WIP: Fur and Coth Toying

[InvaZimm]

Here's some adjustments to the maps:
http://www.johnzimmermann//images//gobHair_test_bklft.01.jpghttp://www.johnzimmermann.com//images/pics/gobHair_test_bklft.01.jpg
http://www.johnzimmermann.com/images/pics/gobHair_test_bk.01.jpg
http://www.johnzimmermann.com/images/pics/gobGoat_test_frt.01.jpg
http://www.johnzimmermann//images//gobGoat_test_frt.01.jpghttp://www.johnzimmermann.com/images/pics/gobGoat_test_lft.01.jpg
http://www.johnzimmermann//images//gobGoat_test_lft.01.jpg

[InvaZimm]

I've done a couple rendered out sequences of the walk with the fur acting dynamically. I did a full out rendered scene instead of a playblast because you can get a better over all feel since the Fur Feedback curves don't supply as great of an overall feel.
I used hair curves to create the movement of the fur. I believe there are still some more tweaks to be made in the dynamics. Still need to flesh out a better feel around the ear area especially in order to get the fur from penetrating the ear.

I'm providing two views: one of the entire Goblin and another of amore closeup view.. plus each view has a large (640x480) and a smaller (320x240) video for those that just want a general jist..

http://www.johnzimmermann.com/images/pics/dF_walk.jpg Large (http://www.johnzimmermann.com/videos/dynaFur_walk_lg.mov)http://www.johnzimmermann.com/images/pics/dF_walk_sm.jpg Small (http://www.johnzimmermann.com/videos/dynaFur_walk_sm.mov)

http://www.johnzimmermann.com/images/pics/dF_walkClup.jpg Large (http://www.johnzimmermann.com/videos/dynaFur_walkClup_lg.mov)http://www.johnzimmermann.com/images/pics/dF_walkClup_sm.jpg Small
(http://www.johnzimmermann.com/videos/dynaFur_walkClup_sm.mov)
crits, comments always welcome.. Thanks..

[dude5487]

I dunno much about fur and what not but what I see looks pretty good to me. It flows well with the walk I think.

Got anything else with fur in the pipeline?

[InvaZimm]

I've decided to toy a little bit more with the fur attributes themselves. Tried adding a little more variation to the coloring so that not every strand looks the same, also took a little of the fluffiness out as well.. among other things.
I also plan to do a complete overhaul on the dynamic feel to the hair as well even tho it looks, eh.. alright as is. It's just not right. So I'll be working on that next.

http://www.johnzimmermann.com/images/pics/gobHair_test_bklft.02.jpg
http://www.johnzimmermann.com/images/pics/gobHair_test_bk.02.jpg
http://www.johnzimmermann.com/images/pics/gobGoat_test_frt.02.jpg
http://www.johnzimmermann.com/images/pics/gobGoat_test_lft.02.jpg

Hey dude, thanks for checking this out. Right now this guy is the only character that has fur currently on him, tho I have a couple other characters that I am plannin out ideas for their fur. Also going to look into using it on a high res human model at some point in the near future. I'm also going to look into doing that same model with using the Hair module to everything.

[dude5487]

I like it and I like the updates, but its more of the same.

I would recommend doing some diff fur set ups on the same character. What it is so far looked good when animated but I would really like to see some more set ups, more range. Covering the entire body with fur, showing different lengths and styles of fur, variations in clumping etc. Like making his head really furry looking, then have the hair spread down his back then to nothing. Or show his hands and feet as really furry then up the arms and legs the length goes down. Stuff like that. U know?

There is a great layout in this months 3DWorld on fur, actually the cover image is about fur.

Also r u using Maya Unlimited Fur or Shave n Hair Cut?

Keep it up though!

[InvaZimm]

Yeah I have been thinking of doing either different patches or even just different styles on the current patches, tho at the moment I've just been toying with this style for this current scene. Most likely going to do the multiple patch work with a different character, with variation in each area.. ie hand and arm difference.

I haven't seen that issue yet, might just have to look into it some time.

