ddustin
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Posts posted by ddustin
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Hey,
Here is a preliminary clip (still rendering) of what should be a looping background.
I would like to donate it to the community when it is finished.
It is kind of like a primordial, other-worldly kind of view, you could composite things over it.
I would post the zipped file with the frames on my site.
Let me know what you think.
David
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I'm game. I would like to do it here in Chattavegas.
Wade
I thought it was Los Nooga............
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Is there a way in Animation Master or maybe through a plugin that allows you to apply an animation such as an AVI or an MOV and stamp it onto an object either as a decal or a texture? From what I can see the only plausible method is to save it as frames and keyframe the transparency of each frame, but this is extremely impractical. When I try to apply an MOV as a decal it crashes the program (resulting in 1 lost model due to not saving) and I can't figure out how to add an image to a texture object in a project. I can't even figure out how to save a 24-bit AVI to try using that, and GIFs (the original file format) are somehow entirely unsupported by the program (A big inconvenience which forces me to recompress my images in another format making them look worse). Any help would be appreciated, but from what I can see, frankly I'd be better off using Cinema 4D. I have a deadline of Friday night, making this highly inconvenient.
In an entirely unrelated note that should probably be left to another thread, how does importing 3D models from polygon-based programs work, exactly? For instance, how does it convert to splines, does it juse peak every point?
You can import the mov file, then you should be able to apply it.
Are you saying the original images you have to work with are gifs?
Usually gifs are lower quality.
Maybe you can elaborate as to what you are trying to do and with what?
Importation of most other formats is clunky, 3ds is the best, and than you can just import it as a prop, meaning it can sit, or spin but you can't manipulate it in the sense of a rigged model.
Is there anyway you could post the mov file? or email it? I could try to see if ther is an issue with it.
David
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131,000 patches begs the question....
How are you going to animate that monster (proxy would be one way).
How large is the project file? My guess is it is still manageable (thinking of it loading in NR).
Very cool.
David
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ZPiDER said "anders, maybe we could team up on this project?"
Oh yeah............
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I talked to the AR guy today.
His take on it is both vehicles look like they speed up a few frames before impact.
Other than that he likes it.
Better fix that perceived speed-up.
David
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By camera mapping do you mean where you take a flat plane, and then map a bitmap to it? That might work in some cases, but I don't think it will look quite right here......these environments I am creating are sort of a cross between claymation and stopmotion look.......not CG photoreal, but there will be some things that are supposed to look that way. I was thinking of having clay characters and some props, but then having photoreal trees, grass, and cloth ( I really like the look of the trees generated by the treez plugin).
However, I am concerned that things might not look very "unified" if I go mixing styles like that.
What do you think?
Camera Mapping is where you create a rough geometry the position the camera, and apply a decal through it.
But if you are looking for a more clay-mation look, this would probably not work for you.
I usually try for realism rather than the style you are trying to create, so I am not a good judge.
Good luck,
David
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Roger,
It looks like you minds eye is going in a good direction.
If you have a good image of a mountian, you can experiment with a technique called camera mapping.
It seems tailor made for your shot. Do a search for it.
I am no expert but have toyed with it.
If you need help with the trees, we have some good images.
David
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I finally figured out how to do this. I will use the sprite emitter on the next project but for this it took a while to match up the action to the decal.
Converted the mov to TGA sequence files.
loaded sequence file into AM
then loaded a rotoscope of the writing being drawn out
then loaded a model of paper and overalyed the rotoscope
then attached decal of the same sequence as rotoscope to paper model
matched heighth and width to the rotoscope to decal (no easy task in chor!)
added transperency to model
put the rotoscope in motion and animated to the rotoscope
turned off transperency
rendered file.
Process took awhile but happy with results. I have tried to turn off and on the tga in am by key framing but no results. I have sent an AM report to see if there is a problem in v13 b
Here is a screen shot.
Like I said I will look into the emitter next time but director wanted to match the writing of mov that was created.
Shelton,
Glad you got it to work.
The on-off issue is supposed to be resolved in V13.0c ( I had turned in a report on it too).
David
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I find myself in awe (actually green with envy) of Stian's abilities.
If only.............
David
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Oooh ... if we did a weekend, I could also get some hang-glide lessons in at Lookout Mountain (early mornings and late afternoons are when the winds are quiet, I think). Whenabouts were y'all thinking about this?
I also have been slacking mega-time on A:M. However, I did have a trick or two up my sleeve that I wanted to show around - mostly a fun potential use for the surface constraint.
Pssst.... Bjorn, nerds (term of endearment) aren't supposed to hang glide......
We haven't decided. SIGGRAPH is the end of the month so I can't do it then.
Guess we should just stick a date on the wall and let everyone weigh in.
There were a few new GA users we should try to get involved.
We'll also need to try to figure out where to have it.
Maybe afterwards we could have a game or two of volleyball (we live between Chattanooga and Atlanta, and have a lighted court).
David
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I'm thinking the surface detection thing would work by adding null bones to the bottom of each tire that act as surface sensors (they don't rotate with the tire), so, basically as the car moves along the surface, the tires will move up and down in relation to any bumps or irregularities in the road. Then somehow those nulls or bones could be tied back into the main bone of the vehicle, with some sort of value that allows the tires to go so high or so low before the car physically moves up and down, similar to shocks. And eventually the car levels itself out to where the tires are.
Oooooooo (hand raises in the air to be called on).
What if we made a carriage of sorts for the vehicle?
The carriage would have 5 nulls:
1 (4 total) for each wheel which would follow the surface
1 for the main body bone, the constraint would lag slightly to show the suspension compressing etc. (this would work for compressing the suspension, but would it work for say cresting a bump?)
