Off-season Projects in 3D Animation

[BuddyB309]

Well its about that time again. Off season prodjects that your working on. We had a thread going last year and i got pretty big.

Post any prodjects your working on over the summer here. It doesnt have to be anything spectacular, a simple model will do. Well comment on it and point out a couple of things you could improve on. I like posting off season prodjects here instead of those CG forums cause people arent so harsh here. That way people wont get discouraged and we wont talk in that "CG lingo" as much. Its always a good thing to continue doing animation over the summer. It'll make you a much better animator when the next season comes around.

[BuddyB309]

I'll kick off this summer long thread by posting my current prodject im working on right now. Its for a contest.
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/8818/snapshot12kq9.jpg

and here is a close up of one of the characters

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/5347/qbertih2.jpg

and his cute little butt! :D

http://img382.imageshack.us/img382/1198/backsidemn5.jpg

Here are all three of the characters. that are in my prodject.
Picture (http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/6/oggyandfriendsho7.jpg)

[bobdahaxor]

that looks like the guy from this game in playstation called q-bert!

[fireball3004]

I really love how soft and smooth you got your charictor, how did you get the eyes so realistic though I can't seem to do it.

[Taylor]

that looks like the guy from this game in playstation called q-bert!

Game in playstation called Q-Bert? I remember Q-Bert in 1982 (http://members.aol.com/JPMLee/qbert.htm). Crikey, I'm old. 27 is the new 87.

[BuddyB309]

here is a time lapse video of me animateting. Its recorded with a free program called hypercam.

Animateting bert (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De9yC57YsHQ)

[Saru29]

This is my current project. After I finish modeling Gir i want to start teaching my self about bones and custom rigs. Anyone know any good tutorials for character animation?

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/1544/girzj3.png

[BuddyB309]

This is my current project. After I finish modeling Gir i want to start teaching my self about bones and custom rigs. Anyone know any good tutorials for character animation?


There arnt very many tutorials online for character animation but there are books. The best book that i ever got for character animation is "The Animators Survival kit" by Richard Willams. I highly recomend this to any animator out there. I use this book as a reference all the time.

Pink eye anyone?

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/3584/snapshot14dg7.jpg

Ouch! someone get these thorns out of my eye!
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3311/snapshot17ca6.jpg

[BuddyB309]

any of you that are wondering how i did the eye textures im makeing time lapses videos of my progress (partially cause i just discovered the wonders of Hypercam). Any way scince im free from the contraist of autodesk competition im free to use what ever program i want. Here is the movie.

Irritated eyes, fruit, and leaves (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PESm8PZ-2aE)


EDIT:
Wow, making these little videos is fun. I think everyone should record what they do and play it back. (I record it at one frame per second and then play it back at 24 frams per second). It really teaches you how you use your time, and how to improve so you are more efficiant. (plus i think i makes animateting seem really cool when its played back like that, especialy with music) Here is another video of me putting fruit and oggys eyeballs into the scene.


putting Eyes and fruit into the scene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFuw-mItfhg)

EDIT:

Big thanks to David (testament-doom) He is making the scenery. I never would have come up with something like that. Were still working on it together and still going strong. (although both of our sanity apears to be missing.....hmmmmmm)

[Testament-Doom]

Care to mention that I'm helping you with this too? :).

EDIT:

And now.. Time lapses, Testament-Doom version of the project

Spreading the grass and flowers onto the scene (ends with a crash, but I recover) (http://youtube.com/watch?v=eXG-w8eIddE)
Modeling the spikey pear (If you get an error message, wait like 30 minutes or an hour or so) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7upga_Djqs)

[spinmunky]

oh how i wish i could use Max the way you two do... i'm not too great at it. I can't model at all either.:(

[Salik Syed]

Your character models are very creative and well done!
I know it's still probably a WIP so all the textures and stuff aren't done ... but some grass and realistic textures would make those scenes awesome.

Character animation is one of those things I never really mastered properly -- i might look into that book you suggested! I saw your time lapse videos and it just shows ya how hard it is to get a really fluid realistic/professional looking animations.
Your animation wasn't bad though!

[Testament-Doom]

Heh, the pictures you're seeing is using an old version of the scenery. Right now I am currently making the scene have grass where grass is needed, and am making a complete flower bed where the clump of grass and flowers are. The idea is that this is a park, the plane you see is supposed to be mowed grass. I needed to redo the grass placement again and flower placement to make it a tad better so I can edit it and place it manually after. Once I get that part done, I'll see if anything else needs to be added on along with BuddyB309, and then from there, finish it up :).

We're close to done btw, modeling and animating and all, and then we have to render it, which we got plenty of time to do, and it won't take more than a few days at most (my guess, but who knows if the render settings will change).

[BuddyB309]

oh how i wish i could use Max the way you two do... i'm not too great at it. I can't model at all either.:(

LOL! I was saying the same thing you are at this time last year. If you dont belive me just check out the "off season competition/animtion" thread of last year. Abroerman posted a beautiful model of a mech and i asked "how do you get that good?!!" (I've yet to get to the level he is at in modeling, Put as far as character animation goes, I have not seen any work of his that has a smooth flow that im capable of.)

Just keep woking at it. Learn as much as you can, 3dtotal.com has great tutorials. Also learn comitment. Dont jump from project to project just because you got bord of it and want something new. finish what you start. after you finish your first big idea. Finishing the next one is a WHOLE lot easier and forces you to work with mistakes rather than abondoning them and forgetting them.

Learn to be fast: One of the best things i could do is speed modeling challenge or speed (insert aspect of 3D here) challenge. The Faster you are the more you can dish out. Dont sit and wait for a test render. Open up another program (if you computer can handel it) and work on something else. I found that once your in the "zone" you'll get a lot done. Test renders, checking email, going on chiefdelphi, or any other thing other than your project breaks your "zone." For me, its hard to get back in this animation zone, but once i do, im on a roll. (translation: I have no life. Just kidding)

If you really like animation, learn as much as you can now and NEVER stop challengeing yourself. I know it sounds clich`e but it works. I wanted to try camera matching and tracking. Read up about it did a test aniamtion (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxlr72b_2M4) and then when i knew what i was doing, did my War of the Worlds project (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8tyHkKBH5M) It was tough, but i learned a LOT.

Dont worry, if all you think about is animation then your on the right track. It will snap one day (long after your mind snaps;) ) and it will just hit you. Then you will be cranking out stuff that i do. You will always have a feeling though that you dont know enough. Im very surprised people say im good, I never see that in my eyes and attempt to learn more.

good luck i hope this gives you an insight.

[Wedge34]

abroerman is just too good
Winnovation's animation was awesome this year, I thought it was an HP commercial at first
This looks very nice too
See you guys at STL next year, loved your robot



still trying to make boxes in 3ds- completely different animal than inventor

[BuddyB309]

Hey dudes, ive been working hard (I havent seen the outdoors in two weeks, even though i hear there is gorgeous weather out side) here is an update of me and david's project.

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/6391/screenshot22hq8.jpg

[Salik Syed]

Well since we are all posting our stuff...
lemme post my character... I think I wanna do a really good professional quality animation this summer.

Here is the robot character... I use him in my sig, and for my website (hence the block letter names)


http://stanford.edu/~ssyed/Templates/banner.jpg
What do you guys think?

[BuddyB309]

Well since we are all posting our stuff...
lemme post my character... I think I wanna do a really good professional quality animation this summer.

Here is the robot character... I use him in my sig, and for my website (hence the block letter names)

What do you guys think?

you owe me a new keyboard. I went to your website and looked at your gallery and instantly began drooling all over.

You're modeling supreme. Now lets se your characters live.;) Make em dance!

Flowers YAY!
Makeing and putting in flowers into the scene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU6P6sg3rNY)

[Salik Syed]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the stuff.
I have wanted to make an animation for the LONGEST time... FIRST animations just don't cut it because I'm very involved with other parts of the team -- so I never have time to do a decent animation, in addition to the fact that there are only 30 seconds to animate with. Animation is one of those things you really need to read a book on -- it's very technical -- and I just don't have time during the season.

But hopefully I'll be able to post a short clip up this summer!

If you guys want inspiration check out cgtalk.com
(you'll probably need to get ANOTHER keyboard after seeing this lol)
but seeing some of the works on there just humbles and inspires any artist

[Testament-Doom]

Well... animation, modeling... anything wise for me, all I ever got my creativity and techniques forom was a couple of tutorials on specific topics, and my mind. That's it. I don't use books or anything like that. Shocking, no? lol. Any idea I come up with in my head that I want to do in 3ds max comes with the idea I have in mind, and with work, if I run into somethnig, I try to research on the web, and I find a solution to a problem. That's how I learn everything, and with each proect, big or small, I learn new things. :)

[Salik Syed]

It's true you can do a lot using online tutorials and such...(in fact that's where I've learned everything so far). I'd say it's mind blowing how revolutionary the internet has been in making info available ... Pepole can learn how to do almost anything online (I learned how to code in PHP just this week through tutorials and such). However the stuff I learned online is more of a mish-mash of techniques and ideas instead of a real education!

the fact is to create studio quality animation you need to invest significant amounts of time and effort into learning new techniques. Just look at stuff at CGTalk... that is the quality i'm trying to attain, in order to do that it takes alot more than a few tutorials. it takes years of experience, education and books lol

[BuddyB309]

the fact is to create studio quality animation you need to invest significant amounts of time and effort into learning new techniques. Just look at stuff at CGTalk... that is the quality i'm trying to attain, in order to do that it takes alot more than a few tutorials. it takes years of experience, education and books lol

Ah, techniques and tricks of doings to doing things, i found that is one thing that tutorials wont teach you. For example, how to get lights and materials to syncronise into harmony so you get that really good look. Or how to make your project move more efficiantly and smoothly. Many Tutorials wil teach you how to skin a character and get him ready for animation and then leave it at that.

Speaking of which.

how did you get your robot to look really really good? where are you lights posistioned? and what material and renderer are you useing?

The prodject ive been working on so hard is now in the rendering phase. Since being free from the contraints of autodesk im rendering my project out in layers and putting it together in after effect for some fine tweaking.

[fireball3004]

I still don't understand how you got the pupil on your guy's eye... I tried on my aliens (that were facing away from you) but to no success. In adition (to Testament-Doom) how did you relacate all of the flowers in the right places???

[Testament-Doom]

The flowers I actually didn't do (the new ones), BuddyB309 did them and he did them manually. He has a link on youtube that shows exactly how he does it. The grass that's on there however (yes, there are some things you haven't seen yet ;)) which is along the path of the flowers I did, and I used a certain technique to do it, which was I took the whole line of the edge of the sidewalk, made a spline, and used the spacing tool, then with a script, I randomly rotate the grass.

[firebelly]

*32 being such a small team, I did not have time to make a contest entry. I do have other projects that I have worked on, however. To see them go to my deviant art site:
http://frenotx.deviantart.com/
Any comments and suggestions (especially on the tank on the front page) will be gladly appreciated.

[BuddyB309]

*32 being such a small team, I did not have time to make a contest entry. I do have other projects that I have worked on, however. To see them go to my deviant art site:
http://frenotx.deviantart.com/
Any comments and suggestions (especially on the tank on the front page) will be gladly appreciated.

cool design. Can i see the original concept drawings? Now all you have to do is texture it and make a short animation with it. Maybe some shots fired, throw in some particles for some smoke, heck, why not throw in some fracture reactor and some models with ragdoll contraints;) . Then you can make a building collaspe and have water spewing out of the broken pipes pipes;) (just kidding)

I would really like to see it textured though I think it could look really cool.


I still don't understand how you got the pupil on your guy's eye... I tried on my aliens (that were facing away from you) but to no success. In adition (to Testament-Doom) how did you relacate all of the flowers in the right places???

Ah the good old fashion eye with the dialateing publi! I cant tell you the number of hours I spent figureing this one out! Lets start with the very basic

Sphere + eye texuture and a look at contraint to a point.

simple enough for most things that are in AVA entries now lets say you want a cartoonish eye with a black pubil and white conea, no iris.

same as above but insted of an eye texture you need a gradint ramp with solid change from white to black. Then set up a silder and wire parameter the slider to control the flag on the gradient ramp.

K, that is good for some things. but what if you want really really good eyes. you have to know how a eye functions. The irirs is actually concave and the pubil is a hole. So make a shere with a section on it that is concave like an eye. You dont need to cut a hole in the sphere, just make sure that the material that is for the pubil doesnt reflect any light. Then there is this clear thing that goes over your iris and pubil. I dont know what its funcion is or whats is called, but the main thing it does in max is create a specular. You always want a specular on the eye otherwise it doesnt look good. So set up the specualar.

