John Bigboote

Rigging dilemmas! Did you check to see if there was a pose with the model that would turn ON constraints? There probably is not though... you WILL be experimenting then. Look for the old octopus tentacle rigging tutorial called 'Bendy Legs'- that shows how to use orient-like and constrain-to constraints to get a forward kinematic sort of chain where you grab the last bone and pull and the others follow. You will also want to experiment with the dynamic-constraint so do some research on that as well... I know you can get nice 'dangly' response using it, but you will want more control. You may also want to consider ditching the bones and try using the new SimCloth feature... Sorry- no automatic answers...perhaps other Hasher's will though.

Here's one I did, for reference or for keeps... you kinda needa thinka outta boxxa... beach_ball.mdl

WOW! Great stuff! That looks like you put a LOT of time into it! Can't wait to see the finished product!

In the chor, just telling A:M 'my character starts walking HERE and ends walking HERE' is not going to be enough. You will get 'slip-N-slide' action. Because your walk cycle is non-conforming to minimal keyframes, use more keyframes! You will need to 'eyeball' your characters progress along the ground plane, and use the graph editor for the keyframes as well.

Rob- I think Steve is saying he is 'using displacement maps AS hair'... not 'ON hair'... right Steve?

MEAN!

Those bones are not animation control bones...you don't particularly need to see them. If all the bones were visible the rig would be quite formidable. The control bones can be found in the hands, feet, pelvis, chest and head. One thing I like about the Hash rigs is that they give you a nice fat NULL at each of the limbs that is easy to grab and drag... in TSM2 you need to 'find' the control bones with a little effort, but once you get used to it... Here's my typical method... after installing a TSM2 rig in a character, I'll make a new pose called MY CONSTRAINTS and add all the intermediaries and cogs and what-nots (eye aimer nulls)that I want... THEN, I'll make another pose called ANIMATE READY and in this master pose I'll turn ON the TSM2 rig, turn ON my constraints, customize the TSM2 by switching to forward kinematics for the arms (my preference) turn ON the knee controllers for both legs, set the TSM2's leg, arm and spine stretch controllers where I typically want them... and then finally I'll pose the character in a more natural and comfortable pose rather than the 'T' pose I modelled it in(legs more together, arms down by the sides in a 'standing' pose, fingers slightly cupped...). Now, when I bring the character into a choreography or action to commence an animation I just need to turn that one ANIMATE READY pose to ON and I am ready to go.

AND- When you say 'maybe a cinema spot' are you talking about one of those ads you see at the cinema for local businesses? That would be cool! It's digital-projected at a hi-resolution, right?

Yup- If you have cats...everything ends up on the floor... I really like the cars out the window... very Friz Freling-esque

Yup---After Effects was highly implemented in this, as with most all of my work. I've been using AE since it was 'CoSA After Effects' (V1) (Company of Science and Art...1993-4ish)

YEAH! Is that particle hair? Nice job.

Yup! STUPID...MINDLESS...rot your brain kinda stuff. Actually... the characters are TIRES, but they have a hockey puck umbrella over them. Thanks!

Hey- I've been really busy lately... Recent animation for a local Tire chain that sponsors the 'Grand Rapids (MI) Griffins' minor league hockey team. The animation will run on the scoreboard at center ice during intermissions. I had always wanted to do one of these types of cartoons, and had fun doing it. I'm always amazed at sporting events how these mindless cartoons get BIG audience response... I hope mine does. Sorry about the big files sizes. Each is 1 minute long and there are 3 outcomes, and all share a common 1st half. This project took one week to complete, as the main character was already modeled and rigged and I just needed to make 2 other versions of him. Oh yeah--- that is the 'BensLens' fisheye being used on the 'behind the net' scene... AND Thom and his family make a cameo... There is no audio, the in-house announcer will have fun adding live V/O and the in-house DJ music. BT_GR_Blue_winsSM.mov BT_GR_Red_winsSM.mov BT_GR_White_winsSM.mov

Gah. I just searched for a previous discussion where I uploaded a bunch of building mattes but I could not find... Best way is to go to a city(unless you already LIVE in one...) and shoot a lot of digital images of buildings. Preferably, from as straight an angle as possible, but usually you will end up down in the street shooting upward. Take these highly distorted images into Photoshop and use the distortion tools to 're-square' the image back to a rectangle. Now, you have a great image to use as a roto and apply as a decal. Also in Photoshop make a new layer and make a greyscale image that represents depth-differences, slight insets and outsets(darker and lighter greys, with a mid grey as the base.) for the windows and accents. Apply that as a depth matte... make another(with an alpha) for transparency for windows. Applying all these to a simply extruded box (as targas)makes for a nice, low mesh model. HAVE FUN!

