Captain Crazy Pants works out

[NancyGormezano]

Here's a character (Captain Crazy Pants) I was working on before I took a trip to the ER for emergency abdominal surgery (was july 11, and I am almost back to "normal").

 

Since you're all waiting for the Mascot contest voting to begin, I thought this might be the time to post before the excitement begins...I had intended to do more with him and add some auxillary friends - but my energy level hadn't been up to snuff and I found it difficult to sit at computer for any length of time. Ok...ok...enuff with the excuses and sympathy gathering...

 

I will probably return to this set of characters at some point as I want to have some new friends to integrate with photos of my hiking "adventures" (did 7.1 miles easy on this past friday! yay me!).

 

I rigged him with TSM2 (first time user - and I am now a true believer!) and my own face rig.

 

Capes and slinky leotards seem to be all the rage these days on the hiking trails...

[Shelton]

Awesome work as usual. I love the movement shown in the poses.

 

Steve

[johnl3d]

Great as always !

[Dpendleton77]

Wow great work.

[Rodney]

I took a trip to the ER for emergency abdominal surgery

 

Yikes. I thought you were being abnormally quiet!

If you are back to hiking 7+ miles then you must be doing okay.

Glad to have you back with us!

 

Captain Crazy Pants.

Okay, I think I'm on to you and your wiley ways here.

You have figured out that there is almost no possible way for anyone to (legitimately) critique a character dubbed Captain Crazy Pants.

How would one even begin...

 

Great character!

He should be enormously fun to animate.

[steve392]

Graet looking charector Nancy and some really good poses

[itsjustme]

I'm glad you're back to normal, Nancy!

 

Fun character!

[Simon Edmondson]

Nancy

great work, with your signature tactile approach.

If hiking already it must be underway already but Best wishes for your full recovery.

Take care

simon

[robcat2075]

Another great Nancy creation!

 

Nancy, could you talk a bit about why you liked the result you got with TSM2?

[NancyGormezano]

Thanks all for your comments and well wishes!

 

Nancy, could you talk a bit about why you liked the result you got with TSM2?

 

I particularly liked the installation process. Even though it would scare me every time...as I nervously wondered "will it ever work again after the changes I just made?" - but yes. the rigger never failed, and only took 30-60 secs each time, but of course seemed like an eternity when worry-warting.

 

I liked that I could experiment/change the positioning of the geometry bones, and cp weightings and not have to tweak the control bones/structures or constraints relationships to match the changes - all done automagically by the rigger.

 

And once I figured it out, I liked that it was easy to work with the pre-rigged - just geometry boned - model to add my own special face rig, cape rig, etc, with their constraints/relationships. I also eventually realized that it was best to cp weight, texture the pre-rigged model (which is different work flow when installing other rigs)

 

Once rigged, I liked that there is a minimal amount of controls & pose sliders, so that I don't have to wade thru zillions of choices when animating. And I like the "pseudo-squetch" capabilities of the spine, legs, arms.

 

What I have still to figure out:

 

1) what is the optimal placement of the spine, arm, leg bones, relative to the spline layout for the TSM2 rig. Ie, is it better to put start/end of bone at the spline ring ? or inbetween the spline rings? I forget what I ended up with (been a month since I've played with it), but felt like I was shooting blind. Not sure how to use less that the standard # of spine bones (5), arm or leg bones

 

2) I didn't use any fan bones - but just did CP weighting - again - making best guesses and acting blindly. Not sure if fan bones would have been better, or would help.

 

3) Not sure how many spline rings would be best for the joints. I ended up with one at shoulder, elbows, knees - as I was following what had been done for some of the example models. My guess is that it would have been better to have more spline rings (3?, 2?), as the joints on my model bend sharply, even with weighting. However, on this character it doesn't matter that much.

 

4) Would like to figure out how to pivot model (more easily) at intersection of toe joint, rather than at back of heel.

 

And of course, the danger is as A:M moves forward, TSM2 will eventually not work anymore with a reasonable work flow. I am using 16b 32bit, win xp pro, but someday, maybe I'll be upgrading my system.

[robcat2075]

Thanks all for your comments and well wishes!

 

Nancy, could you talk a bit about why you liked the result you got with TSM2?

