tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72127186943837498522024-03-13T18:56:33.160-07:00mojoDallasmojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-83711660549174257642009-08-08T11:30:00.000-07:002009-08-08T11:47:14.276-07:00New BlogBlogging after a six month hiatus. Most blogs have been about the forays into 3D art. This continues to be my main hobby. As the last blog talked about you can always keep up with the 3D art by going to my <a href="http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/browse.php?user_id=454346">Renderosity Gallery</a>. I post a couple of times a week there. I jump between landscapes, portraits and scenes. They are all fun and I don't really have a favorite. The variety gives me a chance to develop a number of different skills. <br /><br />For a while now I have been thinking about doing this 3D art with more of a theme to them besides random pictures that I just come up with on any given day. I have started rereading Ray Kurzweil's books about the future of computing and how they will change how we live. They are very thought provoking books. I spend a lot more time with my Grandchildren now and because of that the books have taken on more of a personal aspect as I have started wondering how they might be effected by the kinds of changes alluded to in Kurzweil's books. <br /><br />This combined with the fact that I have always been a big sci-fi fan has led to what I think I will do for my project. While Star Trek, Star Wars, The Matrix and the like all talk about the future, they have many inconsistencies and are mostly fairy tales in the future. Nothing wrong with a good fairy tale. What I plan on doing is my own version of what I think the future will be like for my Grandkids as they grow older. It will be based on the reading I have done of different futurists and will be based on trends in technology and their impact on society. <br /><br />It will be done through both small stories and 3D art, animations, small games and the like. With my new interest in Facebook, I may use it as my platform versus just traditional web pages. I have some interest in writing a Facebook application for fun, so, this may be an interesting sidelight to the project. By the way I will try to integrate this blog as part of my Facebook as the first step. <br /><br />So keep tuned in.mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-26004875696501236562009-02-01T04:46:00.000-08:002009-02-01T04:59:13.691-08:00A Kid in a Candy Store<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Qd2ivN70IbZEodteH6PmuObDxiKe0dGcL-7zvlXkge6q6RJ-B5C_supoUX7Oh6yX1BLHyhrhAPRN0brEqnB_Sz9oWG9OBXvQedppfMfkvK4bp7WIU3BKQq2x7YsHFfQvMS2yAPT5Qg0/s1600-h/GlacierBayNight3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Qd2ivN70IbZEodteH6PmuObDxiKe0dGcL-7zvlXkge6q6RJ-B5C_supoUX7Oh6yX1BLHyhrhAPRN0brEqnB_Sz9oWG9OBXvQedppfMfkvK4bp7WIU3BKQq2x7YsHFfQvMS2yAPT5Qg0/s400/GlacierBayNight3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297812724818438722" /></a><br />This is the best way I can describe what I was doing in January. As you have read, I have gotten new software called Vue that is for creating digital scenery and also is integrated with Poser so you can bring characters and props into it. I spent the month getting use to the basics of the software. I brought in many props including the house I had done that was basically our house with a ball room added where the living room was. I also brought in the studio I did in Poser. <br /><br />The thing I am enjoying most is using it to generate landscapes. This is where it's real power is. I am currently doing a series of renders associated with winter and it is loosely based around the notion of an Alaskan cruise. At this point I have way more ideas than I do have time or ability to execute them. I have made a decision to spend more time trying to get higher quality images. By that I mean I am going to pay more attention to detail. Things like aging wood, putting extra little props in scene, trying to make the characters more realistic, adding features to the atmosphere, etc.<br /><br />While I am tempted to blog about each new picture that I create, I may spare you from this. In any case, go check out the gallery at:<br /><a href="http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/browse.php?user_id=454346">http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/browse.php?user_id=454346</a><br /><br />And if you don't see much blogging you know what is going on by checking in on the gallery every once in awhile. I will probably be posting to the gallery 3 or 4 times a week.mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-30352841479675460832009-01-02T14:55:00.000-08:002009-01-02T15:25:19.599-08:003D Digital NatureI just got Vue E'spirt 7 from Eon Software. It is billed as 3D Digital Nature. It looks very, very promising based on a number of scenes I have downloaded and looked at from other 3D artists. I took a couple of dozen tutorials, bought and read a book and jumped into it over this last week. So, my first impressions are:<br /><br />1) Very easy to use for someone that has been doing 3D modeling for awhile. <br /><br />2) Big RAM hog. My very first experiments caused out of memory and other crashes.<br /><br />3) Because of it's use of RAM you really have to think through your "shots" and just not render whole big scenes like I had been planning on doing.<br /><br />4) Easy to import models. I have brought in Poser scenes, Lightwave and 3DS models with no problems.<br /><br />5) A fair amount of free content on the internet (not as much as Poser/DAZ)<br /><br />6) It will become <span style="font-weight:bold;">ADDICTIVE. </span> <br /><br />I decided to do a project in it along with just playing with it. The first project is to take a version of our house that I have expanded by adding a ballroom and media room and put it into a beach scene. I feel that I will learn the most about how to use the tool by trying a project that will force me into making certain things work to achieve an artistic vision (hence a project). I also though want to do just some one off scenes/renders to try a bunch of different techniques so I get a better feel for the power of the product. You will be seeing both the results from the project, as well as, these one off renders in the near future in my gallery area and over at Renderosity. <br /><br />The following are the first two renders I have done associated with the project. <br /><table><br /><tr><br /><td><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivdfA9yLDFYuiGkCEJVcoGLL5EPiMzDXvcJLs8JOHdDBlhOXPA4kOyacdcRlxyhiaWcFYclvRCCr6hAWGgeyYH9TIcOMJou7QkcHKLgyF_bMIiQH23R7xkOvkgE2YOQFYQ-eym1RVugKM/s1600-h/BeachV3R4C.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivdfA9yLDFYuiGkCEJVcoGLL5EPiMzDXvcJLs8JOHdDBlhOXPA4kOyacdcRlxyhiaWcFYclvRCCr6hAWGgeyYH9TIcOMJou7QkcHKLgyF_bMIiQH23R7xkOvkgE2YOQFYQ-eym1RVugKM/s400/BeachV3R4C.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286839132672537218" /></a><br /></td><br /><td><br />The first one is the house that I built in 3D Home Architect and tweaked in Poser before importing into Vue. The pool I got as a Christmas present from Kate as part of cashing in a gift certificate at DAZ Studios. The second house is a 3DS model I got off the internet that I tweaked in Poser. The waterfall and bridge were freebies of Vue objects that I also downloaded. All the rest (terrain, water, sky, trees) were part of the Vue product and I created using the tool. It was rendered in Vue.<br /></td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNej2ZIAFLwad_LyL3KgEFf_YpmrJflluRigFAh2hgw-hjWUPae5-lLIEd-Y67fesOE-YNawALOXHnUOl8IHPe9Rj3PXmszSLio8_ZQpl7dGWwZ01xUAtwub1pmYq0qhC7ZmOLAhc6a2M/s1600-h/BeachV3R7B.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNej2ZIAFLwad_LyL3KgEFf_YpmrJflluRigFAh2hgw-hjWUPae5-lLIEd-Y67fesOE-YNawALOXHnUOl8IHPe9Rj3PXmszSLio8_ZQpl7dGWwZ01xUAtwub1pmYq0qhC7ZmOLAhc6a2M/s400/BeachV3R7B.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286839403999242498" /></a><br /></td><br /><td><br />This second render is looking at the pool from the back deck that is off the ballroom and our kitchen. I got a little more experimental in terms of atmospheres with a sunset one that I tweaked a bit.<br /></td><br /></tr><br /><tr><br /><td><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoeKukw5nQBcyZcOALo3IJDOm-eptuLGYqB0rZOYE2V4sUKa2dKGm868AA0AwRWvKQO8JoW14-iOadES1Rfw4LGifXt2-4QOP-ZIw8QWwJkX8Cc_gMZcZo-M4kQZHSrNtDoZh08_Jn2gE/s1600-h/4th+render.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoeKukw5nQBcyZcOALo3IJDOm-eptuLGYqB0rZOYE2V4sUKa2dKGm868AA0AwRWvKQO8JoW14-iOadES1Rfw4LGifXt2-4QOP-ZIw8QWwJkX8Cc_gMZcZo-M4kQZHSrNtDoZh08_Jn2gE/s400/4th+render.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286839590079281746" /></a><br /></td><br /><td><br />This last render is actually the first render I did, by, just using Vue objects and making a hill with some trees.<br /></td><br /></tr><br /></table>mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-1201313382715603372008-11-30T05:29:00.000-08:002008-11-30T06:17:21.991-08:00The First Edit of the New Music Video<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YoRMafBQlmY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YoRMafBQlmY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />I have finally gotten done with all the animation for the music video that I have been putting together. It uses an original song of mine named "Lady Dark Eyes". The mood is a dark party in the middle of a storm. The main characters are a witch and the house owner. My avatar/character makes a cameo appearance as one of the people at the party. This took a little over three months to build 3D models, set up scenes, do the animation and then edit the video. I was hoping to get it done before Halloween, but, missed the date. It is still a rough edit, but, I am going to wait until next year to clean it up.<br /><br />It was an interesting project despite the frustration with how look it took to animate the scenes (see many previous blog posts complaining about this). I learned a lot as this was my first major animation project in Poser. I learned how to get effects for lightning. Did a fire effect in a fireplace. Tried many settings for lighting using many dramatic lighting effects including one in a ruined house with a witch casting spells that is my favorite. Did some facial animation. Tried my hand at silhouettes like the old iPod commercials. Overused the dolly camera (I almost get motion sickness watching the video). And lastly did a lot of animation work. All in all it was a tremendous learning experience and I am glad I am done. <br /><br />The story is about a witch who comes to a party, get's friendly with a guy and then disappears leaving him standing on the balcony already missing her. There are 10 avatar/characters in the main party scene and seven witches in the opening graveyard scene. Though it was fun, I will probably wait a little until I jump into my next animation video as it is so time consuming. <br /><br />I am going to try my hand at mixing my 3D modeling with my interest in digital painting that I have played with over the last couple of years. I do however plan on doing a video based on the song Backyard Beatles. I got some photos from my cousin Greg of old black and white shots with the high school rock band I was in, so, I will probably make a video that mixes photos and images with animation. I probably will begin this sometime next spring.mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-32307646953888695492008-11-13T08:30:00.000-08:002008-11-13T17:28:39.522-08:00Keeping Track of What I've Got<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNl9cgMty6b2SDPKrsOmghi5Sn1VDQGZYZaAFRQifCjj6u10XCLCWoTg9jCBcVDFU9sxxromdSuEt2_ycRksE9gCkWsW0ilvVoodODhyphenhyphenTBwW8LUfLLLVrzqOpSOq2-YQYoskPCl7At2yU/s1600-h/imatch.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 313px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNl9cgMty6b2SDPKrsOmghi5Sn1VDQGZYZaAFRQifCjj6u10XCLCWoTg9jCBcVDFU9sxxromdSuEt2_ycRksE9gCkWsW0ilvVoodODhyphenhyphenTBwW8LUfLLLVrzqOpSOq2-YQYoskPCl7At2yU/s400/imatch.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268318984672891794" /></a><br /><br />Well over this last month I have continued to dedicate my computer to rendering animations. I have gotten queue manager for Poser Pro to work across the network. This means I not only have my Gaming Desktop rendering, but, now our laptop is also busy spending it's days and nights rendering my animations. I now have a couple of minutes of video "in the can" for my Halloween video that will now be the 2009 Halloween video since I missed the 2008 deadline. So, after this last couple of animations I have had in work are finished I plan on putting this project on hold until sometime later next summer. <br /><br />So, the question is what will I be working on next? One of the things that I have discovered is that I have downloaded so many free models that I am having a hard time finding anything. Poser does a pretty good job of having a hierarchy structure for the models. The problem is that it is much like looking for something in Windows. If you know where it is, you can get it. Unfortunately it doesn't have a search capability like windows explorer. It has the ability to somewhat categorize it using the concept of categories. But, again it still is in a hierarchy and is hard to find things.