PatMarrNC - all messages by user

2017/2/27 0:35:46
Wheels animation tricks Very clever Rod! You're on a roll lately! One great idea after another... and I really like the flexibility you get from each of these procedures!

I think I understand now that I'll have to manually convert the circular UV to a rectangle... (I never would have thought of that in a million years!)

I experimented with your pigeon wing animation idea and tried to use it to animate the legs of a quadraped, but I must not be creating the right file format... it almost works, but I don't get a good solid texture like yours. At first I wondered if my computer can't handle the overhead; But your pigeons work on my computer, so it must not be the computer. Must be my ongoing inability to create an AVI that plays in Muvizu...

(added to the WIKI page "USER CREATED TUTORIALS")

-----------------------------------
edited by PatMarrNC on 27/02/2017
2017/2/26 16:32:44
Wheels animation tricks I don't understand how you unwrapped the round shape into a rectangular shape that could be scrolled sideways... is that a setting in Blender?

(I understand how to make the tread part rectangular, it's the wheel's hub that remains a mystery to me...
edited by PatMarrNC on 26/02/2017
2017/2/26 0:24:54
Wheels animation tricks Wow, Rod! You're an animation genius! Thanks for sharing these great ideas! This is very useful!

(I just added this to the WIKI on the USER CREATED TUTORIALS page)

I especially like the FLEXIBILITY This approach gives the director... you can programmatically change the speed of rotation as the car changes gears! Your other solution would require a separate video for each speed... but this approach doesn't require the overhead of any video at all!

---------------------------------
edited by PatMarrNC on 26/02/2017
2017/2/26 0:11:45
NEW IN THE MUVIZU STORE..... Thanks Rod.. I think I understand how this works now! I see potential here for animating legs on quadrapeds, or eyes and mouths on creatures with attachments that put those features too far away from the base character to use the standard library of eyes etc. really, with this approach, anything is possible.

Even custom arm movements, like shovelling or eating.... the newer characters have mid-sections that can be made invisible. If you model a replacement mid section with multiple sets of arms in the positions you need for some action, you could use this approach to create new customized actions.

Likewise, you could make the legs invisible on a character and animate a different kind of walk. The sky is the limit!


-------------------------------
edited by PatMarrNC on 26/02/2017
2017/2/25 16:19:27
new items and characters trent-ozon wrote:
Ok cool thanks again cant wait to see it!


I uploaded the mower on Thursday, thinking it might get approved on Friday... but it didn't. Monday seems to be the day they approve uploads... check the store then to see if it is available yet.

Here's a preview:



(If you don't like the John Deere color scheme, you can change the colors to whatever you like)
edited by PatMarrNC on 25/02/2017
2017/2/25 15:59:23
Assets with characters holding an item maurice8th wrote:
Curious as the topic of moving objects is something I need to master. Example - how do you format a simple game of catch between two kids?

Muvizu's built-in actions are a blessing and a curse. A blessing because they contain many things (like walk cycles) that keep users of other animation programs stalled in "test mode" for years, while we are making complete videos relatively quickly.

But, unlike other software that lets you create ANY action if you are willing to take the time, with Muvizu it's all or nothing: if the action doesn't already exist, there's no way to create it.

One way to make up for missing actions is to IMPLY them. Keeping the camera focused on the face or the character's shadow , or on another character's reaction can get the point across even without having an action for what you want to portray.

There DOES happen to be a THROW action... and you might use the OBJECT action for the catch, depending on the size of ball being thrown. Focusing the camera on the player's shadows would work well because you could key frame a ball going back and forth, and it wouldn't have to be precise... it would only have to intersect with the kids' shadows.

Best way to get a handle on actions is to look through every characters' list (they aren't all the same... some can do things others can't do) and get familiar with what's built-in. Then, spend some time watching the videos in the Gallery to see how others have implied actions that don't exist in the standard library.

There are many tricks that have been used, too many to mention here.

----------------------------------------
edited by PatMarrNC on 25/02/2017
2017/2/24 23:19:48
Making walls with windows, transparency Great idea! I look forward to seeing your final result!
2017/2/24 1:17:33
Assets with characters holding an item I see your point, Ikes... but I think the overhead of that approach is overkill. I think a minimalist approach that helps people with less powerful computers load a resource is a good starting point.. then if people want more they can directly contact the person who created the set and ask for individual components to be sent privately.
2017/2/22 12:24:39
new items and characters regarding the question of "other places where (stuff) can be downloaded for free..."

There are plenty of Model collections (like Sketchup's 3D WAREHOUSE) from which you can download props for free... but you have to convert them to FBX or ASE format. There are instructions in Muvizu's WIKI on how to do that. When downloading and converting other peoples' models, don't forget to credit the original creator of the model.

There are no other places where characters can be bought or downloaded. Muvizu's characters are proprietary. Occasionally they release new sets of characters, but most of the characters in the USER ASSETS part of the store were created from existing characters, by editing their UVMaps and modelling attachments to change the look of their geometry.

Regarding the riding mower: I am already working on it. After I upload it, there is an approval process which can take several days for some reason, so keep checking the store. If it doesn't show up by Friday, then it won't be until sometime next week... (nothing ever gets approved on weekends.)
2017/2/22 0:24:15
new items and characters trent-ozon wrote:
i was wondering if there were any other place to download characters and items for free or to buy i looked on this site and only see a little bit of characters looking for ride on lawn mower kid characters and zombles etc...


