Animation: Spiders, thousands of them..... :) - Page 4

# 46 10-07-2003 , 02:59 PM

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looks great so far...some good lighting...(if you have a good texture map, you don't need any hairs...just rendertime that no one else can see that gets blurred by motion blur and DOF...I'm really excited about the final output...

keep on animating !!

b u l l e t

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# 47 10-07-2003 , 03:05 PM

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cheers, I've just played around a bit and now I'm going to have mummy spiders (bigger ones!!) user added image

it's looking pretty cool cause all the other spiders run away when the big ones come!! user added image

Rendering now I'll post it soon

ALan

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# 48 10-07-2003 , 05:42 PM

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hey pure this is goona be a great project. I hope you're teachers agree. Sorry i haven't really been here to help ya along, i've been a bit busy.

"When you are born, you have a resposiblilty to program you're own mind, if you do not accept this responsiblilty, then the world will do it for you"
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# 49 11-07-2003 , 12:23 PM

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it's ok I understand mate! user added image

It's getting there I'm not sure what to do next, texture the spiders (scary rendrman shaders....) or build the environment..... hmmmm

Any ideas for the environment? I'm thinking a nitetime scene with a collapsed bridge and some other nice broken stuff user added image

Alan

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# 50 11-07-2003 , 03:52 PM

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now featuring larger spiders.... I think they look much meaner (i slowed all of their cycles to make them seem more lumbering than the smaller ones) does this work?

cheers
Alan

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bigspiders.zip (687.9 KB, 252 views)

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# 51 11-07-2003 , 04:24 PM

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I like the big ones a lot. They all look a bit slow though and you don't get such a 'OMG a whole load of spiders rushing at me!' thing going as you had before as they seem more deliberate. I like the way they move.

In terms of environment something generally post apocolyptic (with rubble for them to climb over and emerge from behind) might be fun, or even just a kitchen! Be something very worrying about that lot roaming through a pleasant domestic scene and the contrast might work.

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# 52 12-07-2003 , 12:18 AM

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This is a very nice project man. I found a spider crawling from under my bed this morning, and decided to watch it to get ideas for you. I noticed that spiders tend to change direction quite a bit. Yours seem to have a set direction. It would be cool to have some randomly change directions, and have other spiders change directions in order to avoid the other. I would also like to know how you animated that(how did you get them to curve with the floor like that.)

It's Dr. Know, Not Darknow

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# 53 12-07-2003 , 01:18 AM

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ok:

they do change direction quite a lot, I think it will become more obvious once I set up the final shots (in fact they tend to change direction too much at times!! user added image

) The reason they are all heading in one direction is cause I'm planning on a LOT of spiders rushing towards the camera so they all have to head in the same general direction.

They do avoid each other, if you watch you should see them gently push away from each other and from objects in the scene (not sure if the last render had any in there but dont worry once I get the environment done they will!) user added image

The terrain following is handled by my C++ program that I wrote. It's basically an open GL simulation of the final maya render. I work out which triangle a spider is in then find the average of the vertex normals of that triangle, then I rotate the spider to lie flush with that triangle. Then in maya I have a script which will interpret the data back from the flocking system and create locators and instances of the geometery to mirror what happened in the C++ program.... sorry it sounds a little complex but it's actually fairly simple once you get your head around it user added image

The animation is done by creating a set of character clips e.g. 5 walk cycles, 5 body movements, 10 head movements etc and then using a script to blend a combination of those together. These are then baked into keys and saved out as a .mb file. This file is then imported to the main scene and the mesh is instanced based on the C++ data. The animation cycles are then looped for inifinty and voila you have spiders (or any mesh for that matter!) running across the terrain. I actually have a render with a sheep model that my friend did which is just comical! user added image

if you have any questions or if you want to see the scripts just let me know and I'll post em

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Alan

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# 54 12-07-2003 , 01:24 AM

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Adl believes this guy will become a very good TD.

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Hell .. not gone perse, but with a certainly lower post count per day.

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# 55 12-07-2003 , 01:32 AM

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Hey man, looking really nice! I do have some things i see though user added image

. You have it so that theres a moat or something in the bg.. but because its not textured, or because its just on that angle it looks like theres red popping up in the bg all the time.. it took me a few times of playing before i figured out that there was a moat or ditch back there. Also yea, whenever there are a TON of spiders.. there are lots of them user added image

.. I say.. more spiders! Or your going to have to make the scene there walking on very good user added image

. I like how your spiders are red.. but i think they should be a very dark brown.. if not a black.. just because it would make it look like the spiders are more real than they actually are.

These are just my ideas and opinions.. i could be wrong in some of the things i have said. Keep up the great work though, and i love watching your work get animated.. especially when the model itself is actually moving user added image

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# 56 12-07-2003 , 02:44 AM

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Just an idea. I think the small spiders should be running then the bigger ones appear from over the hill, a few seconds later. Maybe pan the cam up a little...kinda gives the bigger ones a bigger impact.

Yeah, but no but yeah but no....

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# 57 12-07-2003 , 12:08 PM

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thanks guys that's some fine C+C for me to digest! nothing is finalised on this yet (the spiders arent even smoothed yet or even textured!!) user added image

this was just a GI test to check my render times.

I'm not sure on exactly how they will look or exactly how I'm going to handle the appearance of the big ones yet. I may even have the mother of all spiders appear in the background...... user added image

The terrain is temporary I'm gonna build that this week.

But now I'm off for a well earned break for a day or so... so no maya/computers/women or stress (same thing no? user added image

)

Adl believes this guy will become a very good TD.

Originally Posted by

thanks!

lets hope MPC and Framestore think so when I apply to them this week user added image

Alan

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# 58 12-07-2003 , 01:52 PM

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Hey Pure_morning, This looks awesome. I think its great how you start a project and do it till the end. Many people including me will get bored after awhike and move on sometimes. congrats to you.

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# 59 13-07-2003 , 12:09 PM

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I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets (or did I not notice it). Lots of spiders, lots of different sizes.

You might not like the movie but there's some good reference there for crowd of running spiders.

Looking good so far.

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# 60 13-07-2003 , 03:06 PM

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yeah harry potter needs to be watched again, I may head to blockbusters tonite and pick it up.

I've got a dilema now though: I was originally planning to render this with PRman (renderman) but now I'm not so sure cause it would mean learning a LOT in a very short space of time! The other option is my old "buddy" the default renderer.... i'm really not sure what to do..... any suggestions?

bearing in mind I have 6 weeks left to go on this.... :o

Alan

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Currently working on: Your Highness

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