Never mind her hair, it's her face that's disturbing!

i seem to remember your pc couldn't handle the 2 million blinking flashing lights soo i wil post them as a 3d asset tonight i think i have the original ASE file still just was playing with the opacity mask since the contest jump started my video creativity block ...

can we get a tree planting tool? "

gimmick wrote:

i think they are the prize's of a cuddly blob character.

I can see two new textures, fur and bright gold, in the Muvizu 'Christmas Crackers' page
Is it a new feature of Muvizu Play 1.2 or Play 1.2+ ?

Would importing a small object with 100% transparency not be the answer?

Where's the link then?

Doh!
But of course!..I'm not used to doing it that way!

Hi guys,

We've released a small update patch today which fixes the following issues:

* Undo / redo improvements
* Timeline events for animated properties (visible and character textures/decals)
* Tweaks to the Xbox controller inputs
* Video output stability tweaks
* Texture/Material saving on attachments improved. You will need to re-import attachments if you've had Data missing errors with importing attachments.

As ever, feedback and comments welcomed

After some late nights and a lot of experiments, remodelling & re-texturing I've finally got to grips with the power of the FBX...and I'm loving it!

Complete with diffuse/normal/glow maps & transparent objects!

I'd like to second all of that. Also like to echo ukBerty's earlier post about not having the imported objects being single sided by default - needs to be double sided, or at least give us the same import options as per normal imports so we can change it. The more I'm using attached props the more this becomes a problem, it seems, as the objects get more complex.

I have tried to use the holding of objects again this morning and found it very frustrating. It has highlighted a change that we have been requesting and I think it's time has now come, otherwise the holding of objects will be forever limited.

When you edit something the characters must stay in position.


Instances :-

• You have a close up of a character doing something - my example was Angry > Me. You have a spotlight on them. You edit the spotlight and the character will spring back into the "standing gormless" pose and out of the light. It is now just guesswork to set the light, hit timeline so the character goes back into position (this closes the edit window for no apparent reason). You do this over and over again until you get it right.
• Holding things is a nightmare. At the moment we have the "object" pose which is useful for holding things (obviously we are asking for more actions). So you set you character to the "object" pose, but trying to orientate the object they are holding is impossible as every time you edit the character they go back to "standing gormless" and the object is in a completely different place.

This probably ties in with the whole - "Why does the timeline close every time I edit something ?" question.


So here's the changes:-

1. Only close dialog boxes when I close them (mainly applies to edit and timeline)
2. Characters remain in position always. I mean always. If you edit them I don't want them to do their "Oh look I've got ears" act. This was cute to begin with but I think we've moved on. I want them to be doing what I've told them to do.


I'm afraid there needs to be some work on this if the "holding objects" is going to realise it's potential.
edited by ukBerty on 23/10/2013

I broke Muvizu Play+



The new texture features are working wonderfully though. I now have a shiny new gorgeous set, unfortunately my character cannot interact with it.

urbanlamb wrote:

Strange, it works for me.

hi just noticed that the scrollbar on the materials/textures list on imported object appears to be missing there is a main scrollbar but I dont seem to be able to find the scrollbar anymore to scroll through the textures etc. in play + just noticed as i went to try to access something

chuckles wrote:


I'm certainly not "well off" as you say but I did have a few dollars saved back for something like this. Am I truly happy with my purchase? Yes I am. I've been using Muvizu almost from day one and although I haven't posted any animations to the Muvizu site for quite awhile I am still using the program regularly.

It's worth the price to me to own the full commercial rights to the animations I create. The extra features are a nice bonus too.

Seems like They've decided to charge £150 for something that still needs beta testers like me ? Are you well off people who can afford this, truly happy ?

Thats all for now, busy setting up this new square box thing with pretty lights and R2 D2 sounds.

I am a tester and they never sent me a thing. No messages, no nothing.

bigwally wrote:

It was just before the change to "Muvizu Play." They asked us not to show the feature in any videos as it was just a Proof of concept. A few days later they sent us a second test version without the feature enabled. I wish I could be more specific, but that's all I've got.

No Dylly, that the Wookiepedia (real site, I kid you not)

Wiki? What, you mean this?



Every time I try to access it through here, whether it's the one under Community or Help, I get this message - it's been this way since the Wiki was added. And the Twitter feed still never shows up. And even if I could access it, how do you add entries to the Wiki?

now we have the ability to hold things can we have a few animations for pick things up to complete the awesomeness

the only thing i am not a fan of is the chat option but that's because people are trying to use it as a forum ^^.

Lev_Dynamite wrote:


Am I allowed to admit I don't think I've ever even been into it ? Sorry about that. I will try and contribute now I know about it.

I think it's to do with the redesign of the website. Others have mentioned they never go to the gallery anymore - neither do I, and this can't be good. I'm sure that the average views for any video that we make has gone down as a result. We're all guilty.

