James Winslett

Thanks guys for the quick replies. I'm running Animator 8.0.0 on OSX 10.4.11 on an old G5 PPC. I already had Display Texture checked, but if I can't see clipped models in the viewports or the current frame of an animated texture map I'll be flying blind - I really need to be able to see something in the viewport so I can compose my shots quickly and easily. At the moment each Uber Shape plane is blocking the ones behind it in the camera view. I think transparency maps can't be seen either - is that correct? My clipping maps are alpha maps I've made from photographs of trees, buildings, etc. Perhaps there's a way for me to create a flat mesh shapes from them instead, either in Animator or a 3rd party application? Any suggestions. I've shot some simple left right tracking shots with my video camera that I was hoping to recreate in Animator. It would have been very easy for me to mimic the camera movement just by aiming the virtual camera at the animated characters in my animated texture maps if I could have seen the current frame in the camera viewport. Is there another way for me do this? Match moving just deals with pan, tilt and roll if I'm not mistaken, not tracking shots. Thanks, James

Hi guys, I'm coming back to EIAS for the first time in years and years for a little animation project I'm working and there's a couple of things I'm unable to figure out. Firstly, is it possible to preview clip-mapped objects in the view windows without having to render with Camera? At the moment, all I'm seeing in the top, front, side and camera views are the solid Uber Shape planes that I've applied the clipping maps too, so in order to compose my scenes, I'm having to render, reposition, render, reposition, etc. Secondly, is it possible to preview animated texture maps in the view windows. At the moment, I can only get the first frame of my QuickTime texture maps to display. I don't need real time playback or anything like that, I just want to be able to see the current frame of the texture map at any given point in the timeline, so I can aim the camera and track some of the elements in the changing texture map. At the moment I'm having to use trial and error and have to keep checking my results by rendering with Camera, and I'm progressing at a snail's pace. Hopefully it's just a case of changing a few settings/preferences somewhere. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks, James