<br /><br />With this set of limitations in mind, I decided to start looking at software that manages and categorizes images. This type of software has become very popular since the introduction of digital cameras that makes it very easy to shoot hundreds and thousands of photos. As you would expect, there is all kinds of software at all kinds of prices. I had narrowed my choices down to iMatch and Microsoft Expression. At this point, I think I will use iMatch mostly because it is $60 versus $200. It will allow me to "tag" and categorize my Poser images and has a very powerful search engine to find what I am looking for. I also plan on using this to organize the family photos.<br /><br />The Microsoft product was part of a bigger Development package for people making multimedia applications and web sites. While I would really like this software as it integrates the whole workflow associated with making web sites and apps, it probably is an overkill for what I am interested in doing. The price is also an overkill for the Suite of Expression Products at over $600. I would rather buy the $60 package iMatch image manager and use my $50 Namo Web Development software, leaving more money to spend on 3D modeling products (Vue) and movie making software (upgrade Vegas Movie Studio). I got a $1200 Special Recognition Award from work that I plan on using to fund this all anyway. <br /><br />I plan on taking off the week of Thanksgiving and I will spend some time organizing myself while listening to Rock 'N Roll. It is not a very creative outlet, but, I think it will end up making me a lot more efficient in future creative projects. Speaking of future creative projects, here are some of my ideas:<br />- Do landscape visualizations in Vue<br />- Do architectural visualizations (houses, street scenes, etc) using 3D modeling tools and rendering in Vue<br />- Do avatars of my family<br />- Finish my 3D model of our house<br />- Play around the special effects in Poser<br />- Create some still pictures in Poser associated with Christmas and put together a video with models and real photos using some of my electronic Christmas Carols from a couple of years ago<br />- Upgrade to Painter Essentials 4 and get back into digital painting (again of family events and landscapes)mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-82606795364214564502008-10-05T11:02:00.000-07:002008-11-02T05:46:14.690-08:00Animation Blues<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ojw4yoOheOU"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ojw4yoOheOU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object><br /><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yzh2BuqZPYg"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yzh2BuqZPYg" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object><br /><br />This last month my computer has been real busy though I haven't spent all that much time on it. What I have been doing is rendering animation. I spend a relatively small amount of time setting up the scenes, adding characters, adding specific animations to the characters, positioning cameras, moving lights, etc, and then my computer renders the scene which takes a long, long time. <br /><br />This has become somewhat frustrating, but, I did start using a new tool that makes it a little more easy to take. It is call Queue Manager and it is part of Poser Pro. I set up my scene and then send it to Queue Manager which takes care of scheduling and managing the rendering in a process independent of Poser Pro. That allows me to have a scene rendering an animation and still use Poser Pro to set up the next scene, work on an animation, etc. <br /><br />I am doing a Halloween music video that uses my "Lady Dark Eyes" song I recorded a few years ago. I am also doing "The Making of Lady Dark Eyes" video to document the process. I created the first scene in the cemetery with six characters. Once again, I am having problems with missing textures on the characters. I have rendered it a couple of times and in both cases ended up with missing textures. This turns out to be very frustrating, as I only find out about it after it has finished the animation render which can take a couple of days. I am sure it has something to do with an overall lack of RAM, but, despite making changes to Virtual Memory and other tweaks, I am still having problems. I have put out desperate pleas on a few forums, but, so far not much help.<br /><br />It appears that I may have to find ways to simplify my scenes which puts a bit of a creative damper on the whole effort. I have been reading of ways to simplify the scene that are not as obvious, such as, low rez characters in the background, simplifying characters by removing morphs you are not using, saving textures and reapplying them at lower resolutions, etc. I hate spending all the time and effort doing this as it is part of the creative process, but, I would rather find and apply "technical solutions", rather than, just make less complex scenes.<br /><br />In any case, be sure to check out my You Tube site more often as I plan on releasing "dailies" just like a movie that show my little scenes as they are shot. It will be a few weeks before I have enough "footage in the can" (i.e. rendered scenes) to begin editing and creating the actual video. <br /><br />Scenes rendered this month:<br />- Cemetery scene with six witches raising from the ground and flying away.<br />- Beach House Porch Scene where Witch walks up the stairs and passes a couple who are talking.mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-65230938180052003322008-09-28T05:48:00.000-07:002008-09-28T17:44:30.664-07:00Animation and Rendering<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/b2b1uyPmpIo"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/b2b1uyPmpIo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object><br /><br />After converting and then looking at the CMU animations, I was really fired up to began doing my own animation. I had decided to do another music video to one of the Rough Cut's songs Ron and I had written. I decided to go with one that had a Halloween theme about a witch since it was almost October. After a couple of days of trying some of these new tools and my new understanding of animation, I am now wondering if it will be done by this year's or next year's Halloween.<br /><br />What I am getting at is the time it takes to create and render an animation. As you can remember from previous blogs, I was complaining about how long it took render a high quality scene in Poser due to the amount of calculation it takes to correctly interpret light, shadows, angles on the 3D models, etc. Well, when you animate and then capture it with an appropriate amount of rendering to make it look more realistic, you have just upped the ante. Now the painful rendering speed has to be endured for each frame of the video. At up to 30 frames per second for a quality animation, you get the picture. SSSSLLLLLOOOOOWWWWWW.<br /><br />So, before going and putting together my story board, creating the sets, gathering the props, costuming the characters, etc for the whole video, I decided to go ahead and do a test rendering of a simple 3 second scene. It is a zoom in of a sexy girl in a cemetery. I created a cemetery scene and then created two key frames. This took me about 30 minutes or so. Then I had the first key frame with camera far away from the girl and then the last key frame was a close up of the girl with the camera getting the upper half of her body. The first key frame was frame 1 and the second key frame was 120. I also had moved both of the characters arms and her head in the second key frame. So it appeared that she change positions slightly during the zoom. This took another 10 minutes.<br /><br />The way animation work is it basically calculates all the positions both of the character and of the camera for each frame and then renders the frame. So, it calculated 120 positions for the character and the position of the camera at each of the frames and began rendering. It is still rendering, so, that is why I am writing a blog. It takes about 5 minutes to render each frame. So, 120 X 5 = 600 minutes. A three second animation takes about 10 hours on my "super computer". Now, you can understand my earlier blog where I was lusting for more hardware for my new hobby and why I would post my picture of the Pixar Render Farm.<br /><br />But, luckily I have a lot of time on my hands and Poser Pro allows you to set up batch queues so that you can plan your rendering ahead of time and have it render all these scenes at night or while I am at work. So, it really isn't all that bad. I will just have to do a little planning in order to create my animations. I will probably set up all the animations during the weekends and nights and then do the actual animating on a batch schedule. This is all starting to sound a lot more like my real job! That is my major concern on my SAP project this fall. Worrying about the batch window, schedules and system performance.<br /><br />I have waited until it finished to publish the blog. I have posted this on You Tube as well as here in the blog.mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-75746245698837021232008-09-20T08:32:00.000-07:002008-09-21T03:02:25.943-07:00Converting the Carnegie-Mellon University Graphics Lab Motion Capture Database for Poser<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd0gP99HU50LPxUpKztUSCQQmFNSBNNbNpPkqxmpO4C2o0gZjIPaE8O3N09ySYH8NewH_dOVPATG_In5iARaxeqCW6MXej2P-DL_BEy6vOlJlkfmdhgjRaea1qxDgrLwpnvmFPubgUxPw/s1600-h/new_marker_set_front.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5248141352339252162" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd0gP99HU50LPxUpKztUSCQQmFNSBNNbNpPkqxmpO4C2o0gZjIPaE8O3N09ySYH8NewH_dOVPATG_In5iARaxeqCW6MXej2P-DL_BEy6vOlJlkfmdhgjRaea1qxDgrLwpnvmFPubgUxPw/s320/new_marker_set_front.jpg" border="0" /></a>The Carnegie-Mellon University Graphics Lab Human Motion Library was created with funding from the National Science Foundation. It was done in their Motion Capture Lab that included 12 very high tech Cameras placed around human models wearing black jumpsuits with 41 "markers" taped on. This data was released to the public on July 21st. The project gathered over 2500 complex human motions. It was translated by the Graphics Lab into c4d, vsk/v and asf/amc. It then was initially translated to bvh for use in the Motion Builder software by Bruce Hahne over at cgspeed.com. Bruce did all the heavy lifting getting it into an initital bvh format from asf. I would like to thank Bruce for this work and his committment to make hobbyist animating easier, cheaper and faster. Be sure to check out his web site at <a href="http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/">http://sites.google.com/a/cgspeed.com/cgspeed/</a>.<br /><br /><div></div><div>Since I don't own MotionBuilder, I decided to take Bruce's BVHs and translate them so they would work in Poser. I was familiar with the BVH format from some work I had done to translate Second Life animations into animations that would work in Multiverse, so, a couple of weeks ago I started working on the conversoin program in Python.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>I had to convert the MotionBuilder BVHs into the equivalent Poser skeleton. Then I spent a number of hours adjusting the rotations of the joints for almost every joint, as the Poser and MotionBuilder skeleltons are significantly different. The most challenging part of this are around the shoulder area as MotionBuilder does not handle the collar joint in the same manner as Poser. In any case, after a few days of tweaking and changing the program, I got a fairly usable conversion routine. The python can be seen at:</div><div></div><div><a href="http://www.mojodallas.com/BVHFixUpPython.htm">http://www.mojodallas.com/BVHFixUpPython.htm</a></div><div></div><br /><div>I have converted the over 2500 motion bvhs and made them available as Poser ready BVHs to the general public at Share CG at:</div><br /><a href="http://www.sharecg.com/pf/full_uploads.php?pf_user_name=mojodallas">http://www.sharecg.com/pf/full_uploads.php?pf_user_name=mojodallas</a><br /><br /><div>I have tested a number of them in Poser and if you aren't satisfied with the results you can always download the python and tweak it yourself. Also, PhilC's animation software should be able to "fix it" up, if you want to do further tweaking. A text file has been included in the zip file that describes each BVH file in terms of walk, run, etc. I plan on converting them eventually to poser animated poses and also making this available. But, you can download the zip file and just import the bvh's on top of your character and begin using it now.</div><br /><div></div><div>When you import there a number of bones it won't find. Just click ok during the import to skip them. They were Neck 1, which has no equivalent in Poser and then the finger settings. The MotionBuilder BVH was only for a general finger and finger tips, instead of individual fingers, so they didn't translate well and I omitted them. Also, the first frame is a modified T-pose that I needed to use to get things initially lined up. You will need to eliminate this first frame before you use the animation in a scene. As I start using these animations in my work, I probably will make adjustments to the python program and even get an overall better fit for all the animations. Stay tuned for re-releases of the library in the future. </div><div></div><div>I have been doing a number of my own animations associated with playing music. This along with my music props, I plan on selling sometime in the future at a mojoDallas store at Renderosity and/or Content Paradise. So, consider this initial release of the CMU motion library for Poser as my first merchant "gift" to the community. Also, check back to the blog and the site and follow my adventures in animation and 3D modeling. Thanks for stopping by and have fun with animation library.