Ernest Burden III Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 I've been wanting to experiment with this idea for a long time, finally found the time. It's been hard, since I'm learning most of the software tools needed to do this as I go. I wanted to create a posable figure that would be fairly lowpoly and wear a UV map that I could paint. I'm not really looking for perfect walk cycles, just some basic movements and posability for chairs and other situations that are hard to do with stock images or preposed models. I re-worked a Poser4 basic figure, then rigged it with a great bone system posted by a Cinema user on cgtalk.com His rig allows for very fine adjustment so posing is easier than if I just stuck in my own bone setup. This is my first usable version. The UVs are off a little and the face looks hideous, and my movements aren't all that natural, but good enough for many rendering uses. The whole figure is skinned with one map with an alpha channel. The great thing is that one base figure plus a dozen maps can be posed and copied to create a crowd. I will make a man and child from this base figure. http://www.oreally.com/temp/fig-test05.mov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dollus Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 Great concept, Ernest! Have you tried running a short turntable sequence? It would be interesting how the figures look as you turn completely around. Yeah, the face is a bit skeletal. Looking at the quicktime, there seems to a bit of stray alpha edges on the lower left of the skirt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 Hi Ernest, Have you tried Metropoly T-pose people? They say they are compatible with C4D and ready to animate. Not knowing anything about animation, I wouldn't know what that means. They have a free demo model for you to test. http://www.axyz-design.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted December 19, 2004 Share Posted December 19, 2004 Thanks Fran, I'll check that out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted December 19, 2004 Author Share Posted December 19, 2004 Great concept, Ernest! Have you tried running a short turntable sequence? It would be interesting how the figures look as you turn completely around. Yeah, the face is a bit skeletal. Looking at the quicktime, there seems to a bit of stray alpha edges on the lower left of the skirt. I have done the turn-it-around, but that was on the T-pose. This one is to show that I managed to pose and animate the figure. I could spin it around, the rendertime is a few seconds per frame. The map is not complete. I was trying to get it done really fast and didn't finish cleaning it up, but I will later. This is proof-of-concept stuff. But I still wonder if anyone has been using pose-it-yourself models, and if so, what they think of the idea in production. By using the rig that I did, I can fairly easily pose the figure, but I don't think I can use ready-made motion-capture file on it, which would be nice for walk cycles. I'll try it, but I'm not expecting much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted December 22, 2004 Author Share Posted December 22, 2004 Hi Ernest, Have you tried Metropoly T-pose people? They say they are compatible with C4D and ready to animate. I just had a look. It looks as if they are NOT 'ready to animate', at least not for Cinema. I don't think they come with a bone system. So one would have to instal a boned rig to pose or animate them. Not that its impossible to do that... Also, for Cinema, the only format they are sold in that it can directly import is Lightwave .lwo They're sold as .lwo .obj and .max I suppose from the responses, or lack thereof, that no-one is doing posable figures for arch-vis. Well I'm a gonna! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dollus Posted December 24, 2004 Share Posted December 24, 2004 Ernest: I have used a lot of poseable figures for arch. vis. and have found it to be extremely effective. If executed properly, it can really engage the viewer and get a client excited by the space 'in-use'. The loose feel would be a great idea for adding that human element without being too distracting. Good luck with your tests. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted December 24, 2004 Author Share Posted December 24, 2004 I have used a lot of poseable figures for arch. vis. and have found it to be extremely effective. John, do you have any examples that you could post or link? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dollus Posted December 24, 2004 Share Posted December 24, 2004 I'll see what I can dig up for you. I'll be in touch after the holidays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Alexander Posted December 24, 2004 Share Posted December 24, 2004 She's a beauty:eek: ! Using Body Paint? Very cool, are you typically going to render as part of the scene or comp these in- just curious? As the hand painted seems very well suited for comp into a scene, even using shadow passes and the likes. Interested in trying some motion capture? Have access to some clips and such. Motion Cap could be applied to a C4d file> through MotionBuilder then to C4D. I'm looking to experiment/pactice a bit........ Holidays the only free time available? hehehe. Sorry for all the questions, but this is really cool stuff imho. Wm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted December 24, 2004 Author Share Posted December 24, 2004 She's a beauty:eek: ! Using Body Paint? I've since adjusted the UV coordinates, so the distortion is gone. Yes, BodyPaint for the basic framework, watercolor for the actual image. I also want to produce a version that is blurry, not hard-edged, just suggestive. Very cool, are you typically going to render as part of the scene or comp these in- just curious? I want the figures to be in the scene. This is more for animation than stills, though the posability makes the idea good for both. I get tired of searching for a figure in just the right pose. The 360 RCP's are nice, and work for some situations. But what about seated figures that actually fit their chair? I can do that with these. My concept is a few base figures with a set of image maps and to use them mid-ground. The image I showed earlier has the figure as the subject of the view, but in reality these would be used as fills for a scene. I will make a different set of much lower figures with maps for far-off parts, more like 12 polygons with maps. Interested in trying some motion capture? Have access to some clips and such. Motion Cap could be applied to a C4d file> through MotionBuilder then to C4D. I'm looking to experiment/pactice a bit........ Interested...sure. I would have to learn how to apply the files once converted to the format Cinema reads. So far i haven't figured out how to map the motion to the particular bone rig I am using (which I didn't create myself). Cinema has a really useful tool called PoseMixer. It allows you to store a set of poses and then use them anytime, and they mix. So if one is 'look right' and another is 'lean back' and you have put the target figure into a chair you can then ADD amounts of leaning back and turning right from sliders (meaning partial) to how the figure is posed. Then there is a P2P pose library that can be called upon. The P2P library would be especially useful for facial animation so you can store the mouth positions for the set of speach sounds, then just key them in to your audio track. It looks really easified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted December 25, 2004 Author Share Posted December 25, 2004 Cinema has a really useful tool called PoseMixer. It allows you to store a set of poses and then use them anytime, and they mix. Another really good application for this would be to store a car that you use a lot in animation 'posed' with its wheels turned fully left and also right (with the accompanying body lean) and then at any point you coud 'dial in' any amount of wheel turn. I am really enjoying finding these work-saving goodies in Cinema. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
axyzdesign Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 Hi everybody!, We have a new posable collection for POSER 5/6. After posing, you can export to any 3d package. Have a look at: www.axyz-design.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mblar Posted July 15, 2005 Share Posted July 15, 2005 actually i have some that i use that i made myself. i made them in max. i started with one basic mesh and tweaked out various versions until i had 8 models. multiply that by varying the textures and i now have a small army of 24. they are very lo-poly and break up if you get too close, but they do the trick. i rigged them with character studio so i can quickly get them walking around using CS 'footsteps'. they could be a lot better but i didnt have time to make them perfect. but once you have them moving with GI and shadows the faults are less obvious. i did this in max6, but it would be even easier now with max7. skin up one model and re-use the skinning data for all the others! peace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now