Uzzbay Posted February 15, 2006 Posted February 15, 2006 Soft introduction...my name is Busby .... I am new to 3D and (of course) Animation:Master. I work with Colin Freeman and hence picked up the A:M bug from him. I have been working with this software for almost 2 months. My wife has since put a divorce lawyer on speed dial, but I am confident that I can win a balance between the family thing and the A:M coolness. I will make a more formal introduction elsewhere on this forum later..but.... I wanted to ask a question... This is Phifer............ [attachmentid=14466] I basically designed her to give me the most challenges to overcome and learn as much as I can with one character. I have run into a bit of a "snag"...literally. I am trying to use a Dynamic Constraint on her bangs and ponytail. I am satisfied with the bangs at this point, but the ponytail is not adequate. The collision detection is great at sensing impacts. The problem I am having (and will face more of once I actually start rigging her cape and skirt) is when the mess is dragged across another mess. It appears like the bones "see-saw" over the impacted splines/control points. This is evident when she tilts her head forward. Is there something I am missing here or is there a better way to approach this? Here are links to files.... http://www.uzzbay.com/phifer/ponytail_high.mov http://www.uzzbay.com/phifer/Dynamic_ponytail.mov http://www.uzzbay.com/phifer/ponytail_settings.jpg Any thoughts or options in this would be greatly appreciated. P.S. Yes, I have only been modeling for 2 months, but I could not have gotten anywhere near this far along had it not been for the huge amount of help, posts, videos, tutorials, and individual websites that have been linked to from this forum. So....Thank You very much. I hope to be able to contribute my part as I learn more. Busby Quote
luckbat Posted February 15, 2006 Posted February 15, 2006 One solution that might work would be to put a flat "shield" of patches over the back of the cape, then set those patches' transparency to be 100%. They wouldn't render, but the collision detection would still see them. Quote
Paul Forwood Posted February 15, 2006 Posted February 15, 2006 Welcome, Busby! Good work, especially for someone so new to 3D! I haven't got a solution to your problem, haven't played with dynamic chains recently, but as you're working with one of the 'masters' you are in a prime position to pick his brains. ;-) Quote
MMZ_TimeLord Posted February 15, 2006 Posted February 15, 2006 Welcome to the forums! The dynamic chain in her ponytail is actually reacting properly as far as how a dynamic chain would react. Think of a rope, if you hit the bottom of the rope, the rope will make a wave all the way up it's length. The main thing I can see is you have an extremely small collision radius. With that in mind, you may have to increase the density of your mesh in her ponytail and make the bones in the chain smaller. I'm experimenting with dynamic constraints myself. I'll see if I can recreate a simple ponytail mesh and cape surface and try what you are doing with your settings. I'll let you know the results. Quote
MMZ_TimeLord Posted February 15, 2006 Posted February 15, 2006 Okay, I did a quick test. I believe that the scale of your character vs the scale of my ponytail is different. That will explain the differences in collision radius. Take a look at the project and see if this is what you were looking for... PonyTailTest.zip Quote
Uzzbay Posted February 15, 2006 Author Posted February 15, 2006 Okay, I did a quick test. I believe that the scale of your character vs the scale of my ponytail is different. That will explain the differences in collision radius. Take a look at the project and see if this is what you were looking for... Not sure if me running 12.0s is a problem or not, but i get "invalid prj" error and it won't open. The main thing I can see is you have an extremely small collision radius. Yes, in my experiments, the larger I made the radius', the ponytail would float away from the cape when at rest. Even after making them larger, they would still do the "see-saw" effect, but just further away I will check into the "mesh shield" idea tonight and see if I can get that to work. Would really like to be able to open your sample project if we can figure out the compat issues ...but as you're working with one of the 'masters'... .... shhhhhhh, you'll give him a big head! Thanks for the quick responses.. Quote
