jason1025

Thanks for the suggestion. I dont see where the "new attached constraint" is located

Hi Folks I have been studying Cloth and Newton Dynamics. I have been very productive results and am amazed at the power behind both of them. I have a puzzle I am trying to solve. For a few short shots in my presentation I have a parachute carrying some cargo to the surface. I was thinking because the cargo is very heavy and large that instead of cables connecting the cargo to the parachute I would use chains. I have been practicing creating chains with Newton and its very easy and works great. You get a huge payoff for little effort. Another reason why I want to use chains is they are visually stimulating more so than newton driven cables. I am not apposed to cables or a combination of chains and cables. Maybe cables connected to the cloth but chains connected to the cargo so at some point cables and chains are connected. My dilemma is that I cant figure out how to connect the two. The cloth to the chains.I would assume that a force of wind would be driving the cloth as well as the force of gravity and momentum of the adjoining chains. The chains would be constrained some how to the cloth and the newton dynamics would make the chain react to the cloth and cargo. First problem I encountered is that you can run Newton and Cloth sim at the same time. Maybe that would be a good feature request. Lets say that is not a problem. You can get away with simulating cloth first and newton 2nd. I tried that but it didnt work. I constrained the links to the cloth with offsets but when I simulated newton the newton chains eject into outer space. So even though you give a newton object a translate constraint it does not seem to adhere. Any ideas or thoughts. I may be going about this all wrong. I am open to suggestions or ideas.

Ok that clears things up. Below is text from the tech reference on the subject. It seems like a whole other world that I never heard about. But I am not going to explore it based on what you folks have said. If Newton, simcloth, and Dynamic constraints are the way of the future I am not going to spend time learning a dead feature. Soft Body Dynamics The Soft Body dynamics available in Animation:Master are based on systems of Springs and Masses. There are currently two ways to create a new Spring System. • The Cloth Wizard. • Right-click (Control-click on Mac) [New Spring System] on an Action or Choreography icon in the Project Workspace tree. Springs are used to exert forces on two masses. They have a resting length that they try to maintain. They have parameters to control how stiff they are as well as their damping. After adding a new Spring System to an Action or Choreography, you will be placed in Dynamics mode: springs and masses are drawn in the window. This mode has a set of construction tools: you can add a single mass, add a single spring, select a mass and move it, delete masses or springs, constrain masses to bones, and constrain bones to springs. The setups can be saved as single frame poses, for later application to the model. Soft Body structures react to keyframed motion and supply secondary motion to specific parts of a model: pony tails, locks of hair, loose jowl skin, ear-rings, bouncy noses, ear lobes, tubby bellies, etc. Spring System Editing Add Mode Click on the Add Mode button on the tool bar to begin adding springs and masses. Click anywhere away from an existing mass to add a new mass. A new spring will follow your mouse. Click on an existing mass to connect the spring to, or click away from an existing mass to add a new one to end this spring with. If you do not want a spring to continue from the current mass hold the shift key to create a new unconnected mass. Press the key, right-click the mouse, or select the Edit Mode button on the toolbar to return to Modify mode. Attaching Masses When dragging a mass you can attach it and its springs to another mass by right clicking (or simultaneously pressing the key and clicking on the Mac) just as you would attach two control points together. When attaching masses, one will be removed. If you attach two masses that have a spring between them the spring will be removed. Spring System Instance Menu Delete Removes the selected object from the project. Rename Rename the selected object Select Cache () Highlights the object that this shortcut is to.

I thought I knew but I didn't. What I have learned about is "Dynamic Constraints and cloth" But Spring Systems although related seem to be different. I don't want to debate that part. I just want to know if there are any tutorials showing how to use the editing features in dynamics mode and assigning masses, using the constraints that are designed for spring Systems. Could someone point me in the direction of a tutorial for this? Or could someone make a video tutorial. In the tech ref they talk about using this for stuff that I would normally use a dynamic constant for like pony tails, locks of hair, loose jowl skin, ear-rings, bouncy noses, ear lobes, tubby bellies, etc. Yet Spring systems are made so different in how they are made. So what gives? Are dynamic constraints the latest and greatest that make Spring systems out dated? What situations apply? I don't get it.

Yes I should have went the extra mile and added shadows. Maybe I will do that. It was just a test of AE cs5 roto tool and I wanted to show my friend the guy in the video how to track using syntheyes.

Thanks

Taking a short break and playing with Synth Eyes Synth_eyes_and_AE_CS5_Roto_email.mov

Thanks, I would have never thought they were particles.

I tested it on multiple systems and I cant get it to work.

Flocking does not seem to be working in 15J+ no models show when you drop them on the flock.

