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threedeesketch
08-11-2005, 12:00 AM
I am new to Messiah (using Demo right now) and would like to get some advice on how to do a ball bounce w/ squash and stretch.

I'm planning on doing a short film and think Messiah is what I need for the animation aspect. However I'm not certain so I'd like some input before paying for it.

The character I'm planning on animating will be a bi-pedal but of a sort of gelatinous type, if that makes sense. I would like to animate a walk cycle with subtle squash+stretch as well as a jump or leap that will also utilize squash+stretch. Essentially what I envision is a standard bi-pedal rig but with a seperate control or rig to squash+stretch the entire model. A lattice or similar is what comes to mind with regards to other 3D packages but I understand Messiah doesn't use these.

Soooo, I figure a ball bounce might be a good way to orient myself with Messiah as this classic test entails what I want to do, basically.

(And for those kind enough to help, pretend while explaining that I know very very little about Messiah :rolleyes:)

THANKS!
stooch
08-16-2005, 04:18 PM
get ready to tear some hair out if you want to use soft body dynamics.
Leebre
08-16-2005, 04:53 PM
get ready to tear some hair out if you want to use soft body dynamics.

Did you notice this little diddy from the 2.2b release notes?:

Softbody Dynamics Collisions



Collisions have been improved to remove jitterring.


I can't to test it out.
stooch
08-16-2005, 07:20 PM
yeah it seems less jittery but collisions themselves dont work still.

I have a fully bound rig done and ready to go, if anyone wants to attempt to get cloth to collide...
peonleon
08-16-2005, 09:51 PM
How I would do a Basic Squash and Stretch for a Sphere- Add a sphere from the add items menu and scale the ball's y axis for the squash and strech, make sure you have the correct keyframe editting settings that you want before you start to avoid unexpected problems. You might want to put the sphere in a group first, you can then keyframe the sphere group, so everything - rotate, scale, etc will all be recorded each time you key a frame. To get a nice squash on a surface, try adding a melt effect to the sphere when it hits the ground (I don't know whether or not melt works with Messiah's own spheres).
stooch
08-17-2005, 02:37 PM
I always setup a mini rig.

for example, i would create a null above the sphere, that would be my transform handle, then i would parent another null at the bottom, this is my deform handle. then i would create a ball and parent it to the deform null and an expression that will rotate the sphere using the transform of the main null so that when i move it, the ball spins. This way, you can squish the ball while its spinning and have lots of control over it.
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