bubba Posted March 10, 2011 Share Posted March 10, 2011 Here are two short animations of my BattleMech. This is an 85 ton machine so it should kick up a lot of dust. But I am having trouble deciding which is best or how I can improve them. Any help would be appreciated. Cone: Side_View_Dust_v3_cone.mov Sphere: Side_View_Dust_v4_sphere.mov Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 10, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted March 10, 2011 He looks menacing! I think you've definitely got the drifting dust effect going on the spherical version better. In any event the cone is probably too specific a shape. The sphere is more cloudlike. I guess you're doing like in TAoA:M where they used the same sphere for both feet? If you used a separate one for each foot you could have the dust linger longer and take longer to settle. I think maybe the sphere should be scaled to be bigger and flatter at its largest extent. These volumetric effects are very basic approximations of the look of dust in the air. Adding "Noise" to them helps make them look less uniform. If we wanted to get fancy we'd probably use a particle emmitter to blow out a bunch of particles when the foot stomped down and those could be blown about be a Force. That's a bit deeper end stuff. That's something I've been thinking of toying with but havent' gotten around to it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted March 11, 2011 Admin Share Posted March 11, 2011 Yes indeed. The spherical look better. Nice Mech! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zandoriastudios Posted March 11, 2011 Share Posted March 11, 2011 ...If we wanted to get fancy we'd probably use a particle emmitter to blow out a bunch of particles when the foot stomped down and those could be blown about be a Force. That's a bit deeper end stuff. That's something I've been thinking of toying with but havent' gotten around to it yet.... That is something that I am going to play with in a shot that I'm working on now--emitting some sprite dust to drift-off in the wind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba Posted March 11, 2011 Author Share Posted March 11, 2011 I think you've definitely got the drifting dust effect going on the spherical version better. In any event the cone is probably too specific a shape. The sphere is more cloudlike. I guess you're doing like in TAoA:M where they used the same sphere for both feet? If you used a separate one for each foot you could have the dust linger longer and take longer to settle. I think maybe the sphere should be scaled to be bigger and flatter at its largest extent. These volumetric effects are very basic approximations of the look of dust in the air. Adding "Noise" to them helps make them look less uniform. Ok I will go with the sphere. Yes, I was doing it like the exercise in TA0A:M. When you say add "Noise", is this different than "Add Turbulence"? Does Distortion Mode work on Volumetrics? Or will I have to use "Scale" under "Transform"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 11, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted March 11, 2011 When you say add "Noise", is this different than "Add Turbulence"? I meant Turbulence. There are choices for Noise for Turbulence. Does Distortion Mode work on Volumetrics? Or will I have to use "Scale" under "Transform"? AFAIK, Distortion boxes only work on actual CPs. Use scale. Scale can be keyframed, btw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba Posted March 12, 2011 Author Share Posted March 12, 2011 There are several options for "Add Turbulence", they all look like mathematical names. Do the all do the relatively the same thing, or is one better than the others? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 12, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted March 12, 2011 There are several options for "Add Turbulence", they all look like mathematical names. Do the all do the relatively the same thing, or is one better than the others? I forget if there are dramatic differences. Try a few and render a few frames to see what happens. In the "Eat My Dust" tut in TAoA:M the picture of teh knight with dust at his foot shows some turbulence being used to give it a varied look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeSlice Posted March 12, 2011 Share Posted March 12, 2011 There's a tutorial for that! http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=30871 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba Posted March 13, 2011 Author Share Posted March 13, 2011 Dear Homeslice. I have that tutorial, but I don't remember if it mentioned any specific Turbulence option. I will look again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba Posted March 13, 2011 Author Share Posted March 13, 2011 I am wondering if I need to have the dust volumetric constrained to each foot bone. I am trying to get it to bloom when the foot strikes but then remains in place while the foot moves away. But the bone that I am translating moves all over the place even though the only direction that should move is in the z axis. But some places it moves up the y-axis (or down.) I have the x and y axis set to 0 and hold, so that the only thing that moves is in the z-axis. But something keeps messing me up. So I go back to my original question - do I have to constrain the dust to the foot? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 13, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted March 13, 2011 So I go back to my original question - do I have to constrain the dust to the foot? Me... I'd just keyframe the Dust thingy to be where the foot is when I need it to be there instead of constraining it to the foot. Then it could hang around as long as I wanted after the foot left. In the TAoA:M tut I think they were trying to incorporate the Dust effect into a Walk cycle action. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubba Posted March 13, 2011 Author Share Posted March 13, 2011 Excellent. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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