LW char animation demo thread

#41

This is some scenes (please right click and download ) from " Bugvaders " - i made all characters set - up, bike set - up, all animation’s, all lighting and environment set up as well as some model tweeking ( Kyle bike jacket was remodeled by me , Kyle arms and bike in some areas )…
… and grass :slight_smile: - made by me with Susquatch . All other models and texturing made by peoples of Adventure - Publishing ( i joined to project on pretty early stages :frowning: )

#42

How is KeyTrak.
What do you like about so much, Mike!

#43

Its a timeline dope sheet that allows keying and manipulation of whole character poses (nulls and bones). 'nuff said

#44

the ability to save an entire POSE is just great. Hands and bodies!
I love it. Where did it go?

#45

??? here as always: http://www.spatial-design.com

Mike

#46

Whywould you need an expression to keep feet from sliding?Ive never had to do that. Also using expressions to keep feet from moving thru the ground is a bit limiting when its easy to select the y values for the feet in the graph editor and set their values to ground level. This is much more flexible. Im finding more and more the use of expressions in character setups to be limiting and time consuming except in certain circumstances.
As I also mentioned, Lscript commander is great for creating buttons to swap Hi and Lo poly standins , change their visibility and turn all deformations on and off.

#47

Its never an always situation.
But its nice to have it.

#48

Mike,

Can people post their favorite LW scripts that aid in rigging and animation in this thread

#49

Of course. I don’t use any for rigging.

#50

I agree with Mike, I dont really either except that Im starting to use lscript commander to sort of create checklist buttons.
For example, When I load in a character I usually do the following:

  1. Convert skelegons into bones
  2. Set bone falloff to ^128
  3. Set Subpatch order to last
  4. Set subpatch level
    These steps can be turned into a button with Lscript commander so that all you have to do is load a character in and hit a button to have it ready to test.
#51

A little facial animation and lip synch…

Nearly Headless Nick’s party invite

This was done with LW 6 and messiah. I use LW 7.5 now and am looking forward to messiah studio as I prefer their implementation of expressions, though I can get by with LW’s own system as well.

The setup is a combination of morphs and muscle bones.

#52

I am setting the feet using Simple Constraints plugin and Simple Orientation to attach feet to the IK Null. It stops the feet from going under 0,0.

Just an idea.

#53

Julez…excellent work!

#54

Being I cant afford Larry’s courses could anyone point me towards some good books on character rigging? I know there is lots of info on the net but I like to have a hardbound book to look at while I am chilling in my recliner. OOOOOOoooooooooo :slight_smile:

#55

Hey Julez,
Cool character, Whats it for?

Msf,
How do you know if you cant afford them?
Also, Resurrection is one S and two Rs. :slight_smile:

#56

Why my tagline of course…

Just a proof of concept, really and something i want to prove that i can do (5 minute short) in my freetime before i hit 30.

I get to play around and see what works (maya messiah or lw) for cloth deformation and i am exploring all options. Nothing a hundred proff. I want fast, reliable and easy secondary motions. I heard 3dsmax has a too for that thing for 3 years but i can’t go that direction.

#57

I havent been impressed too much so far with a lot of examples of cloth dynamics or even muscle/skin deformation in a many movies that tout it. Shrek looks like they used something like bone driven morphs to get cloth to wrinkle in various postions. I didnt really see what looked like muscle or skin animation either or in final fantasy. The only movies that really impressed me in that regard was Dinosaur and Reign of Fire…both of which used the same technology. Walking with dinosaurs had good 2ndary skin movement but seemed to have been done with weight maps and bones…something Ive been able to do in Lightwave. When Ive used Motion Designer its been mainly to do those parts of the cloth that arent directly attached to the character. I dont bother for tighter clothing.

#58

Are they not the same ones that are 300 a month as listed on FXacademy? Or can you get just the DVDs and work at your own pace? Dont mean to turn this into a thread about the course but I am confused. :slight_smile:

#59

Its the same course yes. The course already is set up to work at your own pace. The course comes with 3 months of support so you can ask questions as you go and have your work critiqued as you go. All Im saying is that not everyone can afford to pay it all up front or $300 a month. If thats the case email me and I can see what can be worked out. :slight_smile:

#60

While it seems nice to have feet not going below 0 in y, but what happens when you need to have your character walk down the stairs or just jump down. I would assume that would just break the floor rig.