</div>mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com194tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-5443625983259018962008-09-07T14:41:00.001-07:002008-09-09T16:43:28.498-07:00Animation - The Next Challenge<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojnMl_cortE"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvR8uqyvkgOnccTHFeakq4iIzn7nbHnJ-pJzZJB6Hiv_Aa6TL9s9JqQQYAuJ6e7CBc55zV1laih9iBfbXLVTXhwFGwXY5Ra5o0sFdf0jVk5nW-MNsOfrkvi-TEkmIEFiZ4o1R18h1jKLs/s320/guitarplayer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5244170641746745842" border="0" /></a>I finally finished sorting through all my models that I have downloaded off the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">internet</span>. Amazing what people are giving away. With all my new stuff, I was ready to start another project. Rather, than continuing down the same path of creating "still pictures" within Poser, I decided that I would now try my hand at animating. I had a lot of fun with the cameras, props, lights, models and clothes which I will be able to also use in animating. Now I am just adding movement.<div> </div><br /><div>I have done some animations for Second Life using <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Avimator</span>, so, I was familiar with the basic concepts. Poser has much the same approach of using <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">keyframes</span> and interpolation. What you do is set a character in a pose like you are doing a "still" photo and then move the character's body parts (i.e. arms/legs, neck, head) and then save the pose as a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">keyframe</span>. Then you change the pose to the next logical place you would like the character to be in and set another <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">keyframe</span>. You can do this with characters to make them look like a movie or you can also do it with props like making a ceiling fan spin or a tree blow in the breeze.</div><br /><div> </div><br />You place these <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">keyframes</span> then at a frame in the animation, for example, you place the first <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">keyframe</span> at frame 1 and a second <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">keyframe</span> at frame 30. Then you set the frames per second. I decided to use the standard 30 frames per second (FPS) as it is well above the 18 frames a second that is needed to fool the eye into thinking it is seeing motion. The Poser software then <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">interpolates</span> the frames between 1 and 30. You keep adding or inserting frames until you get the animation look you are looking for. You can add as many frames as you want and you can loop them as many animations have a repeating motion (i.e. eating, dancing, walking, etc).<br /><div> </div><br /><div>Poser comes with an intimidating set of options associated with animation just like it does with cameras, lights, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">texturing</span>, etc. You can smooth the animation using spline curves, incorporate morphing as well as movement (i.e. actually move parts of the mesh like having cheeks blow out) and the most interesting is the ability to have layers of animations that you can use to put multiple animations together. This ability to use layers allow you to create a layer for say the legs independent of the arms or the hands, etc. You can therefore make them reusable. Just the right thing for a software architect to have! So, if you want to, you can animate the legs, arms, body, facial expressions independently and they even have a Talk Designer and Walk Designer to help you with walking and talking at the same time :) </div><br /><div> </div><br /><div>I have decided to create a number of animations for my <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">musicians</span> playing their instruments, as I feel that I will use these over and over. I am also starting to look on the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">internet</span> for animations already for Poser, as well as, the standard <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">BVH</span> animations used in many games including Second Life that you can import into Poser and use to create an animation with a little work. I am sure that my initial efforts will be a little primitive and I feel like this type of work will take more than a few hours per animation, but, I am looking forward to doing them as it will be the first step into making more professional looking animated shorts. Which is the reason I got into this in the first place.</div><br /><div> </div><br /><div>My first animation is me playing guitar and you can see it on You Tube at: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojnMl_cortE">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojnMl_cortE</a><br />.<br />.<br />.<br /></div>mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-56366764666392543842008-09-03T16:40:00.000-07:002008-09-03T17:22:44.114-07:00New Video<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy3Lm0Zs3YLoTqxl8UvtJiJraHi4AIXAQhrKyyIfufvghNjnIUQ977xCpVPED5HHwyeadHENfxNbqHnndO8StVjfDW4cZihJMmsxA4oaE6pzSJ6C3Q0MGGIk0aEkqrku-C6rLTKcQN3aY/s1600-h/YouTube.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy3Lm0Zs3YLoTqxl8UvtJiJraHi4AIXAQhrKyyIfufvghNjnIUQ977xCpVPED5HHwyeadHENfxNbqHnndO8StVjfDW4cZihJMmsxA4oaE6pzSJ6C3Q0MGGIk0aEkqrku-C6rLTKcQN3aY/s400/YouTube.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5241954984868023554" border="0" /></a><br />I decided to go ahead and take the pictures I created in Poser associated with the Music Studio I built and weave it into a small story and create a Video. The video was created in powerpoint and has no animation. It is a series of about 80 shots I took in Poser interspersed with some slides that do a small bit of narration. I mixed it in with a Rough Cuts original song called "For the Last Time" that Ron Jones and I wrote and performed. I created the slide show in a couple of hours and loaded it up to You Tube.<br /><br />The video is a tour of the Music Studio and then follows my virtual band doing a recording in the studio. The studio tour shows the Lobby, Hallway, Control Room and Studio. It has a number of scenes that take place in each of the rooms. I created a number of characters as part of this project. They included:<br />- Mojo - Guitarist<br />- Herb - Singer<br />- Rasta - Bass Player<br />- Vicki - Piano Player<br />- Ben - Conga Player<br />- Hiro - Drummer<br />- Rick - Organist<br />- Sydney - the Agent<br />- Simon - the Producer<br />- Aiko - Simon's Secretary<br />- Elvis - Executive Producer<br /><br />I am sure you will see the characters again in the future in other scenes along with the musical equipment. What I noticed about the scenes when watching the video when it was done was how uneven the quality of the work was. A lot of this due to the learning curve I was coming down. I learned as time went on what made a better composition in terms of putting together a picture. You can do a lot with the lighting, camera angles, focus, etc within Poser. In fact it is a little on the daunting side in terms of the options.<br /><br />Also, I learned a lot about how to pose figures, texture them, place them in scenes, fix problems associated with their movements (skin pokeouts, unnatural positions), etc. This was a very good learning experience and I look forward to my next projects. I have planned to do a scene of the musicians in a club setting playing next with animation instead of still "photos". It will mean another learning curve to come down, but, it should be fun. I also would like to do a video as part of a Christmas Video that would feature my Virtual Family including a grandson character.<br /><br />But, first I am doing some upgrading of software and hardware. Rather than buy a new computer, I decided to upgrade my RAM to 8G, load a 64 bit operating system (Vista Home Premium) and also bought Poser Pro which has more power and options than the Standard Poser I am using today. This will hopefully help with the animation rendering which I have read about on the internet as a potential time drain, as well as, other challenges.<br /><br />You can see the video on You Tube at:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/mojoDallas">http://www.youtube.com/user/mojoDallas</a><br />.<br />.mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-80012564362973515312008-08-24T08:15:00.001-07:002008-08-24T09:32:45.754-07:00My Computer Is Too Small and Too SlowI am sure that the number one rule for computers, at least for me is:<br /><br />"Regardless of how big or fast your computer is, you will find a program that will bring it to it's knees and cause you to go out to websites and check for bigger, faster and more expensive hardware!"<br /><br />Two years ago, which is a lifetime in computer hardware, I bought a top end gaming computer from Dell. It was a thing of beauty with 2 - 2.8 Gigahertz CPUs, 2 Gigs of RAM, 500 Gig Hard Drive, 2 Video Cards and a 24" Monitor. I put the most demanding game I could find on the market, Oblivian and stress tested at all the highest settings and it handled it no problem.<br /><br />This little experiment also ended my high end gaming career. I found out that it was so seamless and immersive that I actually got motion sickness playing any of the real time games. So, my big plans for spending my time playing those cool new games were put on the shelf. I have tried and tried various games and basically found out I literally couldn't stomach them.<br /><br />So, I got into virtual worlds and now 3D modeling. The virutal worlds like Second Life and Multiverse were child's play for by big computer rig. They were not as demanding as the games I had been playing. But, then I got Poser and started doing 3D modeling and animation. Now, I know why the big digital studios are some of the favorite customers of the high end hardware companies. The 3D applications of which I primarily use Poser are very demanding on computers hardware. The idea of having "Dreamworks on your Desktop" is just a pipedream.<br /><br /><br />I was getting very disapointed when I started to render a picture that it took 5 - 10 minutes to render a shot. So, I looked at render options within Poser and hoped I could change the settings to maybe speed it up. To my suprise, I discovered that the 5 - 10 minute shot was already set to the lowest settings! That was the best I could do. So, just wondering, I decided to move up from "draft mode" to some of the higher "final modes". I first tried the highest setting. I started it before I went to bed. I got up the next morning to see the expected spectacular results. It was about 10% rendered and both CPUs were pegged to 100% and had been all night. I rebooted and started trying lower settings.<br /><br /><br />Forget it, nothing above the "draft mode" which didn't include smoothing, ray tracing, ambient occlusion and all the other cool toys of the 3D artist would work. So, I got on the message board and asked what others were using for PCs. I now officially have PC envy. The 3D hobbiest is a gold mine for hardware manufactures. The "average rig" others had on the message forums were qaud core machines with at least 12G RAM! Price tag in today's market ....... 5 grand.<br /><br /><br />Also, it kicked off a lot of debate about the use of render farms versus your own PCs for rendering. Companies buy hardware and then rent out space to 3D artists to render on their hardware. It requires special software like Poser Pro (another $200 on top of what I have) that can do network rendering. Suprisingly a number of the other people on the message forums were using "home made" render farms, where they had strung together 2 or 3 high end machines. Render fames are expensive, but, if you build your own, the hardware soon becomes out of date.<br /><br />So, with all my research their is no easy fix for getting "Dreamworks on the Desktop" for Mojo. Of course the easy answer is just not to worry about high end rendering because after all it is just a hobby. Yeah right! That sounds like me, don't spend a lot of money on hobbies or vacations. So, the real question is how to break the news to Nancy. :)<br /><br /><br /><div align="center">Render Farm At Pixar</div><div align="center"></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238114919558536802" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmdg2xNxK7uHXyxFtfCeo783XEhOoov4Y6UGf2hXORK0ab-8BUhS0On_A48fJtTMvj_UdBf289F_-WOwQiyn3A8luGvjPvyiLA7VYC9z0ye7yR_N3bnQQC6fHm8HbPbmo7NRXexTK8-Eo/s400/renderfarm2.jpg" border="0" />mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-35173819461427177122008-08-17T11:40:00.000-07:002008-08-17T11:50:33.854-07:00Composite ScenesI spent most of this weekend working on music scenes. I am working on a control room scene that I will put in the gallery sometime this week. This weekend I spent a little more time with the DAZ figures including Victoria and Michael. Again, I am seeing that the whole key to this is the lighting and camera angles. Here are the 3 composite shots (Double Click on them to view in full size) that I created of the last week or two of modeling and shooting in Poser:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">The first is to represent Mojo and Rasta jamming and Vicki being BORED!