Swapping Models

[Wizaerd]

I used to use A:M way back when, I think it was around 98 or so. In fact, in Dallas, I started a user group that met at my house from time to time. (Any of you guys still around? Larry? Ken? Jerry?) Since then, I've gotten out of experimenting and mucking around with 3D, but have lately been re-interested in it. Currently I'm waiting for my new A:M 2006 to arrive, and while waiting, I've been looking through the tutorials, reading the forums like crazy, all the while my anticipation building and building.

 

I was curious about something, and I hope this doesn't come across as too stupid a question. But say I have a model, I've rigged it, created some actions/poses, and a choreography and have filmed a scene. For whatever reason, I feel that a different model I have would fit that role better than the one I originally selected. Is this a big deal to do in A:M? Is it possible, with little frustration, to swap actors in and out of roles in animations?

[Stuart Rogers]

If the replacement model has the same rig as the original, and is of similar proportions, then it's a piece of cake - each instance of the model in the choreography has a pointer to the model definition, and changing the pointer to point to the replacement model is no more effort than choosing the replacement from a pop-up menu.

 

If the replacement model has the same rig but different proportions, some tweaking of keyframes might be necessary, but it'll typically be fine-tuning rather than wholesale changes.

 

It appears to me that the keyframe channels created in the choreography refer only to the names of the corresponding items in the model definition and not anyunderlying mechanism. So, if both the original model and its replacement hava a pose named "extend tentacle", the pose will still work even if the models differ vastly in how the pose works. And if the replacement model doesn't have a pose with that name, the channel created using the old model will simply be ignored for the replacement.

[Wizaerd]

Thanx Stuart...