Mechadelphia

detbear, How did you assemble this scene in your choreography? I'm also animating a few aerial sequences and I'm a bit stumped on how to get the type of visual that you posted here. Thanks.

Happy Brithday! Thanks for all of your really good tutorials too.

largento, Would you mind if I write a post about this on my blog? I know that I could just go ahead and do it but if I were to do it, I think that some input form you would be make the post a little more informative. Thanks.

Hi Jason, Is there a prize for winning or placing? Will this be a public vote among users or will Hash Inc. choose the winning image? Do the images have to be raw renders or can they be touched up in Gimp, Photoshop, or whichever image editor we choose? Thanks.

Yes, I encountered the same issue yesterday. At the moment I don't remember which version of the software that I was using though. What Fuchur said here is correct but in this case the properties could not be changed in the Choreography. The workaround that I used was to turn the lens flare option on for the light in question inside of the Objects folder and then I could access the properties while in the Choreography.

Thank you.

The latest version posted is in this post, but, I'll be posting another update in the next few days. If I'm lucky, I'll get it done late tonight. It will include an updated Squetchy Sam...lot of changes in the hands, a couple of changes in the soft IK, a better thigh fan bone setup and some better modeling on the hands, legs and torso. I'll also be putting together a few tutorials in the next week or two on the arm/leg rig and the soft IK setup. Hope that helps, Mack. --------------------------------- EDIT --------------------------------- The next installation version is in this post, this one has been deleted. Thank you David. I appreciate your help once again. If I see anything that I think is an issue with the rig I'll let you know. Take care.

Ok, I've been away from the forums for awhile and I'm trying to get all caught up with all of the rigging developments here that I've missed. So I click on David's (itsjustme) signature to download the latest Squetch Rig and and I get directed here: http://wiki.hash.com/index.php?title=Squetchy_Rig When I try to download the latest Squetch Rig the links take me to the forum error screen. The specific files are: Examples Models: v13_Squetchy_Sam_04_23_2010.zip and The Latest Posable installation: 13s_Posable_Squetch_Rig_installations_04_23_2010.zip The other links to the older versions have worked but I was trying to have a look at the latest ones. Is there an alternate location to download these files? Thank you.

Yes, you can do that by editing your first post. Done! Thanks robcat2075.

Hi mtpeak2, Thank you! Problem Solved! There is an additional condition to the solution that I'd appreciate your feedback on. You were right about the "Euler Limits" constraint for the "(R/L) Calf_Geom" bones causing the problem. Adjusting the values to what you advised did correct the problem some but not entirely since the snapping was still there but it was not as pronounced as before. But there is a solution: I took a closer look at the "(R/L) Calf_Geom" bones. There are two separate "Euler Limits" constraints assigned to this bone. One is where you illustrated in the "Basic Setup Relationships" folder but the other is in the "(R/L) IK Leg Relationships" folders (I've attached an image of this). When I also changed the minimum value in the of the "Euler Limits" constraint in the "(R/L) IK Leg Relationships" folder to -9.3 the IK legs worked perfectly. The "Euler Limits" constraint in the "(R/L) IK Leg Relationships" seemed redundant so I deleted that one and the IK legs still worked perfectly. I went back to the rigged Robby example model again for reference and the "(R/L) Calf_Geom" bones only have the one instance of the "Euler Limits" constraint assigned to it. In the Robby model the constraint located in the "(R/L) IK Leg Relationships" folders. I noticed some organizational differences in the Relationships folder of the Robby model and the 2008 Rig Installer but I don't think that by my deleting the second "Euler Limits" constraint I am breaking a relationship somewhere else in the current 2008 rig. Is that true? Anyway, as far as I can see the problem is solved. I appreciate your help. This makes things much easier. Thanks again. Is there a way for me to change the name of this topic from: "(Problem) Feet "Snap" to IK Foot Control" to "(Solved) Feet "Snap" to IK Foot Control" ?

Hi David, Thanks I'd appreciate you or anyone else taking a look. I took another look to see if anything jumped out at me but the only thing that I could find was a "(R/L) Leg Hinge Roll" under the "Foot Controller" Null that was out of place (you'll see it). I don't know how significant that may be. I've attached the model file to this post so that anyone can look at it. Just so you know, I did not bother setting up the arms in this model file since I was not having problems with them in my other attempts. I'll keep looking at my setup in the meantime and if gain any insight on this I will let you know. Thanks again. 2008_Rig_IK_Leg_Troubleshooting.zip

Ok, System Specs: Animation Master 14c (Win XP) Latest "Mirror Bones" Plugin for 14c Latest 2008 Rig ------------------ I like the 2008 Rig a lot (I think its the cat's meow really) but, after following the instructions, I am having trouble getting one function of the rig to work properly once I rig a character and I need a bit of help. Specifically, I'm having trouble getting IK legs area to work correctly with the 2008 Rig. When I move the IK Foot control away from or the leg, the foot always "snaps" away from the IK Foot control once the control is just beyond contact. It also "snaps" to the IK Foot control when I bring the control close enough to contact it. It is similar to looking at a magnet jump to another magnet that is brought close to it. I know that this is not how it is supposed to work. I compared my setup with the pre-rigged "Robby" model file that came with the rig and the Robby IK feet don't snap. I dissected the rig to see if my bones and targets were off after the install when compared to Robby's but they were not as far as I could tell. I even tried to install the setup for the IK Legs from scratch (without using installer process) using the bone setup and the corresponding relationships from the 2008 rig but, surprisingly, I had the same results. Does anyone here know what the problem may be based on the symptoms that I described? Thanks.

