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Dylly - all messages by user

2012/3/1 21:14:27
Can't wait for this! You know what this means? Eh? Eh? It means I'm going to have to do some housework...because Her Next Door will be nagging and moaning that I'm going to be glued to my computer for the rest of the year!
2012/3/1 1:18:15
Sketchup to Muvizu Gun in Hand. Going to drop this bit into this thread just to keep the place tidy and all...and all the Sketchup stuff roughly in one place.

I've managed to get the hand prop imported into Muvizu, as can be seen below, however there are one or two problems with the initial model.



Smoothing the model without creases was the first headache. The only way I've managed to do this in Sketchup is by using the 'Artisan' tool kit ($40 well spent...but still $40). There is a cheaper alternative I believe which is the earlier 'Subdivide & Smooth' plug-in by the same guy.

However Artisan still left me with unwanted creases in the surface of the model. I found a way around this problem the solution means abandoning the Sketchup principle of extruding with the push-pull tool. What you have to do is extrude out your basic rectangular shapes with the push-pull tool and once you have done this use the line tool to add geometry and then use the move tool to shift around the vertices.

Once the 'subdivide and smooth' has been applied the model is now crease free. We now have another problem.

The geometry created by moving the vertices is...weirder than Noel Fielding! This provides a major headache when it comes to positioning the fingers and thumb to hold an object, the whole point of the exercise.

Taking on board the comments from Berty, Toonarama and Ziggy, the crazy geometry means that I'm going to have to go back to the beginning and straighten out the geometry so that I can post the Sketchup file so other folks can use the model.

It would mean that anyone wanting to add a variety of different props into the hand would need to get either the Artisan Tools or the Subdivide and Smooth plug-in to smooth out the square Sketch-up model. I might find an alternative yet.

Colours and textures can be added in sketchup so the prop matches a character...but for those who don't want to mess around I can make a couple of complete props and UVW map them, so the textures can be altered in Gimp or the like.


If anyone has any more suggestions or tips let me know, I've set myself a hell of a learning curve with this malarkey...still it's fun!
2012/2/29 1:23:09
Gun_in_Hand Got distracted by an idea. Very much a work in progress but I hope you can see where I'm going with this prop. It will just be a hand an arm holding a gun...however my keeping the basic geometry of the sketchup model I should be able to adapt it to hold just about anything for a scene...although very much like a Gerry Anderson Thunderbirds shot. Let me know what you think?

2012/2/28 20:01:11
Collision Schmollision Who is this super hero, Sarge?
Nope
Rosemary the telephone operator?
Nope
Ziggy, who's just saved me hours trying to get these bloody meshes to work?
Could be!

That is superb! For some reason I cannot get the meshes as small as that! Thank you!
2012/2/28 12:45:15
British animation industry at risk The one thing that being a member of these forums has taught me is that talent and innovation is one thing that is not missing from the world of animation particularly in the vicinity of Glasgow. A children's character would be great, however it could turn out to be very 'same..y'.

I would love a 'Muvizu' character 'rig' that could be applied to character models. Import a your 3d character...apply the muvizu rig...and then animate like any other Muvizu character!
2012/2/28 12:32:37
Collision Schmollision Hi Berty,

I'm assuming the collision on the models that you are importing into Muvizu is the standard collision that Muvizu applies automatically, in other words there is no actual collision applied to the model you are importing. If this is the case the solution is relatively painless and will not in the end effect your materials on the models.

Import the .obj file into sketchup, and create your collision mesh to the proportions you require. Remember the basic rules of each plane having no more than four sides and all shapes to be convex. If you are presented with a concave shape, split it into small shapes with a gap between each shape.

Now delete the .obj file you imported into sketchup and export the collision mesh as per the tutorial and add it to the .ase file. Your materials will not be effected and the model should load with the new collision.

Alternatively

you can correct materials in sketchup by right clicking a face with a material applied to it and going to
1Texture
2Position

This will bring up four control handles which will let you rotate, re-size and re-position the texture on the face until it looks right.