cfree68f Posted February 15, 2006 Posted February 15, 2006 Don't be fooled by this poser guys.. He's paid talent to do all this work. Seriously though.. if you guys saw what he knew 2 months ago versus what he's doing now.. You're jaws would be on the floor. I just keep telling him.. I'm always right. ALWAYS! C Quote
gschumsky Posted February 15, 2006 Posted February 15, 2006 Nice model Busby, though she's a bit anorexic.... Unless you dig that kind of look. And very impressive for 2 months. Greg Quote
MMZ_TimeLord Posted February 15, 2006 Posted February 15, 2006 Yeah, my bad that's a V13 Alpha 8 project. Quote
Uzzbay Posted February 16, 2006 Author Posted February 16, 2006 Nice model Busby, though she's a bit anorexic.... Unless you dig that kind of look. Yeah...been gettin that concensus...gonna work on fat'n her up a bit. Quote
ddustin Posted February 16, 2006 Posted February 16, 2006 Nice model Busby, though she's a bit anorexic.... Unless you dig that kind of look. Yeah...been gettin that concensus...gonna work on fat'n her up a bit. A navel would help, unless of course she's not human. Very nice job! David Quote
itsjustme Posted February 16, 2006 Posted February 16, 2006 I have been working with this software for almost 2 months. Two months?! I can't wait for what you're making in a year! I'll just echo the previous crits, but you are well on your way to some very good stuff. Congrats on your progress! Quote
Uzzbay Posted February 16, 2006 Author Posted February 16, 2006 Nice model Busby, though she's a bit anorexic.... I took her to McDonalds and fattened her up a bit.... [attachmentid=14503] A navel would help, unless of course she's not human. Was saving navel, eyebrow and eyeliner for texture ( haven't ventured into textures yet ) Quote
KenH Posted February 16, 2006 Posted February 16, 2006 It looks like you have some crease lines running down her stomach. Maybe you've done an "illegal" connection? Or maybe she would benefit from using the porcelain material. Quote
Uzzbay Posted February 16, 2006 Author Posted February 16, 2006 It looks like you have some crease lines running down her stomach. Maybe you've done an "illegal" connection? Or maybe she would benefit from using the porcelain material. Hrmmm, obviously a poor attempt on my part to illustrate "muscle tone"..... [attachmentid=14507] Quote
ddustin Posted February 16, 2006 Posted February 16, 2006 It looks like you have some crease lines running down her stomach. Maybe you've done an "illegal" connection? Or maybe she would benefit from using the porcelain material. Hrmmm, obviously a poor attempt on my part to illustrate "muscle tone"..... [attachmentid=14507] Dude, If that's fat, you must have pretty high standards. Excellent work! Perhaps Colin can talk you into coming to the next Atlanta Users Meeting (that always sounds illegal to me). David Quote
Dhar Posted February 16, 2006 Posted February 16, 2006 Atlanta Users Meeting... that gave me a chuckle, thanks David Quote
ddustin Posted February 16, 2006 Posted February 16, 2006 Atlanta Users Meeting... that gave me a chuckle, thanks David I should probably refer (not to be confused with reefer) to it as the Atlanta A:M Users Group, but it's not as humorous. Quote
ddustin Posted February 16, 2006 Posted February 16, 2006 Hi I'm Colin, and I'm an AM Junkie. <user group> "Hi Colin" <users group> "hey man" Quote
Uzzbay Posted March 13, 2006 Author Posted March 13, 2006 Ok, for the record...I am not a big fan or shoulder joints! If anyone knows an easier way, outside of "trial and error", to get this joint to work properly faster, I am all ears! Phifer is a caster/magician/priest so she will use her arms quite a bit to perform spells. These are the clips of her current shoulder rig. Not as nice as I would have hoped, but need to move on.... Shoulder Shoulder Wireframe I may come back and revisit them, but...... Next, CLOTH! Ok so my first test was not that bad actually....I had just her 'body' set up as the deflector... Cape Cloth Test 1 So I went back in and added her skirt and belt as deflectors as well. I also changed the stretch settings, the cape was stretching almost through the floor. After a couple of quick renders I realized that I needed more geometry around the belt area in her cape, as the belt was protruding through.... Cape Cloth Test 2 I guess I need a bit more geometry around the belt area because it still protrudes through a little bit. I also need to play with the 'stretch' settings because the cape is a little stiff looking now. Eventually I will add cloth to her skirt, but I need to figure out how to prevent her dynamic ponytail from penetrating the cape. It did not do this until after I added cloth to the cape... Quote