 

I particularly liked the installation process. Even though it would scare me every time...as I nervously wondered "will it ever work again after the changes I just made?" - but yes. the rigger never failed, and only took 30-60 secs each time, but of course seemed like an eternity when worry-warting.

 

I liked that I could experiment/change the positioning of the geometry bones, and cp weightings and not have to tweak the control bones/structures or constraints relationships to match the changes - all done automagically by the rigger.

 

And once I figured it out, I liked that it was easy to work with the pre-rigged - just geometry boned - model to add my own special face rig, cape rig, etc, with their constraints/relationships. I also eventually realized that it was best to cp weight, texture the pre-rigged model (which is different work flow when installing other rigs)

 

Once rigged, I liked that there is a minimal amount of controls & pose sliders, so that I don't have to wade thru zillions of choices when animating. And I like the "pseudo-squetch" capabilities of the spine, legs, arms.

 

You are a person of superior discernment, those are my reasons too.

 

What I have still to figure out:

 

1) what is the optimal placement of the spine, arm, leg bones, relative to the spline layout for the TSM2 rig. Ie, is it better to put start/end of bone at the spline ring ? or inbetween the spline rings? I forget what I ended up with (been a month since I've played with it), but felt like I was shooting blind. Not sure how to use less that the standard # of spine bones (5), arm or leg bones

 

For torsos and necks, I prefer to put the spline ring in the middle of the bone. That evades needing to fan bone or CP weight the ring between two spine bones.

 

On TSM1 you could delete spine bones. On TSM2 you can't. Not easily anyway. If you needed fewer spine bones you could probably weight to the 1st and 5th ones and make the middle ones very small.

 

Do not delete any arm or leg bones. The 2-bones-per-limb-segment are needed to make the stretching slider work. You can bend at the elbow and knee but the two bones in each segment need to be straight.

 

2) I didn't use any fan bones - but just did CP weighting - again - making best guesses and acting blindly. Not sure if fan bones would have been better, or would help.

 

3) Not sure how many spline rings would be best for the joints. I ended up with one at shoulder, elbows, knees - as I was following what had been done for some of the example models. My guess is that it would have been better to have more spline rings (3?, 2?), as the joints on my model bend sharply, even with weighting. However, on this character it doesn't matter that much.

 

Always a judgement call depending on the situation.

 

4) Would like to figure out how to pivot model (more easily) at intersection of toe joint, rather than at back of heel.

 

If you need to do it a lot you could temporarily constrain the foot to a null at the spot and manipulate the foot position with that null.

 

And of course, the danger is as A:M moves forward, TSM2 will eventually not work anymore with a reasonable work flow. I am using 16b 32bit, win xp pro, but someday, maybe I'll be upgrading my system.

 

As long as v16 still runs you shoudl be able to run TSM2.

 

I ought to give Raf another call about this.

[NancyGormezano]

Thanks Robert for the suggestions, answers - I shall experiment more

[thefreshestever]

haha, great character! i would like to see him animated!!!

[NancyGormezano]

i would like to see him animated!!!

 

Me too. Sooooo...As I was inspired by the exercises that Simon has been doing, especially the handspring, I decided to give it a whirl with Captain Crazy Pants.

 

I'm pretty rusty and I'm just learning the TSM2 rig...so I'm struggling with:

 

1) smoothly switching between FK/IK arms, ie what's the best strategy, sequence. Found it awkward to set the pose to 100% for IK, and then move the IK hand to approximate place (as normal hand) in next frame.

 

2) What's strategy for stretching the spine? ie I'm guessing I should have initialized the spine stretch pose to 100 at the beginning and then just use the torso and pelvis to do the stretch throughout. I didn't do this so, I had to adjust the stretch pose around the frames that I wanted to do stretching. Awkward.

 

3) Still trying to figure out what the settings for the arms are. In particular, how to use the elbow rolling manual/automatic?(what's the diff?), and what's regular FK for the arms (versus not regular?)? Currently my settings were 0% for manual elbow, and 100% regular FK - but I have no idea what I should have done.

 

Here's first (hah!...ok...more like 9th refinement) of the handspring movement with crude manual posing for the cape (needs better boning, and change in cape geometry for using dynamic constraint).

