3DArtZ

Off to a good start Robert.

Hi David! thanks. good to see you're here too! Anything new in the rigging world? I've yet to jump back into rigs and such. Mike Fitz

Hey guys, it has been a long long time since I've done anything with A:M or even had it installed on my computer. Maybe 2012? To be honest I was missing using it and installed the last version I had, 14x, and started something I've been interested in modelling and 3dprinting. Not sure why but I've been itching to model the IronMan helmet. So last week reinstalled it and grabbed some rotoscopes, spent a day getting my feel for the modeling window again. I was so familiar with the software years ago that my minds muscle memory was almost totally intact. so, loaded up a few rotoscopes and got started. Im just out to do the helmet and this is where I've gotten to. Hope to finish modelling it over the coarse of a few weeks putting in time here and there. On a side note, it's really cool to see so many old faces still here with the software. Hope everyone is doing well! Mike Fitz

a high patch count model in A:M is overkill every time. get the detail you need with texture and disp maps.

a couple things.... while the model is shaped nicely, it pretty much is the opposite of what A:M is all about. there is zero reason to have so many control points in this model. You could achieve the same shape with proably 1/8 the number of control points. Me, I would never take on animation in A:M with a model built in this fashion. its just too much unnecessary detail in the mesh. the other thing... its been a while since I've used a:m on the reg... but the poses are additive. the values add up ontop of eachother, if I remember correctly. so you'll have to force feed zero into the control points that you don't want shrinking. Not sure what else to add as Im clueless as to the results one would be looking for in this method.

Maybe writing an expression could link your pose sliders for you. Its been sometime since I've written expressions so I can't offer the way to do this off the top of my head.... it might not even be linkable though. just a suggestion to investigate.

I've been doing lipsynch and character animation with dboxes for at least 7 or 8 years.... I even suggested we use it, along with a stripped down version of the 2001 rig, for the OZ movies when I was involved in the early early discussions with the big man. but I was drowned out in favor of what is apparently a still evolving rig monster. I can only imagine how much easier it would have been on production for you guys had it been kept this simple...

I have always felt that there is a disconnect between the A:M users and the tools available in A:M. We have been able to set up facial animation controls and poses with ease for as long as I can remember, but for some reason many people, as far as I can tell, choose to go the hard way and mimic the impossibly difficult to use tools needed with other software. Its been a while since I had an animation project requiring facial animation but the last one I used deformation boxes to create the poses. basically a dbox for the lower jaw, a dbox for the upper jaw, a dbox for each eye and then one for the entire head. Setup was minimal and model file remains extremely "light" as far as controls and things to keep track of. just my .02 cents. that video is impressive but I imagine there is so much going on behind the scenes that only experts know whats going on with it. Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Robert Thank you for your feedback. I was trying for odd. regards simon. Be careful when trying to achieve odd... sometimes it winds up just looking bad.

Wow that was great! makes me want to go out and punch a baby in the face right now! lol. excellent job! Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

freshest, that was really good! thanks for posting that was what I was looking for when I asked about what people are doing with the rig!!

it´s installation process is as easy as any other rig installation. with any other rig you´ll have to translate and scale bones in place, and there are not more bones to move using the squetch-rig. there´s also a detailed instruction in form of a text-document coming with it, so everyone should be able to follow the steps. the weighting process is a little bit more complex, because there are more bones to choose from in the end, but other than that it´s the same. this rig gives absolute animation freedom and flexibility, everything can be squashed and stretched, almost every thinkable pose can be realized. poses are organized in folders and i think it´s quite well arranged. i think most people are afraid of it, because the first versions of this rig were very laborious to install with resetting all the compensates and stuff. but david made it just as easy as installing any other rig. the only downside to it is that it´s a little bit heavy, so loading a squetch-rigged model takes a few seconds more, undo´s in the animation process too... you can´t have it all i use it all the time, in my opinion it´s the most advanced rig available for a:m. well that's not exactly the direction I was posing my question. I have given in the benefit of the doubt on the all of the positives you listed as I am aware of David's rigging ability/history. what I do not see are what people are doing with the rig. I do not see much in the way of animation here. so I was curious if people are just not wrapping their heads around what david has made. I on the other hand stick with tools already at our disposal just from the software side. just a few deformers and your facial expression capabilities are limitless. a stripped down version of the 2001 rig and pose sliders do it for me. Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

wow, its been a long time since I've checked in with the squetch rig progress.... this looks fantastically deep complex and capable. But my first is question is.... are the average a:m users able to use this? I'd love to see what people are doing with this rig.

