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PatMarrNC - all messages by user

2016/10/22 17:08:00
Muvizu Halloween Contest 2016 Entries ziggy72 wrote:
PatMarrNC wrote:
Anything that's good about it was probably one of Ziggy's ideas.


Not fair (on yourself) - you already had a good video before you asked for feedback.


Much of the first draft and concept was based on cumulative advice and observations you've made on the forum.

Speaking of which... I want to thank you for sharing your knowledge so freely. You are one of the last remaining gurus from Muvizu's glory period, and without your willingness to share the things you've learned the hard way, all us newbies would be in the position of having to figure it all out from scratch. Don't underestimate your influence ...
2016/10/22 6:37:03
Muvizu Halloween Contest 2016 Entries You are very kind, AllClass! I know there's lots wrong with it, but it's the best I can do right now. At this point in my learning curve I figure it's more helpful to get a lot of projects under my belt... hopefully learning something from each one... rather than obsessing over a few.

For years I obsessed and didn't do anything because nothing was ever good enough. I'm learning to let go of that, knowing that at my age the main thing I get out of it is fun anyway... and if I make it too complicated, then it won't even be fun anymore.

Anything that's good about it was probably one of Ziggy's ideas. And I'm OK with admitting that. He's a smart guy at this and he shares his knowledge. Gotta respect that.

Speaking of contest entries, I really enjoyed your scarecrow video! Man, that poor crow is gonna need therapy for the rest of his life! ;-)
2016/10/22 3:33:52
NEW IN THE MUVIZU STORE..... clayster2012 wrote:
That's fantastic Pat,its seems your getting the nack for modeling


Thanks for the kind words, Clayster! I've had several BIG learning curve breakthroughs in the past month... I still have a lot to learn, and my models still aren't to the point where I'd ask anybody to pay for them... but I'm getting closer.

I've been revisiting projects that were stalled because I didn't know how to proceed. (but now I do)
2016/10/22 2:54:13
NEW IN THE MUVIZU STORE..... I uploaded this after closing time on Friday, so hopefully it will be available on Monday as a FREE download!

2016/10/22 1:04:40
Muvizu Halloween Contest 2016 Entries Well, here's my entry...

(reference to old video deleted)

the house and car in the video should be in the store on Monday, I'll post a separate demo video for it


===============update===========
yay! House is in the store!

latest and final version:


Cut out a lot of walking. Sliding the wolf in while the background scrolled wasn't working, so I used a fade instead. Added a light to the front yard to justify the shadow directions, removed most of the disco-esque fire flickers, added more supporting sound, re-recorded all the dialog so it doesn't sound like actors are in a barrel. Frankie was walking right through the pine tree, so I moved it out of his path. Added an extra set of door knocks to add urgency to the moment... also retained the monsters shadows on the house to add a threatening element to the scene. Consolidated two scenes into one because it looked like there should have been a commercial inserted when the two similar scenes transitioned.

Thanks to friends on the forum who shared their insights on changes that were needed. I didn't have time to fix them all, but I got the ones that I knew how to fix.
edited by PatMarrNC on 25/10/2016
edited by PatMarrNC on 25/10/2016
edited by PatMarrNC on 25/10/2016
2016/10/21 23:56:19
Store internal server error. I bought it a few days ago, but you never know what might go wrong with a server
2016/10/21 22:24:08
A test of the Talking Version of Tropical Birds You make a good point, Clayster... most animation packages are TOTALLY keyframe oriented. The fact that we can get away with keyframing only the occasional action that isn't pre-programmed is a good thing, not a bad thing.

When you consider the fact that Muvizu lets you import objects freely and gives us the ability to both keyframe AND/OR direct the objects we import... that's a pretty significant chunk of animating power!

As a side note: for animating mouths/beaks etc you might want to look at DIRECTING instead of keyframing. They've already made directing capable of setting a hinge axis (they use it for doors) wherever you want it, which makes the motion a lot easier to control. Keyframing actions that would normally have a fixed hinge is harder than using the hinge.
2016/10/21 20:01:26
A test of the Talking Version of Tropical Birds very creative, Clayster! You are just FULL of interesting ideas! And you make them happen so QUICKLY too!

