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Hash, Inc. - Animation:Master

Caroline

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Posts posted by Caroline

    Tutorials Decals

    in New Users

    Posted

    That's great news, Will - that tutorial is a classic that I have missed.

     

    Maybe a link at the end of the blog to your other CD tutorials to purchase? I started to understand how to decal from your brilliant decalling video.

    SDK Question about Constraints

    in (2008)

    Posted

    Steffen (yoda64) has fixed my problems with admirable speed and efficiency. Thank you, Steffen, you are truly the Grand Master.

     

    Watch this space for future release after testing, documentation, alpha, beta, gamma, delta, etc.....

     

    (Actually, don't watch this space, because it will be elsewhere on the forum, but you catch my drift.)

    SDK Question about Constraints

    in (2008)

    Posted

    Thank you for your kind words, David and Rodney.

     

    When I think of my daughters this is just the thing they find of interest in A:M.

    That is the kind of audience I'm looking for - those people who want to create, but are not quite ready to take in all of A:M's wonders. Maybe A:M could one day be sold because of content, as well as features.

    SDK Question about Constraints

    in (2008)

    Posted

    What sort of plugins are you thinking of making, Caroline? I'm just curious.

    Well, this one's a bit frivolous.

     

    Here's Gala (comes with A:M):

    post-9673-1214994770_thumb.jpg

     

    Here's Gala's choice of clothing (adapted quickly by me, but could be modelled and textured beautifully):

    post-9673-1214994783_thumb.jpg

    Clothes are rigged to match the figure's rigging - only the simple bones from the figure that are matched to the figure's cps are used.

     

    Choose the clothes, click the plugin, choose Gala from the list that comes up:

    post-9673-1214994807_thumb.jpg

     

    Gala wears new clothes:

    post-9673-1214994794_thumb.jpg

    Each bone in the clothing is constrained to the bones in the figure.

     

    I do realise that this is quite simplistic, and may not work for animation, but for single frame renders it would work.

     

    It comes about because I was doing a storyboard and needed a hooded figure looking up into a camera looking down. Well my drawing skills aren't up to much, and to get this, I remembered another program. It was much fun for a while posing and swapping clothes, but the program is not nearly as enjoyable to use as A:M. The only thing A:M is missing to be able to swap clothing, is this plugin and actual content.

     

    If I can do this, I can then expand it to make the clothes have pose sliders that match the figure's pose sliders, so you can make the figure bigger or smaller by pose slider, and the clothes will automatically match. I've done this bit with expressions not in code, and I'm hoping it won't be too difficult to code, but I haven't tried that yet.

     

    And then maybe I can code other things. Maybe.

     

    What do you think?

    SDK Question about Constraints

    in (2008)

    Posted

    This is everything I know about the SDK:

     

    You will need Visual C++ 6 or above, the studio version is not enough.

     

    Download the SDK from:

    ftp://ftp.hash.com/pub/Sdk

     

    If you have v15, then you should download AM130SDK.EXE. It will install into a separate folder under the Program Files\Hash folder, complete with all examples, which are under the folder Plugin.

     

    The Documents are in that ftp folder as well. They are probably complete to someone who knows what they are doing, and together with the examples and the SDK forum, most things are covered. Constraints aren't. At least not that I've found.

     

    I would recommend that you read the documents, the examples and every post in the SDK forum:

    http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showforum=11

     

    The SDK forum is now archived, so we can't talk about it in there.

     

    The last thing you need to know is how to create an empty plugin (if you have C++v6, then it is the same, but screenshots are different).

     

    I am very grateful to Mike and Steffan for these pages:

    http://www.tachyonburst.com/tutorials/am/sdk/empty/

    http://www.sgross.com/tutorial/index.html

     

    I will help if I can, Steffen (yoda64) is the master, though.

     

    One last comment - I am overawed by the complex simplicity. It truly is a work of art. :)

    SDK Question about Constraints

    in (2008)

    Posted

    I have been messing around in the SDK "for fun", with the idea of creating a plugin, and have got as far as the docs and examples can take me. Although the structure of the SDK is a joy to ponder on, it is very hard. :D

     

    I want to create an orient-like constraint in the Choreography. I have 2 problems.

