Site Search
Join Muvizu

theotherguy - all messages by user

2016/5/25 23:33:38
Rendering animation as MP4s Hi Y'all, unexpectedly the (lagareth) .AVI files I use as archive files from MUvizu have stopped working (!) I don't really want to render as uncompressed so I thought I'd try the new render as .MP4 that Muvizu supports, problem is there are no presets just a value slider for bits per second. I don't know what value to use.
2016/5/16 0:55:20
Sjesus - Going to the beach Good one, Ikes! And thanks for the heads up on Outerra ,I will check it out ASAP! I'm use a 3-D game for some of my environments and it can be an exercise in frustration as you can't control the environment very well, the filming angles are limited, and you are occasionally attacked by monsters!

I use 'blue screen' as opposed to layers myself, that may change in the future, but I have tried rendering frame-by-frame and rendering the shadows separately and I find it too darn slow. The software I use, Vegas Pro, allows you to do some pretty good keys although the shadow could be darker. Matching shadows with environment shadows in Muvizu can be tricky as well.

Here is my latest using the game backdrop.
2016/5/13 3:34:01
Work around for the dialog system Interesting. I get all the dialogue sorted first, complete with pauses and render them as mono wave files in my audio editor, I haven't come across any big problems yet, earlier versions used to get 'crosstalk' occasionally.
2016/5/10 15:57:44
Another animation using a videogame backdrop. Hi y'all, I just finished another mini-episode of my comedy crime series 'Hammerheds' it took wayyyyy longer than anticipated due to my unfortunate decision to 'film' the backdrop first. It's actually much more efficient to do it last, keeping in mind how the game looks (most importantly the angle from which it is 'filmed') and sync it up with your previously rendered greenscreen footage.

As usual I found the most difficult part was dealing with the character movement control, I'm probably going to have to figure out a work-around for fine tuning.
2016/5/6 2:43:42
Resetting character movement Hi y'all, I have been working on a fairly complicated scene with four characters, at one point I want two of the characters to move away from the other two and have a discussion. As usual, moving characters in close proximity was fraught with difficulty. One character was wildly out of whack so I went down their timeline, moving points and deleting movements, until the whole thing crashed.

I restarted the program and loaded the project, when I started doing the movements again the character kept doing the same movements as before in a jerky jump-cut fashion, this continued even after I reset the track! Lucky I had saved an earlier version, but I still lost a bunch of work, is there any way to reset the character movement?
2016/5/1 4:01:21
Mobile Phone Action How about the arm out front with the 'middle finger salute'? (for unsavory characters of course!)
2016/4/24 15:25:27
hearts a-flying Or if you're handy with your video editor, just make some hearts, save as PNG files and put them on your timeline in a sequence.
2016/4/6 17:42:11
Three (count 'em) three camera angles! Thanks! It's hard to get a cohesive storyline in two minute chunks, basically I'm going to do an 'origins' intro to bring people up to date, then go back and apply what I've learned recently to my earlier work and put them all together in a 10-15 minute first real episode.
2016/4/3 0:19:19
Three (count 'em) three camera angles! It's a lot of work using camera overlays, I don't see any alternative at this point though, this snippet is using a video-game backdrop and I combined everything with Vegas Pro
2016/4/3 0:16:13
Offering lighting and camerawork Here is a snippet of my latest, I think I'll stick to two (2!) camera angles in future!
2016/4/1 20:19:14
Offering lighting and camerawork I've discovered while using the videogame for a backdrop, that it's way more efficient to choose your shots in Muvizu and then go back to the game to match them up, once the backdrop is ready match up the light source and shadows in Muvizu and render. Camera overlays are good for one (1!) establishing shot only, or I'm really missing out on something.

I'm recording some live video footage on Sunday, which should be interesting. I have a tablet computer and I'm making some overlays, I'm then going to use the tablets camera to help place the characters.
2016/3/31 19:49:06
Character movement controls I have been working on a scene where three characters, filmed from the front, spot another character, I switch to a camera behind them and she approaches them, speaks to a character, quickly departs, then returns to speak to all of them.