<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1ZEFgsHyEGQLukTa6xTQqfW-JPAhL0GsDoX2chBasCD_XB-XluooKZH3D3N-Z3X-Pu5r-bQIiMs7pUi3DUb5fkZObDzZ-x-cUrzM9mVnO-xog1Qx_QG_22Xn1vUHB40ZjrWCw8mppN4k/s1600-h/composite3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1ZEFgsHyEGQLukTa6xTQqfW-JPAhL0GsDoX2chBasCD_XB-XluooKZH3D3N-Z3X-Pu5r-bQIiMs7pUi3DUb5fkZObDzZ-x-cUrzM9mVnO-xog1Qx_QG_22Xn1vUHB40ZjrWCw8mppN4k/s400/composite3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235559585552282546" border="0" /></a><br />The next one is centered around Vicki and Herb collaborating on a song.<br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYA5h2ZMftMlrk5pwnbgWXUZI683d_G-O5rvkmYnRyelP437jErSdlDMbZMvrSwUHKd3uqSwYroiklzCm77RiwDf7RpSvAlPEO0thUdcpAQDeeM0qSXIMRqbXf2XjBXkD8YK-1vRrKTJE/s1600-h/composite2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYA5h2ZMftMlrk5pwnbgWXUZI683d_G-O5rvkmYnRyelP437jErSdlDMbZMvrSwUHKd3uqSwYroiklzCm77RiwDf7RpSvAlPEO0thUdcpAQDeeM0qSXIMRqbXf2XjBXkD8YK-1vRrKTJE/s400/composite2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235559687022955298" border="0" /></a><br />The last one shows the scene in the control room with 3 new characters. The veteran producer (bald of course), the aspiring agent (the blonde) and the executive producer (who I fashioned as an Elvis wanna be).<br /><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-TMC94hwkU0nE1yEjzgAdHxpM1Xn97JMm2WAPGydU_J-LwhWZOAO1oUjaPi5jiAD1NakPbEcwPq7M2vnFjI_mMfyNKeHHcsotW3EZo7AADlzeGTqPDWScrqRdJhcsRB2-JEYuTTspx94/s1600-h/Composite1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-TMC94hwkU0nE1yEjzgAdHxpM1Xn97JMm2WAPGydU_J-LwhWZOAO1oUjaPi5jiAD1NakPbEcwPq7M2vnFjI_mMfyNKeHHcsotW3EZo7AADlzeGTqPDWScrqRdJhcsRB2-JEYuTTspx94/s400/Composite1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235560140483940594" border="0" /></a>mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-18886832958536880332008-08-15T16:16:00.000-07:002008-08-16T07:39:10.363-07:00Organizing all my STUFF<span style="font-family:monospace;"><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;">I spent most of the last week organizing my characters, clothes, props and scenes in Poser. Like everything else I tend to do, I started getting as much free stuff as fast as I could and then realized I couldn't find anything. Reminds me of my MP3 collection. So, I spent the week moving things around in the Poser Categories. This works a lot like Windows File Folders in terms of a hierarchy of things belonging to other things.</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;">As part of my arranging things so I can find them, I decided to load a bunch of new content to my model libraries in Poser. Over the last couple of months, I have gone to a number of 3D model exchanges and download the internet their free items. It is amazing how many quality 3d models of everything from buildings, vehicles, weapons, furniture, etc are available for free on the internet. Unlike movies and videos, it appears that the 3D community is say more willing to share Intellectual Property.</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;">The way I see it, most 3D modelers have developed the model for a specific reason like creating a scene, to support some project or just as part of their hobby. While there are plenty of people building 3D models and offering them for sale, I think a lot of modelers have already been paid for developing a model as part of a project or are just hobbiests and therefore are willing to offer their models to others for free. Also, much like the music piracy situation, there are programs that allow you to steal the 3D model if it appears in games or other 3D packages by intercepting it on the way to the video card. So, a determined hacker can get the model anyway.</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;">Models come in a number of various formats much like images (gifs, jpgs, bmps) do on the computer. Of the various 3D formats I have been able to import 3DS, DXF, LWO and OBJ formats into Poser. The 3DS format is the format that is mostly avaiable in the free models you can download and also seems to be the format that will most seamlessly import into Poser. The other three formats usually require some amount of work on my part to texture or otherwise "fix up" the model. Unfortunately, a number of high quality models are developed in the two "high end" modeling package formats (3D Max and Maya) and then offered for free on the internet. These formats are proprietary and you cannot convert them to other formats or import them into Poser. These packages cost about $8,000 apiece, so, it doesn't look like I will ever be able to use these formats going forward.</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;">Just as you would expect, I had a couple of hundred models that I had downloaded from the internet and then imported into Poser. So, even though I had organized my models earlier in the week, by the end of the week I had generated another mess to clean up. It looks like my new hobby is organizing content instead of using it. This weekend I will reorganize everything and then get back to exploring Poser for shooting scenes (now using all these cool new models) and maybe try my hand at animation in the package.</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;">Here are a couple of examples of free models I was able to get into Poser:</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNk57kBdLgIiouzSlve4AI2fdw4WiOcxVassFtYkRa2zkKPqGSIqiTMu2aBRYKRShi4YUc3G3yTewx_U2TLn5y9jB5ek8XtxdnSRgyc5s-D0GcjGflPTjC_1-C5H7-JBvE89WcaePMpcI/s1600-h/free1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234895884130894018" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNk57kBdLgIiouzSlve4AI2fdw4WiOcxVassFtYkRa2zkKPqGSIqiTMu2aBRYKRShi4YUc3G3yTewx_U2TLn5y9jB5ek8XtxdnSRgyc5s-D0GcjGflPTjC_1-C5H7-JBvE89WcaePMpcI/s320/free1.jpg" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIwWMZVfAfahy0zzZl4OiKeN6PkjaRXUV5SR-7Boz8Fa-UAYkqhEayrtSwl-s6ZLA4HPVnouvqFvBSidBlJbpOzQCuCXo9pwHQ9-KBPLQLwGUgfA7pP7ZzwfQZbAlf-k8mQbxLIrqa7rg/s1600-h/free2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234896124025161554" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIwWMZVfAfahy0zzZl4OiKeN6PkjaRXUV5SR-7Boz8Fa-UAYkqhEayrtSwl-s6ZLA4HPVnouvqFvBSidBlJbpOzQCuCXo9pwHQ9-KBPLQLwGUgfA7pP7ZzwfQZbAlf-k8mQbxLIrqa7rg/s320/free2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaVeujqV2gXNiDMJ1icgS5HO_PzVNqpEcZAcd10Tk5lC7XV-KZHFfnSKMbueeDmJMCCcpq1A0U1OEglc66b8fCmbRS_FpA4bBjV0fxMBSbUbY3xSg0r9p5BqvgIx18d3sppUlpmufktDo/s1600-h/free3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234896247191054322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaVeujqV2gXNiDMJ1icgS5HO_PzVNqpEcZAcd10Tk5lC7XV-KZHFfnSKMbueeDmJMCCcpq1A0U1OEglc66b8fCmbRS_FpA4bBjV0fxMBSbUbY3xSg0r9p5BqvgIx18d3sppUlpmufktDo/s320/free3.jpg" border="0" /></a>mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-59341661211452741482008-08-10T08:14:00.000-07:002008-08-10T12:38:45.512-07:00Mojo's Top 10 Tips for Rendering Scenes in Poser<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0G6Numbmwfa_-JACn5Ouvi7tA7SaUetJGCSP5c-Vo4P6TdpcACzc_LSXZsfJWJ_WxTYb0PSTMn6BAANOL3OMt1Fr2aFlxWNMqULLoD_udmYwOwydXbfW1ExDL4YfSgyV0UDeZS4rwh2A/s1600-h/MojoRastaVicki7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0G6Numbmwfa_-JACn5Ouvi7tA7SaUetJGCSP5c-Vo4P6TdpcACzc_LSXZsfJWJ_WxTYb0PSTMn6BAANOL3OMt1Fr2aFlxWNMqULLoD_udmYwOwydXbfW1ExDL4YfSgyV0UDeZS4rwh2A/s200/MojoRastaVicki7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5232954075432804162" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I have created a new page in the Scenes section of the Galleries area for a Jam Session. This scene is action shots of a virtual jam session with Mojo and the other members of the "band". I created all the characters from Poser base characters and all the muusical instruments are originals that I made in various 3D modeling packages including Blender and Hexagon. Go take a look at <a href="http://www.mojodallas.com/jamscene.htm">http://www.mojodallas.com/jamscene.htm</a><br /><br />I learned quite a bit during this first scene in Poser. The first thing I learned is that it takes a long time to Render scenes and because of that there are a number of steps I have learned as a result of trial and error. So here are the Mojo Top 10 Tips to Rendering Scenes in Poser:<br /><br />1. Start by creating the building. It is best to make the building without a roof and then have roof as a prop you can add. In this way you are not as constrained with camera angles because you can go above the roof line if needed.<br /><br />2. Load all the props to get a feel for balance and overall look. Save this scene as it is the base for all others.<br /><br />3. Because rendering time is dependent on the number of 3D objects in a scene, set up sub-scenes of only parts of the building. For example, I set up a sub-scenes based on the wall in the Studio. Then I further divided it into areas where I was going to take shots. For example, the piano area. I deleted all the props that were not needed for each of these sub-scenes. In the case of the piano area I deleted everything but the piano, bench and boom microphone. Again the reason for doing this is that renedering is influenced by the number of objects in the scene.<br /><br />4. Pose your character outside of the scene. This was an important fact that I came upon after frustrating myself by trying to pose them in the scene. Because of all the objects in the scene the Poser software has problems being responsive to posing a character when the scene is complex.<br /><br />5. Use the parameter dials for fine tuning your character's pose. This is very important to get that exact look to the pose and Inverse Kinematics (IK) approach to posing by moving the arms and legs by selecting them and positioning them by moving your mouse does not provide enough control.<br /><br />6. While you are posing your character be sure to add the props you want while you are posing them outside of the main scene. Again, this is due primarily to performance, but, as an added bonus if you "parent" the prop as a smart prop to the character then it will move naturally with them. For example, the guitar that Mojo is holding will follow him when you move his arms. Also, when this is as saved as a figure you can move the character along with the smart props attached into other scenes. Mojo will soon be appearing in a Coffee House Scene I will begin creating in a couple of weeks.<br /><br />7. When you pose characters that are wearing clothes the skin often pokes out of the skin. You can spend a bunch of time trying to adjust the clothing so that it is covering the skin. But, I found that it is much better to just make the portion of the skin being covered by the clothes transparent. This is done in the material room. Below is a shot of what this looks like for a body in the Material Room.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBPZs2Ktd3wKuiTUcd3f457eSQYnXbE0gY1fad3Mo-ta1zi-op-OxmSf1URjDbh5O2rR0GoRYQutsQxme0qZJFK5nNgbsynC6QEwdeAGa6BgZ89I2ypAAUeDYS8S72SBPYAQQJQ07K8E8/s1600-h/SkinTransparency.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBPZs2Ktd3wKuiTUcd3f457eSQYnXbE0gY1fad3Mo-ta1zi-op-OxmSf1URjDbh5O2rR0GoRYQutsQxme0qZJFK5nNgbsynC6QEwdeAGa6BgZ89I2ypAAUeDYS8S72SBPYAQQJQ07K8E8/s320/SkinTransparency.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5232953580005008674" border="0" /></a><br /><br />8. Lighting makes all the difference. You will spend more time messing with lighting and being really, really frustrated that with anything else. In Poser, you see the scene with basically no lighting in the preview window and then you position the lights and camera and then you render. The render can take a few minutes to work as it is calculating many things including how light would bounce off all the objects, creation of shadows, recalculating colors, etc. Even with my high end game machine it can take over 10 minutes to render a single frame. Only after you have spent that time rendering will you see that the lights are not right. Frustration taken too a new level. Professionals use things called Render Farms that link together very, very powerful computers with lots of RAM that create the kinds of things you see from Pixar and Dreamworks. I use my PC and end up playing a lot of Free Cell as the scene renders :)<br /><br />9. Camera angles need to be thought through in much the same way as traditional photographers and movie directors do. After doing a couple of scenes, I started noticing how lifeless they were. I had read a number of books on shooting movies when I was doing machinima last year and I went back to them to start thinking through my shots and they started to look a lot better. I now usually put at least two characters and have them interact in some manner to make it more interesting. Also, I put more thought into what the characters are looking at and spend time focusing their eyes on that object or character.