Some of you have been my friends for a loooong time.

My only regret is that I haven't been using it enough over those 10 plus years... Since Playmation. If I had, I'd be proficient.

Despite my having first bought A:M in '04, I only played with it for a couple of months back then. I've only seriously been using it since the beginning of this year, so I had to vote less than 1 year.

i recently came a cross my first cd with that ugly kid ©1999.

-jon

I don't remember exactly how long. I checked the < 10 years... it might have been the + 10 years. I have the kee kat CD... but I am pretty sure I also have a Thom CD... somewhere. How long ago was that? I am too lazy to find the disks and check the dates.

I have an image in my head of '97 or '98 as my first version. I remember the transition to the 2000 version as the huge big thing at the time... so I obviously had it before then. I do have a profound memory of working with AM late at the office while listening to the 2000 election fiasco on the radio.

I bought mine over the phone (didn't have web purchase back then I think).

I've told the story here before of buying both AM and Pixels3D at the same time trying to decide which one was going to be my "new" 3D application. (I had disposable income back then. ) Keep in mind that Pixels3D was much more expensive... I think it was nearly $600 for the so called "pro" version.

I still have the original Pixels3D I bought and never really used... when I say never... I mean I launched it... and played with it for a few hours over several days and was dissapointed.

AM was just too cool by comparison... plus I could use AM at work, on the PC and the Mac, and at home on the Mac. P3D wouldn't allow that. HUGE GIGANTIC selling point... that was a MAJOR selling point. That was probably as big a part of sticking with AM over ANY other program as the features and price. For me, the CD copy protection was actually a bonus feature. I thought it was cool as heck. When people asked me about AM I always said. "Look! I can take the disk with me and run it anywhere on PC or Mac! How cool is THAT?"

I still have my "free" upgrade for P3D that is like... 10 years old... in shrink wrap... never opened (Ironically I had to fight tooth and nail for that stupid "upgrade" because they "tricked" me when I bought the "Special Offer!". Another reason why "Standard" and "Pro" versions are a very bad idea).

I found the box in the trunk of my car some years back. Apparently I stuck it in there for some reason and forgot about it. It was still shrink wrapped but all water and oil stained. The manual was faded under the plastic and permanently twisted into an odd shape from exposure to heat and cold for years in my trunk.

p.s. I just found my "ugly kid" disk.

-vern

I bought my first AM in 1999 along with a Pyro Firewire card and AM was bundled with that. I upgraded every year and promised myself that I would learn the program. Not until I was asked to do a project about two years ago did I start to learning the program

Steve

When I was in 5th grade (1998), I asked for a program called Punch Super Home Suite. You could make entire 3D houses and put in furnature and all sorts of things (Dan and I recreated our entire house using the software). You could even make your own objects using their CAD editor, but the engine was severily lacking on the quality aspect. In 1999, my uncle, who is really into animation, got two licenses of A:M. He didn't know he only needed one for whatever reason, I don't know why now. He gave the other CD to us, and that is when I started using A:M. I was so excited when I rendered out a cube and a light and it actually made shadows! Then after a few years of simple features and what have you, I got into more advanced features like radiosity. I couldn't figure out why our monte carlo radiosity was so much longer and crappier looking than photon mapping, so Dan and I then upgraded to v12. And had a great time making odd lighting conditions. I then got into Ambiant Occlusion, and soon after that we were awarded a copy of v13.

All in all, that makes 8 years, or 42% of my life that I've been adicted to Hash.

Hooray!!!! I just past the 1 year mark back in March. That bumps me up to the <3 years level.

I am still such a noob though! I have ideas in my head but still lack the skills to make them into reality. I hope I'll have at least one project done by the time I make 10+ years.

I've been using A:M for about two and a half year now

Wha??? That's not allowed - You were supposed to say 20 plus years given the quality of work you churn out.

I have been using since version 7.1. But I'm clean now. Most of the time. (OK. I'm lying...I use every day)

Bought at a 3D expo at the Santa Clara convention center. Sold to me by some weirdo...ummm... But I'm still not sure which weirdo. I don't think it was Greg. Mighta been Dr. Marty-pants? Don't think it was Steve.

(vers 7.1: What's that? since 1998? or have I been "smoking spline since 99" ?)

is there anywhere to look at all the cd mascot that were on the cd, maybe then I could tell ya how long i have been using it? I can't remember what was before KeeKat, was it the freckle boy?

Is there an image of all the cover art for the A:M discs?
I think I started on 8/8.5 but it would help to see the discs.
It was either Dennis the dog or the version before that... (I think).

About 5-6 years now....started with V8 with Kee Kat & Joe Cosmon's Orc on the splash screen....

Going on 2 years. Finally getting to where I sorta know what I'm doing, occasionally, on a good day, if the phase of the moon is right.

