Jump to content
The Dark Mod Forums

Domarius

Member
  • Posts

    7519
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Domarius

  1. Cool I thought the extraneous clips might have something to do with it.

     

    Haven't had a chance to experiment yet, but which file should I delete all the clips from, the one I'm applying the pose TO or the one I'm applying the pose WITH? (I'm guessing TO)

  2. Greebo, since you have SVN access and NoisyCricket doesn't, I thought it could be good if you converted the old anims to the new one? You have to do it visually of course - have two copies of maya open, watch one, animate in the other - of course you can actually set the exact timing of the keyframes, you just have to visually copy the movement. And of course if you think you can improve on it you can :)

  3. i've tweaked the combat idle pose a bit. The poses idle & combat idle are synced to SVN which you can use to adjust your current combat animations. The tricky part is once you import a pose it's not yet attached to the character set, but it's the same method as we do with anim clips.

     

    Import the pose (.ma) file -> add it to the trax editor -> delete the pose in the trax editor. Now its included in the character set and in the visor(character poses) you can select the pose -> RMB -> apply pose to add it to a frame in your animation. I've done a test with this on the combat attacks which worked fine.

    Hey squill I'll probably need some more info. I've uploaded the file I want to convert to SVN, it's model_src\proguard_mb\combat_sword_attack_overhead.ma

    In that file, I've finished animating it and haven't made any attempts to import your new pose, so it's unaltered while I mess with my local one.

     

    I import the pose with File -> Import, open the trax editor, click "new track" button (blue square with yellow spikes), got an error "nothing is selected", so selected the citywatch_body character set, click the "new track" button again, and the character becomes all mangled at that point. The new track is called "run". I press play and it's obviously trying to play the overhead swing attack but with the new mangledness on top. I delete the new track and the character returns to normal.

     

    I continued on and found a clip combat_pose1Source in the Clips tab in the Visor. I right clicked on it and applied to character. It seems to have the desired effect - most major difference is his left foot is moved outwards a fair bit, this is your new idle pose I'm assuming.

     

    If I ever set a keyframe on the body part at this point, the character goes super mangled and stretches and distorts off the screen. So I undid that.

     

    Then in the Trax editor, there's a new very short track that seems to be sucessfully applying your new pose to my animation, but it only lasts for one frame. After the first frame, he snaps back to the original pose and continues his overhead swing animation as normal. I've tried to find a way to stretch the new short track over the length of the rest of the animation, but I can't find out how.

  4. i first flipped the uv's on which i saw no difference. Then i flipped the normal map vertically and the textures matched but i still saw the weird shadow and light artifacts on some of the fingers.

    Can you post a screenshot? I have seen some unwelded verts on the hands. It will be easy to tell if this is the problem by looking at a picture of it.

  5. I have a total newb question: Whenever I select something in the hierarchy, all parent elements get selected too, I can't work like this. How can I switch that off? I searched for more than half an hour and I don't get it.

    I think what you're talking about is normal behaviour, it's just the highlighting. If you set a key frame, it will only key on the object you selected, not everything above it as well. It's wierd but I got used to it. There could be a setting to turn it off but it's only a visual thing.

     

    If you manually add objects to the selection with Shift + Click, the selected objects highlight white while the parent objects all highlight blue even though they are not really "selected". The confusing part is, the last object you added to the selection ALSO highlights blue. Confusing but not really a problem because the most I've ever selected at once is about 3 controls at once (eg. all the arm controls), so it's just "click, click, click" as long as you see a change you know it's working.

  6. Having said that, without the graph editor it would seem difficult to get good results. In my experience the graph editor is extremely valuable. It helps debug a lot of animation weirdness, and it's not difficult to use. It's helps a lot with making "clean" animations (as few keyframes as practical, but no fewer), which are easier for you and other people to modify and also tend to look nicely smooth. There are also some features you can't access anywhere else, like the different curve smoothing options (which are almost essential for some tasks).

    You said you're not an animator, but you pretty much nailed it :)

  7. Or we could use a google doc

    • nothing to download
    • has many of the same features as MS Excel including format rules
    • only requires a browser, no need to install MS Excel or worry about what version you have
    • faster, don't have to update from SVN, load Excel, open the document - just click the link in your favorites
    • has revision history so we can't lose anything

     

    I started one, with an example first 4 rows that is the same as the screenshot that squill posted. The "status" column automatically colours the cell depending on what word is in there, try it!

     

    http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rLc...xw&hl=en_GB

     

    If you want to keep using this, just book mark that link. I edited the permissions so you can go straight there and edit, you don't even need to log in with a google account. There is no save button because it "saves" that cell as soon as you move off it.

     

    Of course if we want more security and want to associate changes with users, I can easily enable login.

  8. The avi played fine in Windows Media Player for me.

     

    We can't be too picky, but right away it looks a bit robotic at the start, I think it's the way his arm smoothly travels up to his face. Try lifting his arm quickly and leaning back in one movement, a little bit of anticipation as he keeps leaning backwards slightly, then let the rest play out. All very quickly of course. Did you act this out in the mirror first?

  9. Ah, squill put effort into setting the rotation type up to be quaternion. He was telling me about it on chat when we were making the new rig, but I can't remember the outcome of this. I honestly haven't had to worry about it yet - I've been making my keyframes very simple and focusing on the curves and timing and it's been great. He'll be able to answer your question when he replies though.

  10. Sorry - I wish "View new threads" worked properly, I think they drop off the list after 12am unless a post is made after that. I didn't think it was a problem but I guess I can't rely on it any more.

  11. Yeah that's an improvement. Looks like a severely diseased man now, but maybe not so much a zombie yet.

     

    When I think of zombies, I even think that the old T2 zombies are good to aim for. Parts missing, dead colours, I mean, look at this dude

    zombie.jpg

     

    even in this blurry picture, with him far away, you can see instantly that this is one dead, evil dude. The basic sillhouette, the pose, and the overall colouring.

  12. I get the impression Domarius has had a lot of needy girlfriends. :laugh:
    I have had a few of them yes, was it the "over the years" part that gave it away? :D It applies to anyone really, not just girlfriends, but it's easier to fall into the trap if its your girlfriend because you have an emotional investment with them.

     

    I tended to attract more low-self esteem or needy girls than normal because I tend to be really good at talking people through things and making them feel good. I'm at the stage where I can very soon get to someone's "issue" pretty reliably after some time of them telling me their problems, and is what made me come to the conclusion I posted above.

     

    Nice to see you agree Spar, but I wasn't aware you usually don't agree with ANYTHING I say, cripes... :blink: my view on life has changed a lot since even only a year ago, so maybe that's not so true anymore, if you're referring to arguments long gone.

×
×
  • Create New...