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*** Paul's Playground ***


Paul Forwood

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Hey! Thanks for all the birthday greetings! :D

Rodney, good design choice, leaving out the rest of the candles. ;) Thanks!

Cake anyone?

 

I can export bvh but no option to import it.

MOT and KFM is what it offers.

Sorry, Gene. You have to create a new Motion Capture Device first. This is the container which will hold the rig and the motion data. Try this:

 

1) Create new Action for your model.

2) Right click and select New\Motion Capture Device\BioVision BVH File

3) Switch to skeletal mode and away you go.

:)

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Woah! Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone! :)

That's enough now or I'll have to start a new thread.

 

Myron, I'll always be a kid to you. ;)

 

Nancy, you understand so well.

 

Mr Bigboot, there is no e in Forwood. Mr. B-i-g-b-o-o-t. ;) Cheers, Matt.

 

Muchas gracias, Nino Banano!

 

Mark, thanks. I noticed the slipping and also the variation in height regarding when the foot should be making contact with the floor. I will see if I can get a better alignment of rigs. The caveman model is based on human proportions and so the BVH rig scaled to a pretty good fit without too much messing around. The alien model has exagerated proportions. I'll see what I can do. :)

 

Thanks, Robert.

 

Onward and upward! You're only young once.

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Thanks, David and Matt. :)

 

post-183-1242781624_thumb.jpg

Just trying out some antennae. I'm not sure if I'll keep them yet.

I tweaked the rig a little but I think that I made the foot problem worse. I do have an old copy to go back to if I completely mess it up. :)

 

I have noticed that there is a glitch with BVH files in A:M 15e. It looks similar to the problem with rotoscopes where they seem to multiply every time I open a project. There is actually only one BVH file in the project but look how many there are in the PWS. Any thoughts?

post-183-1242816205_thumb.jpg

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Funny coincidence #1:

 

Last week I posted my caveman with BVH motion here in this thread. The following day there was a knock at the door which turned out to be two Jehova's Witnesses. We had the usual conversation which led to talking about evolution and mutations. I usually enjoy these conversations, if they don't go on too long, and this was no different. Before they left they insisted that I take one of their books. The book is titled, "Life - How did it get here", and is more than 150 pages of evidence, from various sources, puting forward the argument for creationism. Before we parted company it crossed my mind that I had my caveman model open on my computer and that I should ask them to come to see what a funny coincidence this was. I thought better of it. I accepted the book and promised to read it and then they left. I took the book into the kitchen and just flicked through the pages to see what I had let myself in for and noticed that the corner of one page had been neatly turned over. I naturally opened the book at that page which turned out to be the first page of chapter 7: "Ape-Men - What Were They?". The top of the page is illustrated with a picture of a man contemplating a picture of an apeman. Ha! He looks a little like me contemplating my caveman model. Wow! That's a cool coincidence!

 

In the past week I made a few improvements to the animation of the caveman's companion, the creature that leaps onto his chest/shoulder. When I made this proxy model I had it in mind that it would be a lemur-like creature but with a very colourful coat. I thought a prehistoric lemur would make a perfect pet for this guy and would have the right amount of flexibility to handle the rapid movements that would be required as he scrambled around trying to fit in with the bvh motion of the caveman. The proxy remains a proxy at the moment but I will get back to it sometime.

 

Coincidence 2:

 

I noticed this news story yesterday:Prehistoric Lemur

 

Not wanting to start the old creationist/evolutionist debate again in these forums. Certainly not in this thread! Let that happen in another thread, if you really must. But beware! It always ends in tears.

 

I just thought it was an interesting collection of events, representations of opposing views, and which relate directly to the characters I have been working on over the past week and the stories that could be told. It was like having representatives of both views tapping me on the shoulder to say, "Hey, don't forget about our point of view". The coincidence will stay with me whenever I work on those characters. :)

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I had some problems with the rig so I had to go back and start again. That put me back a little so all I've got for you at the moment is the prototype bug from which all others will mutate. ;) These bugs will just give the camera something to follow as it sweeps through the first 35 seconds of intro. They will help take the emphasis off of the landscape, enabling me to stop worrying about it for now.

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  • Hash Fellow

Great lookin bug!

 

Not sure about the high hips but I guess that is anatomically accurate.

 

 

 

I have noticed that there is a glitch with BVH files in A:M 15e. It looks similar to the problem with rotoscopes where they seem to multiply every time I open a project. There is actually only one BVH file in the project but look how many there are in the PWS. Any thoughts?

