ziggy72 - all messages by user

2012/11/8 21:56:29
Updates, Tutorials, Transparency! Oh my! Bulbs - so mundane, so necessary. Oh, and I need props to build a prison set for the Sammamish project...well, whadyaknow! Hope you remembered the electric chair too
2012/11/8 21:51:50
Textures getting lost on Villian gown and top... I didn't realise this texture problem was supposed to be fixed. In that case, I have the same problem on the skirt for the Heroine character using .22b (defaulting back on load).
2012/11/5 19:49:22
dragon Baby! - gotta love it! I think Barney put him up to it
2012/11/5 19:48:27
horse needed! sfecich - does that name mean something? Hard to type. Anyway, Muvizu doesn't do animals except our cartoon dog, and it walks upright. We've been asking for quadropeds for a while now, but no sign of them yet... You can import animals of course, but they'll be objects - you could move them about, but not animate them like a character. You may need to reconsider your project, or at least how you'll achieve it at any rate. Hope this helps.
2012/11/4 17:17:12
Sketchup to Muvizu EEFilmz, I feel your pain. Well, not the abdominal ones, but the psychological ones anyway. In an effort to help yourself and everyone else struggling to get to grips with the whole model importing thing, I've uploaded a set (which should appear in the Gallery tomorrow) which should help. It is the set I use to import and test models, and it is positioned in exactly the right place to allow you import the kind of models that Muvizu usually complains are too large to import inside the world.

As for the 'object too small' message, this is exactly what it says - Muvizu doesn't like objects that are too small/flat/thin in any one axis. If you make sure your objects are scaled to at least 1 metre long in any axis in Sketchup, and not too thin, you shouldn't get this message again. You can always scale it back down again in Muvizu later on.

Collision, as others have mentioned, is a right pain. This is why I made the ZMB in the first place so I could just side step the problem altogether, but it's still a pain. UkBerty's plugin is very useful here, and I'd go with that if I were you. I'd also recommend perservering with Sketchup rather than Blender simply because I know Sketchup will do what you need, and has very comprehensive video tutorials (which you can blast though in a day), and is much friendlier than Blender.

http://www.sketchup.com/intl/en/training/videos/new_to_gsu.html

I'm sure Blender is a very good program, but the interface is hideous. And it's way beyond what you really need it to do - just import a couple of models, make them Muvizu compatible, and export them as ASE files. By Muvizu compatible, I mean make them the right kind of scale, reduce the number of textures/errors (I use Cleanup 3, a free plugin that fixes a lot of problems before they can nobble your import), and then 'explode' the model much as possible to remove any groups/elements (which can also nobble your import).

All this is just my experience of using Sketchup in conjunction with Muvizu. I've tried Blender, Gmax, Gile and the like, but Sketchup is what I've had most success with just because I accept it's limitiations as much as Muvizu's. It took me a couple of days to learn Sketchup, but that's just how it works, not how it works best with what I'm trying to do. So I'm still learning, still trying out stuff, still experimenting, and still in awe of someone like Dylly who makes my efforts look like I'm playing with lego by comparison!

Keep the faith EEF
2012/11/3 22:59:53
Sketchup to Muvizu @ EEFilmz - set the collision volume to none when exporting from Sketchup, or use the old exporter (HardPCM's) before using the ZMB. Just ocurred to me that you have to start off with no collision at all for the ZMB to work right.
2012/11/3 22:56:18
Sketchup to Muvizu For anyone struggling with trying to get collision working the way you want it, go to this link ;

http://www.muvizu.com/3D/19330/Ziggys-Match-Box-Collision-Remover

...and follow the instructions included along with the .ase file. It's quite simple, honest.
2012/11/2 22:34:14
Spooky Halloween Challenge #2! urbanlamb wrote:
I hear that there is a resident population of special Glasgow inebriated zombies that live in the alleyways near the pubs. Whaaaaa?


Yup, they're called Neds
2012/11/2 20:18:42
Spooky Halloween Challenge #2! MrDrWho13 wrote:
That 'zombie girl' was REALLY scary!