I foresee a new series called "Gladys Nighthawk and the Peeps"
edited by PatMarrNC on 22/10/2016
2016/10/21 5:01:54
Women wedding dress! you could probably get away with a non-soft cloth model for a wedding dress.. they tend to be kind of unwieldy anyway. As long as the bride wasn't doing a lot of walking, her legs would probably stay inside the dress. That would be a fairly easy model to make
2016/10/20 16:15:34
Women wedding dress! if you need that look, there are other animation programs that will let you create and animate soft cloth apparel.. Poser is one. You can make the gown (or buy one.. Poser has been around long enough that a ton of 3rd party accessories are available for it.. just about anything you could hope for. But.. not free. )

Anyway, once you buy or make the dress, you can animate your bride in Poser and export a green screen which can be merged into your Muvizu project at the final edit.
2016/10/19 5:18:17
3D Coat Tutorial for noobs (for Muvizu) I shouldn't have made my last post because it must have sounded critical of your tutorial, which is very good. I think I just got blindsided by one of those life moments when I was forced to realize that even when I'm being spoon fed, information doesn't sink in like it once did. Your tutorial provides everything I need to figure this out, I'm just going to have to work harder than the young man trapped inside this old body wanted to work.

Thanks again for doing this. I realize all the more that without some help I'd be totally dead in the water here.
edited by PatMarrNC on 19/10/2016
2016/10/18 19:44:29
3D Coat Tutorial for noobs (for Muvizu) Ziggy,

I just watched thru this for the first time... awesome tutorial... I appreciate the time you've put into this!

One problem with all tutorials is tailoring it to the stupidity level of your audience... and in my case you can't under estimate the depths of my ignorance. You do a good job of explaining the reasoning behind your process choices, but you assume we know enough about the software to follow along with your menu selections. As a newbie, I lost track of your menu selections almost immediately, and stayed lost throughout the video.

It isn't even obvious to me which of the buttons I'd select at startup to access the room you're working in. But then, my first watch was without having 3D-coat open trying to follow along.

I'll watch several more times with the software open, and try to duplicate your steps by stopping the video to see where your mouse is clicking. You've done an excellent job of creating these tutorials and now it's on the audience to exercise due diligence in following along
2016/10/18 17:31:50
Hats Glad to help! Don't forget to leave a comment at the item's download page thanking the artist who modelled the attachments in the set you're using. He will appreciate it!
2016/10/18 17:26:38
TRANSPARENT MATERIALS IN FBX FILES another thing that affects color/shadow artifacts on models is whether or not the object is UVMapped. I've noticed that even if an object requires no texture and you just want it to be a solid color that can be changed in the object's parameters, UVmapping it makes a difference in color integrity.

Without UVMapping, color gets applied from one direction.. and in the same sense that a texture gets skewed when you apply it to an object without first UVMapping it, I have to think that color gets distorted too.

Whether that explanation is technically correct is a moot point. UVMapping solid colors seems to help my models. Your mileage may vary... but it's something to look at if you're getting color anomalies.
2016/10/18 17:10:06
How do I place things inside a building? I haven't tried making everything one object yet.. but thanks for that information. While I'm still in the design phase, keeping a complex set separated into components is really useful. I'll try combining everything into one composite object as the last step.

Which brings me to another question:
I want to make more complex objects with programmable features... like cars/houses with doors that are either open or closed etc. I notice that in order for Muvizu to let me change the visibility state of an object, it must be a standalone object. For example, once the door is merged into the house, I can't make it invisible without making the whole house invisible.

The problem I've been having is that I can't position the door where I need it to be very easily. Maybe I'm having problems because I haven't converted my house to one object yet, which forces me to use keyframing to position my door. Are there good ways to position with keyframing? I haven't found any.. the mouse is imprecise and keyboard positioning commands don't seem to work for keyframing

Maybe if I bite the bullet and merge the rest of the house to a single model, then I can use directing to position the parts. I know there are keyboard movements for directing the movement of objects.

Any insights or advice is greatly appreciated.
2016/10/18 16:44:17
Women wedding dress! seems like a high-demand item that would be worth somebody's time to develop for the store. These days, Youtube Videos are the new greeting cards. As the average person learns to use software like Muvizu, most of them don't become indie movie makers.. most of them make silly videos for friends and acquaintances, many of which end up serving the same approximate function as greeting cards.

