John Bigboote

Freedy--- Fuchur is right- there's ALL kinds of rigged characters on the Disc that Hash gives you...IF you have V14 it's even better- they throw in a whole DVD of A:M data files...models...turorials...chors...actions...characters ready to go... made by US, the Hash users in this Forum. Um- that link didn't get me anywhere...

In a perfect world, long hair would be 'set it and forget it'. Unfortunately, in 3D-land...any sort of dynamic particle-based hair (especially long, flowing hair) means experiment and adjust, experiment and adjust,experiment and adjust,experiment and adjust... I'm still a long way from where I want to be with it, but I encourage others to get into it---mostly because I know that i am NOT one of the sharper people using this software, and that something that I continually bump my head against and cannot get beyond would be something that others would get immediately. ALL the advanced features in this app seem to benefit from the latest release, so don't waste time on older versions---stay current! THOSE samples were made using V11.

OOOH! Cool action! Care to share your files? Yes, A:M does use BVH files quite nicely... HERE is a link to a test I did to see A:M's hair's secondary action with a BVH... http://campbellanimation.com/MoCAPtest.mov HERE is a link to a test I made with a boxer model and a 'boxing' BVH file... http://campbellanimation.com/BoxerMoCapTest.mov The method is straight forward. Make a new action for your (rigged)character, right clik on the new action and select 'New...BVH'...you will then be able to see the BVH skeleton and action in your action window.Scale the BVH to your character. You now need to 'constrain' your char to the BVH's skeleton... so grab a foot bone...give it an 'orient-like' and a 'translate to' constraints to the BVH's footbone and reposition accordingly... now do the other foot... pelvis, hands, torso, head...done! That's the 'Reader's Digest' version, but it should be enough to get you started. Don't be intimidated, there's no brain surgery involved, and it's FUN! Now...about sharing your BVH files(drool)... where did you get them? G'luck! EDIT: AND...I just remembered...the animation in my avatar is from a BVH action as well!

Paul- I forgot to mention the force! I used a 'fan' scaled up and set to about 600magnitude, next I'm going to alter the magnitude... RobCat- Yes, tis. They are now at a point where they are replacing their older processors and have about 30 piled-up doing nothing, so I inquired if I could 'repurpose' them and then I would buy NetRender (If Hash still sells it!) They thought about it and finally replied..."We are going to use them as an After Effects renderfarm..." DANG! I guess if they were mine I would'nt give them away either. The render on this wasn't so bad...about 8 hrs overnight- but I'm now doing a longer simulation...IT'S taking almost 6 hrs to precompute the dynamics of the heavier mesh!

THANKS GUYS! Ken- I know what you mean... the 'gag' of the spot is that you can see what's under the tarp even though the announcer is treating it as a secret. Basically, it's a local furniture chain that is having a 50% off sale. The fact that you can 'see' the 50% is important to the client.

OY! I recently was handed a storyboard for a local retail chain which showed a 'monolithic' gigantic thing covered by a silk-like fabric blowing in the wind. I was at a sales meeting with some of my fellow animators who use Maya. The question was put forth: "Can YOUR software do this type of effect???" The Maya team said they had an excellent cloth simulator but that none of them had ever experimented with it and then put forward a 'pie-in-the-sky' number ($40,000 which meant they didn't want to go near it) to do the job. I said I would like to do a test and after a day of dinks came up with this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTE4nCHGwNo This SOLD the job! I start actual production next week, and I plan to make the cloth grid denser and will solve the 'break-thru' issue. I was quite pleased with the way the V14 betaRC9 cloth handled! The settings are almost all default, though I did change the cloth stretch type and bend type to 'Springs' and I lowered the gravity in the chor to -25% and slowed the animation in After Effects to 200% as well as added the sky, smoke-effect and other little dinks. I've found that once the simulation has been run and results are favorable (after many sims) that you can then remove the cloth materials and deflectors from the groups, and at this point I even added 'Porceline' material to the cloth group to smooth it even more. SimCloth made me the 'HERO' of the day- because the sales staff was actually planning to do this effect practically...meaning hire a sculptor to carve the 50% out of foam, find some cool fabric and a large fan and shoot on a light-stage. They were quite happy to scrap those plans! And AFTER everyone had seen my test, the job was sold for way less than 40G...the Maya team decided to go to work on THEIR test...still waiting to see it!!! (Although I'm SURE it will be GREAT!) They've got a lot more bells-and-whistles, people sitting around, render engines and a 100+ renderfarm... but I've got one thing they don't--- THE JOB!!! Thanks HASH! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTE4nCHGwNo

Stian- Can't let this go by without a big compliment...I recognize this as a LOT of pre-thought and toil...GREAT SAMPLE! You continue to amaze!