 

The roto problem seemed to be related to a mistaken file location. Maybe the same with your BVH file?

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The roto problem seemed to be related to a mistaken file location. Maybe the same with your BVH file?

Can you explain a little more, Robert? How can I correct the path to a bvh file and would that actually have any effect as the data should all be located in the bvh container? Each of these bvh containers has it's own full collection of keyed bones. They all hold their own copy of the data. Perhaps it is necessary to convert Actions with BVH data so that when the project opens it doesn't automatically import a new set of data into a new bvh container. I don't know though.

 

Good lookin' Bug. I think I saw a couple of those down by the creek, carrying off some small mammal.

Yeah. That wouldn't surprise me. ;) Thanks for the encouragement, Myron, and for the other song too!

 

-----------

Here is another rough for the Pass the Ball collaboration. I have a slightly more advanced version but it is over 10MB so I'll tweak it a bit more and then send it to Matt with the other/s. Are these PTB contributions all due next week? I better check that.

post-183-1243080723_thumb.jpg

Ball_B_Bounce_A00_10secs_.mov

 

:)

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Do not taunt "Happy Fun Ball"

Absolutely! :D

 

Here is a rough for another part of my "Pass The Ball" contribution:

post-183-1243368400_thumb.jpg

BoyHides_A00b.mov

This is just a proxy set and some of the poses still need tweaking. I had the ball working well when I closed this project the other night but when I opened it again something had changed and I spent a few hours tweaking the poses to get them back. As you can see the mouth poses are still not where they should be. This is something that really needs to be fixed in A:M. I assume that it is something to do with A:M's reluctance to update in Actions and Choreographies. Even though I save and reopen projects to force them to update I think that there are some things that don't update properly until you shut down and reboot. The spacebar doesn't seem to refresh everything. Anyway, it is what it is.

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Thanks for all the comments! :)

post-183-1244824666_thumb.jpg

 

Here is a test of the rig, which I am still working on. No weighting yet either.

(It should loop)

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

Edit: I have been trying to upload a QT file for ages but something is stopping me. It is probably my firewall but I am out of will power to keep trying...

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Looks good.

 

Fingers on a musical instrument like a guitar or violin is a problem I've been thinking about lately. The ideal thing would be some sort of switchable IK/FK arrangement for each finger, I think. I'll let you do the R&D on that. :)

 

I'm curious about how you handled the strap.

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the guitar seems a tad too big

Yes. I'll fix that, although this character will only play an acoustic guitar in Fishin'. This character has slightly exaggerated proportions which may get tweaked back towards more realistic proportions. Not sure yet.

 

Nice work, Paul!

Thanks, Mark! :)

 

Fingers on a musical instrument like a guitar or violin is a problem I've been thinking about lately

I will be using pose sliders for both the finger poses and for sliding the left hand up and down the neck of the guitar. The guitar strap is part of the character. There is a bone at each end of the strap and matching, "connector" bones on the guitar. The strap bones are constrained to the connector bones in an Action. As you can see, I forgot to add the orient-like constraints.

 

That looks really great, Paul ! I only wish I could look that studly on stage.

It must be all the makeup and the lighting. I'm glad that you find him appealing. Am I anywhere near to a likeness yet?

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  • 2 weeks later...

post-183-1246367903_thumb.jpg

Besides adding translucent properties to mass SSS seems to do much of what porcelain does, smoothing out the details and making everything look puffy. Maybe just my settings though. This is in A:M 14c. No. 3 is the only one without SSS and the heavy bump map is temporary. I don't know what is causing the problem with the right eye.

 

If anyone can guess who this is meant to be I will be stunned. ;)

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Thanks, Jeff. :)

I avoid porcelain except where I need a very puffy surface, without any small details. SSS does give a very nice quality to skin, and it does seem to be much faster than I remember it being, but I think that I will reserve use for just those scenes that demand it.

 

A clue: While the average American was sinking she soared and lifted their spirits with her achievements.

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A clue: While the average American was sinking she soared and lifted their spirits with her achievements.

Susan Boyle?

:D

I am so pleased to hear that, Myron. The bit about Susan Boyle lifting your spirits. ;)

 

Robert... I am stunned!!! :o

 

I have shadows turned on for the hair but they are not showing up. I'll try A:M15 later.

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