<br /><br />10. Lastly, I have found that this is extremely addictive. You can spend untold hours posing, relighting, changing camera positions, etc. Since it is just a hobby for me there is nothing wrong with that, although explaining to coworkers that you spent your whole weekend doing this can be met with some head shaking. At least my wife has more time to read books on the weekend now that I am spending all this time with my computer. I have started to preplan what exactly I am going to shoot much like a director would in order to keep things moving along. You can always come back to some of the shots later on if you are inspired by something. Knowing when to say that's enough, will become important if I am going to learn more about how this all works.<br /><br />Well, there is the Top 10. If you got this far, I congratulate you. Hoped you enjoyed the insight into what I have learned in the last couple of months.mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-65286944482080788972008-08-03T15:23:00.000-07:002008-12-09T05:56:29.926-08:00Lesson #1 in 3D Modeling - Don't Turn Your Wife Into a Cartoon Character<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVa4bKz7uWVhub_Rx-qMHtlTq6PvvU1Ua1ChLRjFXMN0mJqKAesi9yD3yY6xCboXQOKXCYYvrnbpMUbAGIZN_tQJD13lZXOHT-ZeFxBKM9UNPkgXjj93hs5MW5h91f0BrZm5hqGKgUObc/s1600-h/hair1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVa4bKz7uWVhub_Rx-qMHtlTq6PvvU1Ua1ChLRjFXMN0mJqKAesi9yD3yY6xCboXQOKXCYYvrnbpMUbAGIZN_tQJD13lZXOHT-ZeFxBKM9UNPkgXjj93hs5MW5h91f0BrZm5hqGKgUObc/s320/hair1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5230431764205741090" border="0" /></a><br />I am being somewhat facetious when I say that, but, this last week I decided to take what I learned in modeling characters in Poser and start making my family as avatars to join me in Poser. While I didn't have too much problem with making me, I also wasn't very concerned about what it would look like. Some hair, a beard, brown eyes and it would look somewhat like me. So, I decided to make Nancy.<br /><br />I started by looking at some pictures of her when she was younger, so, just like me she would be younger in Poser than we are in real life. I tweaked all the face settings and changed things all around tried for hours to get it close to right. No luck. Part of the problem is that I was being way more concerned about what she would look like and trying to get her to come out like the pictures than I had been looking at.<br /><br />Then I thought wait there is no way good for this come out. I don't want Nancy to say "Is that what you think I look like?" or something like that. So, I decided to come clean with her and tell her what I was doing and how hard it was. She had some good advice that I have decided to follow which was:<br /><br />"Don't make me a cartoon character".<br /><br />So, Nancy will not be journeying with me into the Virtual World. Though my kids may not be so lucky. Afterwards I got on the forums and looked to see if anyone had any advice for doing realistic characters. The general consensus on the forums is that human beings are very aware of what people look like and that is why it is so hard to make characters that look like an actual person. It is fairly easy to make a character that looks realistic and even photo-realistic, but, next to impossible to make them look like someone exactly. So, I didn't feel too bad about my lack of ability, it seems everyone is pretty much in the same boat except the truly talented.<br /><br />As part of this experimenting I did learn a lot about making dynamic hair in Poser. I created a skull cap which fit on the character's head and then divided this skull cap into separate areas called groups. I created groups after I had tried just growing and styling the hair over the entire head which didn't turn out well at all. I created groups for on both the left and right hand side of the skull cap for the top, mid, outer, outer2, temple, mid back and lower back. Then I grew hair and moved the hair down or to the side.<br /><br />Though this is not perfect, it provides a way to grow and style hair in Poser. With enough time and patience (which I currently don't have), I am sure you could create some realistic looking hair styles. Kate was over and looked at what I was doing and gave me some advice about how real styling of hair is done in much the same way I was doing it, by cutting and styling in sections. We'll see if I have enough patience this week to try something with it.mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-76350874046421266562008-07-19T07:55:00.000-07:002008-12-09T05:56:32.162-08:00Meet Mojo's 3D Band MembersIn the last couple of months I have built a virtual recording studio in Poser. I built the basic building in a 3D Architect package and then created and imported props from Blender into Poser. These props were covered in my last blog and can be seen in the gallery. This last weekend I started to populate my studio with 3D characters who were my musicians. While Poser is a very powerful package for doing this, it still required a lot of work to get realistic characters into Poser.<br /><br />As you may remember the studio is made up of a reception area, a control room, a hallway and the studio itself. I populated the studio area this last weekend with musicians. You create the basic character in Poser in one of two ways. The first and most popular way is to take one of the Poser or Daz created base characters and change it. The second way is to create your own 3D model of a character, import it and then rig it in Poser. After my experiments with the creating your own character which I have blogged about earlier, I decided to take the more traditional (and easier) route of modifying existing characters. This blog will cover how to do this and also debut the new musician line up at mojoDallas.com.<br /><br />There are a number of basic 3D characters that are available for Poser. It ships with two adults (Simon and Sydney) and two adolescents (Ben and Kate). Being a bargain hunter, I also came across other ones that were being offered for free on the Poser Content Paradise website that came free as part of my 6 month membership that you get when you buy Poser. These included James, Kelvin, Jessie and Koji. Also, I imported some free figures I had gotten from DAZ Studios.<br /><br />The first character I worked on was of course a version of ME. He is named Mojo. Since this is a virtual world, I made sure that my character was both thin and younger. I used the Simon base character and did what is called morphing in Poser. Morphing is done in the Face Room. You basically have a number of settings you can change that will effect the basic geometry and textures associated with the face. For example, you can change the size of the nose, position of the eyes, height of the forehead and literally a hundred other settings. Also, they have some basic settings to change the overall ethnicity of the character that combine many individual settings. In any case, I played with these settings and compared this to some pictures of me to get a close enough representation of me for the Mojo character.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Picture of Face Room<br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0_l3GYbFdqV4btZpb30WD8phnSkYZTiO2l8UYnYLdcw97-yLv7HAs8zl-Y3ze9YYEshT9VZ8KE5vTg_i_lBb6qeTNSo4fVgBi1RpzdsVpwMDrXlJ623s3jWNrBp_g4-YEn2bFE9RwGA8/s1600-h/faceroom.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0_l3GYbFdqV4btZpb30WD8phnSkYZTiO2l8UYnYLdcw97-yLv7HAs8zl-Y3ze9YYEshT9VZ8KE5vTg_i_lBb6qeTNSo4fVgBi1RpzdsVpwMDrXlJ623s3jWNrBp_g4-YEn2bFE9RwGA8/s320/faceroom.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224740805591207314" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /></div><br />I <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsRoO1KzNOFxzrdXaaic6zHOObbHfagHn7EcB0W-T4F1NkcJTJJf0r5L5hXyMoZ32Iks6uGrNUD96ZXoLfEQP7g5o4GnbsTkFW94ohK8lKRTYevQjpWrD7oPteybow5bGLjk_EJxhuOvY/s1600-h/mojocloseup.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsRoO1KzNOFxzrdXaaic6zHOObbHfagHn7EcB0W-T4F1NkcJTJJf0r5L5hXyMoZ32Iks6uGrNUD96ZXoLfEQP7g5o4GnbsTkFW94ohK8lKRTYevQjpWrD7oPteybow5bGLjk_EJxhuOvY/s200/mojocloseup.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224741653074096146" border="0" /></a>then added hair and a beard by going to the Hair Room in Poser. This was both time consuming and had a fairly significant learning curve, but, I ended up after a few tries with something that approximated my hair and beard from days gone by. I then dressed my character by adding some standard clothes from the Poser Library and changing the textures on them in the Material Room in Poser. These models all have slightly different geometries which means that the clothes created for one model will not fit "out of the box" without some moderations. All told I spent somewhere around 10 hours in getting the Mojo character created.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifR3C3Z3TbydLaGfuiKNArvZ5mhFCazUNLttGyulwFcc0XWx0IM8MygbsxgR3_HyJ_ha_2yaFkcxo_-dFzS6CFl4SuD_X_xLmo72MVr7ipRom37tj4nte6XyrW3T1faW_YXhJo6LJilgY/s1600-h/mojosinging1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifR3C3Z3TbydLaGfuiKNArvZ5mhFCazUNLttGyulwFcc0XWx0IM8MygbsxgR3_HyJ_ha_2yaFkcxo_-dFzS6CFl4SuD_X_xLmo72MVr7ipRom37tj4nte6XyrW3T1faW_YXhJo6LJilgY/s320/mojosinging1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224742254338585314" border="0" /></a>I saved him as a Figure in the Poser Libraries and then placed the figure in my Studio scene. When you place the character in a scene it puts them at the center of the scene. You then move the figure to where you want it and then apply a pose to the figure. There are many standard poses that provide a good start. A pose takes the figure and using the rigging of the mesh it changes them into a specific position. There are dozens of standard poses that come with Poser. I chose one of the sitting poses and put Mojo on a stool in the studio next to a microphone. I then moved the various parts of the figure's body to make it look more natural. Again, a pretty steep learning curve and a few hours were invested in learning how to pose.<br /><br />After finishing Mojo, I then took the same approach and created a number of other musicians. They were created using different base characters, morphed to suit what I wanted them to look like, given a hair style, dressed in clothes I added textures/patterns to and then placed in the scene and initially posed. I spent a couple of weeks getting these characters introduced to my scene.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">My drummer is Asian and named "Sticks".<br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2cgJxdRV75rpnsG4yFUDyn9arGH2Fccn6eEaoX9_iA5Gcw2zTfO0MnAP1_xQHZnLF1n_WC5V5CAzMwbRlnFqXxXYEElBVcmNv4dOu78-Zj9zMpJZ1VkwOabumQYBFZyE5mZEFrr5hkkU/s1600-h/SticksDrummer.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2cgJxdRV75rpnsG4yFUDyn9arGH2Fccn6eEaoX9_iA5Gcw2zTfO0MnAP1_xQHZnLF1n_WC5V5CAzMwbRlnFqXxXYEElBVcmNv4dOu78-Zj9zMpJZ1VkwOabumQYBFZyE5mZEFrr5hkkU/s320/SticksDrummer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224743074875604354" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">My organ keyboardist is based on Rick Seeley who was a former band member in an old high school band.<br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvQJ3uu0FeCRT0PgHEw5BYQlBSVrni20R8LvvXyXntlC98AXIZne35jw0HOqCH6FZgubk5Mn2Se9zAyvifU3CI2DA5BrkbcCTn9pHQ30BkQFRRKHUZTWDHelzME2palBq2s0u7F1DndHY/s1600-h/RickKeyboard.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvQJ3uu0FeCRT0PgHEw5BYQlBSVrni20R8LvvXyXntlC98AXIZne35jw0HOqCH6FZgubk5Mn2Se9zAyvifU3CI2DA5BrkbcCTn9pHQ30BkQFRRKHUZTWDHelzME2palBq2s0u7F1DndHY/s320/RickKeyboard.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224743353558226530" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">My bass player is called Rasta who I created an afro for. I will have some Dreadlocks in future versions of his character, but, didn't want to go through the amount of work that will require at this point.<br /><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzyzccF4pFrfFiORCmRqV4V2zRc1ESFIMjapAGXCRb22RkHUMAm8Xo6dhy7aZ2pEa5fSP8yOdym_kRZ1ladt-C1iWZ7mVGxzSSnkcpv9naMyNHjk3RXUgpYNnVIZW-K7Ya4OilmVSV7rc/s1600-h/Rasta2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzyzccF4pFrfFiORCmRqV4V2zRc1ESFIMjapAGXCRb22RkHUMAm8Xo6dhy7aZ2pEa5fSP8yOdym_kRZ1ladt-C1iWZ7mVGxzSSnkcpv9naMyNHjk3RXUgpYNnVIZW-K7Ya4OilmVSV7rc/s320/Rasta2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224743676819665186" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">My conga player is just the base Simon character with no morphs.<br /><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjrbkd4mhfYgAppRT0oYF6_AZ1qT47UtDI8Omj7AevAv0Fobglka4gOebyvnqqSk4NWMyfQx8our0scdsZHFm85c1hyy3-gmkXs0XU7CceoYroB3zAhr_V-V33W_5OUcFfJ4ngq_4dUQ8/s1600-h/BenConga.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjrbkd4mhfYgAppRT0oYF6_AZ1qT47UtDI8Omj7AevAv0Fobglka4gOebyvnqqSk4NWMyfQx8our0scdsZHFm85c1hyy3-gmkXs0XU7CceoYroB3zAhr_V-V33W_5OUcFfJ4ngq_4dUQ8/s320/BenConga.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224744309320927986" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">My pianist was my first girl character.<br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_P1LPDIXk00jmJVJl-GHWPUzrfQ4Cc4_fpimFTbw1MJAYZkUoSUq_W5_ekN0bQfHkvRLMxahiX31Gf4dTYBfiYWXdLA_moeSgSqaW09Lzn1X6U1yAUXzp1KUuJOmzkVESw4fYdbEwMPI/s1600-h/PianoPlayer.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_P1LPDIXk00jmJVJl-GHWPUzrfQ4Cc4_fpimFTbw1MJAYZkUoSUq_W5_ekN0bQfHkvRLMxahiX31Gf4dTYBfiYWXdLA_moeSgSqaW09Lzn1X6U1yAUXzp1KUuJOmzkVESw4fYdbEwMPI/s320/PianoPlayer.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224744774855361458" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;">The lead singer in the isolation booth was based on my partner from Rough Cuts, Ron Jones as I envisioned he looked like in his earlier days.