United3dArtists Archive

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 12 Oct 2013, 05:31

Using TS7.6 model side. I'll animate some balls with cartoon faces for textures. Not animated faces but static expressions.

Some balls will entertain each other with their antics, be menaced by bad guys, then good guys will appear.

Problem is I can't get it to fade from one texture to another. Like one facial expression to another or baseball to basketball. I tried the animated texture thing on the material editor but it behaves erratically. No luck with clips in the Scene Editor either. Texture changes just don't save as keyframes there. So I'll just change the expressions during cuts and do some special effects for the type-of-ball changes or leave that out.

I tried Cam Studio to capture video from model side's DX display since that is fast but the results need too much work and aren't good quality. Regular renders were fast enough.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 13 Oct 2013, 02:43

The material of an object can be changed and a keyframe made if you use the paint over material tool instead of the paint object tool. So I can change an expression while a ball is on camera. It changes instantly but that will do. It is still quirky.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 14 Oct 2013, 01:43

Wow interesting concept. I like how it is starting to shape up. You could use Clinton model side to dx renderer for the previews maybe... Looking forward to the final result!

You could also do the animation of the facial textures in another program like flash and save it like a sequence. Then you could use the image sequence as a texture? I did that in other software before.. Well with an interface. Just ideas?

Hope you get there!

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 14 Oct 2013, 16:39

Thanks Draise. Model side DX is fine for preview. Regular model side, Lightworks, render is fast enough with these simple scenes.

I found that the textures will fade or blend rather than change instantly in regular render. DX does the instant change thing. To keyframe texture changes always use "paint over existing material" (POEM) to apply materials. Don't use "paint object" since it is quirky in the Scene Editor. Also use "record key" on the fly out icons not "record key frame" on the Scene Editor.

So, to keyframe material changes in TS 7.6 model side: POEM the initial material onto the object at frame 0 then record key. Then POEM each new material and record key at appropriate frames. The materials are only recorded when changed so sometimes you have to POEM the same material to get a key frame.

The material will fade or blend from old to new between the key frame with the new material and the previous one in regular render. If you want an instant change then put an extra key frame for the old material immediately before the key frame for the new one.

Here are some balls and characters. They mostly don't have personalities but I do need to show that they are different "people". Baseball, basketball, tennis ball, Enzo, Clyde, 12 ball, and 8 ball (villian). There will also be Rhonda, Uta, Liam, Bryce, Tina and some more game or sports balls. 12 ball should be with the sports balls since it is not a character.

The characters are identified by their colors and 8 ball has the "8" on his back. The faces will change with their emotions.

Now to test a few things and make a simple setting from primitives.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 17 Oct 2013, 04:32

Working on the world of the balls. So far I have a grassy plain surrounded by walls with a platform or stage. There will be a few houses and probably a few simple plants all made of primitives of course. Two walls have openings. 8ball will enter through one of those openings.

The opening holes are Booleans. Cylinder from box. Is that OK Draise?

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 17 Oct 2013, 04:49

Yes, I think it is ok. I think the main criteria is animating primitives. The static scenery can have their exceptions.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 17 Oct 2013, 18:14

Thanks Draise. Of course the openings could be changed so there are no Booleans but I like the simplicity of these. It is a Boolean of primitive from primitive.

Huts are truncated cones and sloped cylinders. TS has panels to alter primitives for many great shapes (right click on primitive icon just after creating one). Trees are 3 rounded cylinders and a cylinder trunk.

Here is the world of the balls. Now to animate something.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 18 Oct 2013, 02:04

I managed to make a test animation of a ball jumping onto the stage, changing into a baseball, changing to laughing face, and returning to smiling face. It was frustrating with very precise requirements to avoid texture weirdness, crashes, etc. Of course, there was inconsistency. In an earlier test the textures would fade from old to new over some frames. No more. The test avi has the textures change instantly. I could live with that but the render quality is low on the balls. This is not reliable enough to invest much time in it.

