Mechadelphia
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Posts posted by Mechadelphia
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Following Mack's suggestions, I converted the light to a klieg and used Z buffer rather than ray traced shadows.
This was the result.
Tried it in V17 and the same problem remained ?
regards
simon
Hi Simon,
You're welcome.
Do you mean that you also are seeing the same type of bug in v17 when using z-buffered shadows or do you mean raytraced shadows in v17? I have not seen that occur with the z-buffered ones but I have never really used that kind of shadow as much.
I don't think that the z-buffered shadows are going to produce a shadow that is as well defined or as dark as the ray traced one in the toon renderer.
I'm sorry for not being more clear about that. I meant to suggest rendering a raytraced shadow with the standard renderer separately and then composite that back to you toon rendered image. I did not mean doing that with the z-buffered shadow (unless you prefer that).
If you separate the shadow pass in A:M's compositor using the OpenExr format and light buffers you can clearly see the problem in the shadow pass when using the toon renderer. I don't recall at the exactly at the moment but the problem is less evident when using raytaced shadows with the standard renderer or not really existent at all.
You don't have to use the OpenExr format (in the compositor) but it might make it a little easier to manage.
As for your question about the jagged shadow on your rock... Yes, that is a rendering issue that occurs with the toon renderer.
I've run into the same issue as you in my Clark WIP. I've been working with separate render passes in an attempt to get around it but I still have a little bit work to do with that.
I'll post an update there momentarily so that you can see it.
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I have not posted in awhile about this anyway so an update won't hurt.
I'm actually posting this update as sort of a follow-up to Simon's thread about lines showing up in his rendered shadows.
The same thing is happening to me as you can see with the cape. I've been working around that(and a few others) by using separate render passes like Simon intends to do with his project.
I have not gotten to a separate shadow pass for the cape yet but once I do that should clean things up quite a bit.
This particular render of Superman is a result of me trying to find a visual style that I like for this project. I think that I'm getting close to something that I'm happy with here. The texturing and a few other details (etc) here are still not final yet.
Ironically, I would not have created a render like this if I had not been working around some of the render issues I've run into. I'm going to keep experimenting with this for a little while and follow up on this a little later.
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I'm rendering a series of frames for the water spout in the current short. The sequence is being rendered as tga files with an alpha channel with the intention of compositing it within the scene.
As the render goes through I noticed this strange effect in the shadow and wondered what might have caused it and how to avoid it future ? It appears to be showing the polys the splines approximate too ? The spline rings are far less substantial then the lines suggest. ( think there are 4 in the head of the spout.
Multi pass on at 16, toon lines set to 0.2, bias at 20%, default surface properties.
OSX 10.68 on Imac, V15.
Any help gratefully received
regards
simon
Hi Simon,
I think that this is actually a bug with no practical workaround that I could work out.
The render time polygons are showing up in silhouette inside of the shadow.
It occurs while using the toon renderer and ray traced shadows. I'm still trying to sort the exact conditions that cause what you are encountering for a bug report. I have reported a somewhat related bug at A:M Reports (ID# 0006339). That report addresses the jagged transition from light to shadow that you see in your render. I've held out on reporting the one you ran into until after A:M v18 gets released.
You could try to render a separate shadow pass with the standard renderer and then composite back to your toon render (minus the rendered toon shadows) but that will take a bit of experimenting on your end to get a look that you are happy with.
If you work out a workaround in the meantime please share your results.
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Where do I download this from?
Everything that you may need is in the first post of this thread. (
Good luck to you if you try it out.
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Does this rig work in the current version?
Yes.
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I tried following that link while logged into AM Reports but got an "Access Denied" page.
Is that link a priviate request where only certain people can view it?
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Yes, thank you. Keep up the good work!
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Hi markw,
The photo that show of your mirror bone settings show values of .01 .
The instructions for the for the 2008 rig say to use .1 .
I don't know if changing those values will fix your issue though. If it does not, check to see if the bones representing the spinal column (back, pelvis, head, etc...) all line up along 0 of the x axis.
