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Home ? How Do I ...? ? Moving water like in the Chinese History pack?

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05/02/2016 11:35:44

braj
braj
Posts: 286 		I'm using Blender, but a noob with it.
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05/02/2016 12:37:52

braj
braj
Posts: 286 		OK, so I am thinking this must be it, animated textures, and how to create them in Blender.



I haven't gotten it figured yet, and I need to get the actual images too, but I hope to have a reasonable little body of water when necessary soon.
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05/02/2016 20:39:39

braj
braj
Posts: 286 		And I did get the water animated in Blender, but the output file doesn't display as an animation, so I'm not sure what is up. I do wish Muvizu would get a comprehensive guide to producing objects with all available features so we can really get the most out of the platform. I'm guessing I can rig something acceptable using cameras and backdrops, but it would be much better to build it into the objects so they can reflect light properly.
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05/02/2016 20:58:50

urbanlamb
urbanlamb
(Account inactive)
Posts: 1786 		in muvizu you would need to generate the file as an avi file and play the avi file on an object. In other softwares you might do it differently but in the case of muvizu the solution is to create an avi file of the animated textures and import that in the image slot instead of a still image.
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05/02/2016 21:01:22

braj
braj
Posts: 286 		urbanlamb wrote:
in muvizu you would need to generate the file as an avi file and play the avi file on an object. In other softwares you might do it differently but in the case of muvizu the solution is to create an avi file of the animated textures and import that in the image slot instead of a still image.


That doesn't really address how to create an object that has animated textures built-in, obviously it is possible or the Chinese pack wouldn't be able to do it. This info on how to accomplish would be really helpful.
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05/02/2016 21:20:23

urbanlamb
urbanlamb
(Account inactive)
Posts: 1786 		They have access to things we do not just like they have a cape that is soft cloth. We cant make any soft bodied anything. Likewise they haven't as of yet made it possible for us to put in animations at the material level or create blend shapes for expressions or anything else
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05/02/2016 21:30:25

braj
braj
Posts: 286 		That's too bad, because I would love to make content using those features. I wish Muvizu would launch a content developer's forum subsection where as much info as possible would be shared and some development staff, even just a QA guy that has access to info, could share and answer more technical questions. I was a QA manager before becoming disabled and I could help testing to a degree. I really would love to see Muvizu reach a larger audience, I am amazed by stuff in it daily, just I want to use it to its fullest. The Chinese water bits make me drool, but they are limited in size to be not very useful for most stuff I want to do. If they could just release a floor tile object with that that you could place objects above it would be awesome, just make it large. That would help a lot of Muvizu users, especially the ones without time to learn the camera-based methods. And it looks awesome.
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05/02/2016 21:44:11

braj
braj
Posts: 286 		After working in Blender and the render speeds of even modest content, I really appreciate Muvizu's engine performance. I really think there are tons of people that could get a use out of Muvizu with some more development in some key areas, like object manipulation tools and documentation of all available tech for modeling. Let us keyframe more things, like character actions, let us save grouped items as favorites (easy way for anyone to model using included abstracts), improve snapping to handle rotation and elevation, and dock the timeline permanently to the bottom whole edge of the screen, put all those menus in docks with widgets to open each new item, with the cameras docked, it would be so easy to click one to bring up any camera anywhere at any time. Right now, as powerful as Muvizu is, I get assaulted with open dialog boxes after just a couple minutes working. And let us create custom poses and actions Somehow this is done with development tools, at least open that up to more development users so we can create more characters. And the character wizard, it would be really cool to be able to click a body element and resize it, there would be so many more possible characters if even a few more options were added to each character. Beefy with a beer belly, for example. Resize the heads, or even swap heads between characters. I dunno, I deeply wish we could import Collada Spore-exported creatures with all the rigging and animations, that would be an awesome combination. OK, sorry, I am getting carried away, I love Muvizu, I'm spending hours in it each day, so part of the excitement is imagining how it can be improved. I'm just weird.
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06/02/2016 00:18:28

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		It's interesting that there are plenty of animation packages that give the kind of low level control you're asking for... but the irony is that what makes MUVIZU so easy to use is that we don't have to work at that level .

However, there are times when you need to do something that MUVIZU just can't do.

My philosophy is to treat All animation packages as tools in my creative toolbox. I use MUVIZU for its amazing speed of production.. and when I need something it can't do, I either...

1) imply the action and let the viewer fill in the blanks, or...
2) create the scene in another package and figure out a way to merge it seamlessly into my project at the video editor stage.
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06/02/2016 00:46:43

urbanlamb
urbanlamb
(Account inactive)
Posts: 1786 		Yes as patmar says there is on one singular tool to rule them all. Muvizu is good for some things and other tools are good for other things. You learn to not try to get a tool to do something it shouldn't be used for less you go batty and use it for "the good stuff" . Muvizu was created for ease of use and even digimania if you speak to them realize that muvizu is good for learning and doing small things, but there comes a time when users want it to do things its not really built for and at that point its time to find the tool to achieve the goal you seak.

