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TransPond's Saguaro Cactus into Animated Character?

Retro LadRetro Lad Posts: 471
in Carrara Discussion

Would it be possible to make TransPond's Saguaro Cactus a posable character using Carrara's bone/skeleton tools? I was thinking of posable Saguaro Cactus branches, like large green arms and the main trunk being able to bend. Why? Another species of desert plant turned mutoid monster by atomic testing and radiation.

I remember being a oassenger in a car driving through New Mexico, or Arizona, late at night during a thunderstorm with each flash of lighting illuminating for a few seconds thousands and thousands of Saguaro Cactus plants which looked exactly like a huge army of green monster plant men on the march. Good thing I wasn't stoned, or drunk, because I would have freaked out for sure.

 

TransPond's Saguaro Construction Kit.jpg
700 x 899 - 176K

Comments

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 37,821
    edited April 2018

    insert your bones, select the root one hold shift and the cactus and under animation choose attach skeleton 

    Post edited by WendyLuvsCatz on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,081
    edited April 2018

    Couple recommendations - not essential but I find helpful

    - before creating the bones, select the cactus model, create a morph area, and create a placeholder fix morph.  Resave the model.

    - Create bones in the directional cameras (front, left,...). Select the model and click zero to zoom to your model in directional cameras.  Use View menu to reset directional view.

    - Once bones skeleton created, use the edit menu to create a regular group with both the bones and the cactus model (with a blank fix morph).  Save this with nothing attached

    - Select your regular group and then use the top animation menu tab and create an animation group.  Yes, I call the animation group the supergroup.  It contains the regular group.  The supergroup has a tab for NLA clips.  The regular group does not.  I find if I just use the animation group witout a reguar group then when I save a retrieve the model, sometimes the scale of the bones skeleton is distorted.  

    - Save a version of your animation group without the bones attached et.   Easier to edit or create multiple versions later.

    - Select the cactus odel and the bones skeleton and use the top animation menu to attach skeleton.

    - You can now use the bone joints to pose the cactus. 

    - Because you created a morph before attaching, you can edit the morph even after you have posed the model. 

    - Because you created an animation group, you can save and reuse poses and animations usig the NLA clips tab.

    Post edited by Diomede on
  • Retro LadRetro Lad Posts: 471

    I have never done this before, so Thanks for the helpful explanations on how to start doing this.

  • Retro LadRetro Lad Posts: 471
    edited May 2018

    I was surprised to find that I had forgotten how to navigate in Carrara, and forgotten where a bunch of controls are located, so I had to re-watch videos again to refresh my memory before I could even start on rigging the Cactus.

    Anyway, I finally succeeded in placing bones in Tranponds Cactus and getting the thing to wiggle about. Only a very crude start but at least I know the basics now. I watched Marcelo Teixeira's "silent film" videos on Group Hierarchies and IK Chains and got a kick out of his octopus demonstration. Anyone old enough to remember the 1950s film about the giant octopus that attacks San Francisco?

    Post edited by Retro Lad on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,081
    edited May 2018

    Loved that film.  Evilproducer showed how to rig something like that in an old challenge. Maybe these will help with your cactus.

    model octopus/squid for the movie - https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/475625/#Comment_475625

     

    There might be some more general help here

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/233691/rigging-models-for-use-in-carrara/p1

    in particular

    .

     

     

     

    Post edited by Diomede on
  • Retro LadRetro Lad Posts: 471

    Diomede.

    Thanks... ...I will take a look at the two Forum Discussions.

    It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)
    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048215/

    I have a retail DVD of that film. Time to watch it again

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,040

    That one was a spline model squid. It wasn't rigged. You can keyframe the spline model shapes to move. I did do a rigged octopus that came with Carrara's Native Content for one of the first challenges though. I actually made my scene with, It Came from Beneath the See in mind.

  • DesertDudeDesertDude Posts: 1,234

    The Spline Modeler was my first experience modeling anything in Carrara. The ability to animate over time the splines is so cool.

    Great to see you posting here again @evilproducer !

  • mindsongmindsong Posts: 1,693

    per the topic, what a cool idea!

    can't wait to see what you come up with!

    --ms

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