3DArtZ
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Posts posted by 3DArtZ
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7 hours ago, itsjustme said:
Looks great so far, Mike! Welcome back!
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
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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
Spoiler
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On 10/22/2019 at 3:21 PM, Fuchur said:
Hey Mike,
nice to see you around here :).
Best regards
*Fuchur*Hi Fuchur! It has been so long since Ive been here and Im happy to see some of you all are still here!
Mike Fitz
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Hey Rodney great to see you are still here after all these years! and you too Robert. thanks for looking into the issue. will try to redo my wip post later today!
thanks again
Mike Fitz
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Hey guys, Been a while. was creating a wip post and was unable to attach an image to the thread. Don't see anyway to do it other than to post a link. Is uploading images no more?
Mike Fitz
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I started using Lightwave3D and combine AM rigging ability with Lightwave3D. AM still has the best smart bone rigging system, However its weakness is driving a high patch count model with rigging. We have a weight transfer plug-in for AM model. That's almost like a cage driven system. I wonder if having a plugin that allows you to rig a lo rez model and animate it, then link that mesh to a hi rez model and animate it?
Basically what I am working on now is to rig a cage mesh in AM and then export the action file thru MDD, and then use the mdd file to drive the hi rez model in Lightwave3D by way of lo rez cage model.
a high patch count model in A:M is overkill every time. get the detail you need with texture and disp maps.
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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.
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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.
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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...
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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
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It's an odd run! I think the most missing element is that to get moving he would need to lean into it at the start of the run.
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.
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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
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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!!
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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.
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
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gosh.... this is a depressing thread.... not in that what people are doing now... that's great they are all off busy doing stuff... but those years where hash was a busy software company were fun. lots of users, lots of action on the email lists, then the forums.... it became a regular virtual community... I don't think we'll ever have it back...
well at least the forums are still up.
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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.
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wow pretty cool. I think the coolest aspect is that it prints in color. this could be a huge biz.
Open a shop in manhattan and just the foot traffic alone would be huge.
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The round surfaces still look very faceted on those samples. Have any of you been able to try the high-subdivision export in the newest A:M yet?
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.
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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
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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
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COG's
in A:M Rigging
Martin argued against adding CP weighting for a while but said he decided to add it when he saw some people were having to use a separate bone for almost every CP to get the gradual deformations they wanted.There's an elephant in one of the old stock collections that has a blizzard of bones in it for that reason.
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".
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COG's
in A:M Rigging
Mike's Cog setup is an extremely usable system of fan bones that works well for shoulders, but also for all knuckle, elbow, knee joints, etc. I purchased this from Mike years ago and learning it was a very helpful exercise. There are lots of alternative systems of course, and I *think* Mike's system predates cp weighting, but it's one of many alternative methods for deforming joints in a believable way.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.
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COG's
in A:M Rigging
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.)
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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
Pmodeling a Pteranodon
in Work In Progress / Sweatbox
Posted
Off to a good start Robert.