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Autodesk Multimedia Forum · IPAS Usage

#Skin methods

12 messages in this thread

#127431From: sanford kennedyOct 6, 1994 4:55 AM

Bill, I guess I'm just spoiled. Of course I can go in and move vertices around over time, but gosh, the time goes by. The magnetism I mentioned is present as a command in many programs, notable Prisms on SGI. It is very useful, and can be used with objects of attraction to get some very nice soft deformations over time. Good for muscles and "flow" effects like making a drip run. I appreciate your insight into 3DS. I intend to animate a flock (covey, herd, whatever) of bats descending on some cows and I am still trying to plan my approach to skinning the thin skin web that I have stretched across the wing bones. I have a nice DXF mesh, but the various parts do not meet with smooth transitions, therefore Skin would be ideal to make it look good. I am currently creating crossections, and will try all methods. I will upload a GIF of the results. Thanks Sanford

#127441From: Joe MacRaeOct 6, 1994 8:22 AM

Sanford, Can you do me a favor ??? Can you use the REP(ly) option or command rather than the COM(pose) or Write a message option or command. Each of your messages is starting a new thread on the board and it's really creating a mix of messages in this skin discussion. By replying to the previous message you not only keep the thread going by not starting a new one, but you also get the bonus that CIS will add the recipients UID and the thread subject to the message header and saving you all that time…….<grin>.

#127537From: sanford kennedyOct 6, 1994 4:07 PM

Hello Joe, I am now using the REP command. I didn't know it worked in this forum because when you enter (?), it is not included in the list of commands in the message section. Type ? and you get SEL, DEL, REA, BRO, SCA, COM, UPL, DES, NAM, CHA, ANN, OPT, INS, HI. This list does not include REP. Strange? Obviously it works because you are getting this message. Regards, Sanford

#127471From: M. G. BATCHELOROct 6, 1994 11:15 AM

Magnetism in that context is a localized non-linear deformation. Prisms, although the least expensive feature-for-feature of the SGI applications, still costs 10 times what 3DS costs (20X considering the hardware). My only point was that if you don't have $50k+, you are not neccessarily limited by 3DS – you can get the same or similar results with more manual methods. BTW, the Stretch.pxp is a sort-of magnetism tool. Regards, BILL

#127484From: CyberdreamsOct 6, 1994 11:57 AM

Bill, some of the low end sortware has this too like Imagine and Lightwave. I think the idea here is that a bones or magnetism could be a better way of working with the models. And this could work with any polygon model.

#127515From: M. G. BATCHELOROct 6, 1994 2:56 PM

I'm aware and have used most of that software. Everything Sanford mentioned currently exists in IPAS, or will be available very soon. My point was that if you need a particular assist function in 3DS but don't have it, you're not neccessarily stuck….there are means to reach the same results. Certainly I don't have anything against power tools & functions. BILL

#127572From: john h grabauOct 6, 1994 6:54 PM

Hi Cyberdreams, Do you think (the soon to be released dos version of) Lightwave is offers duplication or complementary features to 3DS? Thanks, jhg

#128039From: John K. JordanOct 9, 1994 11:47 PM

Hello Sanford, I saw your message.. >>..intend to animate a flock of bats descending.. I saw something at Siggraph which may be worth trying for your "flock" once you get your bat modeled. I can't quite remember who did it, but one animation consisted of hundreds of walking animals (squid & octopi, I think). Rather than making hundreds of copies of the mesh to animate and render, they created a simple loopable walking animation of one such animal that consisted of just a few frames. They rendered these few frames against a black background, and applied the resulting animation on a "card", a simple flat rectangle, mapped with the equivilant of the 3DS Decal method. They duplicated this card many times and moved a whole crowd of these cards along a roadway. With a little animation playing on each card, the effect was the same as animating many copies of the actual mesh. This may be very easy to do with at least most of your bats, especially if you don't have to worry about shadows for each bat and if the bats were generally going in the same direction. (So perspective wouldn't be a problem) Perhaps some combination of a few bat 'stars' in front of a mob of card-bats would work. JKJ

#128055From: sanford kennedyOct 10, 1994 1:23 AM

Sounds like a good idea! I am building a scene now with 30 bats using instances. The trouble is that even though the mesh file only has 4600 vertices, the instances seem to take just as long to render as real mesh objects. I think your animated texture map idea is the only I can really make the cloud of bats I want. I can't do 2,000 instances! Thanks for the hint. Sanford

#128077From: John K. JordanOct 10, 1994 8:14 AM

Yep, instances don't save a cycle when it comes to render time. I believe they reduce file storage size, though. JKJ

#128102From: Yost GroupOct 10, 1994 9:54 AM

Correct, John. – G

#128184From: sanford kennedyOct 10, 1994 6:21 PM

I am going to try animated opacity maps of bat shadows against the twilight sky, and then place them on layered transparent walls. There ought to be some way to defeat the Ram Eating Beast!