9AhandspringcapeH264.mov

[robcat2075]

1) smoothly switching between FK/IK arms, ie what's the best strategy, sequence. Found it awkward to set the pose to 100% for IK, and then move the IK hand to approximate place (as normal hand) in next frame.

 

Mark Skodacek has devised an add-on for seamless switching. Prior to that I would scrub back and forth from the FK frame to the IK frame and refine the match. I'd match the hand position first then move the elbow.

 

 

2) What's strategy for stretching the spine? ie I'm guessing I should have initialized the spine stretch pose to 100 at the beginning and then just use the torso and pelvis to do the stretch throughout. I didn't do this so, I had to adjust the stretch pose around the frames that I wanted to do stretching. Awkward.

 

i dimly recall that with spine stretching set to 0% the spine would remain a constant length no matter how far the torso target was away from the top of the spine, while at 100% it woudl strethc any distance to reach the target.

 

3) Still trying to figure out what the settings for the arms are. In particular, how to use the elbow rolling manual/automatic?(what's the diff?), and what's regular FK for the arms (versus not regular?)? Currently my settings were 0% for manual elbow, and 100% regular FK - but I have no idea what I should have done.

 

I'll have to refresh myself on the distinction. Does the TSM2 manual (found in the install folders) explain anything?

 

Here's first (hah!...ok...more like 9th refinement) of the handspring movement with crude manual posing for the cape (needs better boning, and change in cape geometry for using dynamic constraint).

 

I bet a cloth simulation would work well there.

[NancyGormezano]

Mark Skodacek has devised an add-on for seamless switching. Prior to that I would scrub back and forth from the FK frame to the IK frame and refine the match. I'd match the hand position first then move the elbow.

 

Oooooo...an add-on for TSM2? Do tell, kind sire, Can thoust leadeth me to the righteous link?

 

Yes, I came to miss the brilliant seamless IK/FK switching with the 2008, lite & Squetch rigs

 

3) Still trying to figure out what the settings for the arms are. In particular, how to use the elbow rolling manual/automatic?(what's the diff?), and what's regular FK for the arms (versus not regular?)?

 

I'll have to refresh myself on the distinction. Does the TSM2 manual (found in the install folders) explain anything?

I shall go take a look again (don't remember reading anything about it).

 

I bet a cloth simulation would work well there.

Yeah...it's probably safe for me to try cloth again, but this time in earnest...my hair is already almost completely white

[robcat2075]

3) Still trying to figure out what the settings for the arms are. In particular, how to use the elbow rolling manual/automatic?(what's the diff?), and what's regular FK for the arms (versus not regular?)?

 

I'll have to refresh myself on the distinction. Does the TSM2 manual (found in the install folders) explain anything?

I shall go take a look again (don't remember reading anything about it).

 

I dimly recall that the difference is between FK arms that maintain their orientation to the torso as it rotates and FK arms that maintain their orientation to world space as the torso rotates.

[NancyGormezano]

Mark Skodacek has devised an add-on for seamless switching. Prior to that I would scrub back and forth from the FK frame to the IK frame and refine the match. I'd match the hand position first then move the elbow.

 

Oooooo...an add-on for TSM2? Do tell, kind sire, Can thoust leadeth me to the righteous link?

 

Yes, I came to miss the brilliant seamless IK/FK switching with the 2008, lite & Squetch rigs

 

 

found the link to the update!

 

It was 'hiding' as the very first pinned topic in the TSM2 sub-forum...Tricky devils...

[robcat2075]

I remember when I was at Animation Mentor (circa 2005) I was told that such a thing would be impossible!

[Zaryin]

Haha, that character is hilarious!

[NancyGormezano]

Thanks Zaryin!

 

Just imported Mark's IK/FK seamless switch add-on model into my model - works like a charm!

 

3) Still trying to figure out what the settings for the arms are. In particular, how to use the elbow rolling manual/automatic?(what's the diff?), and what's regular FK for the arms (versus not regular?)?

I dimly recall that the difference is between FK arms that maintain their orientation to the torso as it rotates and FK arms that maintain their orientation to world space as the torso rotates.

 

Have still not figured out the elbow roller (looked on my install CD at the TSM2 tutorials) - so I will ignore it, leave it alone.

