#Boning Imposibility?
10 messages in this thread
Hello, I have wanted to pickup bones for awilehile now, but now I may need it!!
I may be doing an animation of a rather wild looking mythical bird. The bird
is going to be sculpted in clay and then 3D digitized. Once the file is in my
hands, I am thinking that bones will let me animate its wings and other
movements. Am I correct in thinking this??? If you think that bones can do
the job, what do you think would be important to take into consideration when
sculpting this beastie? Would it be benfical to have the wings extended?
etc….etc…..
Any thoughts you may have would be extremely helpfull. Thanks.
Neil LGI
Neil
I thru together a fairly convincing set of wings in about one hour using SKIN.
I modeled both wings as one piece in Deform Fit, then used slice and set up
the IK so that the tips of the wings had more movement than the root (at the
birds body). Most birds have some wing rotation as they pull themselves thru
the air, too.
I haven't used Bones yet, but am sure the extra flexability would make the job
that much easier.
Have Fun
TedB
!^NavFont01F0007MGHHH62EBB0
Thanks for the response. It should prove to be a challange!
Hi Neil,
Bones Pro would be the perfect choice for your animation. It would be
beneficial to model the bird with
wings extended. It's eaiser to assign specific vertices to each 'bone' that
way. There is a working demo
posted here on the forum under IPAS that will helpp you get the idea of the
program.
David – Digimation.
P.S. Of course, more faces and vertices will yield better bends.
Thanks. I will download the working demo. If the bird is created with its
wings extended though…do you think I will be able to fold them up at its
side. (Assuming there are enough vertices!) I am just trying to see if this
whole project sounds fesible before I commit. Thanks again for your help.
Hi Neil,
You should be able to fold the wings up OK but I've never done one like that
yet. I can honestly
say however that Bones Pro makes a huge amount of character animation easy that
would otherwise
be impossible. (By impossible, I mean way too much time spent moving faces and
vertices – taking
the patience of a Saint)
David – Digimation
Well, If this project goes I will certainly be happy to let you know how it
works for me. (I certainly don't have the patience of a Saint! <G>) Also, you
said there was a working demo???? Is it called bones or bones pro…What are
the differences?….really though, if I am being a pain just slap me!
Thanks again for your time.
Neil LGI
>>modeling for bones…
PMJI – I just got the Bones(Pro) and played with it for a few hours last night.
My unbiased opinion is that it will definately do what you need. You can
easily make selected portions of hard meshes bend, fold, twist, slither, flex,
breathe, stretch, squish, bloat, elongate, inflate, distort, writhe, contort,
…<gasp>… I don't know about wrinkle, but maybe. <g>
(BTW, Digimation told me they simply changed the original name "Bones" to
"Bones Pro" to minimize confusion with the free Bones that is available in the
libraries here.)
Adding slightly to what David mentioned about "more faces and vertices", you
should probably analyze where the structure needs to bend and add extra
vertices in those specific areas. For example, in sharply bending an elbow,
you would want a dense mesh right around the joint and especially on the
outside of the elbow. You should especially avoid long, narrow faces in the
areas of flexing, since Bones cannot bend a face. Don't worry too much about
the digitizing, since you can always fix joint areas manually with Edge/Divide,
etc. When you get to that, just ask if you need some pointers.
I think that Bones is going to open up a new market for Bones-ready digitized
meshes, exactly as you are doing. Goodby to stiff necks and sore joints!
JKJ
Wow! Thanks for all the info! I feel alot more confident about this project
now. I am sure that the digitized model will be detailed enough to allow for
proper bending. Again, thanks alot…if this project happens I may be emailing
you.
Neil LGI
JKJ,
Viewpoint sells some meshes now which are kinemation-ready. They are meant for
Wavefront's kinemation but would be perfect for BonesPro too, since they have
extra dense mesh at the joints.