Hi all, I just downloaded anim8or yesterday and have been getting familiar with it today as I have the day off. I like what I'm seeing so far. I do have a question or two.

Specifically, I'm doing the Gingerbread Man tute from the anim8or site. It's very easy to follow but when I aproach the steps in the 20s - is anyone familiar with this tute? - and after building and mirroring then joining the solids of the two disparate halves, one returns to point edit and drags selects some points, setting the maximum merge distance, after which you select the previously selected points and edit/cut, removing faces along the Y-axis.

Here's where I get hung up: Using Edge Selection and Drag Select one should select certain points, drag and Edit/Cut to remove interior edges. This is easy enough, in fact all of it is.

But when I subdivide, the end result is not what I want to get. I get the gingerbread man otherwise well formed except where I have selected the points using edge selection and then cut, THERE ARE WHOLES WHERE THE FACES should be. In fact, I can see the faces are gone.

The otherwise well written tute says if one encounters this one should undo and go back to repeat the steps and then try subdividing again. I keep getting the same result. After six complete walkthroughs of the tute, minutely detailed, I keep getting the same result, which means I must be misreading something somewhere, not unusual in that I proofread for a living - not as easy as one might think, I assure you.

Here is a pic of what I'm getting. All where "he" has no body is the result I do not want. Hope one of the anim8or users here - are there some? - can correct my obvious error. Thanks.

Larry F

Two words - Wacom Tablet! Somehow never able to sequentially select the needed to be selected faces or points using the stylus and can't find the cordless mouse that came with it. Went to my other PC - tabletless - did the same tutorial, now committed to memory from a day of repitition, presto! change-o! voila! a gingerbread man with his whole body. Thanks for whoever may have intended to answer. 3D is such fun! Larry F

I was looking at the tutorial for the gingerbread man trying to find out how to do it. I am new to Anim8or myself so I wanted to learn about this too. The tutorial worked for me so I didnt know what to say. I am glad you found out the problem. Had me stumped. I have only been using the program for a few days and I am impressed with it so far. I have been able to set up morph targets for poser and I am now trying to do some modeling with it. Good luck!

Hey hardtwist (GREAT handle BTW), Thanks for that reply. That tute is actually pretty good as tutes go I think. As I said, easy to read and follow, plus (for me anyway) not many typos! As I said I spent the entire afternoon doing the tute and getting snagged up at that one point. I even joined the Anim8or forum but got no answer get. At any rate, I've done modeling in Organica and Imagine off and on for years, so I'm pretty familiar with the concepts and Poser morph targets are exactly why I grabbed Anim8or. One thing I need for a project is an accordion - or rather a bandoneon, very similar instrument, which I think now I will have in just a few days with Anim8or. Be seeing you around. Thanks again. Larry F

i saw the question at an8 but didnt get what you asking do you have url to the ginger beard tutorial i couldnt find it heres some tips sometimes when you merge points then convert to sub object they leave holes what you do is select all the faces then edit deattache faces then when you convert to subobject again the hole should be gon if not delete that vertex/point then make a new one and select all edges around the hole and edit>fill holes another way to find hiden edges witch make holes on subs is to select a face the goto edit>select>select by connected then edit>select>select face edges then change the select mode to points/vertex or edges and do edit>invert selection now delete after all that go back to object mode and change the working on the subobject to 1 ok it then put it back to 2 hope this info is of use to you

URL to Gman http://www.jabberdoggy.com/Tutorials/Gingerbread/GBMatrix.html

bobit, thanks so much for the feedback! I've done that tute and am working on the bird tutorial. hardtwist beat me to the Gman url. I think there's one there for a hand and a couple of other things as well. Nice to meetcha! Larry F

Just so the anim8or guy doesn't get blamed for my bad instructions, the Gingerbread tutorial is mine, and not an "official" anim8or tutorial. Sounds like I need to read over the instructions, and see if I can word things a little better. I seem to recall having a similar problem, and I think it had something to do with internal faces making weird stuff happen with the subdivide. I'll see if I can't improve the wording to keep this from happening to others. Sounds like it wouldn't hurt for me to try this using the Wacom tablet, too. Sorry about the confusion. --Terri

twillis, Thanks so much for your input. I have a couple PCs, one with and one without a Wacom. It didn't dawn on me until about the sixth walkthrough of your EXCELLENT TUTORIAL (trust me here, I read for a living) that the cause of my failure might be attributable to something other than misconstruing the instructions - very often the case and usually the first thing I check out. You know, sometimes you can't see the trees for the forest. After doing your EXCELLENT TUTORIAL a couple more times on the non-tablet machine, I still like the tute. You know, my Wacom tablet stylus has all the functions of a mouse with none of the inconvenience and I right click all the time but still can't make that successive right click function work with the tute. So, I'm concludng my finger pressure is too heavy and/or "Sounds lit it wouldn't hurt for me ..." probably couldn't hurt. I would be greatly interested in ANY OTHER TUTORIALS you have. Thanks so much. It helped me greatly. Larry F

thanks hardtwist no prob larry f twillis the tutorial is good i will post url in the an8 forum wounder if there any other tutorials out there that an8 users dont no about

No problem bobit. Where is the An8 forum you refer to?

Attached Link: http://www.anim8or.com/

The dude who wrote Anim8or has a fairly active forum on his web site above (just click on "Forum" once you enter the site). He is also very nice about responding to emails. Thanks for the nice words regarding the tutorial, everyone. I've got some others in the works. Mostly I am a Carrara user, but I wanted to do some Anim8or stuff, since that's freeware. My goal is to have a site to encourage people to give 3D modeling a try, so having a way to try things out for free seems like a good idea. Plus, I think Anim8or is a nifty little program. It isn't a hard drive hog, and since it exports to obj, people can make their own Poser characters (assuming they have a legal copy of Poser, of course!). --Terri