HomeSlice
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I'm not a "sound" guy so probably not the best person to make suggestions, but I can share what I observed when I worked with Angelo Panetta on SO. Angelo knows the whole sound design thing inside and out.
Imagine what kind of environment your scene sits in and then imagine what sounds would be in that environment. Environment sounds don't have to be loud or very noticeable. Even barely audible sounds will have an impact when they are all layered together.
Some common elements for an outdoor scene might be, wind blowing, leaves rustling, sounds from birds and other critters, water running in a stream etc.
An inside environment might include things like a clock ticking, a radio or TV faintly audible, a refrigerator, a fan or air conditioner, cars driving by outside etc.
A large hallway might include echoes from voices or footsteps far down the hall, doors opening and closing, elevator sounds, muzak playing over a speaker system etc.
Also when a character moves they make sound. Footsteps, the sound of clothing brushing against itself, the sound of a person rubbing his/her face or scratching his/her head. These types of sound, from my limited experience, are often exaggerated.
Is that the kind of thing you were looking for?
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Cool! Of the animated entries, SO definitely looks like one of the most appealing ones.
The two live action documentaries about kids in the circus also look really interesting.
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Unfortunately, I will not be able to help out on this. I am busy packing up the house and will be moving to New Mexico some time in April.
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I'm not sure the LiteRig is the best rig to install into a dragon. A dragon is more like a quadruped and the basic LiteRig is designed for humanoid type characters. Unfortunately, the only alternative that I'm aware of (aside from creating your own ) is the quadruped option in The Setup Machine. Good Luck and let us know how it goes.
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Freakin awesome Chris. At last, someone besides my mother and my neighbors get to watch it. WooHoo!
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That's a great start Chris. Getting from a position sitting on the floor like that to a standing position is difficult to do.
When I sit in that position and try to get up:
I place my hand on the floor
I rotate my hips toward the hand
I continue rotating my hips until I am on my hands and knees
I walk my hands back toward my body while standing until I can get my center of gravity over my hips.
Then I stand up.
Of course there are endless variations...
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..... My major complaint of all generalized INSTALL methods (lite rig, 2008, Squetch all are guilty, some more so than others). Too many bones in there just to make installatiion process work. Too complicated to tweak once rig installed.
I'm pretty sure everyone who has ever created an INSTALL rig has bumped up against this. All the rigs share a similar basic philosophy; the user adds the geometry bones and the installation process adds the control bones/constraints/relationships etc. The problem I ran into with the LiteRig is that I had to add a bunch of extra bones just so the install process could automatically place the control bones in the correct positions and add the constraints/relationships without user intervention. I believe anything which adds an "automation" layer to a manual process will complicate the resulting product significantly. I have the same issues as Nancy regarding analysis, customization and modification of INSTALL rigs.
I then tried to create a series of drag-drop modules for different types of bone structures, but that didn't pan out either. Grasshopper in SO was rigged with this approach and even though it was possible to animate him reasonably well, the rig definitely had issues.
That's why I pretty much build every rig from scratch now.
We need to find a way to teach that elbow and shoulder weighting because they will need to know that no matter what they rig their character with.It is difficult to break the process of weighting a complicated area down into a methodical set of steps. When I was planning out my Face Weighting tutorial ( http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=34473 ) I re-rigged the same face mesh 6 or 7 times while keeping notes in order to try to figure out a no-brainer set of steps, but in the end I didn't quite achieve my goal. The user still has to understand a little about the process and philosophy of weighting in order to apply the concepts covered in my tutorial to his/her own models.
What might work better is a simple tutorial with a 100x100 grid. Place a bone at the center CP on the grid and assign the central CP to the bone. Then guide the user through the process of making all the other CPs in the grid move in a fluid way in response to the rotation of the bone. That pretty much gives the user all he/she needs to know.
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If we had a javascript or python interface to the sdk (and decent documentation on how to use it) we *might* be able to create scripts to install animation rigs without adding that extra layer of complexity to the resulting rig, but I'm not going to spend the next five years learning C++ just to create an install script when I can rig my own character in a couple of afternoons. Actually, I would LOVE a way to interface with the sdk using AutoHotkey. AutoHotkey is by far the easiest way to create simple Windows desktop applications. AutoHotkey_L will also interface with Windows COM objects. But there does not seem to be a viable way to run complex AutoHotkey scripts on a Mac. The version for Mac (IronAHK, seems to have stopped development).
However, having said that, TSM has a scripting environment and that rig still seems pretty complicated when I try to modify it to suit my own wants/needs....
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In the end, it seems the best solution is a series of tuts to teach the user how to build his/her own rigs.
1) basic humanoid rig (with IK/FK arms and legs)
2) hand gizmo
3) foot gizmo
4) face rig
5) squetch components
6) quadruped rig
7) insect rig
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Awesome bear Serg!!
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Whatever structure you work out for yourself will probably be the best one for you.
A couple of things I've noticed during the few large projects I've worked on.
