learning the hard stuff

[Scottj3d]

I am currently building some models for an animation I plan to make. I am just starting to grasp the animation aspects of AM or software period. The ship is from the concept I used as my personal photo which was one of my 1st models in AM. The "bot" is sortof a cross between a mech and a tank. I have a pilot for the vehicles but am having fun learning to rig. Any info that can help make bones and constraints easier to understand would be appreciated. As well info on modeling environments and lighting and camera control will be appreciated. The models are still in the assembly stage and are set into a hangar or what will eventually be a hangar with some adjustments for reflection from the floor. The tracks on the "bot" are just adjustments in the surface as I have not yet started the decaling on it. I'll need advise as to what would be the best way to animate the trac's and any input will be studied. I haven't posted for a while but the pilots head is actually my 1st head model from a wip I posted when I first started modeling. The one pictured has a helmet and is the stunt double for the one I just mentioned.

[Scottj3d]

Here is the ship. I have done some animation tests but they are too large to post but I am having trouble getting a smooth accelleration when transitioning from hover to forward flight. I'll try to do some at a lower resolution that I can post. I have much to learn about animating so any input would be appreciated.

[starwarsguy]

That's pretty good.

[Scottj3d]

The concept for the bot.

[D.Joseph Design]

Cool, man! These have a fun G.I. Joe feel to them. I like it.

[Ganthofer]

The models are coming along nicely.

 

I know there is a tut on animating a tank tred. can't seem to find it at the moment, it might be on the ARM . The HASH A:M site has the basics and then check the ARM for specific tutorials.

 

As for rigging, the vehicles should be fairly simple as they don't appear to have to many moving parts.

 

For the Pilot, you might try the 2001 rig that comes on the CD. You could rig it with just minimal bones if it's not going to be fully animated and in a lot of animated closeups. If it's heavy on the physical action, you'll need a fairly good rig so you don't have to tweak all the kinks out when the arms and legs twist and distort due to a simple rig.

 

For the acceleration problem, have you tried creating an action for the acceleration and using a constrain to Path in the Chor? Just start a new action, Set the time to say 3sec (300) ,move the ship (for simplicities sake) in the x direction the distance you want it to travel from Zero to Max velocity (say 1000 cm). Now expand the Action in the PWS down to the Transform.Translate.? (this may be X,Y or Z depending on how the bone was oriented when you set up the rig) under the short cut to the model>Bones>"bone name". What yo will see is a (red/green/blue) line going straight from 00:00:00 (0) to 00:03:00 (1000). This is linear and if played back it will have a constant speed. What I do is turn on the SHow Bias Handles and in the PWS channel for the axis in question, left click on the point and you should see the bias handle show up. It will be in line with the graph. Make the Bias horizontal. This will give you a smooth acceleration. You can play with the bias handle length to change how quickly it gets up to speed. The trick is to match the ending slope of the channel to what your constant speed is going to be after the initial acceleration.

[Scottj3d]

They didn't have this stuff when I was a kid! Now I can have anything I can ponder so long as the splines wish. Kinda goin for a post apocolyptic GI Joe/Tom Sawyer feel with beer.

[Ganthofer]

Here's that animated Tank Tred Tutorial - http://www.lowrestv.com/arm/search3.asp?So...sc&keyword=tank

[ddustin]

Scott,

 

Great work! Keep going.

 

Uh.... where exactly is the beer?

[Scottj3d]

Ganthofer, Thanks for the links. I will need to absorb the tank tread animation tutorial as I am still learning the other than modelling skills in AM. I'll work on the accelleration first and play with my render settings to see if I can get the filesize down for posting. Ddustin the beer will be at the bar where my characters meet and the locals go to watch TV to see whats happening in post apocalyptic earth. So far it's only in the script....And the the belly of the artist. Heres the ship in the early stages and a wireframe. I will copy it today and see if I can lessen the splinage at the front of it. Thanks!

[hypnomike]

Impressive stuff Scott!

 

Great concept art, better than my stick men

 

Keep posting.

[Scottj3d]

Thanks for the input.Here is a shot of what I have so far of the cockpit of the ship. I am still building the guages and levers to give it a hard to operate appeal. I came up with the idea while playing a helicopter flight sim. It demonstrates what my PC is to me when I play So I opted to use a PC for the control of the ship.