As for the module I'm using, it's just Maya's native fur for the moment. I would really like to get into Shave and a Haircut at some point. I figured I'd start out with the dumbed down version to get the general jist of things and whatnot before hitting up a powerhouse such as that. That way I don't get entirely overwhelmed with all the options and attributes available in SaH and not learn some of the basics.. or at least that is hope lol. Such is/will be the case with the cloth sim as well.. be using Maya's native Cloth (the original one not the new nCloth) first before divin into somethin like Syflex or similar.

[dude5487]

Oh ok gotcha. Well what is the current scene set up?

Its a great issue :)

Oh ok thats cool. So r u using Maya 7 then? I understand going for the lower end stuff to grasp the basics haha, believe me.

[InvaZimm]

Yeah at the moment I'm just using Maya 7 for everything.. lol well other than creating the Maps for the attributes, that was all photoshop.

It's just kind of a basic scene, well as basic as you can get with these modules. Basically just a walk cycle on the Goblin but with some clothing (pants and a tanktop and those current fur patches for the hair on him.

I'm gettin closer to puttin up some shots on the cloth aspect of it. Just having an odd difficulty with the pants at the moment.. Once the sim hits the second frame the pants from just below the waist (so basically the crouch downward) droop down, pretty much stretch, over a unit and it really deturs from the over all look. I have relaxFrames set to 0 so that it doesn't relax anymore. I've also been adjusting the cloth properties to try and get it to stop looking that way, tho for some reason they don't seem to make a difference.. Now on the hunt to find some more info on it, but that's seeming to almost be a lost cause since I've found a bunch of supposed links to what sound like great tutorials/info and they all end up bein dead links.. Eh, on with the search.. lol

[InvaZimm]

Figured I'd post a sampling of the oddness that I've encountered with the pants at the moment. Not sure why this is happening at the moment. As I stated before I'm still in the search for a remedy. This example is just a one frame difference, from the start frame -15 to frame -14 which ends up taking somewhere close to 2 minutes to get calculate out while the following frames do not take anywhere near as long as the change from -15 to -14. I have turned off relaxFrameLength, Saved as Initial State and even toyed around with some the properties such as Stretch, Shear, and even Bend Resistance as far up to 5-10 times the original values. Just unsure of the cause for such a stretch.

http://www.johnzimmermann.com/misc/gCloth_f-15.jpghttp://www.johnzimmermann.com/misc/gCloth_f-14.jpg


Anyone have any ideas, suggestions even crits, they'd be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advanced.

[dude5487]

Sorry its been a bit getting back to you. I have been moving. The only thing I can think of is this. How is the cloth driven? Is it by key frames? I mean I am thinking maybe you set a key frame on something without even knowing it.

[InvaZimm]

No prob man, I've been jumpin around with this project, the different aspects of it as well as the tool I'm makin to help with parts of it. Not too mention workin on other things as well.
The cloth's being driven by the cloth module, dynamically. I can waht you mean about the possibility of keyframing something by accident so went in and checked. So far there doesn't seem to be any. Still kinda odd why it's doin it.

[dude5487]

Interesting. Well I would maybe look into posting a new thread to have people take a look at the issue you are having, especially if there is a cloth section of CGTalk.

What kind of tool are you writing? What code?

Good luck!

[InvaZimm]

I just may do that.

The tool is just to help speed up the process of creating fur particularly in the case of the maps. Since fur prefers the use of .iff files for it's maps there is the funness of having to take your hand painted maps from a normal image format (.jpeg, .tif, etc.) and having to convert it to a .iff using something like fCheck.. This just is tedious in the sense that you are having jump thru so many hoops just get the end result. So basically this tool allows you to set for each map what the .iff file is as well as your hand painted map file is. With those set you can then just hit the Trade button for which ever you want to update (like say you don't have it in a normal image format you can get one based off the current .iff or vice versa). It will convert the files and update the .iff map file's connection to the atrribute.

It's mainly still in the design process but soon will be in the clean up process get, useless code and what not. At the moment I'm doing it in MEL with the help of an outside converter, but perhaps in the furture I'll write up a better version when I have a design down pat.

[dude5487]

Thats awesome. Keep it up I cant wait to see it/use it :)

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