too easy
just import a Carnegie Mellon bvh, line it up to the limbs (modeling your figure in a star jump advisable) select it and the root bone holding shift and go to animation attach skeleton and you are done!
Mike - that is really good - way better than mine - I say let's go with yours:)
Mine was to get some practice in the VM, I'm not much into organic, so had to have a try.
Wendy, as you say - too easy. The point of the exercise is to do it all in Carrara. Besides, the CM skeletons only have one finger joint, so this would mean adding joints - also, they have no constraints. Making a rig in Carrara is dead easy - it's the constraints and weight-painting that is the challenge:)
looking pretty nice mike--very nice indeed ..........(You need to do a little tutorial on how you acheive that. ). And this guy does fit better for the easy come easy go practice shot. Smiles.
Roygee,3Dview .
Thanks for the comments on the model , I find with head modeling there is alot of tweaking , constantly rotating the model and trying to "round" the model . When you start modeling a head I thnk there is a tendency for the head to be boxy. I will post a link with an interesting video in a bit.
If somebody wants to model a coin for the close up shot that would be great.. Make it look valuable:cheese:
Here is one done in blender but should work in Carrara using Soft Selection to get the shape down.
thanks for the links Mike -----nice. and Yes I cannot wait to see what you come up with . This has always been a weak spot for me (human characters) ---so this project has been great to stir up new hopes for even me. smiles
one of my hopes for the movie projects is that everyone gets re-energized and become anxious to at least try things and learn and do new things . Not everyone's stuff will ever be used in a the final product ...but its the community learning and particpation that is an important by product for sure.
Roygee,
Well , I haven't done much animation so I am sure my model wont be totally correct . It should do for our purposes though, we shall see how it animates.:-)
Here is an update as my model is mostly done , I just want to figure out if I can texture the shirt without a tmap.. The is shirt isn't what I originally wanted but in a test render I saw this shirt and I liked it. I will still do the full flannel shirt and see if it looks okay.. I should be uploading this tomorrow for you guys to start rigging him.
Any takers on the "coin" model or animated rigs , it would be nice to see some stuff if you have it. :-)
Roygee,3Dview .
Thanks for the comments on the model , I find with head modeling there is alot of tweaking , constantly rotating the model and trying to "round" the model . When you start modeling a head I thnk there is a tendency for the head to be boxy. I will post a link with an interesting video in a bit.
If somebody wants to model a coin for the close up shot that would be great.. Make it look valuable:cheese:
Here is one done in blender but should work in Carrara using Soft Selection to get the shape down.
That first tutorial is really nicely done. On to the next.
Although I've studied this before and performed a single practical model as a result (way back when...), I find it illuminating to catch new perspectives from other lessons. In this case, I am now in awe of Blender. Don't get me wrong... I am Carrara - through and through - even for vertex modeling, But you cannot deny the power that young man has in his hands, knowing the ins and outs of his software. And it appears to have sculpting functionality built right in. Very cool.
Great base mesh tutorial.
PhilW goes over a base model mesh in good detail in his 'Advanced Carrara Training DVD' along with UV mapping as well as importing the finished sculpt back into Carrara and rigging it for animation. If you're interested in learning this sort of thing further, within Carrara, Advanced Carrara Techniques is a great resource. Phil is an intelligent, capable teacher who covers much more ground than you'd expect from a product of this type - especially for the reasonable price. Sorry for the rant, but I know many folks use Carrara to buy and use Daz products, like me. This is not to say that you won't benefit from a good schooling on how to do everything else! ;)
Speaking of Blender ----here is a link to some progress being made on a all Blender movie called "Naughty 5" - i think the project is being worked on by 27 artists. Anyhow here is what the competition is working on ...Smiles......(It really short so worth a quick look)
Here is the character with a shirt more like I originally wanted but left the white collar, the model with the tmap is around 700kb . I also included the wireframe type image in Carrara's VM room.
By the way I do have blender and I think it is an awesome program , if it had a replicator function like carrara's or Vues I would seriously look at using it .
mike that is looking pretty cool. and Roygee-- nice coin --looks great to me . Did you use a texture map (normal map?) on those or actually use 3d text and model. I started to work on one and was just curious your approach.
