Chief Delphi - 341 Needs Animation Help!

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Re: 341 Needs Animation Help!

80/20 has a CD that has a lot of Autocad representations of their parts. Call them and ask them for it. For aluminum extrusions, i would just recommend going to Firstcadlibrary, downloading the 1x1, taking a section of it to make a spline, then just extruding that spline to whatever length you want.

Enjoy!

Re: 341 Needs Animation Help!

I personally see no problem with use of FirstCAD Library. Its not like any of the models posted there are amazingly complex, or spectacular visually. You have to do quite a bit of work to make them look right after you download them, like filleting the sharp edges, simplifying excess detail, and mapping with good textures. Modeling any of those would not benefit my 3d skills, since most of them are pretty trivial, and there is no challenge in doing them - just time effort.

There is a big difference in downloading a car model from 3dcafe and downloading a metal extrusion from FirstCAD library, because in the first case you are downloading it because you dont know how to make the model yourself, but in the second case you download it just to save time on grunt work. It takes skill and creativity to model a car. It takes simple ability to follow a blueprint to model a robot part in Inventor. I would download the FirstCAD Library model so that i have more time for tasks i find challenging - like complex model, realistic lighting, and detailed textures.

About the rules. That line in the consent form was always there. Yet autodesk did offer in past years kit parts modeled in inventor for download for use in animations. I dont see how using FirstCAD Library is any different, even more so since more people know about FirstCAD Library than about the files Autodesk gave away - its a resource available for everyone.

So here is the bottomline in my view - if you think that you could learn something by doing the model yourself, you probably should. Otherwise, i dont see much point in doing gruntwork models such as kit parts.

Re: 341 Needs Animation Help!

Quote:

Originally Posted by OneAngryDaisy

We used to have an animation team two years ago, but last year our focus shifted on our robot.. thus, we had no animation team, but this year three freshmen have stepped up and shown an interest in learning this.. I really don't see the harm in letting them learn how to use the program, its actually pretty awesome to see animation be reestablished.. It's just like a new rookie team using FIRST's gearboxes to learn how the game works..

There is a difference between letting people learn the program, which is what I'm trying to say here, and outrightly taking someone elses work and putting it in an animation.

KCY, yes, there is an enormous difference between the scanline and the Brazil renderer, but I'm talking about Brazil vs. Mental Ray, which comes with MAX 6. Turn off the GI and it looks completely different, personally I feel the GI makes objects look like play-dough, but that's just my opinion.

Re: 341 Needs Animation Help!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Hallock

personally I feel the GI makes objects look like play-dough, but that's just my opinion.

yeah - in many cases specular highlights are missing. It is most noticeable when using max's lighttracer. Cranking up specular values and adding some light other than skylight usually fixes that.

Re: 341 Needs Animation Help!

Default, like scanline.

Play-dough.

My lighting, textures, etc, no GI.

There is a big difference I feel.

Re: 341 Needs Animation Help!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Hallock

My lighting, textures, etc, no GI.

There is a big difference I feel.

Wow, the last one is no GI? the shadow patterns over the textures match almost perfectly with the "play-dough" render.

Re: 341 Needs Animation Help!

When you turn on secondary, or indirect lighting, you'll get the same shadowing especially when you turn on bounces more than one.

After sleeping on it, I suppose anything that is given to you by FIRST or Autodesk should be usable, like the extrusion CAD files, I agree it will make things less grunt work and more time to actually work.

Re: 341 Needs Animation Help!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Hallock

What's to stop people from saying that about a car or something? "Well, looks like I can't make this, so I'll just take it and put it in the animation." It screws over people who actually did all the work, like the teams agreed to when they sent in their consent forms.

There is a BIG difference between using a car that someone else made and using a small part like a motor. The FirstCAD Library is there to use as a resource, and there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with using it. Ed Sparks devotes his time and energy so that we can use what he has made, so why wouldn't you use it? I guess if you want to spend weeks making intricate small parts that came with the kit of parts, go ahead, but I know I'd much rather focus on getting my message across in my animation.

Re: 341 Needs Animation Help!

It's been awhile since I've checked on this thread--And I believe that some of the things said in the contents of this thread are out of line. I understand that the animation had to have been our own work, through and through. IT WAS.
We were just trying to find reference, and in the end--I dont think we needed it. :ahh: