Animation Master > C4D

[AdamT]

I'm not an AM user, but from what I've read AM is stronger in the rigging/CA department. Unfortunately there aren't too many Mocca tutorials other than those found in the slim manual. Just the same, Mocca does have some nice tools, and when combined with Xpresso it has a lot of potential. Download the demo and check it out for yourself.

[CosmicBear]

i'm working with both, a:m and cinema. i have to say, you're right, a:m makes it pretty easy to rig and animate a character. at least up to a certain point. it's always depending on how complicated your rig is. there is nothing you can do with a:m that can't be done in cinema as well. it will probably take you some time to find your way in cinema when you're really used to the way a:m works, but i have always found a solution in cinema as well. just one remark: when you have a very detailed character in cinema with lots of bones (my current characters have about 160 bones, not working with soft-ik), it will slow down the program up to a point where it's really frustrating. (working on a Dual G4 2x1GHz, 1 GByte RAM) the only thing i'm missing (maybe i haven't found it yet) in cinema is the opportunity to animate everything with a lowpoly-character and then transfer the entire animation to my highpoly-character with a couple of mouseclicks. but like i said, there's a work-around for everything.

edit: just thought of one thing i'm missing in cinema. stride length! :) but again, there's always a workaround

[wuensch]

as for replacing hipoly and Lowpoly: if you have NOT used claude Bonnet but restrict via vertexmaps, you can just replace hipoly meshes with lowpoly Meshes and vice versa (unfix bones first).

Has anyone tried to use the momix Object for motion transfer where the file that created the motion had lowpoly files?
I have not tried, but it might work--
also i have beben thinking of taking the proxys all together in a Null (add Nulls with expresso to steer pelvis and those bones needed that are not proxied) and apply motion via momix from a lowpolyversions Proxies to Hipoly--
(not tested though)
Olli

[AdamT]

Hi Ollie,

Have you seen the new TagManager plugin that can convert vertex maps to Claude Bonet and (I think) vice versa? Could be pretty handy for this.

[wuensch]

Tag Manager--no, I have not, but this sounds seriously interesting-- could be alife-saver--
Where did you see it, Adam?
Olli

[wuensch]

found it at
http://c4dplugins.idea-graphics.de/TM/TM_Download.php
wow-- just waht I needed--ordered immediately.
Olli

[CosmicBear]

Originally posted by Olli Wuensch
as for replacing hipoly and Lowpoly: if you have NOT used claude Bonnet but restrict via vertexmaps...

didn't need to read further. i used claude bonnet on my characters. :)

i'm doing it in another (probably complicated) way, but it works fine for me.

i've three versions of my characters.

i started with modelliing and rigging the high-poly-version with everything in it (posemixer for the face and both hands, sliders to controll the rotation and position of different bones, etc. etc) and then dublicated the char. i then started to slim down the char. (erased the facial- and hand-pose-mixer-objects and all the highpoly stuff that i didn't needed). then again, i dublicated the high-poly-character and erased all the points in the objects, that i didn't needed like legs, upper body, pelvis, upper arms, etc, leaving it only with the high-poly-versions of the head and the arms.

so when i'm animating, i animate with the lowpoly-version of the char, and then just drag and drop everything on the head/hands-version and animate the face and hands. and after that again, i drag and drop all the animation-data to the highpoly-version and - voila - i have my highpoly-char animated. i post some pictures of the different versions later on tonight if you want to... (not home right now)

like i said, there are probably easier ways to do it, but it works for me. most of my bones don't get keyframed, i have my leg-positions controlled by nulls and the arm-position controlled by sliders, my hands and head by pose-mixer..

[wuensch]

sound nice an working.
when i find the time i will try out my ideas mith MoMixer.
might work.
And I am waiting for the tagmanager-plug to check if the bonet-vertex conversion works--
That could make life easy.
I have a character here that is way too complex to animate anywhere near realtime (with a dynamics cape and hair and tons of clothes and--)
and i am getting tired of rendering previews.
Olli

[CosmicBear]

hmmm, i'm getting the impression that we're a bit off-topic... hope the mods won't mind...

here are the different versions of one of my char. there's still room for reducement, but as three of the lowpoly-versions play almost in realtime on my comp, i'm fine with it.

http://www.cosmicbear.de/img/buddies.jpg

[wuensch]

thanks for sharing you insight.
I will let you know what I find out when I get to it.
Olli

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