Roygee ,
This is perfect :coolsmile: , I have heard of the Kruger Rands and it would be nice to find on path:-) If you could upload it to the box site if you haven't already .
Thanks
Mike
a quick fartarse around using V4's skeleton seperated from her mesh usings Fenrics plugin and aniblocks applied (it works like any Daz figure that way) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnlHJ4_ax1o
now I am building a bespoke rig which I cannot apply ANY premade motions to
but it is entirely Carrara and redistributable
I CAN import and retarget it in iClone to use iClone motions!!! but realize that is not the point of this
one reason I will NEVER limit myself to one software
so
will try the hard way ;-P
we will see how THAT goes :roll:
here is a quick dirty rig https://www.box.com/shared/kab75qfqcqrgqcu3q7pw
I've rigged and he deforms just great! With the exception of the eyes, no weight-painting required - a sign of a well-constructed mesh - great job, Mike:) Since doing the render, I've moved the abdomen bone downwards a bit to get a more realistic bend at the waist.
Although the eyes are a separate mesh, it's a single figure and I can't get the bones to only influence the eyes - despite giving each 100% influence and painting out all other influences. Split doesn't work, because it splits the whole figure into its many parts.
Unless someone can come up with a suggestion for separating the eyes from the rest of the mesh, all I can think of is taking it into Hexagon and making the eyes separate .obj's. That isn't really cheating, is it?
I've rigged and he deforms just great! With the exception of the eyes, no weight-painting required - a sign of a well-constructed mesh - great job, Mike:) Since doing the render, I've moved the abdomen bone downwards a bit to get a more realistic bend at the waist.
Although the eyes are a separate mesh, it's a single figure and I can't get the bones to only influence the eyes - despite giving each 100% influence and painting out all other influences. Split doesn't work, because it splits the whole figure into its many parts.
Unless someone can come up with a suggestion for separating the eyes from the rest of the mesh, all I can think of is taking it into Hexagon and making the eyes separate .obj's. That isn't really cheating, is it?
It should work if you remove all other bone influences in the 'animated mode'/'Bones' tab. The eyes are unwelded right?
I tend to name the polygon groups because I work with Poser rigging and that also helps when it comes to selecting polygon groups for Carrara rigging. I also learned to set weights for games mods using some pretty basic tools so I find that the slider system is more familiar to me.
The weight painting tool is proportional so you may never get a bones influence down to zero using only that (plus you have to do it for all 3 axes and the bulge weights)
Wendy - that is seriously freaky:) I'm trying to remember the name of an actor that reminds me of. No way you can be left off any team - we need your brand of humour!
Yes, morphs would work. What I'm thinking is to make a copy of the eyes, make the existing eyes invisible and have the copies follow target helpers - one for each eye, parented to a single controlling THO.
RP - I am also more comfortable using Studio for rigging. Yes, the eyes are not welded to the head. I have made the influences 100% under the bones tab and it shows that the eye bones don't influence any other part of the mesh, there are no other verts highlighted, yet when I move the eye bones, the top of the head deforms. This is strange, because it works for robotic movements when you don't want a bone to have any fall-off influence on another part of the mesh.
I stand to be corrected on this - as far as I know, Carrara does not have an option for weight-painting in all three axes, or bulge weights.
I have not done the constraints yet - I have always used only ball-joint constraints, but I'm pretty sure this is wrong. Could someone who is more familiar with the Carrara system give some guidance here.
I stand to be corrected on this - as far as I know, Carrara does not have an option for weight-painting in all three axes, or bulge weights.
I have not done the constraints yet - I have always used only ball-joint constraints, but I'm pretty sure this is wrong. Could someone who is more familiar with the Carrara system give some guidance here.
Carrara does have independent weight painting on all three axes and has had it for a long time. If Stan were here he would have already pointed that out. You need to select which axis you are painting in the brush controls.
The standard ball joint is a good choice. You just need to set the limits on the angles.
This is fun whatching my character come to life so to say.
I could separate the eyes from the mesh if you want but I am pretty sure there is a way to bone the eyes.. To separate the eyes from the mesh try the following
1.Select only the eyes in the vm room and hit Ctrl+C to coyp mesh to clipboard.
2.Drag a new vertex obect to the 3d view.
3.Select the new Vertex object and double click to go to vm room.
4.Ctrl+V to paste the eyes from the clipboard.
