ddustin

What is the end use? If it is going to be looked at closely, then you'll want to model it. If it will be viewed from a distance, you could use something called a transparency decal. A transparency decal is usually a black and white image. The black becomes transparent and the white is visible. You can create one in PhotoShop or even in AM. David

Ms. Hiatt, Your characters sound simple enough that rigging should not be that difficult. There are quite a few people here on this forum that can assist you. A great place to start would be the tutorials. They will take you from baby steps to leaps. Be patient with yourself and learn the software. David

Wiz, The newton plugin is a blast to play with (patience required). As far as keeping it all moving.... If each group of boxes is only moving the distance of one box including the space, you can make it loop real easy. The folding box is the first one in it's line of boxes (all the others are open and stay open). When it goes under the folding mechanisum, it gets closed then moves ahead one position. The line of boxes that are after the folding mechanisum are all closed already, they advance by one as well. Remember, it's not what you see, it's what you think you see!! It would involve making an action in the chor (you automatically make a choreography action when you move something in the chor), You then export that action, import it back in and apply it to the same model you created it with, that way you can set the number of repeats (you first need to delete any moves you made before adding the action). It sounds a little convoluted but it works well. David

Wiz, I hope you had a great birthday! Have you looked at the example I posted? I think the box folding step should only be 1 box, then use an action to repeat it, that way you can have it loop as long as you need it too. Same with the dropping of product into the box (going to use the newton plug-in?). Haven't had time to do the rotoscopes. David

[attachmentid=19803] Here is a quick example of what I mean by using actions to make it look like the boxes move non-stop. You can set the number of repeats to as many as you want, plus set the duration of the action. Make sure to set both actions the same to maintain the illusion. David boxes_8_19_06a.zip

Any idea what the feedback has been on the CGtalk forum? David EDIT: Just checked it out, seems mostly hashers commenting.

Wiz, Happy Birthday! Paths are OK with a big but..... you need to control the ease of each object along the path. I have not played with the multiple objects along a path to see if there is some group parameter. Online meetings are really hit and miss with me. I offer them when I have the time.. Closing boxes would typically be done by a closing/taping machine, and a robot would not pull a lever (unless you want it for the toon nature of your animation). You would use robots to offload boxes to a pallet. I think the best way to show your boxes moving is to use an action setup to repeat 50 or so times. The illusion is that the boxes are moving, but in reality, they only move once. The action makes them repeat. The problem with this approach is you still have a lot of boxes to move. Using this approach you would only close the box once (it would be repeated in the action). After the box is closed, it would be a different model (flaps already closed). If you had 50 boxes you would need 50 bones. You could use muscle mode to move them as well (I think). I need to think a little more on this. David

not impossible but notably harder it would be much like actualy writing the firmware for a digital display. there would be a ton of if statements. each digit would be a seven segment display each segment would nead its own code each segment is either on or off for any numerical value. so we are looking at around 70 lines of code per digit. there are short cuts in modeling that could seriouly reduce the amount of code, but they won't become aparant until I think about it more What if the display was a series of rotary numbers similar to an odometer on a vehicle? Thanks, David

Wizaerd and I decided it would be good to do this in the WIP section so as to put a tutorial in place. The first thing I can help with is the moving of boxes through the warehouse. The complicating this is I see Wiz want to have them close then continue moving into trucks. 1. Are these boxes moving in a straight line into the trucks? 2. Do they start out flat then get set up by a Box Erector (Wiz will know what this means)? 3. Do the boxes need to be individual boxes or can they be all in the model? The best way to move objects that are the same (they are the same right?) is to make movement in the chor, then export that movement as an action. That way you can bring it back into the chor and set it to repeat. If the boxes are in a straight line, you move them all exactly the same distance so box b is now occupying the same location box A was. When you see it work you will go duh.... We can set up an online meeting so I can quickly show you what I mean. The online SW only works for PC's and mac's running windows. There is a number everyone can call into to talk. There can be 10 people. Let me know if you want to do this. I'll set up a quick chor with boxes. David

Would you happe to have those in a US size 13? Great job again!!! David

Satyajit, The "accent" is cool. It adds a different perspective. I only listened to the ryme. How much space do you need? Perhaps those of us on the forum with web-sites can offer storage for free. Email me if you would like help. David

I don't have an answer for you, but wanted to comment on the excellent quality of work. Very well done indeed! (render times?) David

Shouldn't be too hard. you could turn the altimeter into a distance meter by chaning the first expression from (ground.transform.Y)*3048/36 to sqrt((ground.transform.X)^2 +(ground.transform.Y)^2 +(ground.transform.Z)^2)*30.48/36 where 30.48 is no of cm per foot and 36 is number of degrees per tick mark edit that will give you straigh line distance. I think I could do curved line distance also but the math would be much harder Actually I was thinking of a digital looking display as opposed to an analog dial. How hard would that be? Thanks, David

Nice job on the altimeter. Could you make a distance traveled meter with the distance displayed in feet? David

You must have had some serious rendering horsepower (or you are very disciplined) to make that!! Wow. David

Very nice work Will! I am always awed by your talent. David

Outstanding work Stephen!! David

DB's (dust bunnies) are a common problem on our machines, so we regularly schedule blow out times to clean them out. Render slaves are particularly susceptible as they run hot while rendering. Glad it worked out for you. David

Steve, Go to a computer store and buy a few cans of compressed air. Remove the cover on your computer so you can see the components (power off first). Use the compressed sit to blow out the fins on the CPU Heat sink, and any other component inside the case. You will be surprised how much junk there is in there. Measure the CPU running temp before and after to compare any benefit. You are not overclocking are you? Make sure all the fans are running, especially the CPU fan. As a last resort, leave the side of the case off. Hope this helps. David

Another Engineer (repeats ad nauseam). David

Welcome!! Engineers always bring an interesting element to the party!! David

Jin, Materials take longer to render than decals. I don't remember what the default settings are anymore. Is the image rendered at 640x480? The reason I am asking these questions is you were wondering if 10 minutes was a long time to render. The answer is... it depends on what settings you use. I thought maybe you were using a dome to get the sky image in the background. It looks great as always! David

You could try adding some ambience to the part with the meter with the decal on it. Also add some glow. David

Jin, 10 minutes is a good render time for that scene. What resolution, number of passes did you use? If you would like to do a fly around, you may consider: Turning off shadows Turning off reflections (most important) Turing off the sky dome (if there is one in the scene). David

Stian, Excellent renderings. The ship does look too perfect but I am sure you will address that. What was the render time for each of those views? Can you do a view with one of the guns raised and off to the side (long perspective view)? I'd like to try something. David