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Character animation
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Character animation // Image Gallery
Post by 3dpdk // Aug 1, 2007, 7:27pm
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3dpdk
Total Posts: 212
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Hay everybody!
I have a chance to get on line tonight and upload this.
I realized that with all the things I've worked on learning in trueSpace I've only dabbled with character animation. After a few crashes while rigging bones and distorted faces using Facial Animator and ambiguous "Help" on both, I usually give up and figure there's got to be an easier way.
... but then I remembered all the crashes and frustrations while learning other tools in tS that now seem like minor nuisances or even nonexistent because I have learned what I was doing wrong or how to get around the instabilities. Skeleton rigging and facial animation "must" be the same. It just takes time and frequent saving.
I'm sticking with it this time because I need it for my scifi film.
If I have time and there seems to be enough interest (many have upgraded to tS 7.x and I understand the animation tools are MUCH improved), I might write a tutorial on the facial animator pluggin for tS 6.6.
I have learned a LOT in five months.
77717772
"Becky" is a combination of tS Facial Animator and Primitive Itch Motion Studio full skeletal rigging including fingers and right down to her shoes. The guy (who ever he's supposed to be:rolleyes: ) is mostly procedural for now so he looks a little bit like a manikin with enough back bone to make him stand at attention.
I'll up date this thread when I can get on line. I'm working on a short animation using the female character with tS Facial Animator and Text Allowed for her voice and later, a short using these two characters based on the lyrics to "Coast Of Marseilles", a Jimmy Buffett ballad.
Paul
By-the-way; for the curious or the folks that might think the "decorations" might be just a bunch of colors,...
7776
... and this "guy" earned every one of them! (a couple of missing stars but I don't remember from which ones, and missing the "Kuwait Liberation" ribbon, but that wasn't an official US decoration until 2004 ... but I ... er "he" has one!)
....and for the ones who know, I know they're out of order! |
Post by 3dvisuals dude // Aug 2, 2007, 1:01am
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3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
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Welcome home 3dpdk... long time no see!
I'm amazed you found any time to do all this Facial Animator related work given how demanding it must be to service the offshore rigs, I knew others a few years back who told me what a demanding schedule that work really entails. Great pay though... if one can survive it! Definitely keeps one in shape too!
A Merchant Mariner who also happens to make the time to be a truly outstanding 3D Modeler (I've seen your awesome aeroplanes!)...
a very enviable lifestyle indeed.:)
This project will be fun to watch! The trueSpace Facial Animator was one of the biggest features which drew me into buying TS6.6, but since then I've gotten so deeply involved in the new Shared Space Development aspects of trueSpace 7.51 I haven't really been able to learn "the FA" like I originally intended to. I'm really glad to see you tackling this subject since there don't appear to be many other folk here who are exploring it or developing it's great potentials, maybe now a few will join in and follow your lead here!
"Jimmy Buffett" huh? That will really be great!
Welcome back!
- 3dvisuals dude |
Post by 3dfrog // Aug 2, 2007, 1:19am
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3dfrog
Total Posts: 1225
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I can't wait to see what you come up with for these two. I like the facial animator. I set up one of my old head models with it and it worked really well. I didn't do anything advanced with it though like you are doing. They are coming out with face morphs for 7.5. Hopefully it will be something cool like an fa set up that's easy to use. |
Post by 3dpdk // Aug 2, 2007, 5:34am
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3dpdk
Total Posts: 212
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Thanks for the encouragement!:)
Actually guys, there's more personal time out here than what you may think. It is a busy industry and twice as busy with all the repairs from the storm damage two years ago, but much like the military it's all "hurry up n wait!" A lot of time is spent tied up to rigs (sometimes for several days) while others do their work.
I love to fish, but you can't do that when there's divers in the water (attracts sharks!) and after a while even catching Amber Jack and Mackerel gets old, so all in all, I probably get more 3D time than the average working stiff. I do all my set ups during these times and render everything out while we're under way.
I just can't always get on line to show everyone what I'm doing. Some of the ports down here have wireless internet provided by the cable companies - some don't.