Now you have the eyes as a separate object in the Assembly room
5 Move the separated eyes to align with the model then delete the eyes from the original mesh.
I've rigged and he deforms just great! With the exception of the eyes, no weight-painting required - a sign of a well-constructed mesh - great job, Mike:) Since doing the render, I've moved the abdomen bone downwards a bit to get a more realistic bend at the waist.
Although the eyes are a separate mesh, it's a single figure and I can't get the bones to only influence the eyes - despite giving each 100% influence and painting out all other influences. Split doesn't work, because it splits the whole figure into its many parts.
Unless someone can come up with a suggestion for separating the eyes from the rest of the mesh, all I can think of is taking it into Hexagon and making the eyes separate .obj's. That isn't really cheating, is it?
Thanks Mike - that worked great. I've used THO's for the eye movement - move one and both eyes follow in sync:)
Completed the rigging, with constraints - I'm sure many will be able to do a better job - I'll upload in a few minutes for you all to take a look at.
Have any animators put up their hands yet to get this guy on the road? He'll need some facial expression morphs - Wendy has already made a start with that - maybe she'd like to do the lot?
RP, sorry, still can't find where and how weight-painting can be done on all three axes in Carrara. I know ManStan shares my views on Carrara's rigging (less than flattering!)
how did you bend the ends of the strap where they attach to the body?
I made the strap from a rectangle and a curve, and used the "Path Sweep" function to make the basic shape.
Once I had that, I selected the bottom poly's and scaled them in a little bit,. then used the "Grow selection" to selects and scale the strap to give it a taper,. narrower at the buckle.
At the Watch end's ... When you're extruding the end, just switch to the rotate tool,. and rotate the edges / poly's , you can also use the move tool to reposition it,. then extrude again and then rotate into position, and repeat until you have the curve shape you want.
I should have finished it off by embedding the end into the strap,. but I'm lazy sometimes. :)
The watch face image was posted in the thread, but I'll add it to the "box" later,.. as it makes sense to keep all the assets organised in one place.
That watch is so freaking cool!
Things seem to be coming along. The whole ducks thing has lost my interest almost entirely, but this little test run looks exciting.
Great characters Roy and Mike. And Wendy is giving them loving care, I see.
Damn that watch...
I want to have one commissioned!
Edit:
Maybe, if I could get 3dage to design the inner workings as well, I could print one out with one of those 3d printers!
Comments
Wendy,
I will check this out, I am not an animator so it is nice to know these things ..
Here is the carrara head model of my character with a couple of options for toon and more realistic renders. The body is next :P
Mike - that is really good - way better than mine - I say let's go with yours:)
Mine was to get some practice in the VM, I'm not much into organic, so had to have a try.
Wendy, as you say - too easy. The point of the exercise is to do it all in Carrara. Besides, the CM skeletons only have one finger joint, so this would mean adding joints - also, they have no constraints. Making a rig in Carrara is dead easy - it's the constraints and weight-painting that is the challenge:)
looking pretty nice mike--very nice indeed ..........(You need to do a little tutorial on how you acheive that. ). And this guy does fit better for the easy come easy go practice shot. Smiles.
Roygee,3Dview .
Thanks for the comments on the model , I find with head modeling there is alot of tweaking , constantly rotating the model and trying to "round" the model . When you start modeling a head I thnk there is a tendency for the head to be boxy. I will post a link with an interesting video in a bit.
If somebody wants to model a coin for the close up shot that would be great.. Make it look valuable:cheese:
Here is one done in blender but should work in Carrara using Soft Selection to get the shape down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOc4ATqZetk
another one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xls25e08sSg
2 more
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86JiuZpbi_w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcOlAb7HzyI
Thanks for those links, mike - I think the one by Joshua Alger would be very appropriate for Carrara.
i'm waiting to see your torso model - particularly how you make the arm-holes and the topology around the bending joints for good deformation.
thanks for the links Mike -----nice. and Yes I cannot wait to see what you come up with . This has always been a weak spot for me (human characters) ---so this project has been great to stir up new hopes for even me. smiles
one of my hopes for the movie projects is that everyone gets re-energized and become anxious to at least try things and learn and do new things . Not everyone's stuff will ever be used in a the final product ...but its the community learning and particpation that is an important by product for sure.
rich
Roygee,
Well , I haven't done much animation so I am sure my model wont be totally correct . It should do for our purposes though, we shall see how it animates.:-)
.
