williamgaylord
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Posts posted by williamgaylord
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Thanks! I'll try that.
Bill Gaylord
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Hit a snag with patch count and limited computer resources. Experimented a bit with V11.0 and hair, but it's not quite ready for what I'm after. I have reworked a branch of my model to reduce patch count and increase leaf coverage at the same time.
Here is an old branch with 2772 patches and 168 leaves:
Here is the new branch with 1104 patches and 240 leaves:
I basically reduced the patch count by replacing the leaf cluster stems with rendered lines. I further reduced the count by reducing the lathe cross section of the branch forms to 4. Thats a 60% reduction in patch count with a %43 increase in the number of leaves. I think I will make the trees smaller with fewer branches, too.
My workhorse computer became terminally ill recently. Took this as an excuse to build a new one: AMD Athlon64 3400 with 1G of RAM and 240G of hard disk space. Maybe that will help some, too.
Wish me luck getting the project done!
Bill Gaylord
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I think perhaps in my case, setting the translucency to something other than 0% allowed the underlying color to show through. I'll have to experiment a bit to know for sure.
Bill Gaylord
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Nice work. It's experiments like this that can lead can lead to some really innovative art. I certainly appreciate work like this which pushes the bounds.
If you haven't seen it you should check out Stephen Bruce's aloe vera plant animation for some inspiration!
I think what you are doing will lead to more efficient ways to do a whole flower bed. Thanks for the help so far in developing the use of "hair" for leaves, too.
Keep up the good work!
Bill Gaylord
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Hash Tech Support rocks! They fixed the rendering problems I was experiencing. Here is test render of a simplified version of my growing stick with V11.0d hair for leaves.
There are some flaws yet to be ironed out (I think mostly a matter of me learning the nuances of the tools). First, the leaves "pop" as they grow. A close look at the leaves shows that the image map pops to a larger size all of a sudden and is cropped by the length of the hair. Second, the leaves cast rectangular shadows--the transparent portions are casting shadows. Third, the leaves aquire some of the color of the group they are attached to (definitely a matter of me learning how the relationships work). Also the alpha channel "leaks" the key color around the edges of the leaf images (only after importing it into AM). The wrinkling of the stick early in the animation was a temporary glitch that cleared up after reloading the application.
I clearly need to learn a lot more about applying image maps in various ways. Any pointers, tutorials, etc. will be much appreciated.
The stretching problem in pose windows has not been fixed yet (just a matter of time, I figure):
Much thanks due to the folks at Hash!
Thanks also to those who have helped me so far.
Bill Gaylord
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Here is a zipped copy of the "Tube Monster" project so you can see how the model works. It's not very sophisticated and its range of motion is very limited in terms of bending (it can't curl around something like a tentacle), but even its limited motion can be used effectively in the right context.
Still not as cool as the other monsters posted in this thread though. Nice work folks!
How about some Frankenstein's monster like parts?
Bill Gaylord
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This is cool! A "Build-a-Monster" kit!
Here's a monster that is about as simple as they get: a tube! Give it some teeth an a victim and you have yourself a monster movie (albeit a short one). I can share a project of the model and rig.
I want to redo this one from the pilot's viewpoint later.
Bill Gaylord
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Nice work, John! Looks like a fun project. Cozy looking little prefabs! I think your client will be very pleased with these illustrations.
My only suggestions (very minor):
1) Give the pool water at least a slight ripple. Looks a bit too much like (hard) glass.
2) I agree with Yves about needing just a touch of warmer light (not that I'm an expert by any stretch of the imagination!).
Great work! I hope I can make the brownstones in my tree animation look half as good. Great job of landscaping too...love the trees and plants!
Bill Gaylord
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These are great!! Love the cloth tree! Great example of "things aren't quite what you expect". Very interesting adaptations of hair.
I think we need a new contest category like, maybe, "The most unusually inventive things done with Animation Master". Or "Pushing the Bounds"...
Very interesting work, John and Mark.
Bill Gaylord
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Cool! Great looking toon trees! Nice to see that V11 has what we need for making windblown trees. Much better progress than I've made today. I've managed to crash V11b a number of times just during renders. Not sure what is happening. Did discover that the "leaf stretching" problem wasn't a problem when rendering in the Choreography. Then I tweaked the lighting setup and things started crashing.
Wish me luck!
