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PatMarrNC - all messages by user

2015/12/13 18:44:35
3D modeling software Autodesk has a free product called 123d catch which will create a solid model from a series of 2d photos taken from about 50 -75 vantage points all around the object. You take the photos according to the guidelines posted in these videos ( https://www.youtube.com/user/123DCatch ) then upload them to the cloud, and they email the solid back to you.

Here's a link to the DL:
http://usa.autodesk.com/autodesk-123d/

Unfortunately, the file format of the model is .3dp which is probably only editable in Autodesk products, which tend to be expensive. You'd need a way to resize the model to fit Muvizu's coordinate system, then convert the model to ASE or FBX format in order for it to be used in Muvizu

Unless you are fairly proficient in building surfaces to repair incomplete models this may not be a useful tool for you. But I mention it for the sake of the many gurus here who are quite proficient with a variety of 3d modelling products. It looks like a tool that could be useful... especially now that virtually everyone has a digital camera.
2015/12/13 18:32:10
camera view and object edit are gone! MrDrWho13 wrote:
PatMarrNC wrote:
But... if the edit dialog boxes are appearing in the background, it doesn't explain why the CHARACTER edit dialog appears as usual.

Fair point. Your content packs and licences are tied to your account so uninstalling shouldn't affect anything.
Since you've had problems with other programs too, it sounds like a graphics driver issue. Have you got the latest drivers for your graphics card?

If none of this helps, send in a support ticket: http://www.muvizu.com/Support They'll probably answer tomorrow.


well... same graphic card and drivers as the last time everything worked (during the 50% off sale) when I bought everything that I didn't already have and checked it out.)

Since it looks like an upgrade is coming this week, I may hold off until then. If the upgrade doesn't change anything, then I'll file a support ticket.

Thanks for your help... I really appreciate it!
2015/12/13 16:32:22
is there a way to make characters completely still is there a way to make characters completely still? I know you can turn off breathing, but there is still residual movement of the hands and some body swaying. I have an application for which I need complete stillness when the character is standing erect. Is this possible? If so, how can I achieve it?
2015/12/13 16:22:38
camera view and object edit are gone! I DLed the only downloadable version I'm aware of (from the GET MUVIZU page > DOWNLOAD) and reinstalled over top of what was already there. In case the necessary .Net /C++ libraries somehow got corrupted, I reinstalled them too. I did NOT uninstall because I wasn't sure how that would impact all the extra content I've bought. (Reinstalling did not fix anything)

I've had the "hidden window" problem in other software, but it didn't occur to me to try ALT-TAB to see if it brought any open windows to the foreground. I'll try that. Thanks for the suggestion!

But... if the edit dialog boxes are appearing in the background, it doesn't explain why the CHARACTER edit dialog appears as usual.

MrDrWho13 wrote:

I don't know the solution to this problem, but I think I understand what's going on. It sounds like the windows for these things are behind the main Muvizu window. Have you tried reinstalling?
edited by MrDrWho13 on 13/12/2015

edited by PatMarrNC on 13/12/2015
edited by PatMarrNC on 13/12/2015
2015/12/13 7:37:02
camera view and object edit are gone! I opened Muvizu today for the first time in a while... and the camera view window is gone! Clicking VIEW > SHOW CAMERAS WINDOW does not work.

Also, if I right click on a camera or other object, then click EDIT.... nothing happens. No properties dialog appears.

Right click > edit for characters still works

Is anybody else experiencing this?

--------------------------------------------------------update-----
the timeline won't appear either
edited by PatMarrNC on 13/12/2015
2015/12/12 18:29:46
Bullet time simonheffer wrote:
Thanks Pat.
Yes, I tried something like this last year but couldn't get what I wanted. Ideally all I should need to do is rotate the camera with the anchor point on the subject - however I don't think keyframing works with camera rotations very well.


I understand that you are asking for a feature here and not a workaround. But I'm a workaround-a-holic, so that's my approach to everything. ;-)

For anyone who might want to try this before the feature gets added:

It wouldn't really HAVE to be a camera move that rotates about a point in space... I find the keyframed camera moves to work REALLY well! You can move the camera to a new location and line up the scene to look exactly as you want before you set the keyframe.

