Anim8or FAQ http://www.biederman.net/leslie/faq.htm Table of Contents 1. Transparency doesn't work with my Anim8or. Is this a problem with my 3d card or what?

2. Shadows don't work for me! 3. When I click on a bone and then go Build -> Add object, none of my objects are in the list, just object01 4. When I export a sequence in .3DS format I lost the animation of the character 5. 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 6. Whenever I apply a texture to an object, it has to be massive (5000x5000 pixels+) or it gets rather pixelated 7. How to use Texture UV? It seems it doesn't change anything whatever options I set 8. How do I add sounds to avis? 9. I can't make bones rotate around Z-axis, though the bones limits are set 10. As far as I can see, there is no way to achieve a complete circle to simulate continuous wheel movements 11. When I load a reference image, it is black! 12. How to bend with skinning without the skin surface break? How do I get rid of a crease of something skinned? 13. 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 14. When I try to extrude a spline along a path, often it gives weird results 15. 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 16. Is there a plug in feature planed for anim8or? 17. Does anim8or have a subtraction or Boolean tool? 18. Where is the "Circle" tool? 19. 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! 20. How can I make windows in a wall? 21. How do I render wire frame models? 22. 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) When I export a sequence in .3DS format I lost the animation of the character 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) How do I add sounds to avis? 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 (http://www.softlab-nsk.com/ddclipro/free.html ). They are also selling a DDclip Pro (http://www.softlab-nsk.com/ddclipro/download.html ), 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 (http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=42&platform=Windows ). (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 its an excellent program, I use it, what more do you need? (JobeShadow) Check also Anim8ors resource page (Leslie) I can't make bones rotate around Z-axis, though the bones limits are set 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 (http://www.biederman.net/leslie/tutorials/ASL%20Scripting/Simple_scripts.htm )! (Leslie) When I load a reference image, it is black! 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) Is there a plug in feature planed for anim8or? Already done! Does Anim8or have a subtraction or Boolean tool? 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 Where is the "Circle" tool? 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! Thats the current limitation of the renderer. It'll be increased in the next release. (in v0.8) (Steve) How can I make windows in a wall? 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) How do I render wire frame models? 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).