#Lightwave Bones Survey
15 messages in this thread
To All,
Hi. I'm doing an independent article about Lightwave and it's bones feature. I
would like to hear from anyone who has used the bones feature. What I would
like to know is this: In your opinion, what are the 3 best features of bones?
In your opinion, what 3 things would you like to see added to bones?
Please feel free to add other comments about the bones feature. Good, bad or
indifferent. Thanks.
David Avgikos
I've used the bones to animate a 'cartoonish' remote control for about 50
seconds of finished animation for a major client.
Bones are cool tools, but limited by one problem: The range of each bone
is far too great, relative to the other bones.
In my case, the figure had to be able to articulate his fingers, walk, and
push buttons on his chest. Unfortunately, it was impossible to get him to
do all those things using one basic skeleton. As the hands would reach in
to touch the chest, they would be forced back by the bones in the torso of
the object – making it look like they were putty being pushed back in a
strong wind.
I was finally able to resolve my problems by building seperate skeletons
for the torso, left & right legs, and arms. By breaking up the body into
subgroups, I was able to limit the range of effect between the adjacent
body parts. To keep them all in relative sync, I created duplicate bone
hierarchies for each subgroup, leaving the torso bones inactive for the
extremities. By aligning the 'shoulder' & 'hip' joints for each subgroup,
the various body parts stayed in sync, regardless of which way he bent.
3 best features of bones: 1. They exist. (conceptually, they are very
cool) 2. Motion paths are easy to use/edit. 3. Ummm, more later.
3 Worst features: 1. No Inverse Kinematics!!! 2. Axis locking due to
parent rotation & lack of 'joint types' for standard rotational
constraint. 3. 'Magnetic fields' of bone area effect need to constrained
to specific surfaces/subgroups.
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Have you tried Imagines Bones Yet Erik? Could always use it to set yer
Objects and then use Morph's between these objects in LW
I've _really_ been meaning to dig into Imagine 3.0! I just haven't had a
chance yet. (Thanks for the continued prodding! I promise I'll dig into it
one of these days! :^)
Thanks,
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Prod Prod…..
Ouch! <g>
BTW, got the AG tape awhile back. I liked 'the adventures of Joe Pumpt..',
but where was the audio? :^)
More Later,
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
I sent Jerry my piece on SVHS "To retain Quality" so I didn't Dub in any
audio. Silly me, My Color Bars were So far off that the footage looks
washed out so going another generation wouldn't have mattered much
methinks
Alas, the soundtrack would have added immeasurably. (I'm beginning to
realize how important sound really is to a production. Now that I've got
the PAR, I need to sit down and find some decent audio sequencing
software, so I can cue soundfx to go with my demo reel.)
Keep on Imagining!
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
If you have a MIDI interface ESPESCIALLY the the Phantom you should look
into using Dr.T's Hitman for adding sound F/X and Music to your video's
Peter:
First, let me apologize, I just got your message. I had to go out of town
to a funeral.
Anyway, what's this 'Phantom' MIDI thing you're referring to? (The extent
of the audio equipment on the Amiga currently consists of a Perfect Sound
3.0 digitizer-I've got a nice CD quality sampler/MIDI board on my
girlfriend's PC though….)
Thanks!
Erik Flom – ELF Works 3D Construction Co.
Phantom from Dr. T's is a MIDI interface and SMPTE to MIDI Time Code
module. It is made for Scoring Video/Film along with the previously
mentioned DR. T's Hitman software
I suggest you cross-post this request in the Newtek section of the
AMIGAVENDOR forum, which sees ALOT of LightWave message traffic.
PMFJI, perhaps you'd like to add in your Article that at least IMO Bones
in LW are a bit of a pain in the nether realm. The Bones for Imagine are
Alot easier to use due to it's way of setting up Sphere of Influence.
You tell imagine What FACES to effect instead of a percentage
David,
I'll give you some input on what I'd like to see changed about bones: I
agree with what I think Erik Flom has said that the characteristic of
bones which causes their axes to lock to the axes of their parent object
could use some revision. It makes it very difficult to work with them in
the XY, XZ, and YZ views when you have rotated the parent so that the
parent's axes do not coincide with the axes of the view you're in. You are
then constrained to move the bone along only the one common axis.
David, I know what you're up to…….THANKS!
Mitch Gates (FX Illusions)