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KiltedNinja - all messages by user

2010/8/31 17:57:29
New site I'm also liking the new site - and I'm loving the additions/changes to the software - awesome work. I've only had 5 minutes to check it out, but in those minutes I was quite impressed and I'm sure I'll probably end up spending an inordinate amount of time playing with the new toys....

Time for me to call in a few sick days at work Big Grin (joking of course... work is a serious business. *cough*)

Nice work Muvizu Crew
2010/8/11 20:44:23
Muvizu fan site - Movie sets for Muvizu Nice one Cool idea.

I know that the Muvizu Team are currently building a new website and forum (I believe it's due to be implemented at the end of this month.. might be wrong tho) - I had offered the suggestion to them of having somewhere for people to share their .sets as well as their movies - I got a positive response and I think it might be likely that they'll include this feature in the new forum.

So aye.. seems like a good plan. I'll upload mine to your site when I've done some more (Only done one at the moment... the result of a week-long intensive muvizu learning session Big Grin)
2010/8/11 19:06:33
Royalty Free Music Hi folks,

I thought I'd bring this to everyone's attention - some pretty cool royalty free music for your Muvizu movies

There are some really nice pieces of music here, loads of different styles and genres - worth checking out.

(Part of me doesn't want to share this.. I've a feeling that I'll decide to make a wee animation and choose an awesome bit of music, only to find that someone else uses it too.... kinda like that girl-thing where they show up at parties wearing the same dress... *shrug* ...anyway!)

http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html

Enjoy


*** NOTE ***
If you use this guy's music in your movies, please credit him for it - he's done some great work and deserves the credit (Also, I'm fairly sure that it's a requirement of the Creative Commons Licence... or something like that...)

edited by KiltedNinja on 8/11/2010
edited by KiltedNinja on 8/11/2010
2010/8/9 10:51:27
Another Forum Suggestion Cool, nice one. Just thought it'd be a good idea

Had another thought as well... I know that you guys are building a new website for Muvizu, so I just thought I'd ask a question regarding the existing member accounts ; Will they be retained? Or will they have to be recreated?

If I could offer an opinion, I think they should be retained - it seems that you guys now have over 7000 forum members, and while it'll probably be a bit of work to have these retained, it may prove better than losing some of that membership. I know from experience that forum 're-builds' that force members to re-register often take a membership hit - some people are just too lazy to register again.....

...having said that though, there is a possibility that some of the members could be random spambots - so if you killed the existing accounts and had 'real-user' validation when creating a new account, then you could remove the bots from the system... Just a thought.

(I completely lost where I was going with that.. sometimes I have a habit of typing-out-loud and contradicting myself. (it's too early on a monday.))
edited by KiltedNinja on 8/9/2010
2010/8/9 10:37:20
It's UPSIDE DOWN!!! lodylody wrote:
I exported my video 1280 x 720, with Microsoft Codec one, and it's upside down! What the hell can fix this?


Sounds like a random codec issue, I found this forum which might have information that could help you : http://www.click-now.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=84

Good luck
2010/8/9 10:30:22
Talking... lodylody wrote:
I still can't find the walking animation! Sorry!


When you 'Direct Animation', you see the control panel with all the animations you can choose from. You'll also see a large white circle with arrows - this is on the ground directly under your character. To make the character walk, just click on the arrows and 'drag' to the character's destination.
2010/8/9 10:27:47
How Do I Get A Different Camera To Record? lodylody wrote:
I can't get camera 2 recording without deleting camera 1 - how do you record multiple cameras at the same time?


You can choose "Direct Cameras" ; When you hit the 'directors clapper board' to record, you can then choose which camera records that part of the scene. I.e, it records for a few seconds as camera 1, then you make it switch to record from camera 2. When you make the .avi file, it switches between the cameras the way you've chosen them to.

If you want 2 different camera views recorded so that you can use 2 movies in a post-processing application (Like Adobe Premier for example), then you'll have to record it all with camera 1 and save the .avi, and then record it all with camera 2 and save that .avi.
2010/8/9 9:54:57
i reallly dont get this pinkyangel wrote:
right so i create a project and the do what ..........