Now scince this this has different parts to it take full advantage of the Multi sub material. And to make the pubil dialate set up a morph mod and set your refference with a smaller pubil (am i explaning this right?).

Pm me if you have any questions.

[Salik Syed]

Hey firebelly your modelling is very clean and detailed! I am impressed.

Props

-Salik

[BuddyB309]

WEEEEE HEE HEEE!!!!! almost done!!!

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/8946/camera02final0000103um3.jpg

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/4418/camera01final0000100lr3.jpg

[firebelly]

Hey firebelly your modelling is very clean and detailed! I am impressed.

Props

-Salik
Thanks! That is a great complement to hear. And BuddyB309, I can't wait to see the finished version!

[fireball3004]

I'm really no good at charictor animation and I only know what I tought myself, but how did you get your charictor's bipeds? plus the apparent eyebrow motion in the last pic.?

[BuddyB309]

I'm really no good at charictor animation and I only know what I tought myself, but how did you get your charictor's bipeds? plus the apparent eyebrow motion in the last pic.?

I stay well away from bipeds, They are not as comtumizable as creating your own rigs from bones, (I know Gasp!). To me its not that hard because I have riged so many characters. It is similar to the biped but scince it is with bone i can slap on some IK parameters and that makes animation a whole lot easier. (You just have to make sure that the movement flows in archs instead of strait lines, newbies tend to not pay attention to that and then the characters movements look very unatural.) Then i Link just about everything to dummies and shapes so i can easily select them. The little red guy there (AKA bert) was a little awkward to rig, his legs are really short and his feet are really big. I had a couple of problems but solved it with Joint angle deformer and bulge deformer gizmo in the skin mod. But since the little guy has no knees, i had to develop a way for him to walk. He kinda wadles.

Anyway, on to your question about the Eyebrows animation. That is done with the morph modifier. I wouldn't recomend doing Eye brows with bones. It could lead into trouble and morpher mod is much easier. I do all my facial animation with the morph mod (except eyelids, those are half spheres) The only problem with the morph is that if you make a change in the characters verticies after you set up the facial rig, you would have to redo the whole facial rig. (but thats only happens as a result of poor planing right?;) )

Then i set up a kind of control board for all the facial movements and then animate from there. Here are some pictures of what the character rigg looks like. http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/7568/controlbunnyls9.jpg

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/1826/controlpanel4bunnygp8.jpg

As you can tell it is very complex, the rabbit character (AKA Narf) has about about 60 point to animate to get him to move. It seems a little excessive but this character rig can dish out any type of action you can think of.

[firebelly]

Wow, that is pretty complicated. Seems effective, though. I personally don't have much experience with animation, especially ones involving characters. Heck, I hardly make anything organic anyways. This does seem like a good way to approach it. I really like the idea of a control board. I will have to keep this in mind for future endeavors... :)

[fireball3004]

I usually just make charictors... my animation skills are so so... is it against the rules to make the charictors and scene for the animation in the summer? I just won't have time to do it during next season, as I animate slowly and everyone is becoming a "builder".

[BuddyB309]

I usually just make charictors... my animation skills are so so... is it against the rules to make the charictors and scene for the animation in the summer? I just won't have time to do it during next season, as I animate slowly and everyone is becoming a "builder".

Go for it man, I have this really cool idea of a danceing ted Bordman for the end credits in the animation next year. The only problem you might run into is that the character might not fit the theme next year. But there is always ways to incorporate a character into a story.

[BuddyB309]

All right! I have our project done and uploaded into the contest! check it out here (http://www.ilaugh.com/contest_app/videos/view/86) Make sure to vote for May 1st - July!!

[cooker52]

Sweeeeeet! You did an awesome job on that. How long did it tak you to make it? And just out of curiosity, how easy is it to use 3D Max? I'm hoping to learn it over this summer.

[BuddyB309]

Sweeeeeet! You did an awesome job on that. How long did it tak you to make it? And just out of curiosity, how easy is it to use 3D Max? I'm hoping to learn it over this summer.

if you used a 3d program before then it should be pretty easy. If this is the first time working with 3D animation, get ready for some headaches. Its very intimidating at first but then i gets really fun. Try to get someone on your team to teach you and get you through the basics. Then its all fun and games from there.

That little segment took me four months to complete. The character animation took at least a month and i worked my but off durring that period.

[cooker52]

Its very intimidating at first but then it gets really fun.

Don't worry, I'm used to intimidating stuff. How else would I get caught up with school after being gone for a semester?

Yes, I will be expecting it to be intimidating, but hey, that makes it all the more fun. Thanks for the info.

[Testament-Doom]

It's been great working with you on the scenery Peter. The animation turned out really well. Once I get myself off of garry's mod, and back onto full track 3ds max (yeah, I started playing recently, lol), Imma make really nice sceneries for everyone to use like eye candy ;)

[fireball3004]

nice animation and very funny. Not what I thought it wasgoing to be but really good. how did you match up the mouths and the sound?

[Magiciandude]

Hey,

Wow, this still just plainly amazes me every time I watch it to the extent that my eyes are like this :eek:
Just...wow...
I can't wait to see any of your future projects. I also watched all of your rig tests etc. on youtube. You are my hero...even though I use blender :D

Also, here is my character rig test! (http://www.badluckbob.com/heavytestb.mov)

Please let me know where I can improve :D

-Chris Folea(pronounced Fowliuh)
"If you're not living on the EDGE, then you're taking up too much space..."

[BuddyB309]

nice animation and very funny. Not what I thought it wasgoing to be but really good. how did you match up the mouths and the sound?

8 am to midnight everyday durring spring break and a couple of weekends after that. Its just a tedious process and you just match the mouth to the sound.


Hey,

Wow, this still just plainly amazes me every time I watch it to the extent that my eyes are like this
Just...wow...
I can't wait to see any of your future projects. I also watched all of your rig tests etc. on youtube. You are my hero...even though I use blender

Also, here is my character rig test!

Please let me know where I can improve

I see a number of things.

In the upper part of the arm there is a little of pinching. You might want to fix that with a morph deformer or gizmo if there is one in blender. Otherwise your going to have to mess with the wieghts of each verticie.

Another thing. The character is obviously picking up something very very heavy. So the character has to get his wieght a close to the object as possible before attemping to lift. If i lifted something like that, it would likely throw out my back.

Also the movmets are very very robotic like. Your forgetting your character has weight to shift around. Try having some side movment of the hips so when he picks up the foot. Some of the steps he takes are a little to fast. And when someone has a very heavy load on them thier steps become quick and cover a very short distance. Yours are quick, be cover a large distance. It makes it look unatural.

(looks through footage)

He goes down on his knee way way to fast. IF that was cement hes kneeing on, he would seriously hurt his knee caps. Hes also not shifting his wieght before he goes to his knee. I acted out going to my knees from standing position and noticed that i take a short step forward, then drop to my knee with the opposite leg. Also having him focus on the object while he drops to his knees would make more sense. I dont know why he looks towards the sky. Perhaps you didnt key the head?

(looks at footage)

I dont see any wrist movment. Are there separate joints for them? Writs on the arm tend to lag behind the movement of the arm. Such as the end of a rope does went you swing it.

(looks at footage)

The feet slide as he picks up the box to his knee. Is this on purpose? If my feet slid while i was picking up something heavy it would probably throw me off balance. Normally people make sure they have solid footing before they pick up anything heavy. Thats why you tend to shift your wieght alot when your going to lift something you know is very heavy.

(looks at footage)

I see that you reversed the arch in his back just before the lift. Good going but i would like to see it a little more exagerated. Maybe it doesnt look at good cause the character isnt as close to the box as he should be.

(looks)

Have him put an arm under the box. I think something that heavy and smooth would slip out of the hands. Also that whip when he finally gets his wieght under the boxs looks painful. I think anyone lifting anything would serioulsy hurt themselves if they tried that. I know what your going for but the back needs to reverse its arch before that happens. That way it looks like the muscles kick in and then the back starts to move. Hip also has to go down a little bit when he gets the box in its full lifted position. That kind of lift people are throwing the object and then catching it, hence the hip moving down so the person can get there wieght under the object.

(yay grading is over)

Sorry to pick apart your animation like this. But it really helps people learn. I think you can see some of your mistakes and hopfully make it look more fluid. If you could show me a screen shot of the character rig i would be able to help you out more.

On another note, i still dont know how you did that fork thing. That was just weird. I still have that fork, it poked me in my pocket the rest of the day.

[Magiciandude]

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!!! You have no clue how much I appreciate this :D

I'm working on re-animating it right now...

-Chris Folea(pronounce Fowliuh)
"Don't make fun of someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes...that way you're a mile ahead of them AND you have their shoes!"

[Wirelesstaco]

Buddy good work on your animation. If I were to rank it I would give it a 7 out of 10. The animation was very well done but there was something off about it. Maybe if the script was changed up a bit It could have made it amazing. But over all very good. I did watch a few other animations and and I think you definitely placed top 3 in your category. Another thing is i did not see to many animations above 2 minuets im wondering if some poor animation is going to get some prize money.
P.S. I gave you 5 star.

[BuddyB309]

Dark and scary alien space craft! OH NO!

http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/6268/spaceshipwithtractorbeabu0.jpg


I dont have the thing textured yet but this is what its going to look when all the lights are working. The tractor beam in the front isnt on this picture. Its pretty scary huh?
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/7614/searchlightsjj5.jpg

[firebelly]

Nice work. The model looks quite clean and the lights are awesome.

[BuddyB309]

Morgan, tom, and I did a speed modeling challenge. The theme was an alarm clock. The rules are that you have one hour to model, texture, light, and render your object. Here are my results.

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/3120/clockfinalkh9.jpg

I highly advise anybody who wants to become good at modeling to take part in these. These little challenges help you become a fast at what you do. And being fast at what you do means getting more done in a shorter amount of time. And getting more done in a shorter amount of time means a better looking AVA entry and more trophies! :D

Anybody who is still interested in how i did this I also have a time lasp of the me modeing up on youtube. You can learn how I do things and maybe will see some techniques you never thought of doing. time lapes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_gLHoIAYXY)

[cooker52]

Dang.:eek: That was fast!

[Wirelesstaco]

That was the best time lapse video that i have seen you make. Very cool. In a few months I will try and make some time lapse videos too. Good work tho

[Morgan Gillespie]

If only I figured out what was wrong with my on screen recorder before I got to far into the challenge. Oh well. These were my results.
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9338/crappyalarmclocktg3.jpg
Not happy, I got distracted during the time again.

[BuddyB309]

Some footage of the space ship moving is up on youtube. Check it out here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlYT7sbQeq8)

[Theflexmaster]

This is just a quick project i did the other day.

[URL="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/54157505/"]

[BuddyB309]

This is just a quick project i did the other day.

[URL="http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/54157505/"]

oooo wow, very nice. Very realistic.

[addictedMax]

Pete remeber most dont know my name. (My name is Tom if you didnt guess people)

[firebelly]

Some footage of the space ship moving is up on youtube. Check it out here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlYT7sbQeq8)
This is looking great. The lighting effects are super nice.

[fireball3004]

My friend sent me a simple model of a starship and I turned it into a voyager more or less (not perfect by anymeans)... but I still don't know how to add textures to parts of objects. Could somebody help me out with that?
PS nice animations

[BuddyB309]

My friend sent me a simple model of a starship and I turned it into a voyager more or less (not perfect by anymeans)... but I still don't know how to add textures to parts of objects. Could somebody help me out with that?
PS nice animations

Hmm.. First off you might want to clean up your model a bit. The mesh smooth you put on is causeing some problems with it. To add textures (lets say from a picture file) hit "M" to bring up the material modifier panal. Then go where it says diffuse and click the grey square next to the color chooser. It will bring up a new window and choose bitmap from that. Then you pick the texture file you want and then you can apply it to you object by draging the materal over to your object.
Now if 3ds max cant figure out how the UVW cordinates line up and need you to tell it how the textures line up. There are two ways you can align the textures up in your model.
UVW Map modifer
-this allows you to choose how program "projects" the texture onto the model. Apply this to your object and you can choose many ways in which the material lines up. This is quick and easy.

Unwrap UVW
This is more advanced. I do not suggest taking this route unless you fully understand materials and want cleaner and better results. (it takes more time also but produces the best results if done right) (Also works good with organic models) What this does is takes pieces of your model and you can flatten them out so you get a picture with just a wire frame that you can draw on. This is normally used with photoshop or another program similar to photoshop to do most of the texture work.

If you are still confused on what any of these are there is always the User Refference that you can refur to. Bring it up in max by pressing "F1" If you dont have a copy of the User Refference on your computer you can always go to the autodesk website and download a copy of the user refference for free.