     

    1. If the bone has not been moved in the Choreography Action, the constraint will not create. If the bone has been moved, then it is fine. I am not sure of the terminology - is this a 'channel' or 'driver' or 'property' area I should be looking at?

     

    2. When the constraint is created, I have to save the project, close it, and reopen it before it takes effect. What is the area I should look at so the constraint takes effect immediately?

     

    From all the docs and examples I have not been able to grasp the Property / Property Driver classes, and I think this is where my problems stem.

     

    This is my code for creating an orient-like constraint:

     

    							HTreeObject *boneCont = m_ChorAction->FindChildByName("Bones");
						if (boneCont == NULL) {
							boneCont = HAnimObjectShortcut::New("Bones", FALSE);
						}

						HTreeObject *boneName = boneCont->FindChildByName((char*)rbone->GetName());

						if (boneName == NULL) {
							boneName = HAnimObjectShortcut::New((char*)rbone->GetName(), FALSE);
						}

						HOrientLikeConstraint *orient = HOrientLikeConstraint::New();
						HHashObject *hoBoneName = (HHashObject*) boneName;
						hoBoneName->InsertChildAtTail(orient);

						HPointerProperty *ppTarget = orient->GetTarget1();
						ppTarget->SetValue(boneBody);
						Time time(0);
						ppTarget->StoreValue(time, boneBody,TRUE);

//Set up Transform Property - Doing this allows the Target dropdown to appear correctly.

						HTransformProperty *ppProperty = HTransformProperty::New();
						if (ppProperty == NULL) throw "ERROR: No Transform Property Available";

						HUserCategoryProperty *userCategory = rbone->CreateUserCategoryProperty();
						if (userCategory == NULL) throw "ERROR: No User Category Created";

						if (!userCategory->AddUserProperty(ppProperty, "Transform", TRUE))
									throw "ERROR: No User Property Added";
						orient->SetProperty(ppProperty);

     

    I have tried very hard, for many days, but can go no further, so if anyone can throw me a 'bone' (unconstrained joke there), I would be very grateful :)

    Badminton Court

    in Work In Progress / Sweatbox

    Posted

    I'm glad somebody asked (and answered) that, as it was something I'd been wondering.

     

    So from reading that, this is what I get in summary:

     

    That a cookie map pixel is there or not, according to the alpha (or keycolour). A transparency pixel is given an opacity based on the blackness of the mapped pixel.

     

    However, a cookie map has a Value percentage, so that if I had an orange map on a blue model, and a value of 75%, then it would be 75% orange and 25% blue. A transparency value just affects opacity.

     

    (Photoshop Elements is cheap, and Artweaver is free - I find the Gimp difficult)

    A:M Models, Projects etc.

    in New Users

    Posted

    Thanks for pointing those out, Rodney, it's great they are still there. And, yes, thank you to Martin for hosting all kinds of stuff.

     

    This is the link to the front page of the Extra CD there: http://www.hash.com/amtutes/X_Vol001/.

     

    There's a whole bunch of other tutorials in http://www.hash.com/amtutes/ that I thought were lost too.

     

    I have been compiling all my A:M Links, just in case I get vapourized, and have been editing out the ones that were gone. I shall have to put some of these back in.

     

    There are a heap of wonderful tutorials around the net, created by many selfless people. If anyone's up for a bit of light reading, here are some links: http://hashlinks.wordpress.com/

    Exercise 1: You're the Director

    in TaoA:M and the A:M Technical Reference

    Posted

    1. Click the render to file button as normal

     

    2. If you have the basic settings (ie with pictures), tick the Advanced box.

     

    3. Change Format to Quicktime Movie

     

    4. Open the Format property triangle and click Set

     

    5. In the Compression type dropdown find Sorenson Video 3. Some people on Vista have said they don't have that option, so try Mpeg-4 Video or H.264. (I believe only Quicktime 7 plays H.264, and there are a few people here that still use QT 6.)

     

    6. Change the quality to Medium

    Newbies Forum

    in New Users

    Posted

    What stock models do you mean? The 'stock' models that came with A:M over the last couple of years are in that data.zip a couple of posts back, like KeeKat and Shaggy etc.

     

    You can get some free (and paid for) models from Eggington (although that site seems to be down at the moment).

     

    You can also get a HUGE number of models on the extra DVD that came with A:M 2006 at http://www.hash.com/store/.

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