Please update us here if that works for you or not.
Take care.
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somehow the body cps got assigned to head bone
having to redo everything now
lol
In the future, try working with a copy of the character that your are animating just in case something like that happens again. That way you can just recreate a copy of your original without having to redo all of your work.
That works well for me so I hope a similar approach will work well for you too.
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I have been down and out. Off the grid for a while, but I will come back in a couple of months. I miss u guys soooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!!!!!!!!!! I have no computer and no A:M disks, everything I had is gone and I was in a shelter for a while. Things are looking up now. I need a contact for MAAM. I live in North Philly now, so anyone close by would be nice.
Rich I'm glad to know you are ok.
I'm still around as you can see.
John probably has copies of some of your stuff. I'll let him know that you are back (if he does not know already).
I'm close by so let grab lunch sometime. I have an older computer that I can give you and some A:M disks too if you want to get back up to speed. The computer is nothing special but it works and is better than nothing for now.
PM me or email me.
Take care.
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I just tried the fix out and it works perfectly.
Thank you again!
Edit: Added "(Solved)" to Topic Title.
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You need to set the rotation of "WFingersXCalc Left" bone to 179.998 in the X rotation (bone position). This bone should not be a mirror of the right side. It may be possible to change the expressions so it works with a mirrored setup.
Thank you mtpeak2 for looking at that and letting me what the issue was.
Here's a version that should work with the mirrorbone plugin.And another thank you for putting that modified version together.
I'll download it now and put it to work.
Take care.
(Edit: And thank you for solving this so quickly!)
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Ok. I'm stumped.
I've been looking at Steve's Hand Gizmo and I think that it is pretty nice.
So I decided that I would incorporate it (the first version) into one of my rigs.
The first thing that I realized that I needed to do was to rename all of the bones to a "Left and Right" naming scheme so that I could use the Mirror Bone plugin to mirror the set up easily in my rig.
So I renamed the bones (plus a little extra naming clean up) and I think that I have all of the bones named exactly as its mirrored Left/ Right counterpart. The setup works fine in the file that I have attached named "steves_hand_gizmo (renamed to left and right).mdl" while using it in an Action window.
But if I delete all of the bones for the left or right side and then use the Mirror Bone plugin, the bones mirror just fine but the relationships no longer work correctly for all of the bones. The most notable error is that the CFingers Right/ Left functionality is inverted on the mirrored side in an Action window.
I have also attached "steves_hand_gizmo (only right side bones).mdl" if you care to try this and see for yourself what I am talking about.
My guess is that I either renamed some of the bones incorrectly or that the expressions that are part of the relationships may have something to to do with this (or both). I know nothing about using expressions in A:M so I am not able to troubleshoot those.
Does anyone here know what I may be doing wrong with trying to mirror this hand gizmo setup?
I'm using 17d if that matters.
Thanks.
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That was a school assignment, i think we spent two or three weeks on that and I think I spent most of the hours of every day fine tuning that.
(The render time was insignificant)
Thanks.
I'm just curious, what was your instructor(s) final assessment/ feedback about this shot?
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The animation is really very good.
I did not read the comments on the Youtube page so I don't know if this was asked but how long did it take you to animate that shot (just animate not the render time)?
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Thanks Mack for doing this.
You are certainly welcome Mark.
It was my pleasure and thank you for your work on the 2008 Rig.
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steve392 and Rodney,
You're welcome and thanks for your compliments.
I'm glad that you have found it useful.
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Hello everyone,
I finally posted the 2008 Rig Install video that I made while I helped thejobe install the A:M 2008 rig into his elf model.
You can watch the video at my web site.
If any of you were looking forward to seeing it I am sorry for the delay.
This is a long one at about 3 1/2 hours and I have yet to cut it down into smaller videos for those of you who may only want to check out certain sections of the process.
