Animating Walk and Wave

Menu (Conventions used in this Tutorial)

1. Introduction
2. Creating a Path
3. Constraining the Model to the Path
4. Applying an Action
5. Applying Multiple Actions

Yep! you got it, this one too, I have tears in my eyes....

I'm attaching the PDF and Project files separately from the above Zip file as they are referenced often as we work through the TaoA:M exercises -- especially Exercise 6! I wanted to test linking to them too (See above for links).

Thanks again Holmes for some really wonderful tutorials.

What version of A:M did you make this in? I tried loading the project into my v10.5 A:M and it said "invalid project file"

Great, thanks Holmes!

This tutorial was made in version 14c. Hash changed its file format in version 13, so anything made in v13 and newer probably won't open in AM versions prior to version 13.

I am attempting to do your tutorial here.
I am using A:M 15.02.
I am on an Intel-based iMac with 4GB RAM - it's a dual processor.

When I get to the step where I am supposed to drag and drop the wave action on the character, and I do so, it fails to appear in the Project Work Space.
The tutorial says it should appear there - but it doesn't.

If you have the patience for a 6 minute and 30 second movie - I demonstrate the entire process here.

Thanks for any help you can provide - anybody(?).

Timothy ,did you drop the action onto the charector in the choryography and not the pws,it should the apear under the charectors name in the chory

Yep I did.
I saw one highlight whenever I dropped on the other - both directions.

I did it both ways, same result each time (no result).
Did you watch the movie?

There are several things that aren't clear in your video.
Still I think we can troubleshoot from here.

Its generally easier to see multiple actions if you are in Dopesheet mode versus the Spline Channels that we see in the video.
The icon to change to Dopesheet Mode (that will display the Action as bars) is the second icon from the left under your Timeline.

There are several reasons why the second Action may not be appearing.
My first guess is that that Action just isn't being applied. This can happen in some cases such as when A:M is in one of the real time render modes.

Before speculating further I'll saving the project and reopening it before/after the Action has been applied.

Theory....

I noticed that you selected Thom right before you dragged the action onto him and he stayed selected even though you selected something else (the wave). That is worrisome.

That doesn't happen on my end (PC here), but if I try to simulate that by holding down the ctrl-key so both stay selected, the wave action doesn't get placed on Thom, much as happened with you.

(my first guess is that this is some side effect of a weird mac interface behavior that somehow enables multiple selection without the user holding down a control key. Or maybe one of your keys is stuck)

I noticed that when you dropped the walk action you did not select Thom first.

To try first... don't select anything!

Try second... don't select anything... and drag the wave action from the actions folder rather than the library. (i never use the library anyway)


I'm not on a mac so I can't test this out.

I have saved and restarted A:M and this project, and am wondering where is the "Actions Folder" you mentioned, if not in the library?
I cannot find it - where is it located please?

You can watch this new movie (it's 4 min 45 sec long) where I review both your suggestions - although so far nothing seems to work to resolve this issue, yet.

Robcat, your suggestion about using the "Actions Folder" instead of the Library has me bewildered - only because I do not know how or where to find this folder. Maybe you can point out it's location and I will certainly try that next.

Regarding the order of events, i.e., selecting/not selecting Thom, or the order of what gets selected and in what order the selection steps are performed, though possible causes, are also unlikely causes from a Mac-convention angle. There are clear visual cues (demonstrated in this movie) that suggest a linking between the Shortcut to Thom and the Thom object 'displayed in the work area. In Mac terms, this implies equivalencies between them - i.e., dropping the wave action on either should be the same and yield the same result either way - at least for most normal Mac Apps that would be the case. I would imagine the HASH developers must know this already.

I have made postings to other parts of this forum in the last two days where I encountered other anomalies that struck me as either unusual or down right buggy behaviors.

See them here (if you want)..