[Saru29]

This is the most recent project I started. I plan to animate the two most perfect alliances going at it. So far this is all I have done. Please tell me what you think.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=auoz9Mj3sIA

Here is a close up of the drive base.
http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=5313479

[firebelly]

The drivetrain looks very good. I would suggest going back and chamfering the edges of the chassis. You would be surprised at how much of a difference it can make: Chamfer those edges! (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/52563514/?qo=5&q=by%3Afrenotx&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps)
Also, I was wondering why you chose not to use any chains. Does your robot really run off of gears? If you need advice on how to do chains, just let me know. Either way, the model looks good and clean.

[BuddyB309]

I definatly agree with firebelly, You need to chamfer those edges.

Now about that animation clip you have of the robot picking up the innertube on youtube. Your forgetting that the inner tube has wieght to it. The part of the tube that is not directly in contact with the robot (the the side that is sticking out) is not going to want to go up as fast as the rest of the tube. Have a slight lag in it as it goes up. (some bend modifier). Thats pretty fast for a lifting mechanism in a robot. Going up that fast is likely to shake the front weels off the ground. The animation doesnt look convinceing cause your not paying attention to the wieght that is being thrown around.
************************************************** **

I have another update for my spaceship posted up on youtube. (dont look at the movement of the craft i was more worried about the light animation)

space ship update 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1qZ42Pg-PI)

[Saru29]

Thanks for all of the advice. I will be sure to fix all of that as soon as I get the chance.

[firebelly]

The lights on that space ship are looking great! I have never had much skill in the lighting department.
Btw, what is that music? It is pretty cool.

[BuddyB309]

The lights on that space ship are looking great! I have never had much skill in the lighting department.
Btw, what is that music? It is pretty cool.

The music is from oceans eleven soundtrack

[firebelly]

Here is a link to my newest project [WIP]: Rock Harvester (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/54797284/)
Still have a lot to do, but this thing is fun to watch never the less. An interesting note is that all of the mechanisms are realistic. That is, they could be built in real life. Hooray for not breaking the laws of physics!

[Saru29]

That looks really great! I am still not at that level of modeling.

Here is a small project I did when i got home from school. i wanted to work on textues.http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/9121/earthoj9.png

[firebelly]

Dang, that is a sweet Earth! :)

By the way, I love the music in the background of you 3d youtube video. Very spiffy.

[BuddyB309]

That looks really great! I am still not at that level of modeling.

Here is a small project I did when i got home from school. i wanted to work on textues.

It a good start but there are a few things I want to point out. The atmosphere is not convincing.

You need to think of the eart in layers, there is the surface layer (ground and water) cloud layer (this is so clouds can cast a shadow on the ground) and then the atmosphere layer.

The atmosphere layer is pretty tricky. Picture a space scene in your mind. The glow that you get from the atmosphere is always on the edges of the earth right? So for the outermost sphere you need some falloff so i only appears there. But if you picture it the atmosphere some more you realise that the only way the atmosphere is glowing is because the sun is shinning through it. (this is why you see the glow of the atmosphere before you see the sun in a solar sunrise.) So you need the make the falloff light and shadow. dont use the glow effect in max, you dont have enough control over the glow of the atmophere and you cant acheive the solar sunrise effect.

One tutorial that i found that explained it to me is right here. Photorealistic earth (http://www.noirextreme.com/earth)

I tried it out and here is what i came up with. (dont look at the stars i know they're ugly)http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/103/earthqq2.jpg

Here is a link to my newest project [WIP]: Rock Harvester
Still have a lot to do, but this thing is fun to watch never the less. An interesting note is that all of the mechanisms are realistic. That is, they could be built in real life. Hooray for not breaking the laws of physics!

whoa, cool. Im not really good at coming up with mechanical designs, i love the motions. What is it suppose to be doing. The only thing i have against it is the two big tires. They seem weak compared to everyting else. Good job though, cant wait to see when it is finished.

[[shadow]]

yeah i too need to begin working on learning the autodesk stuff for next year

[BuddyB309]

hey dudes im finally done with the space ship project i was working on. The last thing i had to do was compositeting into some footage that was taken. I had to turn a day scene into a night scene and then make the lights from the space ship affect the ground some how. I figured it out and i think it turn out pretty good. Check it out here space ship update (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C1f7Z7RBBM)

[fireball3004]

Loved it I especially liked how it meshed with the background. Thought that the end part witht he two guys was a little random though.

[BuddyB309]

Well now that i have my space ship project done, I started my new one. (Yes im always working on something) Its another oggy short. I'll keep you all posted.

Oggy clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9frTxeXUsw)

Click the link above to see a short preview

[Salik Syed]

Awesome animation...
parts I liked:
The end where he makes the disappointed head bound

crits:
I think the motion on the "girl" eye is a bit to exaggerated, and also it looks like the same key frames... it's not varied enough... I would slow down the pace as well.
Secondly when the blue eye jumps it is at a very high speed and from very far... yet his legs don't take very much shock, try to show the lends bending and re-balancing when he gets back.
The girl when she closes her eye, I think the head turn should be slower to give off more of the feel that "i'm rejecting you" kind of a pompous slow "hmmmph" kind of head turn.

All in all good though!!

[BuddyB309]

Awesome animation...
parts I liked:
The end where he makes the disappointed head bound

crits:
I think the motion on the "girl" eye is a bit to exaggerated, and also it looks like the same key frames... it's not varied enough... I would slow down the pace as well.
Secondly when the blue eye jumps it is at a very high speed and from very far... yet his legs don't take very much shock, try to show the lends bending and re-balancing when he gets back.
The girl when she closes her eye, I think the head turn should be slower to give off more of the feel that "i'm rejecting you" kind of a pompous slow "hmmmph" kind of head turn.

All in all good though!!

Yeah i cleaned it up a lot after i posted that clip online. That was a rough just to see how the pace of the scene would go. The project is comming along nicely, i have only 4 more camera angles to animate then im done, unless i decide to but in some scenery.

[Testament-Doom]

Say that again BuddyB, scenery? ;) ;)

[BuddyB309]

Here is our animation team's recruiting video that we made in two days. Its a little over the top but its design is to get kids overly excited about joining the animation team. recruiting vid (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RG1dXO19Pk)

[cooker52]

Truthfully, I would love to learn from you in person. Has been that way, and with that movie, it only buts the icing on the cake, A BIG CAKE!:D

Awesome, tell me how many people you get from that movie itself when you show it.

[BuddyB309]

Truthfully, I would love to learn from you in person. Has been that way, and with that movie, it only buts the icing on the cake, A BIG CAKE!:D

Awesome, tell me how many people you get from that movie itself when you show it.


oh shucks.... you make me blush.

Funny story. The mechanical team was presenting to some classes to make kids join the mechanical team. They showed the video to the class because one of the students that was presenting was also on the animation team. Upon seeing the video some kids imediately signed up for the animation team. Its really funny because the mechanical team student leader and i have had a constent feud bettween us. Well, not really a feud but we are the type of friends who disagree with eachother about anything and everything and we think what eachother has to say is unimportant. But never the less we enjoy makeing each other frusterated. I could only smile to think what his reaction was when people started signing up for animation on his presentation.

[BuddyB309]

whats this? have all the animators crawled back into there caves to animate? or have they taken a break from animation? *gasp!* there is no break from animation! there is no break from FIRST! It owns you..... and you cant help yourself but to like it.

on a more serious note. I would like to see more off season stuff. Im working on a project right now and its.....um......well.....not for chiefdelphi. In its story board phase it doesnt look to great. But it will be cute when its finished. (at least if it ever gets finished, It keeps getting pushed back and then it takes a lot to keep motivation up for it.)

other than my personal project the animation team is doing a hand washing animation for the local elementary schools. I think it will turn out nice. Its due in october. And of course im still teaching animation to the new incoming freshmen.

[firebelly]

I just finished the concept sketch for my next big 3D project, but I really don't want to start working on it until I get my new computer running. Get this: I have 4 hard drives in this new rig in a raid 0+1 array. One of the four drives crashes violently and causes a power surge. The surge corrupts some windows files (on the whole array), frys my floppy drive, and screws up the floppy port on the motherboard. Now whenever I try to read a floppy with my (new) floppy drive, the little light comes on, and the drive acts like it's reading, but I can never actually pull any data off it. I know it's a good drive because I tested it in my other machine. No floppy=no raid drivers=no windows. $@#$@#$@#$@# you seagate!:mad:

[Magiciandude]

I'm ALMOST done with my animation...I've been working on it for quite some time now. It doesn't quite match up to oggy and friends, but I'm proud of it...I'm also working on some stuff for a movie my friends and I are making...mostly on a blue screen...with lots of effects and stuff(will occupy me for at LEAST half of the year)...

BUT...

You can be expecting to see some stuff from me soon!

I agree though...ANIMATION MUST NEVER STOP!!!

OH...and I just bought after effects...a LEGAL copy!!! I'm happy about that :D...it shall be much better than the crappy home software I've been using...Of course any tips on using it would be appreciated(lighting etc)...I have no Idea how to match lighting with the lighting of the real scene...

-Chris Folea(pronounced Fowliuh)
"Dreams are like rainbows...only idiots chase after them!"

[BuddyB309]

OH...and I just bought after effects...a LEGAL copy!!! I'm happy about that :D...it shall be much better than the crappy home software I've been using...Of course any tips on using it would be appreciated(lighting etc)...I have no Idea how to match lighting with the lighting of the real scene...

-Chris Folea(pronounced Fowliuh)
"Dreams are like rainbows...only idiots chase after them!"

K i can help you out there. since you have after effects. you must and i repeat YOU MUST RENDER OUT YOUR STUFF IN MAX IN LAYERS!! Then you import it into after effects (or combustion) and then there you can tweak it and get your results instantly without waiting 12 mins for a frame. You need a beauty pass, diffuse pass, all you lights as separate files, z detph (thats for distance blur), reflections, and everything else in separate layers.

I know its a hard concept to understand but its how you achieve "the look". you know what "look" im talking about. The one that makes animation look really really good. "The Look" of something coming out of any animation studio. the "Pixar" look. The look that you cant achieve with max, no matter how hard you try. "The look" is done by rendering it out in layers then compositing it all in AE or combustion. Thats how i did oggy and friends. Plus you can get really nice effects without eating up rendering time.

For example. If i want distance blur. I could let 3ds max render each frame twelve times (yuk) or i can just have max render out a Z-depth pass. (found in the "render out elements" in the render menu) then i take the Z-depth and use it as a mask for the blur in After effects and poof! you have distance blur! Distance blur that you can tweak if you want the background more blurry! or you could use Z-depth to change the color of the background, or add some fog, or add in another character, or composit live action video, or use particles to tear up just the background, or whatever you can think of. Instead of tweaking and waiting for you results, layers acutally cut down on render time.

Also you will need to "Dirty up" the special effects. Add a small amount of blur and flim grain, Maybe make the colors flicker a little. somehow it makes it more realistic.

[spinmunky]

K i can help you out there. since you have after effects. you must and i repeat YOU MUST RENDER OUT YOUR STUFF IN MAX IN LAYERS!! Then you import it into after effects (or combustion) and then there you can tweak it and get your results instantly without waiting 12 mins for a frame. You need a beauty pass, diffuse pass, all you lights as separate files, z detph (thats for distance blur), reflections, and everything else in separate layers.

I know its a hard concept to understand but its how you achieve "the look". you know what "look" im talking about. The one that makes animation look really really good. "The Look" of something coming out of any animation studio. the "Pixar" look. The look that you cant achieve with max, no matter how hard you try. "The look" is done by rendering it out in layers then compositing it all in AE or combustion. Thats how i did oggy and friends. Plus you can get really nice effects without eating up rendering time.

For example. If i want distance blur. I could let 3ds max render each frame twelve times (yuk) or i can just have max render out a Z-depth pass. (found in the "render out elements" in the render menu) then i take the Z-depth and use it as a mask for the blur in After effects and poof! you have distance blur! Distance blur that you can tweak if you want the background more blurry! or you could use Z-depth to change the color of the background, or add some fog, or add in another character, or composit live action video, or use particles to tear up just the background, or whatever you can think of. Instead of tweaking and waiting for you results, layers acutally cut down on render time.

Also you will need to "Dirty up" the special effects. Add a small amount of blur and flim grain, Maybe make the colors flicker a little. somehow it makes it more realistic.

You gotta teach me all of this stuff and After effects one of theses days. :D

[Magiciandude]

Awesome! Thank you for the tips! I just wish I could use 3ds Max as opposed to blender(only for lighting...I still like blender best...)

Also...you can be expecting my cartoon sometime this week...it depends on when the water finishes rendering(way too high poly...almost not worth the wait...). If anything it should be somewhat entertaining...once again...nothing that matches Oggy and Friends!

