Anim8or Community

To summarise the steps in creating and applying basic materials:

• Click the Materials icon in the top bar (looks like 4 balls) to open the materials panel
• You have two panels to choose from, File and Object.  Materials created in File are available for all objects, materials in Object are only available for the specific object *
• Double click the empty material slot titled 'New' to open the material editor.  There's more to this editor than I can cover here, the manual covers it better than I can, but to start with use the colour selector to choose a basic colour in the Ambient and Diffuse channels, eg. red.  Click OK and your red material should show at the top of the materials panel
• To create a second material, double click the 'New' slot and do the same process as above
• In Object/Edit mode (arrow at top left of the toolbox), click the object, then click the colour slot you want, then click 'Apply' at the top of the materials panel.  This will apply that material to the whole object
• To apply your second colour to just one face, change to Object/Point edit mode (3 dots in toolbox), ensure Face select is selected in the toolbox below XYZ, ensure 'Front' is selected in the row below that, and click on the face whose material you want to change. As before, click the material you want in the materials panel and click Apply to apply that colour to just the selected face

Obviously you can select multiple faces to apply the second colour to as required.  UV mapping in Anim8or is quite powerful and easy to control but needs a bit more explanation, we can cover this once you have the gist of creating and applying materials.  I attempted to create a video but my screen capture software is prehistoric and the resolution is terrible, and W10's Game Bar capture software doesn't seem to capture pop-up menus, annoyingly.

* Copying and pasting a mesh from one Object to another Object within the same project also copies any object-specific materials it uses into the new object.  Since this can get a bit messy with duplicates if (like me) you tend to build meshes in one Object and assemble them in another, I normally use the 'File' panel pretty much exclusively.

Regarding the lifting points, I'm not sure what method you used to build them but (like so many things in Anim8or) there are several different approaches you could have taken.  The method outlined below took about 5 minutes, including the time to screenshot the steps.

Start with an N-gon, setting the number of steps to whatever seems reasonable (max is 100, in the example below I set it to 24). Copy/paste and enlarge the copy so there are two concentric circles, being the lifting point 'hole' and the outer rounded top part (2nd image).  Select both circles, Build > Join Splines, then Build > Extrude.  In the extrude dialog ensure end caps are selected and choose the extrusion axis that's towards you (ie. the axis not shown at bottom left of the screen - green arrow in the third image below).  Pull the points in the bottom part of the outer circle into a squared-off shape, snapping to the grid (4th image).  Adjust thickness of the object if required.

I should point out that I'm not saying this is the 'best' method, just a quick one.  The best method to use in any case depends largely on the ultimate purpose of the model, for example if the intention was to smooth or subdivide the object it would be better to use a method that doesn't create 3-sided polygons (such as using the lathe tool to create the 'donut' in step 3 before pulling the points out).  The Join Splines and Extrude tools can be a quick way to create complex perforated objects, such as the second attachment.

Using a geodesic sphere is a good solution, and as you say the topology lends itself to being easily bisected into halves, quarters etc.  I'm not a big fan of the irregularity of it though, starting with a polygonal primitive results in all 'panes' being identical.  But, like most things in Anim8or, there are multiple ways of achieving what you need

I've made a few domes with Anim8or, below is a way I've found that does a reasonably good job for smallish domes.  It's not strictly geodesic but has a regular appearance.  If the empty faces should be filled with 'glass' I would create a copy of the object at the third stage below, slightly reduce the size, give it a transparent material and overlay it with the 'frame' object.

This modelling technique doesn't give a triangular cross section of the frame elements, that could be simulated by (painstakingly) selecting the 'centreline' nodes in each frame segment and increasing the scale.

I don't have Daz but I do have Carrara which has Daz/Poser object import algorithms.  On creating some test cubes in Anim8or and importing them to Carrara via the OBJ format the following appears to be the case:

Anim8or: 1 units
OBJ: 0.0254 units
Carrara: .0254 metres
Poser/Daz: 2.439 metres

So it seems, at least for these tests, that 1 Anim8or unit translates to 1 inch as a straight import, and 96 inches for a Daz Studio or Poser import (which maps 96 'Carrara units' to 1 OBJ unit).

A tricky workaround might be to use four cameras co-located and 'splayed' horizontally and vertically, then stitch the images together externally

I guess most of the help I'd need is rigging and sequencing. Some form of particle effects (at least mimicking) would be helpful too. I am no where near being proficient with the lip synching. And any improvements or suggestions on models would be great too. I'd like it to be a collaborative project. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but that would be my ideal scenario.

I've been involved in a zero-budget collaboration for some years now, and from a CGI artist's perspective the most critical things are a story/script and a visual storyboard.  As you would be aware, developing 3D imagery is VERY time consuming, any artists wanting to get on board with a project will need to know that the work they are doing is "right" and they're not wasting time designing, building, rigging, animating and rendering assets that don't fit the story and won't ultimately be used.  In my case the writer/director provides descriptive but relatively low-detail storyboards, or searches the web for images that have the right kind of feel for what he needs.  Without these I would have left the project a long time ago.

Putting together a 'development team' to throw around ideas and build concepts into a script and storyboard would also be worthwhile.  As a real-world example, the author of The Martian book (and movie) crowd-sourced a lot of the science in the story, since he wasn't particularly science-literate.

As johnar says, and as I can attest from experience, it is a huge job driving a collaborative project of this sort.  You are likely to have artists drop in and out of the project so you will want to have a central location for assets (we use a Google drive extended to 100GB) to ensure you don't lose anything.  I have seen great projects crash and burn due to a single participant going AWOL and taking their models with them.

I am over-committed with projects at the moment and wouldn't be able to assist in any direct way, but if you are really keen to do this (and you will need to be really keen) I encourage you to do it.  It can be fun, inspiring and rewarding, however you need to remember that there is nothing in it for anybody in any real sense, other than a sense of achievement, seeing your name in the credits and, if you're lucky, maybe picking up a couple of awards here and there.  The more work you can do up-front with the story and storyboard the more likely you will be to attract and keep artists in the project.

With nothing but sincerity I wish you well and I hope it does happen, it's been a while since I've seen a collaborative project based on Anim8or and with recent developments to the platform I think it's long overdue.

ENSONIQ5
 Long time no see.
 Yes, don't know where i'd be without the good old pen and paper.
 Thanks for the post. Hope all is going well in your 'digital endeavours'
 (havn't seen anything from you in a while. )

Yes, it has been a while since I've posted anything, I'll pop something up soon for old times' sake
I log in regularly to check out updates, see what people are up to and generally lurk a bit.  Still working on the Mission Backup Earth project, mainly live action over CG backgrounds so no lip-sync required yet