Hopefully, I'll have the "talking head" animation done soon. It's half way there. The other animation will take a while because I have to build a library of motions for the two characters. |
Post by Humdinger // Aug 2, 2007, 8:33am
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Humdinger
Total Posts: 319
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3dpdk
:banana:
Love that guy! Totally u..smirk and all !!!!
Regarding Facial Animator only thing I might throw in is that background noise, of almost any kind ...can be a real pain. |
Post by 3dpdk // Aug 20, 2007, 4:36pm
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3dpdk
Total Posts: 212
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Just an update;
Working on a self portrait! I'm using a cylindrical UV instead of the tS Facial animator UV. You can see the registration marks for the eyes and mouth and dot for the nose tip, Still working on the best way to represent the "laugh lines" and facial "character". A bump map seems either all or nothing. I have a furrowed brow - but they don't go all the way to the bone!!!! Eyebrows are a bit too bushy ... not much ... but just a bit, and I left out some of the gray that has crept into the mustache.
... but this is a younger Me!
8055
This is still a WIP so hopefully it'll look better before I put him in my film short!
Here's a still from the "restaurant" set for the short. Becky's there ... wonder where her date went???
8056
If I can maintain the Internet connection a little while longer I'll put up a link to the "talking head" animation I (finallly) finished with the Becky character.
Paul:) |
Post by 3dpdk // Aug 20, 2007, 5:20pm
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3dpdk
Total Posts: 212
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OK, let's try this.
8057 (http://www.youtube.com/v/bvOXe_Vod08)
Click the image or this link:http://www.youtube.com/v/bvOXe_Vod08
A YouTube viewer will open about twice the size it should be. Shrink it down befor you view it! And typical of the YouTube compression, it messed up the audio. There's background music but if you turn up the volume to hear it, her voice is way too loud!!
Enjoy and comments welcome, as always!
Paul |
Post by Humdinger // Aug 21, 2007, 2:44am
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Humdinger
Total Posts: 319
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:jumpy: :jumpy: :jumpy:
Great stuff !!!!
Both execution and the humor !!!
:jumpy: :jumpy: :jumpy: |
Post by Steinie // Aug 21, 2007, 3:56am
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Steinie
Total Posts: 3667
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Well this one is a classic, she started out soooo likeable....
The script writing was very funny. I really liked how she described her own creation and the line about the bones....
Everything was executed very well. |
Post by MadMouse // Aug 21, 2007, 5:10am
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MadMouse
Total Posts: 1069
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LMAO!!!! Really great work there Paul. I guess those long weeks out at sea make a fellow dream of a woman he can make do anything he wants! ;) :D |
Post by mrbones // Aug 21, 2007, 11:26am
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mrbones
Total Posts: 1280
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Awesome, and funny.:banana: |
Post by 3dfrog // Aug 21, 2007, 12:16pm
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3dfrog
Total Posts: 1225
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That is great! The voice is a little too mechanical sounding i think. But I guess to get a computer generated voice is hard. Is there anyway to record your own voice then run it through a sound program to make it sound a different gender? I don't know, I never done it.
But aside from that I am amazed what you did with facial animator. Really fantastic stuff. |
Post by 3dpdk // Aug 21, 2007, 2:54pm
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3dpdk
Total Posts: 212
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Hay everyone, thanks!
3dfrog: I have tried several voice changing programs but I haven't found one that's convincing yet. The Neo Speech voices are the best for the dollar and with a little extra punctuation, several recordings at different pitch, volume and speed, and a lot of creative wave editing, the voice begins to sound a little less mechanical.
The "short" I have planned for these two characters will only use background conversation, with the music being the predominant audio, so I think I can get away with using my voice for the guy and the Neo Speech voice for her. I'm going to let the action and music tell the story and any thing said by either character will be mostly for sound effect.
There's still a few quirks with the facial animator I'm trying to get around but with no direct dialog in the short the little eyebrow jerks and sudden facial expression changes won't be so obvious.