Bill Gaylord
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Mark,
Don't know if you read my latest post in the Animation Master discussions "Creating leaves with hair?", but I ran into a problem when using hair with my "growing stick" rig. The leaves follow the group if I rotate or move the stick, but if I use the pose slider that lengthens the stick the leaves don't follow. They simply stretch (even when rendered). Have you noticed any similar behavior? Got any ideas about how to avoid this or fix it?
I have sent the project files to the Hash support folks, so I expect they will figure it out soon.
Thanks!
Bill Gaylord
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These are great! I think we are headed for some really fantastic animated plants. The next step would be adding dynamics to some of the outer branches to complete the wind effect.
Very encouraging!
Bill Gaylord
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Hit a snag. Sort of literally (in a virtual sense
). In my tree animation model each stick of each branch is basically a tube that is constrained to a spline path. The tube follows the spline path as it scales and lengthens. The overall form of the tree is defined and controlled by the these spline paths. Anyway, here is an example where I have defined the length scale pose slider and have added leaf "hair" to a group defined on the "stick". The problem I've encountered is that when I use the pose slider to change the length of the stick, the leaves stretch instead of simply following the group. (The dynamics are turned off in this example, BTW.) I have noticed that if I simply move or rotate the stick, I'll get this stretching effect until I click on the pose window or render. However, when I use the length pose slider I've defined, the stretching doesn't go away when rendered.Any ideas? I've sent the project files to Hash support, so probably will get a solution soon (the Hash support team rocks!)....I wonder if adding the leaf material after defining the pose is an issue.
If any of you have any ideas about how to avoid or fix this, let me know. Otherwise I'll post the results of any solutions that come from Hash.
Thanks!
Bill Gaylord
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Thanks! I'll try that out.
Bill Gaylord
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Got any pictures? I certainly would like to learn a variety of ways to build trees. What I like about the hair approach is the ability to apply forces like wind and get fluttering leaf effects, etc.
Do you happen to know how to turn the surface transparent without turning the hair transparent along with it?
Thanks!
Bill Gaylord
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That is very encouraging. I think there is a lot of potential here! How fast does in render?
Bill Gaylord
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Here is a crude experiment with two hair emitters: one for the leaves and one for some stems. Certainly needs a bit of tweaking to look more natural. Thought this might be a potential way to show some of the small branches among the leaves without having to model them.
Anybody know how to make the surface invisible without making the hair invisible along with it?
Bill Gaylord
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Great idea for the leaf stem. At this point I'm experimenting with "hair" to see If I can reduce patch count and memory consumption that way.
I'll post some of my experiments.
Thanks!
Bill Gaylord
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Actually a very accurate leaf would be hard to do with only 4 patches, especially if it has several lobes, but a 4-patch leaf actually looks pretty good. You can bend and curl it enough to give it a nice shape. Of course the 4 patches do not include the stem. Take a look at those on my "experiments" web site: My Webpage. If you get close enough to a branch you can see (or expect to see) leaf stems. In may case, the tree is the focus of the animation, rather than a prop or piece of landscaping. I am animating the tree growing from sprout to full size.
Now that I have version 11a, I'm experimenting with "hair" to see if that can give me the foliage I need without the heavy patch count penalty I get from modeling the leaves with patches.
Stay tuned...more to come.
Bill Gaylord
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I may have to do something similar. The trick is the shadows cast on the brownstone appartments I'll have in the background.
Thanks,
Bill Gaylord
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Just what I'm looking for! I'll have to learn how to do that. Nice work!
Bill Gaylord
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Thanks Amar and Phil! I'll definitely have to try these out. My model would probably work well with wind forces with a bit of work, but I didn't have a good way to get the leaves to flutter. This is great!
Thanks!
Bill Gaylord
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I'll try a simple version and see if I can create an action with a pose slider. Will be interesting to see how natural the leaf growth can be made to look.
Bill Gaylord
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Woweeee!
!!! That must be a load of patches total, but looks fantastic!Let us know the patch count. My humble brownstone appartments are about 38,000 patches each (could likely be trimmed quite a bit as I put a lot of detail into things like the railings). But a whole city block! Wow! Love the "Metropolis" feel to it.
Bill Gaylord
Jeff Lew DVD - Character Animation
in (2003-2004)
Posted
I have it and highly recommend it! Very clear, well designed introduction to 3D animation. You should definitely add it to your library if you are at all serious about animation (even as a hobbyist).
Bill Gaylord