I hope that someone from the Eovia company reads these messages. -HK

Thanks. I'd love to see a graphic display of the changing values that many other 3D-apps have. It would give a better comprehension of the animated value than the little image in the tweener-data window that we have now. -Hannu Kulju

From view-menu set Zoom to 100% and then select Reset 2D pan.

That should do the trick. If not, try sending the camera manually near an object you have in the scene and pointing the camera at the object by selecting first the camera, then the object and choosing Point At from Edit-menu.

-Hannu Kulju

Message edited on: 07/21/2004 00:49

After fighting with it a little more I deleted all the cross-sections but one and then duplicated it to replace the ones I deleted. And now my reels are correct and centered! This time worked this kind of solution. I don't know what helps if you want to have different kinds of shapes in compouds that follow each other. I hope I'll never have to face such a situation. -Hannu Kulju

I realized that the file naming-section won't work in the Batch...-window if Override Action Save As Commands is activated because the file naming is used particularly for the automatic saving that the Override disables.

Therefore, I think it might be best if you first created the pngs and then created another Batch that does nothing else but saves the files again using file naming to get rid of the copy at the end of the files' names. First you might want to check if Flash knows how to import sequences even while the file's name ends with the copy. I once saw a tutorial of how to use Photoshop actions to create DOF into 3D images.I think it was at http:www.computerarts.co.uk. Unfortunately they've started to collect payments for downloading the tutorials. On the other hand I couldn't find it there and they were giving it for free before so I might as well reveal it.

1. Open a file that has depth rendered into it
2. Start to record an action.
3. Create a duplicate layer of the original image and make sure the new layer is selected. This way you always have the original stored beneath the one that is going to be altered.
4. Load the depth channel as a selection.
5. Apply Gaussian blur from the Filters and Blur-menu
6. Use only small values (below 1) to avoid ghosty outlining.
7. Re-apply the Gaussian blur for twenty or thirty times to strengthen the blur
8. Press stop from the Actions-panel to stop recording the action.

It is possible to create breaks to the action so you can decide how much you want to blur your image and you only need to run the action once. Select a single event in the Action's description and select **Insert Stop...**from the menu under the button with the black arrow in the upper right corner of the Actions-panel. Into the opening window you can write a message that is displayed when the stop is occurs during the action. By checking the Allow continue you can make the action to ask if you want to continue running.

-Hannu Kulju

Unfortunately I don't know any such sites. But I'll explain what I can. I might have been misleading when I mentioned Photoshop's script. I meant what in Photoshop are called actions and they aren't that hard to create and use. Open one of the images you wish to manipulate.

1. Open Actions-panel from Window-menu.
2. Create a new set of actions for your own scripts by pressing the black arrow in the right corner of the Actions-panel and choosing New set....
3. Name your set of actions (e.g. 'my actions') and press OK.
4. Create a new action by pressing the black arrow in the upper right corner of the Actions-panel again and this time choosing New action....
5. Name your action with any name you wish(e.g. 'alpha cut') and press OK
6. Now you can notice that the button(Record-button) in the lower margin of the actions-panel with a red circle in it is pressed down and activated.
7. You can now do the picture the modifications you wish Photoshop to perform for all the images in the sequence. I cannot remember if drawing tool apply but filters and image adjustments and such will certainly be recorded to the script.
8. For example if you wanted to cut the alpha channel from the background you would do the following: 1. double click the background so it becomes a layer instead of being a background.(This enables the cut with the alpha channel)
9. Create a selection of the Alpha channel (Carrara creates a Mask-channel) by Command-clicking the channel or by choosing Load selection... from Select-menu.
10. Inverse the selection to cut the background instead of the objects
11. Make a cut with the selection by pressing Command+X or choosing Cut from the Edit-menu.
12. Save the file into a different format by selecting Save as... from the File-menu.
13. Press stop from the Actions-panel.
14. Your action is now ready.I recommend you to save your action from the black arrow in the upper right corner of the Actions-panel.

You can now apply it to all the images in your sequence. 1. Go to File, Automate and batch....

1. In the Batch...-window select your set to the Set and your action to the Action.
2. Choose the folder your sequence is in by pressing Choose... in the Source-section of the window.
3. The Destination-section you unfortunately have to test because I haven't quite figured it out yet. I have gotten it to work but somehow but I still don't know what I have done. Probably the best option is to choose Folder to the Destination so the files are saved in to another forlder. Then press Choose... to select the folder.
4. I think that if the Override Action Save AsCommands is activated Photoshop saves only with the Save as...-command set in to the Action and not automatically after completing the Action. So you should probably activate it.
5. In the file naming-section you can alter the file name of the new created file.