Since moves between keyframes are interpolated, scrub through the area between keyframes, and if the camera view starts to stray, manually correct it and set a new keyframe at the halfway point.

Using that approach you can keep the camera's attention focused pretty well on the center of a scene. Start with just start and end. Then keep adding keyframes at the halfway point that redirects the camera, and after about 5 keyframes you should be pretty darn close.
2015/12/12 18:16:58
3D modeling software Dick,

The product you want to model looks like its components are injection molded, and the dies used in injection molding are generally made from 3d models... so, its a safe bet that a model of this product already exists.

If you are making animations to advertise this product, you may want to contact the manufacturer, tell them what you're doing, and ask them to supply a 3-d model. They won't give you the parametric model, but they probably will give you what's called a "dumb solid", and that's really all you need.

Then DL Sketchup (free) and look through Muvizu's wiki to find the free ASE exporter
2015/12/10 14:53:26
Bullet time scene hack ideas:

1) create your action scene as usual, using 2 cameras (one that shows the scene at the start of the camera's orbit, the other that shows the scene at the end of the camera's orbit). Halfway through the scene, change the camera view.

2) at the point in the sequence where you want the camera to orbit, (where you changed the camera view) take a screen shot of both camera views so you can recreate the scene from both camera angles (with gravity turned off, so objects and people can be suspended in space)

3) using this still scene, make a separate action sequence which starts with the camera view seeing exactly what your first screen shot saw, and using keyframes, move the camera to a position where it sees exactly what your 2nd screen shot saw.

4) when you merge your scenes, insert this sequence in the middle of your original action sequence at the point where the camera view changed.
2015/12/10 6:22:44
how do I make an object or character disappear? right click on character > edit > appearance tab > VISIBLE (can be checked or unchecked manually... or controlled by keyframes!)

except it can't be faded in and out because it isn't a variable attribute.. it can only be on or off.

if you want to fade in and out, you can do that with graphics. So maybe you could take a screen shot of the character, put it on a backdrop, and use keyframes (or manual directing) to fade it in or out.
2015/12/10 0:01:35
Photo to Muvizu D2257 wrote:
Thanks for the reply.

I have photo is not a graphic. will this still work?


if it is a digital photo with a known file format such as JPG it should work.

If it is an actual photograph, then you'll need to scan it or take a digital photo of it to put it into digital form.
edited by PatMarrNC on 10/12/2015
2015/12/9 23:51:55
Star wars The Emperor looks awesome, Clayster! You've really put a lot of work into your characters, backdrops and accessories, and it shows!
2015/12/9 16:29:03
how do I make an object or character disappear? braj wrote:
With the new layer rendering option, you can render one character in a scene on its own layer, then in your video editor selectively make that clip visible as you need.

I was confused how this is done, but you just need to create your necessary layers in the Layers window, set the render to TARGA and you get two or more stems to work with for compositing. Oh, and in your video editor, you need to have the solo character clip enable the alpha channel in black.

One thing I need explained is how to use the depth pass option.
edited by braj on 07/08/2015


this would make a great tutorial ! (using layers to make things appear / disappear)
2015/12/9 16:25:08
A Limit to Character Actions? I'm a fairly new user myself, and I don't have a direct answer for your question...

However, One of the things I like about the idea of DIRECTING a video is that it presumes we are creating individual scenes which will be joined together later in an editor or by using the Muvizu joiner.

The point I'm leading up to is that when resources get tight, you can compensate by saving shorter scenes. Justify the break in continuity by introducing a new camera view.
2015/12/9 16:15:33
Photo to Muvizu backdrops can be used to display graphics and videos. Just add a backdrop to your project, right click for the properties dialog, and then I think it is the TEXTURE property that accepts a filename of a graphic. Once the graphic is displayed on the backdrop, you can size it and position it as needed.
2015/12/8 18:04:04
Multiple audio clips per character? I use Audacity to map out the entire character dialog before starting any animation. Each character's dialog is on its own track, so timing can be adjusted by sliding things around in that environment. Once the timing is right, I export each track to its own audio file and import each of them to Muvizu as already discussed.

Since each characters dialog is one long audio file, and in the Audacity environment all the dialog starts at the same origin point, its easy to line them up in Muvizu. Just place the beginnings of each file at the same spot, and all the dialog will retain the timing you had in Audacity.

