Number of posts : 23529 Localisation : Dompierre sur Veyle ,France Registration date : 2005-04-19
Subject: Re: Seamless Tue 20 Apr - 15:24
after many efforts , LOL , I retrieved my youtube account
so
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwmJqow7s5s
thyme +200
Number of posts : 506 Localisation : Australia Registration date : 2005-04-24
Subject: Re: Seamless Tue 20 Apr - 20:23
bravo Alain
the quality in your animation looks very good, even in low resolution it looks pretty good on a full screen, especially if you stand back a little, and I see you have it working in high definition too I just added it to my thymefromti favorites list on youtube I guess it’s a bvh import, I like the modification you made to the shape.
Sorry I must ask some questions alain
This was output as a screenshot movie (not povray) ? This video was made using the lastest FFmpeg installer for seamless3d? You set your win3dSize field to 1280 720 ?
alain fondateur
Number of posts : 23529 Localisation : Dompierre sur Veyle ,France Registration date : 2005-04-19
Subject: Re: Seamless Tue 20 Apr - 20:42
thyme wrote:
.... I guess it’s a bvh import, I like the modification you made to the shape.
Sorry I must ask some questions alain
This was output as a screenshot movie (not povray) ? This video was made using the lastest FFmpeg installer for seamless3d? You set your win3dSize field to 1280 720 ?
thanks Thyme but I have a very bad memory , you know , so when I tried your last version , I first wanted to check the "making movies" , and I jumped to my puter to see what I had as smls animated ,...
july 2009 , I dont remember if I shown you , scuse , -wait there is a gif in it -
and yes it is from BVH ,
so I tried today your export , then it took me a liitle time to copy the ffmpeg in the right folder , and then i got the avi
then I spent a long time to retrieve my youtube account , lOL , and then I uploaded the piece
Btw I think I must work more seriously on making movies , may be it is a good way for all the guys who havent a vrml pluggin
reedit
Quote :
This was output as a screenshot movie (not povray) ? This video was made using the lastest FFmpeg installer for seamless3d? You set your win3dSize field to 1280 720 ?
1 yes yes
2 hum I think not , I just retrieved a ffmpeg .exe I had in my puter , and copied it in the right place
3 will check , I worked quixkly , scuse
thyme +200
Number of posts : 506 Localisation : Australia Registration date : 2005-04-24
Subject: Re: Seamless Wed 21 Apr - 0:08
Thanks for your answers Alain, their appreciated Sorry if you have already shown the animation before as a gif, it did look familiar but I don’t always have the time to take things in fully so I am appreciating it more this time around. I like the simple shapes you made for the neck and head and the front quiffs of hair, it looks artistic.
alain wrote:
2 hum I think not , I just retrieved a ffmpeg .exe I had in my puter , and copied it in the right place
Ummm, you don’t need to copy anything Alain, the ffmpeg installer does that for you automatically, that's the whole point of the installer, to make everything foolproof lol but you must have installed it or it would not have worked unless you used another program to create the movie format from the png files ? I am hoping you used FFmpeg because the quality in your video is so good and FFmpeg free open source of course.
From having played you file by a player outside of youtube it seems its not 1280 720 so it seems you can still make high definition (HD) videos for youtube without using the resolution youtube tells you use for HD.
Last edited by thyme on Wed 21 Apr - 2:17; edited 1 time in total
thyme +200
Number of posts : 506 Localisation : Australia Registration date : 2005-04-24
Subject: Re: Seamless Wed 21 Apr - 1:15
Was showing Ep your animation and I then realized your front quiffs of hair are in fact eyes, sorry Alain
I preferred how it looked under the elusion though I have to say, the quiffs looked arty on that head
alain fondateur
Number of posts : 23529 Localisation : Dompierre sur Veyle ,France Registration date : 2005-04-19
Subject: Re: Seamless Wed 21 Apr - 12:36
Ah !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But that is very different LOL !
I just see NOW ! your page :
http://www.seamless3d.com/ffmpeg/index.html
As I had ffmpeg since months ( I dont remember where I got it ) I copied it in the right place yesterday
( as I tried too the output povray , I got the *.bat telling
But Ok and merci , now I installed ffmpeg from your installer , and it is very more magic ! when I clicked "output screenshot movie " it runs automaticaly the ffmpeg, at the end , and
creates the movie !!!
