CgTalk:FXWars! Catapult! (Trebuchet) Challenge:1

RobertoOrtiz · 2004-07-19 11:14:25 UTC

I have no problem with baked motions, as long as the original motion was produced by a simulation.

-R

RobertoOrtiz · 2004-07-31 08:28:26 UTC

Two weeks to go until the end of the challenge!

and here are the entries that we have so far in Alpha order.
If I am missing one, please reply to this thread.

BloodRabbit · 2004-07-31 11:05:47 UTC

If it doesnt bother you too much I would like to be on the list aswell

westiemad · 2004-07-31 12:14:21 UTC

awesome I shall bake them out, then I can use the choice node to determine if its what I want in the final shot.

Synthesizer · 2004-08-01 10:48:07 UTC

Hi,

I would like to join this as well. I have already made a trebuchet with dynamics which can be seen at www.flyingcolours.ca/ssw It is a Flash movie. The only thing that I couldn’t figure out is the sling. If anybody knows how to do that or where I could find a tutorial, that would help. On that website that I mentioned above I also explained the diference between a catapult and a trebuchet. Just so people don’t get confused, I say that all torsion powered throwers should be called an “onager” or “mangonelle” if that is how they are spelt. A catapult(onager) is torsion powered while a trebuchet is gravity powered. Hope this helps.

Vormav1 · 2004-08-01 14:45:20 UTC

Just two weeks, huh… Heh, well I’ll try to come up with something.

alx · 2004-08-01 17:38:03 UTC

heyya… i am allready doing my Research to do the trebuchet, i also had the same question… but here is a whole paper on trebuchets

this link provies other links on the topic

http://science.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=question127.htm&url=http://trebuchet.com/plans.html

and this one is the one that explains the sling
http://www.ripcord.ws/howslingswork.html

batavia · 2004-08-01 20:57:02 UTC

On that website that I mentioned above I also explained the diference between a catapult and a trebuchet. Just so people don’t get confused, I say that all torsion powered throwers should be called an “onager” or “mangonelle” if that is how they are spelt. A catapult(onager) is torsion powered while a trebuchet is gravity

Ahh, Age of Empires

westiemad · 2004-08-05 07:47:05 UTC

if i am unable to get my video in quicktime format, will it be accepted in avi? Not sure how to get all my stills into a quicktime mov file.

Synthesizer · 2004-08-05 16:56:25 UTC

Yes! That is also what they were called in the past.

westiemad · 2004-08-06 16:20:14 UTC

This post is the same in my WIP thread as it is in the entry thread.

WESTIEMAD’S ENTRY
Well I’m done, I won’t have any more time to do anything on it, there are 3 files avaliable, a crappy encoded one that is about 12.51mb, and a nice shiney one (thats the one you should get) thats about 46.23mb. There is also the required simple side view with all the bells and whistles turned off (6.5mb).

About the entry.
There are no keyframes on any of the objects, except a camera which are stepped keyframes.
There are a few expressions to drive the birds, the arm of the catapult (to ensure it evaluates corretly, which is more of a debugging command), one on the walls of the castle to get them to react to gravity.
Particles are cloud type, software rendered, 2 particle emitters, shaded using particle cloud, with ramp opactiyPP and radiusPP.
900 frames long.
Envsky for the sky texture.
Pin and hinge constraints used only.

I have learnt a fair amount in this little project, I’ve started to flex the dependancy graph in maya in a way that it shouldn’t be used, and have got a couple of new tricks up my sleeve, as well as a new found confidence in trying out new stuff. I’m not a texture artist or a lighter but dynamically its pretty sound. Hope you like it as much as I enjoyed making it.

If anyone could help me host them I would be very very appricative.

www.members.lycos.co.uk/westiemad/westiemad-fullLOW.mov

http://www.members.lycos.co.uk/westiemad2/westiemad-fullHIGH.mov (NOW UP!!)

www.members.lycos.co.uk/westiemad/westiemad-side.mov

NEW MIRROR

http://www.3dcg.co.uk/westie/westiemad-fullHIGH.mov

http://www.3dcg.co.uk/westie/westiemad-fullLOW.mov

http://www.3dcg.co.uk/westie/westiemad-side.mov

LINK TO WIP: http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=155367

AnDy

alx · 2004-08-08 21:09:18 UTC

NEW RULE: WIP thread should be posted on the Compositing & Visual Effects forum and should follow the name convention:

FXWars! Catapult! (Trebuchet) : MY NAME

and post a link to it on this thread

-R

OOPS I THINK I FORGOT TO LINK MY ENTRY TO THIS THREAD…

HERE IT IS
THIS IS ALX ENTRY WIP AND EVENTUALY FINAL

—EDIT–
WELL I REALLY ENJOYED THIS CHALLENGE… its kinda like the old day challenges… no prizes nothing special… just do it for fun… and i seem to find it more rewarding that way.

anyways… i am not sure if i can have this rendered in time. so ill just post an animatic with sound and cammera cutting. i kinda like it personally, but anwyays…
here it is.

