rusty
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Posts posted by rusty
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Hi,
I have a list of CP ID numbers for CPs that have invalid CP weighting -- is there a way I can find these guys by the CP ID number? Or, do I just have to search for them?
Thanks,
Rusty
The Select or SelectCPID-Plugin from Steffen should help you there.
The other possibility is to search for them in the PWS-window, but I would recommend the Select-Plugin.
*Fuchur*
AWESOME!!! THANK YOU!!! I have every plug-in (or try to) but the main problem for me is remembering what they all do.... :-(
Rusty
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Hi,
(version 14.0c)
Perhaps one out of a hundred times I'm seeing CP weights that had set to valid values somehow change to invalid values. I suspect I am doing something that causes this to happen. Anyone know anything about this?
Examples:
(one value changes to zero)
Bone "1 left hand" 30%
Bone "1 left hand" 70%
------------- seems to change to:
Bone "1 left hand" 0%
Bone "1 left hand" 70%
or
(one bone is duplicated with a zero value)
Bone "1 left hand" 50
Bone "1 Thumb" 20
Bone "1 IndexFinger" 30
------------- changes to:
Bone "1 left hand" 0
Bone "1 left hand" 50
Bone "1 Thumb" 20
Bone "1 IndexFinger" 30
Mucho thanks for any help on this!!
Rusty
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Hi,
I have a list of CP ID numbers for CPs that have invalid CP weighting -- is there a way I can find these guys by the CP ID number? Or, do I just have to search for them?
Thanks,
Rusty
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Hi,
Somewhere I remember watching a tutorial on smoothing out heads. I can’t remember what his was though.
First, make sure you tap Page Up until your PC starts beeping!!!! This results in max patch subdivisions so you can see what’s really going on!
Second, for a face you will want to animate there are some guide lines which not only allow the face to animate properly but also help with smoothing. Bill Young’s ‘How to Model A Face’ CD from Anzovin Studios is the best and most complete guide on this that I have seen.
Back to that mystery tut, I remember this tut (I don’t think it was Young’s CD) talked about ‘lifters’. This is where you have splines traveling in the same direction (more or less) that have large spaces between the cross splines (the forehead is a place you see this). You will see these splines. Getting rid of these using just bias tweaking will be next to impossible. Lifters are simply stitching in more cross splines to ‘lift’ the offending splines up so that they do not show (if that makes sense).
Bias tweaking is the main way to get rid of bumps and other patch blemishes. I do not know if this will survive ‘Copy/Flip/Attach’ – in other words, if you can fix half a face then mirror it and the bias tweaks will be there on the mirrored half.
The porcellain-material blurs patches and is the final solution. However, I have found that it blurs maps too. However you can turn this effect up and down.
Rusty
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Ha!
My wife (who is a 'mother' and so qualifies for a gift from me) would absolutely kill me if I tried something like that. It's a cool idea otherwise.
A few years back I had a person helping me do a whole bunch of klieg tests rendering the output so I could just say I want that one and use those settings. Damn if I can find it! :-( If it turns up I'll post it.
I'd try a search of the forum.
Cheers,
Rusty
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I would prefer something like that for the Squetch rig. If I had the time, I'd try writing a plugin for Squetch, but alas I don't.Doesn't it seem a natural progression of events that since Anzovin has 'washed their hands' of TSM2 (for A:M) that maybe Hash would 'pick it up' and include it as a V16 feature? It is REALLY a great rig to animate with and an ingenious installer. We simply cannot lose this.I'm guessing that if I tried to install a Squetch rig by hand at my skill level, I'd have to redo everything 5 or 6 times before I got it mostly right. From what I've seen, it's a long and complicated process.
It's really not that bad and in fact the pose system used to fit the skeleton to your model in fantastic and better and about the same amount of effort as the TSM2 fitting process!! But, there is a phase called "Reset Compensates" which is about 130 steps that really sucks. It is the reason I've decided to go with the TSM2 rig (which I've been using since TSM'1' first came out) for my current project. As soon as that Reset Compensates phase is automated it may be that over all Squetch will be easier to install then the TSM2. NOTE that in all of the above I am addressing ONLY the Squetch from the neck down -- just the body and not the face rig which is very complicated to install but also very nice. As you know TSM2 does not have any kind of face rig or setup. At present I'm going to go with the TSM2 body rig and the original face rig which is very much like the squetch rig (Shawn Freeman's bone configuration, Squetch's control system and Osipa's lip sync system).
I'm so happy I saw this thread -- I thought my old friend TSM2 no longer worked in AM!