I would still have an issue when the vehicle left the road, unless the road and not-road were actually one model.
Nos is right about how time consuming it is to key vehicles just to make sure the tires (or tyres as our European brothers say) stay in contact with the road.
David
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Translation:
What your fellow forum members are trying to tell you is you really need to work on your spelling and grammar.
It can be difficult for forum members (I am not attempting to speak for all) to take you seriously when you use run-on sentences with no punctuation.
I know it (your style of writing) is acceptable on gamer sites etc... However, most adults find it irritating, and most who have worked in a professional capacity automatically dismisses your writings as unimportant.
There is a spell checker built it to the forum (black check with ABC above it), or you can write your thoughts off-line using a word processor.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
David
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Hey,
It's been quite a while since we got together for a meeting.
Will (zandoriastudios) and I were discussing having one, but maybe driving to Chattanooga this time.
That way there could be some others from Knoxville and Nashville that could attend.
What Ya'll think????
Atlanta users (A:M that is) could car pool.
David
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Stian,
Will and I were disussing water and the use of animated displacement maps to handle the ocean swells.
If it works it would be really neat to test it with your ship.
David
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The way the accident happened, was the truck was in her lane but was trying to get back in his own lane.
As she realized he was in her lane, she applied the brakes and tried to veer out of the way but they collided just over the centerline.
We see what the AR dude says, and I'll let you know.
David
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Here is the version with only a 275 degree rotation on the car.
The tail lights are supposed to switch to decals with the brake lights on, but evidently that is broken (think it's fixed in V13.0c) as can see the lights disappear all together. It works in the project file, and there were no errors in NR so I am at a loss.
http://www.dustinproductions.com/files/ams...-nw-7-9-06a.m1v
Once I get the OK from the AR guy I'll add some parts flying.
David
EDIT: I just noticed the abrupt stop on the car, so I need to tweak that.
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I am at the end of my ideas. I have made a mov file in after effects of letters being written out. I was going to animate the pencil chracter to follow the mov file in rotoscope to get the action and AM allows the rotoscope to be rendered as well. So I have tried for four days to get this to work without success. It appears to be working in the chor or action but when rendered the rotoscope is not in the correct location and it plays from the beginning of the animation even though it has been key frame to start and end at certain location.
So does anybody have a thought of how to follow the script I created in after effects or is there another way to create the handwriting look in AM?
Steve
Steve,
Check this out...
http://www.mossor.org/Desktop/Tutorials/Sp...rite/index.html
David
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I just talked to the AR guy (he works wierd hours too).
He doesn't like the spin any more, and would rather the green car only spin 275 degrees CCW. (I tried to talk him out of this early on).
He also wants her to "squirt" over at the last second when she realizes the thruck is in her lane.
He wants the truck to be farther over, at the far extents of the green car's lane.
Looks like I'll be scrapping a bunch
David
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Thanks for all the compliments.
There are 2 more views that I don't know if I can show.
The truck has brake lights that come on, I still need to add them to the green car.
This version has a little different motion on the truck which I like better, but there is a wonky "click" on the LF wheel that I have to fix.
The truck no longer flies at the beginning.
The green car still looks a little like it goes into the road.
More tweaky, tweaky.....
This was rendered at 1024x768 16 passes, 200 frames in 2 hours using 5 slaves. NR rocks!!
Let me know if it plays OK for ya'll, the first part skips when I view it online.
http://www.dustinproductions.com/files/ams...-se-7-8-06b.m1v
David
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a wow there has still got to be damage like smoke beacause look at it this way head on reck ouch the car would be getting to the engine in damge of course but yeah you are going great so far
Thanks, I think........... translation please.....
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Good! We can discuss the subtleties until the cows come home and still be able to pick holes in each other's work, but the bottom line is whether or not the customer's happy.I spoke to the Accident Reconstructionist this morning..... he is initially pleased with what he has seen.The AR guy is the expert, the lawyer is the customer.
Sometimes we get all done, the expert is happy, but the lawyer wants "something else", more drama etc.
I was surprised no one noticed the truck not touching the road in the begining of the clip.....
Fix, rip, tear, splice.... re-render....
David
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A little too much...? [sFX: Stuart slinking away]- "squirt" of the green car crossing the center line has been mitigatedperhaps.....
I did notice other things in the views I rendered out last night.
This is one of the phases of these types of the project where I get "animators block", in that I'm not really happy with the chapter and keep tearing it up and starting over.
I spoke to the Accident Reconstructionist this morning..... he is initially pleased with what he has seen.
Back at it............
David
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Here is the latest installment.
Modified since the last version:
- green car flattens out sooner for a more natural spin
- "squirt" of the green car crossing the center line has been mitigated
- Hill on left side has been modified to provide a flat area for the truck to drive onto
- crumple has been added to truck front end
- slowed the spin of the green car too
Fixes needed:
- The truck looks like it floats after the impact and takes too long to stop.
- Left Rear tire on green car goes through pavement.
David
EDIT: this only took 28 minutes to render on the farm... 720x480 9 passes, 211 frames..... Live action rocks
http://www.dustinproductions.com/files/amstuff/pd-7-8-06.m1v
Animated backdrop
in Work In Progress / Sweatbox
Posted
Ken,
Actually as it has rendered farther, I don't like it as much, and will probably change it.
I am using it as a backdrop for a piece of automated equipment.
It could be used for logo's etc.
David
EDIT:
What is a good duration for a background like this?
10, 20, 30 seconds?
EDIT2:
I am having a hard time getting this material to repeat, meaning first and last frame being the same........... hmmmm