<br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUKtd_w0RJ4tz46M7pyFQRq_ReoVlsnWdomeghjwK2uUvnAL0lu4e0MxdFIAsUWuHxs0edNAUsH2U6Pw0JoCsfYShST8l8rcl9ef3HfbBc0CAvHKG-2XpatdWBgeCbMD_9Wb2_6hmdRzw/s1600-h/herbspotlite2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUKtd_w0RJ4tz46M7pyFQRq_ReoVlsnWdomeghjwK2uUvnAL0lu4e0MxdFIAsUWuHxs0edNAUsH2U6Pw0JoCsfYShST8l8rcl9ef3HfbBc0CAvHKG-2XpatdWBgeCbMD_9Wb2_6hmdRzw/s320/herbspotlite2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224745274128863970" border="0" /></a><br />After putting all the basic characters into my scene, I discovered that I brought my high powered PC to it's knees when I tried rendering. So, I have split the studio into various scenes with only the appropriate characters and props in each scene. There is no way that I can just load everything and then move the cameras and the lights for taking pictures. All those meshes and textures are more than even my dual processor, dual graphic card, 2G memory machine can handle. So, now I go to different scenes to get different shots. So instead of having one Studio model, I now have about a dozen that have subsets of the original model.<br /><br />My plans for the future are to now play with the cameras and lights and get many, many shots. This is where I hope to familiarize myself with all kind of photographic type techniques to render many kinds of scenes. I will probably spend weeks just taking pictures, tweaking the models, etc. I will then probably put together a slide show of the resulting scenes. After I have explored this, I plan on diving into the animation features of Poser and along with these still images creating a music video tied to some of my original music. So, stay tuned.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEs1tq9vfQ0Zeb7zkyL-_WoVtBRyOAxhBULA18Zd8sXKSOMHQk-nniQSW6dvC6OaLyLIYx_KG80pFlkUXvuVU_-T89W4UBkU9w_UME7GiLtmvTKBvG-wg-L0jxUVbNfvx-ZE8m1FY-kQQ/s1600-h/HerbAndMojo2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEs1tq9vfQ0Zeb7zkyL-_WoVtBRyOAxhBULA18Zd8sXKSOMHQk-nniQSW6dvC6OaLyLIYx_KG80pFlkUXvuVU_-T89W4UBkU9w_UME7GiLtmvTKBvG-wg-L0jxUVbNfvx-ZE8m1FY-kQQ/s320/HerbAndMojo2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224745903781262642" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBdD7pZgOSjxAJiiwCjUNapKMosAA4Z74BjC1EKcifchn3yG8j2fFN65BPfkUlV9bWCDswiz8qsRROnvMASR2xu6OwreEtNWNy0dF7_yUEDzHM7nGXE0CKFgPAJ8guBP7OQrSJG7zTj08/s1600-h/MojoRastaRickBen1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBdD7pZgOSjxAJiiwCjUNapKMosAA4Z74BjC1EKcifchn3yG8j2fFN65BPfkUlV9bWCDswiz8qsRROnvMASR2xu6OwreEtNWNy0dF7_yUEDzHM7nGXE0CKFgPAJ8guBP7OQrSJG7zTj08/s320/MojoRastaRickBen1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224746076440576514" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDLD2RDHucKEUW4vWY0bDnt_N-4ADUuNZ7gOzHxcbvnZKo2ydRO4ITEzqZKAYx3087i-sl3EVmBdhJciq0pAPeLu6bUc_ZqmZiUCYyVJ9ZY7zXTi-LinX4IpSVUUQQgngfkLHsEFtU6y0/s1600-h/Studio1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDLD2RDHucKEUW4vWY0bDnt_N-4ADUuNZ7gOzHxcbvnZKo2ydRO4ITEzqZKAYx3087i-sl3EVmBdhJciq0pAPeLu6bUc_ZqmZiUCYyVJ9ZY7zXTi-LinX4IpSVUUQQgngfkLHsEFtU6y0/s320/Studio1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5224746338377072450" border="0" /></a>mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-81603553901934503072008-06-26T19:14:00.000-07:002008-12-09T05:56:33.298-08:00Props and Models in PoserWell I am back from a 3 week vacation in England, Scotland, Norway and Denmark. I will post some photos and talk about the vacation over in the family section of the site this weekend. For this blog, I wanted to talk about some of the props I built for the music studio. I have created a section over in the "Gallery" that you can see these props I created by going to <a href="http://www.mojodallas.com/studioscene.htm">http://www.mojodallas.com/studioscene.htm</a>.<br /><br />So, what is a prop. It is just like in the movies it is something to be added to a scene that represents a real world object. Just like in the movies it is important that it looks like the real world object and doesn't have to really work.<br /><br />So, how do you build a prop? Well, I feel that a prop is based on three things. The first is a mesh that defines the shape of the 3D object. A mesh is just the shape, sort of like a statue. It has no colors or visual features on it. It only has geometry. The second major feature of a prop is the materials within the prop. The material is applied to a mesh. For example, if you are making a chair it would be the color, pattern and texture of the chair that is applied to the mesh or geometry. There are many other attributes of a material which I will talk about later. The third major feature of a prop from my perspective is physics. By physics, I am talking about how does the prop interact with other props or characters. Does it have a physical substance or can you pass through it? Does it have any motion associated with it, like a ceiling fan or a cymbal that has been hit?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggi-VWkXNlIg0RoXb5zXGxJ0Pl9V0Um7sEsk-I7ELak2_B8IX5kB2inzlKoWt5EVjCLrL7NiPryu2EYWvpkJ59_G6oENbJYCvGaFFLAsOKXI6nftK8Yj9GLGVvjaRTHktRnELg2CE0LZg/s1600-h/blog1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggi-VWkXNlIg0RoXb5zXGxJ0Pl9V0Um7sEsk-I7ELak2_B8IX5kB2inzlKoWt5EVjCLrL7NiPryu2EYWvpkJ59_G6oENbJYCvGaFFLAsOKXI6nftK8Yj9GLGVvjaRTHktRnELg2CE0LZg/s320/blog1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220075593432980834" border="0" /></a><br />How I build a prop is I start with the geometry. I generally use Blender or Second Life to create the Geometry. Basically the geometry or mesh is made up of polygons. For example a box has six, four sided polygons. The six sides of the box are called a face. A face in a box has four edges. These edges are shared with other faces. Each edge or line has two end points. These end points are called verticies. These verticies have an X, Y and Z position in 3D space. You move these vertices, edges or polygons and in that way shape a model into what you want it to look like. I use primitive shapes like boxes, planes, cylinders, spheres, etc that I combine/group/glue together to create even more complex shapes.<br /><br /><br /><br />Blender is where I do the "heavy lifting" in terms of really creating the mesh geometry the way I want it to look. Because of Second Life's ease of use I will often start developing a basic 3D model in it and then capture the mesh using a SL2Blend program I built and finish it off in Blender. There are many books and tools available to build 3D models on the market. Blender is a little on the difficult side to use, but, is very powerful and best of all it is FREE!<br /><br />Once I have shape I want I work on the materials. The tools I use depend on what I want to do with the material. For example, often I want to map an image onto the 3d geometry. I create the picture by either capturing an image or drawing it in a 2D graphics package. I use Print Shop Pro, Photo Shop or .Net Paint for most of my image work. Then I wrap this picture around the mesh using a technique called UV mapping. It is kind of hard to easily describe this process. Basically, what you do is take your 3D geometry and you flatten it out or unwrap the 3D object into a 2D image. Then you fit your picture over the top of it. The UV does not stand for Ultraviolet but instead it is U and V to describe the 2 axis of the map. In other words the image is 2D and therefore any pixel has a position that can be described in 2D space. Normally, we think of this as the X and Y axis. But, since we already are using the X, Y and Z points to describe the 3D mesh the axes are named U and V on the image. In other words, any UV point on the image has a corresponding X, Y, Z point in 3D space on the mesh. Clear as mud!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR5_WZ716izPk_FWJccB-qnRZB0izQHwUxJqom8uftT-0egwxU-rqg3s9TCdWCOUTuTF-NL7fqkEmcAMu1oiZJp2fohj8z1tRIOoyd2nIoBuGf_p9U0IwV-pawgOq2_N-USR2RA9fowFs/s1600-h/blog2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR5_WZ716izPk_FWJccB-qnRZB0izQHwUxJqom8uftT-0egwxU-rqg3s9TCdWCOUTuTF-NL7fqkEmcAMu1oiZJp2fohj8z1tRIOoyd2nIoBuGf_p9U0IwV-pawgOq2_N-USR2RA9fowFs/s320/blog2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220075881290637266" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMS5cSLcC5hVf-KrDBzQ1k_j-gAp7jXQxO9Oj31pnE5ZUqTYGpLBc7z1Wk0qBL9zTu0mzeOSxlwfCczVmPRblWt8NzJpTcNmnYBdvamnr8T_twbM8I2H7zd3WOobJQiah30_JiA9hW9XI/s1600-h/blog3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMS5cSLcC5hVf-KrDBzQ1k_j-gAp7jXQxO9Oj31pnE5ZUqTYGpLBc7z1Wk0qBL9zTu0mzeOSxlwfCczVmPRblWt8NzJpTcNmnYBdvamnr8T_twbM8I2H7zd3WOobJQiah30_JiA9hW9XI/s320/blog3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220076132669829442" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn-bbLn1boZ4ANs_G-iL9R7O8CaeBRZzHGD30bXwq_bUKGuRqz_kqtNfTHzn0yfpWSnUCpttahLpra-MaZC1iFrjZAKsRX0JNJZTubq6PPacMukNmvJrdjgrY9PvPe0CLaC_abuFSNduU/s1600-h/blog4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn-bbLn1boZ4ANs_G-iL9R7O8CaeBRZzHGD30bXwq_bUKGuRqz_kqtNfTHzn0yfpWSnUCpttahLpra-MaZC1iFrjZAKsRX0JNJZTubq6PPacMukNmvJrdjgrY9PvPe0CLaC_abuFSNduU/s320/blog4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220076324610852466" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfp-eWeZddESdYelSQP7AA1KVV8F7bIID-ktvQtxQ0yCmStYvRoXu7BcUKJo8wiuj9fBWHcx_q-BfOv_2UTFdBqZSuqoXRxZpoIvrnyN-A8aJVVR-ix8t_jb1pptZaMawAORIhuP7DPNk/s1600-h/blog5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfp-eWeZddESdYelSQP7AA1KVV8F7bIID-ktvQtxQ0yCmStYvRoXu7BcUKJo8wiuj9fBWHcx_q-BfOv_2UTFdBqZSuqoXRxZpoIvrnyN-A8aJVVR-ix8t_jb1pptZaMawAORIhuP7DPNk/s320/blog5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220076569463683714" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I utilize both Blender and a tool called UV Mapper to do this image mapping to a mesh. I apply the other properties associated with materials in Poser. These other properties include such things as colors, how the prop interacts with various types of light. The interaction of light with colors and images is a science on to itself. I have spent hours trying to get a better understanding of how a material looks in terms of the various types of light interaction that include the ambient, specular, reflective and diffusive properties of light with a surface and a color. How you set these properties is how you make a prop appear to be shiny, soft, silky, rough, glow, transparent, etc. I am fascinated by how to adjust these properties to change appearances. It has made me look at things in the real world in a whole new way.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA7kDr5tYZFzjWVIFNbVEZiw9ShlW1m2PHOgQKszfOLL9FsNjatiWtlDuo0esyB5sDKbN5azOpXDQK_YO6KeediG08JmDBLhYKWnoZ37zfAUsYMGMl7IYi-Nn2QNf_AY5QAZ_NLYC70xE/s1600-h/blog6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA7kDr5tYZFzjWVIFNbVEZiw9ShlW1m2PHOgQKszfOLL9FsNjatiWtlDuo0esyB5sDKbN5azOpXDQK_YO6KeediG08JmDBLhYKWnoZ37zfAUsYMGMl7IYi-Nn2QNf_AY5QAZ_NLYC70xE/s320/blog6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220076861638743490" border="0" /></a><br />Lastly is the physical aspects of the mesh. In side of Poser, you normally will animate each object or prop independently, so, you don't have to worry to much about how the objects will interact with each other. You just program that in by making sure that two objects that are solid don't pass through each other when you are animating them. In games where the objects are moving based on interactions with a user you have to program this differently. The technique I have used in gaming platforms is something called collision volumes (CV). This basically is done by identifying a space around an object that other objects cannot pass through. In general, in Poser the props I am building I am animating using their animation package which works a lot like "claymation" in the old Gumby cartoons. You just move the mesh one frame at a time and then control the timing and looping of these little movies you create. I will talk in great deal in other blogs about how I do this for various props and characters.mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-3806857691213302572008-06-01T08:42:00.000-07:002008-12-09T05:56:36.204-08:00Creating Buildings and Sets for ScenesSo, now that I am exploring the use of the Poser software, I decided I needed to do my first project beyond just testing things out. I have decided to do a music video like the machinma I did last summer for the Rough Cuts original song "Dallas Heat Wave Blues". You can see the grainy, You Tube version of this video <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hga5PhU7k5M">here</a>.<br /><div><br />So in order to do create a video you pretty much do the same things a film maker would do. In fact, I got very interested in the techniques used by film makers last summer when shooting my first animated music video. It is a fascinating field and I have read a couple of books on it now. I will blog about it all sometime in the future in the context of shooting a video in the software I use.<br /><br />So when shooting a video, you need to first storyboard what you think you will do for the video. During the storyboarding I identify the Scenes I want to shoot. I break the scenes down into the set, the props, the characters, the dialog (or in this case timing of the music), the animations or action, the lighting and the camera angles. I have a<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYEqd8XCpOg"> "Making of the Dallas Heat Wave Blues" Video Series</a> for how I did this in Second Life. I will cover how I do this with Poser in future blogs, as well. This specific blog will talk about the set in Poser.