Here is an update as my model is mostly done , I just want to figure out if I can texture the shirt without a tmap.. The is shirt isn't what I originally wanted but in a test render I saw this shirt and I liked it. I will still do the full flannel shirt and see if it looks okay.. I should be uploading this tomorrow for you guys to start rigging him.
Any takers on the "coin" model or animated rigs , it would be nice to see some stuff if you have it. :-)
Although I've studied this before and performed a single practical model as a result (way back when...), I find it illuminating to catch new perspectives from other lessons. In this case, I am now in awe of Blender. Don't get me wrong... I am Carrara - through and through - even for vertex modeling, But you cannot deny the power that young man has in his hands, knowing the ins and outs of his software. And it appears to have sculpting functionality built right in. Very cool.
Great base mesh tutorial.
PhilW goes over a base model mesh in good detail in his 'Advanced Carrara Training DVD' along with UV mapping as well as importing the finished sculpt back into Carrara and rigging it for animation. If you're interested in learning this sort of thing further, within Carrara, Advanced Carrara Techniques is a great resource. Phil is an intelligent, capable teacher who covers much more ground than you'd expect from a product of this type - especially for the reasonable price.
Sorry for the rant, but I know many folks use Carrara to buy and use Daz products, like me. This is not to say that you won't benefit from a good schooling on how to do everything else! ;)
Speaking of Blender ----here is a link to some progress being made on a all Blender movie called "Naughty 5" - i think the project is being worked on by 27 artists. Anyhow here is what the competition is working on ...Smiles......(It really short so worth a quick look)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_XiIONPhc4&feature=player_embedded
Rich
Here is the character with a shirt more like I originally wanted but left the white collar, the model with the tmap is around 700kb . I also included the wireframe type image in Carrara's VM room.
By the way I do have blender and I think it is an awesome program , if it had a replicator function like carrara's or Vues I would seriously look at using it .
Looking really good, Mike:)
Seeing no-one else is having a go at the coin - here's mine. My country's iconic Kruger Rand - coins don't get much more valuable than that:)
mike that is looking pretty cool. and Roygee-- nice coin --looks great to me . Did you use a texture map (normal map?) on those or actually use 3d text and model. I started to work on one and was just curious your approach.
Rich
Roygee ,
This is perfect :coolsmile: , I have heard of the Kruger Rands and it would be nice to find on path:-) If you could upload it to the box site if you haven't already .
Thanks
Mike
Just texture and bump - actually too heavy-handed with the bump - looks better without:)
I'll upload in a few minutes.
@3dage
Thanks for posting the model of the watch - I'm examining it to get some modeling tips:)
One question - how did you bend the ends of the strap where they attach to the body?
BTW - the watch face map isn't included in the file.
a quick fartarse around using V4's skeleton seperated from her mesh usings Fenrics plugin and aniblocks applied (it works like any Daz figure that way)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnlHJ4_ax1o
now I am building a bespoke rig which I cannot apply ANY premade motions to
but it is entirely Carrara and redistributable
I CAN import and retarget it in iClone to use iClone motions!!! but realize that is not the point of this
one reason I will NEVER limit myself to one software
so
will try the hard way ;-P
we will see how THAT goes :roll:
here is a quick dirty rig https://www.box.com/shared/kab75qfqcqrgqcu3q7pw
Hi Wendy - you've sure put the moves on him:)
I've rigged and he deforms just great! With the exception of the eyes, no weight-painting required - a sign of a well-constructed mesh - great job, Mike:) Since doing the render, I've moved the abdomen bone downwards a bit to get a more realistic bend at the waist.
Although the eyes are a separate mesh, it's a single figure and I can't get the bones to only influence the eyes - despite giving each 100% influence and painting out all other influences. Split doesn't work, because it splits the whole figure into its many parts.
Unless someone can come up with a suggestion for separating the eyes from the rest of the mesh, all I can think of is taking it into Hexagon and making the eyes separate .obj's. That isn't really cheating, is it?
I would think including the eyes in the head weightpainting but creating morph targets for movement the way to go.
mmoir, as I render my extremely badly keyframed walk, I noticed something
why has he got a pocket on the back of his shirt?
