Violet Heights

[bl0ppin]

That was wonderful. Your finest hour.

[Air Rick]

wow. Fantastic!

[Richard Bevis]

Did anyone resolve the generic expansion filename situation?

[Aaron Haynes]

Now that it's already released and presumably uses this model a lot, you'd have to reanimate every instance of it and then remove it from the file. It sounds like this would take a lot of work, and you're probably not willing to do that. However, for those who would still like to watch it in 3DMM, I wrote this up for the Tech Help FAQ in the 3DMM Modifications forum:

3. I tried to watch someone's movie in v3dmm today and it stopped on several scenes. What the hell?

A: We call this the "pop-ding error." It means that you had an expansion with the same shortname already installed as one of the expansions the director used, and v3dmm can't resolve the two. So any time that expansion appears, v3dmm stops before it can load that scene. You can help prevent this from occurring by naming your expansions carefully and avoiding the possibility that anyone will EVER use your expansion shortname again.

There is a temporary solution: Go into your C:\Program Files\Microsoft Kids\Virtual 3DMM directory and rename the folder called "Expansions" to "Expansions2" or anything else. Now create a new, empty folder called "Expansions". This will keep all your installed vxp files, but stop v3dmm from knowing where they are, stopping v3dmm conflicts for the afflicted movie. You can delete your new "Expansions" directory afterwards, and rename your old one back to "Expansions."

(Important notice: This is a last-ditch fix, and an annoying one. If you have already used a generic shortname in your movie, there's little that can be done, but don't consider this a license to stop worrying about them. Always make your shortnames in 7gen as unique as possible, to avoid us having to do this constantly in the future.

[Richard Bevis]

Thanks Aaron. Before I start any major work on my next flick, is there any way of renaming the expansion before it gets used? I have an old tree expansion which I think is called "Tree 1", and whilst I make my new 7gen expansions very unique in name, I don't know how to approach this old one. It's textured and everything, should I use it anyway? It's the little one seen frequently throughout Firefly.

[Aaron Haynes]

Yes, there is.

1. Go into any 7gen program and get it to generate an ID for you. Copy this ID to your clipboard.
2. Change the offending .vxp into a .zip and extract the three files inside.
3. Open the 3cn and 3th files with 3DMM Pencil and change the ID to the one you copied from 7gen.

• In the .3cn, it's the TMPL, which is the first QUAD.
• In the .3th, it's all three of the QUADs, plus the TMPL, which you can get to by clicking View/Edit with the TMTH selected. Most people miss this step.

4. Change the shortname to something non-generic by renaming each of the three files. Package them into a new .zip with this new filename and rename it to .vxp.
5. Install the .vxp.

[Aaron Haynes]

BTW, many of the expansions you made were pretty generic as well. "clipboard.vxp", "purpleblock.vxp", in fact many of the things in the textures list might possibly be done by someone else.

Which is exactly the problem I think people don't realize. If anyone else might use that name again, EVER, then it's too generic. You need to include your NAME along with these, possibly even the date. No one can ever make an expansion called clipboard.vxp again now, if they haven't already.

We check what comes in with the modifications forum, but we can't stop people from putting generic expansion names into their movies and then releasing them. Jack Deakin seems to have figured this out. Please, please, please use the MOST SPECIFIC SHORTNAMES YOU CAN THINK OF. Or we'll be watching 3dmm movies exclusively on youtube in the future.

Edit: Now, with that said, cutoff for expansion discussion in this thread. Keep it to the movie. Watching.

[Aaron Haynes]

That was excellent. Possibly your best movie so far. You have a really incredible sense of design, although the purple border conflicted with some of the early shots. And I'm not sure the ending really had the resolution the movie needed by that point. It's great and cut together well and then it just kinda...ends. I'll have to watch it again to get a better idea of what we're supposed to take away from it.

Full review soon.

[Richard Bevis]

Thank you muchly.

[Aaron Haynes]

Reviewed. I had issues with the ending that didn't get resolved with a second and third watch, but this was still really well done and looked amazing (in a design sense, not just in animation/construction).

[Richard Bevis]

Cheers. I suppose I could break it down if anyone wanted to read it over.

Main character who stares at photograph depicting himself and his girlfriend, peers out of window and sees same female kissing another man. She ultimately tries to push him off and walk away. Main character goes to the park which was the setting in the photograph, and the girlfriend appears to try and comfort him, knowing what he had witnessed. Main character walks home. We then see him at home lying on a sofa, and he receives a phone call, summoning him to a hospital, where he arrives to find his girlfriend dead for unknown reasons. He goes back to Violet Heights once more, walks over the bridge and accidentally drops his keys in the river. He travels home and has to climb through the window to get inside, where he takes up his position at the desk, retrieves the photograph and kills himself.

[Pizza The Hut]

This didn't click with me much. Maybe because of the music. Not to say it was terrible, it was well-done...just didn't CLICK.

[Dave Miles]

pretty cool. some of the sequences were well done. Music was though.

[Mabdog]

that was totally great. you still got it, man.

I BASICALLY understood that..
I'd have to say you're probably one of the only people that can do 3dmm drama well.

[Phil Williamson]

the .zip file appears to be corrupted

[Aaron Haynes]

Fixed.

[Phil Williamson]

ok, swell.

also I went ahead and reviewed this. overall quite solid, but it tries to be a little more than what it is.

[Fredrick]

3DMM movies that deal/end with suicides tend to be way too melodramatic to be taken seriously (in addition to the funny looking characters), and unfortunately this didn't really do it for me either. I was at least hoping that the suicide was committed because of something else than a lost romance or whatever. As Phil said, it probably tried to be a little more than what it actually is.

Having that said, you have an eye for pretty visuals. Good job there. The one shot with the falling leaves looked awesome. Looking forward to your next movie for sure.

[Aaron Haynes]

Originally Posted by Fredrick

3DMM movies that deal/end with suicides tend to be way too melodramatic to be taken seriously.

I thought this one kind of circumvented that by the suicide already having taken place, and the movie being about his life rather than just about "what drove him to this", but there have been a long history of underwhelming ones in 3DMM, agreed.

[Bown]

Finally got round to watching this, and I really enjoyed it. I love your scenery style, Bevis, you really bring something to every shot that I've never seen in anyone else's films. The plot was slightly cliched, but it was done in a way which made it not matter as much. I didn't mind the music choice, although it was nagging in the back of my head "I've heard this before..." which I guess isn't something you want. I really hope this is the start of a lot more work from you.

[Aaron Haynes]

Be sure to rate this, too, guys.

[Funny Bones]

https://f001.backblaze.com/file/3dmmtv/A5E.mp4