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AuroraMoon - all messages by user

2014/2/9 9:57:33
can i import a minecraft map or characters ? Well... Minecraft is mostly all blocks, right? So you could create basic textured models in sketch-up (just make a bunch of blocks), import that into Muvizu. We have a s ketchup to Muvizu tutorial around here somewhere.

The thing is... I don't think you can really animate mine-craft models so they would need to be props only. unless you don't mind having a Minecraft block person stand around motionlessly while your muvizu character interacts with it.
2014/2/8 8:26:29
A List of 3d Animation progams.... There was two programs that I forgot to add to the list of 3d animations...

IMVU and Garry's Mod.

IMVU is a 3d chatting program with plenty of potential for movie-making, and in fact I've made plenty of Videos in the past as you can find out by one of my older videos here:


Pros: Endless clothes, stages, and customization in how you want your character to look. They even have "NPCs"... low-res people props that you can populate your stages/places with in case you can't round up enough people to play as your actors.

Cons: This is designed to be a 3d chatting program, so you can't really spawn your own characters like you do in Muvizu. Your avatar is your own actor that you can dress up and customize to your own liking. You also have to round up enough friends who are willing to play as your actors if your scenes call for more than one person.
Also, unlike other 3d chatting software like second life, you don't really navigate around your stage by walking... you teleport from one node to node by clicking on chairs, standing spots, etc. To get an actual walking/running animation, you have to use your virtual credits to buy actions/poses accessories, which allows your avatar to walk, dance, eat, etc.
Yeah, that's the other thing. Virtual credits, which you need to buy stuff like rooms, stages and whatnot. you can get free credits all the time, though surveys and the like. But at the same time it's not very much. The other way to earn free credits is to become an creator, where you can sell your own virtual clothing designs and the like... which I've been doing for years. I've racked up an reasonable amount of free credits this way. For the rest, you have to pay real money sometimes but it's cheap... espeically if you go to places like ImvuX.com to get like 16000 credits for one dollar.

Garry's Mod... yet another game thing... but very well-known for the videos that users create with it. it's very easy to create your own custom videos once you get the hang of it.
The downside is, it's not very easy for a newbie to start using this unless you're used to playing FPS games.....
2014/2/8 7:54:57
Share the love!

I basically had this idea-- What if the Muvizu universe was a comic book and not an animation program? AND, what if it happened to have an Valentine's day issue?

So this is my "Romantic" entry. :P
2014/2/1 22:45:11
Any way I can make Sinister put his arms down? I have a few scenes where I need him in a more neutral position... such as keeping his arms down and acting more normally. I wanted him to act more like a normal old man and stuff... not as some creepy dude. =\
2014/1/31 20:37:59
A List of 3d Animation progams.... lol, it's okay... I understand what you mean.

I love creating 3d art, and actually got started into it as a hobby... but actually ended up making money off it. I now will occasionally sell 3d stuff that I made myself. so I can understand that part....

and I don't really begrudge companies for wanting to sell their products for a fee... I understand that they need to make a living after all. That's just sometimes I feel that some companies over-estimate what people are willing to pay for their product. The biggest mistake any company can make is not having a flexible money plan.

For example, Photoshop. Some versions of it costs as much as 400 dollars, yet I can find other programs that can do the same exact things that Photoshop does for only 30 dollars.
It just kind of feels like they're kind of egoistical for assuming that people would want to pay them that much when they can just go for a 30-dollar program that does the same thing. It also leads to them being the most pirated software in the entire world because people get frustrated with the adobe company for not being willing to set up a pay plan where it could become more affordable.

Moviestorm is getting old, and hasn't done anything to update their models/looks at all. As somebody else said it now looks like cutscenes from an old game from 20+ years ago. The same way that "The Movies" PC game's graphics are now majorly out-dated because there was nothing done to update it at all. Years ago it might had been reasonable to pay 70 dollars for Moviestorm, but now? There's better animation programs out there....

At least Muvizu has a reasonable pay plan. you can pay to get a water mark removed once or twice any time you like for a small fee... you have the free version of the software... or you can choose to upgrade to play+. Yes, the play+ verison is like 100 dollars but at least they seem to be constantly updating and keeping up with the times. So that makes the fee far more reasonable.

You know what I mean?
2014/1/31 19:20:31
A List of 3d Animation progams.... Gracemaker wrote:
that is a cool comparison.
i actually own Lionhead's "The Movies" PC game, but i could not figure out whether they output in full hd, does it?
sorry to hear they went out of business, what was the mistake they made, that muvizu should watch out for?


