itsjustme

Ha, I was going to pop in and say "nice beveling"! Hmmm, maybe the beveling is just too tight in the areas I think need it. I can tell parts of it were beveled.

It looks like it could use some beveling, but if it's for a distance shot or game it shouldn't matter. Great stuff!

Congrats, Will!

Do you have "Draw Particles/Hair" on when rendering, Gerry? It rendered fine for me.

I've been thinking about doing another version, how would you do it, Matt?

The five second logo I worked on for my friend is now posted here (with his permission). Now, I've got to catch up on my other projects.

Here's a five second logo I worked on for a friend with the original concept drawing that he provided. I made 640x480, 1280x720 and 1920x1080 versions...this is the 1280x720 version...1.0 gamma, H264 compressed Quicktime. There are plenty of things I wish I had done better, but I think overall it came out alright. animated_logo_1280x720_1.0_gamma_30FPS_H264.mov

Happy Birthday, Robert!

That was fun, Charlie!

If he needs encouragement, tell him that the purpose of a logo is for it to be seen and get him noticed, so posting it on the forums would be free advertisement! I'm pretty sure he won't have a problem with it, but I don't want to assume it's alright without asking. I'm still rendering the HD versions and then I have to do some double-checking of the final renders before I'm done with it. I'll ask him after I've actually delivered something, Chris.

I've gotten tied up in a few other things, so I haven't been able to work on much else for a few weeks...one more "stay alive" post, I guess. I did add another bouncing ball exercise since the last one I mentioned here...it's here. If I'm able to post what I've been making for a friend of mine, I'll do that in a few days or so...he needed a five second logo, so it's up to him whether I can show it to anyone. I'll ask him once I get the renders done (SD, 720 and 1080...the SD is rendered so far).

Very cool, Jesse! Congrats!

If the installation bones have "INSTALL" in their name, you can run the InstallRig plugin to have them cleaned out. This does remind me to mention why some of the "extra" bones are in the Squetch Rig. There are bones used purely for storing measurements/numbers for calculation in Expressions (see A Scalene Arm Rig as an example), nulls added as controls (for the FACE controls, on-character switches, etc), bones added so that the user doesn't have to manually reset the compensates (there used to be around 80 compensates that needed to be reset during installation), a version of control bones for every setting (a set for FK, a set for IK and any other setting...everything has multiple settings), discrete control and geometry bones (a basic rig would generally have one set for both in a lot of places) and (of course) bones that facilitate squetching (which a basic rig would exclude). On the subject of automated CP Weighting...any automated method would require a very simple rig in order to be accurate. I don't think the Squetch Rig could take advantage of an automated weighting method since there are multiple instances of co-located bones. The best way to "ball park" the CP Weighting with the Squetch Rig (although it would work with other rigs as well) would probably be by using the Transfer AW plugin (using an already weighted character to transfer to the new character). I'm going to release a generic character (in addition to Squetchy Sam) that might be helpful for this purpose.

LOL! Very nice, Jeff!

Believe it or not, there used to be more bones than that in the Squetch Rig, but I've trimmed it down considerably. Every bone has a purpose or they wouldn't have been added (there's a lot going on in there)...and the non-standard (compared to other rigs) bone parenting is what allows the rig to squetch the way it does. About the bones showing up when animating...I've tried to name non-animating bones with a "z_" at the front so that they would be at the bottom of the Timeline list...as far out of the way as possible. Could it be done better? Probably, but I think that can be said about most things. As far as not many people understanding the rig, that is my fault, Nancy. I haven't gotten the tutorials done yet (I have helped anyone that asked for help or a modification for their own purposes though)...and it has been a few years. In my defense, the rig has evolved and the tutorials would have been quickly outdated. I am in the very slow process of putting the tutorials together and seeing if I can add one last function before I impose a "feature freeze"...there is a lot on my plate. I did put together a few tutorials showing how things work in the Squetch Rig, like the arm/leg rig and the installation rig (in my A:M Films tutorials...see my signature for the link), but there are quite a few more that I need to get done. I think every rig designer has done their best to make a good rig, regardless of the focus. For the Squetch Rig, it has always been about squetching with a "kitchen sink" approach to capabilities...it does as much as it can in a single package. However, not everyone is going to be satisfied with what is available...that's a good reason to build another rig.

Happy Birthday, Jason! Thanks for all of your hard work, it is very much appreciated.

That's extremely cool, Daniel!

Very cool, John!

Yessir. Nice bridge too!

LOL! Very cool.

Nice hallway, Chris! There are still a couple of small gaps where light comes through that could use a little tweaking. Great job so far.

Great stuff, Rodger!

Robert has a "buy me something" link to his wishlist in his signature. I'm sure he wouldn't mind getting something from there.

More food for thought. Thanks, Robert! I'll make the next one the obstacle course.

I've been trying to get back to this for a few weeks, but I haven't had much free time. I've got a lot of things to catch up on.