Aw, C'mon, Stian...give us the models! GREAT work! I am very happy to hear you found a worthy employer that can make use of your abilities, I just wish I was in a better position to have hired you...SHUX! On the rainbow effect... it looks better softer...maybe add some prismatic light-effects to the ground...?

I think you mean "This screenshot has thickness and kinkiness from 0% to 100%"

No- you can't assign bones to the particle hair. Make sure dynamics are off, pre-roll is set to zero, and your real-time options are at lowest settings. You may need to wait 20-30 seconds after making a hair-brush swipe or moving the hair-controllers around before the change updates...depending on the density of the hair, your CPU speed and stuff like that. Good Luck.

Looking good, Spleenster! Maybe when you get the face smoothed out you can put some time into his eyes... a nice 3D reflective eyeball will make him look alive. Do a forum search om eyeball, there may be one you can copy/paste but it's really quite simple to make on your own.

Looking good... I can see the Michael Keaton in it!

Yeah...when you say 'realistic people' you are sort of referencing the 'holy grail' of computer animation. Sure you want it, I want it...everybody wants it. I've seen Poser images and animations, they are good- quiet good...but not fully realistic in my eye. What you are after is 'convincing' CGI people. The THING that buggs me about Poser imagery that I've seen... is that from user to user, and there are a lot of Poser users... the thumbprint of the work does not change. There is no individualism. It's all out of the same gun... Not so in A:M land. You can sell people on YOUR vision of what 'realistic' really is, to you. And if realistic imagery of humans is what you are after- you should also be familiar and expert with these CGI concepts: -Facial motion capture and expressions -Motion capture full body -Sub Surface Scattering and advanced lighting techniques -Render farms and network rendering solutions (You'll need this) -Particle hair -CGI cloth simulations -Character animation in general And remember...if Hollywood really had the ability to do fully realistic 3D characters... they would have no need for the Angelina Jolies and Brad Pitt's. They might be there in the near future, but the actors are not worrying yet.

Good eye! Yup.

Todays tweeks...

Thanks Gerry... Here's a better example of the 1940's Disney Animator 'Freddie Moore's' button-eye design, I dig it!

Hyello- Martin recently was mentioning the strengths of copy/pasting body parts to make your own characters. Not only is this a great way to learn but it is a speedy way to get custom characters on demand. The other day I did a test for a potential diet supplement advert where a woman who has 'recieved the benefits' of the diet supplement would be the central character in the spot. My potential clients needed a 'mock-up' for a meeting so they could sell their concept, and 'theoretically' if I made the art I would get the gig... (doesn't always work that way...) They initially wanted a 2D traditional animated character, but liked the idea of a 2D/3D look. I used to do 2D character animation but as the years passed and demand for it was SO sporatically low, I turned to 3D graphics as a primary career(with BIG help from A:M). Now, when someone wants 2D traditional cel animation, I wince at the amount of work it will take to do it. I'm no young fool anymore, drawing my days away for some hideously low budget ad in the hopes that I might get noticed by Disney. SO--- I wanted to sell them on a 3D woman with a 2D look...enter Hash and the toon shader. I started by sketching, and my client Googled for women in the age and dress that he had in mind. I thought it would be a 40's plump housewife but was pleasantly surprised by the images I got from him... a hot 30's smart looking woman in a short skirt and heels, I told him- 'I've been practicing my whole life for this!' I then spent 1 day 'Frankenstiening' other body parts to a head I custom modeled with helmet-hair. The eyes are a neat 'stylized' look I borrowed from my Disney's 'The Art of Animation' and some sketches there from the great Freddie Moore. Quick TSM2 rig. Pose and render. I beef-up the toon lines in Photoshop with a thick outside line. Now, I'm hoping it will sell!

29.97 is known as 'drop-frame'...meaning it will drop an entire frame at a rate of about 1 per minute of animation. Is that something to worry about? Absolutely not.