The Art of Animation:Master (Online)

Please add your exerices to this topic and others will join in.

The Art of Animation:Master is being completed on a continual basis in the New Users Forum. Meeting deadlines can be an important skill to master early on but this course is self paced to allow each person the flexibility they need to learn the basics of Animation:Master. The course can be completed in as little time as necessary or as much as is needed by each participant.

Note: You may want to download the videos first.
All available Video Tutorials related to TAOA:M can be found on one page:
The Art of Animation Master Video Tutorials

The Art of Animation Master Part II: Modeling


MODELING TAKES TALENT
8 - Customized Car
9 - Flower Power
10 - FW-190 Fighter
11 - Giraffe (No available video tutorial)
12 - Lip Poses
13 - Show Some Backbone (Adding a Skeleton)

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Exercise 10 - FW-190 Fighter
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View Online:

Part 1 (25MB)
Part 2 (22MB)
Part 3 (20MB)
Part 4 (30MB)

or download all:
Zip (93MB)

Name:  Den Dotson

Exercises Completed:  Ten
Date Completed:  Saturday March 26, 2005

Instructor:  Rodney (our pilot for this afternoon) and that guy on the web tutorials

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: I had to go back and do this exercise in 10.5. 11.1d just kept crashing and acting weird.

Here is a link to the tenth completed exercise:

http://homepage.mac.com/animateden/hash/FighterPlane0.jpg

Thanks Rodney,
-Den

Nice Den!

I'm curious... were you just stitching your plane together when you had problems with v11.1 or was it during decaling or something else?

Just curious.

We're gonna haffa have a FW-190 reunion of TAoA:M graduates one of these days.

I took a picture of my FW-190 from the chor window, it's in a skit that I'm making with other A:M characters. I added a bone to the canopy so I can move my characters in it

I was unable to model at all. I tried and failed using 11.1d three times each time I would be able to begin and then I simply couldn't select any CPs or splines. Then the software would shut down and when I restarted it the project would refuse to open.

I went back to my old copy of 10.5 and then everything was fine.

Sometimes newer isn't better.

-Den

Den,
It almost sounds like you were in Animate Mode.
In any case... before doing much else you might want to get the kinks worked out of v11.1.

Please note that the most current version (as just released) is: v11.1e

Dhar,
Looking forward to your skit!

-Rodney

Yeah I need to try the new version. I wasn't in animate mode it was modeling mode. It just wouldn't work. It works fine on my Windows machine, but works terrible on my Mac.

My Mac is my primary machine with Dual G5 processors it should be able to kick but with AM. It really does when it comes to rendering and the early exercise stuff. Just when it came to modelling it freaked out. I even tried to reload it with no luck.

I will try the 11.1 e and hope things smooth out. Thats why Hash keeps working on it.

Thanks,
-Den

Oh I almost forgot. The nose cone is just the brass material that comes with AM. It doesn't emit light its just really shiny.

-Den

Hey I have a question about animating the propeller. I followed the excercise in "simple walk and wheel cycling actions". I made my propeller turn 4 times per frame, but I would like to add blurr to the propeller only, can i do that or does the blurr has to affect everything in the picture?

I just installed 11.1e and I am still having the same problems with modelling. You can't select CPs or splines or it takes several tries. You can't click and drag CPs or splines. And after a few attempts the program shuts down.

I am running a Macintosh Dual Processor G5 with 2 ghz processors and 1.75 GB of RAM.

I have a GeForce FX 5200 Video Card and I am running OS X 10.3.8 with all the latest updates.

This makes trying to do the exercise in the book impossible. I will continue on using ver 10.5 but I would like the folks at Hash to know about these issues.

Thanks,
-Den

The patch is only for the Windows install. I installed it on my Windows machine. There isn't a patch for the Macintosh install. I wish it was that easy. I also posted over in the AM for OS X area to see if anyone else on the Mac is having a similar issue.

Thanks for all your help,
-Den

Here's the weirdest thing. It is the ruler. If the ruler is turned on I can't manipulate the CPs or splines. If I turn off the ruler I am back in business. Have you experienced anything similar? Is this a bug or am I missing something here?

Thanks,
-Den

Den,
I always have the ruler on and no issues here.
This might be related to some of the OS/X issues of late.

