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'Nesting' choreographies


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Hi-

 

I am working on a big scene in A:M where coins fall in mass to form a logo...I am using Newton Dynamics to make the falling and bouncing actions and that is working great- the PROBLEM is that I am piling-up my choreography-PWS with lots and lots of coins... I did about 1/10th the logo so far and used 40 coins, so I figure 400-450 coins will eventually be needed...

 

Now, I work in Adobe After Effects a lot and one of AE's more useful abilities is that of 'Nesting Comps'...meaning, you can 'pile-up' a comp with 100's or so layers, then import it to a second comp and it appears as only one object. Fantastic concept. I am trying to do this now in A:M and not getting quite there... I tried right-clicking on the chor and selecting 'save-as' and then bringing the saved chor into a new chor... but I have to delete all the lights and camera first and then when it imports into a new chor- all it's elements (all the coins) are visible and editable and in the way.

 

IT LOOKS LIKE the best way to get what I am after (sanity) I will need to make a NEW FOLDER and start placing groups of coins in folders....

 

WONDERING if anyone else has gone down this road and has a method of NESTING CHOREOGRAPHIES...?

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I asked for a similar "feature" ages and ages ago. (I wanted to be able to "display" one chor as a "projected image" like a "live decal" inside another chor.)

 

No, it can't be done I don't think. The folder idea is the best way. Let's face it... even in AE the "embedded comp" trick is just like putting it "in a folder". Your main goal is to clean up the interface... keep things neat and tidy.

 

The reason it gets messy is because of all those thingies taking up the space in the PWS. I did this folder trick for kuklp's (sp?) foundary model back when I worked a tiny bit on TWO. I had all these beams and girders... and my chor was a nightmare. It was the first time I discovered how cool folders are in the chor.

 

Could you streamline this by using actions and action objects with "one" coin? I did an illustration with AM that I was going to enter in one of the image contests but never finished. It had a scrabble board. I had bunches and bunches of scrabble tiles and arranged them in an action using action objects. I just dragged a bunch of tiles into the board model and lined them up. It was easier than trying to do this in a chor. Of course not animated and no physics.

 

Isn't there a plugin that "automatically" puts in as many objects as you need into a chor with one step? Wasn't this a plugin from the same guy who created the Newton Physics for AM? I know he used it extensively for showing off the features of Newton Physics.

 

p.s. What would really be cool would be for actions to be like "mini choreographies". If actions had the same "power" as a chor but not have lights and cameras.

 

-vern

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Folders...that's what I figgered.

 

The problem is that the coins need to come to rest in just 'so' a position...to spell out the words in the logo- So what I am doing is in ONE choreography I am 'dropping' coins via Newton-Dynamics, and when I get a drop that I like (out of many 'takes' or sims) I will copy it's end position onto frame1 for easy positioning, then save-as an action and import the action into my actions folder...then, apply it to a coin in Chor2, adjust it's position to a rotoscope of the logo... and stuff... all-in-all I'll only be using 10-15 simulated actions on over 400 coins... I'm just hoping A:M does not begin to *choke* on that many objects...

 

I'll use folders until I figure a better way...THANKS Vern! and congratulations! Looks good at hash.com!

 

I'll have a test to post tomorrow as I render HD frames overnight...

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Woohoo!

 

Sounds just like what I tried to do with pouring cereal. It worked and didn't choke, and that was an ANCIENT version of AM (10? 9? No not 9... 8.5 maybe).... but I don't think I had that many cereal pieces. I used the "old" physics in AM and an action. I just offset and repeated the action over and over in a chor with a few pouring cereal bits. Worked very well.

 

-vern

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