Hope this helps
Tim
2012/2/27 2:47:14
Sketchup to Muvizu Here are some of the test shots in Muvizu of a 3 pin plug and socket set. Still got a lot of fiddling to do with collision mesh and smoothing groups...still I think it's nearly there! Switches etc can be animated, just got several variants to make just to make sure I cover all the bases.


edited by Dylly on 27/02/2012
2012/2/26 1:34:28
Sketchup to Muvizu I have to admit to being a bit of a 'free' and 'not so free' plugin collector, but I have to be ruthless with the Sketchup plugins as there are so many of them. But then with the plugin's I've found there is very little that Sketchup cannot achieve.

If anyone is interested here's what they all are.

Top row left to right
SandBox Tools for terrain (Free), Artisan Tool Kit subdivide, smoothing and sculpting tools for organic shapes about $30 I think,Fredo's Round edge and bevel tools (free),Bool Tools saves on intersecting faces (about $10 I think), Fredo's Scale tools set (free) for twisting geometry, and curve tools for...well drawing curves.

Second Row
Basic tool set with the addition of Fredo's Draw on Surface Tool Set for drawing on the surface of curved shapes.(All Free)

Third Row
Sketchy Physics Tools(Free) for animation.

Final Row
This is a new set of tools to me that I am trialing, its the 1001 bit Architectural tools. The price I think is around the $30 mark...but so far they have been invaluable for a variety of basic modelling tasks and cutting the donkey work out of things like stairs...worth the investment I feel.

I cannot find anything that the 'paid for' version of sketchup can do that the free version, with a few plugins, can't.

Most of the sketchup plugins are available from sketchucation.com smustard.com or from artisan directly.

Tim
2012/2/24 1:36:30
Sketchup to Muvizu Great idea Ziggy! Something like this or with the sides not at right angles? The collision mesh on the right with separate switch to animate. Not textured yet of course. British, continental or American plug sockets?

2012/2/23 17:34:11
Sketchup to Muvizu Thanks Guys. Just putting some last minute adjustments to textures and collision meshes and should be uploaded for the audit on Monday!

@ukberty, yup the switch can move the bottom section has only a partial collision mesh.

@toonarama now thats a good idea, hunting out reference stuff as I type.

@the Muvizu Team...without the encouragement, hints, tips, inspiration and guidance I would still be trying to create and import wonky widgets!

Talking of wonky widgets...I finished the twitter icon

2012/2/23 1:51:43
Sketchup to Muvizu I'm pleased folks are enjoying the cottage...got some more models in the final stages of prep including my most complicated (for me at any rate) to date.

Here's a bit of a sneaky peek...

I've been looking through some Sci-Fi cover artwork from the 1950's and thought I would create a couple of models based on them to give our evil genius sus sus sus..s something to play with in their lairs.

First up is a set of controls in two parts for....well stuff! I noticed that in 1950 the future seemed to hold nothing but big switches and dials so...

Part 1 Just a big Switch


Part two a control console.


Someone asked me, forget who, if I could 'dirty' the models up a bit so consider them dirtied!
In most of the Bond films and in a lot of the artwork I used as reference, no 'lair' was complete without some guy welding in the scene. So next up a welding or cutting gear...just the gun bit to do.

There are four models in this set, two cylinders, a trolley and a complete set of cylinders mounted on the trolley. Collision meshes on all the models are made to accommodate imnteraction with other props and characters.

Pen-ultimately there is the...Capsule...For some reason in the 1950's heroines spent a lot of time strapped inside glass capsules...so with the aid of Hugmyster's bikini texture Princess Leia gets to try out the gizmo.

Finally there's a bit of an oddity...whilst building my new website I wanted to add Tube Face and You Twit icons...so I've started modelling some...first up is a Twitter icon in the shape of ...a bog. Still in it's bare materials but textures added soon.


