Kelley

Indeed. They've been sitting for too long. Through a friend of a friend, I found a kid who with an interest in 3D. The deal is, I'll get him up and running on animating, and we'll see if we can get some of my older projects finished. First on the list is "The Sentinel", second is "Moving Foxhole". He's animating the tank treads now.

Almost. The hope was that the pivot could be moved and the Model Bone stay where it was. Like in the Modeling Window, the pivot can move, but the CP's stay put. Sliding the model forward in the Model Window to get the Model Bone aligned with the trigger was just a work around. Pretty slick: Translating the Model Bone to a Null. I would not have thought that was possible...rather like telling your abdomen that it is now the child of your elbow.

Thanks, Paul, for the second serving on the houses. Very nice. It looks like you did not use 'hair' on the thatched roofs. Might be a good place for it. I especially liked the vines growing up the walls. [i'll put that in long-term memory]. And...funny you should mention the 'brick and stone' houses I was playing with a while back. I was just in that folder. ['getting nostalgic for that project. One of my first in A:M]. Did not use AO on them.

Is it possible to make fog happen in a vertical plane? 100% at ground level, 0% at some point above?

First, because the main question was: can you move the pivot in the Choreography, or not? Turns out you can't. So be it. What I needed was for the right hand to be lying across the trigger area, and the left hand draped over the muzzle. As the Sentinel rolls in the saddle to counter the roll of Beast, the left hand kept drifting off the gun. Rotating it from the Model Bone in the barrel meant that I had to adjust for two hands every time. My next plan was to put a Null in the muzzle area, Translate it to the Model Bone, and Translate the Left Wrist Bone to the Null.

Everyone seems to be ignoring that delightful cluster of buildings in the first post. I'd love to see something happen with that.

It did tend to wander a bit. Basically, in the Choreography, I wanted the rifle lying across the Sentinels's lap to rotate at the trigger. The Rotate Tool appears over the Model Bone, which is halfway up the barrel. [there are no other bones] I kept searching [with the cursor] for a 'sweet spot' that would allow me to drag the pivot over the trigger. Like in the Modeling window. In the end, I just moved the model [in the Modeling window] until the trigger was at the 0,0,0, checked in Bones Mode, and the Model Bone was where I needed it.

Yes, I was at Frame 0. I'll give it another shot. Just to reality check a bit: The Control Bone at the end of the chain [X-Machine end] gets a Dynamic Constraint to its Null? Or 'Translate To'? The 29-31-30 bone order on the end of the Control chain is OK? Thanks much Vern.

As someone once said [and it might have been on this forum] "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is." When I move the Model Bone Null everything moves, including that last bone in the chain. Then, whenI move the Null at the far end of the Control Chain, nothing happens. When I check the last Control Bone in the chain, there is a 'Dynamic Constraint' on it instead of a 'Translate To' which runs counter to your explanation. Is this an oversight, or a 'higher logic' that zipped right by me? Finally, the last three bones in the Control Chain are numbered 29-31-30. In the PWS they are listed correctly. Is this confusing A:M in deciding where the end of the chain is? Am I right in assuming [with these resolved] that one Translates the Model Bone Null to Beast, and the last Control Bone Hull to the Machine?

Here's the verdict so far: almost there. I've got the umbilical built as per Vern's example using a two-tiered hierarchy of bones. It flexes just fine. And I got the X-Machine and Beast Blob to run around together using a 20 frame lag. But I'm stumped on how to attach the chain to Beast & Machine. In some way, they don't like each other. The X-Machine is Translated To, and Oriented Like, Beast. Then I took the Root Bone in the Chain [the first hierarchy that's actually in the mesh] and Translated it to Beast, and the bone at the other end to X-Machine. Then I put a 15-frame lag on the X-Machine. What happens is that Beast and the chain move along fine except for the last bone on the chain [and the Machine], which lags OK, but the last bone stretches 'way out. Then, I also discovered that in Translating the first hierarchy, I was leaving the second behind. So I translated each end of that chain to the respective objects, and removed the lag thinking that I'd just move the Machine by hand at various key frames. But as soon as I move the Machine in any way, I get this long stretch in the last bone. I think the solution is close, but I can't see it. VERN__S_ROPE.prj

I translated the Model Bone in the rifle to the Wrist Bone in the right hand. It worked well, but when I got the Sentinel rocking in the saddle to compensate for Beast, his hands kept drifting away. So I laid the rifle across his lap and translated it to his Right Upper Leg Bone and Oriented Like the Root Bone [spine] in Beast. Had that not worked my next plan was to Translate a Null to the Hand, and the rifle to that. Thanks all, for your help. Edit:..or were you referring to the main Model Bone?

It's a lot simpler than my explanation. When I try to rotate the rifle in the Choreography, the Rotater 'Rings' centered on the Model Bone which was halfway up the barrel. I wanted them centered on the trigger. In the Modeling Window, it's a simple matter of putting the cursor directly over the center of the Rotation Tool and dragging it to where you want it. This doesn't seem to happen in the Chor. So I just moved the model [in the Modeling Window] until the trigger was over the 0,0,0 position. [not quite there in the pic., but since fine-tuned]. While that solved the immediate problem, I wondered, if the pivot is so easily movable in the Modeling, why not in the Choreo.?

In the last week I've been finalizing the Sentinel's posture sitting in the saddle. He carries a rifle across his lap. As Beast rolls/waddles to the left, he compensates by leaning slightly to the right. The problem has been keeping his hands on the rifle while making sure it doesn't penetrate his legs or the computer screen in front of him. I got it smoothed out, but am I correct in thinking that in the Choreography you cannot move the pivot? It would have made life much easier.

No. That was done by actually moving CP's on the model. Here's the .prj. I did an Embedd All so the texture should be there. Thanks and good luck. Project1.zip

John: I did have a Ground Plane. I removed it and all is the same. Besides, my plane with the displacement map was high enough up off the 0,0,0 that the CP's moved by hand still showed. Here's two shots showing a Side View and Camera view. As you can see from the Camera shot, something's going on, but it's not showing on the plane itself.

Nice test. That's what I'm looking for. Here's two pics: First, a section of map I used, and a screen cap. from the Model Window. Obviously, the program thinks something is happening, but it won;t show. I was amazed that the program responded to such a big number. Most have an upper limit, after which nothing happens.

Here's short of two renders: one at 10,000% and the other at 50,000% [that's some fierce numbers] but the effect is lees than hoped for.

Good point. I have fallen into the habit of using 'rendered' interchangably with 'screeshot'...which the previous shots were. But I 'rendered' an 11-second animation [didn't take all 11-secs to see where it was going] The deep distortion is by moving CP's down in the Model Window. The Displacement Map is next to it.

Started playing with displacement maps. All seems well until render time, where the displacement does want to show. I can see the effect of the map in the Model wiondow. I can see the area of the map in the Choreography...but when I render out a screen shot...?

I awake this morning to an embarassment of riches! My thanks to all of you. I'm printing these out as fast as I can and adding them to the archive. It looks like there's several good ways to make this happen.

Damn! That was fast. Thanks John.

Sorry the video didn't attact. Here it is. Edit: This is on a friend's computer Knight_walking.zip

Thanks for the suggestion. I have yet to tackle anything dealing with cloth. [i find it a bit daunting] Are there any tutorials that might make it easier?

A while back, plus some, I saw a thread here in which a character walked and left footprints behind. Is it possible to track this down? Thanks.

Boring? This is great stuff!