www.biederman.net/leslie
Anim8or FAQ
- Transparency doesn't
work with my Anim8or. Is this a problem with my 3d card or what?
- Shadows
don't work for me!
- When I click
on a bone and then go Build -> Add object, none of my objects are in the
list, just object01
- When I export a sequence in
.3DS format I lost the animation of the character
- When I add a
texture on an object in Anim8or and I export this object to 3DS format, it
seems to me that I lost the texture
- Whenever
I apply a texture to an object, it has to be massive (5000x5000 pixels+) or
it gets rather pixelated
- How
to use Texture UV? It seems it doesn't change anything whatever options I
set
- How
do I add sounds to avis?
- I
can't make bones rotate around Z-axis, though the bones limits are set
- As
far as I can see, there is no way to achieve a complete circle to simulate
continuous wheel movements
- When
I load a reference image, it is black!
- How
to bend with skinning without the skin surface break? How do I get rid of a
crease of something skinned?
- Sometimes
after I finish making a model and then try to scale it, it breaks apart into
its individual pieces, each going a different direction
- When
I try to extrude a spline along a path, often it gives weird results
- When
I try to open an .an8 file with double-click, sometimes I get the message
"Error in reading file". The file opens all right in Anim8or with
"File->Open" command
- Is
there a plug in feature planed for anim8or?
- Does
anim8or have a subtraction or Boolean tool?
- Where
is the "Circle" tool?
- Is
there some limitation for size of rendered picture? When I try making any
picture bigger then 1024*768, it always switch to this size!
- How
can I make windows in a wall?
- How
do I render wire frame models?
- I have no more room for materials on the
side of the screen. Is there a limit to how many materials you can have?
Transparency
doesn't work with my Anim8or. Is this a problem with my 3d card or what?
Click View->Preferences and check transparent
in both view and render modes. (pragma7)
Shadows don't work for me!
Check "Shadows" in View -> Preferences... You must have your own
lights (user lights) in the scene, set to cast shadows. Percent Dark must be
greater than zero. When using soft shadows, the Size parameter must be greater
than zero. Some objects must be set to cast, others to receive shadows. You must render from Camera View (a lot of "must"). Only the
rendered image shows the shadows! (Leslie)
When
I click on a bone and then go Build ->
Add object, none of my objects are
in the list, just object01
Make each body part as a separate object, say
head - object01, arm - object02 and so on (you make a new object by clicking
Object->New), now in Figure mode after selecting the desired bone,
Build->Add object and you will have a list of your objects to choose from.
(Leslie)
Anim8or does not save key frame information when
exporting to the .3ds format, only static models. The .3ds format isn't
compatible with a lot of Anim8or's features. (Steve)
When
I add a texture on an object in Anim8or and I export this object to 3DS
format, it seems to me that I lost the texture
Anim8or does not export texture file name, so you
have to add it back somehow. (Steve)
Whenever
I apply a texture to an object, it has
to be massive (5000x5000 pixels+) or it gets rather pixelated
The size of the image used
for texturing should mach the size (area) of the object to be textured. With the
interactive UV tool is easier to adjust the proper size of the texture. (Leslie)
How
to use Texture UV? It seems it doesn't
change anything whatever options I set
The
Settings->Component->TextureUV was really a placeholder until there was
some kind of interactive texturing. Try using the UV tool for now. (Steve)
There
are many video-editing programs, you can download free from the web. You can use
them to add music to your videos and they have many other features too. You
should try DD
clip Free 2.23. They are also selling a DDclip
Pro, which is a shareware program. Adobe is also a very good program, but it
cost too much for home use, but you can get free Premiere
tryout version. (Tuomas Nylund)
I use video studio www.ulead.com;
another cool tool is bink n smacker www.radgametools.com
(bobit)
Try http://www.thugsatbay.com/
and choose: Zwei-Stein it’s an excellent program, I use it, what more do you
need? (JobeShadow)
Check also Anim8or’s resource page… (Leslie)
To
rotate around the Z-axis shown in violet,
you have two choices. You can use the middle mouse button if you have a
3-button mouse, or you can use the left button. If the joint can rotate
around both the X and Z-axis, then you have to disable the X-axis first.
(From the Manual)
As
far as I can see, there is no way to
achieve a complete circle to simulate continuous wheel movements
You might be better making the wheels separate objects
in the Scene with the car body as their parent. Then you can rotate all the way
around. Remember that there are 720 degrees possible in an angle! This allows
Anim8or to figure out which way you want to rotate between two keys. (Steve)
It can be easily accomplished with ASL - read the tutorial!
(Leslie)
Anim8or wants textures &
reference images to be at least 16bit resolution unless it's a GIF. (Lloyd)
What I did to fix it was go Preferences and then turn
Backside on. (Seared Ice)
How
to bend with skinning without the skin
surface break? How do I get rid of a crease of something skinned?