It is more than magic ! bravo Thyme , and very useful !
I checked that with my ( hum... your LOL ) lucy-pneu I made one year ago ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKs59xdcuZk
alain fondateur
Number of posts : 23529 Localisation : Dompierre sur Veyle ,France Registration date : 2005-04-19
Subject: Re: Seamless Wed 21 Apr - 17:56
last one , from an one year old file
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pA595lvW4Y
thyme +200
Number of posts : 506 Localisation : Australia Registration date : 2005-04-24
Subject: Re: Seamless Sun 25 Apr - 0:33
Good job Alain, Thanks
That is an interesting gif but I don’t understand it, perhaps when you get a chance to chat with me (which is rare these days) you might be able to explain it to me
I have just uploaded a new video: Making 3D Animated Movies Suitable for YouTube Tutorial
Would you believe this 3 minute video took more than 4 days of intensive work to edit !
lol I must find a faster way to edit videos but I would be faster now that I have written the scripts to do the editing.
gil recently told me of a free open source video editor called Avidemux http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
I have not really had a chance to try it yet, have you tried it? looks like its French
I fear using these editors will modify my frames (loose quality) which is why I like to edit the frames (png files) using scripts. (lossless editing)
Been thinking about how easy it might be to write a GUI based frame editor using Seamless3d's code as a starting point.
If I had no more than a simple program that could easily play the frames (png and pcm files) and be able to mark a section of frames and delete the selection, that would help me a lot and should take no more than a few days programming if I don’t try to do any more than this.
alain fondateur
Number of posts : 23529 Localisation : Dompierre sur Veyle ,France Registration date : 2005-04-19
Subject: Re: Seamless Sun 25 Apr - 12:04
thyme wrote:
That is an interesting gif but I don’t understand it,
I have a bad memory , I think it was from Hitchcok
thyme wrote:
http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/
... have you tried it?
never , I will do but not soon , sorry , now I am cleaning my puter , I have too many things in it
I guess you dont like Windows Movie maker , I know it is not so good ..but ...
Btw your movie is good to "advertise" on youtube , but on the other hand making movies with semaless3d is not diddicult to understand ..
Good luck ...if you need help - if avidemux is in french - , I can help
thyme +200
Number of posts : 506 Localisation : Australia Registration date : 2005-04-24
Subject: Re: Seamless Sun 9 May - 1:00
ah from a Hitchcok movie, sorry I don’t know my classics Alain, I should study his legendry work more
I have used windows movie maker, I like the idea of having clips that can be easily arranged but I don’t find it easy to use at least if you want to edit frames precisely and I seem to remember it radically reduces the quality. I really want "lossless editing" where the actual images for the frames are not recompressed. I am still mostly using scripts to edit my frames, I was hoping I might be faster now I have learnt a few lessons but it took me most of this week to make my latest video ! Perhaps editing movies will always take time but I think I could speed up the process significantly.
Nurbs Control Point Animation, one of the most exciting features planned for 2.161 is officially announced today for 2.163
You can download the new version from http://seamless3d.com/download
To mark this momentous occasion, I have changed the seamless icon to an image of Lucy who is an icon herself
To see what nurbs control point animation is all about please watch my new video in high definition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n1tIzuPxhk
As with my last video tutorial, the narration is available in text on the YouTube page in case you have trouble understanding my English
PS while composing this message PaganFire said to say hi to you Alain
alain fondateur
Number of posts : 23529 Localisation : Dompierre sur Veyle ,France Registration date : 2005-04-19
Subject: Re: Seamless Sun 9 May - 20:41
thyme wrote:
... Lucy who is an icon herself
...
PS while composing this message PaganFire said to say hi to you Alain
sure about Lucy , and she is LouiZeForum logo today
Hello to Pagan , thanx , I must go on the chat on a saturday ..hummm
well , I tried the control points stuff , listening your youtube , I got
Number of posts : 506 Localisation : Australia Registration date : 2005-04-24
Subject: Re: Seamless Sun 9 May - 23:06
Thanks for your support Alain with the Lucy icon and the seamless server and All, Seamless is truly indebted to you
and thanks for the feedback from my video tutorial (this is very much appreciated), your smls example file told me all I really needed to know.
