fae_alba

So this fire discussion dredged up an old memory. This is a video I made some 6 years ago (in A:M). Thankfully it never made the light of day, since in looking at now, it aint so great. But, I did make fire for it, using streaks. Be kind on your thoughts, this is an old old try of mine! nuts..wrong thread!

Is it possible for a computer to have more than one IP address? If it had more than one network adapter? yes it is possible...it is called dual hosting. I used to do it on a web server i had set up (many many moons ago). It can be a real pain to get it up and running, but it is possible. However, I don't see how you could get each network adapter to be assigned to an individual cpu within a multi cpu machine. To me it would be a bit better/easier to have a rack set up with a couple of blade servers (single cpu) and use netrender as it was designed for...Just think of all the sci-fi'ish blinky lights!

Old Man Willies is a Franken model if there ever was one. The eyes from one place...template for the body another...head from Sir Nigel. I did hack and slash, re-spline etc. So I can't take all of the credit. We'll see how much I've learned as I finish up the rigging and texturing, then move on to the other characters (an old hound doq, some birds, squirrels, rabbits and other sundry denizens of the woods.

So I'm slowly making headway with the main character model, Old Man Willies for the short that I hope to finish for a film festival next year. I'm taking baby steps, pushing my knowledge limits and trying to do things right with the models before even attempting to start on the animation. This is a blink test, really intended to see how the hair emitter behaved for the eyelashes. Seems ok. I still have to add hair to the lower eyelash, mustache and beard, then on to face textures and, and and.....

So the saga continues with Old Man Willies and the Lite Rig. I've gotten the Lite Face rig installed, added cp weighting etc. I decided to take it for a test run and check how the control nulls behaved, so I created a new action and played with the eye lid master. I noticed that the eyelid master is not moving the inner and outer upper eyelids at the same rate, with the outer bone moving much more than the inner. Is there a way to adjust how much the inner bone moves with the null??

I debated on whether or not I should comment on this shot. It is truly an incredible piece of work, one that I doubt I'll ever come close to duplicate. That said, the one thing that always comes to mind when I see renders like this one, is that it reminds me of a model. I almost expect to see a hand come down with a pair of tweezers and another tree to "plant". I guess it looks almost too perfect for me. My mind keeps wanting to see the film grain. Again this is not a criticism, since my limited skills puts me in no position to offer any. Just a comment. Great job at any rate.

I've noticed that when the eyelashes are groomed in the modeling window, they don't start out exactly the same in an action. I'll set it up in an on/off pose as suggested and give it a go this evening..thanks for the tip.

Thanks Nancy, love the fast reply. It looks like a refresh issue...me thinks I'll have to set up a test render of a blink and see it things go.

So Old Man Willies is coming along. LiteFace is up and running (major victory). I've been experimenting with using hair for his eyelashes. Had it looking good in the modeling window, but when I tested how it behaves in an action I found that it doesn't fair so well. I looks like the base of the eyelash moves with the patch, but the hair tip stays put. So the question is, how do you set up a hair patch so that it will move properly when animated. this is the eyelash in the modeling window this is the action I want the hair look, tried a eyelash decal and wasn't happy, especially on closeups. So how to create the a hair system that will animate properly??

If you were aiming for a Disney-esque style story, then I'd agree that a warm and fuzzy beginning would be necessary. But, I think this story stands on its own, with the imagery in the storyboards, an outstanding soundtrack, and solid directing this short would be top notch. Will, I would offer a word of caution though; one of the banes of writing scripts, is that once a director takes it on, he/she gets to add their own ideas to the piece. So if you hand it over to someone else, get their agreement that the story remains untouched (if that is what you wish). I'd love to work on this project. Sadly, with my own short forcing me to admit that my modeling skills are far behind the quality I expect, I'd not be comfortable with doing that part of it. My strengths, I am realizing, is in the production/story telling side of things (sort of falls in line with 20 plus years in project management I suppose).

I do have to say I'd love to see this short done.

It's 1970's - 80's sci-fi artistic license. Admit it...we all bought into the style!

perhaps, instead of failing straight back..a two step stagger, then landing hard on his keester

I'm liking that!

I'm biting my tongue.

was the night being bad, or was the queen being a mean sister??

I used to stand over the back of the TV set just to smell 'em! umm... they have rehab programs for that! I can remember neighbors knocking on our door asking for dad to come and fix the "boob tube" for them, and dad following them out the door with a monster size tool box. A few hours later he'd come home, a few bucks in his pocket and a happy neighbor. Ah, the 70's...what a time!

the guy from the old anti polluting commercial standing alongside the rode crying... Actually I like the test pattern vote...looked at a lot of those with my dad as a kid while he repaired all of the neighborhoods old tv sets. Remember vacuum tubes?

Thanks for the reply! I did a little more digging in the forums and found that you had posted a newer lite face rig and instructions (I had the old one downloaded some time ago). Using that rig I was able to get it installed and am now on to your great smart skinning tut. One thing I did notice on the rig; after exporting it, then opening the model, was that some of the control nulls were sized incredibly large. I had to select each and manually size them down. But other than that things progress.

Ok, so I've forged ahead and added the Lite Face Rig to Old Man Willies. I've gotten to the point of exporting the model, but when I do the export AM crashes. I've tried several times, and always get the same result. I've attached the project with the model embedded if any of you would care to diagnose and tell me were I went Oh So Horribly Wrong. Thanks in advance. Lite_Face_OldManWillies_Embedded.zip

or perhaps this list...Table - Index i particularly like the fact that they list a value for beer!

Aye, and well it should! I'm fixin' to open a new bottle of Balvenie...maybe the Celtic Spirits will provide some inspiration!

I feel...inspiration....must resist or my short film project will never get finished! Really...I'm going to have a go with trying the same sort of thing with some celtic knotwork...won't come close to this 'cause man that is way out cool!

bee dee beee dee beeep...hey Buck... (sorry, couldn't help but date myself)

So I've cleaned up some of the spinning, re-rigged the old man, and did a quick test, really just to see how the basic lite rig behaves. The only optional rigging done is a dynamic constraint and a null on the beard to see how that behaves. I now will go in and throw in some fans at the joints and cp weighting. One big issue that I need to answer is some sort of collision detection on the beard so I don't have to keep checking that it doesn't disappear into the old man's chest. Check it out, give me your thoughts. arm_rig_test.mov