With that thought in mind, a quick visit to a Greeting card store reveals that assets for birthdays, weddings, graduations, baby showers, new jobs, anniversaries, retirements and other common life events would probably be desirable assets for everyman's video projects.

Taking the idea a step further, if your set is pre-animated like a template, and people just need to buy it and customize a few details to use it as their own "custom animation"... all the better! People will pay for convenience.

It has been said that the core purpose of Facebook is IMAGE CRAFTING. People present themselves there as they want to be perceived. Give them a way to be seen as creative. People have been buying their image for eons, and if you help them to have the image they want, they will pay. Its the same reason why malls charge more for clothes than the thrift stores charge.
2016/10/18 16:25:25
Hats would this work?

https://www.muvizu.com/Set/39791/uktaserpolice
2016/10/18 0:16:23
3D Coat Tutorial for noobs (for Muvizu) I liked the representation of yourself and immediately thought it would be fun to create an ongoing saga starring the active forum members. Each person could create and contribute a Muvizu character for him/herself... then we could take turns making episodes that skewer one another.

Or not. Maybe it would be better to just remain friends. ;-)
2016/10/17 21:00:51
NEW Trick or Treat Junior pack - in the store now! primaveranz wrote:
They are nicely done, but follow on the Digimania tradition of never releasing the same style of figure twice. One set is rarely visually compatible with another.


I just bought and installed this pack. My first impression was similar to yours, Primaveranz... but the thought occurs to me that you could create a whole set of compatible characters by making oversized head attachments for the potato head characters., then scaling them down to the same size. With that approach, you could create Muvizu videos with a whole new look... today!

regarding the particle effects: I like the stars. I wish the witch and bat could be scaled, colored and maybe set to one flying character. Not sure what application I'll ever have for pumpkins floating around a scene like bubbles on a windy day. Making graphics move around in the background is one of the things HitFilm does well, and if I ever need a witch, pumpkin or bat to fly around in the background, that's probably the preferred way to do it.
2016/10/17 20:06:13
An open Letter to Muvizu's developers Farscaper wrote:
But sometimes it's the simplest solutions that get things rolling in the right direction. Having proper meta tags so that Google doesn't assign you page 546 in results. Having a website that doesn't look like an archive.org page from 1994. Devoting the time to create proper tutorials (paying to have them done right if a fan won't do it for recognition). Listening to and accepting help from your fans, some of whom might just work for free if given access, recognition and respect.


good observations here, Farscaper! I think Muvizu already benefits from the free labor of its users.. one of Muvizu's marketable strengths is its huge free library of user created sets. As far as I can tell, no other similar program offers as much free content

So it's not the entire fault, if any, of the Muvizu devs. The people writing their cheques have control in this situation.
I have no inside information, but this conclusion resonates with what I see. My experience with the people from Digimania who interface with users has been very positive.. smart, professional people who have put together an absolutely wonderful program. I like the stuff they make. I just want more. ;-) And faster. I think if it were in their power to decide what to produce, they'd be having as much fun as the users, making cool stuff that everybody asks for and we'd all be one big cohesive group of enthusiasts. There's still time for that to happen.


As a marketing copywriter I also appreciate their desire to embellish their product with the latest market fad. Hell, I'd certainly do it if I planned an IPO or selling out. Imagine the BS you could spew in a prospectus or presentation to prospective investors.

hmmm... interesting spin.... and a good point... made all the more believable since the oculus pack doesn't actually let you create content that can be viewed by an audience using an oculus. THAT would actually be useful. Instead, its only function is to let the guy making the animation see his set in 3D as he animates. I don't understand the point of that. But as an item in a list of features, its existence lets them mention the oculus buzz word.

Now that would be a funny short film made in Muvizu if we had a VR headset prop so we can have all these people walking around bumping into each other with arms raised trying to hand out money to invest.
LOL!

Nothing frustrates me more than trying to help those that don't see the need for help or don't follow up on excellent free advice that they'd willingly spend tens of thousands to acquire crap from some expert "firm".

I ain't goin' there.. but... good point.

Muvizu should definitely make use of the devoted user base they have and implement cost effective suggestions for improvement. Simple Simon.

As stated above... I think they do get some benefit from the user's contributions to the store
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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.