* If I have several actors and many props, it is easier to find what I'm looking for if I have a separate "Actors" folder and "Props" folder.
* Have a top level folder for Sets, and in each set's folder include only a "base model" which is specific to that set (can be an empty model) and an "assembly" Action (where you assemble the set). The assembly action will pull in models from the Props folder.
*Even though you may use the same animation rig for all your characters, each actor's actions are often unique to that actor. An example would be that a walk cycle for a tall or fat actor will look horrible if you apply it to a short or skinny actor. I've found that it is easier to keep track of my actions if I put each actor's actions in an "actions" folder within the actor's folder. If I don't want a bunch of unique actions for each actor, then I lump them all in a top level Actions folder, but I use a consistent naming convention to make it easy to find what I'm looking for.
I use a fairly simple folder structure FWIW:
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I heard from Big Muddy Film Festival at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL, and we were not accepted to that one.
heathens ....
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I'll help.
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This doesn't help you right now, but when you get back home, take a Sharpie and write the serial number on your AM disk. I can't count the number of times that simple act saved my bacon in the past.
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is there any way to have the Y axis parallel *except* for the end segments?
Not that I am aware of, but it is pretty easy to manually rotate those two sections how you want them.
Also, If I uncheck keep Y axis parallel, I get rotations of the cross sections (without specifying it) but if it is checked I don't get the rotations. That is not making a whole lot of sense to me.About half way through Emelio's fourth tutorial, "Modeling a Suspended Highway", he covers the "Keep Y Axis Parallel" option. Maybe that will help.
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Here are Emelio Le Roux's original Flash based tutorials on Sweeper. They are very good. (Emelio created the plugin).
http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=41179
For those who like to go at a slower pace. Here is a pdf tutorial I made.
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I'd go for a ramen and pho soup eating animation commune in Chattanooga
I might have to introduce some fresh vegetables though. I've lived the Bohemian lifestyle since I was 19. It has it's pluses and minuses.Pluses:
* Freedom. You can pretty much do want you want, when you want ... as long as all you want is to do art or spend time in nature.
* You can work in your pajamas.
* You don't have to look presentable, ever.
* You can keep really strange hours.
* It is much easier and enjoyable to work long hours when you're not working for someone else.
* You can work late into the night and then just stumble into the next room and fall into bed. No commuting or fighting traffic!!
* You run into some really interesting off-the-wall people.
* You don't have to worry about if your girlfriend/wife just loves you for your status/money.
Minuses:
* You have to do your own cooking. Eating out and buying boxed/frozen/processed foods gets expensive, fast.
* Say goodbye to that shiny new car with the $500/mo payments and insurance up the wazoo.
* No health insurance or retirement plan.
* Any classy woman who enjoys spending time with you is not interested in a serious relationship, and any woman who wants a serious relationship will turn out to be insane.
* You end up doing a lot more physical work, like hauling your own trash and making your own repairs.
* People look at you different when you are not in "the system".
* You still have to make money from time to time.
Helpful Tips:
* Buy an older car with cash. You won't have to worry about car payments and the only insurance you need is liability insurance. With an older car, repair and maintenance is usually cheaper than a full insurance package would be anyway.
* If you live out in the sticks, you can take a pee off your own front porch if you want to ... just sayin'.
* Learn to cook! (but it sounds like you got that covered)
* The only monthly bills that are essential are electricity, gas, water, phone (without any extras) and internet. Jetison everything else.
* Cable TV will only keep you from doing what you love. Rent a movie if you need a fix.
* Learn to love maintaining a wood stove.
* Start practicing yoga/tai chi/chi gong/ or a non-violent martial art. Do it religiously. This is your new health insurance.
* Set yourself up for a Bohemian lifestyle *Before* you quit your day job. Your old bills and spending habits will suck your savings dry faster than you think.
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WooHoo! Another great model to play with. Thank you
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I have some cool bronze dice from Shapeways--nice quality:
Woah .... didn't know you were a DnD fan.
Nce dice!
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Note: If we do get accepted to either Puerto Rico or Costa Rica, I might be tempted to attend!
And well deserved! If I had the cash I would even pay for your travel expenses. You are doing invaluable work Chris. Even if we don't get accepted to a single festival, I know how much effort you've put in. Thank You!!
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Next time you get a successful render, I wanna see a Screenshot of the Render Panel!
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The only two that seem really useful are "Wife's Birthday" and "Your Fly is Open".
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Also like to see visibility and lock icons show up next to the groups much like the roto shows
I don't think that would be possible. You can assign one CP to several groups, so what happens to the CP when you show some of those groups and hide some of the other ones?
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No matter what way the file is exported, the model increases in virtual size from ~14" to 37 1/2" wide
This might have something to do with the fact that A:M does it's internal calculations in centimeters. 37.5 cm = 14.8 inches. So the model was just converted to centimeters when A:M exported it.
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It sounds like a great subject for a story. I wish her all the luck in the world Gerry.
Cicak
in Showcase
Posted
That's awesome Gerry. Congratulations and Good luck!