Shelton

Finally had some time to get back to the project work keeps getting in the way!! I am still having problems in the rotation of the shoulder area. It seems to happen when I put the elbow in an L shape. Steve

Very cool Eric Steve

Gene You are the man. keep going love all the animals. I really like the giraffe!! Steve

Gave it a try and the sss on his face remained darker. So a combination of sss and ao possible? Steve

Robert I said I would buy it already!! That really looks good. For this example alone would convince me. Steve

I was thinking about the sets this evening after talking with Gene in an email. It made me think of Robert's lighting thread, and I how was I going to light the outdoor scenes. I started looking at Paul's Playground and how he lit using AO. I have tried to duplicate this but had no luck. How do you set up AO rendering? Steve

excellent, I loved that movie for the fluid movement of the characters Steve

Gene, nicely done. email me ssshelton@tulsacoxmail.com Steve

Hi David and thanks for the critique. I am mainly seeing how the rig is holding up. I wanted to put the body in some awkward positions and see how it moved out of it. I see a great deal of tweaking left to do in the upper body. I have weighted the lower and smart skinned some areas but the rig is well made (thanks Mark) that not much was needed. I am still learning about key frames and the basics of animation so any advice is helpful. Thanks Nancy and of course you were right again. I had to reinstall AM after system problems and forgot to click the alpha off. I am about to throw my machine out. It crashed several times last night (Hardware related). I got the dreaded blue screen of death several times last night. Finally, I was able to give it CPR and got it going in time to upload the last animation. So I am computer shopping tonight. Looking at the HP Z workstations and the Dell Percision workstations. Thanks for the help. Steve

Having problems on the cleanup of the shoulder area. I know it is more to do with the way I modeled the character. Anyway I when I smart skin I have found that I can lock up the arms if the smart skinning is not done correctly. Any advised? Also, in the chor I have the background white and the ground not active as I wanted to see the shoulder area better. But yet it rendered with black background. Is there another place such as an action that can change the background and colors? Steve jumpa.mov

Now, that I am getting the rig in place, to IK or FK? I have watched several tuts that like IK and then some of the more known animators like fk. So my question is, where do you stand on animating, IK or FK? Steve

Thanks to David Simmons who once again corrected my problems and answered my questions. The leg is moving smoothly now. It was something as simple as turning off IK before smart skinning. Things we overlook! Steve

Hi Steve I put in a new email server at my house. For what ever reason some attachments come through and others do not. Try one more time and I will leave the pipe open. thanks Steve

Mark I getting pretty far into weighting and testing the rig. Thanks to you and David. But I have a question, I was starting on a walk cycle and when I would roll the knee out the top of the thigh would distort. The weighting I have in that area between the thigh and pelvis blends pretty good when I lif the leg. So when I roll the thigh it becomes distorted. I thought I would apply smart skin to that area to adjust the mesh. However, when I select the thigh or pelvis area to smart skin the mesh distorts. So I thought I would select the roll bone and would not recognize. So back to my question how would I smart skin the joint at the hip, thigh and pelvis? Which bone do I select to begin the smart skinning? I guess this would apply to the shoulder area as well. I have included a shot to shoe the small amount of roll to the knee that is causing the problem in the hip area. Steve

Thanks Nancy and Robert. I was too tired last night and the simple things were escaping me. Hi Kay! No he will just wear the glasses as he will be substituting for Cupid Steve

Ok started the face weighting, and I have not had much sleep lately so here goes my goofy question. I assigned a set of cps to a bone. Realizing later that I had made a mistake, how do you remove a cp from an assigned bone. I know its late and I have tried without success. Steve

Thanks Holmes. that worked! Now if Ican remember that the next time. Steve

I know what you mean Gerry!. Nice test Robert Steve

Excellent you guys!! I love Aaron dancing! Gene and Myron, wonderful stuff Steve

Thanks Holmes Here is a snap shot of the two actions in the chor. The first action is 30 frames, the second is 83. I tried what you said and the second action never activated. Instead it went to the last frame and stayed at that point. Steve

thanks Robert. I was working on the action and got them blocked and wanted to see the timing, so I placed them into a chor and wanted to see the movement from action to action. I can not get the arms to ease into the next action. I finally got the movement of the second action to work. Steve test.mov

I have created several actions files. I am trying to blend them into a chor. I was able to do this at one time without a problem. first action moves from 0-30 frames. the next action goes from 31 to 107. The first action allows transition to the next action, with blend method set at blend. With what type of ease should be set? The second action what settings should be set? OK, hows crop range work? what blend method should it be As it is now it jumps from one action into the next Steve

David rigged the bow so I have him to thank. this was an exercise to see if the character could shoot the bow, mainly testing the rig. That being said you guys are exactly right. I should have had the arrow excelerate away from the bow thanks again for looking Steve edit Here is the accelerated arrow shoot1.mov

Here is some motion with the constraints applied. It has been too long since I have done somehting from scratch. Steve shoot.mov

Robert Thank you for that simple and easy way to solve the problem! Steve