I find it incredibly hard to use the movement interface effectively and accurately, often I just say 'the heck with it' when I'm anywhere close to where I want the characters to be, and move their heads when I want them to appear to interact.

It would be so much easier and less frustrating to move the characters directly, i.e. select the character, use the WASD keys to move, shift key to sprint, and Q and E keys to turn clockwise and counterclockwise. Everything else in Muvizu I can deal with but this drives me nuts.
2016/3/31 2:17:36
Offering lighting and camerawork Hi. Thanks for the kind offer.

As you can see I'm trying to put Muvizu characters in 'real' or 'real-ish' environments.



Muvizu is amazing but its a challenge to use with camera overlays. Maybe your real-life experience can help in the Unreal Muvizu world!

I will upload some files tomorrow to Gdrive that you can check out.

Help would be great. Than ks Williumus!

I just put links to photos and video via picasa.
2016/3/30 3:30:26
Set keyframes before animating them Are you using new content you made yourself? I'm always wanting my characters to move a certain way, i.e. slowly turn around and point, would it help with that?
2016/3/23 1:56:57
Great expectations, what can be done & what can't The 'stock' characters share the most, and have the widest range of characteristics. The (seemingly) more elaborate new characters are more directed to certain kinds of behavior, and, as I learned to my dismay - can't wear roller-skates!

I imagine if there was enough demand they could modify existing models to look like whatever. As someone who applies image-maps onto them, they work.

The process for inserting a camera overlay for instance, is convoluted, if you're putting your muvizu characters in the real world, or a video game world, overlays are critical and they should be wayyyyyyy easier to use and reuse.
2016/3/22 17:06:09
Great expectations, what can be done & what can't "They are just animation clips that get played when you invoke them" Um, no, I wish it were true. They are behaviors that are programmed into the characters bones, muscles, 'DNA' if you like. That is why newer characters have their own distinct movements (unfortunately sometimes) and why we won't see many new ones.
2016/3/22 5:58:39
Great expectations, what can be done & what can't I think Muvizu, with a game engine doing the heavy lifting, is that things the characters do are things they would do in the context of a game. If a game developer wants to pony up the money to make characters do more (mundane) things, they will. I think the characters in Muvizu have to be rigged a certain way to work, I'm not sure if outsiders could do that.

The programmer I spoke to was leery of looking 'under the hood' and to get someone who really understood what was going on, and how to make things that would work in Muvizu, aside from simple FBX objects, would take some doing.

I've tried Poser and given up on it.
2016/3/19 17:02:01
Great expectations, what can be done & what can't Adding 'packs' to make characters look different and making different props is fine. I would be more interested in things that would make the workflow smoother, the arrow key and W-A-S-D business I was describing was in regards to the 'Direct Character Movement' tool.
2016/3/18 18:27:25
Great expectations, what can be done & what can't I had an interesting conversation with a programmer the other day, I described Muvizu and he was impressed, he called it a 'virtual machine' and opined that if it (or something quite like it) wasn't part of a big-time animators toolkit right now, it would be in the near future.

He listened with bemusement to my gripes about what the various characters couldn't do, he seemed to believe that the software's 'heavy lifting' phase was essentially done, and that modifying character actions etc. would be a lot of work. "It's finished, it's complete, it works." he insisted. "Learn to work-around it's limitations." he added somewhat unnecessarily. This is what I, and many others, have been doing.

Muvizu is an incredible deal for the money and I'm pretty darn happy to have something you can tell a story (effectively) with. I'm wondering though if some things are much more do-able than other things. For instance, I have problems with the move controls, would it be possible to effect a change that would allow one to use the arrow keys or the W-A-S-D keys? To get more of an idea of what can (realistically) be done would be a real blessing.
2016/2/29 22:55:56
Exploring 'Mandy' characters singing ability. Hi y'all, made another little karaoke video. This time I used the Mandy character as the singer, I coloured the 'pipette' all black and rotated/scaled it to make an acceptable microphone, used all as the'singer' character actions as suited the song, created some hearts in another program and added them in Vegas Pro. The only quibble I have with the Mandy character is that her mouth doesn't open much, even when you have her shout. Oh well.
pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

About

Media

Legal

Muvizu

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.