Note that the store has two tabs: the MUVIZU ASSETS (stuff Muvizu offers for sale) and the USER ASSETS (stuff users create, some of which is free and some of which has a price)

in MUVIZU ASSETS you should find some zombies for sale. The costume pack also has several zombie skins

They also have a couple of Asian character packs that include kids.



In the USER ASSETS section, here is a set containing kids:
https://www.muvizu.com/Set/45592/Kids-with-Round-Heads

There are also skins that make regular characters look like zombies:
https://www.muvizu.com/Texture/22403/Zombie-Head-for-Heroine
https://www.muvizu.com/Texture/17625/Decaying-undead

I've never seen a riding mower, but how soon do you need it? I could maybe make one and post it to the store within the next couple of days...
2017/2/22 0:15:12
NEW IN THE MUVIZU STORE..... ikes wrote:
Nice one Rod! Very cool trick to animate the texture. Thumbs Up
edited by ikes on 21/02/2017


yeah, Ikes.. it reminds me of your multiple jaws for T-Rex, and animating the visibility of each jaw.
(Speaking of which... did you ever make a tutorial on how you did that? If so, it needs to be archived in the WIKI so its easier to find....)


I'm guessing that both approaches would take about the same amount of work if animated on the Muvizu time line, although it looks like Rod found a way to loop the texture change in After Effects, which would make it easier.

Both approaches add huge new possibilities to create actions that will never exist in the Muvizu environment alone. My hat is off to both of you for your original thinking plus your willingness to share your ideas with others! That's part of what makes this a great forum!
edited by PatMarrNC on 22/02/2017
2017/2/21 16:19:23
Stop my character from sitting? or, if you like the way it looks when he "stands up" and starts walking, you could just trim out the few frames at the end of the walk when he sits again, and start a new scene from a different camera angle.

Its a bit misleading to think in terms of "initial state", since that state will continue until you manually change it again. I'm actually kind of surprised to hear that the character would start walking from a sitting position. Most character actions that are intended for a standing position won't activate at all if the character's current state is sitting.
edited by PatMarrNC on 21/02/2017
2017/2/21 16:16:31
SKETCHUP TO MUVIZU Tangledbliss, that's a useful tip! Thanks for sharing! Now that Sketchup has removed support for SU8 a lot of people will be looking for alternate solutions to the model import task.

Regarding Sketchup warehouse: One thing that drives me nuts about the models DL from there is that there's no quality control. Models are created by thousands of people at varying skill levels, and there's no way to guarantee that any given model "follows the rules". When I was still trying to use models from the warehouse, it wasn't uncommon to spend hours fixing things on models that would have taken much less lime to create from scratch.

But, lots of people (I'm not one of them) seem to have great luck downloading and converting models from that archive. For those who do, please remember to credit the original modeler.
edited by PatMarrNC on 21/02/2017
2017/2/21 4:16:17
NEW IN THE MUVIZU STORE..... Rod, that is AWESOME! Thanks for taking time to share your discovery! I will add this tutorial to the WIKI.

I couldn't read all the menus, but am I correct in concluding that you created the animation by cycling through 3 textures, each of which only textured one of the wing positions, leaving the other two invisible?
2017/2/20 1:32:45
NEW IN THE MUVIZU STORE..... flying birds are just a still shot of a flock with transparent background. The animation comes from the backdrop. Basically any PNG with birds and a transparent background should work. The small size of the birds in Rod's set helps to disguise the fact that their wings aren't flapping.
2017/2/20 1:26:52
Business suit? you can't change the colours from a menu, but you can edit textures in a graphic editor and change the colours to anything you want. You should be able to find some suits as textures in the store
https://www.muvizu.com/Texture/25570/Black-Suit
https://www.muvizu.com/Texture/25706/Dapper-Edwardian-Suit
https://www.muvizu.com/Texture/25567/Blue-Suit
https://www.muvizu.com/Texture/18671/Suit
https://www.muvizu.com/Texture/17718/another-tux


Or you can edit the UVMap for the character you're using and paint in anything you want.
2017/2/20 1:02:15
Trump There is a set of the pre-primary election candidates here:
https://www.muvizu.com/Set/45790/Presidential-Candidates

to the best of my knowledge, that's the only Trump character in the store
2017/2/19 1:33:36
seeing if there's any interest.... Rocque wrote:
Pat,
These are really fun props. The Muvizu future looks bright because of so many generous people. Thanks for taking the time to create these.


Thanks Rocque! I appreciate your encouragement!... but more than that I'm happy to see you posting on the forum again!
2017/2/19 0:37:28
moviesets.org access LOL... good job, world savers! (There's a super hero video there somewhere)
;-)
2017/2/19 0:30:57
Creating and Timing Characters Reactions I think Ziggy is referring to emotions that can be changed via the PREPARE ACTIONS menu. You can assign up to 9 different mood-based actions on a pallet, then as your story is being recorded, you can change the mood or action by clicking on one of the 9 options ... effectively "swapping " the current mood or action for the one you clicked on.
pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87