But after this project comes my next serious project which will be a ten to fifteen minute movie...including a guy with a gun for an arm!!! Can't reveal too much about the story though...its(hopefully) gonna be good...
http://www.badluckbob.com/zombie%20curse.htm
That was my second real attempt at using cg in movies...no motion tracking or anything though...but it still won state tech fair :yikes:

Well...

Thanks again for the tips!!! I'll see if I can get anything working and update you all on my progress!

-Chris Folea(pronounced Fowliuh)
"There is no finish line in the race for quality...so technically its more like a death march!"

[Magiciandude]

Well
I finally finished my cartoon...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Wx8mlPrHw

Its a bit low quality on youtube though...
I'm uploading a higher quality quicktime one to my website(100 mb YIKES) as we speak!

This one took me several months(somewhat off and on)...and It might not be the most impressive piece of work...but I'm proud of it as my first finished cartoon!

Well...

Enjoy!

And let me know what you think!

-Chris Folea(pronounced Fowliuh)

[spinmunky]

Well
I finally finished my cartoon...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Wx8mlPrHw

Its a bit low quality on youtube though...
I'm uploading a higher quality quicktime one to my website(100 mb YIKES) as we speak!

This one took me several months(somewhat off and on)...and It might not be the most impressive piece of work...but I'm proud of it as my first finished cartoon!

Well...

Enjoy!

And let me know what you think!

-Chris Folea(pronounced Fowliuh)

Not bad. somethings in it bothered me like the smoke and flames going through him but still pretty good. i like the part with the detonator looks neat.

[SgtMillhouse648]

A little off topic, but is there any way to import the constraints from Inventor into 3ds Max when you import the file?

[BuddyB309]

Gah its killing me! I cant see your video! stupid dial up *kicks imaginary dial up deamon* as soon as i get to a friends house i will look at it.

A little off topic, but is there any way to import the constraints from Inventor into 3ds Max when you import the file?

I dont know about the constraints in Inventor. I really dont mess with inventor (i dont like the whole "have to be exact thing")

Well I'll take a wild stab at it. I've imported stuff from inventor and it always comes through as a mesh. Which is fine. I've heard people who use inventor talk about the constraints on inventor and if they dont match up, the peice wont fit together in the program.

Is this true? Do constraints basically make sure that your not putting the triangle piece in the square hole?

Well anyway just for this arguments sake lets say constraints do that (shows how much i know inventor ;) ). Which lead me to my point. In 3ds max you only have to make it look like stuff is working properly. If the camera is not showing a detail that you made then get rid of the detail. It will save computing power come rendering time.

Or maybe constraints are physics? Then you would have to mess with the reactor tool (the horror!)

seriously....I have no idea what constraints are in inventor. I'm trying my best to help.

[SgtMillhouse648]

Thanks for the help, constraints are more of where you want a part to be, what part this sits up against, what axis does this rotate about, what moves when this moves, they "constrain" things to act in certain ways. Thanks for the help, I won't waste my time trying to make it work exact.
Thanks
Malhon

[Mazin]

Thanks for the help, constraints are more of where you want a part to be, what part this sits up against, what axis does this rotate about, what moves when this moves, they "constrain" things to act in certain ways. Thanks for the help, I won't waste my time trying to make it work exact.
Thanks
Malhon

Nope, constraints in Inventor won't be imported. If you really want to, you can mess around with parametric wiring. That will allow for some mathematical relationships to be established between objects.

[Magiciandude]

Has this thread died? Where did everyone go?

[BuddyB309]

Has this thread died? Where did everyone go?

What are you talking about?! this thread is life! Animation is life, or at least the only thing i think about. (yes friends have stoped asking me what i want to do cause i always say "animation".)

Anyway, Im back home again and i have dial up. I normally go to my friends house to mooch off there internet but my schedual has picked up a lot recently, but i still do a lot of animation, I just havent had time to break away from it. (that and gas prices scares me away from the six mile drive i have to take to get to high speed internet,yes im really cheep )

Anyhoo, I have done a lot of project recently. Tom from the catfish team met up in IRI and durring the finals he wanted his team logo. So i made, textured and riged a catfish for him. Its pretty good. I'll hopfully load it up later.

While going down to IRI i made this short animation in the car. Little ball and heart animation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kT0skE6oRk). Its not much but i wanted to see if I could do a Flash style animation with 3ds max. It is quicker to animate than a 3d human character and you can easily achieve a level of cuteness than you could with 3d characters. These characters are a seris of splines that are extruded ever so slightly.

I'm currently makeing a independence day space ship for my friend and compositing that into some earth renders i did. It was really fun making things for tom and my other friend. I found that i have gotten really good at unwrap textures. (well kinda good). But hey, my specialty is organic models, rigging, and animation, not mechanical space craft (im trying to hide the errors that im getting with this thing through compositing). If you need anything lets say for a safety video, or a promotional video that your doing. I can help ya out. Just PM me.

[BuddyB309]

I makeing some graphics for someone, Here is a frame of the idea that i have for the guy.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/7969/fianl0000000el6.jpg

[Magiciandude]

Is this thread dead again? Whats everyone working on? There hasn't been an update in a while...

[fireball3004]

Well, I'm far to busy with school to get anything done right now. I'll go head long when the first season starts though. Hey when does the season start for animation I don't remember from last year.

[BuddyB309]

Well, I'm far to busy with school to get anything done right now. I'll go head long when the first season starts though. Hey when does the season start for animation I don't remember from last year.

I here ya man. Between school and my job, I have little time for animation. The safety animation competition is just around the corner. They will officialy announce it in late October but its always good to get your characters started early cause of time crunch. The inronic thing about the safety animation is that the winning safety animation will get more exposer than the World champion AVA winner. Who knows who will see it? Heck, you could possibly get a job off the safety animation if it is phenominal.

Once again im mentoring the animation team. We meet once a week so there is not much we can get done. I keep forgetting how unfocused these little freshmen are. Its driving me crazy!

[fireball3004]

If it helps I have to train anyone who's going to help me on the animation. All our seniors I tought last year are leaving and all the softmores that are now juniors are taking over building for the robot. So we'll see how this comes out, I think I'm going to have to work on the simple side of things. Probably only one charictor max, and I'll probably steal the basic charictor from the one I did last year to skip all the pain of rebuilding them. anybody have any ideas on how to make chairctors or animate faster? I could use them, I had 3 people last year and it took me for flipping ever last year (my first year), and now I might end up with just the two of us for the saftey this year. Lol, I think I'm the only one in all of hawaii actually who's planning on making an animation, this'll be funny.

[BuddyB309]

...............anybody have any ideas on how to make chairctors or animate faster? I could use them........

Heh, do I! Organic Modeling and Character animation is my thing man. Modeling for animation is a lot different and there are some key things you need to watch out for:

Joints I can tell you how many times i see characters that people skin and the joints pinch in where they bend. This is solved by two things. Slicing where the joint is so you have more polys to work with in that area. And useing the joint angle deform in the skin modifier or the skin morph deform modifier.

hands Hands are by far the wost thing that ive seen animated in a AVA entry (besides bad lip synching). People have a lot of fine control over hands. They make suddle movements. They are also the most complex thing on our body. If your going to make a person have hands, prepare to spend a lot of time on them. The alternative of hands with fingers is to do hands that looke like mittens. But you still have that opposible thumb to deal with.

Lip synch Please for the, love of god, and all things holy, spend time on lip synching! I have lost track in how many AVA animations ive seen with bad lip synch. Here are some key concepts that you MUST follow when lip synching.
Always make the visual que appear a frame or two before the sound. It is better to animate a frame or two before the sound. NEVER LATE!
The mouth should always close on the "M" "B" and "P" sounds. Again always hit this mark 1 or 2 frames before the sound.
Use curve editor. Get a dual screen so you can have curve editor on one monitor and your work on another
Think of how many movements your mouth can make. My average rig for a mouth has 12 morph targets. I have three for the upper lip, 3 for the lower lip, two for the jaw, 1 to make the mouth kiss (O shape), 2 for teeth, and one for the tonge.
Add style to the way your character talks. No bodys mouth moves the same way as someone elses when they speak. Thats why your have accents and such.
When speaking, the mouth normally just slurs through the words. As long as you hit your "M" "B" "P" "T" and "O" it looks fine.
watch it. It it doesnt look right. It ain't right.


Character Rigs As I say to my students DO NOT USE THE BIPED! Its an absolutly horible rig and you cant get any character out of it. Think about it, who in davy jones walks or runs the way a biped does? No one! Tweaking the biped is a disaster too. Make your own rig with bones. You'll learn more and it is far more customizable for different characters. If you need help, you have chiefdelphi.

Camera movement Im sorry but this is my other biggest pet peeve of all AVA entries. Why do people insist of haveing essessive camera movement? Think of a camera as a window to your world. It can be any window, a window from a house, or a window of a car. You see things by either walking past them (panning) or walking up to them (trucking). When in gods name do you walk up to something and walk a 360 around it just to examine it? Can you think of any movie that has a 360 camera movement like that? (besides matrix or any movie making fun of the matrix). Its so ridiculosly absurd that so many movies made fun of the matrix for doing that. Sure it may look cool if your doging bullets, but for showing an object, it just doent fit.

Camera movement is suppose to show the action, not become the action. Your camera should not have more than one direction it is traveling. Otherwise cut to a different camera.

[Magiciandude]

Well, I'm definitely glad to see that the thread's not completely dead! I, too, am anxious about the safety video and have modeled our character already for it(sorry a secret, can't show you...)

Of course before that, I've been working hard on models and effects and scripting for a movie my friend and I are making(probably about 15 minutes long). You can check on some of the pictures etc. from here(http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?p=955028#post955028), but here are my best ones...I'm going for photorealism, but will obviously not reach it. Although...after effects is my hero. I used Blender and Yafray combined for these:

My hover police car:
http://www.badluckbob.com/policecar1.jpg
http://www.badluckbob.com/policecar2.jpg

My hero's car...one of the only ones that still runs on gas(like in I-Robot)
http://www.badluckbob.com/rebelcar1.jpg

And a building I'm working on for the background(Johns Lobster Barn).
http://www.badluckbob.com/lobstershack1.jpg
http://www.badluckbob.com/lobstershack2.jpg

And here are a couple quick fire tests on our bluescreen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQPOI6xUKso

And here's the hover car in motion without blue on the first one and with blue on the second one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpXGLlDu-Rw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv1V9ZrV4uQ

Any comments and crits would be GREATFULLY accepted on any of these ...let me know what you think, and I'm looking forward to seeing all of your safety videos!

We are filming this weekend by the way! Hopefully it will turn out okay!!

-Chris Folea(pronounced Fowliuh)
"Dreams are like rainbows...only idiots chase after them."
P.S. I can post wires too if anyone wants to see them!

[BuddyB309]

Any comments and crits would be GREATFULLY accepted on any of these ...let me know what you think, and I'm looking forward to seeing all of your safety videos!

We are filming this weekend by the way! Hopefully it will turn out okay!!



Well its nice to see that someone else has attempted compositing. What did you use for camera tracking? Boujou, shake, voodoo camera tracker, or montae?

The blue screen is fine, your not getting any color bleeding or that Blue outline that you sometimes get. That means you light your blue screen correctly good job. BUT, mess with the levels a little more in After effects. I can definatly tell that you were not in that scene and its been blue screened. Another thing i always see overlooked is lighting when fire is composited. Fire casts light, and therefor you should have a glow on you when you shoot your fireball.

Allright now for the compositing with the car:

Nice to see that you have attempted it but you absolutly have to pay attention to the lighting when you do compositing. Take mesurements on site. Know the time of the day, the angle of the sun, and the weather so you can make your objects casts shadows correctly. (the biggest give away of CGI, just watch any bad modern sci fi movie) Then know the hieght of the camera, the distance from the camera to various objects in the scene, and the relative measurements of the objects in the scene. ESPECIALLY measure the objects that you know your CGI character is going to cast shadows or lights on! This is so you can rebuild the scene in the 3d program set them to proxy object so they can act like shadow catchers. (I dont know blender but if used used 3ds max i could tell you). WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN AND THE SHOT THAT THE MEASUREMENTS ARE FROM!! It will save you a TON of headaches in the long run.

Couple things wrong with the composite. (yes i know its a test but treat your test like the real thing, because what you normally do in the test, you do in the actual project). The physics of the car is off. I know it hovers, but have it "skid" when it takes that sharp turn. That sudden momentum change is likely going to severly hurt the driver's neck.

You need to "dirty up" the CGI. In After effects, add a slight gausian blur (0.3 - 1.0) and some film grain (1.0 - 3.0) to the CG and it'll look that much better. Trust me, the point is that CG comes out crisp and clear. That is not the way the camera sees the world. That isn't how we see the world either. I always "dirty up" my animations now and it looks really professional.

