ddustin

I use a product called Serious Magic for Green Screen stuff. Works very well. David

Here's one of a machine I'm working on. It moves a little too quickly in places and a couple of the mechanical components need more substantial construction. David cut_off.mov

I created a "mat" with 32 bones. Next I created a spiral shape with 32 bones. I rotated the spiral shape while feeding the mat into it. As each bone from the mat intersected with a bone on the spiral, I constrained the bone on the mat (say bone 1) to a bone on the spiral (say bone 1 target). You would also constrain the bone 1 to orient like bone one target so they roll together. The better the spiral (convoluted shape) the better the roll up. It's still not something I'm satisfied with. I also experimented with a bunch of pose sliders and smart skin. It has promise, but it's still not as realistic as I would like. Here's the prj if you want to play with it. There are some doubled splines, but I was just working on the principle. Foam Rolling Philip sent me a prj that used a boolean cutter and a roll to give the illusion of rolling up (thanks Phillip). Still working on it. Edit: Think the link is fixed Edit again: no it's not, so it's attached. David Rolling_Foam_.prj

Here's a post of one thing that worked. David roll_up.mov

William, I see you were in Atlanta recently. Do you work there or were you just traveling? (I work in Atlanta). Also, do you use the TSM with v 11?. I bought it for v 10 but haven't tried it on v 11. Thanks, d

William, The way I limit how my mechanical devices move is to use pose sliders. That way I can control the exact range of motion, by rotating the bone in only one direction. In the animation I use the pose sliders to move the robot into position, then open the timeline and make sure all the motions use liner interpolation, to keep them discreet as opposed to creature like motions. You need to choose the view in the timeline by seleting the far left button that looks like a line graph. Left click on one of the CP's, then right click (PC) on the line and select interpolation method, then linear. You can leave some of the curved lines alone if you want a single joint to have some hysterisis (joint over shoot), which may look cool if it's on a single joint, like a weak leg. Here's a screen shot of one of my 6 axis robots with the pose sliders and timeline showing. Hope this helps. d

William, I'll post something in a bit, have a meeting to go to. Need to show off some animation wich includes robots. What a coincidence? BRB d

Youv'e been doing this since 86? Very impressive. Wrote your own code, very impressive. I find myself thinking things won't get better or easier than they are today, yet tomorrow comes with new advantages and tools. Someday creating animation will be so easy, anyone can do it (that's almost true right now). What will happen to us? d

I create an "L" shape. Like a boxed shape. Dang it's hard to explain. It would be like looking at the seat from the right side view, and just drawing the outline, with a lot of CP's in the outline, then I switch to the top view and hit the "E" key to extrude one section. You need to make sure you set the extrude parameters under the Tools\options\units\"paste/extrude" offset, tab to have zeros in them, otherwise the sections you extrude won't be on the same plane. Extrude the shape you just made then adjust the points to create a shape.. There's a poor picture attached to show what I mean. Sorry I can't explain it better. d

I usually create things like that by making an "L" the progressively extruding it across, changing the extruded portions across. You can copy sections again. It works for me. d

Mike, I use animations in my current job to sell Automation, and I've used it extensively for that, over the years. It's also a field I know a thing or two about. There seems to be a lack of people using AM type software for these types of things. Actually modeling is very tedious (duh), but the mechanical stuff is easier for me as I'm artistically challenged. I struggled with that dang glow turning on and off for days (I'm a little stubborn, ask my wife), but finally got it. I'm trying to show my customer that we've thought of almost everything. Thanks for your continued encouragement. David

Finally got the effect I was looking for. It's a sensor to detect a pallet moving into position. d Pallet_Sensor_w_dp_logo.mpg

Scott, Great work! Keep going. Uh.... where exactly is the beer?

You might be right. Thanks, d

Thanks John, Now about that address.............. Just kidding back! d

I actually have 3 different robot models. 2 articulated and one SCARA. Thanks for the kind words. d

I stays skewed. Weird... d

Looks excellent nerrazzi!! d

Looks very nice. What's RenderMuscle? d

OK, I had to create a area in the center of the box to decal to. Don't know why. d

I know this is to be for WIP, but it's the only place where you can post an image, although I guess I could upload the file to my website. I'm having a problem decaling a beveled box. The decal ends up skewed, regardless of the format (.tga, .jpg). Tried different decals also. thanks, d

I'll try to update you all when it's finished.

Do I have the glow on before I set the ambiance? Thanks, d

I found the glow intensity setting and that helped, Still couldn't get the glow to turn on and off. I cheated and captured one from with it on them one with it off, them put them in vegas video to simulate turning off and on. Still need to figure it out. thanks for the help!! d

John, Can you post the project? I'm trying to do something similar. Thanks, d