the mesh density of your object has only a limited effect on a 3d print. without actually printing something like the object you'v shown, from my results the vertical notches on the outside of the object might be out of the scope of the printer.... I think the inner thread might be okay but at that tiny size it would be tuff. as far as the "faceting" on the surface of the object... with the makerbot you can get very very smooth objects but if you hold it at an angle to a light source you will see the tiny edges from the additive layer build process.

I have the makerbot replicator2 and it has a layer resolution of 100 microns (.0039 inch high layers) and it is good enough to make threaded models. I can't speak to the other printers but you have to understand that these machines have their printing limits and the smaller details on the that object you are showing, the outside tiny notches probably would be beyond the print detail. but the inner thread would possibly ok. do you have a model built? I could test here. Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

this is like the most useful street ever! Its got a barber shop, a bar, an eye doctor.... will there be a grocery store??? Really nice work! Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Its my experience that bones offer more control than control point weighting ever could. The one thing I will say about the "cogs" setup I made is that I have not come across any setup that handles every position of the human hips better. Also, I don't think there is any drawback from a computing standpoint to have a huge number of bones in a model, as opposed to having a huge number of control point weight "data containers".

thanks for the words Gerry. I think cp weighting was a couple years after the cd. But I've never been interested in using cp weighting on model other than for small precise areas. I think using bones is the best way to go for controlling the models joints and body... there are exceptions though.

to the OP, My COG joint setup cd that I use to sell was a (as Robcat mentioned) setup that I used to animate and control my models. Its nothing more than an extensive setup of fan bones that handoff / pass along motion to the nearby fan bones of other joints to control the bending and stretching of a models joints. For example, the cog in the shoulder had its base bones connected to the bones that emulated the top of the rib cage and the bottom of the rib cage would hand off to the stomach and so forth and so on. the pdf that you have in the extras cd does not cover any of the cog setup, it just covers the steps to install a stripped down version of the hash 2001 rig. I took out the Auto Center of Gravity system as it more handcuff than helper in the rig. I can't really remember for sure what the password is as the server and backup drives I had all that on was flooded away in hurricane sandy... but try "3dartz" in the password field. that should open it. Just for the record I have modified and improved the system since the CD. But other things have kept me from being as busy with A:M as I used to be. If you have any questions about it, let me know Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com (server is currently offline.)

I've had hundreds (I initially wrote thousands but it hasnt been that many yet lol) of models sent to rapid prototyping machines that have originated in A:M. I don't think I would be comfortable going straight from A:M to printing as something always gets lost or messed up when doing an export. so I would use the dxf export option and import to a poly sub d modeller and clean it up, if needed. Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

yeah! looks good Will! Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

before I go on to my though, I have not read through the entire thread... but just looking at the latest video... It still looks ruff like you mentioned. I think the interaction between the 2 in the S4 movie is very robotic and could be made a bit smoother... what do I mean? Like if you were to approach someone with flowers and they put their hand up to stop you, you probably would not move your body backwards like if she used "the force" to push you back... you would probably stop and maybe your head and face would take care of the reaction... like the head goes backa dn the mouth and eyes open wide. so if that were the case the camera would possibly change to close up of the guys face from behind the the girls shoulder or something. But... that being said, using smart camera angles and cuts the animation you have created could probably be used and a very similar effect would be achieved to what I had mentioned. Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

thanks Glen... I know Ive been gone for a while... trying to get back to more stuff A:M related...

thanks you David!!

thanks Robcat! lol. all the mcknuckles are appreciative!