steveb

Thanks Julian I can definitely use this model. It opens fine in 12.g++, PC. Thought some gradients on the spheres might look interesting. DNA_Molecule_02.zip

Nice, I hadn't seen pose values directly controlling an expression before. I guess you would only use a bone to hold a variable if you wanted to overdrive it through another attribute or attributes of the model or environment. Since Poses have a defined range. But thats not needed for this example. I don't think I would use an action though. I would embed the expression within a pose in the model. Then one file then does everything and there is less setup in the chor. Its not a problem with a single expression but with multiple expressions it just adds to the setup time.

A propeller rotated by an expression with the speed controlled by a pose slider attached. I have had a problem in 11.1 where if I try to use the rotation value of a bone in an expression I end up with something like this ..|..|..|..|..|..|..|..|Objects|Model1|Relationships|User Properties Relationships|rotate propeller Relationships|Relationship1|Bones|speed|Transform|Rotate.X And get a nasty syntax error on it. So I tried selecting a transform attribute on the bone and this popped up in the expression window. ..|..|..|..|speed.Transform.Translate.X (No syntax error) I changed the expresion to this ..|..|..|..|speed.Transform.Rotate.X and it worked fine I used this expresion to get a propeller working (GetTime()*..|..|..|..|speed.Transform.Translate.Z) It gets the current time and multiplies it by the Z position of a bone called speed. Applying that value to the Z rotation of the bone that controls the propeller. The bone called speed has its Z position increased in a pose called propeller speed. As the Z position of the bone speed increases the propeller picks up speed. Hope this helps. And makes sense. Expressions are great I use them more and more with every project. Hope I'm not repeating stuff. I just did a quick read through the discussion. Sorry if I am. Stephen expressionPropeller.prj

thanks guys I would like to do a flower tute, but it will probably take a while to get completed. The flower I originally built back in version 8.5 so I'm a little slow in getting things done. :-) I am finding that through exercises like the flower I am modelling more for how the material will be applied to the geometry and then using poses to pull the model back into its correct shape. Which is good for a flower since the petals go through a bit of change. I have a character for the project I am working on which is basically a cylinder and a set of flat grids. The poses do all the work. Its a plant character and hopefully we will have some samples up in the next couple of months. I think I will need a bigger render farm before doing some shorts with the frog. I wanted to get some sound onto them before posting them to A:M Films. But I probably won't get a chance. I would like to post a version with less compression as well.

Three animations I have been playing with over the last couple of years in the gallery at http://members.optusnet.com.au/~s_bruce/index.html Its the first time I have thrown a web page up so hopefully it all works. They are all exercises I have used to learn AM for another project. Although I am tempted to do some shorts with the frog. The Aloevera flower spike is 2 models. The stem and a bud which is attached to it 80 times. Took a while to render but not as bad as the frog which averaged 2.5 hrs per frame. I did have the frog down to 30 minutes per frame using a multipass light rig but had some problems with artifacts on displacement maps so dropped back to one of Yves Poissant's excellent multi light rigs. I used the core AM procedural materials (should work on mac and pc) for the frogs eye and thought the eye model might be useful to the AM community. The eye rig allowed for the pupil to be manipulated into a frog or cats eye, square or circular shape. It does increase the render times a bit. Look in downloads on the above web site. And thanks to the AM community for the tutes, plugins, and discussion. I would have been stuck otherwise.