I started using 8.5 in 2001 (i think), at any rate my dogeared book form that class says animation master 2000. It took me a couple of years before I could afford a computer that could use AM and then another six months to afford the program. now I can afford it but I hardly have time to use it . Well maybe after I finish school.

I've been an animator since 1987...in 1997 I 'missed the cut' to go to Toronto and learn Maya, my employers wanted me to remain their '2D' guy...so I bought A:M for myself in 2000 and good thing I did, as every '2D' guy who could'nt do 3D has looong since been laid-off.

Photoshop-AfterEffects-A:M

A:M was my first PC application when my wife gave me my first PC as a retirement present.
(I used Amigas, they now share the dark storage with the scorpions and blackwidows)
No regrets !

Here's a V4 animation c. 1996 or 1997?

GTE cd-rom intro

The electrical sparks were 2D, added in a paint program.

I started to use "Monzoom" a no longer available, really really bad 3d-programm without any skin-animation-capabilities...
After that, in 2000 I bought A:M and here we are...

I worked with several other programms to (had to...) and I just like A:M the most.

*Fuchur*

I started 3D with Bryce, then a couple years later bought Infini-D. I remember one day some guy posted a pic of a model of a "photo realistic" air brush tool on the Infini-D list and everyone thought it was sooooooooo cool. Then Metacreations discontinued Infini-D and I bought A:M in January of 2000 (7 1/2 years ago). The first three models I made were straight out of the manual: A flower, a fighter plane, and a giraffe. After the giraffe, the air brush tool made in Infini-D seemed like child's play! That's when I became addicted to A:M.

In the late 1980s I was playing around with creating animations with an open source renderer (DKBTrace, which evolved into POV-Ray). I was writing programs to create sequences of input files for DKBTrace, and then combining the separate images into an Autodesk Animator .ANI file. Like much of the computer animation of the time, my animations often consisted of mirrored spheres flying around in artificial and highly geometric landscapes. I did a music video for my band along these lines. I felt very cutting-edge.

Then I saw a demo of a predecessor of A:M called Playmation at a computer swap meet in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. It had all the modeling and animating tools built-in! I bought it instantly. The hot Hash films at the time were a Dr. Suess-esque short called Joyride and an MC Hammer takeoff about tools, done for educational television by Will Vinton Studios. I created a character, and had him run in a circle around a pyramid in the desert with a palm tree (the pyramid and palm tree were models provided) in an afternoon. I've been sending Martin upgrade orders ever since.

Shortly after A:M came out I started an Internet mail list for the product, and some of the people on the list from back then are still using the product today. Martin's software, whether called Animation Apprentice, Playmation or Animation:Master, has always had an amazing price/feature ratio, then when the bar gets raised the next year, he is again ahead of the curve.

-Vance

I believe I started with 8.0 in August 2000 (Dennis the Dog on the CD), so next month will be the 7th anniversary. A:M was a godsend for an amateur who couldn't afford one of the high end programs.

An early test from somewhere around 2001, combining rear projection, particles, and I forget what all else. Pretty much bungled through on the spot to improvise a fix to a mistake when a small fighter craft went through a big spaceship:

Click to view attachment

As time goes by,

back in the early ninties, my wife bought me a piece of animation software from one of her numerous trips to computershows in the US: Playmation
I was hooked from the very first moment, and that and all following Hash products have been my famous artist tool ever since. I still remember that playmation was seperated in seperate program modules back then. And then came Animation:Master which had all this integrated in one application. WOW, that was amazing, it still is, and its getting better and better with each version.
Cheers,
Heiner

PS: And one time i had the opportunity to talk to the great poobah himself on a trade show. I still remember this very clearly.

Martin

I think you're just trying to make me feel old since I have been using AM for the last seven years... Did I say SEVEN!!! OMG!

It's been a bit of a roller coaster ride but I am still here bashing away ever since the 'Dennis the Dog' CD came through the door. I dare say I should have more to show for my self but I get side tracked easily

I'm in the same boat as Vance... I originally purchased 'Will Vinton's Playmation' which was in 'modules' and you had to model and animate in separate modules.

Also, shortly after I purchased it they came out with the 'Decal' module! WOW! That was such an upgrade! (no, really it was!)

I think the next version after that they had 'Animation:Master' available as the 'pro/network' version of the software. I immediately upgraded to that.

Been hooked ever since.

There's a lot of us Playmation people out there I still remember the hash video with Martin saying something along the lines of "animation is hard, real hard". I only just threw out the last of my floppy disks the other day.
Over the years I think I've missed only one upgrade, and I've never regretted a moment of it.

When 8.5 was out for a few months that's when I got my first taste of A:M. I don't remember when that was though ?

Should be 2001 if I am not wrong...

*Fuchur*

Off and on probaly since 97 - 98. If I total up the time spent learning and modeling I'd say about 3-5 strong devoted years. The version I don't know but I remember the book was a brown large mat-coated Paperback book with the serial number inside the cover. If I right that might be either v5 or v4. I know it been a long time enough time for me to have produced at least two - three feature films using the program.

