Help - Behaviour and Bird Flocks

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Help - Behaviour and Bird Flocks

Help - Behaviour and Bird Flocks

2005-05-31 - By Sebastien Nadeau

Back

Reply: 1 2 3 4

Hi Sandy!

Like you said, populate tool and the flock Object in behavior will only
work on a ground

"The DrvFlock object provides elements to manage the flocking motion of
a group of actors on a 2D surface".

To create what you want you will have to create "boids"
(http://www.red3d.com/cwr/boids/)

Looking at the Boids exemple is certainly the best thing to do. It might
look a bit confusing if you never used behavior before, but I am sure
that if you spend a couple of hours studying it you will be able to
modify it to suit your needs. For the shot you want to create, you
probably will be able to use most of the functions as they are. If
you've never used behavior before, it would be good to go through a
couple of tutorials before, so that you get used to the basic concepts
and the doc.

I don't see any other way you could accomplish this shot in behavior.

For the distribution, I would probably place a couple of object by hand
to determine the region where I want to distribute, then randomly pick
position around those object.

Also, you could try using particles in XSI to distribute the birds, you
store the position of each particles in a text file that you then use in
behavior to distribute your birds.

Good luck

Sebastien Nadeau

VFX cinematics

Ubisoft

__ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____

From: owner-xsi@(protected) [mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)] On Behalf
Of Sandy Sutherland
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 9:35 AM
To: XSI@(protected)
Subject: Help - Behaviour and Bird Flocks

Hi Guys,

I am in the begginings of this shot which needs 300 odd bird characters
flying upwards in a spiral sort of flock thing, now I am a complete
novice to Behaviour - so have tried to find a way to populate a scene
and fly stuff upwards!! So Far: Behaviour is great at Crowd / Ground
interaction stuff - easy to populate a ground terrain thing, but as soon
as you do so, your characters are stuck to the ground - I drew a curve
spiralling upwards to try and get them to move upwards - no way, they
amble aimlessly around on the ground without direction. Try Flocking,
you cannot draw a flock target in the air, it has to be on the
floor/terrain - I looked at the boids example, it is sort of what I
need, BUT for a novice, it is very daunting to try and reverse engineer
the scripts to find out what is going on, AND the world file is
pre-populated, so it is difficult to see how to do this even!

Anyone got any help for me please - pointers etc.. even a small
behaviour scene file would be great to look at!

Thanks a mill'

Sandy

-- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- -----
Sandy Sutherland Digital Doodeller - TD
The Refinery (Cape) http://www.refinery.co.za
mailto:sandy@(protected)
(P) (+27 21) 480 3132 (F) (+27 21) 480 3101
-- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- -----

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<div class=Section1>

Hi Sandy!<o:p></o:p>

          
  <o:p></o:p>

Like you said, populate tool and the flock Object in
behavior will only work on a ground<o:p></o:p>

 “The DrvFlock
object provides elements to manage the flocking motion of a group of actors on
a 2D surface”.<o:p></o:p>

 To create what you want you will have to create
“boids” (<a
href="http://www.red3d.com/cwr/boids/">http://www.red3d.com/cwr/boids/</a>) <o
:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

Looking at the Boids exemple is certainly the best
thing to do. It might look a bit confusing if you never used behavior before,
but I am sure that if you spend a couple of hours studying it you will be able
to modify it to suit your needs. For the shot you want to create, you probably
will
be able to use most of the functions as they are. If you’ve never used
behavior before, it would be good to go through a couple of tutorials before,
so that you get used to the basic concepts and the doc.<o:p></o:p>

I don’t see any other way you could accomplish
this shot in behavior.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

For the distribution, I would probably place a couple
of object by hand to determine the region where I want to distribute, then
randomly
pick position around those object.<o:p></o:p>

Also, you could try using particles in XSI to
distribute the birds, you store the position of each particles in a text file
that
you then use in behavior to distribute your birds.<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

Good luck<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

Sebastien Nadeau<o:p></o:p>

VFX cinematics<o:p></o:p>

Ubisoft<o:p></o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

<o:p> </o:p>

<div>

<div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'>

<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center tabindex=-1>

</div>

From:
owner-xsi@(protected) [mailto:owner-xsi@(protected)] On Behalf Of Sandy Sutherland 
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 9:35
AM 
To: XSI@(protected) 
Subject: Help - Behaviour and Bird
Flocks<o:p></o:p>

</div>

<o:p> </o:p>

<div>

Hi Guys,<o:p></o:p>

</div>

<div>

 <o:p></o:p>

</div>

<div>

I am in the begginings of this shot which needs 300 odd bird
characters flying upwards in a spiral sort of flock thing, now I am a complete
novice to Behaviour - so have tried to find a way to populate a scene and fly
stuff upwards!!  So Far:  Behaviour is great at Crowd / Ground
interaction stuff - easy to populate a ground terrain thing, but as soon as you
do so, your characters are stuck to the ground - I drew a curve spiralling
upwards to try and get them to move upwards - no way, they amble aimlessly
around on the ground without direction.  Try Flocking, you cannot draw a
flock target in the air, it has to be on the floor/terrain - I looked at the
boids example, it is sort of what I need, BUT for a novice, it is very daunting
to try and reverse engineer the scripts to find out what is going on, AND the
world file is pre-populated, so it is difficult to see how to do this even!<o:p></o:p>

</div>

<div>

 <o:p></o:p>

</div>

<div>

Anyone got any help for me please - pointers etc.. 
even a small behaviour scene file would be great to look at!<o:p>
</o:p>

</div>

<div>

 <o:p></o:p>

</div>

<div>

Thanks a mill'<o:p></o:p>

</div>

<div>

 <o:p></o:p>

</div>

<div>

Sandy<o:p></o:p>

</div>

<div>

 <o:p></o:p>

</div>

<div>

-- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- -----
 
Sandy Sutherland  Digital Doodeller - TD 
The Refinery (Cape)  <a href="http://www.refinery.co.za">http://www
.refinery.co.za</a> 
<a href="mailto:sandy@(protected)">mailto:sandy@(protected)</a> 
(P) (+27 21) 480 3132  (F) (+27 21) 480 3101 
-- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- -----<o:p><
/o:p>

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