Distance blur on the car would be nice. Other wises it looks like its growing and not moving. Also you need motion blur on it. The car should not look clear in the frame when you pause it. And since you are recording with a house hold camera (I assume you are) fake interlace in the CG. I know this sounds completely crazy, me telling you to destroy the quailty and clearness of the CG but smudging it will make it sink in to the footage.

Nice rotoscopeing on the mail box. Although you may want to decrease the mask by a pixel.

All around your doing great. Compositing is a very hard thing to accomplish. I see your one of the very few people in FIRST who keeps doing projects of their own over the summer. Keep it up and you'll produce something that will blow the pants off of everyone.

[Magiciandude]

Thank you for your insight! I tried to dirty up the car a bit, but I failed at taht obviously:o
I'll go ahead and play aruond with it more this weekend. Shall be fun.

Also, I used not tracking software. I created an angle from edges to match up to the brick wall and rotoscoped the camera so it matched correctly every frame. It was a time consuming task, but doing stuff by hand sometimes gets better results than any software.

Also, thanks for the lighting suggestions. Those will be greatly used(the fire I really just wanted to see how well it would key though. Next I'll definitely add an orange glow :D )

Also, where can I find distance blur in after effects? Is that the same as motion blur in photoshop?

Also, with Yafray...I mostly used GI with the movie as the background. I guess it would be a better idea to use that at a minimum and set up my own lighting data?

Anyway, thank you VERY much for the suggestions. They will be taken in and used very well :D .

Thanks again!

-Chris Folea(pronounced Fowliuh)
"Dreams are like rainbows...only idiots chase after them."

[BuddyB309]

Thank you for your insight! I tried to dirty up the car a bit, but I failed at taht obviously:o
I'll go ahead and play aruond with it more this weekend. Shall be fun.

Also, I used not tracking software. I created an angle from edges to match up to the brick wall and rotoscoped the camera so it matched correctly every frame. It was a time consuming task, but doing stuff by hand sometimes gets better results than any software.

Also, thanks for the lighting suggestions. Those will be greatly used(the fire I really just wanted to see how well it would key though. Next I'll definitely add an orange glow :D )

Also, where can I find distance blur in after effects? Is that the same as motion blur in photoshop?."

MY GOD!! Camera tracking each frame?!! Dude! get your self a camera tracking program. Voodoo camera tracker is free. Use hand tracking great for tweaking, but leave the program to do the grunt work. Its nice to be motivated to do your own work, but lets try to be a little efficient next time. In the real world, its all about speed.

Distance blur i render out what called "Z-depth" in max. Mainly its a type of render that will make objects a set distance away from the camera completely black and things up close white. Then i import that into after effects and use that layer as a mask.

I make a new composition (Name it "shot [insert number or name] distance blur") and then import my normal footage of the CG (we will call this the beauty pass) and the Z-depth pass into the composition. Then i hide the Z-depth by clicking the eye on the layer. Then add the effect Channels>set matte to the Beauty pass. Choose the Z-depth as the layer, set change alpha channel to luminance, and invert layer. Now add a gausian blur to the whole thing and put the entire composition into your Final composition. This should over lap the other beauty pass in the final composition and you should have distance blur.
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/6836/yoshinormalgy1.jpg
Normal scene with a imcomplete yoshi and some really bad mushrooms i just threw together.

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/1515/yoshizdepthjv5.jpg
Here is the Z-depth pass

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/8000/comp20000000sc0.jpg
Here is the final product. Some clean up to do with the purple mushroom. This can be eliminated by rendering the purple mushroom separately. Notice how i slightly blurred the scene and added film grain. Also the corners are slightly darker since cameras have a difficult time getting light to the corners of the frame.

[Chief Pride]

oh how i wish i could use Max the way you two do... i'm not too great at it. I can't model at all either.:(

i agree, i always seem to get overwhelmed :p

[Magiciandude]

Awesome...thank you for the quick tutorial!

I actually tested it to make sure that I could do it in blender...would this be correct? I did, of course, just throw out some primitives for now...I'll try it with more complex models when I'm not writing up my Eagle Scout Project 0_o...

Original:
http://www.badluckbob.com/monkey.jpg

Z-Depth:
http://www.badluckbob.com/monkey_zdepth.jpg

Finished:
http://www.badluckbob.com/monkey_finished.jpg

Thanks again for that tutorial! Also, which grain would you suggest using, considering there are several from which to choose within After Effects.

And one more thing, how would you come about doing motion blur? Yafray doesn't support motion blur, but I can't use the blender internal renderer because Yafray has a much more useable and realistic lighting system.

Thanks for all of your help again though!

-Chris Folea(pronounced Fowliuh)
"Life is like a box of chocolates...it doesn't last very long."

[BuddyB309]

Awesome...thank you for the quick tutorial!

I actually tested it to make sure that I could do it in blender...would this be correct? I did, of course, just throw out some primitives for now...I'll try it with more complex models when I'm not writing up my Eagle Scout Project 0

Thanks again for that tutorial! Also, which grain would you suggest using, considering there are several from which to choose within After Effects.

And one more thing, how would you come about doing motion blur? Yafray doesn't support motion blur, but I can't use the blender internal renderer because Yafray has a much more useable and realistic lighting system.

Thanks for all of your help again though!

-Chris Folea(pronounced Fowliuh)
"Life is like a box of chocolates...it doesn't last very long."

You got it dude! that kind of distance blur will dramatically cut down render. Now for motion blur.

The thing that is going to be moving in the screen should be renderd separatly so it can have its own layer that you can blur. Then its a matter of applying a directional blur and eyeballing it to make it look right.

I just use noise for film grain. Noise Noise. I really dont know what the other Noises do. Also sometimes if you want to take it further (it depends on the shot and what your trying to express) you can make the frame flicker, like its from an actual camera. Since you are recording with a off the shelf camera (im assumeing you didn't shell out $5,000 for a hvx camera) the camera will auto adjust the levels all the time. Causeing the frame to flicker a little.

[fireball3004]

When does the Safety Animation begin? I know it started Oct. 15th last year. Same time again this year?

[BuddyB309]

When does the Safety Animation begin? I know it started Oct. 15th last year. Same time again this year?

Heck, I'm completely bypassing the safety animation and starting on the actual animation right now. (although i would really like to help oversee the safety animation, reality struck me and i had hand my coordination powers off to a student:( )

So I'm already diving head first into the AVA entry! This year I'm doing only the credits. I got almost all of my character designs done and I'm gonna start story boarding it very soon here. Yes believe it or not, I story board my animations BEFORE I make them. You all can expect to see some amazing credits coming from me this year! (or at least if i use my time correctly and get them done.)

[BuddyB309]

what? you all too good to show what your all working on? I know some of you are working on the safety animation.

http://img54.imageshack.us/img54/8245/ethernetnu3.jpg

Behold the mighty Ethernet cord!

[synth3tk]

I'm not gonna lie. The best I can do is that square in Blender. And that's the default model! Unfortunatly, we didn't have anyone last year that knows squat about 3d modeling. Hopefully we'll have better luck this season. Anyway, I love watching what you all make, especially Buddy. Keep up the good work!

[fireball3004]

Well, basically we haven't started our modelling buddy, but we're pretty much brainstorming. So there is really very little to show, besides we're all out of practice.

[BuddyB309]

Okay word of the wise. If you are in edit poly and you are moving a vertice and every time you try to move the vert, your model looks like its undoing itself. EXIT THE PROGRAM AND DO NOT SAVE IMEDIATELY! I saw my entire model undo itself into the basic primitive box right before my very eyes. I dont know what kind of glitch that was but it was awful.

Good thing whenever I save my project I also choose "save copy as" which puts a number after the file name. So I only lost an hour of work.

[Groene07]

So are we allowed to post things we've made in the off season then?

If so...heres a couple of things I've made in the off season.

edit- Hey BuddyB309...I saw earlier in this thread about that alarm clock speed modeling challenge...By aaaany chance do you happen to be buddy39 or whatever on 3dm3? lol, If so good luck to you in the flashlight speed modeling challenge dude. (If you haven't realized...I'm Groene07 there too) If not...disregard this confusing edit. ;p

[BuddyB309]

So are we allowed to post things we've made in the off season then?

If so...heres a couple of things I've made in the off season.

edit- Hey BuddyB309...I saw earlier in this thread about that alarm clock speed modeling challenge...By aaaany chance do you happen to be buddy39 or whatever on 3dm3? lol, If so good luck to you in the flashlight speed modeling challenge dude. (If you haven't realized...I'm Groene07 there too) If not...disregard this confusing edit. ;p

No that not me, I'm Peter C in threedyfourums, I haven't done a lot of speed modeling challenges lately. (Morgan if you're reading this, I want to go at you again.)
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/5981/stilloct24mw0.jpg

oooo...perty

[BuddyB309]

BEHOLD! The power of the jukebox!

http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/8568/compositetestun0.jpg
all hail the mighty jukebox!

[RoboJedi75]

Wow, that jukebox fits perfectly into a target commercial!

Man, I wish I could fit time in my schedule for modeling... college...

[Chief Pride]

Wow, that jukebox fits perfectly into a target commercial!

Man, I wish I could fit time in my schedule for modeling... college...
yeah, i was just thinking that haha

[BuddyB309]

Wow, that jukebox fits perfectly into a target commercial!

Man, I wish I could fit time in my schedule for modeling... college...

I'm a very busy guy too. I don't have hours and hours of nothing to do each day. This the work i do is about an hour each day (if at least that) so stretch that out over 2 weeks thats 14 hours. I just know how to set up my time efficiently and I plan every thing so carefully so when i execute them, I know its going to work and im not doing a trial and error way of animation. You do learn a lot doing a trial and error way (especially if you don't know the program) but it also eats up a tremendous amount of time.

[BuddyB309]

Remember that there is no spoon.

http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/1335/tednov1604vd1.jpg

[Chief Pride]

is that for an animation? or just a scene?


i want to see the finished product! :)

[BuddyB309]

is that for an animation? or just a scene?


i want to see the finished product! :)

oh the finished product is a LONG way away. Like about three months away if i really try hard to work on it. My hope is that character will appear in our AVA entry this year.

[ea6b607]

Was working on a Buckley Class Destroyer Escort, but have had to put it on hold for a bit do to lack of time:
the whaleboat:
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n261/ea6b607/1944/current/whaler2.jpg
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n261/ea6b607/1944/current/whaler3.jpg

20mm Orelikon:
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n261/ea6b607/1944/current/20mm4.jpg

Mk 51 Fire Director
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n261/ea6b607/1944/current/mk51_2.jpg

The ship itself (didn't get to far on it)
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n261/ea6b607/1944/current/ship5.jpg

[ParkerF]

Beautiful modeling, ea. Can't wait to see the finished product on this one.

[BuddyB309]

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/9924/shoe04pl8.jpg

here is the shoe for my character

[ea6b607]

Beautiful modeling, ea. Can't wait to see the finished product on this one.

Thank, but that is going to be quite some time from now..... also, I'm sure to have problems once I put it all together. My laptop is going to explode trying to render 4million polys....
Ohh, and here's a soldering iron
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n261/ea6b607/Renders/solderiron.jpg

[BuddyB309]

Thank, but that is going to be quite some time from now..... also, I'm sure to have problems once I put it all together. My laptop is going to explode trying to render 4million polys....


Then don't have your laptop render everything at once. Render each part differently and then composite all the layers in a different program. Its how the big studios do it.

[ea6b607]

ya I know, just meant it will take a while, I actually normally just do that in backburner where you can render in lines assigning small chucks of the final image at the same time.

[Sergio]

Character Rigs As I say to my students DO NOT USE THE BIPED! Its an absolutly horible rig and you cant get any character out of it. Think about it, who in davy jones walks or runs the way a biped does? No one! Tweaking the biped is a disaster too. Make your own rig with bones. You'll learn more and it is far more customizable for different characters. If you need help, you have chiefdelphi.

pppsstt, i'm brand new to this site... where is there help on character rigging? i know lots about 3ds, i just never rig anything...

[BuddyB309]

pppsstt, i'm brand new to this site... where is there help on character rigging? i know lots about 3ds, i just never rig anything...

Its really hard to teach someone character rigging over chiefdelphi. Catch me on Aim and I will give you a custom rig you can dissect and ask questions about. My screen name is BuddyB309 on AIM

[Sergio]

For projects like this, does anyone know who to render just like the wire frame of it with out making it look bad?