You can improve the quality of the videos via the export options that The Movies game has. Although I can't remember if they can export in HD quality.

They didn't really make any mistakes, other than selling out to Microsoft. The Microsoft company were mainly interested in purchasing the Lionhead company purely so that they could own rights to the Fable games. They weren't really interested in any other games that Lionhead had, and so therefore weren't able to see the potential of "The Movies" game.

It's a real shame too, I would had loved to see a new and improved Movies game... one with better graphics, better modding capabilities, etc. I'm sure that it would had turned out to be just as popular as the Fable games were. That's why I said that the Lionhead company wasn't in that kind of business anymore... because the people who were responsible for making the Movies game left the company after Microsoft took over. It wasn't simply the Lionhead that I knew anymore.

urbanlamb wrote:
I find this ' i am a hobbyist' therefore it should be free to always puzzle me.


The thing is, with Photography you can make some cash off it even if you don't do it professionally for a living. Many of my friends are photography hobbyists, but they will occasionally sell their pictures for money... so what they paid for their equipment matters little in the long run because they can always earn some of that money back even if they aren't true professionals. Plus, Cameras have good uses in "real life" beyond their hobbies, so it has a wide range of uses and purposes.
Can't say the same about 3D stuff.

things like stamps and bug-collecting tends to be cheap... pins you can get at a store for like 99 cents. so I don't think it can be compared to something like buying software that costs 70 or even 100 dollars.

And as Ziggy points out, being a Cheapstake tends to play a lot into whenever a person is willing to pay for something or not.
I'm what you would call a practical cheapskate... I don't shop for items all that much unless the items I use finally outlived their usefulness. Heck, I still wear my clothes from high school and I'm 30 years old now. I tend to feel that I don't need to buy clothes at all as long as the ones that I have still fits me regardless of whenever it's still fashionable or not.
I don't buy anything unless:
It's a item that can serve a dozen purposes in my everyday life and can save me time and labor.
The existing item I had was old and worn out.
there was a massive sale on it, where it was like 98% off AND it was something I could really use in my everyday life.
It's something that could eventually save me money on stuff.

And well... I use Muvizu mainly for fun, and I don't start up the program everyday... just once or twice a week. Sometimes I don't even use it for weeks depending on how busy I am with other things. I do the same thing with my other programs that I use for fun... so it's not like I would be able to justify spending 70 dollars on Moviestorm, at least to myself.
2014/1/30 10:42:39
A List of 3d Animation progams.... It's been a while ever since I used Moviestorm, so thank you for correcting me on that one. still, 75 dollars can be a little bit too much for people who are cheapskate hobbyists (like me!).
2014/1/30 7:27:57
A List of 3d Animation progams.... And how they compare to Muvizu.

I've been telling everyone I know about Muvizu. About how fun and easy it is to use, and the fact that it doesn't take as long to render an animated video clip. The thing is, one would need a vast experience of other animation programs to be able to compare, right?

I've been way into animating things as an hobby ever since I was a teenager, and as an result I've been using a lot of programs throughout my life and can safely compare Muvizu and those other programs though my own expernice.
So, I just thought you guys would like to know why I enjoy Muvizu so much, and what programs I've used in the past.

1. Lionhead's "The Movies" PC game. This is an awesome game that first got me into 3d animation as a young teenager. You do run an Hollywood studio, but you also have the ability to direct actors and actresses, create your own movies on sets and the like. I've created plenty of movies using this game.


Pros: Very easy to make movies, and they have plenty of backgrounds, sets, etc... espeically if you also get the stunt pack expansion which allows your actors/actors to be put into more dangerous action shots.

Cons: The graphics quickly becomes outdated, the actors/actresses can be somewhat unattractive at times and it's not easy to install custom content into the game in an attempt to "update" the game. What's more, Lionhead is no longer in business, so it doesn't look like they will ever make a "The Movies 2" game with updated graphics and a better way to mod the game. So this is it for you if you want to have something like this. Also, there's not many games being sold on places like Amazon... so in this day and age you'd need to find a Torrent of it if you want to have this game.

2. Miku Miku Dance. A Japanese program that also has a english mode, that makes it very easy to create music videos and the like. It's also been used to create dramatic and funny stories by many users. The characters all have this cel-shaded look to them, in addition to being anime characters. The best part? It's completely free, and can be found here: http://www.geocities.jp/higuchuu4/index_e.htm
A example of what it can do:


Pros: Very easily moddable, and there's a very large community deciated to sharing custom sets, clothing, and even different character models! You can also easily make your own custom content with the right tools too.
Cons: The Program isn't very easy nor intuitive to use at all. you basically need at least a whole month to learn how to use and master this program. It's also more easier to download others' custom animations to use than it is to create and use your own custom animation. Unlike Mivuziu, this program doesn't come with a whole list of click-able animations to use... you have to import BVH files and the like for your characters to use. also, the english verison of the progam isn't competely in English, so there's still a few Japanese remnants, espeically in the naming of your 3d character's body parts.

