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PatMarrNC - all messages by user

2017/4/17 12:53:58
Cant do much with groups, WHY? bigwally wrote:
"If you absolutely MUST make moves when lots of meticulously positioned items are close together, move it via keyframing."

Pat, you are talking about moving objects that are not in groups. Or can you move groups using keyframing? I've tried, but it doesn't work.


maybe I interpreted the question incorrectly.. but I took it to be about the collision disruption caused by trying to move a single element that is close to other elements. I've never experienced the phenomena of grouped items exploding once they're grouped and locked.

Your understanding about whether groups can be moved with keyframing is the same as mine: they can't
2017/4/17 0:38:42
Cant do much with groups, WHY? the collision that's built into objects might be the problem here. Usually after you get everything positioned, if you group it and lock the group, you're fairly safe. However, trying to resize anything or move something that is close to other things will frequently result in something that resembles an explosion.

If you absolutely MUST make moves when lots of meticulously positioned items are close together, move it via keyframing. Collision is disabled during keyframed moves.
2017/4/14 14:33:24
Problem with transparent AVI Ammostro,

first of all.. GREAT LOOKING HORSE! The solid color version of the horse walking looks great! I'm very impressed, and kind of upset that you beat me by making a quadruped first!

I'm interested to hear that your problem starts when you use a different texture. I have had this same problem, and like you , I tried everything to no avail. I don't know why one project works while another identical project fails. Eventually one of us will figure out what variable we're missing and then we'll be able to crank these things out without any problems... but for now I fear there is still an unknown variable.

The good news is that your solid color version works... and it looks awesome too!

I'm happy to have a newcomer to the forum who likes to explore and try new ideas. Please don't give up trying! Whoever eventually solves this problem should report back to the group so we all know the answer.

By the way, I've noticed that even when the AVI doesn't line up, the individual images can be applied as textures, and they DO line up. So the problem lies with the AVI, not with the images from which it is made.
You could swap the images via keyframing, but that's a lot of work
2017/4/14 14:12:22
From the Mind of Some Guy Named Rob VII now that was amusing! ;-)

"to be honest my chest and back hair had never felt more lush and shiny" ahahahahaa! Love that line!
edited by PatMarrNC on 14/04/2017
2017/4/13 15:42:31
Heaven Bound Test Render unlimitedmagic wrote:
Still have a bunch of little things I could fix with time but there is a point of diminishing returns where I just wanted to keep moving on it and get it done.


My philosophy too. If I had an established youtube channel with lots of viewers I might spend my time differently... but I weigh the value of my remaining time on the planet against the value derived from 300 views. As I get older my time left decreases, which makes it more valuable and that increases my desire to spend it wisely. Redoing a scene ad infinitum to make it perfect when the average viewer won't notice the added details and it doesn't impact the story anyway.. that doesn't make sense to me.

This was started as a way for me to learn the Muvizu software. It's funny how simple the animation is in the beginning and how it gets better as it progresses. Some of the first beach conversations aren't tight and when you get to the party scene near the end, Joe's dad is almost naturally speaking with his hand gestures.

it's inevitable that in any given video the director is more experienced at the end than at the beginning. But I want to say that from a functional point of view, you got your point across consistently throughout the whole story.

The biggest mistake was trying to do this on a very minimal computer. It has an integrated graphics card which really limits how much I can show in a scene. When Ziggy sent me the model for his version of the throne of grace scene, my computer wouldn't even open it. So if you ever try something this long, I recommend a dedicated, current 3D card. I didn't want to change computers until I was done as I've got video files all over the place and didn't want to lose something in the upgrade.


I understand exactly what you're saying here... but I'm a bit surprised to hear it. The richness of your scenes led me to believe you must be using a beast of a computer. It speaks well of your design sensibilities that you were able to create such graphically interesting scenes on a consumer grade computer.


There are several scenes where there was extra processing and effects from Sony Vegas - sparkles and glows. The majority of it though I wanted to come directly from Muvizu. Some shots like when Joe remembers his grandfather at the party needed After Effects to remove his left arm.


the ability to think outside the box and use other software to do the things that Muvizu can't do really makes the creative process a lot more fun. At least, I think so. To take the attitude that Muvizu has to provide all the solutions for an infinite amount of possibilities.. that thinking leads to frustration.


