toonarama - all messages by user

2014/11/3 19:23:55
Star trek. the halloween incident. Great work Fazz - always know to expect the unexpected - Troma Films should offer you a job
2014/11/3 10:08:55
Muvizu channel on TMUNDERGROUND All

I have created a Muvizu channel on the TMUNDERGROUND site as I think there is a need for a more "public" showcase for Muvizu movies.

http://www.tmunderground.com/channels/muvizu

I have uploaded one of my old videos to get it started but anyone can upload their videos; however you have to join first.

I would be willing to upload selected videos for people if you have problems joining or do not want to join but it would have my name as the uploader.

The actual upload does not seem to be working but there is an EMBED alternative within the upload which allows you to use the youtube embed code (just change the dimensions to 455x286 to match the site video dimensions better)
edited by toonarama on 03/11/2014
2014/10/11 18:46:52
Ziggy72's UV maps ziggy72 wrote:
Okay people, as promised here is the link to download a zip file containing my new versions of the standard character UV maps. The UVs are contained with PSD files, so you'll need Photoshop or a dtp program that supports PSD files to use them.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=49D7234E5E7C54B9%21157

Just Copy and Paste the link into your browser's address bar.

The instructions as to how best to use them, as well as how to animate the eyebrows, are in the Notes text file. You can add eyebrows, fingernails, toenails and belly buttons to your standard characters using these maps. Hope you find them useful
edited by ziggy72 on 08/10/2014



Thanks very much Ziggy - very generous of you
2014/10/10 21:39:21
Digimania News Let's hope his avatar is not a bad sign
2014/10/4 20:42:41
Eggs? Great work Doctor - works really well!
2014/10/3 8:41:40
DreamWorks competition muvizu_chap wrote:
Those who are reading this and didn't enter, we'd love to hear how we can make these competitions more attractive to you so any tips would be appreciated. Please bear in mind that huge cash prizes or promises of a career in the animation industry are highly unlikely!


a) Nobody expects the level of prize (high end workstations!) that Digimania offered in the early days but a box set of DVDs is hardly going to be an incentive. There are plenty of animation/film making books out there and relatively cheap software that would have made a better prize. perhaps it was just an unwanted Xmas present!

b) The competition itself did not fit well with Muvizu - a scene from a film but you have to do your own soundtrack and you can't import any characters which might have a vague resemblance. Many different suggestions were made for competition ideas last time - perhaps take a look at these again.

c) But far more important than the other two is that the long period of neglect of both the software and the forum has drained the life out of the community. People like me come on and moan on occasion but what we really want more than anything is for the software to be reinvigorated because deep down we all love it!

Thanks for reading (if you still are)
2014/9/30 10:19:02
Buzzball Artpen
Really enjoyed that. Love the concept and looking forward to Buzzball sorting out his issues whilst cleaning up the streets
2014/9/29 19:19:10
Can Muvizu fill the gap? Perhaps what could be considered is the development of a separate conversion process which accepted motions/character/props in standard external formats and could be used to convert them into assets which can be used within Muvizu. Perhaps this could be a cut down version of the renderdm product.
This would perform the same function as 3dxchange does for iclone and would isolate the main program from the conversion process. At the same time the sometimes flaky imporr functionality could be removed from Muvizu itself.
2014/9/29 14:32:54
Can Muvizu fill the gap? I agree that the ability to import animations is the most important feature required.
And, taking up the gauntlet, you can make Iclone characters act as you can adjust any part of the body/face manually; it is just that most people choose not to bother as it significantly adds to the time involved.

By the way if anyone is thinking of buying Iclone and has $200 dollars to spare - now is a very good time. if you buy $200 worth of content you will get the soon-to-be-released iclone 6 Pro for free.
edited by toonarama on 29/09/2014
edited by toonarama on 29/09/2014
2014/9/26 12:55:16
Can Muvizu fill the gap? Dreeko

I see more what you're asking now.

Well it's probably impossible, but one thing iclone cannot do is have the characters squash/stretch/deform like in old-style animations.

Also (and in line with the mood based approach) it would be good if the visemes more closely matched the characters mood.

Other than that, Muvizu has the great advantage of ease of use, but as we know this is what holds it back too.

Toonarama
edited by toonarama on 26/09/2014
edited by toonarama on 26/09/2014
2014/9/26 10:20:45
Can Muvizu fill the gap? Dreeko
Iclone is way ahead of Muvizu in what it can provide partly because it has a load more functionality but mainly because you can import any rigged character, prop or animation file as long as you also have 3dxchange.

