largento
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Posts posted by largento
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Wow! Especially in the video grab, it looks exactly right and even better than what the TV show was able to do. This is going to be VERY cool!
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Mark, any chance we could get a downloadable version of JD that is fully-rigged with all the CPs assigned, just so we can see which bones get CPs assigned to them?
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I got this trick from Barry's tutorials:
Select the 5 CPs, hit the hide button, so that now you only have those 5 CPs. Now drag select all 5 of them and the 5-point button should activate. There does seem to be instances where having hooks on nearby patches can interfere with it.
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Excellent start! Your models are really fantastic.
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I did and it went really well! It really is an amazing system! I'm still not entirely sure that I did everything exactly right, but I guess I'll find that out down the road. :-)
I did have a little trouble getting the InstallRig to run (I posted about it in one of the other threads), but that was the only hitch and I was able to figure it out after a few tries.
I'm working on trying to assign CPs to the face bones now (in between playing around with posing.) Haven't done any smart-skinning yet.
Mr. Spott really digs that he can finally do that hand salute thing. :-)
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Thanks, Mark!
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I'm still working on assigning all of the CPs and figuring out how things work with the Squetch rig.
So far, so good. The hand controls are really great. The only downside is that I'm realizing that all the rigging I did on my first character is going to have been for nothing, since I'll want to re-rig him with this!
One thing, though...
I've looked around and did a quick search on the forums, but haven't found a way to hide the FACE controls and they are showing up in renders. Can I translate the whole thing back up out of view (when I'm not using it) or is there something right in front of my face (that hides all that stuff right in front of my character's face) I'm just not seeing? :-)
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This is really an amazing thing!
After messing with the JD model a couple of times, I decided to give this a try with the updated rig on my Mr. Spott model.
Everything went fine until I got to the last step: running the InstallRig plug-in. I was trying it in 14b3 and it crashed A:M the first two times I tried. Thinking it might be the version of the plug-in (I was just using the one that was pre-installed), I moved the pre-installed one to my desktop and downloaded the latest one from the wiki. When I launched A:M, it told me that it couldn't load the plug-in.
So, I went to 13s and tried it. Same thing. It crashed and swapping out the plug-in would just result in a can't load plug-in message.
I also noticed that the exported model would not have some of the final step changes saved.
So, I went back into 14, re-deleted the installation poses and relationships, set the one FACE control slider to not set, option-dragged the FACE control bone down to the face and saved the model. I put the original, pre-installed plug-in back and this time when I opened it up, the InstallRig plug-in worked!
So, I'm thinking that was the missing bit. Saving those last couple of changes into the model first.
I started playing with assigning CPs this morning before I had to get ready for work and I think it's going to be a neat thing.
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I hope this is a good place for this question, anyway, here goes....
OK, I am getting started on The "Rig Along with me thread/project".
I have downloaded all the "steps" and started a new project using "Rig_Along_With_Me" using "JD_no_bones".
One of the first steps is:
"Right click in a blank space in the modeling window and import the "13s_Posable_Five_Finger_Squetch_Rig_04_29_2007_installation" rig.
I got to this point in wizards/plugs and nothing happens. Nothing.
I would expect I would have to point AM to someplace on my hard drive where the rig was and allow it to load or some thing but I get NO response at all here.
Please note, I am using a Mac OSX 10.4.9 and for information sake I have in my HXT folders:
AM 13.0s InstallRig.hxt Created-Modified-& Last opened 1/23/07. (from 2007 Hash CD)?
also, but have not tried it, I have
in HXT folder... AM 14.0 Beta 2 InstallRig.hxt Created-Modified-& Last opened 4/11/07
Today, I downloaded another HXT from the WIKI with dates: 1/31/06.
So, David, can you help me here, (?) OR, if any OSX users see this post, and have been successful with this up to now, could you please let me know what version you are using ?
thanks.
JA
You import the rig as a model into the model. So right click and select Import->Model and then go to the posable rig in the Rig Along With Me/Models folder (that you download from the "Getting Started" thread.)
