Streets of Vaage...

[Kelley]

Another project that got out of hand. Taking a break from animating a talking fish, I built this character. I've always itched to make this style of cartoon head/mouth. Then I decorated him. ['should have seen the early signs of "project inflation" right there] Then dug out some old buildings and made a street...and then...

[rusty]

That's an insane character model! His (or her) stance shouts personality. Do you have the varmint rigged yet? Nice sets! Love the lighting. This guy will have to have a unique way of moving. I can foresee actions with names like ThrowRightBootKnif,ThrowLeftBookKnif, DeflectKnifWithShield, etc. Is this the 'good' guy or 'bad' guy?

 

Rusty

[Eric2575]

Kelley, when are we going to see a short or long movie from all the terriffic sets you keep showing us?

[Kelley]

Rusty: He's [and it is 'he'] definitely the bad guy. I think of him as an assassin. I'm in the process of rigging at the moment. 'Love the possible action moves. 'Will have to think seriously about some of those moves.

 

Eric: Thanks for the kind words. I'd love to be able to say when some viewable movie will see light of day. As I've mentioned before, I'm a modeler, not an animator. With the urgings of Martin, I'm tackling more animating. And I'm doing better. But once the character is built and rigged [with my own somewhat primitive boning system] and the sets are made, each additional task is a leap into the unknown. While I struggle with those tasks, I get either bored, or frustrated, and want to take a break. I get a new idea. It seems simple...and I'm off and running in another direction. I have a heap of half-finished movie projects. What I'd really like is to partner-up with somebody for one or two short [like six minute] animations.

[Kelley]

Here's the assassin in place.

[Zaryin]

Love it! it reminds of something from Dark Crystal or something like it.

[Kelley]

Looking at the last rendering I posted, you'll note a red door/gate with iron nails at the end of the street. ['gotta look close for the nails.] Todays posting is somewhere behind that gate.

[trajcedrv]

This is great character. And the city street is soo full of atmosphere! Great work, keep us posted!

[Kelley]

This is great character. And the city street is soo full of atmosphere! Great work, keep us posted!

 

 

Thanks. I'm working on a subterranean room now as I try to work out a smooth convincing run for Azzaz. Which is defionitely not easy.

[Kelley]

Here's the next [?] room which is somewhere much, much below the room with the columns.

[Kelley]

A quick dash across the street. [A very rough first take on it].

 

And here's a re-make with a four cycle run instead of three.

FIRST_DASH.zip

FIRST_DASH_02.zip

[Kelley]

A Guardsman...

[Rodney]

I've been a bit behind the power curve and am just now getting caught up.

 

Outstanding work!

[trajcedrv]

This keeps getting better and better! Nothing else to say, keep up the good work!

[Kelley]

This keeps getting better and better! Nothing else to say, keep up the good work!

 

Thanks, Riste. It keep getting more and more fun to work on. I started it only as a background for the character [Azzaz] to walk around in. There is no story, no goal. We'll see where it leads us.

 

Today's work: Officer of the Guard.

[Kelley]

I want to make a small group of guardsmen [six or eight] walkj down this section of street. [The right-hand pic in the first posting.] As you can see from the attached .jpeg, the street is far from flat. [my bad...had I but thought ahead]. But somewhere, in one of the manuals, I recall seeing a reference to attaching an object [A] to a spline that's part of another object , so A travels across the surface of B. Can anyone advise me on this?

[3DArtZ]

there are a couple different things you could do here...

but I would just lay down a spline that conformed to the surface of the

street and then just use constraint to path in the cho.

Then use the translate only(I think is the option) so that

only the position of the model moves along the spline, and

not the orientation.

 

the other thing you could do is use the surface constraint.

But I think it would be easier to just make the path conform to the

street shape.

 

Mike Fitz

www.3dartz.com

[ypoissant]

In Chor view, the usual "add CPs" button will add a path to the chor. Add the path from top view and then lower (or raise) the CPs so they conform to the surface (I usually find it is easier and faster to do that selecting each CP and then opening the properties pannel, using the mouse to increase or decrease the Y value).

 

Then, for each of the character, add a "Constraint to path". Your character will translate to the path. To change the place on the path where you want your character to be positioned, you must modify the character's constraint to path "Ease" property. You can do that at any frame in the chor. This way, you can place several character on the same path, one behind anothers. If your character does not have a walk cycle with a stride length, you, actually, will have to translate the character on the path with the Ease property. If your character does have a walk action with a stride length, then you can still control where the character is positioned on the path with the "Ease" property, But the actual chor stride length (and step speed) is dependent on both the path length and the choreography length. You will have to adjust the path length and the "Ease" property to fit the walk cycle.