The biggest challenges I ran into with Muvizu were: <snip>


agreed.

Overall though Muvizu is an incredible product for its scope and use. I had more fun building scenes and animating than any other package I've ever used. You can really get creative when you learn the capabilities of having an open world to build and populate with characters. For what it is and the price, Muvizu is an excellent value.


agreed. And it's perhaps the FASTEST animation solution I've tried. A project of this scope would have taken much longer if you tried it in MOHO, and it wouldn't look half as good.

The forum and member store are also the best. There is a homegrown culture of comradery here that doesn't exist in Unity or Unreal where they either mock you if you don't know how to do something or are going to charge you for simple model examples.


its been my experience that forums full of adolescents and young adults (like gaming forums) tend to be very caustic and unpleasant, for approximately the same reason that middle school and junior high school both tend to be unpleasant. On the other hand, all of my favorite forums... the ones where people are helpful and the criticism is more constructive.... they are all populated by an older demographic. Muvizu certainly has its share of young users, but far as I can tell, the forum regulars are mostly old enough to be past the stage of pointless confrontation. It takes time to learn social skills and a spirit of cooperation.

Hats off to Muvizu for creating such a wonderful product!

<insert applause here>
2017/4/13 3:09:15
Heaven Bound Test Render Wow, standing ovation here! That was well done on so many levels it would take a week or more just to say everything I liked about it! Total eye candy from start to finish! Loved all of the mansions... great attention to detail! And getting Ziggy to help was a good idea too.. all of his contributions were awesome!

Use of music in the story was also very effective... you totally nailed it! Great song choices too!

You must be feeling pretty good now that all of your work has paid off and you have a complete story to watch and share! Great job!
2017/4/12 18:09:34
Critiques please... First Video!! comictude wrote:
"Hitfilm is somewhat unique among video editors because it allows you to import 3D models and animate them in the same environment as the video"


Btw, had no idea this was a possibility,


alas, that feature is only available in the paid version. But... that feature alone would justify the purchase price... and the paid version has a LOT of other powerful bells & whistles that aren't available in the free version.

Regarding the white background in a PNG:
it is totally possible (and commonly done) to utilize the transparency of PNGS in hitfilm. But it has its own rules that aren't always like the rules in other editors. I think Hitfilm has an intimidating learning curve. The good news is that hitfilm's youtube demos are topical, so you can easily find a video to show you how to do anything you want to do with the product.
2017/4/12 16:53:37
Critiques please... First Video!! Comictude, I saw that video, and it was AWESOME the way you integrated the Muvizu characters to create a point-counterpoint substory within your product review. Very cool!

And I'd have to agree that for anyone whose only need is to join video scenes into one cohesive video then Hitfilm is wayyyy overkill. Many (most?) video programs are MUCH more intuitive than Hitfilm.

BUT...

the advantage Hitfilm brings to the equation is that it can not only join snippets together, it can also be used to add secondary animation, awesome effects and keyframes movements of elements that give the director more control than Muvizu alone offers. Hitfilm is somewhat unique among video editors because it allows you to import 3D models and animate them in the same environment as the video. This is a major step up from green screen, because all the angles are still editable (unlike the fixed angle of a green screen clip, which may or may not line up with the rest of the video's angle)

There really needs to be a series of tutorials made that show specific ways to use Hitfilm with Muvizu. Many simple but useful things that make a scene more realistic (like a character leaning through a doorway to speak, then leaning back again) are impossible with Muvizu alone, but totally doable with Muvizu and hitfilm working as a team.

For those who have poser, daz, milkshape or other software that can animate rigged characters, I just discovered that it is possible to import not only the model but also the animation into hitfilm, where the tools exist to fit it seamlessly into the muvizu video. These are truly exciting times for content creators, as more and more software products develop cross-compatibility with each other.
edited by PatMarrNC on 12/04/2017
2017/4/12 15:08:51
Critiques please... First Video!! nice job, especially for a first video! It has the look of a video made by a more experienced animator!

I liked the way the band was lit with different flashing lights, and the fact that your basic scene was more of a "place" than a 3 walled set.

