While working on a big 3D animation project in class, I had several things not work, but I didn't know why. Naturally, it's time to do a little research. One of the requirements for the project was the use of a hair or cloth modifier. I tried using cloth, but nothing happened. The Autodesk website has my answer. I hadn't yet started the simulation, which is why the flag remained rigid. Another thing I noted was that I need to constrain the vertices at the top to the flagpole, or the whole thing is going to collapse to the ground. I also need to set the units for the modifier, since it does affect behavior. After finally figuring out how to make decent-looking smoke particles, I wanted to add the smoke material to them to make them more convincing. I did what seemed to me to be the sensible thing and applied it to the particle event in the material editor. Nothing happened. Once again, Autodesk has the answer: materials are applied to particles inside the particle flow tab. All I had to do was use the Material Static Operator, at least for what I'm planning. I also learned that it's possible to make particles change color using the Mapping operator or Material Dynamic Operator. So, to summarize:
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In order to learn how to skin and rig models, out class started using the program Adobe Fuse, since it’s quicker than making models from scratch in 3ds Max. Once I saw what the program could do, I just had to download it myself. Here are my thoughts. First, an explanation of what Fuse is: it’s a character creation program. Using a library of basic models and a slew of customization features, the user can create human(oid) 3D models. It’s a quick way of making 3D characters instead of having to model them all from scratch. I’ve played games with similar methods of customizing characters (like The Sims 4, which I reviewed here), but Fuse has a higher level of detail than I’ve ever scene. First of all, the shape of the model can be altered either by clicking and dragging, using the sliders on the side panel, or by entering values into the boxes next to the sliders. The user can customize a huge variety of features in the face alone and edit the facial expression, as well as alter other bodily proportions, right down to how skinny the fingers are. Along with this, the player can mix and match hair and clothing models, then switch over to the texture tab and edit them using a large library of different textures. Each part of a piece of clothing can have a different texture, and the applied textures themselves can be edited. The body (skin, eyes, hair, etc) can also be textured. The level of detail goes right down to editing the color of the veins in the eyes. Of course, every program has its shortcomings. One of the two issues I see is that it’s not really possible to apply highly specific details to the textures, such as adding tattoos to the character. I guess that’s what skinning in Photoshop is for. Besides, it would like be complicated to add a method for this kind of editing within Fuse itself. The other main problem I see is the lack of hair and clothing models. I may be inexperienced, but I’m fairly certain that making your own models from scratch is more difficult than just skinning one. As far as I know Fuse is still in beta, however, so hopefully there is more to come. So, to summarize:
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AuthorI'm moving on to my 4th (and final) year as a Game Art & Design student at Durham School of the Arts. I'd like to call myself an artist, but I'm a programmer at heart. Archives
February 2020
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