Cheers,
Rusty
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This is my attempt at doing the voice of the main character of my current project. She is an approximately-ten-year-old girl who reaches the age of early 20s by the end the project, so her voice should change a little between the beginning and end of the story. I figured, by doing the voice myself, I could change the voice as needed. Self-directing is easier than telling someone else exactly what you need. (also, it makes it less daunting to do multiple takes).
I thought I would post this test (or self-audition) here on this site to get the opinions of my fellow animators, whose opinions I trust.
And, yes, I borrowed, verbatim, the dialog from Jason Osipa's animation from the book on facial animation (and this site, it's in the A:M Films section). The book is called Stop Staring, and I recommend it. (It is available at Amazon and at Barnes & No-Bull).
DIALOGUE:
Pink or blue. Pink or blue. Oh, I just don't know. If I go with the pink one, I'm all, "Ooh, look at the little girly girl in pink." And if I'm blue, then it's like, "Hey look at the boy girl. Why don't you go do boy stuff, boy girl!" Okay, just think it out. If I were a bow...on my head...what color...would I want...to be.
Yes, this is me, as a little girl. Please be honest, but also kind.
It works perfectly.
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I'm not familiar with the download Robcat referred you to but more then likely when you unzip it you will see a folder called Library. In AM do Tool->Options then go to the file tab. In the drop-down box select Libraries. Add a new library location by clicking on the '...' and browse to the Library folder. You must restart AM. You should see all the resources in the AM Libraries.
Rusty
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Found it. Thanks!
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Hi,
I dug up all my TSM2 stuff and to my dismay every TSM2 manual icon was a link to an on-line manual that isn't there anymore. Does anyone have the old AM manual?
Thanks,
Rusty
PS: Also the latest version I have looks like V2.0.7... is that what you have?
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thanx for the ideas guys gotta get that A:M painter after i get some more money (i'm broke <_>
i found some hair textures in my Poser 7 runtime folder
(just have to convert all of the images to targas now)but one more question:
rusty,
i like all of those skin texture effects Adobe Photoshop can produce; read your tutorial, but its too complicated for me; i've only had A:M for a month, but i'll work on it. my only other problem is i don't own Adobe Photoshop
do you think i could do that with any photo editing program? I own Jasc Paintshop Pro 7 (it's manufactured by DELL. have you ever heard of it? i know a lot of people i asked haven't; it works pretty good but i'm not sure if it can do all of that. And it's not compatible with A:M in any way that i know of). maybe i should invest in Adobe Photoshop...hisako
hisako,
Well that's kind of a bummer but on the bright side, Paint Shop Pro 7, to my knowledge, will do everything that Photoshop does (at least as far as my tut goes or, as far as you need it to use with AM). However, I'm sure things work a slightly different way and I don't know how to use it anymore (I used PSP for many years... 10 years ago). PSP will do everything you need for AM (its just as 'compatible' with AM as Photoshop which is to say that compatibility is not a concern -- if the program outputs image formats that AM accepts, and both do, that's all that matters). Whether you get Photoshop or use PSP you going to have to learn how to use the program and learn to use it well. I think PSP is easier to learn. BTW, do not waste your money on Photoshop Essentials!!! Its a piece of crap! Photoshop costs $650. Both programs are as 'large and deep' as AM. There are free tutorials and how-tos all over the web, you just have to search for them (i.e. google 'PSP Paint Shop Pro learning tutorials") and you'll have to work, work, work. If it were easy, everyone could do it. Once you start though, its lots of fun.
Cheers,
Rusty
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Maps... ( i see those a lot in my other program Poser 7 ). how do you make your own maps? can AM do that? (i'm still learning this program just now had it for a month or so)
ps thanx 4 the brows.zip
'Maps' or just images or pictures applied to a model via drag and drop or, more often using decals. The default map type is color which shows the image but there are many other types of maps besides 'color'. Flip through tut on my site -- it shows in detail how to create and apply different kinds of maps for skin creation.
Cheers,
Rusty
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Btw, Robcat, I backtracked on your url and found your directory of TWO crits. I hope that's kosher, I spent a good deal of time watching them yesterday. Very educational!
What were the file names? I see a ton of them.
Also, the key frame tut mov was very hard to hear so I stripped out the audio, boosted the gain, upped the volume and put it back together again. Much easier to hear. Have the mov file if anyone is interested.
