"Bob Hughes" <omniverse@charter%net> wrote:

> Freaky stuff, Zeger. I'm sure that couldn't be an easy thing to animate.
> Reminds me the people Greg Johnson has created over the past few years but I
> don't remember how he actually makes those guys.
>

First of all, I have a complicated transform that takes anything associated
with a particular limb from Position(time_zero construction) to
Position(function of various movement parameters, including of course IK,
etc.).


Then as far as construction goes, consider the character shown at:
http://news.povray.org/povray.binaries.animations/thread/%3C437563c5%40news.povray.org%3E/

Except for two eyeball-spheres, twenty individual blob-teeth and a
blob-tongue, and a blob-hairdo,   the entire figure is one blob.  The hands
have blob components of strength like 200 or something-- ugly looking
cylinders.

Then for construction of the arm, take for example say the bicep-bone.
First of all, I have cylinders that do not go all the way to the joints,
and then spheres at the joints.  This prevents the spiking which would
otherwise occur. I believe it also reduces the merging together of
bicep-muscle with fore-arm bone.

Then I represent a muscle with one or more elongated spheres.  Any
muscle-bulging that then occurs with arm-bending is an unintended benefit.
 Also consider super-low and super-high strength components in your
experimentation.

I've also not shied away from obtaining a pliable shape via an overkill
number of blob components.  Most of my faces are made with a stack of
fourty to seventy flattened spheres. If I then rotate only the bottom 1/3
of them, I've thereby created a moving jaw.


But John v.S. ultimately had the answer.  Stay away from blobs.  (I'd say
even stay away from povray.)  As a winner of an IRTC anim contest once
said, using povray for character animation must be a complete waste of
time.

Greg
http://pterandon.blogspot.com/

Post a reply to this message