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ukBerty - all messages by user

2010/11/12 15:33:47
Use of Instruments in new version Doh !

Awesome.

Thanks

Berty
2010/11/12 15:03:13
Use of Instruments in new version Chaps.....

Just doing some new music animations and am struggling with the concept of the instruments.

For example I have a singer. He is set to a initial state of singing and I can make him do all the moves.

Is he supposed to have a microphone in his hands ? I have put a static mic in front of him, but in many of the moves his hand holding the mic moves around, but the mic does not.

Is the intention that he has a hand held mic or that I animate the static mic (I don't think the latter is really practical - I may go mad trying to do that).

Or is it work in progress ?

Same issue with drumsticks.

Cheers

Berty
edited by ukBerty on 11/12/2010
2010/11/10 20:38:39
latest version Just found the head movement - Hoorah - no more lolling heads !

Berty
(Although I'm half way through animating zombies, so it's come in handy)
2010/11/10 18:30:53
latest version Well I've done it - I took the risk.

Apart from all the new wizzo features I see that the following have been fixed:-

YOU CAN NOW SAVE IMPORTED OBJECTS !!!!

This will save me hours and hours of work so many thanks.

I also see that character movement seems more responsive.

There's a lot packed into this new version. I'll have a go on a new scene tonight, but it's looking great.

Berty
2010/11/9 8:15:38
Missing Textures BinaryGenesis,

I have this issue as well - it's a, er, feature.

There's been mention of a resolution so I'm hoping that today's release will include a fix for this as I can't actually save many of my scenes.

Berty
2010/11/7 15:55:49
Staundoone Episode ! Dreeko,

I really liked this. I think you're really onto something. I like the pacing - slow. You take your time to tell the story and tell it well. I have a real soft spot for voice overs - love it.

Now to the canned laughter. I see what you achieved with making it seem like an old style sitcom - and this worked. My worry is that by episode five the story and animation will still be great, but this "homage" will have out-stayed its welcome.

Just my two pennies.....
2010/11/1 17:12:28
Particle Effects Pyrrho,

I can't really believe this. Every time I get to a part of my animation where I think "Just how the hell am I going to do that?" you build it into the app !

Rock on.

Berty
2010/11/1 17:02:37
Should I bother? pyrrho,

Thanks for your replies and reflection on this post.

Please re-send the message from a couple of weeks a go since I didn't get it.

Thanks

Berty
2010/11/1 7:38:09
Should I bother? Pyrrho, I think you’re being a bit harsh on RighrRUKen here.

He has a valid point. It appears from the interview quoted that projects have been effectively killed at birth by pricing them out of practicality based upon their premise or content.

OK, fair enough I suppose, but things may start out as a hobby and then suddenly go viral, creating a commercial possibility. At this point discussions would be had between the parties, but from what you and Vince have said here, you hold all the cards and can effectively take your ball home. I’m sure this is not the impression of your fledgling business you wish to leave.

Hermit is right – the wheat will rise to the top and the chaff will fall away, without the need for Muvizu to sift through it.

I think the forum is the ideal, er… forum to air these concerns and it’s best to get some of these ground rules out in the open rather than in a private discussion.

(I guess you’ll now want another 5% on that “Beware the Pie” T-shirt deal I’m working on?

Berty
edited by ukBerty on 11/1/2010
edited by ukBerty on 11/1/2010
2010/10/31 13:11:49
Competitions and Post processing Firstly thanks you both for your kind words regarding "Beware the Pie" - cheers.

"The Book" has a fantastic slick look which I have no idea how to emulate, so by necessity my animations are, at the moment anyway, closer to "Pure" Muvizu.

Post processing is a tough one. I don't like using it either because it takes so long to get everything just right.

I'm just looking through part two (out next week folks !) to see why I use post production. Here are my top 5 reasons....

at No 5 - Backdrops aren't big enough. If you have a large scene and a panoramic shot then the widescreen backdrop doesn't cover the whole of the width. I resort to multiple green screens and putting the backdrop in later (example - starry sight sky in part 2).

at No 4 - Character movement control. I know that this is being worked on, but this really is the most frustrating part of Muvizu at the moment. And why did I write that bloody donkey into the story, it's nothing but trouble and requires much post processing (example - Eddie & M on donkey in part 1)

In at No 3 - See through windows. Maybe this is possible, but I can't see how to do it. I have to set the window colour to my favourite shade of lime green and put in the background in post. (example - Hotel room in Part 1)

Number 2 - Moving objects. I try to keep this to a minimum, but sometimes things just have to move about (example - taxi in part 1).

And still at number 1 - opening doors/windows. Who'd have thought that so many doors need to be opened when telling a story. (example - hotel door opening in part 1).

When Muvizu have refined all the points above (and I'm sure they will) there will be no need for me to use AE.

Ziggy72 - I'm afraid your Muvizu logo idea won't work. I have an AVI file of just the logo which I superimpose over my projects in AE to keep the logo there and consistent.

I agree that Muvizu should keep trying to improve the core of what it does really well. Please don't spend time creating a multi-track 5.1 surround mixing system - there are plenty of those out there.

Berty
2010/10/15 11:28:00
What actions would Muvizuers like to have? I could do with kissing (oo-er).

...and possibly hugging.

I understand that interactions between characters is tougher.

Berty
2010/10/14 19:21:19
Smaller Head Movements I use a different method.....

Just start start animating the head movement with the click and drag method. Get the head to look where you want and stop animating. It doesn't matter if there's a lot of flopping about as long as it ends up where you want it.

