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10/03/2016 05:03:27

braj
braj
Posts: 286
I just logged in again and the price for 6 Pro for me is now only $119. I think I'll be upgrading in a couple months if I find I like v5.
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12/03/2016 22:58:00

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738
Anybody know if this had to be installed the same day? I downloaded it but didn't have time to install it that day. I'm guessing that installing it now would be treated the same as a demo version... did anybody else install it on a different day than it was offered for free?
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13/03/2016 14:07:18

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988
I think it was only for that one day. They'll do it again, I suppose you just gotta look out for it. I've been watching the tutorials and messing around with it - basically everything that everyone always requests for Muvizu is already in iclone. The downside is that iclone (in general) is all but useless without the 3D Exchange program, which is expensive. Also the lighting in iclone 5 is rubbish, unless you get the indigo renderer which is available bundled within the Pro version...and so on. Iclone 6 has really good lighting, and a nicer interface, but the bundle you actually need to do what you'd expect with it costs $500. Iclone is not a cheap route to movie making, is what I'm saying
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13/03/2016 14:59:12

urbanlamb
urbanlamb
(Account inactive)
Posts: 1786
Yes and dont get the indigo renderer its meant for still shots LOL. however iclone is not cheap its not expensive either its in the middle. Its the only real time engine out there that allows you to animate like you know everyone wants to. Up until iclone 6 the lighting has always been a bit of an issue. However unless you want to purchase stuff off the content store or marketplace instead of develop your own bits and pieces you will need the exchange. There are indeed people who do just use the content store and marketplace I dont think its the crowd requesting the changes in muvizu though lol.

Anyhow so if you want more ability the solution is to be blunt; to pay for it

You also need to afford the hardware to run it. Animation is hard work though and in the end as your ambitions and ideas grow so will the price tag to get them to become real. Unless you decide to do everything inside blender and do it all yourself. ...which is a possibility but not for the feint of heart and what you trade of in cost off software you most certainly will be paying to assemble a renderfarm

so long story short you want to make pretty pictures beyond what is available in muvizu then its gonna cost ya in time and money or both. So at the end of the day its a question about how much you are invested as a person into this process which no matter how you slice it will never be straight forward or easy.
edited by urbanlamb on 13/03/2016
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13/03/2016 17:31:10

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738
ziggy72 wrote:
I think it was only for that one day.


ah, bummer!

They'll do it again, I suppose you just gotta look out for it.

yeah, I guess that's what I'll do...

basically everything that everyone always requests for Muvizu is already in iclone.

yeah, reading through their ads, they seem to have all bases covered... it's undoubtedly a good product with a lot of built-in potential!


As an animation hobbyist who just needs a semi-modifiable vehicle for fleshing out ideas, Muvizu is absolutely perfect for me. My productions are mostly intended to be ridiculous, so if I have to create new characters with head attachments instead of morphs, I feel like it adds to the silliness that I'm trying to achieve, and doesn't detract at all. Sure, I would appreciate any new features, and I expect that the new asset store concept will be helping that to happen; but I still have a lot to learn about what's already possible with Muvizu.

When I look at the amazing movies that have been made by the gurus here, it's evident that Muvizu's current potential is quite impressive, and the trend is in a positive direction. I might explore some other software, but I seriously doubt that I will abandon Muvizu. It's just too much fun!
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13/03/2016 20:07:37

braj
braj
Posts: 286
I don't think the lighting is that bad for real time, the water effects in particular are pretty cool. There are pretty compelling real-time effects that would be great to see in Muvizu. Muvizu's lighting though I think is the easiest of everything I use to get the results I'm after, Poser is a PITA at times in that regard. iClones whole UI kinda throws me off it though. I've come to appreciate Muvizu's full screen approach as I go on, it kinda keeps you seeing the bigger picture. I wish I could now get fullscreen view with floating pallets in Poser actually.

This is where I stand right now: I think I'm going to be focussing on learning Poser more, it is really great fun to manually animate, even doing stuff like animating my own water effects is pretty rewarding, and I will try and learn how to integrate that content with Muvizu. I didn't see a way to export animations from iClone with transparency or in image sequence layers, so I don't think I'll get much out of it unless I upgrade. Right now it shows Pro for only $120 in my account, if I had the funds I likely would impulse buy it. But that might be a mistake anyhow, damn my focus gets pulled away from my todo list constantly. Do I really need to invest in learning another platform? I think learning HitFilm would be more appropriate, and many of the animated effects I appreciate in iClone are likely much better created in HitFilm I think, and I could incrementally build up whatever tool kit I need with no upfront cost just to get started.
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14/03/2016 01:00:25

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988
urbanlamb wrote:
Yes and dont get the indigo renderer its meant for still shots LOL.

So it is - it's so confusing, there's so many bits they sell!
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14/03/2016 01:08:41

braj
braj
Posts: 286
I wonder if Digimania has anything that can render things for iClone and Poser, they are I think in the Maya market right? But anyhow, just thinking out loud. I am trying to render to the Firefly render in Poser and it crashes while making even the shortest clips, I can't exactly start a render and walk away from it. I'm thinking of getting Reality 4 sometime, but what I guess I need is a render farm. This is so much where Muvizu shines, I'm really hoping the day comes when much more variety of creatures are available.