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn29_QCRdXreI-zdZljMiB0JOCxXhL9Po6VepT-kfWaoxIWvv1INyFSiADT056yirzHzZI7YCOtmoiLj1rAbTpyZT8ydZ7rHfU1VUl47o9_52kH6GxIhpN83mBQ6oF_3Nfued7L1Vs4wU/s1600-h/3dhomearchitectlogo.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206925587829947506" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn29_QCRdXreI-zdZljMiB0JOCxXhL9Po6VepT-kfWaoxIWvv1INyFSiADT056yirzHzZI7YCOtmoiLj1rAbTpyZT8ydZ7rHfU1VUl47o9_52kH6GxIhpN83mBQ6oF_3Nfued7L1Vs4wU/s200/3dhomearchitectlogo.jpg" border="0" /></a>For my first scene I decided to shoot it in a Music Studio. So I decided to build a Recording Studio as my first Poser Scene/Set. This meant I would have to build the props for it as well. I made up a list of all the props I would need and sketched out what the basic building should look like.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYMwhUeOONjHdqHoN8-ugFMMvzrrNtnkN9u7mjNVXqKJ7ukTOmzllGDTalGpzVLWFlWrOAMdoKdSla_k6eXqTDYB0vxHHgD9QVJgYsBhj2WF2_eDNAib9ekQQ_7kJVGFHIZNSSqtD6F4g/s1600-h/studiobldg1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206927319417550994" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYMwhUeOONjHdqHoN8-ugFMMvzrrNtnkN9u7mjNVXqKJ7ukTOmzllGDTalGpzVLWFlWrOAMdoKdSla_k6eXqTDYB0vxHHgD9QVJgYsBhj2WF2_eDNAib9ekQQ_7kJVGFHIZNSSqtD6F4g/s320/studiobldg1.jpg" border="0" /></a>I started with the creating the basic building. Looking at the software I owned I decided to try building it in an Architecture and Landscaping package I had bought at Fry’s called 3D Architect. I had played around a little and knew I could build a house and other buildings. I also had noticed that it allowed you to save your buildings in both a DXF and 3DS format. The Poser package had a 3DS import option, so, I felt that it should all<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzpts5hOM1-Wl1W_O4pDtg-h6-tOCvKtBHEwUe-F_e9dp5UNHngEvyUazO6-di43SbNIlX2lgKFVnlSwKsv9AFz69AkY-0m4vjnLn4uUNEquTkus-FvlkdvkHhJQuzpPgIbSHIFqpk3UM/s1600-h/studiobldg2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206927654283568674" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzpts5hOM1-Wl1W_O4pDtg-h6-tOCvKtBHEwUe-F_e9dp5UNHngEvyUazO6-di43SbNIlX2lgKFVnlSwKsv9AFz69AkY-0m4vjnLn4uUNEquTkus-FvlkdvkHhJQuzpPgIbSHIFqpk3UM/s320/studiobldg2.jpg" border="0" /></a> work.<br /><br /><br /><br />I built it with three basic rooms and a long hallway joining the rooms. Since this was my first real project in the 3D Architect software it took me a couple of days to build it. It took some getting used to learning how to navigate between 3D and 2D building plans and how to tweak the options for doors, windows, etc. I took the resulting building and exported it into 3DS format. I then got into Poser and imported it. I had to rescale the building and also get into the Materials Room <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yEcF7Vn4I-k-2xaXDhhr0YonNTwEOwX1FOLEXlL7JjQZNNFgKdMiHyveva_AEXNcGC4ATz6gHwQx1hQHV71cjnA_T4SBg_J2F0HoXIvNVbA7QlVN4dmmGMCG7qW-FoNnwHZx3EU_KZU/s1600-h/studiobldg3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206927862506417026" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8yEcF7Vn4I-k-2xaXDhhr0YonNTwEOwX1FOLEXlL7JjQZNNFgKdMiHyveva_AEXNcGC4ATz6gHwQx1hQHV71cjnA_T4SBg_J2F0HoXIvNVbA7QlVN4dmmGMCG7qW-FoNnwHZx3EU_KZU/s200/studiobldg3.jpg" border="0" /></a>and fix up some of the textures that hadn’t translated quite right into and out of the 3DS format. The main tweaking was associated with adding something called alpha channels to the windows to make them appear transparent. When I first imported them, they appeared like solid objects and this needed to be adjusted in the Materials Room using the Transparency options.<br /><br /><br />I had so much fun building the Studio in 3D Architect, I took a momentary diversion and built a house and a cottage to use later in my scenes. The house was a beach home. It has three levels, has 4 bedrooms and a full basement. It also had a large deck off the main living area that is focused around huge plate glass Windows.<br /></div><div></div><br /><div>With the buildings as a basic set, I now had to put things in my Studio and later my houses. The things you put in your sets are called props in Poser, borrowing from shooting movies again. In the next blog I will cover the making of props for Poser.<br /><br />Here are some house shots.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Iz9AI3EpjqveOfiZXoY4_ULYKSG1lJNGfW79pP4k62LjWhuJkVdijj_be5NWtnJaVDwTQ6rqJg7to4hxhMTYjg0Y3JfalXWCRRAfJf0660PtlfTYszMa3TyGaFA1gnFkKEGD4vGGT3U/s1600-h/house1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206993862164777698" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Iz9AI3EpjqveOfiZXoY4_ULYKSG1lJNGfW79pP4k62LjWhuJkVdijj_be5NWtnJaVDwTQ6rqJg7to4hxhMTYjg0Y3JfalXWCRRAfJf0660PtlfTYszMa3TyGaFA1gnFkKEGD4vGGT3U/s320/house1.jpg" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgShn32TZnX1lP9r6fLTTcwj8vtgfbMGBlHk4flF9ccLEbofv4G-YCg2iuhqzMKSCdG1BBMNSyZHAVoIWToFADs35ES38c7OjETmvHYOomaypn_oB6-qGqRABCXjGH6JifgGaN8UsrowMA/s1600-h/house2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206994148272972018" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgShn32TZnX1lP9r6fLTTcwj8vtgfbMGBlHk4flF9ccLEbofv4G-YCg2iuhqzMKSCdG1BBMNSyZHAVoIWToFADs35ES38c7OjETmvHYOomaypn_oB6-qGqRABCXjGH6JifgGaN8UsrowMA/s320/house2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfFDhsMSOqB_jQSHKflpgWPUpU6KwMD7miECkrMWInV0xOUEMsN-tWipeuXQfsqgTf5B7kqyb6rD0_KLcI53FHDiSekzTNuuZZ9mClztLVpRcCQi-rOY6jMqliBHcJDG40zJ53YP311B4/s1600-h/house3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206994341965932994" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfFDhsMSOqB_jQSHKflpgWPUpU6KwMD7miECkrMWInV0xOUEMsN-tWipeuXQfsqgTf5B7kqyb6rD0_KLcI53FHDiSekzTNuuZZ9mClztLVpRcCQi-rOY6jMqliBHcJDG40zJ53YP311B4/s320/house3.jpg" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS5vbfxGxO3RSIfYaORNqyFfR2-67jsd7Cmg9x707m77VdZraj_pyvu0D5hEY1cS9lCgIjsud2RLmEEkio7aPxji6LKgjO7KPIxmSMHNTZGBtANJ1wDy-JQNPiygtPIqWn104cxeK3Ezk/s1600-h/house4.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206994584267982914" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS5vbfxGxO3RSIfYaORNqyFfR2-67jsd7Cmg9x707m77VdZraj_pyvu0D5hEY1cS9lCgIjsud2RLmEEkio7aPxji6LKgjO7KPIxmSMHNTZGBtANJ1wDy-JQNPiygtPIqWn104cxeK3Ezk/s320/house4.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfaiPNj38RX73TZkc1_Wz5GLsVEjFSfqmCU8T3MpbLpNdpS_p0anANHN9V8h7zaC6-4F6Smo6BVYHJadAJ2s8yeVBy0ZSHPAACIvSthmQE9uKECfXGXTcsFuDRqT0SlWxyXojBlReLSvw/s1600-h/house5.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206994794872869682" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfaiPNj38RX73TZkc1_Wz5GLsVEjFSfqmCU8T3MpbLpNdpS_p0anANHN9V8h7zaC6-4F6Smo6BVYHJadAJ2s8yeVBy0ZSHPAACIvSthmQE9uKECfXGXTcsFuDRqT0SlWxyXojBlReLSvw/s320/house5.jpg" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitQ73mNz9yIwgaARZYmn05WppOpV1_cR-uiqvKYHeYCRIDAaPFLhObkThw33fEvdD7VFbo7psN0FE5mviYZssjPb3Y5Dxh9zWQv4z6J54BJHDPl1nwqnXrFAq0r4rS22fK8Sf-KzeO3b8/s1600-h/house6.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206994935012059106" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitQ73mNz9yIwgaARZYmn05WppOpV1_cR-uiqvKYHeYCRIDAaPFLhObkThw33fEvdD7VFbo7psN0FE5mviYZssjPb3Y5Dxh9zWQv4z6J54BJHDPl1nwqnXrFAq0r4rS22fK8Sf-KzeO3b8/s320/house6.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibLNOu9DLOa0x2RRnsJRFS0v-hDY8OrTRI3__12loyh6FI4fLZmV9jliYFqU-ICgfrTLLGERRyybbjXEMwMvjQw_WIE_Br5VW2jO0oQsZDrBvEYH4AvcN0jxf0jX4_lbk1EReoNqiu7II/s1600-h/house7.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206995113888541730" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibLNOu9DLOa0x2RRnsJRFS0v-hDY8OrTRI3__12loyh6FI4fLZmV9jliYFqU-ICgfrTLLGERRyybbjXEMwMvjQw_WIE_Br5VW2jO0oQsZDrBvEYH4AvcN0jxf0jX4_lbk1EReoNqiu7II/s320/house7.jpg" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie9jj5wu8yQ7-H29FB86GArHvjvqfeaZ1YCEi2EPaRQcHqC8ve-u-UIvsDvEUUbuK4f7hg15ZgQG-cUI6vJJqT6t1Hm9K007q7vDsBbyKdhCQitq5T6Fl0qAzH63RRJAq0NaUZDsC5rMM/s1600-h/house8.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206995241644545570" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie9jj5wu8yQ7-H29FB86GArHvjvqfeaZ1YCEi2EPaRQcHqC8ve-u-UIvsDvEUUbuK4f7hg15ZgQG-cUI6vJJqT6t1Hm9K007q7vDsBbyKdhCQitq5T6Fl0qAzH63RRJAq0NaUZDsC5rMM/s320/house8.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHhWHucrPcQDQT273U6dKcb_ZQDK8HkSvexQejracrevXdCBRH7eRczRmjQsIcHmBBYPrUwrmlDbFIb6D6kENwz7dEMs5mxViQK80wuKZUnq4SYmRgH6qHu8J1RtV0Y9VYfQdUgQntYOE/s1600-h/house9.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206995437925919138" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHhWHucrPcQDQT273U6dKcb_ZQDK8HkSvexQejracrevXdCBRH7eRczRmjQsIcHmBBYPrUwrmlDbFIb6D6kENwz7dEMs5mxViQK80wuKZUnq4SYmRgH6qHu8J1RtV0Y9VYfQdUgQntYOE/s320/house9.jpg" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnE0JDN7gBv-En87k-V5Fk-i5mIv1d4ZQYrzTqnk5JfoHJhWK0BjstxzXs7RYpfYUHxF2Exd9qeoaphdrMzFUwSpNwI0z7ufTZ1evO7J4vzGD8IIfOWhJuE6dWTDT-p4Lr5ES3JwFIJ1k/s1600-h/house10.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206995571493033618" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnE0JDN7gBv-En87k-V5Fk-i5mIv1d4ZQYrzTqnk5JfoHJhWK0BjstxzXs7RYpfYUHxF2Exd9qeoaphdrMzFUwSpNwI0z7ufTZ1evO7J4vzGD8IIfOWhJuE6dWTDT-p4Lr5ES3JwFIJ1k/s320/house10.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-32743379521447342732008-05-27T08:40:00.000-07:002008-12-09T05:56:36.892-08:00Creating Characters in a Virtual World<div>This is the second blog in my new series. I have decided to write a blog every two or three days. The reason I am doing this is that a blog is meant to be a "binary log" and as such it should be more oriented to capturing ideas as you have them. Doing it this way it is better in capturing the overall creative process. Of course, that assumes that I am being creative and I have a process :)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-bKTpGlgYb4sb9LfN1tjxtpE-X2r5OSfPSP9rYSPj9-I9FGsfSmX_PzVElqo1-C78EIwd_M3YaVxg1t1mwB5ZpfEiQjy0GRZ0uk1zLBSFwnIo_-Qx9N7LKCSIQGdciYgp05zzFxw5eks/s1600-h/simon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-bKTpGlgYb4sb9LfN1tjxtpE-X2r5OSfPSP9rYSPj9-I9FGsfSmX_PzVElqo1-C78EIwd_M3YaVxg1t1mwB5ZpfEiQjy0GRZ0uk1zLBSFwnIo_-Qx9N7LKCSIQGdciYgp05zzFxw5eks/s320/simon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206324816108806738" border="0" /></a>Lately, I have been playing with some new software I have bought. It is called Poser. It is a product that allows you to build and animate 3D Scenes. A 3D scene is made up of characters and props. This blog is an introduction to characters. You may hear me talk about Characters and Avatars in these blogs. They both represent a human (or sometimes an animal) in a 3D environment. The difference from my perspective is that a character is like a mannequin or puppet. It is something you pose and animate to look like it is dancing, walking, etc. An avatar is a representation of you in some context like a game. A product like Poser is single user and is intended to allow you to basically create 3D scenes to photograph or to animate and then create a movie or video. As such, the human models in the scene are called characters. In a virtual world game, like Second Life or Multiverse, you are in control of a human model and therefore it is called an avatar. If it is you in a world it is an avatar, if it is part of some staged scene it is a character. The first picture to the left is one of the "out of the box" characters in Poser named Simon.<br /><br />In both cases, character and avatar, the underlying technology is the same. You create a mesh that has the shape of a human being. This can be very challenging in that the people are very aware of what human beings look like and therefore are very critical of how they look in a scene or game. I have created my own meshes that look like humans and originally bought Poser so that I could import my human model meshes to further work on them. Over the last couple of months, I have also started to work with the pre-built meshes that come with Poser in addition to the ones I built. The Poser meshes are very well done and Poser provides tools to easily modify their appearance. For basic human models, I will probably utilize the Poser meshes going forward and only use the ones I built for very unique shapes that Poser doesn't easily create.<br /><br />After you have a mesh that looks like a human, you need to skin and rig it. What this means is that you basically create bones for the character. This skeleton controls how you pose the<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwfy_BeDN3qeFKRp60QkZrVxYEQaRyskFNsRmrHXaivJwg_xVTIB3eyIMG4kNHhtoM334JrA-v55tZHXwYB1PxY3thi1aRD2dSeRLGYa8xbpUZ5FqZHAFwKI6zmaxUm_R3LYn7tXzqYzA/s1600-h/lbsmesh.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwfy_BeDN3qeFKRp60QkZrVxYEQaRyskFNsRmrHXaivJwg_xVTIB3eyIMG4kNHhtoM334JrA-v55tZHXwYB1PxY3thi1aRD2dSeRLGYa8xbpUZ5FqZHAFwKI6zmaxUm_R3LYn7tXzqYzA/s320/lbsmesh.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5206326405246706274" border="0" /></a> character. What you do is put the bones inside of the mesh. This is called rigging the skeleton. Then you identify what part of the mesh is controlled by what bones. This is called skinning because you are "attaching" skin to the skeleton by identifying the portions of the mesh that are affected by each bone. A given portion of the skin or mesh can be affected by more than one bone. This overlap is necessary to simulate human movement. I have both skinned and rigged meshes I created in Blender, as well as, used existing rigged and skinned characters that come with Poser. For posing and animation, you position the bones and not the mesh itself and because of the rigging and skinning the mesh moves along with the bones you position. The picture to the right is a mesh that I did from scratch using Blender and importing into Poser.