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There is someone on the boards who is doing this, Ian Harrowell. He's in Australia. He's worked as an animator/director/supervisor for Disney, so obviously he's not an average joe. He's making a series of half hour episodes that mix bible stories with contemporary life lessons. I can't remember where I found the address for the production's website or I'd pass it on. It's really impressive and can give you an very good idea of what is possible with A:M.
Even with a small staff and all of the talent and experience Ian has (here's Ian's IMDB listing: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0366032 ), it's a tremendous amount of work.
My advice would be to think of the simplest way that your goal can be achieved. Make the character designs very simple and easy to achieve. And LOVE doing it. You're looking at a big investment in your time first learning all the steps in the process and then actually doing them... all with no monetary reward.
I'm working on what I think is going to be a 6 minute film and I'm fully expecting it to take over a year. (Working on it in my free time.) Having never done one before, I'm hoping I'm wrong and it takes less than that, but I'm prepared for it to be even longer. Which is to say, WANT to do this and be willing to invest the TIME it takes to do it and you'll succeed.
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I think I've figured out what I did wrong. I was scaling the "head install" bone to the top of his head, rather than going by the top of the base bone. Now the numbers are going right.
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This is very cool that you're doing this!
And already I have a question! :-)
Following along in Step 2, I max out the "Translate_white_leg_install_bones_Y_axis" at 1200%, but they don't reach as high as your example. Shouldn't my numbers match up nearly exactly?
I'm using 14b3 on a Mac.
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Thanks, Lee. I'm fairly certain I am lacking too much coolness to be part of an "internet phenomenon." :-)
I've been sidetracked this week and haven't gotten much done. I started rigging Spott, but have been thinking that I might ditch the custom rig and use the Squetch rig after doing the "rig along with me" stuff.
I did play around today with making a teaser card for it. I just got my Creative Suite 3 upgrades from Adobe and wanted to play with the new software. After putting the title together in Illustrator, I brought it into A:M to convert it to 3D. Ended up being more work than I thought, since some of the letters were pinching in places. Of course, with my luck the one letter that I used the most (there are 5 of them), the "T" was one of the letters that was messed up.
Still, when all was said and done, I thought it came out pretty cool. I wanted to test Photoshop Extended's ability to bring in 3D files as layers. It's not so great. It does allow you to move it around, which could be helpful if you are not sure how you are going to use something, but that's about it. You still get a much better result from rendering it with an alpha channel and then bringing that image in. Which is what I'll do the next time I do something with the logo. Oh well. :-)
I think it's a law that all computer animated films have to put out an image of one of the characters leaning up against the title, so I decided not to risk being jailed and did that. :-) Basically aped the James Bond pose with Krok. The tagline was something I used back in '96, when I did this as a web comic. I guess some younger folks won't recognize the reference. (For those who are too young, the Ridley Scott movie "Alien" had the tag line "In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream.")
Oh well, I better get back to doing something that'll actually give me a chance of finishing it in 2008... But at least I've got a spiffy new desktop picture. :-)
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Seeing this post made me wonder if CS3 would still save back to ai8 and I just checked and it does. (At least on the Mac version.)
I also thought to see if you could do this with Flash CS3. So, I painted a quick shape:
Then went to File->Export->Export Image..., selected "Adobe Illustrator" as the format and picked "6.0" as the version.
Then I used the AI Wizard to bring it into A:M 14b2:
Pretty neat!
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This sounds like an excellent opportunity. Count me in!
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Thanks, Jay!
Had a little fun with the Communicator prop...
I think I may have Krok's tunic's material working out right, Lee. It does look a little faded, but I think it does look soft like velour.
As I get in close, I'm seeing some weirdness with the rig. I don't think the forearm isn't twisting with the wrist like it should... and there's some issues with the fingers, too. Maybe I'll figure out what I did wrong while I'm rigging Spott.
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Decided to work on another prop before I rigged Spott... didn't know I was going to stay up all night working on it, though... I'm going to hate myself tomorrow. :-)
Made a Communicator!
Here's a JPEG and a quick turnaround and showing the flipping open action.
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I spent a little time messing with the materials per your suggestions, Lee. Spott's tunic came out great! The color is right and it looks like velour. Krok's tunic... not so much. I'll have to work on it.