What Reallusion have done is quite clever in that they have built a very powerful and feature-laden engine but kept the content separate. So the functionality at your disposal is immense but you need extra content/assets.

Animating with Iclone costs a significant amount of money as you need the pro versions of both Iclone and 3dxchange and then will need to buy a lot of additional content.

Can Muvizu compete?

Out of the box (and significantly cheaper) you have something you can use immediately (albeit with its limitations) without any extra purchase - so on that basis yes.

But to really compete I think it will have to open itself up so that characters/animations/props can be imported and they could do this the same way as Reallusion by introducing a separate conversion process. You would probably also need some method of adjusting the characters within Muvizu so that the animations "fitted" the characters.
2014/9/26 8:36:38
Coming Soon... fazz68 wrote:

Super Human Intervention and Termination Enforcers


Brilliant - simply brilliant - looking forward to it!
2014/9/17 9:51:44
New Forum No idea of how many people have bought the paid for version of Muvizu but it seems to me that it has been sold (and is continuing to be sold) under what would appear to be false pretences.

When a customer purchases software I believe they have a reasonable expectation that the software will be developed; certainly that major bugs will be fixed. This has not happened at all since Muvizu:Pro went on sale.

I really think Digimania should consider refunding home users who have bought the software or provide some information about its future.

We all benefitted in the past from having free software but many also spent a lot of time testing and showcasing it.
edited by toonarama on 17/09/2014
2014/7/24 9:58:34
Coming Soon... Berty

Don't know if you are remaking any sets (probably not) but if you were you can find some nice (and reasonably priced) Egyptian sets here http://www.meshbox.com/3dbuildings.html.

They supply the models in a number of different formats (including FBX) but as I know how much you enjoy conversions I am not sure if they would be suitable.

The company do make some really nice sets though!
2014/7/21 19:58:13
great song animation Nothing to do with me but I think this is great

2014/7/21 19:53:57
the man who lived twice fazz68 wrote:

Needs entering for the machinima expo if you have not already done so:
http://machinima-expo.com/v3/
edited by toonarama on 21/07/2014
2014/7/21 13:13:24
the man who lived twice Only one word for this - fazztastic! A brilliant interpretation. I'll post a comment on the video tonight.
2014/5/20 22:10:02
Death by Jelly - scene 1 WIP Iclone has always had a more extensive feature set but I was never keen on the characters; I didn't want to do realistic. Muvizu was closer to what I was after and was unique(ish) in taking this approach.

But when iclone made it possible to import and animate any properly rigged characters this changed everything. Now I can use any characters I wish to buy or even make in any style I want. My Death by Jelly animation would just not be the same without Nursoda's wonderful Doctor Pitterbill character. And this was the main reason I took the step of putting the video up on here as I wanted to start the debate.

Muvizu needs to provide this ability - they could even take a lead from Reallusion and sell it as a separate product thereby generating extra income.


But I think the reality is Muvizu will never be a money spinner unless they take the approach of making their money from assets and plugins. I don't think it ever was the plan; they originally hoped someone would buy up the software.


Thanks to everyone for their good wishes!
edited by toonarama on 20/05/2014
edited by toonarama on 21/05/2014
2014/5/19 22:00:14
Death by Jelly - scene 1 WIP Hello there Mysto - great to hear from you again!
So we have a lot of the most experienced and loyal users feeling frustrated and perhaps disappointed. Not a great situation.
But the new render engine is now due out "summer 2014" according to the Digimania site so I can't see anything happening with Muvizu with that so close.


Would be great to be proved wrong.
2014/5/19 19:34:25
Death by Jelly - scene 1 WIP Dreeko wrote:


I guess everyone reaches the stage with Muvizu where the frustrations at having to overcome (or workaround) the simplest of tasks repeatedly becomes too tedious to be pleasurable.


Exactly how I feel - and when a major (movement) bug is added to the mix this exacerbates the issue.

Dreeko wrote:

Hopefully the main problem features will be addressed whenever the next version appears. When that will be, no one knows.


And this just adds to the frustration - no indication of what a future release will hold and no indication of a release date. It's not the best way of attracting new customers or holding onto existing ones.

It's bad enough having to support a football team which appears to be being led down a blind alley (I'll let you guess which one) without my favourite hobby going that way too!
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