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Ian Ross has just released a book on Anim8or. It's perect for a beginner and a good reference for experienced users. It contains detailed chapters on every aspect, with many examples. Get your own copy here: "Anim8or Tutorial Book"

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Messages - Mills

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46
Congratulations to Tof for winning, but to both of you for outstanding entries: it really wasn't easy choosing who to vote for!

47
Anim8or v0.98 Discussion Forum / Re: Is this a known problem with ART?
« on: January 15, 2010, 08:47:22 pm »
Sounds absolutely right to me, Kyle. I must confess I hadn't used ART to that degree as I still tend to stick with v.95. Always happy to be corrected! I do remain fairly sure this is the cause of flatness in your images, but I guess it's more a 'known limitation' than a 'bug' as such?

48
Anim8or v0.98 Discussion Forum / Re: Is this a known problem with ART?
« on: January 12, 2010, 06:10:29 am »
I realise this is an old topic, but it doesn't seem to have been fully answered.

Firstly, this is NOT a problem with the ART renderer.

As stated previously, the highlighted areas in the posted images are showing at their full ambient value (grey in most cases). This is because these areas are not receiving any diffuse light AT ALL, which leads to the conclusion that shadows from the included light sources have been set to 100%. Faces of objects not receiving ANY diffuse light can only display at their ambient value, so if a chair or a bed is causing total occlusion of an object (ie casting a 100% shadow), all faces in that shadow will only display their ambient colour, regardless of which 'way' they are facing in respect to any lights present.

Ambient light is represented as an artificial glow taken by objects in 3d applications. This is a crude, but usually effective, representation of what ambient light actually is, which is real light bouncing off a million different surfaces to the extent that it no longer has a 'direction'. You can see this effect yourself by rendering a scene with only one black light in it - you will still 'see' all of the objects in your scene, but they will be completely 'flat', and completely unaffected by where the black light is located. Diffuse (scene) lighting is what gives them 'volume'. If you want to use 100% shadows, you really need to be setting all of your ambient colours to 0, and placing your own ambient light sources in your scenes.

The easiest way to 'fix' this would be to reduce your shadow level from all lights, generally a value of about 95% or just above looks best in this sort of scene.

Your alternative (as stated) is to have an additional, low level light source in the centre of the room. Not adding any shadows to this light will provide the 'volume' you are looking for, even on the surfaces which are not apparently facing the light (eg under the bed, or the side of the night-stand).

Also as stated, excellent work on the models Kyle, your renders look superb, I hope you get them looking exactly how you want!

49
Anim8or Challenges / Re: Challenge #8: Walk Cycle
« on: August 26, 2009, 05:20:57 am »
Definitely just a question of time for me; don't have time to produce a respectable animation by the deadline, and don't want to just post something old as it seems object-defeating.

I don't think people come to Anim8or looking for a 3D animation tool specifically, they're just looking for a 3D package to work with (the name is incidental!). Certainly I found the program needing something to produce a very basic, still render. Still and moving renders are very different things as I'm sure you all know well; but the render time is always quite limiting in producing animations. It's feasible to wait 50 hours for a still frame, but who would wait even a quarter of that time if it was one frame out of 100? A still render can be a nice, easy, and very complete product in a comparatively short time frame.

50
Anim8or Challenges / Re: [ VOTING ] Challenge #7: Old and Rusty.
« on: August 18, 2009, 12:35:58 pm »
Well done to all and congratulations to Indian8or - victory by a landslide!

51
Anim8or Challenges / Re: Challenge #7: Old and Rusty.
« on: August 15, 2009, 11:07:33 am »
Just stopping by to cast my vote(s) and wanted to say well done to everyone who took part; a real shame a few projects weren't finished as the early parts looked really promising and - if previous submissions are anything to go by - no doubt my voting choices would have been even harder to make if they had been complete.

52
Anim8or Challenges / Re: Challenge #7: Old and Rusty.
« on: August 10, 2009, 03:44:45 am »
Here's my entry; 6 hours modelling/texturing and a whopping 50+ hours rendering (original size 1152x768 at (probably excessive) 144 AA samples). Greenery outside window is a cheat (flat bitmap). Colour output and depth map rendered in Anim8or, dm applied as focal blur in PhotoShop; no other after effects.
Would have liked to tweak it a bit, but that's not really an option with these rendering times!

53
Hi
I've been aware of two very minor 'bugs' in Anim8or - I've just checked they're still in the 0.97d preview (they are) and, as they've existed since I started using Anim8or (v0.6ish) I thought I'd mention them:

1) OBJECT MODE - SPHERE PARAMETERS - The tab order on the Lon/Lat value boxes in the Sphere Parameters dialogue is the wrong way round (Lat -> Lon)

2) SCENE MODE - ADVANCED LIGHT PARAMETERS - When changing the 'Percent Dark' of a light from its default (70), then changing the Volume/Ray Trace setting in the same dialogue session, the 'Percent Dark' value reverts to 70.

Hardly vital, as I say, but just thought maybe they should be recorded?

With thanks

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