Another advantage to this approach is that if you use character actors, they can do their lines in one take.

Another advantage (if you DON'T use character actors, and you supply all the voices yourself) is that Audacity has tools for modifying the tracks to make them sound deeper, higher, faster, slower etc... which make Audacity a single solution for your dialog needs.

And, since Audacity is multi track, you can also use it to position any background music or ambient sound in the mix. It has tools for fading in and out, raising and lowering volume, adding effects like reverb (if your character goes into a cave) and much more.

So if you start the project as though it were going to play on the radio, and mix all the audio first, it is surprisingly easy to adapt the animation to the audio. (my opinion, your mileage may vary)
edited by PatMarrNC on 08/12/2015
2015/12/7 14:56:01
Danimal Mysto,

thanks for taking the initiative to announce this news to his group of friends and acquaintances on the forum. In a time when many of us are active on multiple global forums, the social dynamic has changed somewhat. There's more potential now for someone's departure to go unannounced, leaving a huge void and no closure for the person's friends.

Sad as it is to learn of such an event, you've made it possible for his friends to grieve, find closure, and pay homage to his life. I think all of those things are very important. Thanks. I can only hope that when my time comes, someone will make a similar announcement on my behalf.
2015/12/7 4:50:56
Lock an Object to a Character To continue one of my themes... ;-)

I think the ability to lock an object to a character is the key to creating quadraped characters. It would be possible right now if there were a special-use character consisting of just legs ( attached to whatever imported object serves as the animals body)

The front and hind legs could be animated separately, and kept in sync by dragging on the timeline to keep them together


It would also be REALLY useful if there were a separate MOUTH object (just as there are separate noses, ears and eyes) that moved in synch with dialog text. Having a mouth that could be moved around to wherever we need it would open the door to creating all sorts of different creature heads that could talk.

Currently, putting a horse head on a character would cover his mouth, dramatically limiting that character's usefulness with dialog. But if an animated mouth could be positioned at the end of his snout... PROBLEM SOLVED!

---------------------------------------------------------------
Those are my requests:
animated legs and mouths that can be used by themselves as character attachments.
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edited by PatMarrNC on 07/12/2015
2015/12/7 4:12:40
key frames fun taking that idea a step further:

Directing a character's actions currently involves the following sequence of events:

1) set up your actions in the action picker
2) start recording
3) when the timeline progresses to the point where you want to insert an action, you click the button for that action and it gets inserted into the time line's sequence of events
4) click on an idle action to set the duration of the previous action

elements are basically
-a defined action
-a time for it to begin
-a duration

it would be cool if we could just...
1) position the timeline wherever we want to insert an action (thereby establishing the start time)
2) pick the action same as we would when directing the action as usual (except the scene would not be recording/moving)
to INSERT an action event on the timeline (thereby establishing the action)
3) Then, if hovering the cursor over the right edge of the event changed the cursor into a stretch tool, the duration could be visually adjusted in much the same way as the start time for events can now be changed by dragging the event (thereby establishing the duration)

This would make it easy to precisely add and edit actions on the timeline, because we wouldn't be trying to do it in real time.
It would be even more useful if such timeline events could be copied and pasted to new locations
Better yet if they could be copied from one character and pasted to the action timeline for a different character

This is actually quite a bit like the way the new keyframe feature works, so I'd guess all the framework is already in place.
edited by PatMarrNC on 07/12/2015
2015/12/7 2:50:13
Can you add voices from a software program? blacpro wrote:
I would like to purchase a software program that I can use to add voices to different characters. Is this possible with Muvizu?


If you are looking for a standalone software program that can be used to create a variety of different versions of your own voice (deeper, higher, slower etc) AUDACITY is free and very powerful. I use it to create the dialog for all my characters.

http://www.audacityteam.org/
2015/12/6 1:17:34
installing MUVIZU to a USB drive... I saw a recent post about the number of installations that are allowed with Muvizu. Seems like the answer was two. Here's a related question:

The cost of USB drives has really come down lately. Is there any reason why a person couldn't install MUVIZU to a terabyte USB drive, then use it on a number of different computers?
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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.