Ok the first thing I noticed was you don’t use preset names (standard names seamless will recognize for color coding) like I show in the video and so on my computer all of the control points are grey. You may have changed the color codes on your computer but they wont show up on my computer because the color codes are saved to the settings file which will be on your computer.
After I changed your names to:
l_shoulder l_elbow l_wrist
I could see you had indeed painted different control points but they were not painted to make any sense for the shoulder and elbow and this is why the animation looks wrong. So this may have been because you had no color codes to guide you but also this may have been because you had perspective turned ON and I can see now that the rectangle selection tool is not working as one would expect with perspective on for nurbs control points. I will fix this bug for the next version but you should generally always do modeling with NO perspective because perspective makes things harder to work with.
So Alain please first click this button to toggle perspective OFF (so that the control points will NOT look closer together the further away they are from you).
And then try changing your names to:
l_shoulder l_elbow l_wrist
then hopefully painting the control points will all make sense
alain fondateur
Number of posts : 23529 Localisation : Dompierre sur Veyle ,France Registration date : 2005-04-19
Subject: Re: Seamless Sun 9 May - 23:23
thyme wrote:
l_shoulder l_elbow l_wrist
LOL I thought that was not important
OK I will retry
alain fondateur
Number of posts : 23529 Localisation : Dompierre sur Veyle ,France Registration date : 2005-04-19
Subject: Re: Seamless Sun 9 May - 23:38
Well , I renamed , the flv is OK , but the output wrl still tells me
VRML syntax error: line 156 in ...\untitle2d.wrl: Unknown node class 'CPMorpher'
thyme +200
Number of posts : 506 Localisation : Australia Registration date : 2005-04-24
Subject: Re: Seamless Mon 10 May - 0:00
Glad that worked for the movie file alain Alain
in regard to outputting as a wrl: I am afraid there is very little support for nurbs control point animation in vrml/x3d, vrml/x3d is limited to using CoordinateInterpolators and scripts for nurbs, but nurbs animation is generally not used for real time animation anyway because of the extra processing power required. Nurbs animations is used mostly for making movies. Movies don’t have the same issue because they can be rendered in non real time. However as computers get faster, expect to see nurbs animation in computer games and VR, it should already be practical to have 2 or 3 well optimized avatars in a world at one time using modern cheap computers.
alain fondateur
Number of posts : 23529 Localisation : Dompierre sur Veyle ,France Registration date : 2005-04-19
Subject: Re: Seamless Mon 10 May - 0:16
well , I am sorry to write here in real time , during I make tests , le last output I made has no error , but dont show the right anim ; but I must stop a bit to post here , and to waste your time , I will re try and then show what I get when I will be more sure of getting all the right steps .
BTW if the aim is more for movies , I think it works well .
I got another flv easily
thyme +200
Number of posts : 506 Localisation : Australia Registration date : 2005-04-24
Subject: Re: Seamless Mon 10 May - 2:14
Your not wasting my time Alain ! No errors would mean you have no CPMorpher which would only mean no morphing so its not really anything good to report Alain , but there is no law you have to morph nurbs, you can just transform them but transforming nurbs wont work for a wrl at least not yet.
Thinking about this some more Alain (in real time lol) you probably could use hanim and or blaxxun's setByTransformVertex function to animate nurbs but vrml/x3d has no means (at least I know of no browser that can do this) to join nurbs patches together so this would mean the avatars would have seams or be limited to a single patch, so what would be the point of bothering?
This is just one example where seamless chat has surpassed vrml/x3d in real time graphics, but why should that be surprising? the web3d organization does not have anyone like me on their team . They can stuff their $100 fee for the privilage of having a worthy opinion !
alain fondateur
Number of posts : 23529 Localisation : Dompierre sur Veyle ,France Registration date : 2005-04-19
Subject: Re: Seamless Mon 10 May - 12:18
Alain playing here
http://mixed3d.free.fr/alain/200510.htm
alain fondateur
Number of posts : 23529 Localisation : Dompierre sur Veyle ,France Registration date : 2005-04-19
LOL that is not a masterpiece , but just to say that , afeter playing with the nurbs , I exported as BVH , then opening it and modelling it , and with a bit of vrmlpad ,
Last edited by alain on Tue 15 Jun - 20:47; edited 2 times in total
thyme +200
Number of posts : 506 Localisation : Australia Registration date : 2005-04-24
Subject: Re: Seamless Tue 15 Jun - 20:45
hi Alain
Alain wrote:
I exported as BVH , then opening it and modelling it
You can create the same type of simple lathe avatar without exporting to bvh Alain. All you need to do is right click on the Seamless node and select: create lathes from pivotPoints.
