Gene

Feel free to critique anything you wish...anything you think that will help the scene or my animating skills! Thanks, Eugene

Hey Guys...yes I know about the "dirty" look. I usually get ahead of myself when I start putting stuff like this together and finish up the details a bit later. Here is a very short animation of the forklift hitting the 55 gallon drums...Please note that I did something wrong on the very first frame and the forklift is into the floor! Just ignore that. I had to stop the render because there was another 17 hrs to go and I had the scene rendering for about 20 hours already...gotta love that radiosity! Anyway...I've attached the animation, so please let me know what you think so far. Cheers, Eugene ShopFloor_006.mov

Hey Gang, After seeing all the Awesome stuff that Yves started on his Radiosity threads, I decided to mess around with a scene that I am working on. This is just the beginning, playing with the settings. I am certain that if I spend more time, I can get a better effect. I have 8 lights setup as Yves suggested (Cone Angle 180 degrees, 100% Width Softness) One exception is that the falloff doesn't touch any of the objects in the scene, except for the walls. I tried to move the lights closer together, but then the light was too concentrated in one spot. Should I be using more lights with smaller falloff?? I don't like the fact that the 55 gallon drums are dark and so is the side of the forklift facing the viewer. Anyway, I hope to post more as it gets better...Please, Please, Please offer any suggestions you can think of to make this look better. Thanks, Eugene

Hey Dave, If your like me...I scare myself silly when I try organic modeling. I like what you did with the fittings. Looks good and avoids Booleans. I am curious about a couple of things: Did you use a decal for the threads? If they are going to be seen, adding a bump map using the same decal does wonders! Also, are you using high reflectivity for the body or is it a decal all the way around? Cheers, E

Hey Dave, You know, all I had to do was see "Bimba Air Cylinder" and I knew right away who started this post! I am not sure about that one boolean. Are you doing the same thing at the back of the cylinder? That one appears to be ok. Interesting how it's ok in the fully retracted and fully extended position, but elsewhere, it's an anomolie. Nice work. Eugene

Dave, Yes, this is how I do it as well. I think it beats trying to rig something up with constraints and stuff...it get's really complicated otherwise. Just curious, but for what kind of machine is this for? Cheers, Eugene

Hey Dave, Very nice! This has a nice realistic feel. I am not sure if you were intending the movement on the bottom pieces, but I think it makes it looks more believeable....kind of like when hydraulic hoses are pressurized through the track. I will need to do the same thing for the chain on my forklift. So, did you simply tweak each piece/animate in a chor? Nice job. Eugene

Ok, Here is my example... a few things to note. I get treads which are flipping on the path and I can't understand why? Anyone have a clue? Please see link below. Also, I could repeat the animation to give a continuous flow, but if the individual pieces of the conveyor were different from one another, you would have to animate the full rotation which would be a pain...not even sure you can use Ease values over 100? I still think there's got to be a better way...need to think about his one. Later, Eugene http://ca.geocities.com/eugeneliscio/Treads.mov

Hey Dave, Are there general rules as to how you place bones in the treads and so forth? I am trying my own test (in an action) on a tread and as I change the ease for each tread, the bones for each tread are turning and rolling all over the place. I am going to try this in a Chor just to see if there is a difference. Eugene

Hey Dave, This was sort of for the forklift, but actually, I will probably just use an alternate method. As for the Kinematic Chain...I am not sure really how these are used or what happens when they are applied. I sort of remember them being used on character rigs to give bones a target or something like that. Can anyone elaborate??? Might give me another option. Thanks, Eugene

Well, I tried the spline path, but I am obviously doing something wrong because the bones just don't line up the way I want and the bones go out of orientation. So, I just went straight ahead and moved the each link to the next position forward (i.e. one link ahead) and then just repeated the action in a chor. Chain You'll notice that there is a slight jump in the chain, but that was just the way I positioned the bones on the last frame. I wasn't too picky since this was just a test. I will have to figure out a more accurate (and easy) way to do this. Thanks all, Eugene

Hey Dave, I think I have that Bike somewhere....was that the one from Animation Pit Stop? I am going to give this a shot with a simple model before attempting anything big. Phil, Now that seems so obvious, I don't know why I couldn't make the connection...but you know how it goes when you've been staring at your model for a couple of hours...the other parts of your brain stop working. Thanks Guys. I will post my results... Eugene