TREBUCHET VIDEO 640 *480 QUICKTIME SORENSON 3 " 22mg"
ALX TREBUCHET VIDEO “RIGHT CLICK SAVE TARGET AS”

this is the same vid in DIVX
TREBUCHET VIDEO 640*480 DIVX 5.03
ALX TREBUCHET VIDEO “RIGHT CLICK SAVE TARGET AS”

SIDE VIEW VIDEO 640 * 480 QUICKTIME SORENSON 3
ALX TREBUCHET VIDEO “RIGHT CLICK SAVE TARGET AS”

im gonna render it anyways… but ill post it once it’s done.

all the best
alx
:wavey:
still working on it…
coments are welcome

animalunae · 2004-08-09 01:35:01 UTC

Here’s my thread:

Software Used: Maya

 [http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=155384&page=1&pp=15](http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=155384&page=1&pp=15)
 
 [[img]http://www.ronin3d.net/CGI_Files/Trebuchet/Treb_M.jpg[/img]](http://www.ronin3d.net/images/movies/Trebuchet.mov)

[[img]http://www.ronin3d.net/CGI_Files/Trebuchet/Side_Thumb.jpg[/img]](http://www.ronin3d.net/images/movies/Trebuchet_Side.mov)

grau · 2004-08-10 10:56:55 UTC

I don’t have more time to work on this so this will be the final animation.

     10.3mb - 320x240 - Sorensen3
     [http://www.angelfire.com/droid/grau/trebuchet_anim.htm](http://www.angelfire.com/droid/grau/trebuchet_anim.htm)
new mirrror:
[http://home.arcor.de/ar0400957178/trebuchet_anim.htm](http://home.arcor.de/ar0400957178/trebuchet_anim.htm)
    
    -keys were only used for the switch and the camera
     -simulated with reactor2
     -rendered with vray (34h for 473 frames at 640x480)
     -the whole project took me about 2 weeks

my thread

     some preview shots
     [img]http://ccc.1asphost.com/grau/trebuchet14.jpg[/img]
     
     [img]http://ccc.1asphost.com/grau/trebuchet15.jpg[/img]
     
     [img]http://ccc.1asphost.com/grau/trebuchet16.jpg[/img]
     
     [img]http://ccc.1asphost.com/grau/trebuchet17.jpg[/img]

Holycow · 2004-08-10 13:31:31 UTC

Funny Artifact.

There is a piece on your trebuchet (not sure what it is called) that on one frame turns upide down, then about every third or fourth frame, sorta dissappears or turns super fuzy

westiemad · 2004-08-13 14:15:12 UTC

thats to do with motion blur, if u do certain things in maya u upset the way it renders motion blur, as it sifts through the dependancy graph in an order, i had the same problem in mine with the particles cause I’d used a few commands to get the data to flow the way i wanted, not the way maya thought it wanted to, you can write a pre render script so it evaluates every frame, but I ran out of time.

coryc · 2004-08-14 09:17:57 UTC

What time zone are we using?

coryc · 2004-08-14 23:01:22 UTC

OK, Here is my final entry.

http://beta.usavgroup.com/cgtalk/cgtalktrebfinal.mov u[/u]

http://beta.usavgroup.com/cgtalk/sideview.mov (470KB)

http://beta.usavgroup.com/cgtalk/final01.mov (1.4Mb)

http://beta.usavgroup.com/cgtalk/trebsideview.mov (900k)

[left]Here are the details:[/left]
[ul]
[li][left]Keys - a Keyed event fires the arm. The rope wind-up handes are key driven for decoration only. The rest is dynamics, emitters, and makepath nulls[/li][/left]
[li][left]Software - Lightwave 8. Comped in After Effects[/li][/left]
[li][left]Render Time - The final is comped and took a day and a half of different renders and editing. The flying one took about 4 hours and was done in 2 sections - The trebuchet and the tower and comped together. [/li][/left]
[li][left]Project Time - Whenever possible for 4 weeks. The first week was spent figuring out if LW’s dynamics were up to the task.[/li][/left]
[li][left]Swear words involved - 13,551[/left][/li][/ul]

I think that just about covers it!

Projectkmo · 2004-08-15 10:03:23 UTC

Well, thanks to Charley I didnt get to finish up my last 2 renders…or peice them all together.

I’ll submit these two simply for people to see…not as a final entry since again, its not gonna be done by noon (just got power back 20 mins ago)

This was going to be an opening shot ofthe Castle from which the Treb would fire from at the Seige towers/advancing armies http://www.alxstudios.com/personal/treb/KMO/Cam_6_Castle_Pan.mov

and this was an ok test of the Seige Tower getting hit
http://www.alxstudios.com/personal/treb/KMO/Front_SeigeTower_Smash_01.mov

I have a clean side movie of the Treb launching but It wont be uploaded in time to post here…Alx was nice enough to host the images and movies for me so Huge THanks to him for that!

It was a fun Challange, I look forward to the next and I do, plan on finishing up this on my own time and will post it later in the week I hope.

Grats to all who participated and to all those who helped anwser all our questions along the way.

John

RobertoOrtiz · 2004-08-15 22:35:43 UTC

Ok guys,for those who have not done so, time to post your final entries

-R.