Rusty
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hisako,
I almost shied away from responding -- too many questions -- don't have time to write a book LOL (many will shy away due to this). First, the forum helps those who help themselves; almost all of your questions are answered already in this forum and you need to do some searching on your own before asking us for help. Look in the tutorial forum -- there are at least 3 skin tuts and also many hair tuts. Also there are many models on the AM and AM-Extra CDs and you should load one and take it apart and see how they have done it. I have a skin tut on my site in the Gallery section (URL in signature) -- it is a very complex tut but you will learn a lot by working through it.
I will answer your first question on brows; some people just use a dark brown decal (color) with a bump decal (see my tut). I use hair on a separate mesh which I place just under the face mesh and attach to the same bones as the forehead mesh... and then of course I also save a copy of my work in my resource pool so I can reuse them directly from the AM library... or, send them to people like you.
Merry Christmas! The attached was created before hair grooming was available and uses maps. I would certainly use groom now to comb the hair in the right direction. FYI, I do the upper lashes the exact same way except on a much thinner mesh. If you put them on the model mesh, when you close the eyes, the mesh twists and does crazy things. I do the lower lashes the same way except these it create right on the model mesh.
I hope this helps!
Cheers,
Rusty
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I used TSM and TSM2 the entire time they existed but to my knowledge, Anzovin Studios discontinued both the TSM2 product and its support about 1.5 years ago (about the same time they discontinued weight lifter). It seemed to stop working for me in either version 12 or 13 (one of the three TSM2 plug-ins simply wouldn't run -- don't remember which one). To hear of anyone using it in V14 and that it works is a shock to me. I literally begged Anzovin not to drop the product.
Please confirm that you found both the three plug-ins and the rig dare working in V14.
Cheers,
Rusty
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Hi,
In thinking about it, I'd have no problem donating select parts of my resource pool. Areas I know do not contain:
* Original models I've created that I don't want to make public
* Non-public resources from other artists that I'd have to contact before making public
* Resources I've purchased
Stuff like ears, noses, gum/teeth sets (which I have put many hours into) and other sections I know are ready as is to share.
The folder structure to put them into is easy to construct and the lib-manager tool that hooks these into the AM library is free.
Besides the many hours of work I've put into the organization and assembly of the resource pool other reasons I would not want to share this amounts to is 'time' which I don't have enough of now...
* the time I'd have to spend to separate out stuff that I don't want to share or, can not share
* time to separate out resources that require special tools or procedures that only I use
* the implied support time I'd have to dedicate to something used by others besides myself
* implied maintenance time (adding resources coming from others)
* time to figure out how and to impliment sharing
Cheers,
Rusty
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Hi,
Thanks! I thought it came out looking cool too.
As stated, I 'threw' this together -- maybe 3 hours of work. I can't even imagine how long it would have taken to animate those moves. The run and the break dance/cart wheels were motion capture files. Just before the final render I just went through the AM library (which is hooked into my resource pool... see another ongoing thread here) and grabbed models and lights and 'threw' them it into the chor for... 'bling' effect!
The test refreshed my memory of BVH files and how to use and tweak them and, how to use the one lowly BVH tool I have (bvhacker). In fact the item that took the most time (an hour maybe) was tweaking the BVH files (in bvhacker, notebook and AM) so it looked right and didn't float off or along the ground.
Cheers,
Rusty
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Thanks, downloaded. I'll have a play later.
The link that does not work is in this thread. It would be great if you could update that first post, so that we can point people at it.
Weird, when I attempt to edit that post I get an error. I'm too sleepy right now to figure out what to do about it.
I'll make a note to myself to return to this issue in the next day or so.
Rusty
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Hi,
Before using the latest posable Squetch rig I wanted to see how the latest rig performed so I threw together some stuff to put Sam through the paces. Sam performed admirably.
http://www.virtualmediastudios.com/SquetchStressTest001.wmv
Cheers,
Rusty
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Rusty,
WOW!! This is amazing!!!!! OK well that's been done hehe. Really cool stuff. I knew it was a good idea.
That's my idea. I saw a post from someone asking for someone to create a model for him. I then though what a cool idea it would be to just have parts you could piece together. For the artistically challenged who want to create their own models it's perfect. I wanted to share it with the A:M community either freely or maybe a DVD.
Do you make your library accessible to hash users via buying or sharing? If you do, you need to advertise more. I didn't know this existed!!!
George
No, I don't make it available LOL. I never really thought about it but I wouldn't be comfortable doing that and many models in my resource pool are ones I spent too much time on to simply give them out. Anyone can set this up... 90% of the material is available to all AM users on the Hash site, AM CDs and various user sites.
