#Bones Pro revelation…
11 messages in this thread
Alan, went back and reviewed Bones Pro docs and discovered the following tidbit
that I had completely forgotten: "Do not change frame 0; start all animation on
frame 1 or later. This is very important. If you change frame 0, Bones Pro
will behave unpredictably." No kidding!!! I guess my twisted animation was a
result of starting it at frame 0, as well as, ignoring vertex influence as you
suggested. Thanks again for the heads-up. I think I can take it from here.:)
Man, I LOVE this place! (I know, get a life…!<gg>).
Regards, Connie
Hey, Connie, that's great to hear! Yup, the ole' frame 0 nasty can bite pretty
hard in Bones Pro.
Re the bone size: I'm fairly sure the size of the bone (when applied to the
mesh) has a bearing on the influence right from the start — the bigger the
bone the more influence it has. DavidA could correct me on this if I am wrong.
If you scale the bone in the Keyframer, you'll get deformation that is very
useful for muscular motion.
I love this place too, Connie.
-Alan
Thanks for the encouragement, Alan. I did some more experimenting and it would
seem that varying the size (and shape) of a bone appropriately will help.
David M. suggested using Object/Attach instead of Boolean-Union. This has
worked well for him and does seem more logical — even though you are still
dealing with 1 object, the location of the vertices using the former method
would be PHYSICALLY as if there were still separate objects, and so the
resulting influence of the vertices would be more localized…interesting. As
for muscle contractions, I have done some experimenting with scaling bones and
downloaded the bicep .fli that illustrates this very effectively. I did a
small animation 2 years ago of a stick-like character doing curls, and morphed
the muscles. I must say that Bones Pro makes this kind of animation much
easier and more realistic.
Regards, Connie
Like I mentioned to DavidM, Connie, Object/Attach works fine except for the
possibility of polygonal seams between non-booleaned entities. So it just
depends on how "skin-like" you need parts of your character to be.
-Alan
Thanks once again, Alan. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me…it's
nice to have some structure…:)
Connie
Connie, Just wanted to jump in and say that using the object/attach method
won't work for everything. AlanI pointed out that you will still need to use
booleans if you need seamless intersections. As always in 3DS – lots of
options.
DM
Thanks, David. I did see Alan's message to you re: the limitations of
Object/Attach…it's on my list of things to try. Incidently, noticed your
winning Bedroom amid Michele's article in Planet Studio — good work!:)
Regards, Connie
Thanks Connie, glad you liked the image. Hopefully the animation of that same
room will make this years Siggraph tape. (fingers crossed)
DM
Hi, David. I'm assuming that the animation you are doing is a
walk-thru…right? If not, I would be curious!:) I'm hoping to make the reel
deadline, too…well, back to work (not the whip!) <g>
Connie
Hi, I'm thinking about buying Bones Pro. Do you know where I could buy this
(lowest price is my concern: tight budget) What do you think about this piece
of software? THANKS in advance
Philippe, There are probably better people to ask about BP, but I'll tell you
what I know. As far as price is concerned I believe it's about $500. I don't
know specifically of any place you'd be able to buy it for less, but there are
a number of dealers who frequent the forum and they may be able to give you a
deal. IMHO, this piece of software is a must have. You can do things with it
that would have been either impossible or a complete nightmare of morph targets
before. It's definately one of the best IPAS buys around. Although, I can't
wait for Metareyes 2.0 based on the images I've seen. Well, I hope you can
afford to buy it because when you do you'll love it.
DM