ernesttx

This one is for the gurus and experts out there that know a lil sumthin sumthin about the capabilities of physic simulations in Hash AM. Yesterday I saw the movie Untraceable and there was a scene were a guy fell from a bridge. To me it looked quite good, but I wondered if they used physics simulation and a CG stunt double for the action. I tried recreating this scene in Hash, but I'm quite the novice with the physics stuff to really understand what needs to be setup and done. Is it possible to have a rigged human character and constrain with a Rigid Body constraint and have it simulate realworld physics? Not getting very far in Hash, I decided to switch over to Poser 7 with their physics simulation to work it out. It's a quick simulation, just to see what is possible. Hopefully the animated gif will show up here, but it's for reference only to see if this type of "stunt" would be possible in Hash AM. I have version 13t. Any comments and suggestions are welcome. thanks.

Paul, Are you Baking from the Action or from the Choregraphy? I am on 13t (will upgrade after this project) and found that when I tried to bake in an Action, I got an exception error as well. However, when I Baked from Choregraphy, everything went accordingly.

rezman, if you go back to page 10, there is some information there about setting up a rig or rigging a face for Zign Track. One method is Orient Like bones and another is relationships for muscle poses. I've been creating bones for the face and Orienting Like to correspond to bvh file that Zign Track creates. I'm not so good at the relationship creation process to know if one is better or easier than the other. I've been busy converting my characters to use with Zign Track, as well as CP Weighting many joints. I was never so good with Smartskinning; so, CP Weight has been a wonderful enlightenment. But, boy, lots of joints in fingers. hehe But, all this is in anticipation for full scale production once I purchase Zign Track sometime next week. So, I'm mainly looking at things from a production pipeline aspect to see how the flow works. I've been looking into BVH Baking (as Bendy has suggested); but, in working with some files, I've notice that for some walking to bvh files, the skeleton rig I am using tends to make that a bit difficult. but, standing motion type bvh files work quite well. Anyone have other examples of Zign Track videos and their characters? enjoy seeing others work. I like the bug one too!! and I'm not biased just cause he has my name

OMG Bendy that's what I've been looking for. Something that will allow me to have Actions based on a bvh file, but without the bvh file attached in some way. I was going to take the long way and Action my model's bones to the bvh bones. Actually manually move each bone in accordance with the bvh bone in an Action window but with fewer keyframes . It's actually quite easy, but time consuming. But this way, i'll just need to attach the model to the bvh rig and then bake out the action in Chor. It's still going to be a time consuming to go through several bvh files; but, far less time. However, in baking out the action, what would be a nice Unit of Error Tolerance for Channel Reduction? I did a test with "1" and it seems that various keyframes for various bone rotations were strewn throughout the action. No biggy, but tweaking the Action after that will take some adjusting.

hey all, not sure anyone else has ran across this situation. I'll give a little background as to how I am currently working with Zign Track. 1. create video reference with dots on face 2. run through Zign Track and export bvh file 3. Open AM, import model and create action 4. assign bones and constraints 5. Save as Action Then, say I have created 3 actions from Zign bvh files (I've named the Actions differently). 1. Open new project and import model 2. import Actions 3. New Chor 4. place model and then drag actions onto model Here is where things become a bit disorganized. It seems that the BVH Action Objects (if not named differently) are getting in the way as they all seem to have similiar names (ie, BioVision BVH File1, BioVision BVH File2, etc.). When creating the actions for individual bvh files, it seems the actions are looking for a specific named bvh file. However, if multiple bvh files are named the same, you might run across not knowing which bvh file it is looking at (as you will notice, in your Objects folder, there will be multiple BioVision BVH Files with similiar names). I've had to go back and recreate the Actions but also rename the BioVision BVH File to something similiar in order to relate the Action to a specific BVH file. Now, when importing the Actions into a new project, the corresponding BVH shows up in the Objects folder. It also helps with assigning constraints with the picker; as the pop up list will show a Shortcut to and the related bvh bones to that bvh file. Not sure anyone else has run across this, but I'd thought I'd pass it along. Also, if anyone else has a different way or insight into whether it's just me. Also, Luuk, you might want to add as an improvement in the future. What I am doing, is using Bauhaus Mirage to import my video reference and pre-process the video before importing into Zign Track. The pre-process I am doing is eliminating all other colors (except tracker dot green) from the video. Something similiar to the little girl in the red coat process in Schindler's List. I have found out that it allows much better tracking of the color. What are some other ways people are doing to use Zign Track and their workflows. Thanks

Sorry to get back so late. I was having too much fun Ok, did a quick animation test with one of my models. Luuk, your face setup was just right in what I'm capable of understanding and implementing. I uploaded a clip on to youtube: I am pleased with the results. However, I do think I need to tweak CPs and CP Weighting to get things even better. I'll work on things this weekend. I'm also rigging other characters and then will work on my tracking in Zign Track. I think I need to get better 'dots' and better placement on my face. I just did a quick track to work with Zign Track and see how things work. Luuk, I'll let you know my thoughts on improvements. I've have SynthEyes and worked with it; so, I'll focus on what would be nice to have in Zign Track. BTW, I'll be purchasing around 12/6. Also, on the FPS front, I create a new project at 30 FPS in AM, and imported the BVH file; all worked well. Also, I did the suggestions about expanding the action; those worked just as well. It just caught me off guard the first time I imported it. Hope you guys enjoy the clip, and I'll work on some others. Oh, and disregard the voice part; I was concerned with that too much heheh Thanks again Luuk for your brilliant program and all your efforts.