 

And Yes, found out that: Regular arm FK set to 100% makes the arm rotate/orient when the torso moves, whereas when set to 0%, the arm is "isolated" and maintains it's orientation (ie as in 2008 rig parlance: stays steady).

[Simon Edmondson]

Nancy

Pardon my intrusion but, I thought TSM only worked with earlier versions of AM. Has that been modified too or are you setting it up in the earlier version, then importing that model in V17 to animate with ?

regards

simon

[NancyGormezano]

I thought TSM only worked with earlier versions of AM. Has that been modified too or are you setting it up in the earlier version, then importing that model in V17 to animate with ?

 

I am working in ver 16b-32bit PC for everything, only because Ver 17-32 renders slower on my machine than 16b and Fakeao doesn't work either (in 32 bit). I also believe tsm2, doesn't work in 17 (install process only), but I didn't try it. Once rigged in ver16, model should work in 17.

Edited August 30, 2013 by NancyGormezano

[robcat2075]

I am working in ver 16b-32bit PC for everything, only because Ver 17-32 renders slower on my machine than 16b and Fakeao doesn't work either (in 32 bit).

 

I'll note that a new FakeAO is coming in v18 for both Mac and PC.

[markw]

I'll note that a new FakeAO is coming in v18 for both Mac and PC.

Be still my beating heart

I think I may need to go lie down, I feel quite faint...

[Simon Edmondson]

I thought TSM only worked with earlier versions of AM. Has that been modified too or are you setting it up in the earlier version, then importing that model in V17 to animate with ?

 

I am working in ver 16b-32bit PC for everything, only because Ver 17-32 renders slower on my machine than 16b and Fakeao doesn't work either (in 32 bit). I also believe tsm2, doesn't work in 17 (install process only), but I didn't try it. Once rigged, model should work in 17.

 

Nancy

 

Thank you for your reply. I bought TSM ages ago when it came out but moved over to the 2001 rig, then the 2008 rig because info received suggested it didn't work with later versions. I might have to give it a try in the coming weeks.

regards

simon

[NancyGormezano]

I bought TSM ages ago when it came out but moved over to the 2001 rig, then the 2008 rig because info received suggested it didn't work with later versions. I might have to give it a try in the coming weeks.

 

Caution: I know nuthin' about the working status of the MAC version of TSM2. But it's worth a try, just to see how easy it is to install.

 

I too, wonder about using this plugin with future versions of A:M.

 

At some point, it's very possible that models rigged in ver16 with TSM2 won't work, or work well in ver X...And if one has to do texturing, weighting, etc in ver16, because the work flow necessitates doing that to the pre-rigged model, then one loses ability to easily use future improvements to texturing, materials, hair, modeling tools, other capabilities, etc.

 

Don't know how far in the future that is, but my guess is, if that ever occurs, that there will be something else to replace it.

Edited August 30, 2013 by NancyGormezano

[markw]

If I may Nancy?… @Simon, sorry but the future Nancy spoke of is already here for the Mac version of TSM2, has been for a while. Unless you have very old Mac lying around?

 

Nancy you have created yet another amazing character here. It's always a pleasure seeing your creations!

[robcat2075]

I'll note to clarify...

 

The original TSM was a stand-alone program that you would run a saved .mdl file through. It will work only on models from v12 or earlier because of the file format change in v13. Those models can still be loaded in later versions of A:M.

 

TSM2 is a plugin that works within A:M. It still works in 32-bit Windows versions of A:M up to v16.

 

It doesn't work in 64-bit windows versions of A:M and doesn't work in current MacOS computers but you can use it to rig your character in a 32-bit Windows version of A:M and then use your model on a MAC or 64-bit version of A:M.

 

You can use your A:M license to run both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of A:M on one PC.

[John Bigboote]

I also eventually realized that it was best to cp weight, texture the pre-rigged model (which is different work flow when installing other rigs)

 

Hi Nancy- Hope you are 'on the mend!'

 

I've found that when working with my TSM2 rigged models that you can ALWAYS go back in afterwrds and rework, reassign, remove, edit etc the textures and weightings.

[largento]

The plugins for installing TSM2 on the Mac stopped working with the Mac OS a looong time ago. I want to say I bought it in 2007 and it already had stopped working on the Mac.

 

It's a shame it was never supported beyond then.

