Gerry Posted April 26, 2011 Share Posted April 26, 2011 Check out Will Sutton's YouTube channel, he's got a bunch of video tutes on decaling! He's a whiz and everything you need to know is in there. http://www.youtube.com/user/zandoria#p/c/DBDF1A62510A616B EDIT: Be sure to watch them in order. They're numbered but they're not listed in order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 27, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted April 27, 2011 I have often thought it would be totally cool if we could get Sweeper to be an animatable tool. Plug in your requests and then ask the software to build the "sweep" over time (that the user defines). Pull that file into the choreography and then film the model building itself over time from any angle you want. That seems like it would be pretty magical... With groups you could make successive portions visible over time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 27, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted April 27, 2011 I have often thought it would be totally cool if we could get Sweeper to be an animatable tool. Plug in your requests and then ask the software to build the "sweep" over time (that the user defines). Pull that file into the choreography and then film the model building itself over time from any angle you want. That seems like it would be pretty magical... spiral01.prj reveal.mov Easy to do with groups Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuchur Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 I have often thought it would be totally cool if we could get Sweeper to be an animatable tool. Plug in your requests and then ask the software to build the "sweep" over time (that the user defines). Pull that file into the choreography and then film the model building itself over time from any angle you want. That seems like it would be pretty magical... spiral01.prj reveal.mov Easy to do with groups Not really... needs many hours to do with complex objects and is still a little bit unsmooth... but maybe with a material-effector it could be solved for some stuff... In the end, could be cool if for instance the material effector could be used to change and keep the changed state permamently, no matter where the material effector goes after that. *Fuchur* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 27, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted April 27, 2011 Easy to do with groups Not really... needs many hours to do with complex objects and is still a little bit unsmooth... but maybe with a material-effector it could be solved for some stuff... As I see it... This is an exceedingly rare need for animation. The means to do it with the available tools is there, but it's not going to be an automatic effect. If it were an important project, "many hours" would not be a severe cost for the filmmaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejobe Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Right click on the decal (or a particular stamp of the decal) - choose EDIT - up pops the uv editor - select & move the cps around. Best to do it while having both the uv editor & the model window both open to see how the mapping changes (I like to tile vertically) i found the edit thing and you can only move cps from one view which doesnt make any sense for me and i cant really see what im doing. not really what i had in my head. Check out Will Sutton's YouTube channel, he's got a bunch of video tutes on decaling! He's a whiz and everything you need to know is in there. http://www.youtube.com/user/zandoria#p/c/DBDF1A62510A616B EDIT: Be sure to watch them in order. They're numbered but they're not listed in order. i didn't see anything useful on that page that would help me figure out the decal problem other than completely ripping apart my model to put the decal on then try to stitch it back together Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 27, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted April 27, 2011 i didn't see anything useful on that page that would help me figure out the decal problem other than completely ripping apart my model to put the decal on then try to stitch it back together you're going to have to show us what's not working for you, we're not getting it with words. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejobe Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 pictures pretty much explain it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 28, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted April 28, 2011 pictures pretty much explain it the patches that are missed are seen nearly on edge, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeSlice Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 You are never going to get those patches decaled the way you are going about it. And if they did get decaled, the decals would be horribly distorted. You are going to have the hide everything but the top facing patches, switch to Top view, and apply decals. Same for the left facing decals and right facing decals. Most likely you will have to create those decals. You can't just use the image of the couch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 28, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted April 28, 2011 That couch pic has some perspective to it. If you applied the decal from a matching perspective viewpoint it would be more successful. But it's still asking a lot of one image. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 28, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted April 28, 2011 If you want to send me the couch and decal I might give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejobe Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 The couch model is on the freebies page. And just use any decal you like. That one was using as a roto. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 i didn't see anything useful on that page that would help me figure out the decal problem other than completely ripping apart my model to put the decal on then try to stitch it back together. The method is to separate the model into groups, then flatten each one in an action to apply the decal. "Ripping apart the model then stitching it back together" sounds like you're not understanding the process. There are a few steps to it, but once you do it a few times it becomes part of your regular workflow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bigboote Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Going back to the original question (What would you like to see in A:M?) It would be cool if you could change a CP or group of CP's weighting-assignments in a pose. I know that you can use the weight editor in a pose window... but that changes the weights across the board for the model. I mean to set a CP's weight to 50% bone 1 -50% bone 2 in the model as the default weight assignment, but then have a pose where you could (on a zero to 100% basis) change the CPs weights to 90% bone 1- 10% bone 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 I take it you mean essentially making cp weighting animatable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bigboote Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 I take it you mean essentially making cp weighting animatable? Yes! Eloquently put. