Hunter-Gatherer

[Paul Forwood]

Lots to fix yet but you can have a peek anyway.

 

 

[rusty]

Very nice! Nice walk cycle too. If it were me I'd add more arm muscles and more brow ridge (a lot more) *but* that's just me... he has a cool look just the way he is.

 

Rusty

[youngman]

This looks great Paul,the walk cycle is perfect for this character.One thing that he possibly needs is a 12 o'clock shadow ,or has that pesky alien already shaved him after his examination.

 

Jay

[Fuchur]

Very cool... the only thing I see is, that he is rising his toes a bit to much for my taste.

 

*Fuchur*

[Paul Forwood]

If it were me I'd add more arm muscles and more brow ridge

Yep. I'll be pushing it in all directions before I'm finished. This will form the starting point for several different members of the tribe. Thanks, Rusty.

 

One thing that he possibly needs is a 12 o'clock shadow

Thanks, Jay. I haven't done any texturing on him yet but he will most definitely be getting his designer stubble.

 

Very cool... the only thing I see is, that he is rising his toes a bit to much for my taste.

Yes, you are right. It looks exagerated here because of the domed surface that he is walking on but I will definitely fix that. Thanks, Fuchur.

-----------

Edit:

Fixed the toes but haven't fitted them to this domed plinth. Cheers.

[Paul Forwood]

 

 

 

 

This is a bit worrying! It could have dire consequences for the survival of the species.

 

I opened the choreography and there are now two spears showng up. One constrained and the other not. There should only be the one that comes in with the action. It is an action object.

I guess I can just delete the spear from the action and re-constrain it in the choreography but surely action objects should not act like this. Should they?

It must be something that I did wrong.

 

I'm also having trouble getting a dynamic constraint to work. (The leather tie on the end of the spear). The dynamic constraint is set in a pose and the pose is set to ON in the spear's object properties. In the choreography the chain of bones remains stiff. I don't know what I have overlooked. Any ideas?

[KenH]

They're working ok on newly made models in the release version of v14. Is the dynamic constraints enforcement definitely set to on?

[Paul Forwood]

Thanks, Ken.

Dynamics are definitely turned on!

This model was started in A:M 14 beta 9 and is now being further developed in A:M 14.0.

 

Also I noticed that when I tried switching to different types of constraint A:M didn't just overwrite the keys but it produced new keys at some very high frame number. Is there a reason for this or is it a bug?

 

 

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

I have found two instances of the spear in an action objects folder, which is buried deep within the choreography, but can't delete them so I have just made one inactive for the moment. I have also reset those dynamics keys, shown above, so that they are on at frame 0 but still no dynamics showing up in any window.

 

 

Notice, in the last screen grab, that the highlighted "Shortcut to Spear" has a "3" after it? Looks like there are actually three spears hiding in there. I think they might be from early failed attempts to constrain the spear to the hand but I'm not having much luck finding them.

[Paul Forwood]

One action cycled on a path:

I'm working on the rig and the weighting at the moment and created a hurdle action to test the deformations as I apply the weights. I thought that I would try cycling the action along a path and this is what it looks like. A bit silly really. Much too repetitive and jerky to use but a fun experiment. The action was meant for a flat surface and wasn't intended to be cycled like this but to tag on to a walk cycle instead. As you can see I still have some way to go on the rigging and weighting not to mention animating.

 

 

 

[NancyGormezano]

looking good Paul - I like the cycle experiment - What are your plans for this character ?

[ruscular]

Well, that one way to skip rocks!

 

love the effect, and its impressive looking.

[Kamikaze]

A chubby cave man........I do like Ur model and animation.....inspiring

[Zaryin]

Haha, looking good!

 

Nancy: I have a feeling his earlier alien character will be getting involved with this guy .

[Paul Forwood]

looking good Paul - I like the cycle experiment - What are your plans for this character ?

Thanks, Nancy. I can't answer your question at the moment but you will find out at the end of this WIP.

 

love the effect, and its impressive looking

Thanks, Ruscular.

 

inspiring

Not a complete waste of time then. Thanks, Mike!

 

Nancy: I have a feeling his earlier alien character will be getting involved with this guy .

Have you been reading my script, Jeff?

[arkaos]

Great render, Paul. You've done a very good job with the heavyset, flabbiness look of the character.