<br /><br />When you have your basic character in Poser, you can do many things with it. You can change the way it looks (make it fatter, skinnier, change skin color, change facial features, etc). You can dress it and attach things to it (i.e. a sword or golf club). You can pose it, animate it, change facial expressions and even make it talk. I will cover some of my adventures in these areas of using characters in Poser in future blogs. Also, check out my Avatars Gallery for pictures of characters I have created in Second Life.<br /></div>mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7212718694383749852.post-81896257718318129402008-05-26T07:58:00.000-07:002008-12-09T05:56:37.889-08:00mojoDallas - The First BlogI have decided to start a new Blog Series. This blog is more aimed at friends and family than my previous blog attempts that were mostly written for programmers, 3D artists and game developers. This blog will track my activity and hobbies in the world of 3D worlds, music, art and gaming. So what have I been up to? <p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbBI4BGD-fJDkVi8djGw1rgWRLG_nqvLMyCcb4ScPmHB7yKd3VPdDlG7Z4hMsLc1RqDQtDC7_jE6w1aOuZK7tnX9sEv74BdLmNeg9kr2YL3YfZlRDVlOORIetyVeRitvfaAhqNANFJSkY/s1600-h/dillosthumb.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5204704861818937842" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbBI4BGD-fJDkVi8djGw1rgWRLG_nqvLMyCcb4ScPmHB7yKd3VPdDlG7Z4hMsLc1RqDQtDC7_jE6w1aOuZK7tnX9sEv74BdLmNeg9kr2YL3YfZlRDVlOORIetyVeRitvfaAhqNANFJSkY/s320/dillosthumb.jpg" border="0" /></a>A couple of years ago, I started playing <a href="http://secondlife.com/">Second Life.</a> Second Life is an on-line game that is unlike most other games because it really is a virtual world that you can explore, build things, make friends and even buy and sell things. It is really more of a community than it is in a game. I have built houses, boats, furniture and musical instruments in Second Life with their tools. I was part of a twice weekly game show called Trivial Obsession that gave away prizes. I raised over $1,000 for Relay for Life by sponsoring a number of events. I have performed music "live" in Second Life at concerts including a <a href="http://www.rikomatic.com/blog/2007/08/japanese-earthq.html">Benefit Relief for Earthquake Victims in Japan</a> and even shot a Music Video. I opened and ran a Virtual Clothing Store and Art Gallery. It was a lot of fun and it opened my eyes to a number of other possiblities in the bigger arena of Virtual Worlds. The picture is at my Game Show with avatars wearing a couple of Texas Armadillo Avatars that I sold.</p><p><br /></p><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihtjXA1O6jCRhc1eFmJ539D5-HEjhM1e0QLvhZyeiDwHZHgVvJJvZddQ1NOt9G9wY9Wu6GIW_wzMvwrjhSPhi46ug28MiYaLaOO65VKQ1ye6YBvOuxNxXx74dVXEGkxkIJb8Of2hfQOGA/s1600-h/playingmusic.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5204706485316575746" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihtjXA1O6jCRhc1eFmJ539D5-HEjhM1e0QLvhZyeiDwHZHgVvJJvZddQ1NOt9G9wY9Wu6GIW_wzMvwrjhSPhi46ug28MiYaLaOO65VKQ1ye6YBvOuxNxXx74dVXEGkxkIJb8Of2hfQOGA/s320/playingmusic.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left">Another term you hear associated with Virtual Worlds is the word Metaverse. A virtual world is considered a metaverse because it is a "universe" made of metadata. In other words, it doesn't really exist except for the data that makes it up. This data is then used by a game engine, in Second Life's case, the game engine is developed by a company named Linden Labs. It can result in an amazing, immersive experience for the Virtual World Resident. While Second Life is the biggest and most mature, it is also the most proprietary. When you use Second Life, you use their tools which are somewhat limiting and expensive. Playing Second Life, you have to buy land if you want to build anything and the land will only support so many objects (called Primitives) that you use in building your object like a house for example. The more complicated 3D model you build, the more it costs. In essence, you are buying time and space on their servers by buying land. Also, since you can only use their tools, you cannot use any other 3D modeling tools or import any 3D models made by other non-Second Life modelers. Second Life was starting to prove expensive and somewhat frustrating for me. Photos of playing music and selling clothes in a store.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0zZGGI3FFYzrbcPFstYDfR3f3LTQGx6TQtNITTxkAQ3I4O_rQTJblcvc3bYUq9dgCOhztj_LYIcIOfjBo_oIxt2abRkOcBGC-CL2YVjvVbd0GcCxUSFolzXilyEoBlPuWg1OzUEvqbiU/s1600-h/fashionstore.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5204706618460561938" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0zZGGI3FFYzrbcPFstYDfR3f3LTQGx6TQtNITTxkAQ3I4O_rQTJblcvc3bYUq9dgCOhztj_LYIcIOfjBo_oIxt2abRkOcBGC-CL2YVjvVbd0GcCxUSFolzXilyEoBlPuWg1OzUEvqbiU/s200/fashionstore.jpg" border="0" /></a></p>So, in the summer of 2007, I started looking at alternatives. I came across <a href="http://www.multiverse.net/">Multiverse </a>which was another Gaming Engine much like Second Life that was just coming out of Beta development<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgABKIZfbR1IlrkeUY0SMwmAu4nngjFnOL35-EoFkRzw_Zx9Q7CQ2csbPkuzCUgc1lM2n-Sx8Jf4EFVZVGQPP_rknUGp6uIjaLzSs4bEVvSirFE7jlf4hcQMjEeN1SlVZG-qnpX8-WVGxE/s1600-h/multiverse.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5204708503951204898" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgABKIZfbR1IlrkeUY0SMwmAu4nngjFnOL35-EoFkRzw_Zx9Q7CQ2csbPkuzCUgc1lM2n-Sx8Jf4EFVZVGQPP_rknUGp6uIjaLzSs4bEVvSirFE7jlf4hcQMjEeN1SlVZG-qnpX8-WVGxE/s320/multiverse.jpg" border="0" /></a> and early in it's product cycle. What interested me was that it is written in Java and Python. I already knew some Java and had been interested in learning Python, which is a scripting language that sits on top of the C++ language that is very popular with game developers and 3D modelers. I got very involved in the community and concentrated on building what I called "Content Pipelines" for Multiverse. A Content Pipeline is stringing together a number of tools to be able to get models, characters, clothes, animations, etc from one tool into another. I have become an active participant in their community and forums and recently published a guest column in their Developer's Newsletter. They are in Aptos, California which is kind of funny because they are next to my Sister-in-Law and Brother-in-Law's home. After some studying, I decided to use Python as my integrating tool between packages. These are a summary of the tools I built and how I use them at this point: <p><a href="http://mindies.org/xoops/modules/wiwimod/index.php?page=SecondLifeToBlender&back=WiwiHome">SL2Blend</a> - this tool is run on top of Second Life. It captures geometry meshes (gray looking 3D models) and textures (what is painted on the meshes). This was a very challenging project because Second Life being proprietary had no way of exporting any of the models you had built with their software, so, I was forced to intercept it going from the Second Life Program to the Graphics Card in my computer. It used Auto Hot Key for the menu to select options for the Export and then Blender, which is a free 3D modeling tool, to capture and display the model. The data I intercepted had the mesh information and the textures, but, I had to write python scripts in Blender to reassemble the "graphics dump" that was being sent to the graphics card. I basically wrote a program that emulated the GPU (Graphical Processing Unit) on the Graphics Card. This was a very rewarding and interesting project in which I learned a great deal on how graphics cards work today with games. Also, the technology can be applied to any 3D model in any OpenGL application, so, it has a lot of uses. I use the tool extensively to get content from Second Life to a standard 3D modeling environment.</p><p><a href="http://mindies.org/xoops/modules/wiwimod/index.php?page=BlenderToMultiVerse&back=WiwiHome">Blend2MV</a> - this tool written in Python using the Blender API and takes a model in Blender and exports it into a Multiverse World. I wrote this using the Blender API because besides Blender being free it also has a lot of importers that allow you to bring in 3D content built in other applications into Blender for manipulation. There are literally thousands and thousands of free and low cost 3D models available on the internet. This provided a pipeline to get these models from these many 3D formats into Multiverse. The programming included modifying a Collada DAE (an XML standard interchange for 3D models) exporter, creating DAE modifiers to easily change graphics, scale, etc, and a python importer for Multiverse to get the model into a Multiverse World. Again I used Auto Hot Key for the menu and integration and Python for the model manipulation. I used this and tested it against over a hundred models of different formats. This combined with the SL2Blend completed a Second Life to Multiverse Content Pipeline.</p><p>SU2Blend - using much of the programming from my Blend2MV tool, I decided to integrate Sketch Up as well. This took a couple of week ends. Sketch Up is the free Google 3D modeling tool that is hooked to their 3D Warehouse that has tens of thousands of models available. Sketch Up has become a very popular tool for the 3D model hobbiest. Since it was based on the other tools, it uses Auto Hot Key and Python too.</p><p>DAZ2MV - DAZ is a tool for creating 3D characters and animating them. I wrote a Content Pipeline to move these animated characters into Multiverse. This required quite a bit of understanding on how to use an animation format called BVH. It basically moves a character by telling the game engine where to put the various parts of the body. It works sort of like a move in that you pose your character frame by frame and then it runs the frames like a little movie and your character appears to be dancing, fightning, running, etc. This project also challenged me to understand the mesh, skinning and rigging of characters. The mesh controls what it looks like in 3D, skinning is controlling what areas of the skin is effected by how bones move which is the rigging. You also texture the character or avatar much like you do a normal 3D model although the art work is a little more challenging because you are doing human figures. This project also included a Blender/Python based tool that took the Second Life Avatars captured in SL2Blend and automated the rigging and skinning. I have done a number of sketches of planned 3D characters using my graphix tablet that allows you to paint and draw using a pen/brush.</p><p>After finishing all these tools, I was getting a little tired of just building software and not having fun. I h<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQsYoplzKcNTftAB0zLUj5dnR7bHjZO5Ne1ikx_gEZHxggfXgTBpNi9VBjmhRE2m5ouMmd5PEECUjLYcvG6KimzEnyNaLXIhffDrWpEyvRdC1LZZ-PKu9n2hkIm2YqpkH1LJzCuoim0PM/s1600-h/mymultiverse+new+logo.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5204709096656691762" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQsYoplzKcNTftAB0zLUj5dnR7bHjZO5Ne1ikx_gEZHxggfXgTBpNi9VBjmhRE2m5ouMmd5PEECUjLYcvG6KimzEnyNaLXIhffDrWpEyvRdC1LZZ-PKu9n2hkIm2YqpkH1LJzCuoim0PM/s320/mymultiverse+new+logo.jpg" border="0" /></a>ad started concentrating on doing things in Multiverse like getting a new "Character Factory" built to take advantage of the work I had done with DAZ2MV. But, I was being a little overwhelmed with just developing. It was starting to feel more like a job than a hobby. I had created the tools I wanted to and learned a lot about 3D models, 3D characters, animation, etc. I had been trying to build a community and was offering my tools for others to use. I had a site called <a href="http://www.mindies.org/xoops/">Mindies.Org (Metaverse Independent Developers),</a> but, decided that this was all too much work. I really did not want a second job and this was what it was turning into with the support of the tools and discussions. So, I have decided to take a break. I decided that I have tools that I can use to do what I want to in this area and I am going back to this as a hobby instead of community and tool building.</p><p>So, this is what the blog will now cover. It will cover my hobby. I will be creating things instead of building tools. I plan on creating animation movies associated with the music I have written and performed over the years. I plan on building 3D environments of things I would have like to do and have in real life but couldn't, such as, building houses and other buildings, a studio, a small town and also creating whole 3D landscapes. I am really looking forward to doing this and sharing it on my website with my friends and family. Some of this could posibilly fall over into the things I have done previously in Second Life and Multiverse, but, that is not the intent of my new hobby. The intent is to have FUN! Please come back in and check on what's new via this new blog and website. </p>mojoDallashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06225851257493595413noreply@blogger.com0