Gene

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

Nice work! Did they give you the reference material? What kind of layout are these maps...somethings look like you've used bump maps and some appear to be separate models? Cheers, Eugene

John, The Green Canary is hilarious! I don't know where you get your material from, but you've got one heck of an imagination. I've attached another example, this time the tree was not animated at all...the only things which are moving are the animated decals...so, the movement is quite subtle. Best to save and loop in Quicktime. The Project file isn't really setup for the tree to be viewed at all angles, but perhaps I could work one up and make it available. Thank you for all the comments. Eugene TreeSwaying_003.mov

This was animated as in an Action so it could be repeated easily.

Hi All, I tried the technique to build a tree as used by Brian Taylor who is working on Rustboy (www.rustboy.com). I think the results were quite good and this is a much faster technique when compared to using hair (or at leas that is my experience). Here is a quick summary of what I did. 1. Create a patch and past a Cookie Cut decal of leaves. 2. Animate the patch (by tweaking splines and cp's) to give a wrustling movement to the leaves. 3. Render as a QT with an alpha channel (do not use any compression for the QT, just use Animation). 4. Make a model of a tree trunk 5. Make a patch and add a decal of the animated QT as a Cookie Cutter. 6. Copy and paste several of the "leaves" patches and arrange to look like a tree. 7. Animate the tree/patches of leaves so that it appears the branches are swaying in the wind. 8. Render in a Chor. My example is attached....thanks to Johnl3D for his advice and examples. Cheers, Eugene TreeSwaying_004.mov