those 2600 rascals

miss nancy here's a response about time travel

http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Tachyon.html

sure some scientists don't see it as possible but plenty of mainstream scientists are ok with that.  they had a great show on one of the science channels about the evolution of this particular universe and the behavior of time, (and a possible ultimate fate of this particular universe) and they were really treating time like just another ordinary physical thing that can be and in fact (theoretically) is regularly slapped around.

so no real proof of tachyons yet, but the math is there, and that usually precedes tangible things.  and lets not forget that we really still don't know crap compared to how much there is to know.

kurzweil likes to say that technology sufficiently advanced appears to the viewer like magic.

physics is full of seemingly illogical things, though.  after all, check out quantum entanglement.  measuring one half of a quantum pair instantaneously will change the outcome of measuring the other half no matter how far apart.  since particles and waves can't travel faster than the speed of light it behaves as if the particles are not actually separate, even if on opposite sides of the universe.
some day our phones and power transmissions will probably work this way. 

**XENOPHONZ
now that's a scenario i can live with
**

dynamic is tops baby

hard to believe there are so many figures out there
i bet with a little tlc and rerigging many can return to use

for the most part, it seems we all chase the same ball

i sometimes think the world is out to get me...
but we're all in the same boat and we learn here and over at geep's place and wherever else.  you just gotta be patient and do every tut you come across.
i've been working on animation too, but just cyclic stuff for now.
if you're having to add keys to the parts you don't want to move, you may be getting overshoot from the spline.  try to use linear splines when you can.  you can key originally curved, then mark a few spots on the curve and switch to linear and get more control.
o and that inverse kinematics is good to get going but might be better off trashed as you approach the final animation, cause ik rekeys every time the animation is run, so it'll always look different and throw issues.  (i understand character studio keys one way and keeps it, but i haven't used it) really messes up cloth dynamics too, so if you're going that route don't even run the cloth 'till ik is off and off for good.  turn it on once, new keys everywhere.
geep had a nice description of the splines working.

i don't know how to pull off the shaking hands easily.  i tried that once by reparenting the hand.  that was not successful.  i would just say at this point that's gonna be one of those "key every other frame" deals.

#7 sounds pretty easy.  you can just use break spline as you switch from one maneuver to another to keep overshoot down and animate in chunks.

trying to render quality animation for us is still yucky when a single frame can take several minutes to many more.  you gotta compromise there.  if you go toonish  you can render much faster.  if you're going for realism, better get the renderfarm.

o yeah and for #2 the easiest way to do that is to open the splines and just delete mucho frames from the animation, anything that is not a peak, lull, or zero.  then you can tweak it from there with much less stuff in the way.  but be careful...again, if you have curved splines, you'll get crazy new overshoots, so go linear at this point again. before deleting splines

L.O. bloody L!!!
that has to be the wimpiest flaw i ever did see.

i loaded another bottle.  it rendered fine with the two of them.

  :lol:  :blink:

super awesome man.
i see you had to write the script to make the shader instead of the other way around...but a total mystery to me how you knew what the nodes would do in combination.  you must've know you can get a certain results from certain sets of nodes. ? and then line em up?
anyway you must be killer at chess.
really thanks for all the time you put into helping me.

i don't know
but as a continuous questioner here i know these are friendly folks, so ask away

def Boards(
    nx = 3,                 # number of boards in the X direction
    ny = 20,                 # number of boards in the Y direction
    rings = 40,                     # number of rings per board
    c1 = IColor(197, 136, 45),         # wood color 1
    c2 = IColor(230, 174, 94),         # wood color 2
    stainClr = Color(.8, .4, .2),     # stain color
    strength = .5,                     # stain strength
    opacity = 0,                     # stain opacity
    x = U,                     # x coordinate
    y = V,                     # y coordinate
    darken = 0,             # amount to randomly darken boards
    bevel = 0,                # amount of bevel displacement
    gap = 0,                # gap between boards
    reflect = .1,             # amount of reflection
    varx = 0                # variation in board layout (0 to 1)
    ):
    Z = Add(0)
    NV = ny * y
    FNV = Floor(NV)
    FNU = Floor(3 * U)
    RNV = NV % 1
    NU = nx * U
    FNU = Floor(NU)
    def RY(z):
        return Noise(FNV, Add(0), Add(z))
    ry1 = RY(.1)
    rx = varx * ry1
    RNU = (NU + FNV * 2 / nx + rx) % 1
    FNUV = Floor(NU + FNV * 2 / nx % 1 + rx)

    def RXY(z):
        return RY(FNUV + z)
    def R(z): return RXY(z)

    clr = Wood2(rings, c1, c2, x = .5 * R(.3) * U, y = ny * y % 1, cx = R(.2), cy = Floor(V * ny + R(.1)) / ny)
    if darken:
        clr = clr * ((1 - darken) + darken * R(.5))
    if strength:
        clr = Stain(clr, stainClr, strength, opacity)
    s = Surface(clr, 1, WHITE, 1, .01)
    if bevel:
        d = Clamp(30*Min(RNV, 1-RNV))
        d = Min(d, Clamp(200 * Min(RNU, 1-RNU)))
        d = bevel * (d - 1)
        if gap:
            gap = gap/2.0
            ge = Min(RNV, inv(RNV))
            d = d - (ge <= gap)
        s.Displacement = d
    if reflect:
        s.Reflection_Color = Reflect(Clouds())
        s.Reflection_Value = reflect
    return s

s = Boards(1, 8, darken = 0, stainClr = Color(.8, .9, .9), strength=1, opacity = .15)
outputs += [ 'ButcherBlock', s ]

s = Boards(2, 20, varx = 0, darken = 0, bevel = 0, gap=0, stainClr = Color(.6, .8, .7), strength=.5, opacity = .15)
outputs += [ 'PressureTreatedDeck', s ]

s = Boards(2, 20, varx = 0, darken = 0, bevel = 0, gap=0, stainClr = Color(.6, .3, .1), strength=.8, opacity = .15)
outputs += [ 'RedwoodDeck', s ]

s = Boards(5, 44, bevel = 0, stainClr = Color(.5, .3, .1), strength = .5, reflect = .1)
outputs += [ 'Floor1', s ]

s = Boards(5, 44, bevel = 0, stainClr = Color(.8, .9, .9), strength = .5, opacity = .3, reflect = .1)
outputs += [ 'Floor2', s ]

s = Boards(5, 44, bevel = 0, stainClr = Color(.4, .2, .22), strength = .8, opacity = .1, reflect = .1)
outputs += [ 'Floor3', s ]

s = Boards(1, 8, stainClr = Color(.4, .2, .22), strength = .4, reflect = .2)
outputs += [ 'Table', s ]

nope that don't work either.  (i'm using the p6 version)
i put it before s=, after it, in () and without them, i put it at the top of the function before x=3, y = 20, at places here or there in the function, and placed it in the boards = ( )
i can post the code i'm working in if it's okay with you baggins (i know better than to post someone elses code without permission)
thanks

at this moment only one zone but i intend to make the legs and the front and back struts a different zone soon as i get this flipping worked out
i'm checking with the new advice.  lol that sounds crazy simple.

i did work on the x = u and y = v but then the wood boundries went crazy (actually remained original so not looking right)  so i tried changing a lot of the variables one for another.  i got it looking better but the sizes of the planks were still off.  so i'm gonna try the inline idea .

thanks for all the help guys i'll get back on the success or failure of it

ah not as easy as i thought.  the variables run throughout the program.  still working on it though

ah cool i will try that

that miss proxy is hilarious looking