3 years and not stopping !!!!!!!

i started back when i was 12 in the beginning of summer(didn't have internet then). it gave me my first understanding of what 3d was. if it wasn't for A:M i wouldn't be into 3d today! i had used gmax before then but i could never do anything in them at that time...actually i recently attacked another program i tried to use a long time ago and figured it out easily using A:M as a reference...i slayed the dragon...

I've been using A:M since late 96 or early 1997.

I'm a bit embarrased to show my first animation, but here it is!!!
I finished this in August of 1997.

about 8megs

http://www.vrcops.com/Vids/flim1997B2.mov


Mike Fitz
www.3dartz.com

Is there a typo in that link?... I can't get it, (I tried changing flim to film but that didn't work either)

Hey Robert,
sorry I had turned my server off....
it's getting kinda hot in ny again and I feel like
the power could go at any moment!
It's back on now.

Mike Fitz
www.3dartz.com

Since July 1996. Version 4, yeah baby! Nothing like red and purple lines burned into your retinas.
Learning to wrap my head around spline modeling after years of polygon modeling, on a deadline, wasn't fun.ZevoPenguins

And my first animation with it was a paying gig for a national TV spot for Zevo Golf..

Zevo Ad

What a great fun Ad! I am totally impressed.

I guess mike's server is still off, I still can't download his clip.



That must have been the start of the CG penguins.

I bought Am 10.5 I think close to end of 2005 I bought this for my Daughter as a birthday Present she wanted to try Animation as a career. I am still trying to get her to use it I then made her deal I would learn it and she would write a script then I would animte it. How naive was that me single handidly animating a project. Anyways I am still waiting for the script 2 years now

Hi All!

I've been using A:M since it was MH3D v3 or so in late '95 or '96. And I believe that I've owned every version since then. Unfortunately I've so sporadic that I almost forget what I've learned each time I use it. Even so I have the 3 license dongle version and the dongle is on the same lanyard as my main flash drive and goes where I do, but not to the shower. To this day I love modeling in A:M and that is what I mostly do. I wish I could use it at work as my main package there but at this time it's a Lightwave shop. I still mess with A:M on breaks and at lunch. Attached are a couple of recent projects I've been working on. To this day I think it is the best package out there, quarks and all and it fits my thinking very well.

Take care!

Toby Wilson

I started to study animation at the uninterguad in Guadalajara, Jalisco...Mexico 5 years ago, the version I began to study was 7.5...so the version I use actually is 10.5--11, maybe I´ll get the next 15 version...

7 years and still a noobie Oh well, I have fun.

I think its been under a month. I just finished the workbook not to long ago and now Im struggling to further advance myself.

I started with 8.5, so I guess that makes it seven years now.

Before that I had Ray Dream Designer, Extreme 3D and Poser without ever really getting anything serious out of it.

Except for the 9-9.5 period ( Yes I still remember that! ) I am learning and using AM with steadily growing contentment.

Though I also own C4D and Z-brush, I must say that I prefer to model and animate with AM at the moment.


;>) Jake

I started with v3 on the Mac sometime around 1995ish. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this "little app that could" changed my life. Eternal thanks to Martin and the gang.

I remember getting A:M in highschool - I saved money from my movie theater job for a long, long, time. ($4.25 an hour back then.) It was probably 1996-97, since I used it for my film class in 1998.

Sometimes I miss watching the raytracer work while rendering.

(Then again, that is probably why I still have an irritating and maddening habit of watching my renders, even if it is just the progress bar.)

Wow it has been a long time since version 4, hasn't it?

Started using Master in 2004. I used competitors software at school. Then I graduated and got a job. Thats where I met AM. Been using it ever since. Except now I know what I'm doing.

Been using A.M. for about 5 years and still not sure what I'm doing. LOL
keith

Been using it since 1997.
I feel like I have grown up with AM though I'm not one of the early users like Jeff Lew.
Love it and will continue to use it.
3d apps come and go, but, AM is forever.

Gustavo Pabon

I'm not quite sure how long I've had A:M but my earliest animation file is 2002.

George

I think it must be about 5 years. I have to admit to not using A:M much at all over the last year as it's been a weird one. I (and the wife) moved house to be closer to work - everyone got made redundant 2 weeks later! Got a new job - trained on that 'other' CG software that I now have to use at work.

I realise why I love A:M so much and am itching to get back to it if I can get other things out of the way!

Hi All,

I've been using A:M for about 7 years (Kee Kat splash Screen)
But it's been only been about the past 5 years that I've made any progress.
I've recently upgraded to V14 and now live is even better.

Just started posting on the forum only recently.

From here on I plan to keep-up on all the updates, Looking forward to V15.
Studied a demo version of that "M" program for a time, but decided A:M sutied me better.

Camillo
Loyal A:M user