Site Search
Join Muvizu

ziggy72 - all messages by user

2013/4/16 19:28:58
Stapling Squirrels Stapling squirrels?!! That's terrible - you should use nails instead Big Grin
2013/4/15 23:51:19
Coming Soon... urbanlamb wrote:
...or you can just import an entire object and set to emissive and then the entire thing lights up if you are not needing specific parts to glow


This is what I do - and since you're importing an object, you can just assign blank textures to anything you don't want to glow. It's only since they fixed the importer that I've started experimenting with the options, but you can do some interesting things - neon striplights are dead easy Woz - it's just an imported tube, and the other bits can be abstract shapes.
2013/4/15 22:36:41
Coming Soon... More Sammamish - Raiford Prison, Florida. Or as near as my meagre Sketchup skills will allow Just a WIP, but I'm really liking what you can do by importing shapes with the alpha set to Emissive - it makes them glow like lighting, so you can make neon signs and lightbulbs that actually look like lightbulbs...

2013/4/14 22:49:12
blank preview LULU153 wrote:
I tried viewing through WMP but that didnt work either


The codec pack works for your system, not just one player - when you play something in any player, it asks windows to recognise the file type it's playing (there are various sub-types of AVI, WMV, MOV, etc) and windows says yes or no to it.

As for importing a video into Muvizu, I always use Divx AVIs - you should download a video converter if you don't have one already (this one's good, and free) :

http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/

Importing video seems to be a bit hit and miss, with people preferring different file types - I think if it works, it works, make a note and move on One thing I've noticed - always scale down your original video resolution - try 640 x 480 to start with, and with as short a clip as possible, or else everything in Muvizu grinds to a halt. Good luck Thumbs Up
2013/4/14 20:44:48
blank preview Woz and Urban are right about VLC, it's a great player (especially the audio sync slider, for out of sync vids). If it's a codec issue, and Muvizu HQ confirm it, then yes Lulu, download both the 32bit and 64bit versions - install 32 first, then 64, to ensure maximum compatibility with every know codec. Don't worry, you just install them, you don't need to do anything special after that - it just makes it, y'know, work better
2013/4/14 17:02:44
Newer version? Muvizu Play actually installs itself into a 'muvizuplay' directory anyway, rather than just 'muvizu', so you're best to have them installed side by side, as it were. I'm certainly not getting rid of 23b anytime soon
2013/4/14 16:59:12
blank preview Lulu, I hate the say the dreaded 'C' word, but I'm afraid you may have to put in some Codecs. Normally you never need to know what these are, but when exporting video, you do. You're probably best to wait for Muvizu HQ to get back to you, but if you can't wait (or are impatient) then download the k-lite codec pack from here :

http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/KLite-Codec-Pack-Basic/1094057842/1

Big blue button on the right that says Download Now, can't miss it - that's the actual file link (in amongst all the spam links).

And same again for the 64 bit version (if that's what you're using) :

http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/KLite-Codec-Pack-64bit/1094057842/5

Once installed, and you've restarted your machine, you should have more options in Muvizu for the output, and you should be able to play any video format (although I'd avoid QuickTime if poss, and use standard windows media player - QT is fussy and a bit crap). Hope that helps
2013/4/13 21:01:17
Muvizu:Play 1.0 timeline discussion I didn't mean 'you' were a new user, I meant if you were seeing the program AS a new user, don't you think etc... I know you've been around for ages
2013/4/13 19:52:08
New website feedback thread i agree

(Had to edit this - it's not IanS I'm agreeing with, it's Dreeko. Not that I disagree with IanS or anything... )

Other than that, why are the info panes for the Assets so big and empty? Is other stuff going to get added in later? Also on assets, I would love to see the 4 options (Content Packs, Sets, etc) shown as buttons to filter the Assets directly, more like what we had before, along the top across from "All".

And a question - on the Gallery page, the top right drop down gives you themed movies - how are these defined? I mean, do you assign vids as being (for example) 'horror' and add them to the list, or use the YouTube tags, or what? Just curious
edited by ziggy72 on 13/04/2013
2013/4/13 19:06:40
Muvizu:Play 1.0 timeline discussion MrDrWho13 wrote:
Ah, you have read my confused post. I didn't understand what anyone was talking about. I then re-read ziggy's post and it turns out I must of mis-read it. I now understand what you mean and I completely agree!


Good stuff, although when I re-read it I realised I'd forgotten to point out my suggestion had no relation to the million click Timeline problem, but was to suggest how the Timeline could be developed in future to accommodate the new users Neil was talking about, and maybe find a different way to present it. Sorry to all for any confusion caused - it was a long day yesterday...

Anyway, I like your mock-up. I mean, as a new user, don't you think having the links there just helps you realise what you have to address, to think about, to make your animation? The stages involved, and the options Muvizu gives you, that kind of thing. I've always felt Muvizu was very fragmented, little modules of code living separate little lives distant from each other. We don't have to show the end user that though, do we?
2013/4/13 1:02:58
Muvizu:Play 1.0 timeline discussion WozToons wrote:
ziggy72 wrote:
...and if we had selectable lines in the Timeline, like you said, you could customize the look to suit what you're animating and show you the lines that matter - yup, that would be cool


I may have misunderstood Ziggy but isn't that what the filter does?