Oh, I don't know about that - you've obviously never been in Glasgow on a Saturday night... Whaaaaa?
2012/11/2 20:15:11
Sketchup to Muvizu This is to do with the new Sketchup ASE exporter as created by Muvizu HQ. It allows you to create a collision volume at the same time as your main object, and then export them both as one. If they are the same (i.e. you didn't change anything) then you get that message. Not a big deal, just means that the object has a default collision volume. I still use my own method of exporting using the old exporter, then using my Match Box Collision tweak to create the collision where I want it. There is the tutorial vid on how to use the new ASE exporter, so you might want to watch that.

http://www.muvizu.com/Video/21578/Sketchup-collision-made-easy-in-Muvizu-3D-ani

It's actually a pretty good way of creating objects with collision where you want it to be, rather than letting Sketchup/Muvizu decide for you. I'd recommend you give it a watch, and see if it helps.
2012/11/2 19:45:32
Spooky Halloween Challenge #2! Thanks Muvizu HQ, and congrats to Woztoons and especially Artpen - I have a Bamboo tablet myself, which I used to draw zombie girl in my video (and all my other textures/costumes/art), so I can tell you it's a damn fine piece of hardware, you lucky monkey you! Toast
2012/11/1 23:51:04
Sketchup to Muvizu I got mine (The Phantom Manor) off Google's 3D Warehouse. Just needed to rescale it a bit in Sketchup, import it with ID textures on, and it was fine. It was the first one I found that was suitable, and it actually worked first time! I was amazed, to be honest...
2012/10/30 20:14:47
Character using telephone Hi Tammuz - there are a few ways to do this, and all of them awkward because Muvizu characters cant hold anything (except musical instruments). You would have to import a phone from Sketchup or some other 3D program, then have the character stand still because the phone would be still too, then have them perform one of the Poses that brings their hand to their head and then leaves it there - there is a Telephone animation, but it's just the characters picking up a 'finger' phone and then putting it back down again. I'd recommend watching all the tutorials before you proceed
2012/10/30 20:02:12
Avengers Hi PengyChat, you'll find some of them already done here :
http://www.muvizu.com/forum/topic1367-resources.aspx

And you could paint up the rest by following this tutorial here :
http://www.muvizu.com/Video/17223/Tutorial-11-Characters-Painting-custom-skins

Hope that helps.
2012/10/29 19:58:52
led zepplin Not sure about the scarf but otherwise it's a very good, very slick first attempt. Nice framing and camera moves too. I've wanted to do Gallows Pole for a while, now that you remind me... rock on
2012/10/28 22:04:59
61.5 Ah, very good to know, but at which scale? 1.0 I'd imagine, but if you scale up or down then that number will change, methinks... Also, I'd have thought that a walking Sad character would move slower than a walking Happy character... Now that you come to mention it, there's a lot of leeway for speeds in Muvizu. Maybe we need a chart of walking/running speeds that cross reference the moods too - and a seperate one altogether for the Heroes, of course! Could you put those worms back in the can, D?
2012/10/28 13:38:38
Spooky Halloween Challenge #2! WozToons wrote:
Coming soon.... It'll have to be.


Looks good - like the setting!
2012/10/27 23:58:08
Spooky Halloween Challenge #2! My entry - another episode of Mysteries Of Science. Please leave any comments on YouTube, rather than on the forum page. Enjoy


2012/10/25 22:05:54
Switch Layers for face mask, or textures? Tedious yes, but it does work now rather than at some point in the future when it might get sorted - just giving everybody another option to consider Also, I take what Muvizu can give me and run with that - I don't see the point in hanging around waiting for features to show up before committing myself to making something - those features might never show up anyway, so I just play with the cards I've been dealt, as it were, and I'd recommend the same attitude to all other Muvizuers out there. There's nothing wrong in requesting features, just don't hold yer breath is all I'm saying...
2012/10/25 19:34:35
Switch Layers for face mask, or textures? Artpen, there is another way. And it's cunning. Very cunning. More cunning than a particularly cunning fox who's just been to cunning school (and earned a degree in cunning). I've started to use it myself, as you can see in the Dev Test : Radio Rental vid I made. Actually you can't see it, because it's so bloody dark you can't see the bullet holes appearing on the policeman's chest, but they do appear as he is shot. It's possible because of the Breathing option in the character properties - let me explain ;

(Using the cop as an example) I created 3 body textures - one with one bullet hole, one with 2, one with 3.

I applied the first texture to the cop, set him to not breathe, and filmed the scene.
I changed the texture to the next one, filmed the scene again (exactly as before, same session), then changed to the third one and filmed the scene one last time.

So now I have 3 pieces of footage, with the same cop performing the same actions precisely - without breathing turned on, there is no randomness in his positioning. It's then a fairly simple job of fading shot 1 into 2 into 3 to give the illusion of the bullet holes appearing on cue. I'm using the same trick on my Halloween vid to create lightning (just as I created the muzzle flash effect in Radio Rental when the guy fires the gun). You could do the same thing with tears, as you say, but you'd probably have to use more 'frames' of animation to make it look smooth. Hope this (long and rambling explanation) helps!
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