Tom Posted June 12, 2020 Posted June 12, 2020 Hello Hashers- I am trying to simulate a time lapse building being constructed and it occurred to me that it might be useful to have a pose slider controlling the vertical axis transparency of the object so that the building appears to grow from the ground up...according to the sliders position. The only trouble is I can't figure out how to set a slider to do that. Does anyone have suggestions? Many thanks, Tom Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 12, 2020 Hash Fellow Posted June 12, 2020 This would be a great question for Live Answer Time if you want to drop by tomorrow! Quote
Tom Posted June 13, 2020 Author Posted June 13, 2020 I've never used Google Chat and will try to attend. If I don't get in it will be because of technical issues and not because of lack of interest. I am on a satellite internet as I live in a rural area and it sometimes is a slow connection. Tom Quote
Tom Posted June 13, 2020 Author Posted June 13, 2020 Here is another question if I can attend. I came across a SetUp Machine rig that Raf Anzovin created years ago and have been trying to deconstruct how it works...with little success. Maybe the rigging in this could be explained..? Tom Basic Guy TSMRig.mdl Quote
Fuchur Posted June 13, 2020 Posted June 13, 2020 A hint in the right direction but I am sure Robert will talk about it in the Live-Session: Gradient-Material (Transparent to Color) with a animated transform setting of the gradient. 1 Quote
Fuchur Posted June 13, 2020 Posted June 13, 2020 The second question is something VERY different and pretty complex to talk about. There are a lot of different techniques in there for instance many different kinds of constraints, expressions, poses, etc. I am pretty sure that can not easily be packed into one live session but needs to be covered in several. You might want to open another thread for that if you really want to go indepth on that one... Best regards *Fuchur* Quote
Tom Posted June 13, 2020 Author Posted June 13, 2020 Thank you for the tips...(BTW- I agree that the rigging question is probably too complicated for one session). I noticed Raf is now doing something called "Ephemeral Rigging" which looks interesting but again,... very complicated I presume:. https://lesterbanks.com/2018/10/raf-anzovins-ephemeral-rig/ Quote
Tom Posted June 13, 2020 Author Posted June 13, 2020 I am having trouble connecting. The microphone on one laptop wasn't working and the other (very old) laptop said that the hangout link did not have the correct security certificate and wouldn't connect and my phone said that the video link timed out because of an error... g.. I am going to try and connect through my desktop computer and see if I can type my question in.. if not I\ll try another day Quote
Tom Posted June 13, 2020 Author Posted June 13, 2020 Just attended the meeting and my AM IQ went up quite a few notches...Many thanks to Rob and the others! Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 13, 2020 Hash Fellow Posted June 13, 2020 Link to screencam of Live Answer Time session covering your question: https://youtu.be/GVWMQOaqPu8 Quote
Tom Posted June 14, 2020 Author Posted June 14, 2020 Excellent! Many thanks for taking the time to answer my question! I'll try to post an example when I get it to work! Tom Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 14, 2020 Hash Fellow Posted June 14, 2020 9 hours ago, Tom said: I noticed Raf is now doing something called "Ephemeral Rigging" which looks interesting but again,... very complicated I presume:. https://lesterbanks.com/2018/10/raf-anzovins-ephemeral-rig/ A quote from the article Quote ...To use the most obvious example, sometimes you want to pose a limb with IK, and sometimes with FK. The conventional rigging answer to this problem is FK/IK switching or blending, but this solution is a trap–now the animator needs to worry not just about how to pose the character, but how and when to switch, and what effect that will have on interpolation. I've never felt trapped by this. If you're worried about the interpolation, all you have to do is scrub the timeline and you can see how it's interpolating. Quote The “machine” model of rigging also limits what the controls can be called on to do. You might, for instance, want IK controls to follow along with FK controls and vice versa when manipulated, so that they are always in the right place for the animator to work with. Too bad! That’s a circularity. This is a head-scratcher. In A:M our seamless IK/FK controls follow each other just fine. Quote
itsjustme Posted June 14, 2020 Posted June 14, 2020 Also from the same article: Quote However, Maya’s scene graph can’t be used to create an ephemeral rig. To make this prototype possible, I had to write my own rigging system that sits on top of Maya, and interacts with the scene though node callbacks. This allows me to use ephemeral interaction for the main controls, and Maya’s scene graph for secondary controls and deformation. It looks very cool...and appears to have been quite an undertaking. Quote
Tom Posted June 14, 2020 Author Posted June 14, 2020 Great comments on the rigging. Will have to go back and study it in more detail... ...but in the meantime here is what Rob taught me yesterday. I used 4 frame holds on the incremental increases in opacity to approximate the jerkiness of time lapse videos. timelapse.mp4 1 2 Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 14, 2020 Hash Fellow Posted June 14, 2020 3 hours ago, Tom said: I used 4 frame holds on the incremental increases in opacity to approximate the jerkiness of time lapse videos. That was very effective! Quote
Tom Posted June 15, 2020 Author Posted June 15, 2020 Thanks! If you put some time lapse scaffolding and little cars along with a moving light source it could really be fun... Another related question. Can the pose slider controlling transparency be used for a curved object? Like a 3d model of a letter being revealed (see attached)? I took a cylinder and applied the transparent material.... then I deformed the cylinder into a letter, and the pose slider worked great. But I wonder if a pose slider can be applied without the step of sculpting the curved shape from a linear shape? Tom Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 15, 2020 Hash Fellow Posted June 15, 2020 54 minutes ago, Tom said: Can the pose slider controlling transparency be used for a curved object? Like a 3d model of a letter being revealed (see attached)? I took a cylinder and applied the transparent material.... then I deformed the cylinder into a letter, and the pose slider worked great. But I wonder if a pose slider can be applied without the step of sculpting the curved shape from a linear shape? That would be a great question for Live Answer Time! Until then, I can sort of imagine a Boolean cutter, keyframed with muscle mode animation in a pose slider, used to hide/reveal portions of the S-shape over time. Quote
Tom Posted June 15, 2020 Author Posted June 15, 2020 Sounds interesting... I will mark the calendar for next Saturday Live Answer Time and hope nothing comes up that demands my attention.. Attached is a 3D object to reveal. LetterS.mdl Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 20, 2020 Hash Fellow Posted June 20, 2020 On 6/14/2020 at 8:55 PM, Tom said: Another related question. Can the pose slider controlling transparency be used for a curved object? Like a 3d model of a letter being revealed (see attached)? I took a cylinder and applied the transparent material.... then I deformed the cylinder into a letter, and the pose slider worked great. But I wonder if a pose slider can be applied without the step of sculpting the curved shape from a linear shape? Tom The archive of our June 20, 2020 Live Answer Time discussion is now at... https://forums.hash.com/topic/48801-live-answer-time-less-live-archived-versions/?tab=comments#comment-417868 Quote
Tom Posted June 21, 2020 Author Posted June 21, 2020 On 6/14/2020 at 12:18 PM, Tom said: Thanks for posting the link! I sent a personal message asking for your Amazon wish list so I could send something as a thank you for all the tutoring...did you get the message? Tom Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted June 21, 2020 Hash Fellow Posted June 21, 2020 You're welcome, Tom! You don't need to get me anything, I enjoy helping people solve their A:M problem and get their project back on track ! That is fun enough for me. And the only thing left on my wish list anyway was the diamond tiara! 1 Quote
Tom Posted June 21, 2020 Author Posted June 21, 2020 OK... Many thanks! I did send a private message expanding on the Sweeper feature we were discussing yesterday. Would love to hear your thoughts on how difficult it would be to implement. Best, Tom Quote
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