3D Animated Figures

[dansimon]

Hey,

I work for an architectural firm like many of the users on this great forum. We do a lot of 3d animated fly thoughs. We like to use a lot of detail in our scenes with as much movement as possible.

My problem now is animated people in the scenes. looking for good movement, walk cycles etc. Not looking for flat 2d opasity maps.

Can any one recomend a solution??

thanks[/b]

[Candelero]

Hi dansimon,

Have You examined this tutorial... it may come handy.
http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/VRay...rials_anim.htm

Best Regards,
nikki Candelero

[dansimon]

Candelero, thanks for that. the problem is all my cam;s are moving.

It also doent really answer my question. Im looking for some sort of quick solution for character animation in my scenes. ie. Poser/motion capture/ RPC animated figures.

thanks for that tut though.

[Candelero]

I would suggest CAT...

Best Regards,
nikki Candelero

[dansimon]

CAT?? never heard of it, could u tell me more?? or give me some links??

[Candelero]

http://www.catoolkit.com/
VOALA !

Best Regards,
nikki Candelero

[dapeter]

I saw some characters from this demoed at the recent Max 8 release tour in NYC :

http://www.complete-characters.com/

Works great with Character Studio, although they are a bit pricey... but I think they're worth it as some of the other solutions aren't so great.

http://www.axyz-design.com/

They've also started selling mocap data plus pre-rigged characters, a bit more affordable. You do need Max for either of these, though!

[panthon]

Hi!

I would recommed character studio. Cat is more intented to "heavy" character animations and i guess it´s not your goal. Character studio is bundled with 3dsmax so u dont need to buy anything. We use it all the time for our arch character populations and it works quite well when feeded with motion capture files. By the way, we use Axyz3d characters, some of them topology and texture modified. We are currently looking for next step, cloth and hair dynamic simulations...But that´s another story

[panthon]

I saw some characters from this demoed at the recent Max 8 release tour in NYC :

http://www.complete-characters.com/

Hey dapeter that web is very interesting, i´ve never used normal maps with characters in vray and i don´t know if that´s possible at all but looks very promising! You know something about it? Thanks.

[dansimon]

Dapeter. thanks for those links. Complete charecter would be perffict but its just to pricy.

Might just model some low polly characters and use some of those modcap files.

[dansimon]

thanks panthon. Im looking into modcap files.

By the way, we use Axyz3d characters, some of them topology and texture modified.

do u use there mod cap files to??

do u have any examples of ur animations that i could view?

[panthon]

If u look for motion capture files u should use the word mocap (it stands for motion capture). Max ships with lots of mocap files in bip format. I guess u can start playing with that.

Unfortunately i can´t show any of our latest animations (which contain animated characters) but i´m pretty sure u will get acceptable results in no time... Sometimes we hand-animate some of our animations or mix them using the mixer bundled with character studio.

There are some free bvh files around the net but i can´t find the websites that used to host them If someone could post some...

Don´t forget that ur animation quality depends on your skinning too. A bad skeleton/skin setup will ruin all your realism attempts with no mercy.

[dansimon]

Thanks panthon, i studied 3d animation at a college here in cape town for 2 years learning maya and max. i spent most of my time in maya so forgot all about character studio and how simple it can be to get some basic movment. thanks for refreshing my memory.

axyz models look great. just downlaoded the freebie t-pose model and skinned a bip into it. model works really well.

now just got to get back into workbench and mixer. its been awhile...

thanks again

[3ddesign]

I'm curious why flat 2D characters are not an option. I use this technique all the time for architectural walkthrough presentations. Since I know my animation path, I can easily video live characters against a makeshift blue screen (cheap cloth at fabric store) to match the path and map the frames billboard style. If you plan it right, the characters cast realistic shadows and are seen accurately in reflections. On one project I hired professional actors to represent a broker and a client touring the project. It was complete with voice and ambient sound, video taped background with cars moving, trees blowing in the wind. I even video taped a fountain and mapped it to a polygon. Blew my client away.

Craig

[panthon]

ISince I know my animation path, I can easily video live characters against a makeshift blue screen (cheap cloth at fabric store) to match the path and map the frames billboard style. If you plan it right, the characters cast realistic shadows and are seen accurately in reflections.

Craig

It´s good to hear it worked for you craig


We were thinking of that too. In fact, we tried it. We got some issues which were too expensive to solve.

Firstly, chroma key pulling goes far away from the standard arch previz workflow, meaning it costs extra money some clients are not willing to pay.

You need a very (very!) good camera to get good footage. Dv chroma keys are quite crappy, not acceptable for our purposes...I won´t go with anything below 4:2:2. Standard Dv brings a mere 4.1.1 or 4:2:0

Characters are not *reusable*. Sometimes they can be, but most of the time they are one-use-only...In terms of mass productions it´s too expensive.

If u plan to use LOTS of characters, as common arch companies do, chroma key dozens of actors is not an option.

Camera moves get limited, because u cannot usually create crane motions which mimic the ones in 3d -it depends on your budget, of course-.

So, i guess u need lots of money and knowledge to do it right...I´m curious to see a sample of this method..i can´t show our tests because they are so shameful