But on both, the decal for the insignia is alterred by the material. Is there a way to keep that from happening?
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Man, this is gonna be great!
I love the way the characters look--you got "Spott"s body type down great! Is he going to hunch a little and move really awkwardly like Spock did in the show?
Thanks! Yeah, Spott has that hunched over, knees slightly bent posture that I alwas associate with Jack Davis' illustrations in Mad. You remind me of something that I used to always get a laugh at. I'll have to re-watch it when I reach the point of animating and see if I can capture some of it. In the episode "Balance of Terror," there's a scene where Spock has to turn around and run back down a hall to rescue a bigoted officer. Nimoy trying to run in those heeled boots is really awkward. :-)
I don't know how final your textures are, but have you considered adding a little roughness and/or gradient edge threshold to the character's shirts? It might make it a little more authentic, but I think it's great as it is!Not very final at all. I do have a little bit of roughness on the shirts to try to capture that velour look, but probably not as much as I should. I don't even know what "gradient edge" is. :-)
You're flying through these models! Keep it up! Just out of curiosity, how are you planning on doing the voice acting? (enter 100 people saying: "You know, I do a pretty mean Bill Shatner")
Good luck!
Lee
Once I got to the body, it went pretty fast, but that's mostly due to being able to Frankenstein the arm and leg from the Krok model. I was happy to find that worked as well as it did. Now I'm not feeling so bad about having to create some background characters.
I haven't made any decisions about the voices yet. There are six speaking characters. Half of those are female, so I don't think I'll be able to do them all myself. A year or so ago, I used a small recording studio out here in Dallas to do some voice-over work for a project I did at work. The guy we used was an actor and taught voice-over classes for other actors. I had thought briefly that I might explore that avenue. He could do a professional recording session and would have a base of voice actors.
I don't know. That still seems like a pretty long ways away right now. :-)
I do a pretty good James Doohan (Scotty) impression.Scotty isn't in this episode, Logrus. Unless I get ambitious and change things, the only speaking roles are: Captain Krok (Kirk), Mr. Spott (Spock), Dr. McGruff (McCoy), Nurse Temple (Chapel), T'Poodle (T'Pau) and T'Pomeranian (T'Pring).
I do have a scene with a red shirt and a monster in the comic (a conceit, since there was no such scene in the episode, but you gotta' kill off a red shirt if you beam down somewhere!) :-) He doesn't have any lines though... except maybe a quick scream when he gets killed. :-)
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Mr. Spott is coming together! (Although I don't think Captain Krok likes the idea of giving up the limelight.) :-)
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OK, I tweaked the ear a bit more to improve it's shape. Pulled the recesses a bit deeper and so on. Then I made you an ear for Mr. Spott. Both will still need plenty of more tweaking of gamas, etc., plus some porcelain material to smooth them out a bit. You'll need to adjust them to suit your characters and your taste. Here they are for anybody who wants them:
A bit of (somewhat gruesome) trivia: Porcelain derives its name from the fact that it was made with pork bone ash mixed into the clay. The really gruesome part was scraping the rotting flesh from the large piles of bones collected from slaughter houses.
Thanks, Bill! I really appreciate it and I look forward to messing with them.
And that is *very* gruesome. :-)
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Hey thanks, guys! The positive feedback is really helping to motivate me to keep at this.
Not sure I'm seeing what you're seeing with the arms, Dennis, but I'll go back and take a look. I am shooting for more cartoony than realistic, but I don't want things to look wrong. I guess the balance is sort of my own sensibility (and/or inadequacy.) :-)
The comic is the thing I think I'll have the most fun with, Rodney. Don't get me wrong, I want to see this animated, but having all of the characters, props and sets in 3D offers so many possibilities with how the book can be set up and the story told. I'm really looking forward to when I have all of my "toys" finished and can start playing with them. :-)
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Cool, Bill!
My Krok ear is a fake! It's got a flat panel in it with a bump map. :-)
Yes, please do post it!
Thanks!
3D Logos
in New Users
Posted
Does the Gimp have any vector capabilities? (I've never used it.) You'd need an application that creates vector art and can export an Illustrator file.