Then edit the timeline. You'll see that all your little head movemnets are there. These are absolute positions rather than relative, so it's only the last movement you want as this sets the head where you want. Delete all the head movements except for the last one, then move this head movement to the position you want.

I know it's a hassle, but I find this works for me.

Berty
2010/10/11 21:38:51
Look here......................................... Harveywetdog,

I've done this, but it's tricky.

Three phases:-

First get the body in the right positon. If the character is doing a quarter turn then animate this to get it in the timeline. Then I work backwards - move the timeline past where you want the look to camera and swivel the character so the body is where you want. The animation you recorded will then end up at this position.

Next the head. The head control is way too sensitive so it requires some manual editing. Move the timeline to after the turn and start animating the head movement. Get the head to look where you want and stop animating. It doesn't matter if there's a lot of flopping about as long as it ends up where you want it.
Then edit the timeline. You'll see that all your little head movemnets are there. these are absolute positions rather than relative, so it's only the last movement you want as this sets the head where you want. Delete all the head movements after the turn animation except for the last one, then move this head movement to the end of the turn.

Lastly do the eyes in the same manner you did the head.

I hope this helps.

Berty
2010/10/8 7:52:30
Error MSG ...Help needed Abolina,

This aspect is quite frustrating. It's saying that you cannot create a character where you are as there are objects in the way.

Move to an empty section outside your room, then create the character and move it to where you want it.

Hope this helps,

Berty
(Just back from diving in Dahab - awesome)
2010/9/21 13:02:13
some character animations don't work Mach,

I'm pretty sure your character needs to be seated already to use these.
Prepare the character and select "sit" as the initial position (or get them to sit down as a instruction as part of you animation).

Berty

Just checked - Yes, that's it.
edited by ukBerty on 9/21/2010
2010/9/17 9:11:44
32bit-64bit-XP-7--Aarrrghhhhh While I'm rabbitting on....

I have two logical drives in my machine - C: and D:

I generally save my AVI files to D:, but if I output in high res uncompressed then this drive is not fast enough and reviewing it is jumpy.

My C: drive is mirrored - i.e. two drives of the same cpacity. I put all my high res output on this now as the read times are much faster and therefore not jumpy.

So if I was specifying a PC for animation it would have mirrored drives on your data partition.

Berty
2010/9/17 8:52:22
32bit-64bit-XP-7--Aarrrghhhhh Toonrama,

The only issue I can think of is if you are trying to use shared peripherals (sucha as a printer) on a 32 bit windows OS from a PC with a 64 bit OS. I have seen this cause problems as you have 64 bit drivers printing through a 32 bit machine with 32 bit drivers on.

The way round this is to use networked printers and print direct from each PC.

Berty
2010/9/17 7:25:16
32bit-64bit-XP-7--Aarrrghhhhh Kaynine,

I use Windows 7 32 bit on my PC and run Muvizu and all my other software no problem.

However, I work wth all this IT stuff and just for the record here's what I know.....

1) You do not need to run 64 bit Windows if you have 64 bit architecture. I have installed many 64 bit machines with 32 bit versions of the OS. This is maninly to cater for older applications which customers needed to run and I didn't want to chance it.

2) The big advantage of a 64 bit OS is accessible memory. A 32 bit OS can effectively address around 3GB of RAM, whilst 64 bit can address Terabytes (can't remember how many - basically enough for you not to worry about). This is why I may upgrade my machine to 64 bit Windows 7 in the near future - I currently have a 64 bit machine running 32 bit Windows 7. When you have Muvizu, After Effects and Studio all running along together with your Outlook etc the machine really struggles with 3GB RAM. I would be stuffing my existing machine with 12GB RAM and upgrading to 64 bit Windows 7 so I can use it all.

3) I have had no problems with installing 32 bit applications for clients on 64 bit operating systems in the last couple of years. The only issue I have had was having environments with mixed 32 and 64 bit print drivers - but as you only have 1 PC this will not be an issue.

4) The only real compatability issues are with drivers for peripherals. You need 64 bit drivers for all your printers and bits and bobs if you are running a 64 bit OS. You may find that Windows 7 comes with drivers for most things, but you should check. If you run windows 7 32 bit on 64 bit architecture you will use the 32 bit drivers of course.

So my advice is go for 64 bit OS and architecture unless you have so many old peripherals that this would be too costly.

Berty
2010/9/16 18:27:59
Bug that is driving me nuts Thanks Jamie - it's not stopping me moving on - it's just annoying that's all.

When is the next scheduled release ?

Berty
2010/9/16 14:40:59
Bug that is driving me nuts Excellent.

Whilst I have your ear.....

The other two bugs I have found which seriously effect functionality are to do with saving...

1) The sit/stand issue I detailed just before the last update. It goes like this

i) Create a blank set and a character
ii) Put the characters initial position to sit
iii) Animate the chracter to stand then do an action.
iv) save and reopen the .set
v) Play the animation and you'll see the character is obsessed with sitting down all the time.

The only way round this I have found is to delete whole animation line from the timeline window and start again. This means that I can't actually save any scene with a change in posture (I've got a couple of retakes to do and I've postponed it as I can't face re-animating the whole scene again !)

2) The ability to save imported objects (they go pink when you open the .set again). It also makes it striped so you can't just redo the colours.

Both these make retaking or adjusting scenes quite frustrating as you can't faithfully save scenes in their current state.

Thanks

Berty
Oh, by the way, did I say just how awesome Muvizu is....
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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.