Beany-- the picasso bird

[rossk]

Here is a character is that I've been working on for a tiny short. Its a very simple character but I've been using it to try to learn to model and use the hair system.

Over the course of the next few days/weeks, I'm hoping to tweak the model some, add a basic skeleton and set of controls, and possibly do an animation test or two in this thread.

 

Suggestions in any area of the process at any time are greatly appreciated,

Thanks,

--Ross

[rossk]

So I created a basic rig for Beany (so called because of the bean shape his body forms). I still need to apply some small amounts of smartskin and whatnot, but in the meantime I threw together a quick walk cycle. During the walk cycle I noticed that the feathers on the bird are changing colours. I'm having the feathers take colour from the "skin" beneathe them, so I think when the skin stretches, the material applied to the skin is shifting which leads to the feather colour change. Is there any way to fix this?

 

Thanks,

--Ross

walk.mov

[Dhar]

I love those colors, and the feather texture is very smooth and soft looking.

 

How long does it take to render?

[rossk]

Thanks for the compliments.

It actually takes suprisingly (at least it seems like it to me) little time to render. I can render out an image where the bird itself is approx 600 pixels wide in about 20 seconds in final render and a little less than 3 seconds in a preview render. Of course there are very few times when the bird would ever be that large in an animation.

The hair's density is actually extremely low, which I think is what saves the vast majority of time. You can see some bald spots if you look a bit closer, but they are pretty hard to see unless you are rather close up.

[modernhorse]

Hi Ross - I'd like to see a brighter render as I'm having a tough time seeing any detail.

 

..doug

[rossk]

Here a brighter render is... Still having trouble with the hair changing colours, but I'll look into that more after classes.

 

--Ross

[rossk]

Here a little test is showing how the colours of the feathers are changing. I've tried a few things, but not sure what to do. The global axis thing is off and everything, so I don't really understand why the material is translating... Any ideas on how to fix it?

 

Thanks,

--Ross

hairTest.mov

[rossk]

I've been working on how to figure out this hair problem.... and still haven't figured it out, but I think I know at least whats happening now. It seems that the underlying material that is on the bird's skin is translating/rotation/whatever with the bird and the hair is translating and rotating with the bird... but the hairs are basing their colors on the material that was originally over the area they now reside in...

 

I'm sure that didn't make sense, so here an example is. I applied a checkerboard material to a square patch and then applied a hair material. When I translate the patch to the left the material shifts and the hair shifts, but the hair's colour changes based on the old original position of the material rather than the new position.

 

Any ideas?

Thanks,

--Ross

hairtesttest4.mov

[rossk]

I've decided to give up on using the underlying materials for the bird's feather color... it seems like that should work ok, but apparently not. So I've created a work-around which in my opinion doesn't look as good, but at least it works.

 

On the other hand, I've put together a scene for Beany... I was hoping to get a submission in to the mini-movie contest... and there is still hope, but I've run into a number of problems. First off, the willow tree in my scene seems that certain pieces of its hair randomly spring back to their old original positions after I refresh the view... Secondly, I'm getting "realtime rendering error"s like crazy at times.... it seems like this may somehow be attached to the willow tree problem since it occurs right after I attempt grooming the hair back into place. Luckily this is fixed by just reloading the project. Thirdly, some tree's "leaves" (actually hair) display when I have the trees marked as invisible. Lastly, the program crashes every single time I try adding Beany to the scene.

 

Sorry for possibly sounding a bit irrate... I feel like I'm backed into a corner with this project and don't have a way to continue... Luckily I'm obsessive about saving... so I have 12 different versions saved along with 3 on external backup.

 

Well, here a little taste of the scene is... I have a lot of free time over the next 3 days to work on it... so if anyone has any ideas or advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

--Ross

 

edit: this is a bit older render of the scene before the willow tree problems.

[Dhar]

Wow Ross! That's an awesome looking set. I love the variety of bushes & trees you put in there, And the different colors of the ground. You're a natural at this. Great job.

[rossk]

Thanks for the comments Dhar!

