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[Link123456]

Hi, I'm just saying I've been using Anim8or for some time now, and quite frankly, I think it's a godsend. First of all, it's free, but also has fairly decent compatibility, and... Well it's just great.

Some odd/annoying things I've encountered are:

1.) On Scene mode, the light function is kinda complicated, and I find it actually makes everything darker. However, that might just be me being useless.

2.) Also, on object mode, on 'view', 'preferences', when you turn on Textures it looks great, however when rendered all the colours become really dark. How can I change this?

3.) When making sequences, I often find that when for example I move an arm, it goes the wrong way and looks downright strange.

Apart from that, I think Anim8or is a truly amazing program

[Kubajzz]

I don't know if you expect any replies to this topic (maybe your post is adressed to Steve??)... Suppose you do:

1.) On Scene mode, the light function is kinda complicated, and I find it actually makes everything darker. However, that might just be me being useless.

2.) Also, on object mode, on 'view', 'preferences', when you turn on Textures it looks great, however when rendered all the colours become really dark. How can I change this?

I don't know exactly what you mean... Just one hint: what you see on the screen when working is not how everything will look once you render an image (or video). The materials, textures, fog, light and more things only display correctly when you render an image; always remember this when setting up the lights and stuff...

3.) When making sequences, I often find that when for example I move an arm, it goes the wrong way and looks downright strange.

Well... I can't help you with this, there's not enough information...

(...) Anim8or is a truly amazing program

I agree! 

[hihosilver]

For your first and second problem, it just sounds like you have the surface normals on your model reversed.  Basically, if you do a drag select of all the faces on your model, if they appear blue, the normals are flipped.  If they are yellow then they are facing the correct direction.  If you wish to flip them so that they're facing the other way, you select all the faces you want to flip and go "Edit>Flip Normals" or press "shift+n".

As for your third question, I don't have an answer for you.  You're not giving enough information on the topic.  One thing that would be really helpful would be to give an example file.

I hope this helps!

[sagedavis]

The answer to question 1 is simple.
You are adding the wrong kind of light.
If you add say, a spot light, you will notice that it is just like, well, a spot light, when you are on stage.
Lights attempt to work just like real lights (or as closely as can be done in a digital environment).

When a light is added, it is just like a lightbulb in your house. It doesn't always light everything in the room up, you will have dark corners and so on.

Now, your light on your computer generated scene is a little darker because, there are no "reflections" or "refractions" in anim8or (yet). The reason why one light in your house can appear to give off more light is because, as the light hits objects, those objects reflect some of the light (if they didn't your house would be a black hole, which I doubt).

The way to get around this is to create some extra lights near objects that you feel need a little more light than they are getting.

That was long winded for just one questions.

As for question 2.
your materials become dark when you render them because your material is dark... Try using a lighter texture, or bumping up your ambient and diffuse percentages.
Sage

[Link123456]

Ok thanks, I'll try all those things...

As for my third point, it was a bit vague... heres the long version.

Ok, so I've got a model of a humanoid type thing. I animate his arm to move up, as if to wave. however, rather than his arm moving forward, his arm goes backwards and round, looking stupid and very unrealistic.

Surely other people have had this problem!

[Kubajzz]

Ok, now I understand...
See "A circle has 720 degrees" chapter of the manual - I think it's exactly what you need, it will help you to make your bones rotate in the right direction...
Good luck

[Link123456]

Hey, thanks, thtat helps a lot.

But one more thing:

In scenes, when you put a sequence on a figure, then another sequence a few frames later, the animation is screwed up in the same was as before, but this time on Scene mode.

Again, if you get what I mean.

[Kubajzz]

Hey, thanks, thtat helps a lot.

But one more thing:

In scenes, when you put a sequence on a figure, then another sequence a few frames later, the animation is screwed up in the same was as before, but this time on Scene mode.

Again, if you get what I mean.

Well, that has never happened to me...

(...) then another sequence a few frames later (...)

Just for sure: the sequences shouldn't overlap; "few frames later" should be at least as many frames as the sequence length...