3. Poser Pro/Daz Studio-- More of a 3d art program than an animation program... you can still make videos with it though. But not very easy to do at all unless you download or buy animations for your characters to use (kind of similar to MMD). Daz Studio is currently free right now, and can be found at Daz3d.com website.


Pros: Easier to use than MMD when it comes to animating, once you get the hang of it and figure how to animate your characters frame by frame. Easier to customize your characters in the program and build an entire world in there too. And like MMD you can find plenty of free stuff online to use for your characters.
Cons: Not really meant to be an animation program, the animating part was more like an added bonus and it definitely shows.

4. Movie Storm-- A nice sandbox animation program, similar to Muvizu. Downside, it doesn't have a free version of the program... in fact they require an subscription fee which can be daunting for mere hobbyists.


Pros: Easy to use, and easy to learn the ropes and make a movie like an old pro.
cons: The money issue... that and the fact that the models' eyes look dead half the times.

5. A new one I recently found. it's free and still in Beta, but holds a lot of promise. Plotagon, which can be found here: https://plotagon.com/
I even made a short test video with it:
https://plotagon.com/3602

Pros: It's free, easy to use and the 3d actors follows the script you can create in a matter of seconds.
Cons: Still fairly limited. There's not a large range of actions, expressions and sets. But it just recently came out, so......


So with those programs I've used, You can see why I like Muvizu. It's easy to use user-created content, can be easy to update the textures if you feel it's too outdated... and it's easy to use and learn things. It comes with built-in animations that you can click and use within seconds.
2014/1/29 13:16:04
Body proportions Heck yes, I would be constantly using this feature on a regular basis.
2014/1/29 13:07:13
Just wanted to say I love the Rosie Character! Or Zondra G as she's apparently known in Muziuv. I love the fact that she's a blend of realistic and cartoon qualities.... I think she's quickly becoming my favorite character to use in Muvizu ever since I downloaded her (which was like two days ago, lol).

The only thing I could ever ask for is to have more characters similar to her. Have a Man with the same body portions as her... and maybe a thin teenage girl/boy that looks like her.
Rosie just strikes me as a mother of sorts... if you know what I mean. And I think it would be pretty awesome to have a whole family that has the same look Rosie has.

of course this is just my wistful thinking, although I kind of hope that you'll listen to my suggestion and make something like that one day.
2013/2/12 13:38:30
comic book effects/layout EEFilmz wrote:
Thanks Aurora, I will have to try it again...I tried Sony once before and it seemed daunting and I had some problem with it but I forget what it was.


Hahaha, I know what you mean about that. when I was a newbie to Sony Vegas I first opened up the program, and then took one look at everything in there.... and I was like: "Uhhh.... nope!! I don't know what half of those things are for!!"
and shut it down.

It wasn't until I looked at some cool effects and such made by others that I gathered up the will to try it again. I've been hooked on it ever since. I remember that the one video that really inspired me was where they had people pretending to magic-duel in real life, and they had such awesome effects! the effects almost looked real too.... and afterwards they showed how they did it in Sony vegas.
http://vimeo.com/15938215 not the same video, but it was the same idea here. and it just shows you what you can do in sony.
2013/2/10 7:38:33
comic book effects/layout I could also make all those comic book effects in Sony Vegas, a video editing software. it has some really nice transitions and text effects, and it also allows you to make your own effects. I have the platinum version too...

You could look into that too as well.
edited by AuroraMoon on 10/02/2013
2013/2/2 3:46:19
A question I've been pondering... yeah, I had a feeling that we wouldn't be able to get around to giving our characters new toys/hair/etc to play with until the devs gave us the tools to do so. which means a lot of waiting.

still it was worth asking about it anyway..... because now I know. Muvizu seems to be relatively new still, so I can wait for a while and just have fun playing around with what we do have now.
2013/2/1 6:35:04
A question I've been pondering... We all know that it's entirely possible to do buildings and the like in sketch up, and import it to 3d max for some UV mapping, etc, and finally putting it into MUV.

now.... what I was wondering... is it possible to do the same thing for the characters themselves?
Because I do have 3d max, and I've been using it to swap hairs and the like on different models for programs like MMD (Miku Miku Dance).

