Texture
Notes:
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When applying a map on to something that is to be
paper, such as handwriting, I've found that using a diffuse map
instead of a color map when the writing is black works well. This
way texturing the paper not covered by "ink" is easy and will
match the back side of the paper object, since I never model a truly 2d
sheet of paper, always giving it a back side.
It works by making the diffuse color of the paper drop
to practically nothing where your "black" ink/pencil marks are.
Simple.
Animating an entire texture (it's positioning for
example) can only be done if the material is not applied to a group in the model but instead to
the entire model- then you
need to drag and drop that shortcut into the action window to get at
its attributes.
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| Filming Problems: |
Spline in-betweening
of camera tracking moves often have the "backbump" action on
them. 0-Slope
interpolation can often fix this, but then you usually need to add
another
guide point to the keyframes to fix slow-in slow-out speed (the slope)
of
the pan to better mimic an analog move. All this is best done in
the
Channels Window.
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| Rendering
problems: |
AM fails to focal blur in
reflections. I have some solutions to this but not the time to
test them yet.
Anti-Aliasing in
v8.5, in a word, sucks. The oversampling method employed
in the renderer is also insufficient. I've got a solution and
figured out how to secure details without alias and sacrificing too
much to render time. I have a solution to
this involving a different way to oversample without needing to buy the
netrender version of AM. It's on page B41 of the BPMF
Bible.
In final renders when
light passes through transparent objects embedded in solid objects
(like uh... glass ina window frame) the edges get SCREWED!!!!!!
AGH!, AM is such a monster sometimes. It's all the little
things that piss me off. Anyway, solution: Unless you NEED
the reflections in the glass, take out the glass. SO if a shot is
about the light passing through the window and the window is not seen,
you'll be ok. No real solution when the glass AND the highlights
need to be in the shot though...
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Thought
on the "Art:"
(from various sources) |
Audience involvement
begins with character identification. A situation or idea
experienced/held in common, or a facet of personality that is clearly
vulnerable. What is vulnerability? Well, there's the art.
Personality affects every
action.
Hitting a pose?
Keep life in it.
When animating the
scene, do you know WHY this scene is in the film? Make sure you
INCLUDE that reason! It must be shown. Otherwise cut the
scene.
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| Lighting Problems: |
Hash AM (v8.5 at least)
has a flaw in it's renderer. Specularity is totally faked (as
with
nearly every raytracer out there), but AM is worse because it won't
drop
the spec. level appropriately according to surrounding lights.
This
means if you drop the light level in a scene and expect your
specularities
to drop accordingly, you are WRONG. Well, no... Hash is wrong.
Possible work
around: Animate the falloff of the texture specularity.
Yeah, that's a bitch to do in multi-textured objects...
but I've DONE it!
--
Light scenes with one or two lights that cast
shadows- these should not be shortcut copies of a master light as
shadow settings cannot be unique then. Other non-shadow casting
lights
can be copies of a master as needed.
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Rigid Body & Soft Dynamics:
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Give even the simplest
model a bone- for some reason collision detection works just that much
better.
--
Because Rigid Body
Dynamics in Hash depends on the mesh to calculate the surface of the
model, density of the model matters here. If the mesh is too low
a density collision will look like it's passing through the floor,
other objects, etc.
This means TEST the
dynamics you will need using the proposed models BEFORE you texture
them, etc. Going back and fixing a complicated texture job
because you have a model with too low a density is not fun.
--
Don't forget, you CAN modify the dynamic simulation by
simply bringing up the channels window and start moving those
CPs! You can fix what physics fubared!
--
Ok, this one hurt to learn, so I
better never
forget it! When simulating with cloth, especially when you begin
your
cloth as a flat plane (especially vertically), do NOT lower the
reduction of error
threshold
too much or the computer will freeze not being able to run the
simulation
with enough accuracy. Set it accordingly, thinking about the
scale
of your object.
--
OMG listen up!!!: NEVER simulate your cloth
from the main choreography selection place (simulate spring
systems). Always right
click on the actual spring system in your chor and select to simulate
it from there. If you DON'T: You will be FUBARED!!!!! DO
THIS even if you have more than one spring system and it's going to
"take extra time." Just trust me on this....
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Animation
Notes:
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When
Actions overlaod each other or the Chor action and kill each other out-
usually the PROBLEM lies in how the TIMELINE is setting up the
actions. Open the TIMELINE window (not the channels window) and
take a look. Ensure that actions are set up correctly in there,
and that the Chor action is NOT underlying the other Actions in place
in such a way that it can kill them. This is especially helpful
when you can't have the CHOR actions ADD to the dropepd actions without
making things look WRONG!
Ok, I'm a lot calmer than last time I edited this section, so I've
removed the rant part... Everything is going to be ok. It's
all going to work out. |
| General
Crash Bugs and Workarounds: |
ACTION
OBJECTS are sorta buggy. When you use POSE CHANNELS in the Action
Object while it's in the Chor as an Action Object, AM will Crash!
So when you use one in designing an Action, delete it out of the
action if you can and then include the object in the CHOR when you drop
thie action onto the character. So, for example, if you're
animating a character writing on a book he's holding, design the action
with that object in it (action object). Then when satisfied,
delete the book, and save the new action (keep the old one with the
object iof you need to fix it). Use THIS action on the character,
and simply add the book prop into the chor seperately and constrain it
as you did in the ACTION you made. This way you can actually use
POSE CHANNELS in the object without it crashing AM.
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