Models are disappearing...

[Kelley]

Over the last two months, I have, on three occassions, found models missing from the Choreography. They are still present in the Objects, and in the PWS. They are still lisrted among the Choreo. objects, but do not appear in the actual set. In this instance, the Armored Car is gone. Before that, both self-propelled guns were gone; before that, one of the troopers. Has anyone else had this happen?

[largento]

Is their "Active" state in the properties window set to "OFF"?

[Kelley]

Is their "Active" state in the properties window set to "OFF"?

Sorry guys. My Bad. The models aren't disappearing, they are defaulting to the 0,0,0 position. [which, in itself, is weird enough] My town model started at near 0,0,0, but now the action is taking place at closer to -2200 on the X and -800 on the Z so when I highlight the object in the PWS, it's off the screen. Still...anyone else have this happen?

[KenH]

At a guess.....

 

Those models that are moving. Do they have an action on them? The model may have been moved by the action.....so it's way off it's default model bone. I've had it happen when I didn't combine several actions (in the one model) properly.

[heyvern]

First hand experience of this behavior on my project. This is most likely... user error.

 

It was in my case. I too had HUGE GIGANTIC MONSTROUS chors with so many objects it took several seconds to turn them on and off after selecting all children in a folder. In my case what was happening was selecting and moving "groups" in a chor. Sometimes I was not careful enough about where I was in the time line. This would occasionally cause a group of selected objects to "jump" to the same coordinates and appear to "vanish". For instance I would select a bunch of randomly positioned models in a chor, and move them... they would all jump to the first items position and create a key frame.

 

Other times I would be copying and pasting key frames with out realizing I was copying keys from frame 0 and pasting them later in the time line causing them to "vanish" because they had jumped to their original position. Other times I forgot to click the "A" button off and would use the "active" property and end up with silly models turning on and off all over the time line. This all seemed odd to me until I started paying closer attention to what I was doing. Also I would do a "save as" for like 5 or 6 versions before even NOTICING these problems... then I would be really confused.

 

What really helped were chor folders. I put all models part of one "section", like the stage, in one folder. All falling objects in a folder. I then could easily turn things on and off to see where funny things might happen and to also streamline hiding models in the chor for easier animation. In your sample image I see the "street" sections. You could put all of those in a chor folder. You close that folder and you don't have to scroll as much.

 

Drag selecting multiple objects in a chor creates a "group". This is NOT the same as shift selecting models in the PWS. That "group" doesn't behave the same way. I've found this "group" can have both good and odd results when used to move or rotate things in the chor. Most times it worked great but sometimes it would place keys I didn't want or expect. This is a "new" feature for me so I may not be using it properly.

 

-vern

[Kelley]

Do they have an action on them?

On the self-propelled guns:no. Not the armored car either. The troopers: yes.

But Vern...what you're saying really sounds right. I notice that I start getting 'untoward results' [otherwise known as 'wierd s***'] happening on a rising curve as the number of models in Objects goes up. As the number of instances in the Choreography grows, as the amount of time goes up for screen refreshes, screen renders, changing views, etc. I can feel the system straining to drive A:M. [part of this will get solved in the coming week, as I've just oredered parts to build a PC tailored for 3D: fast, Blu-Flame screamin' everything with 4Gb RAM] But holding down Choreo. size...it'll take forethought, but [i think I can. I think I can.] and Folders...definitely. I twigged to this as a way to manage the incredible number of Groups that some models get. [all those unnamed color chips] This would be a way to store multiple sections of street, all house on the left side, then the right, then the lighting. Thanks.

[heyvern]

Here are a few tricks I used to deal with GIGANTIC CHORS:

 

I "duplicated" a BIG chor, did a save as or whatever. I then deleted anything not needed for whatever I was animating or working on. For a specific example in my case, the cloth/physics combo. There was no way in heck to simulate my cloth curtain interacting with all of those objects. Even removing deflectors wasn't giving me joy. There was just too much stuff and my computer couldn't handle it sometimes.

 

In the duplicated "small" chor I deleted EVERYTHING. Every single model except any model that came into contact with the curtain. After simulating cloth I then exported the curtain spline motion as an action for each curtain and imported into my FINAL chor. This was a life saver for me (I prefer cherry life saver's but beggars can't be choosers).

 

I did this as well for some of the physics that needed tweaking rather than a complete resimulation. If there was a portion of physics that didn't work, I could quickly simulate one or two or three objects in a duplicate chor and export the actions. This was so much easier than trying to do the whole thing at one time. I ended up with bunches of saved actions that all "matched up". I load those all into the final chor add them to the models. Then it was just a matter of rendering. For instance the very last stage crash. Some of the objects on the floor are bumped by parts of the falling stage. When I simulated that only those objects "hit" by the stage were in the chor.

 

Other benefits of this was having a "clean" set up for the final choreography. I didn't have to worry about turning things on and off (active) so much because I had one final chor that was "ready to go" so to speak. Faster loading. Some of my chors took a good 5 minutes to open. By having small ones with limited objects they opened really fast. I just saved opening the big ones for the final chor or action import and render.

 

Sometimes I would just save out a chor with no lights or cameras. Just a few models that I was tweaking. I would delete these models in the "final" chor, and import the new chor directly. This allowed me to keep choreography actions intact rather than saving actions, if I needed to make tweaks. It's often easier to tweak stuff when you have the keys right there in the chor rather than a linked action.

 

Anyway, I did lots of crazy stuff at the end to save time and avoid... well.... avoid that thing that happens sometimes we like to avoid.

 

p.s. I only have 1gb of ram.

 

-vern

[Kelley]

p.s. I only have 1gb of ram.

All that...on 1 Gb? You must be moving 1's and 0's by hand. But your main point is being implemented as I write: duplicate Choreo's and delete everything that the camera won't see in the current shot. Thanks.