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 28, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted April 28, 2011 I take it you mean essentially making cp weighting animatable? Yes! Eloquently put. Give a fer-instance for using this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 28, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted April 28, 2011 The couch model is on the freebies page. And just use any decal you like. That one was using as a roto. Ah... the couch looks great without the decal, tell me why you want that decal on it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markw Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 For what its worth here are two things I'd like to see. I always use the Rotate button for bones when animating and so am constantly having to hit the R key. When clicking on a bone could the user not have the choice of setting, in "Tools/Customize", the default to either Highlight the bone, as it is now, or to show the Rotate Manipulator instead when you click on a bone. My other wish would be that all the A:M plugins available to Windows user would work on Macs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted April 28, 2011 Hash Fellow Share Posted April 28, 2011 For what its worth here are two things I'd like to see. I always use the Rotate button for bones when animating and so am constantly having to hit the R key. I use Rotate much also. I found it convenient to program one of the side buttons (on a 5 button mouse) to act as though an r had been typed and this made it very simple to turn on the rotate manipulator quickly. Recommendation:the five button Microsoft Intelimouse. They're not too expensive on ebay. Its driver allows you to program the side buttons to mean different things for each app. When A:M is running it knows the left side button means "r" and the right side button means "End" (play) When clicking on a bone could the user not have the choice of setting, in "Tools/Customize", the default to either Highlight the bone, as it is now, or to show the Rotate Manipulator instead when you click on a bone. In a bone's properties you can set it to be Rotate only so it will present the rotate manipulator immediately upon being clicked. My other wish would be that all the A:M plugins available to Windows user would work on Macs! The biggy is TSM2. What others are you thinking of? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 I take it you mean essentially making cp weighting animatable? Yes! Eloquently put. I just did a quick test and bone falloff is definitely animatable. so that's close, but not the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejobe Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 The couch model is on the freebies page. And just use any decal you like. That one was using as a roto. Ah... the couch looks great without the decal, tell me why you want that decal on it? was just using that as a test to show what i meant. i do have other models that i have not been able to decal correctly because of this problem. and probably don't understand how the process works. but i most likely wouldn't have the patients to do something like that lol. usually modeling for me is fast and precise. i guess that's why i like mats better. quick drop and few field changes and I'm done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyGormezano Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 was just using that as a test to show what i meant. i do have other models that i have not been able to decal correctly because of this problem. To help you with other models and decaling and to get those pesky missed spots - And assuming you are using planar mapping: 1) Apply your decal in whatever view you've chosen. 2) Then without changing your view, right click on DECALS, choose Group Undecaled control points, 3) hit the hide so that only those faces show, and reapply the decal (double click on it). 4) Repeat steps 2, 3 until there are no more undecaled patches. You will end up with multiple stamps for this decal. If you decal using cylindrical or spherical mapping application, then there will never be any undecaled patches. But yes, you will have to take the time to do the above, and in situations where you have a couch that is all leather, with no particular detail, it is a much better method to use a material of your choice. There is no reason to use a decal (other than decals usually render faster than materials) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted April 28, 2011 Admin Share Posted April 28, 2011 Nancy, That is a very nice workflow for Decaling. Thanks for that! For me, this is a very important note not to miss in your description: If you decal using cylindrical or spherical mapping application, then there will never be any undecaled patches. Very good to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thejobe Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 thanks for the tip i will use that! but in order to get better understanding i might have to open a new thread and post a ton of examples to show what i am doing and hopefully someone can help me fix it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted April 28, 2011 Admin Share Posted April 28, 2011 but in order to get better understanding i might have to open a new thread and post a ton of examples to show what i am doing and hopefully someone can help me fix it. Please do! (I was debating moving the decal portion of this topic to a new thread but if you start a new topic I won't have to) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 I'm going out on a limb here and guessing that all your questions have already been answered in Will's videos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markw Posted April 29, 2011 Share Posted April 29, 2011 Thanks Robcat. I'm a bit delayed in replying here. Have family visiting at the moment and the dogs ill ! Great idea for the mouse buttons, never thought of that! Yes "TSM2" is definitely one of them as was "Fast AO" last time I looked it was Windows only. Then there was the "Dress Me" plugin and one or two others in the HXT folder that I've tried in the past, but I can't remember which they were just at the moment, sorry. When I have some time I'll have another poke around in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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