Download the Muvizu application, and make some movies

Download it here : http://www.muvizu.com/Information/Download.aspx
And have a look at the tutorial section which tells you how to use the program, http://www.muvizu.com/Projects/Presentation/Present.aspx?userid=1462

Good luck
2010/8/7 1:04:03
Another Forum Suggestion Hey Muvizu folks..
Just thought of something else you can maybe try to include when building the new website/forum. In the "Projects" area (or whatever it becomes) - it'd possibly be a good idea to be able to upload the ".set" files also.

This could open up the sharing/collaboration aspect a bit more. Also, it'd perhaps help new users learn by studying other people's work. (Even though Muvizu is really simple and intuitive to use, and even though there are some *very* detailed tutorials, there'll always be people just cant quite 'get it' until they get to mess around with a pre-made project...)

..possibly?

KiltedNinja
2010/8/7 0:50:24
How to take the muvizu logo off your videos? I believe it's there on purpose... I would imagine that this is so that people who view the animation will go "oo" then wonder how it was made - they see the Muvizu logo, investigate it and lo - the world of Muvizu grows....

I would hope that at some point there will be a Free version and a Commercial version, which would allow you to make movies without the logo.. Personally though, I'm happy for it to be there ; The Muvizu concept deserves advertisement.
2010/8/2 15:38:43
Forum Suggestion No probs. I'll randomly just hit ye's with any ideas I have.. Use the good ones and ignore the rest


Edit:
Just thought about something ; Might be an idea to consider an "age-rating/certificate" system when movies are being posted. I noticed a couple of the movies have some strong language, and while I totally think this is fine (and funny :P), it could open the door to negative comments from people.. The animation process in Muvizu is kid-friendly, and the overall style is cartoony, so there's high chance that kids will be exposed to adult content.

I definitely don't think you should add viewing restrictions or anything like that, a simple notification is all that's needed - then it's purely down to user discretion.

KiltedNinja.
edited by KiltedNinja on 8/2/2010
2010/8/2 15:32:06
Best DUI Ever Thanks! Big Grin

Had to use some 3rd party software for the fades and cuts.. The cutting of the animations was tricky, took a long time to figure out which animations to use, and which way to cut them to achieve the result. Spent a week solid (from when we discovered Muvizu it last week) making this... It was very worth it though.

So aye, our plan is to make some funny animations of existing interwebs funnies, hopefully people will come across our Muvizu versions and get a bit more exposure for this software. (Also, I positively *hate* the sound of my voice on tape (not self-conscious at all...) so it'll be a wee while before I make anything with our own recorded audio..)

Anyways, glad ye's liked it
edited by KiltedNinja on 8/2/2010
edited by KiltedNinja on 8/2/2010
2010/8/2 15:19:20
Muvizu thoughts?? I completely agree with Mysto and CivicByNature ;
I've used many animation and software packages over the years (reaching back to the days of ye olde ZX128k...) - And Muvizu hit me the same way that Google Sketchup hit me. Revolutionary.

It's very easy to use, fairly intuitive user interface, deceptively simplistic (deceptive, because the overall "feel" is simple, yet it's incredibly powerful).
You can drop items into a blank space and be animating them literally within seconds, couple that fact with the wealth of detailed and in-depth tutorials and you've got a really good basis to start making your own animated movies. The library of pre-set moves for each type of character (male/female/robot/blob etc) could be improved and added to, however at the moment it covers a very broad range of expressive gestures which can be combined with audio to produce pretty good effects.

It has other benefits such as helping animators with real-world physical stop-frame animation ; For example, setting up a scene with a standard character, have them timed and synchronised with some desired audio, and performing a complex gesture. You can then view the rendered output on a frame by frame basis and use the movements to help with the physical movement of your clay/plastercine/etc model.

The community is still very much a fledgling community at the moment, but I imagine that once Muvizu gets a little more exposure, things will be rocking.

I personally believe this to be one of the best pieces of software I've used in a long, long time. The most difficult thing about using Muvizu is deciding on what type of animation you want to make!