 

Very excited to hear that FakeAO is coming to the Mac in the new version. Was feeling left out of the fun. :-)

[NancyGormezano]

I decided to try out cloth for the cape. Eventually I gave up on using any deflectors, too much fiddly stuff. Couldn't get it to run without errors, even by eliminating cps from deflector groups. Didn't want to spend that much time on it.

 

So easiest for me was to assigned the cape CPs to all one bone, run the simulation without deflectors, NO checking for intersections, no self collide. After the simulation I adjusted the cape bone (rotated and translated it) so that it wouldn't intersect model.

 

It's ok. Sorta.

 

Chor settings for simcloth simulation:

 

collision tolerance =.1

solver precision =.01

check intersections=OFF

substeps = 4 (default)

adaptive subdiv = 3 (default)

 

Cloth material settings:

Particle Mass = 10

Self Collide = OFF

Friction 250 (default)

 

stretch stiff = 200

shear stiff = 100

stretch damp = 2

 

bend angle stiff = 6

bend damp = 2

 

Air drag = 10

 

I did try using dynamic constraint on the cape, with only the end of the cape be the cloth material. (no example uploaded). It would probably be a good alternative for some situations, as it is more likely to find a solution. Would be good for frilly sleeves, bottom of a skirt.

 

To do it this way, I baked the dynamic constraint system first, (no collision detection). Then used a master bone to move the cape away from the model. Then ran the simcloth (with same settings above...I think?). Didn't look as convincing as the all cloth cape solution.

 

EDIT: just noticed, forgot to turn on hair...oh well.

12handspringcapeh264bestloop.mov

Edited September 2, 2013 by NancyGormezano

[robcat2075]

HiRes Simulation ON in the Chor's Properties will greatly improve success with cloth (v17 or later)

 

 

What you have there is promising.

[Tore]

Wonderfull, Nancy! Love all that life you manage to put into your figures!!

[Rodney]

Ha! Love the final pose he jumps into... as if to say, "And here you thought I couldn't do it," or "Told you I could do it!"

 

More please.

[johnl3d]

Nice can see your personality in the character !

[NancyGormezano]

Thanks Tore, Rodney, John

 

This is the last one for this sequence. Enough with the handspring, already! On to other things..But first, I decided to see how handspring would look using the Rear window set.

 

Rendering of the set itself was taking 28 seconds for 1 image or 1 minute for stereo (5 pass, soften, shadows, SSS, hair, 864 x 480), even after I tried to eliminate most of geometry in FOV (by zooming close to roof top, ie increased focal to 200, angled camera). So I wanted to get rendertimes down for testing.

 

First, I dragged my chor action for Crazypants from my chor into the Rear window choreograpy, then translated, rotated character model to top of roof (where the camera was now aimed). Baked the particle hair there.

 

I rendered frame 0 first without the character, then used that as a camera rotoscope, to front project onto the buildings (which were also set to flat shaded). Turned OFF the dome.

 

I didn't like the color balance of the lighting, & there were too many shadows on characters face, using the rear window scheme and also to decrease render times, I turned off Stereo, turned off shadows on all lights except the sun klieg (turned out to be the biggest time killer), turned off SSS (didn't need), set Global Ambience IBL to a rosey colored image, added fakeAO, 5 pass, soft ON, hair - came to average about 10 secs/frame, including the character. I tried originally to use the rotoscope for the IBL image, but it made things tooo blue.

 

The lighting is still funny, but more pleasing to me. Probably would have looked more consistent if I had used same lighting for generating the camera rotoscope. Highlights are too blown out, so I probably should have decreased intensity for IBL and/or sun.

2Gormezano_000h264best.mov

Edited September 7, 2013 by NancyGormezano

[robcat2075]

Thanks Tore, Rodney, John

 

This is the last one for this sequence. Enough with the handspring, already! On to other things..But first, I decided to see how handspring would look using the Rear window set.

 

Hey... it's probably not too late to get him into Rear Window! Ask Paul, i bet he'd love to have it.

[Rodney]

VERY NICE NANCY!

 

That's not (really) a fitting render for that animation.

Well done!

[NancyGormezano]

That's not a fitting render for that animation.

 

Thanks Rodney.

 

Are there any particular things that stand out for you?