[starwarsguy]

I think you should make a decal for the controls. First off, I think it looks too real next to the rest of the model. second, that decal (i'm assuming of your keyboard) has unever lighting and it won't look too good in an animation b/c the lighting is alrdy in that decal best of luck

[Scottj3d]

Starwarsguy, I agree about the keyboard. I am adding a couple of levers to one side and planning to make a different decal. I was testing a bumpmap to see if I could see the keys protruding but they dont protrude enough to make the keys stand out the way I wanted. It was an attempt to make the keys without splining them but as often as there will be close up's there I do not plan to model them. I have the bump decal saved in it's original format PSP with all my selections from making the bump so it wont be a hard task to change it. Thanks.

[Scottj3d]

Got the chaingun assembled and did some adjustments to other areas on the bot. I have the "arms " protruding from the cabin but not attached and saw this done on some of the models that came with the cd (wings on the planes). I guess under certain conditions this is considered acceptable? I have also done this with the ship and with all the parts that make up these models Connecting them to the main mesh would add many splines to the already dense ones some of the parts need to keep thier shape. The arms will move like human arms but I do not want moving the arm to affect the cabin as a human arm would desirably affect the shoulder and chest mesh.

[Scottj3d]

And a close up of the chaingun. The bottom will hold an ammo crate that detaches and reloads from a door that will open and feed crates from inside the chassis (front side of the main body. It can be seen in the concept pic.

[hypnomike]

Nice work Scott!

 

When can we expect the mayhem to begin?

[Scottj3d]

Soon as I start getting a better understanding of the animation aspects and get a set together. For me the modeling part is easy. Understanding poses and actions is just starting to happen. I did my first motion test about a week ago (barely) but it was enough to inspire me into thinking it will happen. AM is the first and only 3d software I have attemted to use. I love modelling and really want the action to start soon but I am kinda slow in the other areas. Part of why I posted was to get pointed in the right direction to straighten the curve a bit. I am reading all I can get my eyes on (but much of it is spanish to me) and playing around in the chor window trying to become more familiar (comfortable) with how things are done. I have a city and a secret hangar to build yet as well and many props. I made my ship fly which inspired me to get the pilot together(whom I still need to rig and figure out how to get into the ship and stay with it when it flies) Watching the online tutorials at the hash site helped me alot. Sometimes seeing it done makes it look easier than reading how to do it. Eventually it will come together as the desire is there. Thanks.

[hypnomike]

Keep it up Scott!

 

If animation was quick and easy everyone would be doing it.

 

You're making great progress.

 

Keep posting.

[Scottj3d]

Ok so here is my first constrain to path. Not much to see but a gnat flying in a circle. I expected a larger file size but this was decent size for posting. How can I get the camera view ? What I got here was what I was seeing on my monitor in the chor window. And can I constrain the camera to a path as I did the gna...ship to follow it in a closer view. Also what would be a good resolution for something this short. It still is moving too fast but the speed is steady. I plan to try again on this one and made a pose for the lift off then transition to the path then touchdown. The pose is simply a slider to change the altitude as that is about all I could come up with for this.

Ship_path.mov

[Ganthofer]

The scene is rendered from what ever view you are in (pressing 1 on the numeric key pad shows you the camera view). The camera could be constrained to "Aim At" the ship and can be constrained to a path (or path's). Paths don't have to be 2 dimensional, they can also have height.

[Scottj3d]

Yes I set the height but as you can see it was too high. Instead of lifting off it was already airborne. I'll keep playing with it till I get it right. I appreciate the tip on the camera view, aim at sounds like what I want. Perhaps that will get the gnat a bit closer in the view. Hmmm... Gnat may be a good name for the ship. I was almost ashamed to post it but at the same time I was proud to have done the path thing even if it is the tip of the iceburg. Making the pose gave me some insight into animating the pilot with no helmets face. Thanks again for the help! My next one will be better! I look forward to a time when this stuff seems as easy as modelling. Two weeks ago it was beyond me!