I have tried to download Library Manager, but it won't - I get the message that I am not logged in, although I am. Does it download for you?I don't remember where it's posted for users but its also on my site -- just tried it and it looks okay. URL is:
http://www.virtualmediastudios.com/LibraryManager-036.zip
Let me know if you have problems downloading it. I have a batch file setup (documentation explains how to do this) and so I add new models, materials, etc. to my 'resource pool' as I go (everything is organized/filed in folders) and the lib-manager batch file runs once a week updating the libraries.
The more organized you are, the more time you can spend on being creative. Also, its no good having a resource pool, especially one with 'parts' you can assemble, if it takes you forever to find things (you could just model it faster). Once you set up a folder structure and file naming conventions, keeping everything organized is simple.
Cheers,
Rusty
Edit: Just noticed that 00_VMS Project Template.zip is also still posted on my site if you're interested. This is my standard Animation Project folder structure which also contains the standard folder structures for models, sets and scenes as well as as all the tracking and management templates I use (MS Office documents).
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Dear George,
Virtualmedia Studios, my studio, has had this since 2001. I call it the Actors Factory and it is hooked into the AM libraries. I've taken it further than this however, I've made everything but the head interchangeable (the head 'is' my character model). You take the head (i.e. face) and then you select the wardrobe (the body), eye color, skin type, wrinkles (age), hair do, hair color, accessories, etc. from the selections in the libraries. These are 'plug and play' parts to the degree that I can make them. That's the parts and pieces for character models -- I also have it for buildings and other model types where... parts is parts (i.e. bay window, door, roof, etc).
I love this setup and it have worked very well for me. However, although I have an extensive library of noses, arms, lips and so on... I rarely use these parts. This is because I model my character model heads all at once (to make them animate-able) and never 'stitch' in a nose or lips. Actually, the libraries for hands, arms, ears, teeth, tongues, brows, lashes and eyes I do use a lot as these are separate parts.
Basically I took all available public models and chopped them up for these libraries. Any models I create are chopped up and used as well -- actually when I build a model (as anyone who has worked with me will tell you) I build models in 'parts' so that the pieces can be reused (i.e. placed in my libraries).]
My libraries have been evolving for 5 or 6 years and are extensive. It's a brilliant idea (if I do say so myself). From time to time I've thought of selling this but I've not seen any market for it.
Additionally, I worked with Glenn Anthofer to create library manager which allows you to organize you’re A:M resources (models, images, materials, etc) into folders and then see this organization in the A:M libraries.
Cheers,
Rusty
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I've never been extremely good at modeling faces of people. Cartoon characters and such I do so-so. I've been doing ALOT of modeling lately in case you're watching the forums and one of the many things I'm working on is faces. I was wondering if you guys would mind criting my work and letting me know how it looks so far and how I can make it look better. Thanks.
Looks good and just as important your splines should animate well... good job. Usually I like to have more spline circles around the eyes and mouth but I think you have enough. Usually a face is modeled with a nutral expression (the eye brows seem raised -- I could be wrong) and modeled with the mouth closed but again, you should do all right (you'll just have to have a pose that places the face in a mouth closed nutral expression).
Rusty
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This update includes the combining of some left/right Poses in the face setup. The face setup instructions have also been updated.
Thanks to Mark Skodacek and Ken Heslip for the updates.
If anyone finds a problem, let us know and we'll fix it as fast as we can.
Hi,
This release is different then the release I installed only a week or two ago which was new back then (I'm not sure of the rig date). I just want to make sure about what I'm seeing.
You have split out the relationships so that when you import 13s_Posable_Five_Finger_Squetch_Rig_04_11_2008.mdl the only relationships you get are the Install poses. Then later on in the install process you import other files (i.e. FINAL_IMPORT_Posable_Five_Finger_Squetch_Rig_04_11_2008.mdl and others depending on what options you want) in order to get the other of the poses.
What confuses me is that 'seemingly' (I could be mixed up) the version of the rig I installed only a week or so ago has the same "FINAL_IMPORT" model files (that you import later) and yet, I've only imported the "13s_Posable" file and I have ALL of the poses.
Sorry if I'm complicating things... I'm very tired. I just didn't expect what seems like such a fundamental change from the last rig. I'm also wondering if I should rip out the rig I installed a week or so ago and redo it with this newer version.
Thanks,
Rusty
PS: any estimates of the new install tuts (or documentation ) your working on will come out?
Invalid CP Weighting??? I didn't 'knowingly' do this...
in (2008)
Posted
My bad. The first "1 left hand' should have been "1 thumb".
Sorry,
Rusty