Since 2.161 this command is shown in the nurbs lathe avatar demo.
Alain wrote:
LOL I thought that was not important
I don’t expect people to listen to everything I state as I myself find it a bore to just listen, I like to do first if that’s possible but to let it be known I did make a point of this in the video:
from video narration wrote:
Name the 3 parts l_shoulder. l_elbow and l_wrist Use the exact same spelling as I have used and use only lower case characters so that seamless will recognize the names for the preset color codes. now you can use any name you like but if you use a unrecognized name you will have to specify a color for that name.
I think understanding color coded control point ownership is worth persevering with Alain as this is going to be an important feature for seamless, It is not only very well suited for making movies it should be much easier than skinning (skinning = the type of animation bxx avatar studio avatars, H-Anim and real time computer games use and which very few from the vrml/x3d community understood or was able to make much use of outside the confines of the bxx avatar studio interface).
I have a new version out now, 2.164 and a youtube video for it:
Modeling a Face From a Pre-Stitched NURBS Patch Structure Using Free 3D Software
Now I know this will beg you to use the radial tug alain so I stated on the video that the radial tug wont work with stitched patches yet and please try to avoid converting to blue parts as this misses the whole point of seamless's NSPE (nurbs surface poly editing) design.
There are still lots of bugs to fix and a few features to add but now that seamless is this easy to model with I hope this version marks the downhill ride for me, where I can start to concentrate on using seamless rather than designing it
alain fondateur
Number of posts : 23529 Localisation : Dompierre sur Veyle ,France Registration date : 2005-04-19
Subject: Re: Seamless Tue 15 Jun - 20:54
Quote :
Now I know this will beg you to use the radial tug alain so I stated on the video that the radial tug wont work with stitched patches yet and please try to avoid converting to blue parts as this misses the whole point of seamless's NSPE (nurbs surface poly editing) design.
LOL yes yes I saw
I began to use your model .
It is an excellent idea , I think , to offer it ...
I just tried ,not long , because busy I school , and also because it needs to be patient with the mouth , in some positions it is not easy to move a red point ..
But I will continue ...
alain fondateur
Number of posts : 23529 Localisation : Dompierre sur Veyle ,France Registration date : 2005-04-19
Subject: Re: Seamless Tue 15 Jun - 21:55
oupsss Many thanx , I forgot that we could get all the speech text of the video !!!
Quote :
thymefromti — 14 juin 2010 — Download minimalist-stitched-head.smls file: http://seamless3d.com/pre-stitched Narration: With the releases of Seamless3d 2.164 anyone can jump straight into creating faces by downloading pre stitched patch structures. Please understand this version has had a lot of work put unto it to make it very simple to use and has had only a few hours to test the new features actually work for this video. A number of features such as the radial tug wont yet work for stitched patches but if you only use the features I show in this video, hopefully the wheels wont fall off so bear this in mind when experimenting and of course frequently back up your work.
Click on the link below (http://seamless3d.com/pre-stitched ) to download the minimalist-stitched-head.smls file.
I have made the head structure look like this simple spherical shape on purpose so that all the art work is left to the artist to fill out. It will be like beginning with a blank sheet of paper. You don't have to keep starting with a blank sheet of paper each time you make a new face though as you can make copies of your previous work to create endless variations.
To change the shape all you have to do is select one of blue patch nodes in the scene tree, if one is not already selected and drag any of the cyan control points like this. When modeling in 3d you should frequently change your viewing angle by right dragging on the 3d window. Most of the time it is easiest to drag the control points in non wireframe mode but when a control point is hidden by the triangles, toggle into wireframe mode by clicking this button or press the space bar. Considering all the different styles of smileys that exist you should be able to make all sorts of different faces from a pre stitched structure like this, all you need is artistic skill which comes from plenty of practice. To change the pattern of the lips or eyebrows, click on any one of the part nodes in the scene tree and select a triangle on the surface by holding down the alt key while you click on the surface. Before dragging a vertex you want to zoom in a good amount using the mouse wheel. When you see this happen just click this button to set the view position around the selected vertex. This button also works for a selected control point.