It should work if you remove all other bone influences in the 'animated mode'/'Bones' tab. The eyes are unwelded right?
I tend to name the polygon groups because I work with Poser rigging and that also helps when it comes to selecting polygon groups for Carrara rigging. I also learned to set weights for games mods using some pretty basic tools so I find that the slider system is more familiar to me.
The weight painting tool is proportional so you may never get a bones influence down to zero using only that (plus you have to do it for all 3 axes and the bulge weights)
morphs work
click below for
severly scary Wendy video of mmoir's man rigged
still want me on the team?
Wendy - that is seriously freaky:) I'm trying to remember the name of an actor that reminds me of. No way you can be left off any team - we need your brand of humour!
Yes, morphs would work. What I'm thinking is to make a copy of the eyes, make the existing eyes invisible and have the copies follow target helpers - one for each eye, parented to a single controlling THO.
RP - I am also more comfortable using Studio for rigging. Yes, the eyes are not welded to the head. I have made the influences 100% under the bones tab and it shows that the eye bones don't influence any other part of the mesh, there are no other verts highlighted, yet when I move the eye bones, the top of the head deforms. This is strange, because it works for robotic movements when you don't want a bone to have any fall-off influence on another part of the mesh.
I stand to be corrected on this - as far as I know, Carrara does not have an option for weight-painting in all three axes, or bulge weights.
I have not done the constraints yet - I have always used only ball-joint constraints, but I'm pretty sure this is wrong. Could someone who is more familiar with the Carrara system give some guidance here.
Carrara does have independent weight painting on all three axes and has had it for a long time. If Stan were here he would have already pointed that out. You need to select which axis you are painting in the brush controls.
The standard ball joint is a good choice. You just need to set the limits on the angles.
Roygee,
This is fun whatching my character come to life so to say.
I could separate the eyes from the mesh if you want but I am pretty sure there is a way to bone the eyes.. To separate the eyes from the mesh try the following
1.Select only the eyes in the vm room and hit Ctrl+C to coyp mesh to clipboard.
2.Drag a new vertex obect to the 3d view.
3.Select the new Vertex object and double click to go to vm room.
4.Ctrl+V to paste the eyes from the clipboard.
Now you have the eyes as a separate object in the Assembly room
5 Move the separated eyes to align with the model then delete the eyes from the original mesh.
Hope this helps
Oops. it is my fashion statement .:red: I will fix this in an update to the character.
Thanks
Mike
Thanks Mike - that worked great. I've used THO's for the eye movement - move one and both eyes follow in sync:)
Completed the rigging, with constraints - I'm sure many will be able to do a better job - I'll upload in a few minutes for you all to take a look at.
Have any animators put up their hands yet to get this guy on the road? He'll need some facial expression morphs - Wendy has already made a start with that - maybe she'd like to do the lot?
RP, sorry, still can't find where and how weight-painting can be done on all three axes in Carrara. I know ManStan shares my views on Carrara's rigging (less than flattering!)
http://youtu.be/LQAaOodFfXU
Hi Roy :)
I made the strap from a rectangle and a curve, and used the "Path Sweep" function to make the basic shape.
Once I had that, I selected the bottom poly's and scaled them in a little bit,. then used the "Grow selection" to selects and scale the strap to give it a taper,. narrower at the buckle.
At the Watch end's ... When you're extruding the end, just switch to the rotate tool,. and rotate the edges / poly's , you can also use the move tool to reposition it,. then extrude again and then rotate into position, and repeat until you have the curve shape you want.
I should have finished it off by embedding the end into the strap,. but I'm lazy sometimes. :)
The watch face image was posted in the thread, but I'll add it to the "box" later,.. as it makes sense to keep all the assets organised in one place.
:)
Thanks, Andy - good explanation there...now why wa I hoping you'd say, "Same as Hexagon - draw a curve and use it to bend...":)
Cheers
That watch is so freaking cool!
Things seem to be coming along. The whole ducks thing has lost my interest almost entirely, but this little test run looks exciting.
Great characters Roy and Mike. And Wendy is giving them loving care, I see.
Damn that watch...
I want to have one commissioned!
Edit:
Maybe, if I could get 3dage to design the inner workings as well, I could print one out with one of those 3d printers!