 

I realize this is just a test of a cycled motion, but it seems the legs are always moving at a constant velocity. It would be more

believable if the legs/feet sped up on the downward/landing motions.

 

Are we going to see the hair move, later?

 

Great job, Paul. Love the character!

[Paul Forwood]

Thanks, Arkaos.

It would be more believable if the legs/feet sped up on the downward/landing motions.

Of course but that was just an experiment to see how bad it would look using just one cycled action on a path. The action wasn't made for rock hopping and the follow through is wrong for this purpose.

 

Are we going to see the hair move, later?

You will see dynamic hair later but not for a while yet. For the moment he is just wearing his proxy shell hair so that I know who he is.

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

 

Here is an example of the dreadful results that I am getting with the rigging at the moment.

 

I keep moving things around and changing the weighting to try to find the sweet spots but I don't think I can avoid adding more splines now. I have been trying to keep this guy as low as possible, and at 1833 patches he is not too bad, but I think it is time to change the splines on his chest and buttocks. Also need to move his ankles and wrists. His shoulders are a constant battle at the moment.

 

What I don't understand is how I can have perfectly balanced and aligned CPs on opposite sides of the model and yet they react so differently. I'm refering to his exploding backside. Maybe I'll take one more look at those bias handles.

[Paul Forwood]

I managed to just about sort out the problemo de la posterior without adding any geometry. I just added another bone to look after the three troublesome CPs and weighted them. Also started weighting the back.

 

 

[arkaos]

I managed to just about sort out the problemo de la posterior without adding any geometry. I just added another bone to look after the three troublesome CPs and weighted them. Also started weighting the back.

 

Looks like I'm going to have to do something similar to fix my character's butt, too.

 

Great animation, Paul. Do you have a short all planned out for this dapper fellow?

[mtpeak2]

Paul, check the options menu under actions, make sure the dynamic options is on to see it realtime. Also, check the constraint to see if "simulate on the fly" is on for realtime. Is the dynamics not rendering in final?

[Paul Forwood]

Looks like I'm going to have to do something similar to fix my character's butt, too.

Well, I haven't fixed it perfectly yet.

 

There are three central CPs that are a real "pain in the butt" when he goes into an extreme bend. I can probably get away with using him without fixing them pefectly but I don't like to do that if possible. I'll come back to them later but I need to do something about those shoulders when the arms are raised. I think Rusty's shoulder thread has arrived just in time.

 

I noticed a dynamic constraint problem. If I turn on "Object Collisions" the dynamics don't work in an action so I turned them off. Now his lock of hair just whips straight through his head.

 

Do you have a short all planned out for this dapper fellow?

I do in part. I have partially storyboarded it and the rest is in my head. It will be very short, probably no more than a minute ot two but I have started working out the story for episode 2. We'll see how this one goes first though.

[arkaos]

I noticed a dynamic constraint problem. If I turn on "Object Collisions" the dynamics don't work in an action so I turned them off. Now his lock of hair just whips straight through his head.

 

I had a dynamic constraint problem with my current character, too. I tried them out for my character's topknot. No matter what I did, the constraint didn't do anything,

so I opted to manually key the bones instead. I wonder if this is a v14.0 bug? I rigged a character in v11.1 and 12 that had dynamic constraints for his antennae, and they worked flawlessly in those versions.

[Paul Forwood]

I just reported this to A:M Reports and it's status immediately came up as "Aknowledged"! You can't get any faster than immediately!

 

I will be using A:M hair on these characters eventually. The shell hair currently implemented only has dynamics on the strand at the front. The rest is not rigged at all at the moment. Once I have his body working alright I can finish rigging his face and then do some texture maps. I probably won't get around to the hair until then.

[heyvern]

You would think doing all those calisthenics that these cave men would have survived. Maybe it was those "multiplying spears" that killed them off.

 

Imagine having to constantly look where you sit to make sure a "magical spear" doesn't suddenly appear. Or if a spear suddenly appeared impaled through your chest or neck without any warning whatsoever.

 

This could be the origins for the study of quantum physics.

 

p.s. You know there is a 20% chance we are all actually a part of a virtual computer simulation. I am going to look through my house tonight for multiplying spears just in case. I thought I saw one... but it turned out to be a broom handle.

 

-vern