Weird indeed.

Jim Talbot over in the OS X area said it is a known problem with the Mac version of AM. Easy enough to work around. I only had them on because the airplane exercise called for them.

Thanks for the help, now I guess I have no excuse for not getting back to work,
-Den

Name: Tom Jansen
Exercise: #10 FW-190 Fighter
Date Completed: April 26, 2005
Comments: This one was really fun (I've always had a soft spot for WWII fighters).

The hardest part for me was getting that twist in the propellor blades to look right from all angles. Though learning about different ways of selecting and hiding various sections of the model when modelling, decalling, or even assigning control points to bones was really helpful too.

I added a really simple cockpit inside, adding in some control panels and such, but really didn't do much with the pilot's actual seat. My thought (when I was doing this last night) was that the pilot would be sitting in there and would cover it up anyways. Of course, now that I've slept on it, I realize that you could have shots of the pilot getting in or out of the plane, so it would probably be a good idea to go back and fix up the seat a little.

Hey Dhar, did you ever figure out anything about adding some kind of motion blur to the propellor? Or does anyone else have any good ideas about making that propellor spin look better?

Here's my clip:
http://cybersummit.org/AM/EX10_Fighter2.mov

Oh, I added a little sound to it, so I appologize for the size of the file.

Thanks for all of your time and inspiration, guys!
-Tom

Name: Tenez Waggoner
Excercise Completed: 10 FW-190 Fighter
Date Completed: May 22, 2005
Remarks/Suggestions: This one took a lot longer than 2 hours. Ran into a few problems, I even got an error message. At first I thought I had lost my model completely, but I resarted AM and it showed up again. Phew. Now on to the dreaded Giraffe. Man that's gonna take forever.

Name: Leo Mitchell
Exercise Completed: FW-190 Fighter
Date Completed: 05 June 2005
Instructor: Web tuts and manual
Comments: Minor problems experienced, but nothing to hold me back to long. Biggest problem was the web tutorial and the book did things in different order at times.

Name: Paula Waslen

Exercise Completed: #10 FW-190 Fighter

Date Completed: Jun 12, 2005

This one took a lot of time! Learned lots though.

Just thought I'd throw this link in for those who like to have reference standing by:

Various aircraft pictures

...and (sorry to stray off topic) this one is for boats. Still nice for mechanical modeling reference: Boat Pictures

Name:Steve Nicholas

Exercise 10 completed.

Instructor: the book

Remarks: no real problems, except the 3 rotoscopes didn't actually match up all that well. No biggie though. My render with an extracted version for Rodney are below.

Name: Zev Eisenberg
Exercise Completed: Exercise 10 "FW-190 Fighter"
Date Competed: 11 July 2005
Remarks/Suggestions: I had done this very early on, a few years ago, but it was cool, going back and doing it again, after my modeling chops had improved. I also had trouble with the propeller spinning. I created a new action for it and, at frame 1, I set the Z rotation of the prop to 5760º. didn't work. I set it for something lower, and it still didn't work. In the render here, I ended up with something like 4 frames per rotation I think. In regards to blur: When you render, under the render options, set Multipass to On. In terms of number of passes, I have found that 25 is the lowest acceptable value. Then render.

Here's a current WIP. Still have to add propellers and nose, not to mention the stamps. But yeah, enjoy!

Last date worked on: July 17, 2005

Teacher: book and video tutorial on the site

Name: Sarah

Exercises Completed: FW-190 Fighter

Date Completed: July 19, 2005

Instructor: Book and online tutorial

Name: Doug Wills
Exercise completed: FW-190
Date completed: 8/7
Instructor: Book and web tutorial


I enjoyed this one. Now I understand how a lot of detail can be added to a model or scene without a lot of modeling. Makes perfect sense now.

Belated congrats to Zev and Sarah for completing Exercise 10.
This one definitely is a fun one and seems to be the pivotal exercise in building mechanical modeling skill.

That is one cool turn-around Zev.

Congrats to you as well Doug!

Rodney

Name : Erik Kirschberg

Excercise : # 10 FW-190 Fighter

Date Completed 9/14/05

Instructor : A:M Community

Name : Chris Wheeler
Excercise : # 10 FW-190 Fighter

Date Completed 9/15/05

Instructor : A:M Community

Fun Exercise!