I think it's to do with the redesign of the website. Others have mentioned they never go to the gallery anymore - neither do I, and this can't be good. I'm sure that the average views for any video that we make has gone down as a result. We're all guilty.

now we have the ability to hold things can we have a few animations for pick things up to complete the awesomeness

Unfortunately, it seems a lot of users are either missing the Wiki entirely

What test version?

Dreeko wrote:
The Wiki is intended for Community use - all logged-in users should be able to edit entries - so if you see something missing then please feel free to add it on in there! If everyone just looks at it and waits for someone else to update it then it may as well be a static webpage, so it'd be nice to see people taking full advantage of the Wiki's features.

I also think though that any tutorial or help file in the form of an online documentation or downloadable pdf IS part of the software package and should not be left to the users to create.

Dreeko,

I know you really want to know how to create FBX models and there isn't any sort of Muvizu-produced guide for this yet, but they are out there. The major problem with producing the type of tutorial you are asking for is that it would not be a Muvizu tutorial, it would be a Blender or Maya tutorial trying to teach you how to use those applications to do 3D modelling for games engines.

If you've already paid for Muvizu:Play+ you may not want to spend any more on a 3D modelling package like 3D Studio Max or Maya, so I'd recommend Blender to create your FBXs. The skills you learn in Blender can be transfered over to something like Maya later on, should you decide that those are the packages for you. To use Blender, you'll need version 2.69 RC to get the updated FBX exporter, though the version that comes with 2.68 and earlier works in a basic fashion.

Everything that you would want to do with FBX is not Muvizu specific. It means learning 3D modelling for a games engine. I recommend http://www.youtube.com/user/cgboorman if you want to learn blender.

There are a lot of other tutorials on youtube already that cover the various different 3D modelling packages out there, as well as the techniques, tips and tricks.

To understand the basics of the Blender UI and the basics of 3D modelling I'd recommend watching tutorials 1 - 8 in this playlist

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL006307E237BB7FF6&feature=plcp

Another great resource is http://cg.tutsplus.com/ which goes into full detail on modelling and animating.

So what are the benifits of FBX?

FBX is just a different format to ASE, however importing static meshes from FBX gives a vastly improved materials system.

I've put up a guide to the material options here and while some of those options were available with ASE, things like transparency on a window never worked properly. The FBX material system allows you to have transparent sections of a model that work as you'd expect, amongst other things. (your trees and bees can finally look as you wanted them to Dylly ).

I've uploaded a sample FBX object that includes all possible materials options (listed below) it's available here http://www.muvizu.com/3D/31493/FBX-Material-example

What can FBX do and what does Muvizu:Play+ support?

Static meshes up 65535 vertices
Collision meshes
Diffuse materials
Specular materials
Normal maps
Specular maps
Emissive materials
Transparent materials
edited by Jamie on 11/10/2013

gimmick wrote:

This was done a while ago with the test version:

Lev_Dynamite wrote:


I'm not allowed to start fires. It's usually the opposite

... perhaps you could post a few entries and be the spark that starts the flame?

with MrDrWho13 being the only non-Staff user to date to contribute any kind of Wiki edits.

Hello,

Where could we see video examples of object attachment in the hand?

Lev_Dynamite wrote:


I imagine staff are allowed to as well though eh?

I'm sure the staff could pitch in too!

The Wiki is intended for Community use

If everyone just looks at it and waits for someone else to update it then it may as well be a static webpage, so it'd be nice to see people taking full advantage of the Wiki's features.

I'm 100% with Dreeko here - I continue to plod on with .ASE files as that's what I've worked out how to use (I actually converted an FBX to ASE this morning through Autodesk, DAE and Sketchup to remove collision !).

What advantages does FBX have over ASE. Everyone who knows what they are seems very excited.

And more importantly, how do I remove collision from an FBX ? Can I do this automatically without having to master 3d modelling ?

Question : What happens if I create a set in Play+ and put it up on the Assets? Will non '+' users be able to load it? Would the sets always have to be labelled as Play+ specific?

I've checked the muvizu wiki and it is not yet even listed in the supported file types.

Workaround for attached objects turning white on save and open:-


When attaching an object to a character simply import the object normally - i.e. create > import. Just stick it somewhere out the way.
Then import the same object attached to your character and it will save and open OK.

Now then my Young Lamb

I must do a spot of wicket keeping here or at least bat for the opposing team...I hate Blender with a vengeance. .

The Timeline blocks for animating Expressive-ness and Custom Texture aren't showing up after you record inputs. They still work fine, and you can see the line in the Timeline, but no blocks.

thanks ukBerty and Ziggy. I'll have a look through those files and see where the problem is.

fazz68 wrote:



What your seeing Fazz is another quirk of Sketchup. It applies everything as a separate material to the object. If you have slightly different shades of red it'll give you a material for each shade of red on the object.

In blender, if you go to the materials tab you'll see a list of materials that match all the names you see listed in Muvizu. You probably want to delete them all and re-apply just 1 or 2 new materials to the unique coloured areas of your model.

