Moonshine Marlin
Ron Knights
Posts: 2,298
I've been working on the idea of Marlin Fingle and friends for 25 years. The characters have evolved and improved over time.
Currently Marlin Fingle and Bitti Bottie are Genesis figures. I "changed or morphed" Marlin and Bitti till I liked their looks. I got lazy, and used the default Thomas character. I don't remember if Thomas is from Michael 4 or Michael 5.
I've tried working with the Moonshine Diner because it's such a great setup. It even comes with Poses, etc. (I believe Jack Tomalin created Moonshine's Diner.)
But I've got myself in trouble. Marlin has the proper pose, but he's not sitting on the stool, or facing the correct direction. I tried rotating Marlin, but he goes the wrong ways.
Any ideas?
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Comments
I'd suggest you take the top level node in the character and then Rotate Y through 180 degrees. Don't do it via the hips, just rotate the whole character.
Then, take a side view to translate the whole character in Y and Z to move his bottom onto the stool where you want it..
Regards,
Richard
You might also try defining a group for Marlin, then rotate the group instead of the figure.
richardandtracy, what is a top level node?! Can you tell I'm still an amateur, after 25 years?!
David R, how do I define a group? Boy, do I feel dumb!
The hip is the first choild of the figure in the Scene pane. If you select the Hip it wil work locally, but if the hip is rotated the sliders will also be rotated in their effect (so he will spin around a slanted axis, and trying to move him horizontaly will also move him up or down). One solution is to use the Viewport Rotate and Translate, or the Universal, Tool, and in the Tool Settings pane set the Coordinate System to Universe - that will keep the rings and arrows in the Viewport gizmo that you click and drag on are oriented as you'd expect, and DS will translate the adjustments into the correct values on the sliders.
Top level node, is when looking in the scene tab, the highest node related to that object. For a character it is the character itself, also known as the root node.
Creating a group, can be done by selecting the character in the scene tab, and then in the local scene tab menu (4 horizontal bars = burgermenu) select Create > New Group.
Select Marlin in the "scene" tab.
On the menu bar select Create/New Group
Create the new group, making sure that "Parent selected item(s) to new group" is selected.
Now select the group in the "scene" tab and rotate that along the y axis.
Hope that helps.
I'm sorry. I'm having trouble understanding the suggestions, or where to find the tools, etc.
Marlin is somewhat distressed.
OK, I'll take a look.
In the meantime, Bitti Botti is very happy with Marlin's predicament.
I'm a bit fuzzy-headed today. I did watch the YouTube video about grouping. Guess I'll create a group tomorrow,
In the meantime, Thomas decided he's surrounded by morons.
I fiddled around and finally got Marlin to sit at the counter properly. And Victoria 5 joined him.
You might not know this. I've been struggling for around 25 years to put together some semblance of a story with Marlin Fingle and his cast of friends or cohorts.
This little series of stumbling renders represents the most progress I've made. From what I can tell I first latched onto parts of the Moonshine Diner in 2012.
I must suffer from some sort of learning disability. It takes a long time for me to understand even the simplest stuff.
Here, in this render are Marlin Fingle, Bitti Botti, Thomas (M5), and Victoria 5. As time passed, I became lazier and just used "stock characters."
I've noticed that my ability to concentrate and remember declines with age. I'm 74 now, and 75 next month. Try not to be too hard on yourself. Start a thread for your story, like my thread about the adventures of Jack and Richard. Having the thread and getting comments on the story will encourage you to keep it going. Sometimes I get inspired and post every few days. Sometimes weeks go by. There is no pressure. It is just for fun.
P.S. You can always add Richard Haseltine to your story. Then it is sure to take an unexpected turn. In my stories, Richard likes tuna. They probably serve that at the Moonshine Diner.
Barbilt, we are the same age!
I hear you. Telling a story is a great idea. However, I would not want to do anything that would come near to your stories.
I do have an entire cast of characters that I've assembled over the past 25 years.
I've only upgraded a few of them to the Genesis generation.
I do like the idea of posting my story in ArtZone. Somehow it feels less intrusive than splattering stuff in The Commons. People will only see it here if they want to see it.
Thanks again for your support. I really look forward to seeing your stories.
I hope I'm still creating when I'm 75. :)
Just take care of yourself emotionally and physically.
I may be older, and softer, but in some ways I've never been better. Or at least I'm still easily tackling my health concerns.
I cut out all the wonderful candies I love to eat. I lost around 30 pounds.
And I no longer need insulin. I still have a FreeStyle Libre sensor to monitor my blood sugar. It passes info to my iPhone.
I've actually reduced my clothing size from 4 Extra Large to 3 Extra Large.
And I have about 100 friends. I used to live like a hermit till I moved here 4 years ago.
I did have one significant set back. My right ear had a blood vessel burst. That is extremely rare.
I can't hear from my right ear. But I have fancy hearing aids that work with my iPhone.