#IK Problems
21 messages in this thread
I'm having a devil of a time with a walking skeleton. Using paths for the
footsteps, I don't seem to have enough flexibility to have this thing take a
couple dozen steps and get into a car. So I'm using the follow object process
having the feet follow dummy boxes, and the base object, the pelvis, a third
dummy box. I've got all the keys for the footsteps totally down. If not for
the rest of the skeleton, the legs would look excellent. But I have to bring
the rest of it along, thus the third dummy box. When I cranked the position
tolerance high enough so that the pelvis dummy doesn't cancel out my footsteps,
the knee joint via the femur goes wacky and either it gets knock-kneed or
bowlegged, regardless of how I have the joint parameters set. Is there any way
to solve any of this? The relative motion variable seems to affect most
everything. There seem to be a lot of things working for and against each
other here.
Is it my system, or does the fast preview not really live up to its name? As it
is, I can't seem to get more than 3 or 4 frames per second. I would think that
it would have to do something like at least 15 to be able to qualify to be
called fast. As is, there's no advantage over regular preview. I can get very
reliable 15 frames per second and sometimes 30 frames per second with regular
preview make. What's up?
Roger D.
Hi Roger,
<< Is there any way to solve any of this? >>
This is similar to the climbing ladder example. I would first make the person
glide over the ground at the rate you'd like tha walk. Tempo is a good tool for
this. The feet should be lower than the ground. Now you can have your two feet
dummies making your step. If these dummies are linked to the pelvis, they'll
move relative to the human mesh.
<< bowlegged.. >>
This was true in the flip.zip project file too. Note the joint parameters in
the upper leg in flatflip.prj. Have you had a chance to check it out? Change
yours accordingly. When using IK, changing precedence, ranges and the locking
and unlocking of rotational limits based on the movement desired, seems to be
the mode of operation.
You sound close..
jonas[adesk]
I'll go back and work on my knock-kneed man in my spare time, whatever
that is. But I've come across something else when I tried the
stairclimbing block guy. When set up to follow, the hands and feet
only followed the dummy boxes after he turned the corner. Is there
something deeper there I should be looking for?
Were you following relatively or absolutely – big difference <g>.
– Phil
>> Is it my system, or does the fast preview not really live up to its name?
As it is, I can't seem to get more than 3 or 4 frames per second. <<
That's about the rate I'm getting on a lot of my meshes with a P60. It's
nice to get the phong shading with motion, but I guess I was hoping for more
speed as well… I agree, preview at 15fps, (even 10fps) is useful more often
for my work.
Paul D.Sanford [LEVEL 5]
P.S. Are you a Packers fan? I'm watching the Vikes kick butt right now.
Close game last week, eh?
I noticed there was no real official response to the question about
preview speed. It would seem that our observations aren't too off
base. So I guess it falls in the same category as the browser.
Likely candidates if your hard disk is getting full. <g>
Yeah, Minnesota has been playing pretty good. I'd trade Brett Favre
just to get even Majowski back from the Colts. Even with 2 IPASs to
be named later. Although he has been running for more yardage
tonight in Chicago than our offense has all year.
<< I noticed there was no real official response to the question about
preview speed. It would seem that our observations aren't too off
base. So I guess it falls in the same category as the browser.
Likely candidates if your hard disk is getting full. <g> >>
I totaly disagree with you Roger. I find the realtime preview ipas
very useful, I have used it many times since I recieved r4.
Mark, I have to agree with RogerD on this one. On anything but the
simplest scenes the thing chokes terribly. I'm glad you are getting
good use out of it though. I myself find the IK system fantastic,
that for me, with the scripting, was the only reason to upgrade.
David,
<< On anything but the simplest scenes the thing chokes terribly. >>
Yea I suppose but I am still very happy with it and within the next two months
when I get a lot better computer I will be even happier. And don't forget that
it does create decent color preview animations at any res. you want.
Mark
Hey Mark, yeah, I know, if I had a faster computer I would probably be happier
with the fast preview but for now it's just there… I'm planning on buying a
P90 in the spring, and I'm sure that'll make a marked difference. As far as
making fast color previews, I do use it for that, but it really doesn't seem
faster than regular preview. It is color though…
Dave Mennenoh
From what I have seen a P90 is not going to help. I thought Autodesk was
getting this
coad from a company from London. I have been told that this previewer was very
fast and
thats what I expected.