When I try to go to the Renderdigimania website, it asks for user login and password.

http://renderdigimania.com/renderdigimania/
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01/04/2016 11:15:07

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738
I'm posting this here because the thread started out with a FREE SOFTWARE OF THE DAY notice... and here's another one:

One of today's freebees is called PARTICLE 9, and it looks like it would be a useful tool for creating backgrounds in MUVIZU! Based on its demo video, it has a 3d terrain creator, brushes for painting foliage on alpha and a lot of tools for making general painting very fast

The ability to create foliage on foreground layers that characters can walk behind and still be seen partially through the leaves really opens up a lot of possibilities. I'd guess that using layered graphics on multiple backdrops to achieve a 3d look would be a lot less demanding on your computer than filling up a large scene with 3d objects. Plus, you don't need to know how to model if you take this route.

These videos show a background scene being created with Particle 9. It's free today. 'Nuff said.








and here's the link for the Freebie, in case you aren't on their mailing list:
https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/particle-9/

as always, freebee expires after today (4-1-2016)
edited by PatMarrNC on 01/04/2016
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01/04/2016 11:36:27

ziggy72Muvizu mogulExperimental user
ziggy72
Posts: 1988
Looks nice, downloaded and will try later.
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01/04/2016 13:34:44

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738
apparently the 3d terrain creator is NOT part of particle 9, its part of a sister app... particle 9 is a subset of the other app. But the foliage creation alone would be enormously useful in my opinion.

I'm hoping that after registering particle 9 that the other app is available at substantial savings. It's list price is already fairly low, well under $100 USD
edited by PatMarrNC on 01/04/2016
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01/04/2016 16:11:50

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738
I just got around to installing this product and giving it a brief test run, and I think it will be VERY useful for making the kind of backgrounds I need for Muvizu and Anime Studio sets. It's basically a PAINT style program (as opposed to drawing or photo editing) in that it provides a wide variety of brush styles and materials to paint with. A LOT of paint apps do that... But here's what's cool about this one:

Many of the brushes are not just static patterns... they are animated algorithms that change every time you use them! So if you are using a nature brush to create trees or bushes, they all look different and unique! No rubber-stamped look like you see in many apps!

Also, I notice that many of the brushes are motion sensitive... meaning, if you draw faster, the pattern spreads out more, which creates a feathery look.. and again, always different!

The nature brushes alone are well worth the free download!

In the past I have used nature backgrounds that were screen captured from the web, but that's really bad practice for a lot of reasons. With this tool, I should be able to rapidly create just about any background I need... and best of all... put the foreground, middle ground and background on separate layers in order to create a wide vista 3d effect as the camera pans the scene!

Can't speak for everyone, but for me this freebie is a keeper!
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01/04/2016 18:03:12

mystoMuvizu mogulExperimental user
mysto
Posts: 471
A great find PatMarrNC! I'll definitely get some use out of this one!
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01/04/2016 19:15:42

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738
mysto wrote:
A great find PatMarrNC! I'll definitely get some use out of this one!


Me too, if I can figure out how to put the trees and bushes and grass on a transparent background... so far, nothing I've tried has worked. I know its got to be possible because they have tutorials on using the alpha channel, but they don't seem to have done agood job of keeping their documentation consistent with the current version, so the examples are almost all from previous versions, and the current version doesn't look that way!
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01/04/2016 20:55:51

drewiMuvizu mogulExperimental user
drewi
Posts: 302
Pat... return to the Gaotd download page and read the users comments.it seems there are no layers in this version.
There are directions to an '8.2 dog waffle learning addition' which does have the plant particle brushes and may have layers. i don't know what restrictions it may have though.
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01/04/2016 20:59:20

blickfang
blickfang
Posts: 106
Thanks Pat

Someday I will get back to my music video.
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01/04/2016 21:48:36

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738
drewi wrote:
Pat... return to the Gaotd download page and read the users comments.it seems there are no layers in this version.
There are directions to an '8.2 dog waffle learning addition' which does have the plant particle brushes and may have layers. i don't know what restrictions it may have though.


I was planning to save foreground, Background and middle ground as separate graphics with transparent BG, then create distance between them by putting them on widescreen backdrops positioned at different Z depths... so for my purpose I don't need the program that generates the foliage to have its own layers.

I emailed the owner and he claims its possible to do what I want, but I didn't get a warm fuzzy feeling that it would be as easy to obtain a transparent BG as it is in most graphic programs.

The full blown program with layers and a whole lot more features that the particle generator costs $47.99 USD ( no upgrade available from the free version)... if I can figure out how to get the transparency I need, that's a no brainer.
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01/04/2016 22:19:33

drewiMuvizu mogulExperimental user
drewi
Posts: 302
oops....sorry, i was confusing layers with transparency abilities/properties.
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01/04/2016 22:26:40

braj
braj
Posts: 286
Just as an aside, you can use Muvizu itself to create backgrounds with transparencies, so say you design a little forest thing in Muvizu, just set your cameras up with what you want rendered on a layer, record a short image sequence rendering only that layer, then create a new scene and import the rendered image as a backdrop.
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01/04/2016 23:33:12

PatMarrNCMuvizu mogul
PatMarrNC
Posts: 1738
cool stuff, Braj! I probably wouldn't have thought to do that in a million years!

SO many interesting ways to use this software!
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