Deformers, where are they?

[El-manchego]

Hello All.

 

Really newbie question here. I've modeled a fish and am supposed to animate it useing deformers. I've done a serach on the TechRef. PDF and can't find anything that'll show me how to use deformers. I've searched this site and have only found people talking about them but not how to use 'em. Any toots out there?

If you need more info let me know.

 

Thanks.

 

SMC

[robcat2075]

Welcome to A:M!

 

"deformers' isn't really a term in A:M

 

"Bones" do the deforming in A:M.

 

I bet you haven't done the tuts in "the Art of A:M" yet. Those will answer many questions a new user will have.

 

Ex 9 (Flower Power) shows how to add bones to a model.

[John Bigboote]

Are you referring to 'distortion mode'? You could make a fish wriggle using DM and an action or pose...

It is the little wireframe box up top betwixt modelling mode and bones mode in V15...

[Rodney]

Exercise 6: Custom Car in the manual (TaoA:M) has an introduction to Distortion Cages. Thats a good introduction to the process of deformation in Modeling. I suggest reviewing that first and then applying what you learn to animated distortion cages.

 

From there you can do much of the same modification in an Action which will provide the Animated Distortion Cages you are looking for.

 

Interestingly enough Holmes Bryant has created two tutorials on this very subject. Don't forget to look in the Tutorials forum or run a search in the forum for key words.

 

Thanks for the tutorials Holmes!

 

Modeling with Distortion Cages

 

Animated Distortion Cages

[Fuchur]

Use Bones with CP-Weights or SmartSkins...

A distortion-box is nice, but not that controlable like a bone and it is just more natural to use the bones.

I am not totally sure what "deformers" really mean. I could imagine several things: Poses, Bones, Smartskins and the Distortion box.

 

Have a look into these terms in the manual to see what you really mean.

I would be thankful if you could tell us afterwards, so we can better understand new users

 

*Fuchur*

[robcat2075]

I've modeled a fish and am supposed to animate it useing deformers.

 

 

Who said that? Who said to use "deformers"?

[El-manchego]

I've modeled a fish and am supposed to animate it useing deformers.

 

 

Who said that? Who said to use "deformers"?

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I did start with looking at the Bones tutorial. I understand Bones from my days on Maya 4. I tried to "bone" the fish (ok, no Bevis and Butt Head jokes) but it's almost like the bone isn't sticking to the fish. I followed the "Flower tutorial to the T but the bones move independant of the fish.

 

Also, thx for the suggestion on Distortion Mode. I'll check it out too.

 

the person who told me to use "Deformers" was an instructor for a class I'm taking. A:M is just one of the 3 softwares he supports for the class so maybe he confussed a common term used in another software with something similar in A:M?

 

I'll try it again with Bones and distortion...

 

Any feed back for the bones problem is appreciated.

 

SMC

[HomeSlice]

From the description of your problem, it sounds like you have not assigned control points to your bones.

Once you have placed your bones, select a bone and, with the bone flashing, drag with the mouse around some control points. The control points should now flash the same color as the bone. You can also [shift]-click control points to asign them to the selected bone. Once you get the hang of CP assignments, you may want to check out these tutorials for basic smartskin and control point weighting.

 

Basic Smartskin Tutorial

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29742

 

Control Point Weighting Tutorial

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29734

 

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

Here are some other tuts you may find useful.

 

Basic Constraints

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29743

 

Modeling with Distortion Boxes (beginning)

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29735

 

Animated Distortion Boxes (Intermediate)

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=29730

 

How to rig a piston

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=30019

[robcat2075]

I understand Bones from my days on Maya 4. I tried to "bone" the fish (ok, no Bevis and Butt Head jokes) but it's almost like the bone isn't sticking to the fish. I followed the "Flower tutorial to the T but the bones move independant of the fish.

 

If the CPs aren't sticking to the bones you missed something.

 

You dont' mention that you tested it in an "action" (putting it in a choreography will work too). FlowerPower mentions this at the bottom of the page "Assigning control point to bones" and just before it discusses Smartskin.

 

The CPs won't stick to the bones in the modeling window, because if they did it would be impossible to change the position of a bone in relation to the mesh without haveing to reassign them to some other bone first.

[El-manchego]

I understand Bones from my days on Maya 4. I tried to "bone" the fish (ok, no Bevis and Butt Head jokes) but it's almost like the bone isn't sticking to the fish. I followed the "Flower tutorial to the T but the bones move independant of the fish.

 

If the CPs aren't sticking to the bones you missed something.

 

You dont' mention that you tested it in an "action" (putting it in a choreography will work too). FlowerPower mentions this at the bottom of the page "Assigning control point to bones" and just before it discusses Smartskin.

 

The CPs won't stick to the bones in the modeling window, because if they did it would be impossible to change the position of a bone in relation to the mesh without haveing to reassign them to some other bone first.

 

Guys, I believe I have the Bones issue ironed out and the fish animating (swimming). When viewed in different angles I can see where I could improve but it would require a lot more work then what the project asks for. Not wanting it to look crappy, i'll redo the whole thing and make it look nice.

 

Thanks for everyone's help, links and patience. I'm going to go over all of the demos you've all posted and post my FINAL version when I get better at animating, modeling, etc.

 

SMC

Fish_Swim.mov

[robcat2075]

Hoo-ray! That's a decent looking fish.