Ok, so I've been trying to figure out the best way to animate a chain and sprocket like on a bicycle, but I see no easy way to do this. The easiest way I can think of is to use a path in a chor, and add a bone to each link in the chain that would follow the path. Then, I guess I would have to constrain the path to the sprockets. Please let me know if you have any better way to do this?? Oh, another question...why isn' it possible to add a path in an Action? Wouldn' this be useful? Thanks, Eugene

Hey Dave, My 2 cents...you could probably add a lot more realism if you add a touch of reflectivity and specularity. But, I see you were keeping it to the facts....which makes things easier. Very cool stuff! Eugene

Great work. I think it really works for a book cover! Regards, Eugene

OK, here is the different angle...yes, I notice some things. The head will definitely not fit in the shell and I realize that I scaled things in different proportions, plus the head helmet thing wasn't really planned so it made the head larger. Anyway...no biggie. There are a few other things that could be cleaned...you can probably pick at some. Anyway, thanks again all Cheers, Eugene

Just curious, But is there a theory about seeing a character at eye level? I have 3 cameras setup, but I don't really know why I chose the one I did. Will try another shot... John Bigboote, I haven't rigged it yet as this is an area that I am not so good at, but I did try to leave enough space to have it's head retract although I would probably have to make some changes. Will post another.... Thanks, Eugene

So, Here is a bit of color that has been added and I adjusted the eye decal (Thanks Paul!) Let me know if you have any last minute suggestions...I am running out of time! Cheers, Eugene

Hey ddustin, I think the image looks flat with the items which are closest to the viewer. (i.e The foreground tables and those small drums). You might try some decaling to get the highlights on the edges, but personally, there's no way to beat modelling the bevels in there right from the start. Actually, the long square tube in the back doesn't look bad at all and I see there is some specularity on the legs or is that just reflectivity? Either way, that part comes across well. Regards, Eugene

Hello Everyone, I did up a cleaned up project of the trees with animated decals as leaves and I would like to make it available to anyone who wants it. The problem is that the project file is about 11Mb zipped and that means only about 20 downloads and my account will be frozen. Could anyone offer up some webspace to make this available to others? The project file is large due to the animated decal Thanks, Eugene

Thanks for all the replies. I went through all that I could find and if your willing to pay for a very cool plugin by Richard Rosenman, then that is the way to go. But, the method in the link (posted just above) seems the correct way to do it, albeit, a bit cumbersome. Perhaps someone could make a Photoshop Action/Macro that would do this?? Depending on the type of thing you are mapping, a quick method that is good for a more homogeneous surface is to do a similar thing as above, but not as much effort.....use the Photoshop>Filter>Distort and chose "Rectangular to Polar". This distorts your map so that the top half will decal on a sphere properly. However, the bottom will show a seam. So, from there, I simply copied and flipped the decal vortically (on a new layer). and edited each image to use the stretched areas on the top and bottom. I had to blend the area in the middle by using the Eraser tool set at 50% opacity. Finally, when I am happy with the blend of the two layers, I merge them (CTRL+E) and that is about it. I tested this out and it works well for certain decals that have a fairly constant surface. However, if I was doing a planet, I don't think this would work properly. Thanks for your help. Eugene

Thanks All, I am going to run some tests on the above and let you know how I make out. Cheers, Eugene

Hello All, I was wondering if there is a "Make Spherical Map" button in Photoshop? Plugin? I have an image that I would like to use as a spherical decal, and I know the top and bottom need to be "stretched" so they map on the Sphere correctly, but I don't know an easy way to do this. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Eugene

I will try to add some color to the shell and take a look at the decal which is applied on the eye. The angle of the shot makes some things look a bit out of proportion, so perhaps I will post an updated shot when I can tweak some of the suggestions made. Thanks for all the input, you know how it goes when you are too close to the forest....(however that saying goes). Cheers, Eugene

Hi All, Well, I was modeling away and I came across this idea of a turtle robot....yes, a TURBOT. I really like the way it is coming out, although I would have approached this much differently next time around (that's what it's all about no?) I would like some critique on this model as I might clean it up for the Mascot Entry. Thanks, Eugene