I was fiddling around with the idea that I could do the same thing for MUV characters, and maybe help expand the choices of hairstyles and clothing? or is that just too impossible right now for the likes of me?

I would like to to hear your thoughts on this.
2013/2/1 2:19:55
New character? I have to agree with Urban lamb....

if you feel the need to hack something to make it suit your needs.... okay, that's great. but keep in mind that not everyone is willing to do something like that.

the point of using software like this, is so that we DON'T HAVE TO start hacking the software just to get something we want. plus, you just pretty much told us up front that the software you were using were no longer available officially so the only way we could get it is though sketchy torrents or something like that.

Surely you see the problem with that, right? so it's not like we could download that program and see for ourselves how right/wrong you are.

Plus, it seems like Muvizu is still in the process of expanding what it has currently.... so it seems a tad premature to be complaining about something it doesn't have. Because you never know, the staff could be looking at all the existing software out there currently, and thinking about how they could make this program ten times more awesome compared to the rest out there.

Currently, it only has a few handful of hair, clothes to help customize our characters but I'm sure that will change in time.
2013/1/31 23:11:04
New character? well, we can't help it... MUV has a very nice-looking and easy to understand UI/layout, and plus what it does tends to cut down time on editing, etc. all we have to do besides setting up scenes is just direct.

in other programs we would basically have to spend hours setting up everything and animating everything before we could get to the final product. It would be sorta ridiculous to spend 8 hours on a 3d movie clip that only last 5 minutes. when you think about it like that... is it any wonder why we would like to take some of our favorite stuff from other programs and stuff it into another program that's easier and faster to use?
2013/1/31 22:40:02
New character? Yeah, most 3d movie-making programs seem to be awfully limited or WAY TOO complex for mere hobbyists like myself.

I guess it's why we kind of take for granted that if MUV is so easy to use, then it might be easy for the creators to make characters for us. ^^;; so if we seem greedy, I hope that the creators can forgive us our ignorance on this matter.

the only things I've seen that came close to MUVIZU's easy modding, was the Movies PC game (a sims game that is geared around making movies, and even then it has it's own limits)...... and this free program called Miku Miku Dance.

The downside with that MMD program though, even though it comes in both Japanese and English, is that even though it's easy to use once you learn how to set things up, the UI makes it seem more complex than it is....which can easily confuse a lot of people new to it. plus it's default language is Japanese so you have to switch it to English mode before you can do anything with it.
here's a example of what MMD can do:

(adventure time parody)

as you can see, it's sorta like MUVIZU although the setup with that program is way different.
2013/1/31 16:14:01
New character? They kinda look like the heroine character. it's just a shame that the heroine doesn't have different eye shapes and more hairstyles... I imagine you'd be able to make them then?
2013/1/31 14:22:42
New character? mos6507 wrote:
I wish machinima software wasn't so closely linked to the style of the software company's internal assets and it could be judged purely on the merits of the engine itself. Moviestorm has a similar problem, because all of its characters are some variation of a store mannequin with cold, dead eyes. The reason I gravitated towards Xtranormal is they had more diverse assets. I think Muvizu hasn't really acknowledged that its art-style has limited how many people decide to use it. The software's been around long enough that they probably should start to ask some tough questions about what is holding it back from hitting critical-mass. I thought that thing they stuck on the homepage a while back was meant for gathering that sort of feedback. To me, the character designs are at the top of the list.


True. the one thing that Muv really has going for it is the fact that you can litterally customize the characters any way you want, such as putting textures on the characters in the program itself! not to mention being able to change eye shapes, sizes, etc. from what I've seen not many other animator/3d movie makers is able to do that. in fact, not many of those programs actually allows for customization of characters... all you can do is just download the characters they made for you and play around with them.

in this way Muvizu is more powerful than the other programs in terms of customablity. this could really be their selling point if they started expanding to cartoon characters with "realistic" portions for those who aren't a big fan of the "muppet look" but could still retain the Muv feeling somehow. then they would really have nothing stopping them.
2013/1/31 4:46:46
New character? I would like cartoon characters that looks sorta similar to the Japanese style animations...basically, anime characters. and I'd kind of like to have them set up like the default muv characters, with swappable eyes and stuff like that. Because you see, even though a lot of the Japanese cartoons look alike to those who aren't familiar with it, they still have highly distinct eye shapes.


I was kinda dispointed with the heroine in that dept. :P



The best part about those models that I'm suggesting is that they could easily be scaled down or up to resemble children to adults, because anime characters tend to be very versatile that way, espeically if you go with different eye styles like I suggested up above.
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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.