MM: I'd never admit to anything like that :rolleyes: ... but ... tehe ... Ol' sailor's dreams of mermaids, and all!:o |
Post by 3dvisuals dude // Aug 23, 2007, 11:21am
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3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
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OK, let's try this.
8057 (http://www.youtube.com/v/bvOXe_Vod08)
Click the image or this link:http://www.youtube.com/v/bvOXe_Vod08
A YouTube viewer will open about twice the size it should be. Shrink it down befor you view it! And typical of the YouTube compression, it messed up the audio. There's background music but if you turn up the volume to hear it, her voice is way too loud!!
Enjoy and comments welcome, as always!
Paul
That was great!!!!
That's one hell of a job you did with Becky there, very funny and well done!
I really like the restaraunt scene lighting and general mood there too... you have a great eye for detail and placement of objects and it really shows well in that image.
As for the self portrait, wow.... that is really tough to do. Somehow I can draw other people's portraits pretty good with a pencil and have always been able to I think, but in all the times I've tried doing self portraits I can never get it, I mean not even close. There's just something stuck in my head somewhere that never let me accomplish that at all, so I really admire anybody who can do that well and you are clearly on your way to doing that well indeed. Great job.
Now where's Becky's body?:p
Mark / 3dvisuals dude |
Post by 3dpdk // Aug 25, 2007, 7:17am
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3dpdk
Total Posts: 212
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These are finished stills but the animation is a WIP. Maybe I should move this thread there?
3D V;
Well, Becky has cloths but nuttin but air inside! For the longest time I tried with minor success to make clothing that fit over the characters body. For stills this works great but for animation, it's a nightmare. Then the wise words said to me by John Logan several years back "... why model the whole deck if they are only going to see the top card," !
Becky doesn't need a body, she just needs animatable cloths!!!!!!!!!
Here's my finished self portrait. Close up and medium shot. The head has not been entered into the talking head library yet so he's pretty much expressionless for now. The slightly open mouth and expression he has is ideal for entering the points onto facial animator.
8116
I haven't completed any other cloths for "Squidly" here so I put him in a suitable setting.
8117
by-the-way, it's a navy tradition to give passing honors when two ships pass near each other. All sailors on deck salute the passing ship in unison on a blast from the ship's whistle. Squidly used to really get a kick out of all that Navy tridition stuff! |
Post by 3dvisuals dude // Aug 25, 2007, 8:16am
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3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
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These are finished stills but the animation is a WIP. Maybe I should move this thread there?
3D V;
Well, Becky has cloths but nuttin but air inside! For the longest time I tried with minor success to make clothing that fit over the characters body. For stills this works great but for animation, it's a nightmare. Then the wise words said to me by John Logan several years back "... why model the whole deck if they are only going to see the top card," !
Becky doesn't need a body, she just needs animatable cloths!!!!!!!!!
Here's my finished self portrait. Close up and medium shot. The head has not been entered into the talking head library yet so he's pretty much expressionless for now. The slightly open mouth and expression he has is ideal for entering the points onto facial animator.
8116
I haven't completed any other cloths for "Squidly" here so I put him in a suitable setting.
8117
by-the-way, it's a navy tradition to give passing honors when two ships pass near each other. All sailors on deck salute the passing ship in unison on a blast from the ship's whistle. Squidly used to really get a kick out of all that Navy tridition stuff!
So let me get this straight then... all you want for this lady is animated clothes???
I think maybe you have been at sea a tad long.:D
That's some great work here really. The medium shot is so close to real you could actually drop it into a group photo and no one would even be the wiser!!! Great job, really great!
I know what you mean about sea traditions, I wasn't in the Navy myself but my dad had a 62 foot yacht I sort-of grew up on and grew to love. Since he was former Navy and Merchant Marine himself he showed me all the ropes for sure, and I came to love those in time as well myself.;)
Great work here, thanks for sharing it all and I'll be watching for more here for sure.
PS: Animated bodies are just more fun.:)
All the best,
- Mark / 3dvisuals dude |
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