Was I mental before I started Muvizuing? Perhaps so, but I most indefinably am now!
If anyone has any ideas for props to add to this set let me know and I will add them.

Tim
2012/2/18 17:17:57
Sign up for the Machinima Expo email list! Sign me up, but the link just brings you back to here!Whaaaaa?
2012/2/16 11:26:18
What happened to the footsteps sound effects? Thanks BigWally...got that into Audacity as I type

65Radius aha there they are...and by typing through the alphabet I've found effects I never knew existed...the next vid is going to be noisy!

If I'm honest skylike the sound on Muvizu is something I've never played with much, not through anything lacking in Muvizu but through my lack of a number pad on my machine. Now I've got a number pad and can access the effects more easily I'm starting to fiddle about with it. In the past I found it much easier to build all of my sound effects in my video editor so I could match the sound to the image more accurately and then export the track into Audacity. I would then drop both my dialogue track and music score into Audacity and cut and mix the lot together. I get as much enjoyment out of the sound as I do the animation..its just another layer to 'paint' with.

I did notice that in the past I would get dodgy sound with MP3's imported into Muvizu but by running them through Audacity and exporting a wav file they seemed to correct themselves. However while playing about with the 'lost chord' well the missing soundtracks that 65Radius rediscovered, I noticed that even some of the propriety effects would distort or 'not sound' in the new edition of Muvizu. Perhaps Neil can shed more light?

Floggings Neil? When are you running for parliament? I like the cut of 'yer jib sir!
2012/2/15 16:12:07
What happened to the footsteps sound effects? What happened to the footsteps sound effects? Can't find them anywhere on the new version. Tried to import some of my own from audacity but the effects are all distorted in wav format.

Tim
2012/2/15 8:11:56
Major Problem !! cant work it out This is something I noticed with the new version of Muvizu, previously any old avi seemed to work, however the other day it took a session running through various codecs, image synth and virtualdub before finding that only an avi created with no compression would work and even then it had to be seconds in length.

not much help I know, but try an uncompressed version of your clip.
2012/2/13 16:41:04
Animation Workshop Thanks Luscan. Too much traffic on your site becomes a problem when you are an old skin flint like moi. I mean no one seems to be happy these days until you open your wallet! I think a snow shovel, so she can clean her own paths, is a good gift for the Mrs Birthday and then two days later...valentines day...valentines day? What's that all about...and to complain because I thought a new bath panel would be more practical and longer lasting than roses and chocolates...
2012/2/12 20:32:35
Animation Workshop Due to a few problems... i.e. too much traffic to my site I had to move the blog, by the time I looked at re configuring the site and mucking about in general, and the costs involved in getting just a little bit more space...I thought '*** this for a game of soldiers' and went the whole hog and bought a domain name and some hosting. It's going to take a while for me to get a new site designed and everything up and working again, so please bear with me, those that wanted a specific prop making I will be doing your props first.

The new site address will be www.animationworkshop.co.uk.

Cheers
Tim
2012/2/12 0:49:19
How do I make knees...and elbows? Can one of the Muvizu brains trust point me in the right direction? I've been trying to make a character attached to the broomstick so I only had to steer one object not two. Managed something there abouts...hands were easy...but knees...and elbows?

2012/2/9 21:36:13
Camera Overlays Thanks Tom, been looking at the green screen angle with Vegas...Its the best option so far!
2012/2/9 21:34:05
Random requests! ziggy72 wrote:
ukBerty wrote:
(Inferior Skeletons - great 70s band).


I've got their album - Boned To Death. rock on



I went to their reunion gig, shame the lead singer Bono corpsed! King-tron

But yes please on the hair styles, even though I thought all the Muvizu characters were modelled on the Muvizu staff! Oh and can we please be able to group objects and still steer them? Ta!
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Muvizu is easy to use 3D animation software that allows anyone to create high quality animations quickly and easily. Muvizu’s animation engine is ideal for storytellers, animators, teachers and businesses looking to engage, enchant and delight audiences with animated content.