Tom

That was a great tutorial which explained a lot!! Thank you!! Tom

Thank you!! I will definitely check out the tutorial! Best, Tom

To try and explore every possibility with hair I went back to experiment with AM's particle system for hair. I discovered that with most of my attempts the hair looked like yarn. I then noticed the render of the nice fur on the Hash orangutang (it was on the CD) and also this image from the the new Shrek movie. How are these hairs able to achieve the tapered, softer look? Is it a question of shaders or...? Thanks for any info. Tom

These are all good suggestions! I liked John's Dynamic Hair but I wanted to be able to more closely control the motion of the hair by having the hair be an actual object. I think applying a transparency map which tiles (or ties into into itself) will work best. I 'm not terribly happy with this first try but thought I would post it anyway. Thanks to everyone for the feedback. Tom

Hello - I know there is a "particle system /hair" that can simulate curls however for a variety of reasons I am attempting to create curly hair using a different method. If you look at the attached image you will see a "simple straight object" and then you will see a "twisted version" of that straight object. If I was just going to create hair using the straight model, I could easily assign a color to the object and then use a transparency map to simulate strands. I can't really apply a transparency map to the twisted version so I figure I will need to assign a Material to the twisted object. The only problem is my skills are weak at creating a material which will simulate strands while creating a transparency . Does anyone have suggestions regarding creating a material which can be applied to the twisted version of the object that will create strands and spaces between the strands to simulate hair? Attached is the strand object? Thanks for any suggestions! Tom HairStrand.mdl

Beautiful Job! The global lighting and modeling looks first rate... Are the clouds painted, rendered or photographs? Great work! Tom

Someone posted this modeling Tute the other day! http://treser.net/AnimationMaster/modelingacharacter.pdf Tom

Thanks for posting the project! Can't wait to play with it! Tom

That looks great!! I agree with Robcat....is there a Project file you can post? Best, Tom

That sounds like an interesting approach... Do you happen to have any animation showing how it looked in motion? Thanks! Tom

That is wonderful! Thanks! Tom BTW- Here is the hand drawn Smoke cycle from Brother Bear... SmokeCycle.wmv

You're right. Sprites have no real volume so they can't shade like real shapes. I think that effect is a bit more like a fluid simulation. Think of an aquarium filled with clear water and then pouring a half cup of milk into it. If you filmed that in super slow motion and turned it upside down you'd get something like that mushroom cloud effect. I think that's actually been done in some movies. Could A:M fluids do that? maybe. You'd have to learn a lot about what the various settings do. BTW, isn't it amazing that someone can DRAW that smoke? -someone did some cigarette smoke here recently -high viscosity slows particle motion -does baking particle make keyframes? If so, you could stretch them out to slow things down. Thank you for the reply! I was thinking there might be a way to get two tone sprite smoke. Use two separate emittors with two separate colored sprites and have one start a little before and behind the other one. I'll have to experiment but I agree that this is probably a fluid simulation situation if this previous idea doesn't work. Yeah-the 2D guys really could create effects. There is another great hand drawn cloud plume in Disney's "Brother Bear". It's the scene where the female shaman is giving the girl advice in the cave. It's a cycle but done so effectively you barely notice. BTW- I looked for the cigarette smoke on the forum but couldn't find it. Do you know a link? Many thanks! Tom

Hello- Playing with sprite smoke and wanted to ask two questions. 1) Is it possible to achieve an effect like the one in the still image from a 2D Disney cartoon whereby smoke is underlit to give a dramatic effect? Sprites don't seem to be affected by lights and if you colored the individual small graphic (which makes up the smoke ) to be underlit, then the underlit effect would be over the entire smoke cloud and not isolated as it would be in a dramatic setting... 2) I have been trying to get a very slow (almost hypnotic) effect with smoke rising using sprites. Can't seem to slow the smoke down enough to get that effect. I tried playing with the "initial velocity" and "gravity" settings with no luck. You could take a Hash smoke render and slow it down by time stretching it in After Effects but that is a cheat and it wouldn't look great. Attached is a slow smoke "boil" from a Dark tree animation. Unfortunately it's not 3D. but maybe it gives an idea of the desired effect. Thanks for any suggestions, Tom darktree_1.wmv

Great Tip! Thanks! Tom

Thanks for the detailed explanation..I couldn't have figured the process out without it! Tom

AFAIK, Sweeper makes one model, in the model window, where animation doesn't happen. At all. Sweeper wouldn't be the tool for that MMoP creates one keyframe per model. After that... you're up to your own wits. Did I mention you can Shift select a whole bunch of those cards to move them all at once? Thanks for the help! Tom

Thanks again for all the help! I was able to get it to work..cool! One thing that has intrigued me would be if "Sweeper" had a time function so that you could "grow" things over time.... it would be an amazing feature. I wrote to Emilio Le Roux about it but didn't hear back from him which is too bad because I think it could be an amazing feature. For example if "Sweeper" remembers all the parameters and cross sections and then lets you put in a time parameter, you could bring the model into Choreography and then a beautiful entwined plant or a sophisticated gearbox etc would appear out of thin air. I'm guessing there are ways to achieve this in other ways but a "time " feature would solve it in one snap. Getting back to the previous project with the MMOP plugin, I was able to assemble the cards along a path and then manually pull them out of the frame as was described previously. I'm guessing that manually pulling them is the fastest way to get them to react...since It seems the MMOP doesn't allow any pose sliding (?) Thanks again.. Tom

The MMoP plugin places the cards along the path, no path constraint is needed I got stuck on that one too, so I retraced it in the chor using the path tool. There must be a way though. Thanks again! I think the ability to sculpt a path in the modeling window would be high up there for a new features request... Tom

Finally got around to studying the project that was posted and (probably a silly question but) how are the cards attached to the paths? I did not see any "constrain to path" instructions for any of the card models? (Another silly question) How was the model called "castle outline" imported into the choreography as a "path"? I tried dragging a model into a choreography and did not see any instructions (buttons or right clicking) that would make it a path... Thanks again for any help! Tom

Thanks for all the Help!! I've downloaded the project and intend on studying it intently! Thanks again! Tom

Thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions!! Here is a variation on the Narnia movie. Can't tell if the castle [and other objects] is built from sprites or ? Any suggestions welcome as to how they did this... http://www.adobecards.com/ Afeter it finishes loading , slide the slider all the way to the right..and then after the movie plays...slide it back to the left again.. Truly Amazing.. Tom

Very cool..thanks for everyone's help! Tom

I accidentally first posted this in the tutorial section ..so it is being re-posted here.. Hello- Does anyone know if Sprites can be effected by Forces? I haven't been able to get that to work... Question 2) Does anyone know if Sprites can be contained inside another shaped object once they are emitted? For example, once sprites are emitted, can they fill an invisible object so that as the sprties accumulate, a form takes shape? Here is a clip from the second Narnia movie that got me thinking about this effect. It appears there is a quick cut between the particles floating and the humanlike body that they become.. Thanks for any feedback.. Tom Particles.wmv

Thank you! I'll go back and see what the error is! Tom Thanks again! I got it to work!!! Your instructions were great and I could never have figured it out without you directions. Tom

Thank you! I'll go back and see what the error is! Tom