Kelley
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Posts posted by Kelley
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I would double check that again.
...and so it proved to be. Twice over. I turned off everything but the troopers and the road and there it was. And then the shadows. How could I have missed it?
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That's a cool looking world you're making.
Thanks much, robcat. Thanks to all.
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These characters look like they would communicate by shouting...even when they are just inches from each other
Not bad. The little guy on the right is a sargent-type. I'll make him bellow.
It looks like you're getting the hang of this 3D lark.Let's not jump to any rash conclusions, but things seem to be improving, albeit by lurches and stumbles (or so it seems at 1:00 in the morning) These guys are the ones you rigged for me three years ago, so if they don't move right, I'll have no excuses. I'll check Tubb's feet. Thanks. EDIT: It's his back foot that's on the ground, but hidden by shadows. The front heel is about three frames from touchdown.
Looks like you put alot of work in this.These two troopers are the first things I ever modeled in A:M. Since then, I've put the project aside, added to it, put it aside again...until by now it's acquired sufficient 'gravitas' and momentum that I think we may see it finished in the not-too-distant future. The experience makes one appreciate what Pixar must have to go through and why CG films take years. And by the way, thanks for posting the models of your kids. There too, is some really nice modeling.
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Well, maybe not completely...just a change of pace from The Sentinel. [The house at the far rear seems to have lost its textures, but that's for tomorrow.]
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The Mail Packet: an automated re-supply drone that periodically brings everything needed for the Sentinel to survive on Kibble XXI...except there's never any mail. Which keeps him in a stew about whether there's anyone out there anymore, or is the system running on 'auto' and his efforts all for nothing? This is one of several establishing shots for the opening while a voice-over explains the Sentinel Program.
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NICE WORK! I'm coming to appreciate how much work went into that.
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Here we go! Got some bounce in the snowflakes. The secret being: just keep punching in bigger numbers until something happens. In other scenes the flake size and wind direction will vary.
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I got the recipe from working in your chor.
No wonder it looked so good! [LOL] Actually, I've found that it's best to archive old .prj's with salvagable Sprites and Particles. Copying and pasting works great, but writing the values down and re-entering them to make a second copy always gives a result that's different in some way. Maybe it starts from a different seed number, or some such.
Last night, after scouring every A:M handbook in the library, I turned, at last, to The Art of Animation Master. [duh!] There, under "Wind, Rain, Fire" was an excellent tutorial using Streaks, Forces and Turbulence. Scott and I got it to work on a test section of The Sentinel. Then we tried to replicate it in the final-qual. section with less result. Tonight should see the resolution of it.
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The main problem is not to get snow to fall, it's 'why won't it fall in that Choreo.?' I can see the snow on the emitter. But thanks, Ken, for the Material recipe. I tried it and it falls more like rain for me. I'll log it.
I did a second tester on snow. Now is where I need some help with Forces. I want the snow to flutter as it comes down. Robcat suggested adding Turbulence to Force. Is Force applied to the model, or, to the Choreography? I've treid both with several different values. Nothing seems to happen.
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This is a Problem-and-a-half. The main question is How to use Forces, the 'half' is 'Why Has My @#%* Snow Emmitter Stalled?'
Starting with the 'half', it's a straightforward Streaks Material dropped onto a single-patch plane. It's worked before. Now, no matter what value I enter on the Y-axis the snow doesn't want to fall.
The main question is how to employ Forces. I got a Force into the Objects Folder and then to Choreography. In its Properties, it looks like any light. I set the height and cone. In the PWS, Force looks like a vehicle for adding Turbulence. I chose Cell Turb and punched in some trial values. Am I on the right track here? Seems too simple.
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Just playing with some dramatic lighting. Rocks will be added later. Now back to footprints...
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You might not be getting exactly what you want, but what you've got is really good.
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An opening six seconds. The wheels still slide a bit, but I'm happy with the lighting.
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I think you should put your website and blog info in your signature...
Thanks all, for the kind words. David: Good point. [Had I but thought of it.] I'll get it done.
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This project has a strong WWII atmosphere with surreal elements. Very interesting!
Thanks, Paul. I thought you'd get a kick out of seeing the refurbished town. WWII? Here's two more of the mechs. [1] The 1917 Whippet tank and [2] the 1910 Rolls-Royce Armored Car. I tend to see it as WWI writ large. [with surreal elements]
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This it one of the very first projects built in A:M. I made some serious mistakes which conspired to slow the modeling, and the renders. First of them was that as I built things in the Modeling Window, I applied the textures as I went along. If, like with a wood beam, I needed this object several times in several models, I would copy it and paste in place. All well and good, except for the fact that A:M loads another copy of the texture. As I duplicated the bits, I ended up with a phenominal number of textures in the Textures Folder [to say nothing of Groups]. Another less-than-desirable aspect of A:M is that if a project sits idle for a few months, A:M had difficulty finding its textures again. SO, as I resurrected this project, I striped off all the textures and re-applied them from scratch...with stamps. The project got re-built in about two days with about 20-25 textures and runs much better.
My Sorcerer's Apprentice, Scott, animated the treads on the tanks, so all vehicles will be moving as Tubbs and Pepperbox walk down the street.
I also posted it on my Blog, but this, the much-larger-version is better.
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The spitball rock on which the Sentinel spends his time [his life?] is pretty much devoid of life, but there are large, torpid, harmless beetles in the snow areas. They appear as rocks poking out of the snow until Beast wanders too close and they slowly start to shuffle away. Occasionally, one cannot move out of range fast enough and will rear up and make ritual threatening gestures, then sink back out of sight.
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I've looked at your zipped prj and there was a missing image file - however - even so I can see why you are confusing yourself. Your camera angle is strange, your ground patch model is oriented strangely and it appears that the footprint decal (footprint bump) did not get APPLYied to the ground patch model
What I suggest is start over to unconfuse yourself.