Last time I tested creating a sequence of pngs with batch , Photoshop insisted on putting copy to the end of each file's name. I don't know if Flash recognizes sequence numbers if they are in the middle of the filename but I think think this might be a problem. That time I had only 24 frames so I manually changed the names but if there are more files it would be frustrating to change all their names. It might be possible to create a new batch that opens the pngs and saves them with a different name. After all there are the sequencial numbers in the filenames that Photoshop will recognize and do the batching it that order.
I hope this helps you atleast a bit. -Hannu Kulju

You almost got me todd. I realized I hadn't used png-format for importing image sequences to Flash. I had imported sequences of other formats and single pngs but not png-seqs - until now. I just tested the png-seq import with 24 frames and there were no problems. I'm using Flash MX and it is version 6.0 so I presume it is the first version of the MX series just like you have. The thing might be that I use it on Mac. Do you get pngs straight from Carrara? I didn't know you could do that. I've resaved the files into pngs in Photoshop. -Hannu Kulju

You could create a script in Photoshop so you would need to do the changes only once. Then you could automate the process for the rest of the files. I've found the Photoshop's script and automate-process quite handy for postworking and compositing animations. Actually Flash imports numbered image sequences. You just select the first one of them and Flash asks if you want to import the whole sequence. Getting them to the right place is occasionally the tricky part if you have tens of images. In many cases the images place right where they should but when they don't, activate onion-skinning and make sure every frame is within the skin. Then marquee over the images and align them to the scene or place where you want. PNG is a great format for exporting the images to Flash cause it is lossless and it can contain alpha channel. I have always cut the image with the inverse selection of the alpha mask so I don't know if just the alpha channel is enough. I will send a link to the site i'm working on when it's ready. All the 3D on it is made with Carrara and I've used methods I descibed above to get the images into Flash. -Hannu kulju

Are you using select-tool or move-tool while option/alt clicking? You must use alt/option move-tool (probably almost any other than selection-tool will do) to select the yellow point. I didn't manage to do it either when I was starting to work with Carrara. -Hannu Kulju

I get the message all the time and when I don't C just crashes without warning(I guess I try to make everything a bit too accurate). Therefore I've ended up in rendering all my animations in sequenced stills. If the computer crashes I can continue from where I was left. Sometimes though it can be a bit complicated to count where to continue from. I like that I don't have to render everything again. -HK

Thanks guys! I think it is now ready enough. I've already spent too much time with it and yet I must render it to animation. I didn't get the blur and the glare affect so much the northern lights but I let the glare on because it enhances the image other ways. It was a good idea to bring red to the streaks. It makes them a bit more dramatic. I added a starfield behind the scene and dropped the glowing amount of the aurora so the backdrop can be seen better. I think bikermouse was right on this. I thigtened the view closer to the cottage so there isn't so much empty space on the foreground. -HK hkulju@dnainternet.net

Nice work. I think mateo's got a point, the light inside could be of a different colour. Yellowish might be right and just a tint of it, only to make strenghten the impression that they are electric lights not natural. Halogen tube lights give a slightly green colour. There's something odd with the concrete at lower left corner. How about some rubble and garbage to the ground, especially to the corners. Otherwise, splendid work. I like the tiles and the graffiti. -HK

I'll see what I can do. The puck is a part of a player introduction-video which is to be used in local hockey games. Meanwhile you might want to check one of my previous puck-animations at: http://www.3dxtract.com/cfforum/viewmessages.cfm?Forum=14&Topic=317 My alias is hkulju_873, so you can find the movie clip easier. It also has been used in local hockey games as a starter for the game. -HK

I think NURBS are a bit too much to ask but a Rhino-like interface would be awesome. A graphic display of how positions and other values change in animation. I think the current way of selecting and displaying the tweener mode is not informative enough. Also the possibility to copy tweener and data from one object to another could be handy. Rotation sucks. Values swap between XYZ unexpectedly. I once spent hours trying to get one ball to rotate correctly. Carrara has the ability disagree or forget the values I input. This is annoying. For example it has many times forgotten the constraints I've set for a bone. As many have mentioned the metaball-modeller isn't very practical. There should be the possibility to input values from the keyboard. I like the vertex modeller but it could be better: -Extrusion uses inches although the other program uses centimeters. -Duplicate with symmetry mirrors the duplicate always along Z-axis and ALWAYS way farther than I want it to. The same yellow vertex that is used in scaling and rotating could be handy here too. And the possibility to select mirroring axis. -Symmetrical modelling. A manual that contains only information that is true with the present version of the program. What is the button on the left upper corner of the sequencer? Tooltip says: animate. But unpressing it won't help me moving unanimated objects where they should be when the current time is not 0. I can naturally move the object but when I move along timeline it returns to its origin. Adding and removing files from a started batchlist. If an isometric viewport is active and I want to track the perspective view closer or farther of the object, I must first activate the perspective view with whatever tool I have active before I can activate the track-tool. Activating the perspective view with zoom and pan tools distort the perspective view. After inputting values to the properties tray one cannot change the current tool without clicking on some of the viewports. You can only guess how many times I've had to rewrite the values after pressing t, z or some other keyboard shortcut. There is definately more but I cannot remember at this point. -HK

Thanks Mark! I finally got it to work. One problem was that the emit type was wrong. Another was that I had created duplicates from one particle primitive. I wanted better control over where particles emit from and duplicated the emitter and shrunk its emitting area. The particles wouldn't react expectedly until I made each of the emitters a master. If I had been able to control all of the emitters with one master object it would have saved time a little. On the other had now have particles where I want to and they leave an arrow like trail just like I wish them to. The pulsing particle creation disappeared by changing the maximum amount of particles, just as you proposed. There is something wierd about the seed of the random generator, seems like it returns always the same value, but I don't know if it matters. Atleast this time it didn't. I hope the included image gives you some idea of what I wanted to achieve. This image was created in Photoshop so it looks a bit different than what the final movie does. The flames were rendered to be used as one layer of a video and the puck as another. Then they were composited in a video editing program. This way I could get the flame shine a little more. -Hannu Kulju hkulju@dnainternet.net