[Scottj3d]

Well I did the constrain to path and it came out decent but had some choppy spots but it was 30 kb too big and wouldn't upload. But it gave me a better feel for the speed and getting things smoother. I'm posting this one to see if it will upload and because it wasn't too bad. I didn't use the constrain to path but did tell the camera to aim at and I think I got too close to the camera (failed to pull the camera back) but when it landed the camera followed it. I'm not sure if I am right about that though. I used pose sliders for the upward and downward motion. The only thing I woulld change in the motion would be a slower liftoff with a noticable forward shift of the axis much like the stopping action at the end of the forward motion. Thanks fot the tips Ganthofer they helped alot. Now to work on the bots treads.

FT3.mov

[patsommer]

great job... cant wait to see how it comes out.

[entity]

Fantastic ship animation. It's definately got that hover craft feel to the motion. That was kool the way you allowed it to go out of frame and cut to a new angle-- smart way to handle that... most people would have just moved the camera, but whenever you move the camera, it's disorienting... so you have to change timing as a result. I'll have to remember that solution you have for scenes like that. Thanks.

[Scottj3d]

Thanks Entity, but to be honest the ship going out of frame was an accident. I have tried a few more renders and moved the camera and I understand about it being disorienting though. I'm still getting animating it right (or animating period) but it is supposed to have a helicopter/hovercraft feel to it. I'll be posting some screens of the secret hangar soon. I still have a few more props to build to get it together. The modelling has slowed up a bit due to my learning how to screw up choreographies. I'm using the "OK don't do that" approach!

[Scottj3d]

Well I've been modelling a new character who is my pilots pet. I have been seeing all these birds in the WIP section I had to see if I could make one. So far he is all diffuse colors with no decals (until this weekend) and still needs some tweaking. If anyone can point me towards some V11 hair tuts I am interested in learning to use hair. And would like to know if there is a way to make hair look like feathers.

[Scottj3d]

A close up of the head. The upper mandible will be getting a decal to correct the color as the entire mandible is not supposed to be totally black and for the face skin I will create a bumpmap as well as to define the feathers unless there is a "hair"solution. I would like to be able to "ruffle" the head feathers but splining them over the entire head seems like it would be the hard way.

[Scottj3d]

And a wireframe.

[hypnomike]

Hi Scott!

 

WOW, I wasn't expecting to see a parrot on this thread, great work.

 

Depending on how photorealistic you want things to be it looks ok as is, though the beak could do with specular highlights.

 

It'd be a good idea to keep your basic model to use when it's not in closeup and if you go for more detail use that for closeups. Decals can take up alot of memory so when he's not the centre of attention you could probably do without them.

 

Good luck with your project and keep those posts coming.

[Scottj3d]

I do want photorealism as I get better and I am told that this is not good for animation. I have 2 gigs of memory so I dont think that is a prob although I do have a couple of models that tend to slow the performance a bit. I had seen some other birds recently and got some ideas about modelling them but you just dont know until you try. He will only have a few appearances in the eventual animation but rather than start another WIP I tacked him on to this one. I was impressed with some of the realistic 3d stuff that I have seen in movies as and that was what got me looking to learn to do it myself. I like a challenge and it will be one to become that good. So much to learn!...yet.

[Scottj3d]

Trying my hand at environments. I would like to know how to add things like stars and a moon.Should the moon be a model placed in the chor or the stars be placed as a decal on a patch stretched across the background? Still working on some textures for my mountains. I'm thinking some bumpmaps for cracks down the sides of the mountains. I'm not sure as to the use of displacement and specularity maps. Any tips appreciated immensely! If the image is too light I can post a darker one. My AM machine displays it well but after bringing it into my internet machine with a lesser vidcard it was dark so I adjusted the B/C.

[Scottj3d]

Here's the darker one anyways. Also I lost my glow in the area in front of the seat. My glow is on but for some reason it no longer glows. Anybody got any ideas where I might have turned it off or maybe turned something on that wont allow it to glow. I have messed around with my render settings for experimental purposes so I may have enabled something that disabled glow. It is on in the camera settings as well as the render options just before rendering to file.

[Scottj3d]

Heres the bird with a bump for facial skin.

[Scottj3d]

Here is a closer look using "hair" for feathers. I suffered a serious performance decrease after adding "hair" so all I could do was his head. The effect was good but I doubt he will be animated with hair. As a matter of fact you probably wont see much more of this guy anytime soon. I learned some things building him and he will have a small part in the story so for the most part he has served his purpose.