Automatron V Massive

[JohnnyRandom]

Sorry, I don't have an answer for your but I just saw that Mr. Murdock dropped the price to $49 until April 30, 2008. Thats a bargain:)

[Debneyink]

In that case... it's mine.

still be nice to see anyone who's done real human's with it though??

[grury]

You may want to have a look into the new Thinking Particles.

[Debneyink]

okay i will do, im not great with it though

but the beauty about massive it's simple to use.

[grury]

but the beauty about massive it's simple to use.

With a massive price tag too..
I guess its all up to what you want to achieve and what your budget is. Theres plenty of ways to go about doing a crowd scene.
I really like the way that Edwards constructed a huge crowd scene using a very simple PFlow setup and a few live action loops.
http://www.fxguide.com/article463.html
Check out the shot breakdown QT

[Debneyink]

couldnt open the shot break down for some reason?

But yeah its a good solution to a problem, and a great effort for one man to do.
ive done that sort of thing(music videos never give you much time to render or RnD) if you dont need to go the complex route then dont!
its good to see ways to solve problems like not being able to afford MASSIVE!!



www.chrisdebney.com (http://www.chrisdebney.com)

[joconnell]

I'd try and do it as simply as possible - no idea where you go the idea that massive is easy either - apparently it's very bloody hard to use! The beauty of a really big crowd shot is that if you need to have a sense of hugh scale you'll need to be out really really wide to take in enough people in one go which means each person is going to be a tiny few pixels in each shot - you only need to give an impression of each person - I did a crowd shot using stock people animated with walk cycles which were point cached and used as particles in pflow - the material op can randomly assign different materials to each so you get your clothing variations there - once you've a decent looping cycle then you've no limit to your shot length either.

Photorealistic people are ony going to hold up so close to camera to so the filmed approach of the bbc guys is a good option.

[joconnell]

P.s. had a look at the teddy video - fair play for doing something so ambitious in the first place, the only thing that was off for me was the scale of the pyro elements - they all moved far too quick to have any sense of major weight or impact but there's a shit load of time involved in what you did!

[joconnell]

P.p.s. if you've got a budget have a look at these - http://www.axyz-design.com/axyz-design-3d-humans-characters-metropoly2-rigged-mecacs007b.php and then either a library of motion capture files and use the mixer in biped to layer and extend the files or get someone to animate some custom cycles - I notice the shots in your environments aren't that long so you could get away with a lot.

[musashidan]

Don't know if This (http://www.3d-palace.com/xenomorphic/education/doc_fish_school.htm) is of any use to you,but Pete Draper usually comes up with excellent out of the box solutions to a wide variety of challenges without ever using plugins or software besides Max.

(nice one,Automatron for well under 50 quid!!)

[Debneyink]

Thanks for your input really appreciated. I guess im just curious as to what people are donig for crowds these days. I enjoy stumbling across a plugin like automatron that i never knew was out there or seeing other peoples methods.

I've found massive not too tricky to get a result.
here's an example of a crowd sim using biped in max if your interested. The shots are at the end of the promo:
http://www.mergefilms.com/ go to chris debney and click on (the cooper temple clause promo the guys with the white masks)

similar to what im donig for this new one. 3D crowds will be needed as there wil be a fair bit of camera move.

thanks again its all interesting stuff!

[Debneyink]

Yeah the teddy thing was a commision i got from BMG for the relaease of the foos new album last year, took 4 weeks, all of the hours in that time (and I mean all!) some of its a bit scrappy admittedly but my main main focus was geting it finished on time!!
max vray and a whole bunch of stills taken early on a sunday morning in London. the crowd scenes in that were just duped cstudio.


to see teddys destroying london: www.chrisdebney.com (http://www.chrisdebney.com)

[joconnell]

Yep the london one was what I meant - there's a bit of work involved in that ;)

[hotknife]

theres also Crowdit

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