Yes it will be. the only live action was what was on the monitor in the beginning. OOOOOOOOOOO you mean actual "3D" not just CG. I guess I could do that and thought had crossed my mind but for now 2D is hard enough. 3D would take twice as long to render. 5 years ago I purchased special equipment 3D glasses and a special device that you hook up to your tv SD only. This was not the blue and red glasses this what more like 3D at an Imax theater with no color issues. I created true 3D, Left Eye Right Eye CG in AM Put it in the proper format to work with the 3D glasses and equipment and watched real true 3D on my home wide screen tv. At the time it seemed really cool but like a lot of cool things it was a novelty. I couldn't use this very cool work flow and accomplishment I had created to get jobs with. There was a company that I wowed with it, remember this was 5 years ago. They were doing something revolutionary. The company was called "In 3" They started their RND over 5 years ago and until recently you have never seen their work. They coined the term "dimentionalise" And guess what they Dimentionalised Clash of the titans, and that other movie with the white rabbit. Why did I not get a job there. They only paid $12 dollars per hour and it was a sweat shop. I got a feeling jobs like that will soon be in India or China. I did get my girlfriend a job there, she didnt know how to use a computer so this was a step up for her. As it turns out she is now near the top of the company and managing over 100 people. She got lots of raises. lol We broke up and she does not talk to me anymore. What was my point. You know what that could be a huge selling point for Hash now that 3D is a buzz word again. If someone paid me which they wont I could come up with a work flow to render from AM and put it into the proper format for the samsung 3D HDTV's and 3D Blu Ray players.

In the first shot I had a ray traced light in front of all 3 monitors to simulate the glow of the monitors screen, light output. The blue light on the matrox mx02 also had a ray traced light. I was not able to accomplish this effect without using ray trace all direction light. Either way that shot is done and completed now. Most future shots will avoid it.

Yes I do. Without motion blur, or Ambient O rendering in SD its possible to get away with less but in my case My specs are HD 1920x1080 no aliasing Ambient Occlusion can NOT crawl as it does with low samples and low passes I have done the math and with all my procs I am looking at about a month or so of rendering because I have 30 processors rendering 30 instances. If I need to I can always purchase a few for quad core or 6 core machines to speed up the process. When I go to an interview with a blu-ray for my demo reel at a studio they may want to project it in there on site theater. Or sometimes they play it in a conference room on a 63" HDTV. I live in the present but I want my work to have at least a little shelf life with all the hours I have put into it. Mark my words in 3 years they are going to be selling 2k and 4k, 100" 3D TV's You will be able to purchase a consumer camcorder that shoots 2K or higher for less than $1000.00 I didnt put hours and hours of my life into this work to skimp on the rendering. Of course this is subjective and my standard of quality. Not all projects like TWO for example require this level of quality. In my case I am aiming high and I hope it shows. James Cameron aimed hi and it worked out for him.

It depends on the shot. the first shot didnt have AO but it had a lot of models. it took about 16 hours per frame no motion blur. I did the motion blur in AE with real smart motion blur. the 2nd and 3rd shot did not have as many models and lights so I was able to add motion blur in AM, do 64 passes, AO volumetrics, and soft reflections @ 50% quality. took about 8 or 9 hours per frame. The first shot had a bunch of ray trace lights, the 2nd and 3rd had mostly Z buffer with penumbra on.

Funny thing I was super worried about Adobe changing their icons for CS5. As it turns out they did. Get this.. They made their new CS5 icons look like my 3 dimensional icons. They could not have done it better if I had paid them. before they were just 2D so when I created the characters I had to give the depth. LOL what luck or is it? Did I know the future? Did they see my work on the Hash forums?

Did anyone notice the shadow that sweeps across final cut guy? did you get subconsciously that that's what he is reacting to before he runs out of the room? Thats his motivation. Him an AE are confused to where everyone is going. But if that not evident than I didnt do my job. This storyline is why i dont give to much emphasis to "what can Jason do for you" because the narrator will fill that gap while you fallow the mystery. Below is my story board. I have made a bunch of notes and scribbles so be kind. You may also notice that I cut some shots.