Its okay to use more then one software and one realtime engine.
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06/02/2016 01:49:27

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		it might be interesting to ask the forum members what other software they use to complement MUVIZU... and how they use it.
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06/02/2016 03:29:07

braj
braj
Posts: 286 		Haha, you guys make it sound like I am asking for too much. What I am asking for are the very basic move and view tools that really should be there, and access to what tech is possible le to the power level user that is willing to use other tools to create and rig new characters, it is in their interest IMO to give some sdk for developing content. You guys have low expectations. I know hey can do it if they have the will and budget, if either is lacking then maybe not.
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06/02/2016 03:30:21

braj
braj
Posts: 286 		Part of what I'm asking for is what makes Muvizu hard, it doesn't complicate it. It makes it much easier.
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06/02/2016 08:36:25

MrDrWho13Muvizu mogulExperimental user
MrDrWho13
Posts: 2220 		braj wrote:
Part of what I'm asking for is what makes Muvizu hard, it doesn't complicate it. It makes it much easier.


The scene window does the camera docking thing I think,but I like the idea of having the option to dock the timeline to the bottom of the screen. The other things have been asked for many times.
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06/02/2016 10:17:56

fazz68
fazz68
(Account inactive)
Posts: 763 		@braj we dont think you are asking for too much. as MrDrWho says all these things have been requested and a whole lot more on numerous occasions. sometimes you get lucky and an idea will get put into muvizu. they have a to do list a billion miles long of things that we have begged for over the years. so keep on asking away. you never know what will happen.

just fixing the software is their main priority at the moment i imagine. its all gone very quiet on the muvizu HQ front but it does that all the time... so nothing new there.
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06/02/2016 10:34:35

fazz68
fazz68
(Account inactive)
Posts: 763 		and to an answer your original question about the water moving thing. i thought the same thing during testing. its mainly done with normal maps but quite how they do it is a mystery. dunno if you could rig something up using avi's and normal maps? never got round to trying. but its fbx so have a little experiment with it. thats all part of the fun
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06/02/2016 15:34:54

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		Braj,

I agree with everybody else about never stopping the requests for improvements. They're all great ideas.

I'm on another software forum much like this one, where the vast majority of users love the product, but they acknowledge areas where it needs to improve. Recently a guy who has been offering long lists of great ideas for years suddenly blew up and quit the forum because they haven't incorporated his ideas. His departure was accompanied by uncalled-for rants against the developers and a lot of junk talk.

Apparently he took it as a personal slight, as though they didn't value his ideas. The fact, however, is that there were valid reasons why the ideas weren't convenient to implement without a complete re-write of the software from the ground up. That company has one programmer and about 4 different products... all of which need 50 new features every year so they can sell a new version. He just doesn't have time to reinvent the code's architecture. I suspect a lot of the same is true with MUVIZU. It is what it is. We all have to decide whether or not that's enough for us.

Based on the problems that have been introduced by small change, I think asking for a major revision would fall under the "careful what you ask for... you might might get it" principle.
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07/02/2016 00:14:49

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988 		Good Posting
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07/02/2016 00:34:16

urbanlamb
urbanlamb
(Account inactive)
Posts: 1786 		braj wrote:
Haha, you guys make it sound like I am asking for too much. What I am asking for are the very basic move and view tools that really should be there, and access to what tech is possible le to the power level user that is willing to use other tools to create and rig new characters, it is in their interest IMO to give some sdk for developing content. You guys have low expectations. I know hey can do it if they have the will and budget, if either is lacking then maybe not.



The sdk they are using is from unreal engine they can't share that only unreal can share that. Muvizu runs on unreal 3. Anyhow without recoding muvizu which when speaking with them its likely something that at the moment they are not intending to do. The bells and whistles they can add will be limited to the coding of muvizu and how they encorporated the unreal sdk into muvizu. Now haveing seen the performance issues I dont think it would be a wise thing to overburden muvizu with many more features. Not unless they completely recode it... and if they do that they might as well upgrade to unreal 4.


They are just a tiny company and have gotten smaller as of late. Everyone enjoys muvizu but if they make it too complicated they will sacrifice one client base for another. (not to mention the keyframing package is not working properly right now even no sense asking them to break it further)
edited by urbanlamb on 07/02/2016
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07/02/2016 03:41:17

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738 		Braj, As fast as you are at learning this stuff and as excited as you get over creating your own props, I think you should look into some of the other available tools... Not to use "instead of" Muvizu, but to use "in conjunction with" it.

Poser is on sale through Sunday Feb 7th. Its strength is character creation and morphing, but it also does animation... and it comes with a ton of included content. They also have an online store that includes both free and paid content. I have Poser, and it is very powerful but not nearly as easy to use as Muvizu.

Iclone is used by several people here on the Muvizu forum. It looks like an excellent product that excels at character / content creation AND animation.

If you google the phrase "ANIMATION SOFTWARE" you'll find the information you need to decide if spending a little more money to get the control you want is the route to take. Please keep us posted, I'm curious to see what your natural curiosity and intellect zeroes in on!
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Home ? How Do I ...? ? Moving water like in the Chinese History pack?

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