Workaround for attached objects turning white on save and open:-


When attaching an object to a character simply import the object normally - i.e. create > import. Just stick it somewhere out the way.
Then import the same object attached to your character and it will save and open OK.

It's a bit like that old textured skirt problem.

Dreeko ive just had a little experiment with the sketchup to FBX thing. you can export a sketchup model as a COLLADA file and import it into Blender. and export from blender as a FBX file. i just tried on a simple chair model and it works but if you can understand all this texture info then you are a better man than me lol... see pic
urbanlamb is the expert on blender and may know what it all means

Jamie!

Thanks for the swift reply!

As the google warehouse and Sketchup has been the favoured choice of muvizu-ers for long and weary for object creation and reference I was looking to finding a way to convert Sketchup models to FBX

The main reason I was looking to this format over ase import was in the hope that objects would appear within muvizu without the weird shadowing effect that occurs. I know Fazz has shown a technique where the addition of an outline to objects built within Sketchup remedies this, but I was hoping that FBX would solve the anomaly without the faffing around.

I don't have Maya or 3dmax to play around with and I haven't touched blender before. To be honest I've made only a handful of objects within Sketchup. Object creation is something that I intend learn more of and I do know that FBX offers more than just objects, but for now I would just like to be able to import objects into Muvizu and have then displayed properly under the lights. If you can come up with a solution to this whether it is ase or FBX I'll be a happy camper!

Cheers
D

Jamie!

Thanks for the swift reply!

As the google warehouse and Sketchup has been the favoured choice of muvizu-ers for long and weary for object creation and reference I was looking to finding a way to convert Sketchup models to FBX

The main reason I was looking to this format over ase import was in the hope that objects would appear within muvizu without the weird shadowing effect that occurs. I know Fazz has shown a technique where the addition of an outline to objects built within Sketchup remedies this, but I was hoping that FBX would solve the anomaly without the faffing around.

I don't have Maya or 3dmax to play around with and I haven't touched blender before. To be honest I've made only a handful of objects within Sketchup. Object creation is something that I intend learn more of and I do know that FBX offers more than just objects, but for now I would just like to be able to import objects into Muvizu and have then displayed properly under the lights. If you can come up with a solution to this whether it is ase or FBX I'll be a happy camper!

Cheers
D

The bad....

• I too have the "colours don't save on attached objects" like Ziggy - we could do with a patch for this ASAP please.
• Not all FBX imports work - in fact most don't. I'm trying to work out the rules. I can always import the FBX into Autodesk and export again, but I may as well export as an ASE as they nearly always work. I have had multiple crashes of Muvizu when importing new FBX files, so save early !
• I think the import for attached objects defaults to single sided. A lot of objects that import fine the normal way but end up with bits missing when imported to the body. Could we have the same import options as the normal import please

Yeah,the FBX import feature seems to be a bit of a 'pig in a poke' ( http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pig%20in%20a%20poke )

I am unable to successfully import anything decent in FBX. Some guidance in the form of a help file or tutorial to allow us to use it properly is essential. Stabbing around in the dark for the correct settings using various softwares is a time wasting pain in the arse to be honest!

So, Muvizu HQ...How should we do this? How do you do this? and where are the examples showing so?


D

OK iiiiiiiiiiits daft question time! Can any of the dev team point me int' right direction for correct FBX settings (from either 3dsMax or Maya) when saving out a model ready for import into Muvizu? Seems to be working OK so far although I'm having probs with the odd artefact if FBX saved with no smoothing and a shed load of weirdness if I save and import a smoothed model.

ziggy72 wrote:

Hi Ziggy
I meant lag. My version (64-bit Play1.2+) seems to be slower when I'm animating than the 64-bit 1.1 version.

MrDrWho13 wrote:


Nope, it's faster for me. The set I'm currently working on loaded up in just under 7 minutes in 1.1, and that's come down to 4.30 minutes in 1.2

output up to 18 billion Gb (which would just about be enough for me, I think )

Also, has anyone else found 1.2/play+ slightly slower than the previous one?
edited by MrDrWho13 on 08/10/2013

The 2GB limit is a result of the AVI 1.0 video format Muvizu outputs. It's not specific to resolution (try rendering a 640x480 uncompressed video for 20 mins and you'll hit that 2GB file limit as well).

There's 3 work arounds to the limit that you can use though -

1. Render out up to 2GB (20 seconds per file or where ever you find that limit) and stitch them together in a video editor. Not Ideal.
2. Use a compression codec, Lagarith gives good results but eventually you'll hit that limit again. Not Ideal.
3. Render out a Targa Sequence. This will generate each frame as a single image file and means you'll never have an AVI file from Muvizu to hit any limit. You can open the Targa sequence in most video editors and then render a AVI (or any format video) from them. You also get a wav file for your audio output. This would be the ideal way of working.

Hmm, I take it back - you aren't limited to 30 seconds on 1080 output, it's more like 20 seconds and then you hit 2gb. That's a shame, as such a harsh limitation makes it impractical for, well, anything much. Be sticking with 720 for the moment until someone figures out how to make it work.