You definitely need more faces. If
you look at many models of, say, human like figures you will see that there are
many small faces near areas that bend (like the elbow) but not so many in areas
that don't (like the biceps or forearm). (Steve)
Skinning is inherently problematic. It does not
preserve things like volume so tight bends can kink, bulge, and flatten. Playing
with the bone influences can reduce the problem quite a bit. Sometimes adding an
extra short bone in a joint can help too, so that it:
<---><--><---> instead of <------><------> if you
see what I mean. Thin fingers also work better than fat ones. You just have to
keep playing with it until you figure out what works. (Steve)
Sometimes
after I finish making a model and then
try to scale it, it breaks apart into its individual pieces, each going a
different direction
Group the items and note the x, y, z
location and of the pivot point of the group... ungroup... set the pivot point
for each item to the same place that the group pivot point was... now group the
items again... the items should not spread out... (I hope) (Lloyd)
After you have joined solids delete the hidden faces, select all the
(overlapping) points, then use Edit->Merge points command (bobit)
When
I try to extrude a spline along a
path, often it gives weird results
The "center
point" for the extrusion is the initial origin of your spline. Make sure
that you create the spline around the origin or the results won't be what you
expect. (Steve)
When
I try to open an .an8 file with
double-click, sometimes I get the message "Error in reading file". The
file opens all right in Anim8or with "File->Open" command
I've had the same problem with
many programs. The problem lies in Windows and the way that passed parameters
are interpreted by the program. This error occurs when there is a space in the
file name or path. For instance, if you double-click a C:\Program
Files\Anim8or\test.an8, you will get a message that there was an error opening
the file Files\Anim8or\test.an8. Windows interprets the above as a
command to open the application C:\Program and pass it
Files\Anim8or\test.an8 as a parameter. To solve the problem with double-clicked files for
good, you have two ways (either one works):
A. Open My Computer and go to View->Folder Options,
click the File Types tab and scroll down to the entry, Anim8or file.
Double-click it and then double-click open in the list of actions. A box
will pop up with something like C:\Anim8or\Anim8or.exe in it. Go to the end of it, put a space and type in
"%1" (with the quotes!). Now OK
out of everything and close My Computer.
B. Go to the Windows Run box (Start->Run) and type
in regedit and click OK. This opens the Registry Editor. Press Edit->Find
and type in Anim8or and click the Find Next button. It may take a few
seconds to find the entry, but it ought to hilight (Default) in a folder
labeled an8file. (If it doesn't, hit Edit->Find Next.) Expand an8file (on
the left), then expand shell and Open which will expand out of it, one
after the other. Click on the command folder inside the Open folder you
expanded to see the (Default) entry in the right pane that has the command
line to open an Anim8or file. Double-click on (Default) and put " marks
around the %1 at the end. Click OK and quit regedit.
(Joe McKenzie)
Already
done!
No Subtraction tool in Anim8or yet.
I really do hope to get this into Anim8or
someday but I don't know when I will get to it, if ever. (Steve)
There is a Terranim8or plug-in for boolean operations. (Leslie)
Sorry, but there aren't any Boolean
operations in Anim8or. You'll have to do things some other way. You can select
groups of faces and use Edit -> Detach Faces, delete faces, fill holes. You
can also extrude a face a distance of 0 (hint: turn on Snap To Grid) then resize
the face smaller, then extrude it back into an object, etc. to make a window or
door in a wall. I know this isn't the same as Boolean subtraction, but at least
it's there now... (Steve)
... (Booleans) are really cool but are
fairly tricky to implement. I've done some preliminary work on them but don't
have anything that's even close to being usable yet. The main problem is that
Anim8or is not a solid modeler. It is a surface modeler. Booleans only work on
solids, i.e. perfectly defined 3d volumes. The model's surface cannot have
missing faces, and cannot intersect itself or the operations aren't defined.
(Steve)
With a little thought, you can simulate some Booleans
using merge faces and bridge (Lloyd)
Image by Lloyd
There is no such tool, but
you can do a pretty good circle from a tetragon, selecting the Curved path tool,
double-clicking the vertices and checking "smooth" in the Knot
Parameters dialog box (Leslie)
Terranim8or has a "Circle / Ellipse" primitive. (Leslie)
Is
there some limitation for size of
rendered picture? When I try making any picture bigger then 1024*768, it always
switch to this size!
That’s the current
limitation of the renderer. It'll be increased in the next release. (in v0.8)
(Steve)
You can extrude a face a
distance of 0 (hint: turn on Snap To Grid) then resize the face smaller, then
extrude it back into an object, etc. to make a window or door in a wall. (Steve)
You may use Terranim8or's boolean subtraction. (Leslie)
Select all the faces and bevel them a small
amount, invert selection, apply a black material (Stylos)
Image by Lloyd
I have no more room for materials on the
side of the screen. Is there a limit to how many materials you can have?
The material bar is scrollable. Just click on
one of the materials and drag the whole bar upwards (The Armenian).
Revised: April 11, 2007
.