 

I have some good news also... Beany has now entered the scene sucessfully. A lot of animating to do now over the next couple of days.

[robcat2075]

Would a decal serve to color the feathers? A decal wouldn't translate.

[Zaryin]

Love the landscape! I wish I could put out a landscape half as good.

[rossk]

Would a decal serve to color the feathers? A decal wouldn't translate.

 

Excellent, yeah, I thought so but wasn't quite sure. I'm not great at decaling though (I'll definately work on it soon) but it should be easy enough to add the tail-feathers-stripe back on.

 

Thanks,

--Ross

 

edit: I've tried doing this.. and for some reason the decal isn't affecting the hair's color. I'm doing type-->other, property driven-->diffuse color... not sure whats wrong. For some reason a ton of different diffuse colors (and length, density, etc) show up on the dropdown menu...

I've tried choosing each of the diffuse colors, but none of them are the diffuse color of the hair on the tail.

[Zaryin]

I think the Color Decal has to be applied before you put the hair on the model. I might be wrong about that though.

[rossk]

I'll keep that in mind. If I have enough time to spare before I start rendering my short I'll definately try that out.

Thanks for the help.

 

Right now it looks like I will be able to show a movie for the minimovie contest... its going to have to be 30 seconds exactly... and only contain the first part of the story... because with limited time to animate and render (its going to be around 40 hours rendering for 30 seconds... I'm going to work on lowering that a bit hopefully...) its going to be rather hectic around here... plus I have to remember that I'm in college and should study some too

 

--Ross

[Paul Forwood]

Hi, Ross.

 

Nice landscape you've got going on here!

 

Regarding your bad hair day:

 

1) Apply your colour decals to your model

 

2) Add another image to your decal by right clicking on 'Images' and going via 'Add Image' to see a list of images that you have loaded into A:M. Use the same image that you used for the colour map.

 

3) Expand that images properties by clicking the little triangle. Change the 'type' of map to 'other'. This will generate a new property called 'Properties Driven' just below the 'type' property.

 

4) Right click on 'Properties Driven' and select 'Add property'.

 

5) Now you can expand 'Properties Driven' and select 'Diffuse Color' from the drop-down menu. If you haven't applied hair to your model you will not see any options in the drop-down menu so be sure to apply you hair first.

 

If you have particles/hair turned on then you should see the results instantly.

 

Good luck with the contest and your studies!

 

------------------------------------------------------

Oh, one more thing to remember! If you have set up a diffuse colour for your hair in the hair material's surface properties, (the material itself), you should set it back to 'not set' or it will over-ride your image driven diffuse colours. You can of course still use the other surface properties in the material.

[rossk]

Thanks Paul for the help. So I can't have the diffuse color decal just override the areas in which it is visible (like areas in which the alpha channel tell it to be completely opaque)? All I want to add is a black stripe on the tail, but I'd have to decal the entire tail with the purple and the black stripe?

 

Thanks again,

--Ross

[rossk]

Here is a shot of Beany is in his first movie, which will be submitted to the mini-movie contest. Unfourtunately, due to time constraints, I will be unable to render the movie out in Final quality for the contest, but I'll be sure to do that and make several other touchups (like the stripe on the tail) later. More information on the short will be given on the MiniMovie contest page when I submit my movie.

[Paul Forwood]

If you just want to have a purple tail with a black stripe you don't need to decal it. Just make two selection groups for the tail geometry, one for the whole tail and one for the black stripe. Set the diffuse colour for the tail group to purple and the stripe group to black. Drag the stripe group below the tail group in the PWS so that it over-rides the purple group. Of course you will need splines to define the borders of the colours.

 

You can remove decals from any patches by first selecting the patches, right click, select 'Remove Decals' from the pop-up menu, select the name of the decal and then click on 'Remove'.

[rossk]

Haha... geeze... that didn't even occur to me...

Yeah, that would work really well for this... Once this rendering is done, I think I might change Beany really quick and rerender it...

 

Thanks,

--Ross