first time trying full-on animation again after years of not touching the Scene editor. Got a scene for a CAD animation that's 16s long and it freezes about 2s in and unfeezes when it's done.

- Doesn't seem like Anim8or plays back scenes in real time. I think this has been the downfall of the quality of many Anim8or users' animations. I mentioned a while ago that I've got a pretty beefy system that would be more that capable of handling Anim8or at its highest output.




The main thing for ME that I think would sweeten the pot as far as using Anim8or for animation would be keyframe editing buttons in Scene mode, maybe at the very bottom of the timetrack, that allow simply adding a keyframe for the selected object, changing the Key type (which for me has always made it tough to animate - that slight 'lurch' back that everything with a smooth key type does before moving in the intended direction, which seems to be the default). I guess it has some interpolation which is fine for organic stuff, but oftentimes needs to be corrected when it's something inorganic/more static which takes a LOT of times when there's a lot of objects moving and things happening.




In any case Anim8or is still without question my go-to software for quick-but-accurate prototyping of ideas. I'm just finding that when I extend my use of the program any further than what I KNOW I can do with it, I'm running into issues that make it much harder to work.

Seems to be ok now, original login working as normal.