[ea6b607]

I assume your asking how to render a wire mesh. Well, there is numerous ways to do it, but the way I do it is merge my model into a new scene with a white plane and a single skylight. Then create a composite material of a black wire material (check the wire box in the mat editor) and a white standard material. Render in mental ray with final gather and done.
Looks like this when done:
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n261/ea6b607/Renders/recent%20examples/flak_wire.jpg

[Testament-Doom]

You know... I haven't posted any of my recent works.. strange, lol. Guess I'll show some of em, tell me what you think! :). Let's see, the first one roughly took about 11ish hours, minus the rendering time, and the other 2 took a day's worth.. never really remembered how long I spent on them in hours. Hope you like them!

(That's definitely one way of doing a wire overlay, though I'm sure there are others ways if I'm correct.. not sure, it's just popping into my head that there is more than one way :P. Noticed you've been boolean modeling at some places, overuse of that isn't "healthy" just to let you know, just as a friendly advice, though I'm sure you know :D)

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/6160/thecavesighm4.jpg
http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/7851/pleaseplaysomemoresigwt9.jpg
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/7250/colorfulcitysigni1.png

[BuddyB309]

Don't go there girlfriend!
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/1142/teddec07qf0.jpg

[fireball3004]

do you by chance play hobowars lol

[BuddyB309]

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/5900/tedandtrexez5.jpg

[adamrw91]

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/adamrw91/canyonswbuildingscolorcorected.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/adamrw91/ivy2.jpg
First time posting here. i se alot of nice work here. so tell me what you think of mine!

[adamrw91]

here is some of my newer work.

this one was a tryout of a new tree plugin i got
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/adamrw91/SPEEDTREE.jpg

i was trying out a new grass plugin i got
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/adamrw91/city.jpg

im still modeling this one.
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/adamrw91/1010101.jpg

[Sunshift]

Hi everyone. My fellow animator and I were browsing the forum while doing some rendering and we found this topic. So I registered because I was interested in showing some of my projects. I'm a Simcity junkie so I got into 3d modeling by doing buildings. I learned from the masters on Simtropolis.com. Lately I've been working a lot on buildings from the Netherlands. These are projects I currently have running:

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (currently on hold because it's a MASSIVE project):
Front:
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x315/Sunshift/Presentation/Render002.jpg
Back:
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x315/Sunshift/Presentation/Render004.jpg

You can see the building here (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=Amsterdam,+Netherlands&ie=UTF8&ll=52.359834,4.885724&spn=0.001628,0.005&t=h&z=18&iwloc=addr&om=0).

and two others:

I did this windmill model in a day, hope to texture it later tonight:
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x315/Sunshift/Presentation/Render007-1.jpg

This building is another old dutch one I made. Finished the model a few minutes ago, will texture tomorrow I think:

Done:
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x315/Sunshift/Presentation/Render007.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x315/Sunshift/Presentation/Brink.jpg

For those who are wondering, yes, I model almost every detail, and use that model to create normal maps and highly realistic textures, then put them on lower poly models for my large city models of many buildings.

Anyway, let me know what you think guys!

[Gargury]

holy $@#$@#$@#$@# that was amazing! :eek:

dude, ur like my god! I frickin worship the ground u walk on. I hope some day u can teach me a thing or two

[Sunshift]

Haha, thanks mate. You know I'm gone skiing Monday and since we already hung out last night, tomorrow night or anything.... next weekend you can learn :P

and then we must get cracking on this AVA. :p

[Sunshift]

heh if you think that is good. Just wait till you see what im cooking up for the credits for this years AVA

He was joking :P

I do hope you aren't saying my building's AREN'T good though :P

[BuddyB309]

He was joking :P

I do hope you aren't saying my building's AREN'T good though :P

Oh your buildings are very well done. I see that you take great care in your models. Keep up the excellent work. could we get a wire frame render?

[Drew]

hey guys, havent been here in a while since I graduated and moved onto college. Kinda left 3d animation behind and its a little sad. I remember when buddy came up to me and my friend and asked how we did our animation. back 3 years ago. we were telling him about HDRI mapping and such. Im really excited to see that you have taken this to a new level. Im really looking into maybe getting back into everything, but I always had modeling issues and that sort of stuff. Just out of curiousity, when someone makes something, lets say that building that is rendered at the top of this page, is that just one single object? I never really understood, that or if you would start with seperate objects. Same with the gun turrets a few pages back. i wasnt sure if someone builds off of a square to build one final object, or if it is a bunch of objects comprised to form one. Thanks. Good Luck, im looking forward to getting back into FIRST

[Sunshift]

Ah yes, I'm afraid my animation projects are going to be a little bit dead when I got to college or something.

But one thing I'm curious of is how many of you I've met.

Buddy: I think we've actually spoken at the championship in Atlanta. I think I remember you showing your crazy blue eyeball to Louis Marcoux at the Autodesk booth but I may be wrong.

EDIT:

Here's a wireframe :D
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x315/Sunshift/Brink2.jpg

[JRosselet]

heh if you think that is good. Just wait till you see what im cooking up for the credits for this years AVA

Buddy,

This is my first year on FIRST, coming in with some past 3D experience. Since the commencement of the season, I have been closely following the CD forum; especially threads relevant to the visualization challenge.

I have been very discouraged to find that every fourth post consists of your blatant boasting. I never expected that a sub-challenge of the FRC could be even more viciously competitive than the primary competition itself. Even when teams are looking for advice or help, you throw their ideas down for one reason or another. (ie, trees and render time)

Seeing as you are a student in a collage program focused on animation, I understand that you have had the experience to create quite decent animations in respect to the majority of FIRST teams. I would simply like to request that you use this experience to help others, in the spirit of FIRST, and perhaps complete your entire animation in the month that everyone else does.

Please don't take this post the wrong way; I am not challenging your artistic skill nor your practical experience, just requesting you think a little more about the other teams.

[fireball3004]

:D ^^
You named it, we do our best to be helpful, but fierce is a good description of the animation competition... that is, if there are very many animation entries at a regional. I’d love to blame Buddy, but really, let’s be honest, I know I’m a bit competitive as well, close enough though.

[BuddyB309]

Buddy,

This is my first year on FIRST, coming in with some past 3D experience. Since the commencement of the season, I have been closely following the CD forum; especially threads relevant to the visualization challenge.

I have been very discouraged to find that every fourth post consists of your blatant boasting. I never expected that a sub-challenge of the FRC could be even more viciously competitive than the primary competition itself. Even when teams are looking for advice or help, you throw their ideas down for one reason or another. (ie, trees and render time)

Seeing as you are a student in a collage program focused on animation, I understand that you have had the experience to create quite decent animations in respect to the majority of FIRST teams. I would simply like to request that you use this experience to help others, in the spirit of FIRST, and perhaps complete your entire animation in the month that everyone else does.

Please don't take this post the wrong way; I am not challenging your artistic skill nor your practical experience, just requesting you think a little more about the other teams.

Terribly sorry to come off in such a way. I never mean to hurt or discourage anybody in an animation team. Although I am a student in college, I am not here to showcase my work if that is what people are interpreting of what I'm putting on this thread. I am mainly here to lend a helping hand to anybody who needs help, I am quick to answer questions and I give full details on the subject. Just ask Testementdoom or Loce Imica Morn. I am also mentoring various people across AIM and my own animation team. I never want to come across as a show off.

[adamrw91]

my first work after finishing up the award animation.
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o297/adamrw91/ROOMFINAL.jpg
I like it

[Setsanto]

The cup and gun are well modelled, only two items i think have a problem: The bullets dont look very realistic, and the gun butt material could be altered slightly, but even still, amazing work!

~Setsanto

[adamrw91]

thanks, this is a WIP so its not totaly done. but how do u think i should change the butt material?

[BuddyB309]

thanks, this is a WIP so its not totaly done. but how do u think i should change the butt material?

Add a specular streak that travels the length of the butts. that should do the trick. Also make the specular glow a little, makes it look more matalic.

[adamrw91]

k. sounds good.

Im also having one more problem with this scene when i render out the zdepth the glass table shows up so when i use it to blur the scene the carpet isnt blured through the table.
so lol i totally faked the DOF.
im thinking about just rendering the zdepth wihtought the galss part in it.

[Setsanto]

Yeh, I completely agree with buddy. I'm afraid I can't help your question much due to the fact that I have no idea what Zdepth is!

~Setsanto

[fireball3004]

anyone planning on starting either thier animation or the credits early? Such was my plan cause we keep being crushed by lack of time/ man-power.

[BuddyB309]

anyone planning on starting either thier animation or the credits early? Such was my plan cause we keep being crushed by lack of time/ man-power.

I say go for it. Design and rig an awesome character to be used.

[fireball3004]

Here is the character I wanted made last safety... I'm gunna try and get a hammer time video going... I was so sad I when couldn't get the morph mod working properly in time... please criticize it... and yes I do know it looks like it just saw a ghost lol.

[Kevin Thorp]

Very espressive!

One suggestion - unless you're going for a surprised or crazy look, close the eyelids a bit until they just touch the iris (the colored part of the eye).

[fireball3004]

^^ yah, I've gotten that before and your right. The model I made screwed up so I spent 2 hours making this new one... I also textured it, gave it a tongue, And applied a few more tricks I have found recently...

I was expecting more of a tearing sound from the critique but lemme know what you think about this one... Anyone know how to make him look ganster/ MC Hammer esk?... anyone know how to make chains?...

also anything you can tell me about morph mods would be appreciated cause last time I tried lip syncing it kept moving the head to one side and I never figured out why... Also, soon there will be people...

[Setsanto]

This tutorial (http://www.secondpicture.com/tutorials/3d/3d_modeling_of_a_chain_in_3ds_max_01.html) seems to be quite good

~Setsanto

[Setsanto]

My first self-challenge speed render:

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/7663/chainkf5.jpg

Modeled and rendered in 19 minutes and 39 seconds...Now I'm going to try and make it look good :)

~Setsanto

[fireball3004]

that's pretty good, what did you use for a material?

Is there anyway I can make things interact? in this particular instance I'm trying to get the links of chain to hit both the body, and each other, such that they don't go through each other without me having to individually animate them.

[BuddyB309]

My first self-challenge speed render:


Modeled and rendered in 19 minutes and 39 seconds...Now I'm going to try and make it look good :)

~Setsanto

its good, but its too perfect. If you notice on chain links there is a spot where you can see the weld. Also the chains should be scratched where they rub together.

Here is a scenery that I'm making for someone. Its near completion except for a few minor touches.

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/5341/march07gc8.jpg

[adamrw91]

hey one thing you should change is:
you should back off with the noise there is alittle too much.

[Setsanto]

that's pretty good, what did you use for a material?

Is there anyway I can make things interact? in this particular instance I'm trying to get the links of chain to hit both the body, and each other, such that they don't go through each other without me having to individually animate them.

I used a metal shader, 100 Specular, 75 gloss, raytrace map as a ref map. Soon im going to put in a dent map and soft select a weld in the chain, as per Buddy's advice. That is, as soon as I have time.

[spinmunky]

Is there anyway I can make things interact? in this particular instance I'm trying to get the links of chain to hit both the body, and each other, such that they don't go through each other without me having to individually animate them.

You could try using Reactor.

[dario]

Speaking of reactors, I've tried working with them before, but never figured it out. Can someone explain to me or point me to a good tutorial where it explains how to use the different reactors?

[Setsanto]

There is only one reactor engine. If you have MSN, i could try to explain what little knowledge of it that I have, however, I have found one good video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbVIu61fQcA

Hope that helps.

~Setsanto

[Magiciandude]

its good, but its too perfect. If you notice on chain links there is a spot where you can see the weld. Also the chains should be scratched where they rub together.

Here is a scenery that I'm making for someone. Its near completion except for a few minor touches.

http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/5341/march07gc8.jpg

It looks nice, very nice, but I have a few suggestions.
First I would make the bases of the pillars on the left a bit less round, maybe add a deeper bump or displacement map? And possibly, you might be able to make the floor seem a bit bumpier? I would also make the edges of the arcs at the top a bit less sharp...I dunno...something about it just seems unrealistic, maybe the softness of the lighting? Or maybe the materials seem a bit too smooth? Really nice work!
Just some suggestions though...I guess its all a matter of opinion.
I love the depth of field by the way, very pretty.
Hope this helps some!

-Chris Folea(pronounced Foh-Lee-Uh)

[Setsanto]

Well, haven't had much chance to do much of anything this summer (though my trail version is fast running out), but here's a couple of things I've been having some fun with.

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/6098/poolballswx7.jpg

(I know, raytrace needs to be turned down)

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/7733/roomdsf0.jpg

(I have no idea whats going on with the one light)

~Setsanto

[fireball3004]

Thanks for the video, sorry, but I've been at regionals and working on the bot of late so... no work done sinse I finished my people and flavor flav clock... I must say though setsanto for the second image
-your wood floor is without any real grooves
-don't know if it's intentional or not, but the bottom of your tables are a bit too sea through
-finally one of your yellow blocks seems to be missing a top and or side...