My only real advice would be to steer clear of songs that are somebody else's intellectual property. Youtube has a good algorithm for detecting copyright infringement, and it's just a matter of time before any videos containing such will be flagged for removal. If you try to monetize videos in which you don't own the rights to everything in the video, you can be kicked off youtube permanently.

if you aren't in a position to create your own music, there are lots of places where you can get music that has a creative commons attribution license, which means it can be used just for mentioning the owner in your credits. Here's a link to more links on that topic:
https://beebom.com/creative-commons-music-websites-free/
edited by PatMarrNC on 12/04/2017
2017/4/10 0:07:57
custom character and action , Muvizu style Rodrisilva wrote:
Amazing Pat !
Expertly made. If we want to change arms movements according music rythm, we only need to rework animated texture.
edited by Rodrisilva on 09/04/2017


exactly!

But if you just need generic movement that doesn't have to be perfect, this type of animation works like the guitar player loops. In fact, I made it follow a tempo of 120 beats per minute, which is the speed the standard muvizu musicians seem to use. As such, when you see a mixture of muvizu characters and my characters on the same stage, they look like they're in synch.

Especially if the song was recorded at 120 bpm

Hopefully I'll have a video featuring all 3 characters by the end of the month.
2017/4/10 0:01:01
custom character and action , Muvizu style some important points omitted in the video:

1) when you make the animated textures from the individual arm textures, you might have to flip the images 180 degrees top-to-bottom. If you don't do that, the limbs and textures won't line up

2) Prior to UVmapping the arms, the whole static model should be triangulated. If the trangulation happens automatically, it can affect the alignment of the textures

Its a bit of work, but it illustrates that a framework exists for changing character appearance and even specific unsupported actions. Once you know how to do this, you can add any action your scene might require.

Notes:
1) Anime Studio /Moho creates AVI that Muvizu can use as a texture or on a backdrop

2) You don't have to use Poser to position your limbs. You can manually model everything or use a variety of other programs (like DAZ, Blender, Milkshape etc) that allow the posing of rigged characters. But if you have Poser, it works pretty well for ... um... posing.

Since Digimania and Smith Micro (parent company to both Poser and Moho) have collaboratively cross marketed their products recently, I thought it might be good to mention their products as being good companions to Muvizu.

;-)
2017/4/9 23:40:25
custom character and action , Muvizu style I needed a fiddle player, a dobro player and an upright bass player for a bluegrass band of squirrels in my current SKWERLEFEST production... but as you know, the built-in musician actions don't cover any of those. So I decided to make my own. (based on Rodrisilva's multi-mesh animation technique)

The following is a 2 minute video showing how I made the upright bass player, but they're all basically the same procedure. The video goes pretty fast, as I intended it to be a quick overview on what's possible. If you want to get more out of it (like a step by step understanding of how to duplicate the results, you might need to watch it multiple times and take notes.




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edited by PatMarrNC on 10/04/2017
2017/4/8 15:06:28
Old user of Xtranormal welcome to Muvizu, Chuck!

I was interested in Xtranormal, but by the time I discovered what program was making all those cool videos, they had already stopped allowing new accounts, and claimed to be in a restructuring phase. Rather than waiting around, I tried some other animation software. One day on a Facebook group for amateur animators, somebody posted a video made with Muvizu, and I knew that's exactly what I had been waiting for. I've been here ever since, and haven't looked back.

I hope you enjoy using Muvizu as much or more than you liked Xtranormal! I think you'll fit right in to the forum.. people here are friendly and helpful.
2017/4/8 0:03:46
3DWarehouse no longer support dwnload to Sketchup8 here are some links to other threads on the topic of Sketchup 8's obsolescence:


https://www.muvizu.com/forum/topic6223-sketchup-to-muvizu.aspx


installing plugins to the right directory if you're using a newer version of Sketchup:
https://www.muvizu.com/Wiki/wiki/170/installing-plugins-to-newer-versions-of-sketchup



Edit required to fix the ASE exporter found at the end of this message is described near the end of the following thread:

https://www.muvizu.com/forum/topic5438-importing-assets.aspx?p=f#post31558


link to the ASE exporter that will work with sketchup 2016 if you make the edit described above:

http://www.muvizu.com/download/muvizuaseexporter.rb



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edited by PatMarrNC on 08/04/2017
2017/4/7 15:25:30
Muvizu has a huge problem You're right that there is no built-in way to make a character look pregnant. Ziggy created and posted this pregnant belly a while back... Like many other things in Muvizu, whether or not it's possible depends on the user's modelling ability. Since your video included a pregnant woman, I see that you figured that out already. (good job! She sure looks pregnant to me!)