Thank you Luuk, Paul and David (itsjustme) for your help and suggestions. I managed to apply a setup similiar to Luuk's Frenchman model due to the fact that I will have to set this up for multiple characters and needed something I can manage, setup, and tweak (read: something ' I ' can understand) accordingly. I'm definately going to have to wade into CP Weighting a bit more (does Computing CP Weights before assigning CPs corrupt anyone elses models? hehe), seems to be the answer to some of my other issues. I should be able to post something later today. I was setting things up last night (4 AM ), checking things, fixing, tweaking CPs, etc. in order to get the rig in the model and make sure nothing was too out of place. I do have 1 question Luuk. The AVI that I have imported into Zign Tracker shows frames 1 to 225 frames. However, when I export the BVH file and create the action in AM, it imports into AM with keyframes 1 to 195. But, it doesn't seem that it's truncating the BVH file; all the 'action' in the original AVI seems to be there. (That is, all the mouth movements to dialogue are covered and keyframes set for the words mouthed). I'm guessing that it might have something to do with Zign using 30 FPS and my setup in AM is for 24 FPS? I'll try a project setup for 30 FPS and see if that is it. From what I have managed to render out for test videos so far, I could not be happier or more overwhelmed with possibilities. Luuk, YOU are DA MAN!!

Thanks Luuk, I'll take a look at your example tonight. I've been trying to go through the v13_posable Squetchy Rig and trying to walk through the tutorials to rig one of my models...and...I think my brain exploded. I'll try to walk through your's and see if I can use constraints. I'm not a big Rigger person. Alot of this is new to me. I'm grateful to all who have contributed all this wonderful stuff and to truly take advantage and utilize what is out there, I feel will be a very patience-driven journey for me.

Luuk, I'm having great fun working with your tracking program. I am currently using the Squethcy Sam model to experiment on. However, in truly getting a feel for your program, I would like to experiment on my models for the film that I am working on. That way, I can test out the percentage variables when exporting a BVH file to see how they will work on my models when I get ready to implement your software into my workflow. However, I'm guessing I need to use the FACE setup and bring that into my own models (versus come up with my own system of bones and such). I have several actions already created using my existing model rig and would like to keep that rig since I am familiar with it. What would be the best way to implement the FACE setup into existing models? I see alot of discussion on the forums and trying to follow the video tutorials for FACE and Squetchy Rig, et al. Such alot to cover. What I would like to do, is just import the FACE setup bones and relationships into my current model and rig CP Weight accordingly. Is there just a bone model for the FACE setup, or would I have to import Squetchy Rig into my model, delete all bones and relationships except for any FACE related? Any help would be greatly appreciated by anyone with any knowledge or experience with the FACE setup. It's wonderfully implemented.

OH, i knew there was a reason I wasn't able to sleep tonight!!! Thank you, Luuk. Time to play :)

Paul, that looks great! i wanna have fun too. no fair, all the kool kids have a neat toy (hehe ) can't wait to have a chance to rig this thing up and have a go. Keep up the great work Luuk!

Oh I can't wait for this !!! Luuk, do you think you can release it by Thursday Nov 15? It would make for a very nice birthday present for me hehe just kidding your efforts will be greatly appreciated. thanks for your hard work.

Luuk, sounds great. Take your time with it and make it right by you. I was just being silly...

Me Want now!! Ok....so, would someone need to setup the bones in the face before applying the BVH generated file? Or, does this require a special rigged face or skeleton? Is it just a facial tracker for now? Or will it grow into a full body tracking program? and as a side note.... me want now!! Any ideas on a release date?

It's with great pleasure that I announce that the DVD is now available featuring both Episodes and Special Features of the very first video animatics and a Making Of featurette. Visit www.animace.biz to check it out.

Thank you all for your kind comments. I apologize for not making a link; so thank you Fuchur. I choose to go with a more toon shaded look (as opposed to more realism with lots of textures and lighting and such) because it was a nice mixture of style and render times. AM's toon render is excellent and allows for alot of control. I may put up another longer trailer. I created that one in about an hour just piecing clips together.

Hello all. I just stopped by to thank the Hash team for creating a great program. I've been using it for several years, but had never really stepped up to create something on my own. But, I finally have, and it's all thanks to AM. I have a dream that fits in nicely with the the whole ' one man, one laptop, kitchen table' idea and I have been working for the passed 3 or 4 months to fulfill that dream. Starting with a script and my laptop, I set out to create my film. So far I've completed 24 minutes and soon will compile a DVD. But for know, I'm completely satisfied in my endeavour. If anyone is interested, I have a trailer on my website at www.animace.biz. I've tried using other 3D programs, but always kept coming back to AM because it's easier to model and animate within, and boy what an easy process of lip syncing is. Thanks again Martin and team. Oh, and after reading Martin's post about internet sharing and having users all over the world helping create...that would most assuredly be a time savor. hehe