[BuddyB309]

Well, haven't had much chance to do much of anything this summer (though my trail version is fast running out), but here's a couple of things I've been having some fun with.


(I know, raytrace needs to be turned down)



(I have no idea whats going on with the one light)

~Setsanto

Why does it seem to be that everyone has figured out materials and I still struggle with it after 4 years of max? TELL ME!

[Setsanto]

Thanks for the video, sorry, but I've been at regionals and working on the bot of late so... no work done sinse I finished my people and flavor flav clock... I must say though setsanto for the second image
-your wood floor is without any real grooves
-don't know if it's intentional or not, but the bottom of your tables are a bit too sea through
-finally one of your yellow blocks seems to be missing a top and or side...

Yeah, thanks. The yellow blocks are part of what is soon to be a cabinet. Its still very much a work in progress. However, thanks for the comments anyway, I missed the bit about the tables till now.

~Setsanto

[Badflea]

wow..they all look awesome.
We dont have an animation team.. :eek:

I think we should start one over the summer. :D

[richalex2010]

Just been working on this today... been wanting to do a set of pool balls for a while, but forgot about it until Setsanto's post reminded me about it... here's what I've got so far:

http://jakealexander.com/files/PoolBalls/all_2.jpg

Models are simple, as one would expect... a plane and a bunch of spheres. Used Vray to render, using a VRayMtl with the correct diffuse colour, 55 reflect, and a bitmap for the numbers. Single planar, rectangular VRayLight above the table. Not sure how to texture the striped balls at the moment... will work on that tomorrow. Plan on eventually adding some fuzz to the table... may end up just using Photoshop. 3DS Max crashed when I tried it earlier, so I decided to get the important stuff down first.

Oh, I've also got a cue ball... it's currently hidden, as I didn't need to do anything with textures for it.

[Setsanto]

My main 2 suggestions, the map on the balls should be scaled down a bit, the numbers are unrealistically large in comparison to the balls. Also, the reflection doesn't seem quite right. However, all in all, amazing! I seem to be having the same problem too btw. Whenever I try to open my max file of the pool balls it crashes....weird.

~Setsanto

[richalex2010]

Reflections of the balls or the light? I'll get around to adding an environment map when I can find/modify on suitable for the task. I'll scale the maps down a bit too. By the way, how did you get the striped balls? I tried a multi/sub object material, but that just messed up the mapping... all done with a texture?

Thanks,
-Jake Alexander

[Setsanto]

Yeah basically i just took the unstriped ball map, and added two white boxes at the top and the bottom of it in MS paint. The only thing that messes me up is getting the boxes to be the same distance form the top and the bottom. Its basically just alot of trial and error. About the reflections, i think its the lights. I dunno, I used a raytrace material for my balls, maybe its just raytrace vs. VRay material?

Hope that helps,
~Setsanto

[richalex2010]

Well, I added an environment map and did a lot of work with quality... nothing terribly noticeable. Nothing with mapping yet (including resizing). Might need to turn down the environment map a bit... will experiment tomorrow. (sorry for the size, cba to open up Photoshop)
http://jakealexander.com/files/PoolBalls/all_3+cue_lg.jpg

[fireball3004]

^^
Not bad, but your missing the balls with stripes.
also it feels like the light is a bit strong, though really, it could be just as strong... just never been in a billiards room with that much white light...
is there a rest of scene?

[rfolea]

Well, I added an environment map and did a lot of work with quality... nothing terribly noticeable. Nothing with mapping yet (including resizing). Might need to turn down the environment map a bit... will experiment tomorrow. (sorry for the size, cba to open up Photoshop)
http://jakealexander.com/files/PoolBalls/all_3+cue_lg.jpg\\

Are the "6" and "14" backwards? What number is on the orange ball in the back row - possibly a backwards "13"?

[BuddyB309]

Well, I added an environment map and did a lot of work with quality... nothing terribly noticeable. Nothing with mapping yet (including resizing). Might need to turn down the environment map a bit... will experiment tomorrow. (sorry for the size, cba to open up Photoshop)


Ok bud I'll point out a few things.

You need a falloff in the reflection so when you are looking strait at the surface of the ball its not as reflective.

The light its way way WAY to bright.

By splitting your diffuse channel into a mix channel.

You need to blur your reflection (done with layer rendering) and at tint in the right areas. The white part of the balls are going to add a white tint to the reflection and the color areas will ad the color. Do this by adjusting your diffuse map and adding it to the tint under ray trace.

again way to reflective.

Add noise to the pool table, not a lot but just enough to get some slight variation.

I've never seen any pool table balls that clean, even when they come right out of the box. Ad some slight scratches to them so they look they've been handled. If you can add some finger prints that would be even better.

[richalex2010]

The scene is pretty much a green plane and a vraylight at the moment... I'll get to work on a real pool table once the balls are looking good. Have stripes now as well; might need to re-do textures for the normal balls, so that sizing of the numbers and white circles is consistent.

Note: I started writing this something like four hours ago, so the two latest posts aren't being replied to here...

[Setsanto]

Very good except for the things pointed out by everyone else

~Setsanto

[Setsanto]

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/1268/poolballsya3.jpg

Finally got around to doing some work :p .

Materials on pool balls are Raytrace Material, Phong Shader, 100 Spec. Level, 83 Gloss Level, 1.2 IOR, Environment map of a pic I found on Google Images, Falloff Reflect (at 30), Diffuse Map of pool ball.

Trial Version almost finished :(

~Setsanto

EDIT: Better render, lights at a better intensity, ignore the "felt" :p

[BuddyB309]

hmmmmmm...... I feel like I should make some pool balls since everyone else is doing them.....

[richalex2010]

Okay, blurred the reflection (Refl. Glossiness 0.8), toned it down a bit, and used Fresnel reflections (effect is like that of a falloff map).

all_4.jpg is everything; all_4_lg.jpg is a close-up of the cue ball (rendered it and it saved to that file, didn't get around to fixing the name)

[BuddyB309]

Okay, blurred the reflection (Refl. Glossiness 0.8), toned it down a bit, and used Fresnel reflections (effect is like that of a falloff map).


Now your getting further away than were you were. The reflection of the light does not need to be blured but the reflection of the scene does. Keep working at it.

Well since everyone is one this Pool Ball phase I guess I will make some. Here is what I did in 20 mins. I didn't want to spend anymore time on it.
http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/4217/poolballsdonerd6.jpg

Yes yes, I know I can fix some things. But I don't want to cause I'm working on another project that Requires a lot of time and modeling.

[BuddyB309]

here is a test of my current animation titled "Appliances night out"
http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/8149/april12ct2.jpg

[Setsanto]

The shadows seem almost too perfect, might just be me. Seems a little dark, then again, this monitor sucks so thats probably the problem.

~Setsanto

[BuddyB309]

Hey guys, I'm working on another big big project. Bigger than "Oggy and Friends." So I'll be posting up on here a lot pretty soon. I would like all the help I can get. If you want to help just grab a random electronic device from your home and model it. Here is a basket of clothes that is going into the background.

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1237/clothes01fr4.jpg

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/5237/april12oq6.jpg

[Setsanto]

I guess the basket is alright in the dark scene, but in the lit scene, the inside of the basket looks extremely strange, the shadows aren't right at all, also the cloth object hanging over the right edge of the basket isn't draped properly.

Just my 2 cents.

~Setsanto

[fluffy]

I guess the basket is alright in the dark scene, but in the lit scene, the inside of the basket looks extremely strange, the shadows aren't right at all, also the cloth object hanging over the right edge of the basket isn't draped properly.

Just my 2 cents.

~Setsanto

alright, its not just me that thought that then...
the clothes look kinda rigid in my opinion, needs some more "drapage" and some more wrinkles and folds

[BuddyB309]

I guess the basket is alright in the dark scene, but in the lit scene, the inside of the basket looks extremely strange, the shadows aren't right at all, also the cloth object hanging over the right edge of the basket isn't draped properly.

Just my 2 cents.

~Setsanto

Yes I know, I would fix it more if this was a major part of the scene. If you look close the textures also stretch. The shirt is extremely flat and so are the pants. There are also clothes coming through the basket. I could go on and on and on what is wrong with it and what needs to be fixed.

but what you are looking at is a background element of the scene. You are never going to be that close to the basket of clothes or viewing it from that angle. Could I spend more time and fix it? yes. But will the viewer ever see the changes? no, because the two main characters are going to be drawing all the attention.

[richalex2010]

Have a new one... this is a chess set that I saw online, in a sunny environment and some light postwork. Rendered with mental ray, modeled with 3DS Max.
http://gallery.jakealexander.com/main.php?g2_itemId=187

[Setsanto]

I'm sure the modelling is amazing, problem is, the lighting is much to harsh to see it. The shadows are also a bit grainy, and the table is a bit glossy. Other than that, great!

~Setsanto

[BuddyB309]

Have a new one... this is a chess set that I saw online, in a sunny environment and some light postwork. Rendered with mental ray, modeled with 3DS Max.
http://gallery.jakealexander.com/main.php?g2_itemId=187

defiantly watch your lighting. Especially the side of the tables and walls.

[fireball3004]

not bad, I would watch your chess table... usually you don't have the pattern continue down the side of the set... also seems a bit to thick, though I've seen some founding sets like that, but it looked that way to me anyways...

[richalex2010]

Actually, the way it's set up is exactly how it's supposed to look (not that the rest of the material is correct, but the texture is fine). Size is close enough, too. See the original image that this is based on:
http://www.well.com/~zoran/movingsale/chess_full.jpg

Also, I think most of the problems are because of mental ray (and because I don't really want to bother with making it look good in mental ray). I'll be doing a vray version as soon as I find time to convert all of the materials (most likely today).

[BuddyB309]

Also, I think most of the problems are because of mental ray (and because I don't really want to bother with making it look good in mental ray). I'll be doing a vray version as soon as I find time to convert all of the materials (most likely today).

Mental ray and V-ray aren't all that different. If you know how to use them you can get the same result. You just have to render in layers and use a third party to tweak the results.

[Sunny Sharma]

Mental ray and V-ray aren't all that different. If you know how to use them you can get the same result. You just have to render in layers and use a third party to tweak the results.

I'd actually have to disagree with you here. No matter how much Mental Ray is tweaked, it never receives that V-Ray finish, because of the way V-Ray handles lighting and shadowing differently.

Although you can render elements, composite, and tweak them, that's more or less lying and kidding yourself :P Though the result can look similar.

But Mental Ray CAN look really good, it's just a different look. It all depends on the skill of lighting, shadowing, and painting (textures and shaders that is).

Here are a 2 things I've done on my free time, as small art projects quickly, probably posted before, but some are new. Guess which one is Mental Ray, and guess which one is V-Ray.

http://i30.tinypic.com/2eyw9pi.jpg
High Res: http://i29.tinypic.com/2i9nm02.jpg

http://i31.tinypic.com/swuteq.jpg

I was walking around the Autodesk Booth in the pits at Atlanta for a long time. (wearing a camera bag and a team 75 sweatshirt haha) It was interesting to see so many people doing 3d work.

[adamrw91]

Heas at the aouto desk booth it was pretty cool there. It was the first time i met any one who knew how to use 3ds max, It was really awesome there. Buddy you still having problems with those particles? :)

[BuddyB309]

Heas at the aouto desk booth it was pretty cool there. It was the first time i met any one who knew how to use 3ds max, It was really awesome there. Buddy you still having problems with those particles? :)

No, I got particles down now, thanks to Loui. If you were at Atlanta and never talked to him at the autodesk booth I suggest you kick yourself in the rump right now. He knows EVERYTHING about 3ds max and cleared up the questions I had.

Here are a 2 things I've done on my free time, as small art projects quickly, probably posted before, but some are new. Guess which one is Mental Ray, and guess which one is V-Ray.

Now if you used the same scene and re-textured it, it would be a fair guess. I can't compare them because one is organics and the other is architectural.

Urgh, everyone is saying V-ray is great, I see nice stuff with V-ray. But I messed with it a little bit, I got 20 min frame renders. I never bothered with it to much. But I guess I will take a stab at it. Anybody know of some really good website that will bring you up from the basics? I don't want to sit and watch a video tutorial.

I've made this with mental ray. Yes its too ultra shiny and new and there is this odd reflective thing going on with the the glass in the door. I haven't finalized the materials on it yet. That will come later. http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/8592/dryerapril13th04bn1.jpg

[Sunny Sharma]

Render it together with the same object but no materials applied (and a nice photometric or soft light) with FG and GI, I'd love to see some of the modeling on that (as it looks as though you modeled some of the details). For metal objects I tend to paint a diffuse map and a specular map in photoshop to realistically spread the reflections and detail. (Though you said you had no materials so it makes sense).