-Brandon
David,
<< As far as making fast color previews, I do use it for that, but it really
doesn't seem faster than regular preview. It is color though… >>
I decided to see if the standard Keyframer PREVIEW\MAKE command or the new
Keyframer Fast Preview MAKE FL? is faster and this is what I got:
I previewed everything on the same small animation I had, in the same
resoulution, and single sided. The times are in minutes and seconds.
The old preview command with faces only 1:23
Keyframe Fast Preview – wire 0:32
flat 1:12
gouraud 1:40
phong 2:02
I think the quality of the old preview command would be closest to the flat
Fast Preview but the Fast Preview is color.
I did not do this just to prove the Fast Preview is faster I also wanted to
know which was faster.
Mark
I'm glad it's working out for you, but I am curious how it can be of
much good if you can't get some reasonable idea of motion and how it
relates to final output speed.
Roger,
<< I am curious how it can be of much good if you can't get some reasonable
idea of motion and how it relates to final output speed. >>
I think the real time playback is just good for quick object placement
tests but the make fl? feature is a lot better than the standard
PREVIEW\MAKE command for motion tests and the final output speed at
any res. you want providing you have the right equipment to play it
back at the right speed.
I disagree about the output that the Fast Preview comes up with when
you make a flc. It's very grainy, with totally screwed up palettes.
With the plain old preview make, on any old generic run-of-the-mill
video card, you can make a preview using every other frame, and play
it back at 15 frames, which equals 30 per second, and have real
output. Is this thing supposed to obsolete the entire installed base
of 486 machines? Because I'd wager a guess that that's the majority
of where 3DS resides. Again, I'm happy if it works for you. It just
doesn't consist of much more than hard disk fill for
honest-to-goodness preview.
>>It just doesn't consist of much more than hard disk fill for
>>honest-to-goodness preview.
<BG>
Dave Mennenoh
Roger, PMJI, but yeah I can only get about 4 fps in the fast preview
also. I'm pretty sure playing it regular from the keyframer is
faster. Some "Fast" renderer huh? It seems to me we payed $300 for
just another IPAS disk set, #8 I guess. Oh well, that's Adesk for ya.
At least the IK made it worth the money. I for one am sure glad that
Yost Group is handling R5 and not Autodesk again. And, I don't think
I've seen so many mistakes in a manual in all of my life. What a
piece of crap…
This is to everyone following this thread –
Have any of you tried the 3DS.SET paramter:
FPREVIEW-PLAY-MODE = SKIP ?
When this is set to "SKIP", Fpreview will drop frames as necessary to
deliver the FPS in the slider. VERY useful and possibly
enlightening.! True, it will drop a fair number of frames, but you
get a good feel for the _real_ speed of your animation.
Phil, Yes I've tried the SKIP option and while you are right in that
it does give a good idea of the "real Speed" I don't really find it
useable. It's like I said before it still chokes on large models. On
anything of "normal" scene size, it drops way too many frames to
really see what's happening. I do respect Autodesk in their attempts
and maybe if I had a Pentium 100 things would be different. But, for
now, about the only things I like about R4/Disk 8 are the IK and
Scripting functions, which to me justify the cost of the upgrade. I
really do wish they would have done the manual better though. There's
just a ton of typos, etc. in there and it maddens me when things like
that happen. It's like no one went through the tutorials in there.
Oh well, I'll stop bitching now. I can figure everything out
anyway…
Dave Mennenoh
***I don't think I've seen so many mistakes in a manual in all of my
life. What a piece of crap…***
No kidding!
>>Is it my system, or does the fast preview not really live up to its
name? As it is, I can't seem to get more than 3 or 4 frames per
second. I would think that it would have to do something like at
least 15 to be able to qualify to be called fast. As is, there's no
advantage over regular preview. I can get very reliable 15 frames
per second and sometimes 30 frames per second with regular preview
make. What's up? Roger D.
<<
Fastpreview and preview/render are meant for two different working
style. Preview render is a batch process that takes time to render
and the results are crude at best. Speed, however, is close to
reality and once rendered is not dependant on the complexity of the
model. FP is an immediate/interactive process that trades off speed
for quality. Unlike a preview flic, speed does depend on model
complexity. Simple models will appoach 15fps (though there is
probably no point on such simple models). It would be nice to have
the hardware to see large models animated in realtime(sigh). Still
,FP is fast compared to rendering to flic or to tape. FP can also be
used to generate a preview flic that will playback the same speed as
a normal preview but is _much_ better quality.
It all comes down to a trade off.
maximum quality = full render
maximum speed = preview flic
good quality and reasonable speed = FP