1) create a new ground patch model - and orient it horizontally in the xz plane centered at 0, 0, 0
In the ground patch model, from top view - do 3 times: decal/new/select footprint bump - scale the image, position the image, select apply. You should then have 3 decal containers and 3 footprints showing. The decals have been applied as color type for now. - later you can change it to bump type.
2) create new default chor. (delete default ground plane) -drag ground patch model into chor. You should see the 3 footprints
3) select ground patch model in the chor - click red thingy to show more drivers - expand the decal containers - you should have 3 - for now just change percentage to 0 - they should all be invisible
4) decide what frames you want them to appear - go to that frame and turn percentage to 100 for that decal container (set interpolation to hold)
5) when you have timing correct - then in the ground patch model - change the decal type to bump
Thanks Nancy. I'll take a fresh running start at it in the morning.
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Well, I'm close, but I'm not breaking out the cigars yet. I finally got it sorted out. Spent hours trying to find the Opacity dialog box a second time, until I realized that's not what I needed to animate. It was the Bump Percentage itself. After that, it went pretty smooth. But while my Choreo. looks like yours [only with 3 steps instead of 4] I can't get the bumped steps to show when rendered. Or in a screen snapshot. If you can sort out this last detail, I'm home free. I think.
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Here's the project with the decals applied (in the chor) and animated using a hold interpolation. You could use zero slope, with an extra key a few frames before, so it gradually appears. And here's the movie rendered from the project.
Thanks for the solution. Problem is, I haven't a clue as to how you got there. How did BUMP 1,2,3, & 4 get into a folder under GROUND PATCH in the Choreography? And again in an Actions folder? What, exactly, is a 'hold interpolation' and where do I choose it? I can set opacity when I apply the Bump to the Patch in the Choreo., but once the dialog box closes, I can't find it again. How is opacity changed? I hate to appear the dumb kid, but I'm completely confused.
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You have to animate the percentage of the decalled image type. Each footprint needs to be in a different decal container, so you have the percentage property for each stamp. "Show more than drivers", in an action or chor, so you can access the decal folder of the model and find the image properties.
This is new territory for me. I've got the footprint decal imported four times. I'm hoping that's what you mean by "Each footprint needs to be in a different decal container" So far, I've only applied the footprint bump once, and tried to change the opacity over ten frames, or so, but it's not responding.
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Following the steps Nancy outlined, I applied a footprint bump to a patch in the Action window. then I advanced 10 frames, applied a second stamp, then 10 frames, etc...hoping to get sequential footsteps. But when I dropped the action on the patch in the Choreo., [and rendered a 00:01:15] all the footsteps appeared at once. Any thoughts?
EDIT: Repeated the same directly onto the patch in the Choreo. Same result.
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Can decals be applied in the Choreography?
And now for something completely different...
in Work In Progress / Sweatbox
Posted
The whole story is an expansion on a WWII cartoon drawn by Bill Mauldin, best remembered for his 'Willie and Joe' characters. That cartoon is my #1 favorite Mauldin and, of course, I can't find where I archived it on my hard drive. So I attach my #2 favorite. This will give you the flavor of Mauldin, Willie and Joe. The #1 cartoon has Joe waist-deep in a foxhole he's digging, Willie sitting up on the pile of dirt, as a Sherman tank rolls by with a neat, clean 2nd Lt. in the turret. Joe eyes it wistfully, but Willie will have none of it, saying "Nah, I'd rather dig. A movin' foxhole attracts the eye."
Trying to tailor my version to the classical six-minute format, I'll have my guys walk down a short length of street, past the two self-propelled guns, turn left at the corner and down another short inclined section of street. They're walking on the left side. They're passed by a short convoy consisting of a Whippet tank [now fully animated by my Sorcerer's Apprentice, Scott] [Get'em young. Teach'em A:M] and two, maybe three 1910 Rolls-Royce armored cars. They pause, waiting for a break in the traffic, waiting to cross over to a pedestrian tunnel on the other side. All this while, the MG gunner has been grousing about being dirt-infantry. He rails at the mud, the walking, the rain-filled holes to sleep in, the walking, bullets, blisters, walking...obviously Armored Cav. is the modern way to go. The little Sargent snorts and treats the whole litany with disdain. The gunner persists. He ticks off the advantages: riding instead of walking. A dry place to fight from. A nice warm engine to sleep next to, and best of all...armor plate on all sides. As they wait, he challenges the Sargent, saying, "What, exactly, could you possibly have about going into battle inside a big, solid, steel box?" The break in the traffic comes, the Sarg. waves them forward and as they get to the middle of the street, there comes the shriek of incoming rounds. They bolt into the tunnel. Outside, behind them, there will be a series of flashes, horrendous 'booms' and pieces of tank, wheels, rivets and tread plates fly past. Except for the turret of one of the armored cars which strikes the edge of the tunnel mouth and ricochetts [never could spell that] into the tunnel spinning like a top, looses off tracer rounds from its Lewis gun, and comes to a stop a few feet from them. When they discover they're still alive, the Sarg. pokes his finger at the gunner's chest and says, "HAH? Thay's what I keep telling you...a moving foxhole attratcts the eye".
From time to time, I wonder about doing something similar with the tank cartoon. It would have to involve a dialog between the troopers and the Fire Control Officer and the battery, and static on the line which they exploit as they play for time. You, the viewer, would know they're under a shelter of some sort, and that there's a s***-storm going on outside, but not until the end would the camera pull back to reveal the tank. Who knows?
EDIT: Just noticed that the caption is missing on the cartoon. It says: "Able Red One to Battery? I got a target for you...but you're gonna HAVE TO BE PATIENT!"