Briliant Big Grin
edited by KiltedNinja on 8/2/2010
2010/8/1 13:27:58
New forum software please? Sorry Admins, for reviving such an old post - but I just discovered this after posting here :

http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic266-forum-suggestion.aspx


I've created a few forums using Simple Machines (php bulleting board) - the forums are really simple to set up, have loads of features for members (groups, permissions to access areas) - loads of features for forums/sub-forums / calendars, etc

http://www.simplemachines.org/about/copyright.php

I would recommend this for an effective, easy-to-use forum. This forum right now is nice, has a good style, neat icons and feel to it, however it's very confusing to navigate and that leads to people not posting...

(Incidentally, feel free to tell me to shut up anytime Big Grin)
edited by KiltedNinja on 8/1/2010
2010/8/1 11:30:11
Best DUI Ever Hi folks!

(Ok, first of all - I'm not even sure if this is the right place to post this (Since it's under Muvizu Discussion in the Feedback area) - however, I couldn't find a proper place and I figured that the Admins can move it or something if they don't agree.....)

Anyway!

Best DUI Ever - Now with New-Improved Muvizu Flavour :


Enjoy
edited by KiltedNinja on 8/1/2010
2010/8/1 11:23:47
Forum Suggestion Hi folks,

I know you guys are very busy with modifying and improving Muvizu, but I have a suggestion for the Forum. It seems like there needs to be a "General Discussion" area, where people can just talk about whatever. You have 3 'sections' to the forum (General / Feedback / Projects) - but there doesn't seem to be a generic conversation area.

Perhaps it's just the way that I'm using the forum (..I only discovered you guys last week so that might be what the problem is..), but for example; I made a cool wee movie and created a Project for it - but I can't find anywhere to post and let people know. And fair enough, people will see it if they click on Projects, but there seems to be minimal functionality for people to be able to discuss the actual movie (techniques used / thought process etc).

Another idea would be to have a link somewhere in a member's Project page that takes you to the actual movie they've made (youtube link for example). I see lots of posts of people saying "You have to see this!" (etc), but am unable to actually find the actual movie easily. You can hunt for the movie in the member's profile page via the "Projects" page (under Assets if they've uploaded it there), however just casually browsing through usually yields nothing. This could be a possible reason that there appears to be little community activity, perhaps people "cant see anything" and so wander away...

Like I said, I know this stuff probably wont rank high-up there in the priority list - but this community has the potential to expand massively, so it might be a good idea.

Cheers,
KiltedNinja.
edited by KiltedNinja on 8/1/2010
2010/7/28 20:51:47
Suggestions / Modifications glasgowjim wrote:
7. Multiple Cameras: You mean more than 4 cameras? This is something that probably won't be done as it negatively affects performance. The ability to move cameras is being added, which should reduce the need for multiple cameras.


Actually, thinking about this now - I've realised that the ability to move cameras would completely remove the need for more than 4 cameras. You could have Camera-1 filming some action, meanwhile Camera-2 is moving to a new position ; switch to Camera-2 to film some action and meanwhile Camera-1 goes to yet another position for the next section of filming ; wash-rinse-repeat.

The only thing to make sure of, is that the cameras have the ability to move very quickly from any start-position to end-position (i.e, if it has to move a large distance in 1 second). Saying that though, if there's 4 cameras then that shouldn't really be a problem.


Another couple of things to add to the wishlist then :

1. "Save points" for Director's Camera. This would help greatly with scene setups, being able to hit numberkeys (i.e from the top-row, not from the number-keypad) and jump around the scene. Perhaps save-points for the other cameras too? (Although this might be slightly more difficult to work out, controls wise. Would probably require another menu.)

2. The ability to cut & paste on the timelines. (i.e, you have a sequence of 3 particular moves that you want to repeat exactly further in the movie)

3. Camera Transitions. It'd be quite neat to be able to do fades between camera cuts, perhaps add in the standard wipes and roll-overs, blinds, dissolves, flips etc. Even though coding the transitions properly could take a bit of time, if you convince the development guys to make a fade for the next update that'd be sweet.... (*hopes*)

4. A "Point-At" function for the cameras (perhaps objects too?). It'd be particulary usefull when cameras actually start moving about. For example, camera is moving slowly parallel to the road while a car drives quickly past - camera will be moving whilst rotating automatically - would make for *very* nice scenes. Another use (with objects) could be when a vehicle is moving in one direction, there could be an "invisible" object (another addition for ye's!) which is infront of the car, and the car has "Point-At" set to this invisible object. This could allow you to move the object left and right, so the car appears to steer.

