slight update, adding the trailer at the rear and little bits of detail. Ignore the wing mirror as its from the other truck model



Si

---

Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

Looking good. Keep up the good work Si.
Matlab *runs away screaming* haha.

---

Currently working on reclaiming Space
The Salvation Prophecy

Si,

your boid stuff is fascinating but it must be nice to take off your maths cap and get your hands dirty with the digital clay again.

What exactly is it that you're going to be controlling with your new boid knowledge?

Take it easy,

Mat.

cheers AlphaFlyte
I'm still not used to hard-body modelling so its a good if sometimes annoying learning curve.

thanks mat, its going to be used for two parts of the animation. The first is simulating a flocking like behaviour as a number of characters jump out of the truck and head towards a goal. The other element is a modified variant whereby I'll use the behaviour for the traffic so that they avoid wreckage.
With hindsight it would have been crazy to hand animate all what I am intending so I just hope it translates ok into Maya!

Here's just the start of some detail being added to the front of the truck (you'll catch a very brief glimpse of the underside in a similar angle to this so there has to be a little bit of detail). The windows will be blacked out too so you wont be able to see inside the cab area:


Si

---

Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

Here's the start of a truck driver I've designed that will be in the animation. He'll be dozing and then panic when he sees something further ahead. He'll only be in a shot for about 6 seconds though



Si

---

Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

little bit more detail and playing with the edgeloops



Si

---

Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

and another quick update, tweaked and smoothed on the left and the same on the right but with a very quick drop on of the concept art to see how it'll work



Si

---

Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

looks good SI -

something about him says 'fat hitler' to me - i think it may be the combed over hair...

still not giving away any of your plot?

---

arran3D

arran3D blog

lol arran, I never thought of it like that but now you mention it it does a bit His strands of hair will stand vertically on end when he panics as it'll add a bit more action. I might consider changing his hair colour to keep away from hitler though...
well I've storyboarded it in basic 3D as well as traditional hand drawing so it wont be a heck of a long time before some scenes will start coming together. Then some of the story might unfold.
Just as a little extra here's a general overview of the main scene area. I started with a simple plane in mudbox and sculpted the parts I needed and then pulled it into maya to start working up the road and bridge area. You wont really see anything on the other (far) side of the bride so I'm keeping it simple there



Si

---

Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

pretty amazing stuf.., I just looked at the posts..., you must think Im crazy.., I must have been going through some crazy stuff at uni.., 'what model?' .., ''anything over 6 foot'..?? sorry about that.., I THINK I was referring to no model on that page yet, I may have even forgot I had seen it on the previous page..?? SSSTTTRREEESSS Its one thing being tortured by yourself at uni.., but in the film dept.., others torture you with their 'brilliant' projects.' I cant wait to finish this year ands start making my own, I thought there might actually be work in sound desghn but the whole film world here is broke.., even China and India are making films here because its cheaper than in their own countries.

Defiantly looks like i was suffering some stress related trauma.., sorry about that.

anyway.., its looking good here mate, great work. the driver looks very English to me somehow?? not German!

---

take it easy and life will be easy

been a bit busy lately but back on track again

Here is a bit of a playaround with SSS (subsurface scattering) to see how realistic/cartoony the guy will come across. It's a default 3 point lighting setup (slightly harsh at the front) with the mental ray fast_skin_shader. I've also added a perlin noise element for a bumpmap and a bit of noise to the fast_skin_shader - mainly to start learning about shading networks
Think I'll play around a bit more and then look at making some texture maps to go into the mix.



If you want to play with sss in maya then there's a good setup tutorial at:
https://forums.cgsociety.org/showthre...9&page=1&pp=15

and (more importantly to understand the sesttings and work towards your own variation) this very handy step through guide:
https://www.lamrug.org/resources/doc/...n-tutorial.pdf

Si

---

Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

Hey Si theres some great free vid tutorials on SSS at gnomon, worth a look

---

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

cool, thanks steve I'll have a look

just a quick update with throwing on a basic texture for the head + eyes to check placements etc. Loads to go on this bit



Si

---

Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

I'm taking it back to a more cartoony feel now after looking at the skin tones and style from the characters of ratatouille.
Here's another test with a little detail added around the eyes. I've also added a touch of cream to the diffuse element to reduce the 'dead' look



Si

---

Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net

Another small update, I finally got around to re-programming the boids stuff into maya. Its meant learning Python (that I was already touching on at work) and starting to figure the maya ui more but its really good fun

Here are a couple of playblasts showing that I've got the main rules in and some basic collision avoidance. I'm currently adding more features in and working on putting all the options into a popup window in maya. I've got things like 'number of boids' and 'distance between boids' but there are still tons of options to add

Position of boids and obstacles are randomly generated when run and are not movie length dependant (it just loops over the 24 frames/sec):
playblast1

playblast2

and a little bit of the code showing how to create a window with buttons for the maya ui (in python). I might create some basic tutorials for people to have a play with the programming side:
code example

Si

---

Examples of bTraffic - a traffic animation tool for Maya
bFlocking - a tool for Maya 8.5+ to generate flocking and swarming behaviours
Jan/Feb Challenge 2007 Entry and W.I.P
May/Jun Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Mar/Apr Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Jan/Feb Challenge 2006 Entry and W.I.P
Nov/Dec Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Sep/Oct Challenge 2005 Entry and W.I.P
Jul/Aug Challenge 2005 Entry
www.flash-fx.net