arkaos Posted March 13, 2006 Posted March 13, 2006 Hey Uzzbay. Nice model! I love the design, and may I say Phifer is lookin' hot! Great progress on the simcloth. Quote
Uzzbay Posted March 26, 2006 Author Posted March 26, 2006 Ok, I have tweaked my initial cloth test (which i didn't post). Bascially, she has 3 pieces of cloth on her: front skirt, rear skirt, and cape. Now here are some of the things i wanted: To have to render as few frames as possible to allow the cloth time to settle. Didn't want to have special actions to compensate for the cloth initially. Wanted 3 individual pieces. Didn't want it to look like she was wearing a skirt that is a foot thick. After tweaking my initial tests, I have came up with this: Tri-cloth test 2 It will take a few more tweaks but, I am getting closer to what I want. I am sure that once I run her through a full range of motions, I will start to see more places to tweak, but I am happy for the moment. Hey Uzzbay. Nice model! I love the design, and may I say Phifer is lookin' hot! Great progress on the simcloth. Thank you! Quote
John Bigboote Posted March 26, 2006 Posted March 26, 2006 Hey Busby, nice work! Just an idea on the 'cloth 'settling' time...you don't need to render those frames at all, just set your render to start at, 1:15 or so... I see you had her poneytail 'clothed' and you mentioned that it was penetrating the other cloth(cape) did you resolve that? That brings-up an interesting question...cloth on cloth collision detection. It MAY be that you will need to give the groups a cloth material AND a deflector material...??? Please keep us posted of your learnings. COOL CHARACTER! Quote
Uzzbay Posted March 26, 2006 Author Posted March 26, 2006 Just an idea on the 'cloth 'settling' time...you don't need to render those frames at all, just set your render to start at, 1:15 or so... Well the render i was talking about was the "give the cloth time to get into place before you start rig movement" stuff. I an lazy by nature, I can't wait for the cloth to settle down I see you had her poneytail 'clothed' and you mentioned that it was penetrating the other cloth(cape) did you resolve that? Actually the ponytail is dynamic, at least till I actually start venturing into hair/particles. But yes I solved the problem. I found this undocumented (as far as I can tell) keyboard shortcut that controls an unreachable (as far as I can tell) setting via a menu of any sort. <SHIFT>8 Aparently it turns off dynamic collisions??? That brings-up an interesting question...cloth on cloth collision detection. It MAY be that you will need to give the groups a cloth material AND a deflector material...??? I tried that. But I got a lot of errors. My brain tells me that if i put a deflector (apparently unrelated to specific cloth groups) on a cloth object, it will always be hitting itself. Haven't tried lately but, I think that is why I had CP's shooting off in all kinds of directions. In my tests, cloth objects sense each other because they are being simulated at the same time, whereas they do not take into account dynamic contraints that would act differently at a fast render speed. At this point I have ONE cloth material applied to ALL three cloth objects(each with different attach groups). The trick is getting the collision radius and the anchor groups to equate out to what you are looking for. So far I am running her at 0.5 collision. Less than that, it get hung up on her leg, and more than that makes her look like she if wearing a prom dress. I will post more test later...thanks for feedback! Quote
Uzzbay Posted April 6, 2006 Author Posted April 6, 2006 Ok, face rigging completed.... Phifer Face Test Comments/Critiques? Quote
trajcedrv Posted April 7, 2006 Posted April 7, 2006 Lovely model, face rigged OK... what can I say more... Quote
Paul Forwood Posted April 7, 2006 Posted April 7, 2006 Nice work, Uzzbay! Shift/8 toggles particles On/Off. There is also a liitle button that you can drag onto your tool bar which does the same thing. Quote
Uzzbay Posted April 8, 2006 Author Posted April 8, 2006 Shift/8 toggles particles On/Off. There is also a liitle button that you can drag onto your tool bar which does the same thing. Hrmmm, thanks, but not sure what particles had to do with "dynamic collisons" and not even affect "dynamic movement" at all. But <shrug>. ..." and knowing is half the battle. Go Joe!" Quote
Zaryin Posted April 8, 2006 Posted April 8, 2006 She's looking real good. I just love that girl . Quote
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