Convert clone object to polys?

[JoelOtron]

Making editable should expand the clones to indicidual objects.
If the object you are cloning is a primitive, then the resulting object gorup will also be primitives.

[danb]

Yup this was a user error situation. :( I had the clones on a spline. The object was a cylinder with an align to spline tag. Once i made editable all the cylinders went back to the 0% position on the spline. So i couldn't see the rest of the cylinders, only one.

Thanks though, the reply made me check the hierarchy without the folding and i found my mistake.

[JoelOtron]

You might want to try the spline effector instead--thats what its for, aliging clones to a spline. You could also set your cloner to "object" mode and chose the spline as the object.

So after you make the cloner editable in that instance, the objects will be whre you want them.

[danb]

Yes i set the cloner object to "object" and dragged my spline into the feild box. But when i make editable all the polygon objects get the "align to spline" tags assiged to them, which moved them all back to the zero position.

I was using the align to spline tag to align my object correctly. I did not delete it after aligning so this is what was causing my problems. At first i didn't realize that the cloner object will move the object to the spline for me.

Working good now. Finding more and more tools in Mograph everyday to help with modelling.

Thanks Joel.

[danb]

This is off topic but, do you have any resources that i could use to learn medical animation?

I was going to send you an email to apply for work with your company, but i don't currently have any medical animation examples. Plus there is a company near me that has asked if i wanted to work for them. I had to decline because of no examples.

I would just need real life reference videos to follow and turn into CG animation.

Thanks for any help.

[JoelOtron]

Hey danb

Not to beat a dead horse, but just in case you didn't realize this, I wanted to mention, that the effectors give you all the tools to align your objects the way you want to. It may be as simple as making sure the z-axis on your cloned object is facing the way you want it to be oriented, then making sure FIX CLONE: is checked in your cloner. I could see the align to spline tag posibly being problematic for other reasons when using with a cloner. But if you got it working then great. :)

As far as medical animation--thats hard to say.
Like many things, the best way to learn is to do it. I would look at work that inspires you and begin to try to emulate it. I think if you are a good all-around 3d generalist animator, and your reel reflects good organic modelling, good organic shader construction, particle effects, some cool organic rigged effects (motility, morphing) and nice camera work, whether its medical or not, might be enough to get your foot in the door. Being able to build large organic microscopic environments packed with neurons or blood vessels, etc I would imagine would be good to see too. Of course its also good to have a good grasp of the science concepts you are trying to animate. And the only way you can do that is by reading an learning about whatever subject/process you wish to animate.

There are many good examples out there, but I still like going back to look at the work of Richard Morris (Jackal's Forge) who worked on some great BBC documentaries a few years back. His site outlines the process/workflow he went through to bring the show to life. Some of its just beginning to look dated by 2007 standards, but still great stuff.

http://www.jackals-forge.com/bodystory_intro.html

http://www.jackals-forge.com/htb.html

Good luck

[danb]

Awesome. Thanks for the pointers Joel. I'll check out those links.

I can see why Mograph would be very helpful for medical animation. You must use it a lot.

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