Anim8or Community

 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.

 OK.  Mystertysmith, I think Indian8or has the same answers as i would have given.
 Now that i understand what type of billboard you are talking about, it seems that maybe i've missed my chance at posting my 'mechanical' examples in this post.
 But i might upload and put a link into 'finished works and works in progress', for anyone that might want to see it anyway.

 Thanks Hiho.

 Kreator. Cheers for that info.

 Mysterysmith. Good luck with your project.

Edit: have uploaded vid, is now processing.
 Will add link in Finished works this afternoon.

 Actually, i've dug mine out, and it needs some tweaking.
 If you could let me off the hook for another 24 hours  

 Mine has like 'vertical strips, which when stood together, wide-face forward and side by side, appear as 1 continuous flat plane.
 An image is applied to that '1 apparent plane'.
 Then,  each strip  rotates, ( together, but seperately), along the x axis, for a rotation of 180 degrees.
 At 180 degrees rotation, the backs of the strips are now displayed, This new 'apparent single plane', has a different image attached.

 whew.

 Does that make any sense.
 Anyway, i'll get it posted just ASAP.

 

 Cool. I've made some moving billboards.
 Will post an example 2moro, after i get home and dig out the old vid and files. Could be 24-36 hours away