Zigg's pregnant belly:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!ALlUfF5OI9dJgTk
2017/4/7 2:02:57
Muvizu has a huge problem https://www.muvizu.com/Set/45592/Kids-with-Round-Heads

size of the characters (down to infant size) is controllable from the edit menu.

Also, if you bought either of the Asian character packs, the kids have proportionally large round heads, and will scale down pretty convincingly to an infant
edited by PatMarrNC on 07/04/2017
2017/4/6 14:39:37
Where to get Creative Commons Music for your video Any video is better if it has appropriate music to ramp the mood up or down as the story requires. Although many Muvizuers are also musicians who have no problems coming up with their own music, the rest are forced to find music elsewhere.

Paying for the rights to someone else's music is always an option if you have deep pockets and your video is a money maker; but if this is mainly a hobby that doesn't generate income to pay for licensing... (and you aren't OK with illegally using copyright protected music) ...you need a way to find music that is either in the public domain or that has been released under a creative commons attribution license.

A CC Attribution license allows people to use someone else's intellectual property in exchange for a callout in the credits! Everybody wins... you get music for free, and they get their name spread all over the place, which is a great way to advertise skills and build a reputation in the creative community. (You might consider making your videos available under a CC Attribution license if you want exposure... just sayin'...)

anyway, here's a link to 15 web sites that offer music that has been made freely available under the provisions of the CC attribution license:

https://beebom.com/creative-commons-music-websites-free/
2017/4/5 18:37:36
NEW VERSION RELEASE testing the use of OBJ files as attachments... in a nutshell, it works! WooHoo!
My test model is a simple box with a color applied. No texture or UV mapping

some observations:
1) trying to add transparency results in an error "File is in an unrecognized format". The cube still loads though, but the transparent surface is opaque. Apparently transparency isn't possible with the OBJ format... the procedures that work in FBX and ASE formats don't transfer to this format... it always ends up being a solid color.

2) when I load the cube as a hand attachment, the color goes from being all one color to half the original color and half a lighter shade of that color.

3) however, when applying the cube as hat or other types of attachment, the color doesn't change.

4) the model accepts textures and colors

5) I haven't had any problems with selecting the imported OBJ.... I recall that was one of the complaints when the importing of OBJ files was first introduced.

All in all, except for the lack of transparency support and the fact that the color changes when used as a hand attachment, the ability to import OBJ files as standalone or attachment seems to be working well here! This should make it much easier for people to add assets without having to worry about converting their models to ASE or FBX. However, due to the unique possibilities that ASE and FBX provide, those formats will continue to be useful

----update------
I had good luck with importing a cube, but as soon as I switched to other geometric shapes I got more errors ("this file is in an unknown format") and more instances of the imported file not being selectable.
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edited by PatMarrNC on 05/04/2017
edited by PatMarrNC on 05/04/2017
2017/4/5 18:30:51
Period Dress Wanted DougBailey wrote:
I feel suitably humbled and bumbled. So sorry Pat.

Doug... please don't feel awkward in any way! I'm the world's worst at mixing up peoples' names.. I have stories along those lines that would make you cringe... so I'm in no position to judge anyone else. (For ANY reason, not just this!)

If this is the biggest problem I have to deal with today (and so far it is) then life is good! (see the many youtube videos on "first world problems)
2017/4/5 16:27:52
NEW VERSION RELEASE the WIKI's version tracker has now been updated:
https://www.muvizu.com/Wiki/wiki/50/muvizuplay-release-history

South Asian Boy character eyes not closing fixed, OBJ import for character attachments added, Static lighting improvements, Toon shading improvements, Minor UI improvements and tweaks


The ability to use OBJ as attachments is new!

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edited by PatMarrNC on 05/04/2017
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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.