Any vertex can be dragged along the surface of a nurbs patch but it can not be dragged from one patch to another. Never drag a vertex too far at one time and never overlap a vertex into another triangle or this will cause a non smooth surface. Each time after you release the mouse button the JoinVertex node will join all the vertices that are close to each, which we want for keeping a smooth continuous surface between the patches but joining vertices together within a patch this way is something to avoid as this does not remove any triangles, it only hides them and this again results in a non smooth surface and may cause other problems. If you accidently join a vertex this way immediately drag it out of the joining range, never leave it joined!
To change the color of a vertex, open the palette by clicking this button. To get the color from the selected vertex press R. To set the color of the selected vertex press C. To prevent yourself from accidently dragging the vertex when clicking it, hold down the control key. To set all of the vertices in a patch that are the same color as the selected vertex, press Control H.
This head has been designed to be a minimalist structure so that it is easy for anyone to play with. I will make more variations of this structure and will add some ears and a body soon for others to download. Please let me know in the comments below if you want more control points in specific regions such as the mouth or eye craters. I will create a new video soon showing how to import and position a stitched structure into an existing nurbs model you have already made.
thyme +200
Number of posts : 506 Localisation : Australia Registration date : 2005-04-24
Subject: Re: Seamless Tue 15 Jun - 21:59
Thanks alain I think mouths are always going to need extra attention and patience if you want this kind of artistic control same as they would for clay animation. Mouths play an important role in defining a face and how it animates.
The green and blue control points:
should not be dragged directly by the artist as these points are controlled by the line they are joined to. The artists indirectly controls them by dragging the cyan colored points they are connected to. If you try to drag these points you will notice strange results but this is nothing to be worried about because dragging a cyan colored control point automatically corrects the temporary effect.
alain fondateur
Number of posts : 23529 Localisation : Dompierre sur Veyle ,France Registration date : 2005-04-19
Subject: Re: Seamless Tue 15 Jun - 22:27
OK , thanx
Btw it is the first time I discovered that when we got a black "hole" going too much near the shape with the mouse wheel , the "center view to control point " correct that !
Very useful ! Merci youtube )
thyme +200
Number of posts : 506 Localisation : Australia Registration date : 2005-04-24
Subject: Re: Seamless Mon 2 Aug - 22:05
Good to hear you leant something from the last video Alain Well as you know already when it comes to seamless I am crap at making predictions, 2.164 did not mark the beginning of the downhill ride as completing 2.166 has been a 6 week uphill slog But I do feel I am closer than ever to this elusive target and I did get to make nearly 20 seconds of animated lip synching movie in about 2 days so that’s a first for me but I can see already how good it would be to add a new feature to make lip synching easier by having it so that an animated movie can be synchronized to the anim bar. This would not only be good for lip synching but for any animation sequence guided by your real life actions. You will be pleased to hear Radial Tugging works again for nurbs for the latest version, 2.166 and a number of New Multiple Control Point Editing Features have been added too which are shown in my new video:
If for no other reason than seeing my avatar speak with my real voice, please do watch my new YouTube tutorial:
Making & Importing a Suit Tutorial Part 1 of 2 Making & Importing a Suit Tutorial Part 2 of 2
It shows how to make a jacket and trousers (using 2.166's new multi selected control point editing features) and import them into an avatar using the humble nurbs lathe avatar as the example av. In the text under the video (click the button to expand) I have preceded most of the sentences with a time link so the user can easily play the video from a specific point.
This tutorial marks a milestone in seamless's development because it along with the Modeling a Face From a Pre-Stitched NURBS Patch Structure and the Beginners NURBS Control Point Animation Tutorials shows how anyone can now easily make a sophisticated seamless animated avatar from basic shapes. Though this is party achieved through importing pre-stitched objects, this leaves the artist with a great deal of artistic freedom. You can download the 3 basic objects, the face, jacket and t-piece from:
http://www.seamless3d.com/pre-stitched
More objects will be soon added including basic objects for making dresses and hands.