Hi guys, Yes, I'm up for it but I won't be able to make it this time. I'll send you guys an email soon to update you on what I've been up to lately. Take care.

(Left for dead, Mechadelphia crawls from the grave and says...) Hi guys, Sorry about being MIA for awhile and sorry about not dropping you guys a line sooner. I've been really busy at work and that has monopolized a lot of my time for the past several months. Also, this week my wife and I have also just welcomed into our family our second child! So we are all pretty excited and adjusting right now. Saturday's are hard for me to escape my job but if a new date is settled on a week or more in advance then I should be able to get the time off to attend the next MAAM meeting. I really want to make the next one. I tried to find out if the Philadelphia Art Museum can host gatherings like ours but I am still looking into it just so we can see if it is an option for us. (Does that sound like a decent location to you guys?) Take care.

Hi Everyone, The 22nd sounds good. I think that I'll be able to make it to this meeting but I'm not certain just yet. I will keep you posted. I'm not sure what I can show this time around besides a preview of a tutorial I'm working on. Take care.

I'm trying to do this too but I don't have an option visible to do this. I found no answers in the forum help. I see other users doing this on the forum but I notice it only with the Hash Fellows. Are Hash Fellows the only ones with the option to do this on the forum? If not, how can I change the topic description of a post that I started? Thanks.

That sounds like an interesting idea. That reminds me... I forgot to ask you guys for your opinion on something at the last meeting. Would you guys be interested in taking a crack at working on a short Star Wars fan film in A:M? We've all got our own separate projects that we are working on now so I know this could be tough but I've been itching to shift gears out of Mechadelphia for a bit and do something like this for a while now. What do you guys think?

Thanks again John, I'm going to try to pick up the parts this weekend (or I may save for another 2 weeks and just get a quad core...). When I get up and running I'll let you know what I've done. Take care.

WOW! WOW! WOW! Thank you John for that very detailed response. That answered all of the questions that I asked and even some that I though about asking but did not. Right now I have a 3 GHz Pentium 4. First, I'll try getting an entry level RAID card along with a couple of hard drives and installing that into my current system. If that works out then I can stop right there with the upgrades. If it does not do the trick then I'll go ahead and build the new system. I'll let you know how that works out. One last question came to mind as I read your post. You mentioned that rendering at 1920x1080 in your tests proved to be a bit too slow to be practical for your video needs... I use the Toon renderer exclusively (with no frills switched on) so I don't get any of the really long render times that you and Rich may encounter with TekNu. If I render at 1920x1080 do you think that a system with specs comparable to the one you outlined could handle that frame size in a good video editor?

Hi John, I'll be there in December! I need some advice with some of the video editing items that we talked about at this months meeting. I want to start rendering some frames for my project and I want to do it for HD 720p and edit it on my computer. Now, after doing some research, it seems this can be easily accomplished with an up to date and finely tuned computer. Now here's were I'm a bit lost... I get the impression that setting up a RAID 0 just for the video would be a good way with this. After reading about these kinds systems, it seems that I don't necessarily need to set up RAID. Apparently, using a good SATA drive as a dedicated video drive would be good enough to get it done. Is that true? Also, if I did go the RAID 0 route, would using a motherboard with built-in RAID options be just as good for my purposes as a dedicated RAID controller card? Either way, I'll need to upgrade my system a bit. What kind of system hardware specs would you recommend to me if I'm going to build this system myself? Thanks again for your help.

Hey Guys, John, thank you for hosting the meeting this time around. You are a great host! Thanks again for the video compression tutorial.. it was great and it really solved a lot of riddles for me. (EDIT: Thanks for the pictures) Rich, thanks again for the video tutorials. I'll definitely be checking them out this week. (I'm still chuckling at that adding the spherical contraints to the camera joke ) I'll also send you that program very soon to you to help with the threading issues. Don, it was great seeing you again and thank for introducing me to that program that you were working on. I'm going to take a look at it and see what I can do with it. Let us know if you are successful with your video tutorials. Vern, Wow! you have an incredible amount of talent in a lot of diverse areas! I would have had no way of knowing that what you are doing was achievable if I had not seen it with my own eyes. Keep up the great work and innovative problem solving. Guys, I had a great time and I'm glad that I was able to attend. I got a badly needed dose of animation motivation from seeing you guys again. I'll have something new for you all for the next meeting and I hope to utilize my newfound video compression knowledge to make a great presentation with it. Take care.

Hi John and Co. Unfortunately, I don't have any new animations that are really exhibition worthy. Just some tests... nothing really interesting at this point (seriously). I'll try to find something interesting to bring. In fact I've been pretty burned out with modeling and animation so I've taken a very long break from it. During my time off from that I finally got around to designing and posting my web site. I have also been learning about video editing and all of the other stuff I'll need to know how to do to bring my animation together. Right now I am working on rigging tutorials to post on my site. I'll bring by what I've done with them so far for the crew's feedback. When I'm finished with those tutorials then I'll be getting back into my project 100% (Because I'm really feeling the itch again). I'm really interested in seeing what you guys have been up to. Anyway... do you need us to bring any food or drinks? Let us know. Thanks.

Hi Guys, The 18th works well for me too so I have no problem with that. I don't have a problem at all with waiting an extra week. So if everyone else is OK with the 18th too then I'm still in. Take care.

Hey guys, More than likely I will be able to make it. So I will see you all then. Take care.