Here is a index listing that you can use to jump around the video in the meantime:
00:00 Opening
00:30 Introduction
11:18 Instructions Overview
16:30 Spine Install
37:10 Leg Install
1:10:41 Balance System Install
1:23:40 Arm Install
1:47:33 Hand Install
2:25:48 Running the Install Rig Plug-in and assign CPs
3:05:08 Running the Mirror Bone Plug-in
3:14:20 Testing the Rig
3:25:48 Credits
There are parts that I cut out that I will post separately but that will be later on.
I hope that those of you who may have had trouble installing this rig find this useful.
Take care.
Edit:
You can download the rig itself from this post here the forums.
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Thank you.
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Hi mtpeak2 (Mark),
I recently made a video of me installing the A:M 2008 Rig into one of the characters for a short that thejobe is working on.
I'm going to make an introduction section to the video before I post it and I wanted to give you credit for the rig and the installation procedure.
So... how do I pronounce your last name?
I'd like to say your full name in the video but if your forum name here is preferable just let me know.
Are there any other people that you would say I could credit in some way for the rig?
One last thing, who modeled the Robby model that was included in the example model for the 2008 rig? In a previous post you mentioned that Animus provided it but you did not know if he modeled it.
I used Robby in another video tutorial (still in progress) and I wanted to give credit for that model in the video as well.
Thanks
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thejobe,
I've finished rigging your elf for you with the 2008 Rig and have emailed it to you.
I'll have the video of the process up on my web site in a few days. There are 4 and 1/2 hours of video and I want to trim it down a bit. I may edit a long version (for those who like details) and short version (for those who don't care much for the details).
Good luck with your project.
Take care.
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Dont give up on the rig. It goes faster each time.
Steve
Exactly! Ask questions when you get stuck
But it can be tough just starting out so hopefully the forthcoming video of me installing the rig will help him out a bit.
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I'll rig it for you and you don't have to pay me.
thejobe,
You helped me a lot with the airplane hangar and I've been very thankful for that.
If you send me one of your characters I will rig it for you. With my schedule I could have it done by this weekend but that depends on the model that you send.
I'll make a video of it while I rig it and post it on my website for your reference so that you can refer to it when you are ready to try it again.
If that works for you then either post the model here or email it to me at mack@mechadelphia.com along with any notes I should have about the model before I start.
Let me know what you want to do about this when you can.
you are awesome! i just gave up then i come here you save the day!
emailing you now!
Thank you!!
You're welcome.
I have the model now and I'll update you tomorrow.
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im still having a lot of trouble with the rig.
from the instructions you showed me its basicly just placing the bones where they need to be one by one. i might as well build the bones myself if i have to do that.
For the 2008 Rig? I don't think we're talking about the same thing...where are you reading that in the instructions? There's more to it than just moving the bones into place.
i guess so. thats one thing i was never ever good at was rigging and this one is just confusing me.
i been working on this for like 2 days and cant figure it out at all. i about ready to pay someone to do it for me.
I'll rig it for you and you don't have to pay me.
thejobe,
You helped me a lot with the airplane hangar and I've been very thankful for that.
If you send me one of your characters I will rig it for you. With my schedule I could have it done by this weekend but that depends on the model that you send.
I'll make a video of it while I rig it and post it on my website for your reference so that you can refer to it when you are ready to try it again.
If that works for you then either post the model here or email it to me at mack@mechadelphia.com along with any notes I should have about the model before I start.
Let me know what you want to do about this when you can.
Update on Vern
in Off Topic
Posted
I have not watched that video yet but at the last few Maam user group meetings that we had, Vern did a few rigging presentations with that program. I was not aware of the program at that time but the presentations were impressive to say the least.
Vern is a pure genius with that program. I'd actually would describe him as an all-around genius in many different areas. Yes he was/ is very good with A:M but it is clear that he has devoted a lot of time to Anime Studio. I think that some of the development direction that it has taken was due to some of his input.
Also at that time I know that he was very busy with an assortment of other projects. That was years ago though so I don't know about what he or the rest of the group is up to these days .
Another user gathering is rumored to be in the works someday so if it happens and he's there I'll ask him to stop by the forums and say hello.