Would you care to compare/contrast Animation Master with Curious Labs'
Poser?
Body Studio has a plug to take animated characters from Poser and put them
in C4D (and Maya and 3DMax)
Can I take animated sequences from AM and im****t the sequence into C4D?
THanks,
Mike
On Tue, 31 May 2005 03:28:03 -0700, "Glenn" <rickyricardo03@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
>If you plan on working in a factory like Pixar or ILM then you'd probably
be
>better off learning Maya since it's fast becoming an industry standard
and
>with Alias aquiring Motion Builder..well.. the character tools should be
the
>most feature-rich off-the-shelf software for character animation.
>Personally I love C4D for it's EASE OF USE... I've been using both for
>several years. When I want to create something extremely fast and without
a
>lot of clicking through endless menus I go straight for C4D.. If I want
to
>diddle around for weeks at a time digging through menus I reach for Maya.
>Sure, it's powerful but sometimes power and features can bog you down if
>you're just trying to whip something out really fast.
>
>Ask many character animators who work for the big companies and most
likely
>they will tell you to buy a copy of Hash Animation Master. It's got every
>character tool that you could possibly need and I think it still goes for
>around $300.
>
>Price of software doesn't really seem to be an issue these days. I think
it
>comes down to your future plans... If you plan on getting a job in a
large
>company and want to be a cog in a giant production pipeline then you'd
>probably want to learn Maya. Every company uses it and expects it's
future
>employees to know it. If you want to work at home on your own animated
>short or you're not sure this is the career for you then Hash is the
>solution to get your feet wet. There are quite a few people that created
>demo reels with this software and were hired at Pixar.
>
>If you want to create realistic characters (a la Lord of the Rings) and
need
>control over every muscle & tendon then you're probably best off with
Maya
>and something like Muscle TK (a plugin for creating muscle/skin
>deformation). XSI has great character tools and even some pre-built
rigs.
>It's worth a look as is 3D Studio Max (although I could never get past
it's
>cluttered interface).
>
>The bottom line for C4D is ... it's not the most widely used software for
>character animation in the industry but excellent results can still be
>achieved. It has some really nice features (soft IK being one) and
overall
>ease of use. but Before buying... ask Maxon for some character animation
>reels then compare those with the likes of Hash and Alias. Also check out
>www.cgtalk.com for more info.
>
>Good Luck in your decision!
>G
>
>"alexs" <alexSPAMs@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>news:auhm919d3thmb6fg8dadbhef0q0s4mm714@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> (this thread also posted in 3dattack.net|3D ATTACK|CINEMA 4D Q&A forum.
>> Will monitor this NG as well.)
>>
>>
>> I've been looking at the choices for high-quality character animation
>> work, and have read all the rave reviews of C4D (post-release 8) in
>> general. There seem to be a huge number of C4D plugins, from Maxon as
well
>> as 3rd parties, but as I
>> climb the learning curve on jargon and concepts it becomes no clearer
>> which 3D suite I should be seriously considering for my dive into
>> animation.
>>
>> After viewing DreamWorks' latest disaster, Madagascar, I see how even
the
>> most costly tools crank out real visual crap when misapplied or
>> underutilized. Doing a frame-by frame checkout on Pixar's The
Incredibles
>> shows true awareness of
>> human visual perception (like perfect motion blur) that makes all the
>> difference. Watching rapid motion in Madagascar was like watching the
>> Wallace And Grommet preview before the feature: a tiring, annoying,
>> flickering, stop motion-like
>> quality -- something I don't see in Pixar movies. We won't even go into
>> Pixar's superior storylines and scripting.
>>
>> What I'm trying to get a grip on is how suitable-to-task C4D animation
>> tools (w/ or w/o 3rd party plugins) are compared to those of Maya, the
>> current 300-kg gorilla of professional animation. I know Pixar develops
>> and uses proprietary tools
>> they aren't about to sell to competitors, but I like their visual style
>> and want for myself the best tools that can offer a hope of approaching
>> Pixar's standard.
>>
>> So I'd like to read some commentary from experienced animators who can
>> address C4D's character animation tools & techniques made easier by its
>> basic and plugin-extended features.
>>
>> How does C4D presently handle the following character animation
techniques
>> (please excuse my ignorance of 3D jargon):
>>
>> 1) Muscular-skeletal/rigging connectivity and subdermal volumetric
>> bunching/relaxation. Would include joint rotation incor****ating
parallel
>> bones (e.g. ulna & radius) and limits of motion, as well as dynamic
dermal
>> mesh expansion and
>> contraction with realistic paint/texture mapping.
>>
>> 2) Muscular-contraction based movement definition. Would include
dynamics
>> of inertial buildup and slowdown, script specification of which muscles
>> contract in sequence to effect motion.
>>
>> Why am I obsessing over anatomical-derived motion? Because even the big
>> boys in the animation industry still find unnatural movement
time-curves
>> and Gumby-like flesh dynamics to be acceptable. Exaggeration and parody
>> are fine, but I suspect
>> there's a deeper underlying ignorance of natural movement and how to
>> achieve it.
>>
>> 3) Film exposure-analogous tem****ospatial integration, a $10 way of
>> expressing the concept of motion blur on a frame-by-frame basis. Not
sure
>> how this is done today, in animation or in rendering. I don't imagine
>> microstepping during
>> rendering would be time/cost-effective, but it would be the closest to
how
>> film is exposed. How would C4D fake true motion blur?
>>
>> 4) Flesh inertial effects: the "jiggle factor" done whole-body, not
just
>> wiggling boobs and buttocks for titillating the fanboys.
>>
>> 5) Audio tools for keyframe synchronization of facial macros. I've seen
>> some examples of this but they seem pretty lame at present.
>>
>> 6) Recording/capture and playback of motion macros/scripts that can be
>> executed simultaneously to generate complex body motions. I imagine
dozens
>> of scripts running at once to allow speaking, hand gesturing, running,
>> hair motion etc.
>> without bringing the system to its knees.
>>
>> 7) Realistic hair & cloth tools, including turbulent/chaotic flow, wavy
>> vs. straight hair. Lots of hair sims look limp and unrealistic --
>> something not quite right about stiffness and motion decay after
>> disturbance. Multiple layers of
>> clothing, and muscle/dermal "pushback" (term?) for clothing that is
tight
>> in places, loose in others.
>>
>>
>> Maybe I'm demanding too much; I dunno, because the 3D market seems
chaotic
>> and I don't have a sense for where it's going or what animators can do
>> with C4D vs other suites. There's quite a bit of rooting by biased
diehard
>> fans, agitprop by
>> industry ****lls etc. A little impartiality would be nice.
>>
>> Maybe the current industry practice of employing dozens or even
hundreds
>> of bullpen "artists" (frame grunts) to fake the above works for now.
Seems
>> awfully inefficient, however.
>>
>> Sorry for the long-windedness. I would really *like* to go with C4D
(the
>> naive American's cheering on of the underdog!), but want to climb the
>> right learning curve and keep my cash investment reasonable as well. If
>> only Maya comes close to
>> all of the above, so be it. I'd like some enlightenment from the pros
>> first, however.
>>
>>
>
------------------------------
Mike
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