3DArtZ

Sure, all thing I've noticed too when putting lip synch together for sure! sometimes hard to get things looking perfect when things are tight. I did do something which probably has limited what I can do.... I made an extrememly wide mbp shape which hurts the flex to set up the "rounder" anticipation. Well, it's only my first round through, which hopefully I'll have fixed up when I put this into the full McKnuckles body. thanks for the words Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Don't want to get ahead of myself, but right now I'm feeling "To hell with face rigs!!!!" And I'm someone who spent a long time setting up a face rig that I thought I liked. Would I go so far to say that this method would be great for a working film? Right now I think so, but I'm only early in on an idea I've been wanting to try for a long time now. So, I guess it's going to take more more more messing with. Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Hey Tom thanks for checking it out! Yeah, I've only finished making the lip shapes and I'm trying out using the distoriton box as the way to handle working with the face. Still alot for me to work through to find a nice "go to" method.... Next up, the eyes, brows and that stuff. Thanks for taking a look Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

So, I have not even touched any lip synch in like 2 to 3 years!!! I figured it was time to overcome this speed bump in my animation endevaours and try and work out a better workflow for myself. Anyhows, here is my first lip shapes put to a sound clip which everyone has to love!!!! Anyhows, if you get a chance take a look. http://www.vrcops.com/PoopiePants2.mov Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Hey guys, I decided that I want to start animating McKnuckles again... been a long while and thought he needs new lip shapes. Have a lot to do as I only have a smile done!!! http://www.vrcops.com/Vids/HamItUp2A.mov Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Ohhh, not bad! I think however a structure like this would benefit greately from different levels of specularity on the surface structures. I the the planet is showing up with too much detail.... blur it a little and the lighting on it looks a little flat. Overall, NICE!!!!! Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Could you darken the channels in the brain? Also, how about some slightly reddish veins? I think the one with the spec. shine was more brain looking... changes or not, looks great Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

that was friggin cool! Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Hey Mark and agep, thanks for checking the vid out. And thanks for the comments. Nice to hear you thought it cool! I wish it had more of an impact though.... Well, just better prepared the next time I make on of these Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Hey Nos and Rodney, thanks for checking it out! I think that the format would have been perfect for the mid 90's when the jack of all trades was what people were looking for in the early days of 3d's take off. But you really need to be specifically a rigger or modeler or animator or whatever to fit into todays pipeline I suppose. I will say however, now that I've titled it as old and about to be put away, it has been downloaded almost 200 times!!!! huh? Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Old Demo Reel -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey guys, so in the process of updating my site and cleaning house in a computer sense of things, I came upon my old demo reel. Old in that I made it back in 2002 when I was interested in working in an animation studio. I probably should have just sent the thing into outerspace, as the results would have been the same. Now that I look back at it, it is no surpise as the reel isn't specifically geared towards one skill set. If I were to remake one today, I'd make it just about character rigging, with a slight emphasis on modelling.....But I thought that there were some interesting things on the reel, such as A:M for the character work layered over ElectricImage backgrounds via a camera matching app I wrote.... not too mention the cool flash gordon tunes! But anyways, if interested take a looksee if you'd like before it gets "put into the virtual closet". About 11megs, migth be a slow download.... http://www.vrcops.com/Demo/MFitz320.mov Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Cool! I'm waiting for the giant Ant to attack him!!!! Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Wow! I think this looks great! Textures are really good looking! nice! Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Hmm, well if you are indeed applying it to the calf geometry bone than that is a little odd. You are creatign the smartskin in a relationship window and not an action window, right? And if so, then perhaps a bug to report? Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com www.vrcops.com

You crafty germans!!!!! I can't believe how cool the work is!!!! congrats on a another one! Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com www.vrcops.com

I notice that when I turn those constriants on and then off, then on again stuff like that could happen. Deleting the null in the action window won't delete the data for the constraints that are in the model's poses. But deleting them in the action window might not help either. you might have to go into the actual pose itself and see how the nulls look and also if there is any errant data in the rotation channels of the nulls. Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

there are a couple things to try here to find the solution. 1. close the action window and reopen. 2.select the foot target nulls and delete - thus deleting the data in the null. Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Hey Nick, thanks for taking a look! Here's one I put hair on..... http://www.vrcops.com/McImage/McHair1.jpg Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Hey Mega, thanks for checking it out! I was skeptical that my 8.5 action files would come in with zero problems.... but there were no problems bringing it in to v11 Nice Thanks Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Hey OM, I just took a look at the set up. Pretty cool! I noticed no toe bone? What's next? Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Hey guys, was going through some of my old project files and found one of my older poses with one of my characters. Figured I'd give it a run with the newer renderer and some new toon settings. If you get a min. check it out http://www.vrcops.com/McImage/McPose.jpg Thanks Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Hey OM, the knee is independant. It only has euler constraints to make the rotation easier. I know why you want to make the toes orient like the MrFootTarget, so that the toes automatically stay straint if the heel is raise. But that mean that the Mr.FootTarget is going to get rotational data if you want to raise and lower the toes. I would leave it as is, maybe put an expression in the toe bone to the tune of "If MrFootTarget Y is 0, than no "negative" rotation. Otherwise, freedom of rotation allowed." Yeah, this is not expression language, but the mechanics of how the expression would fire off is the same. Basically, if the foot is on the ground, the toes can not rotate into the ground. But they can rotate upwards. If the foot is off the ground, the toes can now rotate negative and positive. I'll see about writing it out so we can test it. Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

Hi Nancy, thanks! I don't feel the setup is complete as listed above. there's something bothering me with the rotation of the leg. I think it has to do with the knee having independant rotation from th foot in the hash 2001 rig. I am going to mess around with this when I get sometime either tomorrow or this weekend. Thanks Mike "HellRaiser" Fitz www.3dartz.com kidding about the hellraiser part....

Hey OM thanks for trying the setup out. I actually just quickly tried the set up out myself and think there are somethings that could be done to make it really rock, but I'd have to play with it a while. But feel free to keep experimenting with it. That's how I learned! Anyhows, in re reading my stuff, here's what I would change 1.Make MrFootTarge at ball of foot. 2.Make HellRaiser a child of MrFootTarget pointing back past ankle, straight with ground. 3.Make FootTarget a child of HellRaiser. 4.this is the part I would like to inspect further but give it a try - Make Knee rotator orient like HellRaiser. I had to put it at 50% to just mess around with it. I'll contiue messing with it when I get the time, but get after it yourself, you might find the right setup if there are any problems with this one. Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com

The skeleton of the head makes it look like a feroucious predator!!!! Mike Fitz www.3dartz.com