[Kelley]

Mike: As I've mulled over the possibilities, [short of being able to designate a spline as a path] I think you're right. Thanks.

[zandoriastudios]

You CAN select one of the splines of the street model as your path...

[Kelley]

You CAN select one of the splines of the street model as your path...

 

C'mon Will! You can't stop there....

[zandoriastudios]

Look at this link:

http://www.mossor.org/Desktop/Tutorials/Sp...rite/index.html

there is an example project, which works.

 

unfortunately, I just tested in V14 and this seems to be broken--you cannot select the path with the picker or by drop-down list....

[Paul Forwood]

I believe that you can select a spline in model mode, give it a group name and then use it as a path in a choreography.

Failing that you can select the spline that you want to use as a path, hide everything else, go to your choreography and trace the spline with a new path. Then you can constrain your object to that path.

 

Your work is very inspiring, Kelley. Keep it up.

[zandoriastudios]

Paul, you SHOULD be able to do that...but right now A:M is only recognizing a path drawn directly in the choreography. Even if you make a single spline model and bring that into the choreography, A:M isn't letting you pick it as a path

[KenH]

From a previous thread:

 

Shift select the ring or spline in the model to use it as a path

[Kelley]

Failing that you can select the spline that you want to use as a path, hide everything else, go to your choreography and trace the spline with a new path. Then you can constrain your object to that path.

 

Paul: Last night, that's what I did. I have two Guardsmen on two parallel paths and they seem to be working fine. Tonight I'll get a few more on, and maybe we'll see a test sequence by Friday.

 

Ken: Your solution seems to conflict with Will's. If I Shift>Select a spline [in the modeling window I presume] how to I get it into the Chor. as a path?

 

Thank you all for the assists.

[jpappas]

Hi,

 

When you're in the CHOR and create a Path Constraint and get the eye-dropper, then you shift-select and this will allow you to select existing splines from models in the CHOR as the path.

 

-Jim

[zandoriastudios]

Ah! thanks for that tip!

[zandoriastudios]

PATH TUTORIAL

 

Here is a little tutorial for anyone following the discussion

 

 

Here is a little mountain terrain that we want Thom to walk over.

 

 

We select Thom. Right-click>New Constraint > Path. The eyedropper will have a circle with a slash through it, indicating that the mountain is not an option...

 

 

Hold down SHIFT, and the indicator changes, allowing us to click on a spline that is part of the terrain.

 

 

Notice that Thom has jumped to the end-point of the spline. I could use the EASE property of the constraint to set his starting and ending points for this animation, but I will just go with this for now.

 

 

Drag-and-drop your walking action on Thom.

 

 

Thom will now walk over the mountain over the LENGTH of the choreography. Set the length long enough for the time it should take him, or Use Ease to set his starting and stopping point (recommended).

 

Here is a quicktime file showing the animation. Notice that there needs some secondary animation when the path is steep! The walk action will always be perpendicular to the path, so if the path is steep your character will look like he's walking up a wall...

path_example.mov

[Kelley]

Outstanding! Thanks Will.

 

Quick footnote: Tried it last night. Worked like a charm. Spline#526 instantly became a Path.

[Kelley]

Got the Guardsmen walking down the street, Azzaz crosses behind them in a quick dash. [thanks again for the help.]

 

Now, backing up 10 nseconds, or so, I bring Azzaz into the story [not that there really is one. I'm just winging it here with bits and pieces.] He moves from the far right darkness to far left foreground leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Next scene: [shot from street level] he appears at the edge of the roof, looks down, then jumps from ledge to ledge to street. Then the guard detail passes.

[ypoissant]

What you are doing is very beautifull. Lots of character and mood plus nice compositions.

[Kelley]

So...it's down off the roofs, cross the street behind a squad of troops, up a side street, and now...up a dark, grungey alleyway.

[John Bigboote]

Kelley: I can't wait to see what all this is going to turn out to be...looks promising!

 

Will: I just laughed my butt off at Thom walking up that hill...funniest 'toon I've seen in a while! Thanks for all that info. I couldn't help but to think when HA:MR comes out how that little movie could be part of a game...with the user controlling Thom along various paths thru a scenic terrain...(and for all the 'true' gamers) carrying a HUGE gun...

[Kelley]

Kelley: I can't wait to see what all this is going to turn out to be...looks promising!

 

Thanks John. To tell the truth, I'm curious as to where it's going myself.