 

I know I don't like the framing (should have zoomed out some). I don't like the color balance, hot spots. The cloth is too jerky, and cloth still intersects with his legs. Can't see his expression, eyes very well. Hair might be too sparse which makes it scintilate. The handspring isn't as finessed as I'd like, arm movement is awkward, the end pose/turn isn't right either. The costume material has some dark spot anomalies when it stretches.

 

I also think it would be more humourous if I had used a dark ominous stormy cloud background with lightning bolts, and made the time of day = night. Perhaps with moving searchlights aimed at him as if the police down below, and were trying to talk the "nutter" down

[Rodney]

RE: That's not a fitting render for that animation.

 

I really have to stop posting while asleep.

That was suppose to say, "That's a really fitting render for that animation."

I must have accidentally edited/merged two sentences at the last minute or sumthin'.

 

In other words... I wouldn't change a thing... that rendering fits Captain Crazy Pant's performance in that animation perfectly.

I thought it was good before... but now. Wow!

 

(Okay... I reread this post three times... I think it's safe to hit 'submit'.)

[NancyGormezano]

Captain Crazy Pants, like me, is having a hard time with next design exercise (design101 at iversity.com). I was supposed to show different notebooks and notebook styles. FAIL. I absolutely hated the first thing I did, so I did something more fun. It's a good thing I don't do this for a living. I'm struggling with suppressing my personal style. This is my notebook I've been keeping for this course. Probably took 2 hours for this, 1 minute to render (but also struggled 2 hours with the first attempt). Week 3 #016.

[robcat2075]

Notebook styles? What would that be?

[NancyGormezano]

Notebook styles? What would that be?

 

Uh...well...kind of a lame exercise, almost felt like they are pushing brands (eg moleskine).

 

We were supposed to

1) find notebooks on web created by different people (eg Einstein, Michaelangelo, contempory artists, designers..), Many were very magnificent, content wise. then

2) choose an image of one of them that you like a lot (too many to choose for me - liked many) - and think about Why & what makes it special? and

3)go to stationary store take pictures, think about which ones suit you, and why (what are your criteria for choosing). Sounds like a marketing survey.

 

Then were supposed to upload both images with short explanation. Many people did do impressive, creative looking presentations/design. Mine looked like a grade school project, I just wanted to do some fun art...not impersonal design, thus ol' crazy pants popped up. And I always get the same notebook, did not need to go to stationary store. My criteria for notebook:

 

1) Inexpensive, lots of sheets (100+)

2) At least 8.5 x 11 for home, smaller (half size) for traveling

3) ruled/lined for topics that require writing (tutorials, methods, techniques, instructions). Unlined for drawing concepts, characters

4) smooth paper that allows the pen ink to glide easily, but good enough quality so I can use both sides without it bleeding.

5) has pockets as dividers to store scraps, notes, cards from outings that will be taped/pasted into notebook later

6) comes with purple cover

 

But I also said: Given that I mainly do digital art, it is essential for me to have a digital cataloging system, that allows me to organize, search, and make thumbnails of all my projects, as well as see all my different media (video, music, animations). For this I have used Thumbs Plus for umpteen billion years. I rely on this the most.

 

here's my uggggggliiieee first attempt

Edited November 13, 2013 by NancyGormezano

[pixelplucker]

Did you just walk into Staples with a camera and start taking pics or do it more like some sort of secret mission sneaking from isle to isle?

 

Store managers tend to get a little spooked either way. I remember doing some display designs for a packaging company and they forgot to notify the store that we were coming. Manager was all set to call the cops hehe.

[NancyGormezano]

Did you just walk into Staples with a camera and start taking pics or do it more like some sort of secret mission sneaking from isle to isle?

 

Store managers tend to get a little spooked either way. I remember doing some display designs for a packaging company and they forgot to notify the store that we were coming. Manager was all set to call the cops hehe.

 

heh heh ...no I didn't go to staples for this exercise, because I always pick the same type of notebook regardless of store (always a student type, and follows the criteria I posted above). I already had the notebook (and many others), and I already know what all the local stores have, and it would have added even more time for this exercise.

 

BUT, now that you mention it, I do very much regret NOT going. I missed having a fun encounter with security, snooping aisle to aisle, taking photo upon photo, whilst casing the joint for potential goods.