Here's my take on the old FW-190 Fighter plane........jeeeez it's a lot easier to make a plane than a Giraffe...where's that legendary cow tutorial?

I'll try and spin the prop

Trevor

PS Message to Chris Wheeler...Chris I like the way you always take the exercises on an extra yard or so...also Pembrokeshire is a fine place

Great job guys! Fine modeling.



This would be a great exercise to add some expressions and path animation to.

Thanks Rodney

You are so right!!!.... er...what are expressions?

The short answer perhaps is that expressions=math.

A:M can utilize mathematical formulas in the form of expressions to automate movement.

Hash Inc put together a fine video series that includes some great information on use of expressions.
You can find them (and the Expressions Tech Talk) here:

Hash Inc Tech Talks * Warning * This is a large file 128MB!

I'm firewall denied at the following but this should be some great information too:
users.hol.gr/~sogou/animaster/expressions.htm

That should get you started.

Rodney

Trevor - I like you website as well. The swimming dog had me smirkin a lot! To be fair to all new users I have been using AM a lot for modeling, so it's always nice to do a bit more, but have never had a go at doing the exercises before. Even though I considered myself as a pro user(nearly anyway) I still learnt something from all the exercises.

some more links on expressions:-

http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~gtg724n/math.html

http://www.hash.com/am2002/Expressions/Index.htm

http://users.hol.gr/~sogou/animaster/expressions.htm -very good

http://www.hash.com/users/noel/tutorials/SpeedExpression/

I'me glad you like Pembrokeshire - I used to work in London, but I'me glad to be back!

Chris

http://home.btconnect.com/FatclownFilms/

Thanks a lot Guys...I'll trawl through those and hopefully come back with a spinning prop etc

Chris...not surprised you're glad to be back in Pembrokeshire It's a fantastic place....you're a bit ahead of me in the modelling stakes then...I've only done two so far...but watch this space

Thanks for those links Chris! Some great info there.
I looked and looked for a couple of those and finally went with the two links I posted.

We are going to collect all those in the Useful Links/Software Tutorials areas someday... (promises promises)

Rodney

I was sure there was a tutorial somewhere that took you through getting a prop to turn, but I can't find it.

I used the "simple walk and wheel cycling actions", in the MISC. online tutorials to turn my prop. Just make sure the prop is vertical to the Y axis before you input the info.

Linda Bridges
FW 190 Fighter
September 27, 2005
Instructor: Den Dotson[attachmentid=9770]

Name: Melissa "Elissa" Heldenbergh

Exercises Completed: 10

Date Completed: Oct 10th, 2005

Instructor: A few years of A:M use, the book, and web tutorials, plus also doing the mentor program with Paul Daley. David Rogers book... Jeff Lew's DVD.

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement:
Lot easier to do a few years down the line.

Name: James Owens
Exercises Completed:1-10
Date Completed: 15 October 2005

[attachmentid=10169]

Dhar,
Thanks for the reply. I'm glad to see those extra videos are still being found and used.

Linda,
Meant to tell you and the rest of the Den Dotson group that I'm glad to see you are still hanging in there. You were missed there for awhile.

Elissa,
Nice render. Looks like toon render but with a difference...
I was wondering how you were going to fit the Tardis into this one!

James,
Wheeee! Now that is an action still.
Nice improvising.

Name: Dhar Jabouri
Exercises Completed:1-10
Date Completed: 22 October 2005

Very nice Dhar.

I think I recognize the background too.
Looks like the mountain scene that has been making the rounds via email entitled "God spilled the paint".

Very colorful.

Rodney

Is that what it's called? Mine had the title "Tehachapi Hills", which is somewhere in California. This was actually a scene from my first short music video that I made with A:M.

Name: John Kuepper

Exercises Completed:lesson 10
Date Completed: oct 24, 2005

Instructor: all kinds

Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: just did the tut

Name:Marc Vancouillie
Exercise completed #10 FW-190 Fighter
Date completed 11/22/05



Instructor:t.a.o.AM book,learning video on the hash side and reading
in this topic what people have done before me.

Remarks:I made this model much better and faster then when I did it the first
time in 1999[attachmentid=11505]