Edit:
5. Allow characters to be able to float in the air, as with objects.

6. Allow you to play the movie without "Directing", just a play/stop/rewind function with the time-bar. Just to remove unnecessary windows while running the scene-through before commiting cameras.

Some food for thought :P

Cheers again for an amazingly addictive piece of kit! (3 days straight and still going.......)
KiltedNinja.
edited by KiltedNinja on 7/28/2010
edited by KiltedNinja on 7/28/2010
2010/7/28 12:19:32
Suggestions / Modifications Thanks for the quick and detailed response

One thing I'd like to suggest regarding point 7 (Multiple Cameras) ; Could it be possible to make it so that when viewing and setting up your scene, you can choose the fullscreen view to be between either the standard viewpoint or a camera of your choosing? (1,2,3,4 etc)

This way, you don't need a "what the camera sees" individual window, nor would you need an individual window for "this is what all four cameras see at the same time". You just have a choice between "standard viewpoint" (with positioning controls) and "what camera x sees" (this could be chosen from a drop-down list). This could perhaps reduce the amount of work that the code has to do when rendering the scene, is it would only render it for your one fullscreen viewpoint rather than rendering a possible 6 times)

It might deviate slightly from the "feel" of Muvizu at the moment, as I must admit, it *is* handy to be able to move the cameras and see the 4 camera views at the same time, allowing you to run-through the animation and determine when to choose camera cuts - however, having the ability to have more cameras would make a lot of people happy... well, it'd make me happy anyway Big Grin

So yeah... there are workarounds such as saving multiple instances of your scene with different camera setups, with output generated from each camera that you can then use in a 3rd party program to pick&choose which cameras to use footage from - so, the program is still incredibly usefull - it's just a lot of work. (I guess I'm only randomly labouring the point, because I've spent the last 3 days being addicted to this program and doing nothing else... it should come with a health warning Big Grin)

Anyway, thanks again for the info, and the good information in point 6 about swapping pages (I guess I missed that...).

Good luck with the coding folks
edited by KiltedNinja on 7/28/2010
edited by KiltedNinja on 7/28/2010
2010/7/28 10:27:32
Suggestions / Modifications Hi folks

<Insert obligatory "This program is AMAZING" speech, littered with various flattering comments with suggestive overtones>

Seriously though - very well done, you've single-handedly opened up an immense area for creative artistic experimentation, not an easy feat – and one that definitely deserves respect. Nice one folks!

Ok, so my wish-list ; (A few of these have probably been mentioned before, but it can’t hurt to let you know they’re popular!)

1. Timeline for every object (including Cameras, Lights, Backdrops, objects and characters.
2. Ability to “drag-alter” 'start and end' of all sliders of the timeline (similar to dialogue drag-alter, but for all items on timeline)
3. Ability to use textures everywhere you can change a colour.
4. Interactivity between objects (eg. So that one object can move another)
5. Customizable keyboard controls.
6. Additional controls (When 'Directing Animation'; Ability to use Plus(+) and Minus(-) keys to swap between pages 1/2/3)
7. Multiple Cameras
8. Multiple Audio Tracks (One for each character at least, separate track for background music/effects)
9. Multiple audio files per track (eg. To support multiple segments of a conversation) - including sliders for start/end
10. Ability to import 3rd party 3d objects (DXF, 3DS, Google Sketchup files etc)
11. Deformations on objects (bend/twist)
12. Deformations when creating Characters (facial structure / body structure - similar to Oblivion's character creation)


Are there any plans for going down the route of "If you randomly donate some cash we'll remove the Muvizu Logo Overlay on your exported avi's" ?


Long live Muvizu! \o/
edited by KiltedNinja on 7/28/2010
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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.