By "graphics" do you mean final renders? Thanks for the compliments. I have found that light seems to be one of the keys in both the real world and cg to make interesting shots. I have not used Radiosity yet. I do plan to for at least one shot just to see how cool it looks. The first shots does not have any Ambient occlusion and I feel it lacks a little bit of that tangible quality because of it. I could composite it in after the fact but I have moved on to other shots and besides I don't think its that noticeable. The first 2 shots are 49 passes .45samples for AO, reflection is 45% quality , The 3rd shot got upped to 50% quality on the reflection and 64 passes. I dont think lens flares and volume for the lights are working properly because I added flares to all lights but only one worked. It turned out to look good so I didnt mess with it but if someone wants to test multiple lens flares on multiple lights that would be great. Occasionally frames for no particular resin rendered incorrectly in regards to the flares. Rendering the same frame again on a different system solved the problem. everything was rendered 24p 1920x1080. The third shot had depth of field. I tried using the depth map generated in the 2nd shot via open EXR, but I couldn't get it to work, well give a good result. Back to your original question. Other than my story board I dont have the rest of the shots done. I suppose that would be a better plan of attack but I dont want to burn myself out. I like to get excited about a shot and see it through to fruition. I have about 13 shots left and if I spend a ton of effort doing detailed animatics I fear that I will go to long without rewarding myself with finished shots. Than I will get depressed and burnt out. Kind of strange I know but for my own personal project its my thing. Obviously with a client I would do a story board then rough models, rig, create animatics, then animate the characters then texture, all while getting client approvals along the way. I do not have a large render farm. But I do have about 30 Processors all rendering instances. If I had only tried rendering with one instance it would take at least a year for the three shots I have done to complete rendering. Some frames took 16 hours some took as little as 8 hours to render. I am confident Net Render V16 with its multicore abilities will help me ease my pain. Setting up all the instances takes about 45minutes when you do it the old fashion way.

You bring up good points. In hind site I would have tweaked it to do more of that. The entire one minute piece will be narrated, so I hope that will re iterate the sale of my skills. Although I have the "what can Jason Hampton do for you" up on the monitor its really more of a subliminal in my opinion. I am trying to pack a bunch of detail into the shots and make the piece fast paced intentionally. My hope is that people in the biz, their bosses or people who can recommended me to their bosses will see the piece and want to view it over and over pointing out details like the mac, the Matrox MX02, the Sci fi thing Final cut is editing, the lens flairs, the deformations in the walls, and all the characters/applications represented in my fashion. By the way, I am not selling myself as an Animator,Modeler,Rigger,Texture r, Although the little skills I have are a bonus. I am selling my self as a Director/Producer for small budget shoots, for companies who want soemone who can Produce,Direct,Shoot, Edit, do moderate FX, Color correct, moderate Wed skills, and be self sufficient. The Narrator's pitch will talk about the importance of this in the current economy. My pitch will hinge on how companies can no longer afford to hire "specialists" but instead hiring someone like myself will give the company much more bang for their buck. Obviously I will be trying to get hired by smaller companies who will find this attractive.

No, and its a she. The actresses name is Amazon Beard. She is kind of a Grace Jones but more muscles. That is some footage from a live action short I directed. The lightning was done in AE with stock filters. The first three shots are in sequence. Does it not cut together?

Shot 3 completed 1920x1080 1080Jason_Hampton_CG_presentation_V3.mov 1280x720 JH_CG__V3_email.mov 960x540 960x540Jason_Hampton_CG_presentation_V3.mov

very cool

nice work as usual

wip S5_test030_.mov

I'm afraid it's a bit too much res for my PC to play smoothly so i can't judge the motion , but the renders look real nice. Crapy_low_res_compressed_version.mov The first 2 shots are completed. Took me about 13 days just to render them using 6 computers non stop. I'm sure the HD res is a time eater, but I'm still wondering if the lighting is as efficient as it could be. I am sure you are correct. I am not a master at any of this. At some point I had to just blast the problem with money and buy more machines to render frames faster. I have been doing so much Research and moving forward so slowly that I felt it was time to just get some shots finalized and rendered.

The first 2 shots are completed. Took me about 13 days just to render them using 6 computers non stop. The attached movie is down res from 1080p to 720p to make it easy for download. This is Pre color correction which I will do at the end. I have about 13 shots left to create and Animate. I will add sound effects, score and hire an actor for the narration. The first shot was rendered to TGA file regrettably as they have not proven to hold up in color correction. The 2nd shot was Open EXR. I added motion blur to the first shot using Reel Smart Motion blur plugin for AE. It was a hassle to get an accurate look and I had to learn the ins and outs to yet another program. The 2nd shot used the motion blur built into AM @35%. I think its worth taking the render hit but if you dont have the time RSMB is very fast to render. If AM had a way to export vectors like M@y@ that would help a lot with RSMB. I was hoping to add DOF in AE via the open exr format but it does not work for me as described in video tutorials I will post one frame if some one can figure it out that would be great but for now these shots will not get DOF. Its not that big of loss. Any future shots that will need DOF will get it via AM. Unfortunately the "Fisheye" lens that I used for shot 1 does not seem to be compatible with AM DOF. Not Sure why. This stuff is more work than I ever thought. Makes me respect anyone who is able to complete a project. First2shots.mov S4_P195_69.exr.zip