V-Ray can take a long time, but if adjusted it's basically the same rendering speed as Mental Ray if set at the same quality level. You have to play around and learn on how to balance the light bouncing and illumination with the different settings, as it's a completely different system.

[BuddyB309]

Decided to put a little cameo in the background of the first scene in my animation I'm making.http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5748/may03oggydryersheetsfe7.jpg

Render it together with the same object but no materials applied (and a nice photometric or soft light) with FG and GI,

That would take quite a while to render. I'm making an animation out of this dryer so I have to keep some of the render times low.

[adamrw91]

No, I got particles down now, thanks to Loui. If you were at Atlanta and never talked to him at the autodesk booth I suggest you kick yourself in the rump right now. He knows EVERYTHING about 3ds max and cleared up the questions I had.


I was there! I was the guy with the blonde hair i was talking to you. but i was just wondering if you figured out the dripping cloth particle system.

[BuddyB309]

I was there! I was the guy with the blonde hair i was talking to you. but i was just wondering if you figured out the dripping cloth particle system.

ooooo..... thats going to take me some time. But never fear I have and Idea!!!


Here is another cameo that is going in my animation i'm doing. Look for it on a bill board in the background.

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/8858/billboardtexturerz8.jpg

[BuddyB309]

Well I figure I should keep this thread alive. here is a frame of my current animation "Appliance night out" still some clean up to do.

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/2931/roughrenderjune18thin2.jpg

[richalex2010]

Been playing with vray a bit more:
http://jakealexander.com/images/vray_ring_sm.jpg (http://jakealexander.com/images/vray_ring.jpg)
[click for 1280x800 full-res image] (http://jakealexander.com/images/vray_ring.jpg)

Ring design shamelessly stolen from this image (http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/showcase_images/image_gallery/ring/) by Abdu Rasheed. All done from scratch (other than chrome material, pulled from internet resource for that). This is straight from Max/Vray, with no postwork at all. For now, I'm trying to learn to learn by imitating and/or improving on other work, or taking ideas/designs from other work and applying the somewhat originally. With this one, as the modeling was simple (just a high-poly tube with a multi/sub object material on it), it was much more a work on lighting, with a little bit of camera work to play with in the future (DOF, maybe focused in the front).

[BuddyB309]

Been playing with vray a bit more.......

oh you kids... you and your V-ray and GI and caustics. This is another shot of my animation all rendered without v-ray or any other fancy renderers. Just simple mental ray and *gasp!* SCANLINE!. I'm also using standard lights. Layer rendering, much faster than everything and you have more control. I have to clean up the reflections in the dryer. I'm thinking about adding a glow to them and bluring them to give it a nice metal glowy feel. Also I have to change the tint to more red. But since this is a rough render of the scene I'm not to worried.

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/9025/finalroughshot03yn8.jpg

[Setsanto]

As much as I hear some disdain for GI etc., the lights in the background look like they could do some work. Also, is the washing machine supposed to be floating/flying/bouncing?

[BuddyB309]

As much as I hear some disdain for GI etc., the lights in the background look like they could do some work. Also, is the washing machine supposed to be floating/flying/bouncing?

There in mid-bounce. This is still a rough render, I tried to use final gather and GI but it jacked up my rendering time to ungodly amounts. I left for 30 mins and came back and it was still calculating. I decided that all that time I could have spent faking GI but setting up some extra lights to mimic light bouncing. That is the appeal of layer rendering. For example, if I look back at a completed scene and think "hmmmm I think there should be a little bit more light bouncing off that wall and hitting that plant." All I have to do is render a single light and use it as a mask for the color/blending layer. If I was using GI I would have to wait for it to calculate again. Mostly tweak and wait , tweak and wait.

I will say that GI and Final gather is good for single metallic object render like the one you have of that metal-glass dish. (good job by the way) But for complex scenes I personally vote for complete control and saving time in render over complete realism.

Could I spend forever and make the render look picture perfect? Yes I could, But you also have to keep in mind that I have 32 other camera shots to make for this animation. What I'm creating are the "Must haves" first and then if I have time I will create the "Want to haves" I would like some bugs to be flying around the lights and the grass and bushes blowing in the wind. But that is not necessary for a good shot. So GI, Final gather, and Caustics are tossed due to their lengthy render times.

[Setsanto]

Very true. I should probably brush up on my layer rendering =P.

[BuddyB309]

Here is another scene I'm working on. What do you think of it? I personally think the materials look ultra realistic. ;)
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/2486/shot02june23rd04xl4.jpg

[BuddyB309]

Here is that scene again. Still a ton of work to do on it. ugh, but this shot is what i'm calling the Money shot. If I had to choose only one shot to go into my portfolio, this would be it. Which translates to Oober amount of work.

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/7130/shot02june26th03photoshlq5.jpg

[Setsanto]

First Impressions:
Fire Hydrant looks wrong somehow
Closest building on the left looks weird with that lighting
canopy looks slightly strange
road doesn't have the perfect texture

Lastly, better then I could hope to do in a million years

~Setsanto

[fireball3004]

that tree behind the fire hydrant isn't as realistic as the rest of the piece.

Sweet job man.

[Loubear]

The only thing I can nitpick about is that giant patch of darkness at the bottom of the screen. So much negative space seems like a distraction.

[BuddyB309]

The picture I'm putting up on there is a work in progress, I haven't had enough time to clean it up yet.



First Impressions:
Fire Hydrant looks wrong somehow


Haven't Unwrapped it yet, but I probably wont get to that, it isn't the focus of the shot.
First Impressions:
Closest building on the left looks weird with that lighting

Thats because the Red Neon sign has not been put in yet and most of the lights aren't there yet.
canopy looks slightly strange
I don't care, its not the main focus of the shot
road doesn't have the perfect texture
thats because there is no texture on the road yet.
that tree behind the fire hydrant isn't as realistic as the rest of the piece.
Yeah, I know, Thats the tree I put there when I was blocking out the shot. All it consists of is a sphere and a cylinder. It will be replaced when I have time.
The only thing I can nitpick about is that giant patch of darkness at the bottom of the screen. So much negative space seems like a distraction.
I didn't light that part of the scene because there is no texture on the road yet.

you guys missed a couple of things. The telephone wires and the Traffic light poles are purple. And the last building on the right side of the street is still red. and the fire hydrant to the right is floating.

[BuddyB309]

Here is another work in progress. I didn't layer render the Image like I did the last one. You can see I textured the road and replaced the trees. I know the buildings windows are green, I will fix that. I just wanted to see how the cars body looks within the scene and if I need to do any detail on it. There are no wheels or interior to the car yet.http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/9308/shot02july04bp9.jpg

[spinmunky]

let's see here... looks like there's some random lights at the bottom right in the road, by the cars shadow? and is that building on the left supposed to be in red light? Also the building on the right thats tan, with the maroon decorative trim has a red box on top. And a question. are you going to have the street lights light up? (the red, yellow, and green ones)

[fireball3004]

Don't know what model that's supposed to be, but it looks fine to me. I don't know if you care enough to put in door handles... didn't see any. Looks alright in the light, but it seems like the shadow is being cast a bit to far toward you.

So, it's been a while since I made this, but I was hoping to have some good credits for the safety animation. I'm having loads of problems with the Human back up dancers. I don't know how to throw in enough surrealism, and I can't make it look realistic in the least. Could you guys take a look and maybe give me a few pointers?

[Theflexmaster]

hey question what'd you use for glow on the street lights? Mr glow? (depends if it was in mr) or did you fake it with self-illumination? orrrrrrrrr was it something else like vray light material.
Senior project time lapse of a piece from my concentration.
Here it is! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edo_7c-59cA) :)

By the way nice scene. Only thing i would like to ask is what's up with the car shadow?

[BuddyB309]

hey question what'd you use for glow on the street lights? Mr glow? (depends if it was in mr) or did you fake it with self-illumination? orrrrrrrrr was it something else like vray light material.
Senior project time lapse of a piece from my concentration.
Here it is! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edo_7c-59cA) :)

By the way nice scene. Only thing i would like to ask is what's up with the car shadow?

None of the above dude, I use a process called layer rendering. A I ever need is mental ray and scanline. With a little bit of planing you can tweak your shot in After Effects or combustion and get instant results instead of waiting 20 mins. It seems that most of my renders for my scenes run around five mins given the time it takes to render out each layer. Nice thing about layer rendering is that you can have blurred reflections, full control of glows, and glowing speculars and reflections on objects.

and the car wasn't done yet. The car is actually in mid bounce.

Question for you. In your photoshop you have a plug in that generates normal maps for you. Could you please tell me the name of the plug in?


Here is a model of a car I did for my animation. Yeah, I know its not perfect, there is no speedometers on the dashbord. and the rims could use a little work but your seeing the car standing still without a washer and dryer in it. Once its in the scene it should be fine.
http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/6972/car09kn5.jpg

[Theflexmaster]

yeah it's a nvidia plug in. Hmmm layering is a good idea, never really did it cause i'm not that great with after affects or combustion, but nice car. Better than the one i made for our animation this year (Had a horrid time making a very detailed one in two days), but it came out alright i'll post it up sometime.. and hopefully the other 11 animation concentrations i did with the tricycle
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html

[fireball3004]

I stink at texturing, but this looks interesting http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68453.

[addictedMax]

I'm back working in 3d after doing nothing since Nationals. So this is my lastest work and my first in trying to do post production

http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/3153/88685726pu2.png

[BuddyB309]

hey all here is a youtube link to my animation that im working on. This is update #3.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtZvsbDyz1A

[fireball3004]

IMpressive pic, and keep up the work buddyb

[BuddyB309]

This is Scene 04 shot 08. A tv notices a very attractive lamp.
I don't use v-ray. this is layer rendering in action

Here is a movement test of the dance club shot 01-05 update 05 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxUXei8fKf8)

http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/9409/sh08finalxk8.jpg



Here is also Scene03 Shot 01

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/3223/s03sh01finalqq8.jpg

[Setsanto]

The lamp and TV look great, the other shot is also amazing, except the one shadow on the corner building at the back looks a little...unnatural. But honestly, that is amazing.

~Setsanto

[BuddyB309]

The lamp and TV look great, the other shot is also amazing, except the one shadow on the corner building at the back looks a little...unnatural. But honestly, that is amazing.

~Setsanto

Other animators normally point out the building, or the shadow that is in the background. But you have to realize that this shot is only 77 frames long at 30 fps. Which comes to a grand total of 2 1/2 seconds. Plus the car that they are driving in is flying down the street at 60mph. What your looking at is a still frame, you have time to study the building in the background. The audience will not have that opportunity.

more renders yay!!

scene at the bar with the Flamboyant German Blender.
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/2230/shot06finalaq0.jpg

[Setsanto]

The glows, the reflections, all the fine details on every single one of your renders look AMAZING, that has to be said

~Setsanto

[BuddyB309]

Sadly, there will be no more updates on my current project on Chiefdelphi. Everyone continue to work with 3ds max and do off-season projects, its the only way to get better at the program.

[Setsanto]

Alright, so, due to a scuffle with a teacher at school, I had no 3ds Max at home. Due to his technical ineptitude, he failed to install one of the licenses, which I have now claimed for the betterment of all mankind :P. So, with no further pomp, I present to you my first crappy model of the year.

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/6276/necklacefu9.jpg

I was basically just testing to see if I still can use the program. About 3 hours total, including major distractions. I didn't make the head thing it's around. I did a FG render, but to be honest, it looked worse than this one.

~Setsanto

[BuddyB309]

Alright, .......it looked worse than this one.

~Setsanto

I graded your project. There are some things I'm pointing out that will help you.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7549/necklacefu9bq8.jpg

[Setsanto]

Well, my head in the file has so many unconnected vertices and is just generally utterly messed up. Since I don't want to start it again, does anyone have a head model they want to donate?

~Setsanto

[Kevin Thorp]

I volunteered (or was volunteered) to create the FIRST Tech challenge game animation again this year.

This year's game is called "Face-Off" and uses street hockey pucks for the playing element.

I asked Eric, a returning senior on our animation team to create a "cartoony" robot. He sent me this "HockeyBot":

[MadeAtMidnight]

Nice job!

[BuddyB309]

I volunteered (or was volunteered) to create the FIRST Tech challenge game animation again this year.

This year's game is called "Face-Off" and uses street hockey pucks for the playing element.

I asked Eric, a returning senior on our animation team to create a "cartoony" robot. He sent me this "HockeyBot":

Nice, besides the slight pinching on the hands, there is nothing wrong with it. Just make sure its animated well. I would hate to see something like that become non-appealing just because it isn't animated well.