FLocking

#1

:wip: hello agian. IS there any one out there that can exlpain in plain English How to get “flocking” to work in AM. The instrutions in the AM turoial book talk geek jargon. I suspect the flocking in AM dont real work and there is some kind of plugging out there that costs ten times as much as AM for the job.

Well I must admite v10n is the most stable for making paths. I cant understand why Hash has an FTP site with a Motion Catputer folder that has Actions. But nobody has gone to the bother of labling what character there meant to work on. Every one of the actions I tried Mashed my modles into unimaginable shapes. What a waste of web space and peoples time. huff!! pufff. hissssss -:slight_smile:

#2

Originally posted by Yardie
:wip: hello agian. IS there any one out there that can exlpain in plain English How to get “flocking” to work in AM. The instrutions in the AM turoial book talk geek jargon. I suspect the flocking in AM dont real work and there is some kind of plugging out there that costs ten times as much as AM for the job.

Well it works as far as it was designed too, but depending on your needs that may or may not be good enough for you. As much as has been improved in other aspects of A:M flocks are pretty much the same since v8.x

To get a basic flock set-up simply right click on the chor and choose the type of flock that you want. Then drag and drop a model onto the flock. that’s really all there is to the basics of it. you can then drop an action onto the model in the flock to animate the members. The varrious settings on the flock properties control the members of the flock in number, behavior and size/shape (to a certain extent)

Once set-up the only thing you must know is that you have to have show particles on in the Options panel to get the flock to draw the members.

Typically i use flocks for static groups, it works great for grass, and leaves etc.

Well I must admite v10n is the most stable for making paths. I cant understand why Hash has an FTP site with a Motion Catputer folder that has Actions. But nobody has gone to the bother of labling what character there meant to work on. Every one of the actions I tried Mashed my modles into unimaginable shapes. What a waste of web space and peoples time. huff!! pufff. hissssss -:slight_smile:

There are still days I miss 7.1, but 10.0 is very good and 10.5 is even better. the Mocap folder holds mocap data that has been put onto one of the numerous hash skeletons. since they are under the 2001 folder you can probably presume that any model with the 2001 rig in it will work. that being said…

the less said about mocap the better :rolleyes:

-David Rogers

#3

What is the point of flocking a blade of grass when there easier ways of cloning still objects. As I said before I have tried the example from the AM Book and the Flock influance region has no effect what so ever on any model or object I put in it vasinity. Theres got to be some time you are missing out to. Like I have tried constraining the goose to the flock region but that dont work and it dont make sense to do. Is this another bug everyone is to afraid to point out

#4

I sticking with 10n untill I get flocking sussed. Not one skeleton works with the ftp actions. None of the skeletons have any kind of labling to help match actions.

#5

Originally posted by Yardie
What is the point of flocking a blade of grass when there easier ways of cloning still objects. As I said before I have tried the example from the AM Book and the Flock influance region has no effect what so ever on any model or object I put in it vasinity. Theres got to be some time you are missing out to. Like I have tried constraining the goose to the flock region but that dont work and it dont make sense to do. Is this another bug everyone is to afraid to point out

Nope works here. I’m pretty sure you are just missing something somewhere… there is no constraint to an object involved. primarily you seem to be under the impression that simply placing a model near the flock object will make it part of a flock this is not the case and never has been.

In the PWS click and drag the model object (not a shortcut) from the Objects folder and drop it onto the Shortcut to the flock object in the choreography. then to add an action drag and drop the action from the action folder onto the model’s shoutcut which is under the flock object.

there might be easier ways of ‘cloning’ still objects but none of them can be so easily set-up, adjusted, changed, tweaked and more importantly shut off so that it doesn’t impact the drawing times in the interface. Flocking is very useful for all kinds of things that don’t involve birds or crowds or swarms of anything.

Beyond this just make sure that you have particles and fur drawing in the interface (shift+8 toggles this)

-David Rogers

#6

Originally posted by Yardie
Not one skeleton works with the ftp actions. None of the skeletons have any kind of labling to help match actions.

:shrug:

What i normally say in these situations is: animating it by hand will take less time than figuring out how to make the mocap work at all, and will 99.87% of the time look better as well.

-David

#7

Originally posted by Obnomauk
[B]Nope works here. I’m pretty sure you are just missing something somewhere… there is no constraint to an object involved. primarily you seem to be under the impression that simply placing a model near the flock object will make it part of a flock this is not the case and never has been.

In the PWS click and drag the model object (not a shortcut) from the Objects folder and drop it onto the Shortcut to the flock object in the choreography. then to add an action drag and drop the action from the action folder onto the model’s shoutcut which is under the flock object.

-David Rogers [/B]

Thanks David Rogers your expanition works. The origional instruction was to drag and drop the model object into the Choreography window into the flock object. I never thought to do it your way cause nobody else has as I imagine they give up after trying it the AM way.
I wanna say thanks to all the peolple that have helpped me out so far.

#8

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