Bendytoons

Matt, that's the best thing I've seen with fluids yet. You the man.

Really beautiful work.

Alejandro, Just a quick thought. Syntheyes is happiest with sequential image files instead of movie files, and image sequences tend to be a little more stable in A:M too. You might convert your footage to a targa sequence before running it through syntheyes and just use the sequential images instead of a qt in A:M.

Treez is used in an action window.

I usually choose to create the action continuously, and then make copies of the choreography for each of the camera angles.

I recommend using the .obj export instead of the .3ds export. The obj tends to be more stable and preserve texture better, and pretty much anything that will import .3ds will import .obj

Alejandro, My first suggestion is to search this forum using "more search options", and look for "syntheyes" in posts over 365 days old. I started several threads pertaining to Syntheyes, and contributed to a few others. You'll have to browse them to find information, as of yet there is no digest of Syntheyes tips. My second suggestion is to import your footage into Syntheyes at 30 fps NOT at 29.97 fps. Syntheyes exports animation at the same frame rate as the video is imported. A:M does not like 29.97 fps. This is the most frequent problem getting the programs to talk to each other. Beyond those, if you post specific questions about the process in this forum, with "Syntheyes" in the title, I will keep an eye out and try to answer any questions i can. Your desire for a tutorial is noted, but not in my schedule right now. Ben

have you tried switching the A:M display from open GL to D3D, or vice versa?

Thanks for the tip, Matt. I remember your post about this guy because I too thought it was an interesting business model. I'll have to try and get in touch with him. Looking forward to Xtreme

Hey Walter, I just relocated to Asheville three months ago, so there's at least two of us in NC. Ben

Really beautiful work. Inspirational.

This joke works best in person.... me: What is a pirate's favorite letter? you: an Rrrrrrr? me: No. It's a P, cause it's like an R, but it's missing a leg. Happy TLPD, ya salty sea dogs.

The easiest method will be to get as close as you can posing the skeleton, and then move control points to match exactly. This method is great for tiny fixes and poses you'll only use once. But, as Dr. Bigboote has stated, first make sure you've done as much as possible with the bones.

If the lip sync is saved as a separate action you can decrease the enforcement value of that action. To do this: apply the action to the model Select the shortcut to the action that appears under the model in the PWS (Project Work Space) adjust the enforcement value (and perhaps type) in the properties panel the enforcement value can be animated If you want to adjust only certain properties, like only vowel phonemes, you'll need a more sophisticated solution. Or you could just make those vowel poses less extreme.

I don't know if you can import texture mapping with an obj. If it can be done, the question is when it rejects your texture as invalid does it create the decal anyway? Are you ending up with no decal coordiantes (i.e. no decal) or a decal with no map? If it is just no map you can fix it in A:M, if it is no decal you're stuck.

Doh! I knew I forgot somethin'. Next time.

I wanted to experiment with using motion capture to create a looping walk cycle. I used Animazoo's "Hooker Walk", chose a good stride loop, removed the unwanted movement, turned on 'stride length', and SHAZAAM. pimpstrut2_20.mov I know mr. Bigboote made one of his girls walk with this same mo-cap, but I can't find it right now.

I am guessing you are using raytraced shadows. Try increasing the number of rays per light. Since you are using multipass rendering, you can opt to distribute the rays over multiple passes. I'm not sure what effect distributing the rays over passes will have on the graininess.

Stian, This is looking good. I noticed an artifact on the thigh in your walk cycle render. The artifact corresponds directly to where you have used a hook in the splining. You will find that hooks don't work very well in spots that deform a lot when animated. Keep up the good work, and do more organic stuff. Ben

Rusty, I've been using TSM2 in v14c and v15 without problem for a couple of months now. It does need to be in the right hxt directory, and it does pop up little unable to find string errors that don't matter, but it works like a charm. So charmingly that it has reclaimed "my favorite rig" status.

If you mean SynthEyes with A:M, just do a search of the forums for the word "Syntheyes". There have been several threads pertaining to camera tracking, and to SynthEyes, over the past couple of years. If you mean SynthEyes itself, they have their own forum (http://www.ssontech.com/phpBB2/)

Set your composite as a camera rotoscope, then it is visible in camera view.

Oh? Are you dropping a hint? How cool would THAT be...are we all going to need to paint a room in our house black? If so, I already have one. (I shouldn't be asking this, he thinks...) Why do you have a room in your house painted black, Mr. BigBOOte?

What kind of artifacting, and what is the specific circumstance? I assume you are using the .avi as a decal, and getting artifacting in the decal. I just yesterday encountered a similar issue with decals that are static tgas, but have animated enforcement values. I haven't had time to check it and figure out where the problem lies. You might try a little troubleshooting, everything you know is or is not related to the problem helps. Steps to try: use a tga sequence insted of an avi. Slap the same animated texture on another object and see if the same thing happens. See if it happens with both multipass and the A-buffer renderer And if you can post a sample of the problem and your project to the forum.

Very nice. Good pacing. Good storytelling. Nice clean animation. A couple of the holds seemed a little long, especially right before the snap. The action line in the snap shot sequence get a little vague, I think the middle shot of the snap needs to hold two or three frames more to establish the change in direction. Okay, thats about as niggling as I can get. Good work.