ddustin

Will, So animating the material will alter the reflections. I get that. I just saw strange differences (flicker) between frames. It took about 12 hours to render that sequence, so I want to be sure. Any thoughts on animating the material a certain way? Thanks for your help. David

I was working on an opening slide for a presentation, and tried using particles and the water material. Started out OK but later frames in the render had a strange flickering effect. This was rendered on a farm. There is no pattern to the flicker related to a specific machine in the farm. David dustglasssmall3.m1v

I live 60 miles North of Atlanta, and drive there every day. Could we do a users meeting in ATL? David

John, What I meant was if you wanted me to do a portion of it, and send you the exported framed, I could have done some of it for you. David

John, My farm is sitting Idle right now, and probably will for a day or so. I have 6 machines, and would be happy to help you out. I could let it render over night. Can you send me something to do a test render on a few frames? What about logistics? If I render to frames, how do I get them to you..... duh, I could put them on CD and snail mail them. Email me @ ddustin@dustinproductions.com David

Is there a chance he meant "Characters"?

Vern, Thanks........ All the effort went into creating the curved surfaces. I am not very good really. Compared to the work posted by the truely artistic, my stuff is plain. By the way, I never touched the default lighting. Changed the background on the camera, set reflectivity on the ground and went with it. David

Vern, Ask and ye shall receive (wait that's another thread ). No material really, just surface. Accidental Engineering. David

Here's a wip I have of a Bath tub project for Automation. This is what I wanted to use the 2 sided patch on but had to make an inner skin as instead. David EDIT: I don't know why the .m1v files play slowly (unless it's just my computer). It's too bad cause I get really good compression using them. tub2.m1v

My original model (my avatar is the original model) was vague, so I decided to redo it. It's going to take me a while. David

Thanks Guys!! Paul Daley helped me through this by fixing part of my model and explaing what was wrong. Seems I had the wrong concept of using hooks and also having more than 4 lines coming into one control point. Thanks again. David

Anyone have any help on how to close this hole? Everytime I close it, it has creases UGH................ Any help will be GREATLY appreciated. David

Phil, I was given a replica from the sales rep (I used animation to sell a few of these bad boys). I took the replica apart, took digital photos of the pieces, then made rotoscopes from the images. Of course I have the parts in my hands so I can verify. I probably should have noted, my wip model is the one on the right. The image on the left is off the web site. I wish I was that good! David

It's a very large industrial robot. They're used for moving heavy objects. It can easily move 350 lbs. The thing stands about 8 feet tall. Used in the automotive industry a lot. David

John, That's awesome!! Great job. David

Here's a revision to my original model. My goal is to make it as realistic as posible. Still haven't colored the casting yellow. David

Looks like I landed another animation/automation project. This new one is for a $500K Automation project. The company doing the proposal is having a hard time conveying the concept to the customer (that's where I come in). I'll animate the proposed line. Wish me luck, I'm goin in. David

They seemed innocuous enough at first, but ended up being the wrong choice. I chose to go with the fittings instead, which gave it a more realistic look anyway. May still add air hoses, but that'll have to wait. I'm re-modeling my Fanuc 2000iA/165F robot. Starting over actually. Thanks, David

I created the "illusion" of threads by lathing finely peaked splines (image attached). The only decal is the bimba logo (had to squish the logo to get it to look right). The body is set to 10% reflectivity, some ambiance, and specularity. Gazzamataz, Funny, I say the same things about organic modelling. Wonder if it's a left brain, right brain thing, are possibly previous exposure to mechanical design software like AutoCad etc.... Thanks, David

Gene, Someday I'll do something organic. I don't know why the front bolean goes transparent, I even added another internal cylinder around the rod of the cylinder that was less in diameter than the bolean, but it still shows through. Seems to me there was a post a while ago about the perils of using boleans, and the unpredictable results. Maybe one of the smart guys with offer an explanation. I tried to model the hole in but it didn't work well, the curved surface thing interfered. Realisticlly, I could put flow controls or fittings in the holes (EDIT: done), as they would be there on the equipment. An mov is attached. EDIT: Modified the model to have fittings. Looks better. David Bimba2.mov

Here's an air cylinder I'm working on. I'm using boleans for the holes but the hole on the rod end seems to go transparent part way through the stoke. Is that inherent to boleans? David Bimba2.m1v

Gene, I also tried using a bone that I could rotate, then applied constraints to orient like the bone I was rotating, with a progressively large lag on the subsequent bones. Didn't work very well. I just know there HAS to be an easier way to do this. It's generic at this point. Most larger equipment will use this type of cable carrier to convey the electrical, pneumatic and communications. It's a cool addition to any piece of machinery. I still want to add cables. EDIT: added vid with cables. Did you work on the Far Star project? Thanks, David Wire_trough_w_cables.m1v

Guys, Thanks for the kind words. Attached is how I did it in a chor. Yes it took longer to model the part, mainly because I started over so many times, and all the beveling (uhg...). You're right Gene, that it looks like hydraulic hoses or other motion might be bouncing it around. That was a pleasant by product of how it was done. What I wanted to do was move the parent bone and have the child bones follow a path/spline/surface. There has to be an easier way (man I say that a lot). It works OK doing it this way, but I was hoping to nail the very end child bone down, so it wouldn't move all over. When I did it this way, I had to move the child bones, back into position. Ultimately I want a couple of these models, at different lengths to use in my library for equipment. You can try this with a few blocks, connected to see how it works.

Here's an example of an industrial cable carrier. It'll hold electrical cables. (got the compression low enough to post) I'm trying to do it using a constrain to surface, but can't get it to work. Ended up doing it in a chor. David Wire_trough.m1v

John, I used your technique after spending hours doing it the old way. It works fantastic!! thanks a ton. David