 | | | Animation Help-wishlist | Animation Help-wishlist 2005-04-13 - By Michael Rhodes
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Steven:
Acutally in 3DXtract #1 she was in the gallery section. This version is a
complete re-working of the wireframe (incorporating loops around the eyes and
mouth) trying to keep the same look of the original face. I'm also doing image
maps for the hair strands, instead of the "helmet shaped" hair I was doing.
I've reached the same conclusions about other platforms and Carrara. Even
though AM is a wonderful character animation program, overall, Carrara suits me
better because I can create enviroments and such so much easier. And stability
is a big issue, too. One big thing for me is that CA in Carrara is trying to
figure out how to do things with the limited range of tools (constraints and
the non-visual method of adjusting Bone influences on the mesh). I would love
to see some kind of Browser Properties tray addition that would make selecting
/deselecting shading domains and saved selections easier instead of the menu
-only method Carrara has now. Unless I'm missing something.
One thing I would love to see is some kind of "Puppet Controller" that would
enable the user to save positions of bones and morphs and then re-use them.
This would help with blinks, complex facial expressions (that encompass
multilple morphs) and things like a door opening and ventian (sp) blinds
opening/closing. Right now, Carrara is kind of a Savant -- it's a genius at
rendering, shading; but very primitive with character animation. With the
separation of Carrara into "basic" and "pro" versions, it's a short step to
offering something like Carrara "Animation Studio" because it's gonna take a
bit of code writing to improve the animation features. Not a trivial task, I'm
sure. However with the advances of Carrara from version 1 to today's 4, I am
also optimistic and hopefull that the full promise of Carrara can be fulfilled,
esp. in its animation abilities.
mike rhodes
A random convergence of events made it appear that Steve@(protected) (steve)
wrote the following on 4/12/05:
>
>Hey Michael,
>
>She's a nice piece of work, I think I've seen her before on the IOW page
>or 3dextract? From long ago it seems.
>
>I think one reason I havn't jumped into CA more is what you're
>describing.. bottleneck...It's not that CA is impossible, it's just time
>consuming to do anything more than basic stuff. I liken it to trying to
>build a log cabin with a hand saw, it can be done but who wants to when
>there's power tools around. (not mean to C4 btw, there's alot it's very
>good at)
>I've contemplated other platforms from AM to Poser to Silo etc.. But I
>like Carrara because so many other things in it are so easy/better to do
>and think it will be a stronger CA tool given the proper time.
> I don't really care for poser 5 that much and I really don't have
>the time or resources to invest in a lot of different software
>for something that to me is more than a hobby and less than a job.
>Until the day comes where charecter modeling and animation is practical
>and desireable, I will continue to work on the things that I can do. I
>realize some of it is software limitation and more of it is user
>limitation but I have high hopes and am generally optimistic.
> I have no idea how complicated it would be to write the code needed
>to copy or import/ skinned, morphed models but if it can be done or
>another way can be implemented I am sure they'll do it. That in itself
>would free up alot of that uphill struggle.
>Steven
>__ _____
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