I may have to scrap the Mac version for a PC license - I can use my Mac as a PC since I have an Intel dual core processor - I use VMWare Fusion and have a Windows XP Pro partition that it runs off of. Some here have suggested that A:M runs great that way, and is more compatible with the available plugins and accessory Apps on the PC side.

I should try that as well for a comparison - maybe all my troubles will go away if I do?

I'm looking at your screencam movie. The Action folder is definitely there. It's absolutely 100% there. It's right above the Choreographies folder. In the PWS. It's below the Objects folder. Ands it's got a + next to it so I'm pretty sure it's got stuff in it. I don't' know that dragging from the actions folder instead will fix it. But I know that actions folder is there. It's definitely there.

Just to be wild and crazy.... try dragging the wave action onto thom before you drag the walk... see if it at least gets there?


I don't know that Mac is the problem. I said I was guessing. I dont' have a mac to test this out.


No one's mentioned this problem yet on Holmes' tut so it may be neither Mac nor A:M . We may need to hope that Holmes pops in here.

In the meantime have you completed TAoA:M yet? You really ought to do that first so we have some idea of where you are in your understanding of A:M.

Ahhh, I found it - sorry, not yet familiar with the PWS yet - and when I dragged the wave action over the Thom alias, it worked!

So, I wonder why the library did not work?

In any case, no, I have not yet looked at TAoA:M; though I have seen it discussed on the forum many times here.
What is it ? never mind, I will look into it on my own - thanks for suggesting it.

I posted a thread with you on the A:M Reports site and will awaiting your response to that when you have a moment.
Maybe I should explore and compare the Mac vs PC question - do you see merit in that idea at all?

TAoA:M - yes I have/am doing it.
Before buying the A:M subscription I went through all the video tutorials there twice, and am now doing them a third time (this time with A:M so I can actually perform the exercises); and I have the two PDFs: "TAOAM.pdf" and
"TechRef.pdf" which I am studying as I go through the lessons this time as well.

Additionally, I have found links to other tutorials here in the forum.
It's not hard finding tutorials - it is much harder to find the one you want though.
I wish someone would catalog them in a way that we can find the kind of course of study we're needing at the moment.

For example, when searching the forums, it does not seem to accept phrase searches, or even simple bool searches.

I am still too much a novice, and need a much more thorough basic understanding of this software first; but, I have not seen any clearly marked lessons that go beyond the basics, and that get right down to the most important question that is behind all the others for me.., and that is "How does one not only create animations (small segments really) but how do we string them together to tell a story visually?".

I am hoping that I will learn how to construct shots, and use them in scenes, that can then be used in story telling.
I know this can be done, because there are many examples of completed projects out there - one that I found here was an Anime that was absolutely mind blowing in it's subtlety and attention to detail - though I did not bookmark it, so I cannot easily refer you to it now. You've certainly seen similar accomplishments, I'm sure. I will eventually need to know how to do that level of production too. But I have a long road ahead before I will get there.

I think the anime I just mentioned was about a vampire girl in highschool, and there was another one, all in Japanese, so I don't know what the plot was exactly, but it had Anime teenage girls talking and hanging out together. It was beautifully done. That's the level of performance I want to eventually output myself.

I am droning on - so I'll shut up now.

Thanks again for helping out.

The Art of AnimationMaster. Rodney's got a sub forum at the top for it. It's a book you get with your CD or a pdf down load with your subscription.



The PC version is probably the strongest, but I understand there are different ways of running Windows on an Intel Mac and some have more merit than others for this purpose. A mac person here will have to chime in.



re: your KeeKat question. You could do the fix and then resave KeeKat. "KeeKatFixed" And use that version there after.


In general AMReports is an unlikely place for technical answers. It's more for one-way communication to Hash about found issues. The KeeKat thing probably won't get a high priority since there was a simple workaround and it was really KeeKat's fault.

Hi Timothy,

I apologize for not chiming in sooner. I usually just click on the forum link to "View New Posts" but this thread was never in the results returned. I was searching through the tutorials forum for something else when I saw that this thread had some new posts.

Glad you figured it out