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Messages - Old Codger

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1
General Anim8or Forum / Texture registration problem
« on: August 03, 2025, 10:57:22 am »
I'm trying to use textures to apply logos and text to the side of a model. I made sure that the background of the texture is the same RGB color as the material. Unfortunately the texture is clearly delineated on the model. Suggestions for what I'm doing wrong?

2
General Anim8or Forum / Re: Another Possibly Stupid Question
« on: August 02, 2025, 08:14:54 am »
I think I figured out what I was doing wrong. When adding textures you have to load the texture in both the ambient AND diffuse channels. I wasn't doing that, only the ambient.

3
General Anim8or Forum / Another Possibly Stupid Question
« on: July 30, 2025, 12:03:25 pm »
I finally figured out how to make and delete textures AND I even assigned a jpeg as a texture (does it need to be a .bmp?). Then I applied the material (supposedly) with the texture to the selected faces. THEN I pressed the UV button. Problem: The texture never shows up.

Here's the possibly stupid question: How do I actually apply the texture to the mesh? I selected all the faces to which I want to apply the texture but nothing seems to happen. How to I actually apply the material with the texture file to the selected faces? I cannot find how to do that. If the procedure for doing that is in the manual (and I just missed it) a simple notice of the page in the manual will suffice.

4
General Anim8or Forum / Re: Possibly Stupid Question
« on: July 30, 2025, 11:51:19 am »
Yeah, I finally saw the delete button on the material. Talk about a flat-forehead moment!

5
General Anim8or Forum / Possibly Stupid Question
« on: July 29, 2025, 01:04:13 pm »
Hello, all. I've been away for a while. Got real sick and couldn't spend much time at the PC. Feeling better now and getting back into Stephen's marvelous toy. I am building the most detailed models I ever have. Crap ton (for me) of eye candy surface details.

I have a possibly stupid question about materials. (Don't believe there are stupid questions? Watch a video of Rumsfeld and the newsies during Desert Shield/Storm.) Here goes: I know how to edit a material and how to copy one. What if I am cleaning up the project and I want to delete a material? Is there a way to do that?

Thanks in advance. I'll go back to my rat killing and leave you good folks alone.

6
General Anim8or Forum / Re: Suggestions Solicited
« on: April 25, 2024, 12:11:38 pm »
I've been experimenting with different ways of making the "star drive" dome. The problem is that the shape I started with before applying smoothing twice is a power of 2. Unfortunately the stills indicate I need a shape that has 3 as a factor so I'm taking the over all shape of the dome, converting part of it to a spline and lathing it to 30 segments. Smoothing it once gives me 60 longitudinal segments and thus 3 as a factor. I am going to have to do something similar for the bottom half of the saucer proper because I will need to cut 3 landing stairs. BTW, this is just an old man killing time. I have no real project I'm working on. When I have something to show I'll post a link to my gallery on Deviant Art.

7
General Anim8or Forum / Re: Suggestions Solicited
« on: April 24, 2024, 11:23:48 am »
Thank you for that interesting suggestion! I figured the answer was somewhere in that direction but just couldn't see it.

Rather than Corel I use Photoshop Elements (21) but I'm pretty sure I can get the same effect.

Meanwhile, looking closely at the available stills from the film, it is apparent to me that I am going to have to have a couple of different models of the bottom portion of the saucer. While the partial dome on the bottom (some sources call it the "star drive") is very much segmented and lit up while "in flight", the part is smooth and seamless when landed. Oh well. More to figure out how to do. But again, thanks so much for your excellent suggestion!

8
General Anim8or Forum / Suggestions Solicited
« on: April 22, 2024, 12:21:08 pm »
I have decided I want to produce my own take on some of the iconic spaceships from classic SciFi films. I'm starting with the C-57D "Space Cruiser" from the 1956 cult film "Forbidden Planet". I found a useable, scalable exterior view and dimensions to make the shape of the hull. I'm not worried about the saucer itself because I can visualize the shapes needed to model the thing.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to do one of the iconic shots in the film, namely the landing. How would you go about getting that double glow underneath the craft when it is landing. I can see there are two different cones but how might I get the edges to be kind of indefinite? I can do transparency and textures even transparency map texture. No problem. I'm looking for suggestions as to how to give those "landing beams" indistinct edges. If there is a tutorial on doing something like this (a "hologram" display?) a simple link will suffice. Otherwise I know there some really talented people in the community and I wanna pick your brains.

I do plan to animate the landing so I will definitely looking for advice on how to animate various elements.

9
General Anim8or Forum / Re: Reorienting Axes Trick
« on: April 20, 2024, 01:25:33 pm »
All anybody could ask, sir.

10
General Anim8or Forum / Re: Reorienting Axes Trick
« on: April 13, 2024, 03:53:19 pm »
You are the man, Steve, and the true source of knowledge about all things related to your marvelous toy, but when I tried what you said nothing happened. Below is a screen shot after doing the pivot command. I tried it before and it never worked for me. But the mirroring trick does so I'm happy.

For the record I am running V1.00b.1296 27 August 17

11
General Anim8or Forum / Reorienting Axes Trick
« on: April 11, 2024, 10:08:51 am »
I've discovered a way to trick Anim8or into resetting the object axes post rotation. Mirroring. If you convert an mesh to mirrored, the axes realign automatically. So I rotate as necessary then convert to mirrored. Bingo! The mesh retains its current orientation and all the axes revert to 0 rotation.

What do you think?

12
General Anim8or Forum / Re: Possibly Stupid Question for Stephen
« on: March 30, 2024, 03:55:45 pm »
"You can alway change a sphere into a subdivision object for finer detail"
Thank you for the answer. I've never needed to sub-divide and object - or at least I didn't know that I might. I guess I'll have to experiment with that element of the program. Again, thank you for the answer. I was just being nosey. I always like to know what went on in a real programmer's mind.

13
General Anim8or Forum / Possibly Stupid Question for Stephen
« on: March 28, 2024, 03:38:40 pm »
First off, if I ask a "why" question it is purely to understand how something came to be done as/when it was.

So:

My question involves the parameters that can be entered when first creating a sphere. For instance, when I create a lat/long sphere I can specify up to 24 longitude lines but latitude maxes out at 16. May I ask why the difference? And why the (for some things) low limits? (Note: "I don't remember." and "Nunya business." are absolutely acceptable responses.)

When I go to create a geodesic sphere (dome actually for me) the maximum number of "divisions" is 6. Why that number? I'm wondering if it was just a choice or there was a practical/procedural reason for those parameter limits.
(I'll go away now. Stephen, I am in such awe at what you have accomplished with Anim8or that you cannot believe it.)

14
General Anim8or Forum / Re: Newby To Scenes Needing Assistance
« on: February 24, 2024, 09:33:05 am »
Thank you. I figured it was something like that but I have started taking a new med and was feeling really punk yesterday.

15
General Anim8or Forum / Newby To Scenes Needing Assistance
« on: February 23, 2024, 03:37:50 pm »
Okay, so I have taken the plunge and am trying to use the scene function to make pictures where I control camera placement and lighting. I get that there is a good bit to that so can be patient. What I need to do is to get rid of that checkerboard floor. I haven't read all the way through the manual section on scenes but am working my way through it. But for the moment I need to get rid of the floor. How do I do that?

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