D'oh! yes, of course, I'd already forgotten we now have the ability to choose which lines to show in Play. It's just unusable Big Grin
2013/4/12 22:02:55
Muvizu:Play 1.0 timeline discussion ...and if we had selectable lines in the Timeline, like you said, you could customize the look to suit what you're animating and show you the lines that matter - yup, that would be cool
2013/4/12 21:41:10
Muvizu:Play 1.0 timeline discussion MrDrWho13 wrote:
Ok, so the new buttons are just the same as the sub-menu thingys, but easier to access?

Yes - have you never thought it odd that you can mess around with, say, head movement blocks in the Timeline, but to add or change them you have to use the menu to get to the option to do that? (assuming your average newb can even find it) Not really intuitive, I think.
2013/4/12 21:25:58
Muvizu:Play 1.0 timeline discussion Dreeko wrote:
I wouldn't like to see objects and character separated in the same way that you do, as it is handy to have them visible to keep an eye on them as you direct the other elements.

How do you mean, D? Is it something along the lines of wanting to see the animation blocks for one thing while you direct something else? Having more than 1 timeline might assist that, is what I'm thinking (if I'm thinking what you're thinking, but your thinking may be completely different... )
2013/4/12 21:09:39
Muvizu:Play 1.0 timeline discussion MrDrWho13 wrote:
ok, Ziggy I'm very confused...

Do those buttons replace the little sub-menu collapse buttons?

I think my brain has switched off ready for the weekend.


No, they would remain, this is just about getting the functions clearer and I think having a target oriented timeline would have benefits. I think we're past berating the million click drop down issue
2013/4/12 19:38:09
Muvizu:Play 1.0 timeline discussion Okay, so you can have a fully functional interface, and it will be complex, or a simple interface, which will be limited. Muvizu is trying to do both and it doesn’t work. It never does – not in 3D studio, nor Sketchup or Blender or Vegas or Daz or iClone or anything else for that matter – there will always be someone who looks at an interface and throws up their hands and declares it’s impossibly complicated, no matter how user friendly you try to make it. Screw ‘em. You can’t please everyone, so just aim for the majority and add some tooltip help and slightly patronising tutorials for the rest

Adding everything in the set as a line in the Timeline (by default) is unhelpful, for everyone new and old, I think we all agree on that one. Ironically, the biggest strength of Muvizu was that everything was accessible through the Timeline, but now it’s become its biggest weakness. The Timeline should contain only what the user needs and has selected for use – presenting a new user with a list containing dozens or hundreds of lines will make them run for the hills. So, what to do?

How about this – separate the Timeline into what makes sense logically – there is a Character Timeline, and a Studio Timeline (or Set Timeline, whatever you want to call it). They would both share the cue points for syncing purposes, but other than that they would be distinct from each other because they don’t do the same things. The actions a character can perform have no connection to, say, the movement path of a box, so why have them in the same place? Do objects have eye movements? No, time for a parting of the waves I reckon...

I liked Urbanlamb’s idea of having links to other menus right inside the Timeline, and after a bit of musing came up with this – you’d right click on a character, then select Timeline, and you’d see this (not really to scale, sized just for emphasis) :



Only Character lines would appear in the Timeline, and all Characters would be shown here and not on the Studio Timeline. The character you’ve selected is top of the list, the rest are listed either alphabetically or by date, or maybe by animated and non animated, hmm... Anyway, each button would expand when selected like so :



Clicking the +Movement button would take you to the movement direction box, gestures to Prepare Character Actions, and so on. The crosses on the right would scrub the animations recorded on that timeline, as you’d expect. The blank bit to the left is where you’d have your show/hide all buttons or something equally helpful. No object, lights, cameras or anything like that shown here – just everything that’s directly relevant to a Characters behaviour (and one mystical day, the fabled “props” button will appear, allowing you to select what’s in their hands...)

The Studio Timeline (accessible by right clicking anywhere that’s not a character) would therefore look like this :



Same idea, with each button expanding (if necessary) with the sub options leading to the various screens dotted around Muvizu’s labyrinth of ‘prepare’ dialogs There are no character lines here, and this would help shrink down the Timeline a bit (and the scrolling, the endless scrolling...)

Please note that I only distinguish between Voice and Sound, not Audio, Dialogue and Sound FX as we currently have it, which I never thought made sense – isn’t dialogue audio? Preparing the audio separately beforehand, then having to re-select it as Dialogue seems like a duplication of labour, and a bit confusing. You could still list Sound as two entities - Sound FX and Soundtrack, but I’d put all dialog options (import, prep, direct) into one Voice menu, like how you integrated the Head/eye/eye size controls into one menu.

Right now, if I attempted to load up my Woodland set, all those ferns would have a line shown for them. Every single one. To quote Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons – “There’s no emoticon for what I’m feeling!”. Hope you find my ideas helpful in some way.

Keepin’ the faith

2013/4/12 18:33:11
Logging in Eh, thanks, but why hide it there? Shouldn't it be an option when you log in from the main page too?
2013/4/12 15:29:43
Logging in Is there some reason why the Muvizu site doesn't remember my login details, and makes me log in again every time? It used to remember my details for weeks, which was handy because I have the site loaded as a Startup item in Windows (yes I do). Now it's extremely annoying that I read the posts, go to answer something only to discover I am, yet again, not logged in. Please fix
2013/4/12 15:20:26
How to make a movie trailer! This is the trailer for every movie made since about 1996
2013/4/11 23:57:45
Making Characters Fly? Nice stuff megadots. While not strictly flying, I did come up with a way to make the cape flap about in the still flying pose (near the bottom of the post) :

http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic2215-superhero-adventures-episode-2.aspx

Might be useful to you
pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96

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.