Hmmm. sounds like you are doing it right...what version of 13???

Various reasons...poor sales...Raf's partner/father passed away...Morgan, the key programmer left for greener meadows...and I think Raf just wants to animate. It's really a shame...the thing is pure genius.

Hey COOL! what a great idea for a 'fundamental' excerise...results should get a giggle or two. You may benefit from the 'dynamic-constraint'... it would save you from haaving to animate the handle, and would give you some nice, natural secondary motion...plus, it's REAL easy to implement.

'Foghorn Leghorn'. Good work! Too bad our toon-liner can't do thick-thin lines like that... Looks like you need to work on the corner of the mouth...AND you have lost the 'roundness' of the head- perhaps if you 'thinned' the base of the head feathers in the 'X' direction (width) you will get that contour back. Hope you get to do the body!

HEY! That's neatO! Good work...I hope the revenue generated paid YOUR electric bill...and then some. Good for you! I would have liked to have seen more texturing, transparancy, color and stuff...but thats just me.

IMAGINE my chagrin! Thanks for the tip...can't wait to try it out...how have I ever done without it? WHAT ELSE don't I know about??? PS---I'll be out of town for the next week...away from civilization and computers...carry-on amongst yourselves. TRY to get along without me, will you?

It would be cool if you could manipulate the cameras 'rotator' while looking thru it... It would also be cool to be able to 'look thru' lights, and aim them while looking thru...

COOL! I can't wait to try this! ThanX Will!

Dean Yeagle rocks! I collect any art I find from him...also Shane Glines (www.cartoonretro.com) is a true pinup god. His site is well worth the $5 a month for anyone wanting to learn to draw cartoon cuties. And also, I'd be remiss to mention Rion Vernon (http://pinuptoons.com/) Sure, there were some great pinup artists in the 40's,50's and 60's...but these 3 are my favs from the 'now'... anyone know any others? My reaction to your alien...she's hot! I'd like to see you put shoes on her though...maybe some sort of alluring alien outfit. All my 'Hash cuties' have clothes...but I also rig them with a pose slider that removes the clothes...purely for anatomical purposes of course!

And it's what a lot of people do using all sorts of different software's...go to youtube.com and enter 'CG hair dynamics' or '3D hair' into the search engine...

With hair...there are SO many factors involved, and a tweek on 1 will effect something you thought was just right in another box... Here are some random things I've learned: Preroll will effect the hair starting before the zero-frame in your chor. Without it, your hair will appear to 'fall' in the initial frames. I've not figured out the 'none' hair constraint... I'll use either 'spring' or 'constraint'. 'Constraint' seems to work better in collision-detection scenarios, whereas 'Spring' is good for loosey-goosey wet style hair. Raising the hairs vertex/points count helps for collision detection... The ultimate hair test...make a character... give him hair...put him in a chor and make him shake his head. Stand back and see what happens. The name of the game is test-dink-test-dink testtesttest. This is a new feature and not too many people are using it yet, consider yourselves pioneers setting-out across the Oregon Trail saying "Where can we get a map?!!! C'mon folks...a MAP!!!"

In my sample...I used the default settings, and I haven't really dinked with the in-depth tweekers. Muhair will pick-up the color of the light shined upon it... in the picture above I can see the effects of the MuHair...looks like it is working but not giving you what you expect. Maybe if you post an image of your hair property box and explain more in depth what it is you expect to see. Martin- No...same model at home for 13 years...

Looks good! If you click on the lower part of my avatar you can see an example(Queen of Hearts) I made using muhair...(warning: female nudity...) That sample also includes a force (fan) acting upon the hair...

Close the chor...reopen. If that fails...save, and restart the project. Hair grooming should be done in the model, if you want it permanently affecting the hair. Grooming can also be done in a pose or action...

The Xtra DVD comes with your 2007(V13-14) upgrade/subscription. Get your serial number and $99 and call Heath at Hash...the DVD alone is well worth the cost...

Wow MMZ! You really ARE 'the MAN!' (I'm gonna have to take back some of the things I've said about you...)

Aw MAN!!! I'll actually be in Asheville, NC that day! Not too far away! Family reunion for the week...don't think I could break away. Too bad, Something tells me Will cooks a mean hamburger!

I like where this is going... a couple commies... her skin is too oily, maybe dink with the specularity settings, a bigger spread, lower amount... I'd like to see her mouth make more of an 'Oh' on the "So"...like the lips 'purse' together further, almost to a kiss. I'm diggin it! Are you going to give her particle hair?