The story would have been: A ball jumps (they walk by jumping) onto the stage and changes his texture to balls of sports and games. This entertains the balls in the audience. They change to laughing and happy expressions. 8ball enters through an opening in a wall and starts colliding with balls. They get frightened expressions. They gather around Clyde and he gets a star (they make him the sheriff) and they push him toward 8ball (Clyde has a frightened expression and is reluctant). Then Clyde and 8ball fight in some way and 8ball is driven out.

Given the quirkiness and difficulties, I'll write a story that has only facial expression changes to textures. I like the way they looked. Well, that's if I can get a test avi that looks good.

Dragneye · Post by **Dragneye** » 18 Oct 2013, 03:32

Nice idea dude. And pretty nice textures too.

An idea: 8ball is pushed thru a pocket (hole in ground) or thru that circle thing in the distance in your pic.

Very cool Finis

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 18 Oct 2013, 17:17

Thanks Dragneye. The textures did work out well although I just picked some and by luck they look good together. Good idea. Sheriff Clyde and 8ball could fight by pushing each other and Clyde could push him out of the opening (circle). 8Ball then gets a fearful expression and runs away.

Alright, I decided to continue with the original story using instant texture changes. But ... now TS (7.6 model side) won't even let me change the names of objects and pegs the CPU for no reason and won't do anything for one minute or more until that stops. About half the memory is used at most.

I have a prototype object for each ball texture. I want to copy the character balls and rename them to X_char instead of X_proto. When I change the name (in scene editor) the ball takes the texture that is currently in the material editor!

There is no animation in this scene. It will serve as a base for other scene files which will have animation. So it is not the animation that is messing up the textures. There are far fewer textures than other projects I've done and it only has 17K polygons.

TS just isn't acting right. I'll reinstall it and try again. If that doesn't work then I'll try some physics based pool ball bouncing for the challenge and wait until I have time to get started with Blender to do more projects.

Edit: uninstalled and reinstalled TS. So far the episodes of slowness are gone. Haven't tried renaming things yet.

Edit: the bug with changing an object's name changes its texture hasn't happened since reinstall. Much quirkiness seems gone. Will try animating again after work.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 21 Oct 2013, 16:41

After reinstalling TS 7.6 the scene name is no longer shown. It just says "Space 3D" all the time. I had posted about this before and someone had a fix. Now I can't find that post. There is one about a plug-in but that is not the fix I had. It was something simple.

Draise · Post by **Draise** » 21 Oct 2013, 17:07

In your LE viewer, you can go up a level from the default LE location and you'll find a LE level that has one or multiple spaces in your work project. You can change the name there. Even duplicate or delete that space.

Finis · Post by **Finis** » 21 Oct 2013, 18:20

LE? That's a workspace thing.

The textures are still too quirky for animation. Visibility works although with instant changes. I'll use visibility to change a ball to baseball, tennisball, etc. by including extra balls with those textures. That way ... uh oh. The expressions are textures and have to change.

Looks like TS isn't up to this. Duh. Well known that TS is not good for animation. I'll think of something with just motion and maybe physics. Spherical Menace can be a project to learn Blender animation.

marcel · Post by **marcel** » 22 Oct 2013, 16:35

Finis there is a tsx to show the scene name

United3dArtists Archive

Spherical Menace

Spherical Menace

Re: U3DAC Oct. 2013 - Spherical Menace

Re: U3DAC Oct. 2013 - Spherical Menace

Re: U3DAC Oct. 2013 - Spherical Menace

Re: U3DAC Oct. 2013 - Spherical Menace

Re: U3DAC Oct. 2013 - Spherical Menace

Re: U3DAC Oct. 2013 - Spherical Menace

Re: U3DAC Oct. 2013 - Spherical Menace

Re: U3DAC Oct. 2013 - Spherical Menace

Re: U3DAC Oct. 2013 - Spherical Menace

Re: U3DAC Oct. 2013 - Spherical Menace

Re: U3DAC Oct. 2013 - Spherical Menace

Re: U3DAC Oct. 2013 - Spherical Menace

Re: U3DAC Oct. 2013 - Spherical Menace