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Alphageekgirl's - modo magic website \ Archive for category ANIMATION

MODO noobs & hobbyists

So, you're an avid part-time MODO user, but you'd still like to be able to keep up-to-date with all the neat tricks and cool ways you can optimize your MODO workflow.

Being a hobbyist sometimes it can be weeks or months before I manage to find some spare time to mess around with MODO, by which time, I've almost forgotten everything. :-/

This site is just as much for me as it is for you. It's a place where all can keep all the tips and tricks I come across, and it's fully indexed, so you should be able to find whatever you're looking for very easily :)

I'm no MODO expert - far from it, but every other month I'd like to be able to present you with a new article that'll become a new string to add to your modo bow.

If you're a longterm 3D artist or professional, then I can't guarantee there'll be much here you don't already know. You can always have a poke around though., or if you are looking for something specific, use the Search menu up the top (and the links with topics, categories and tags underneath) to find exactly what you're after. If you don't have any luck, let me know if there is anything in particular that you're looking for.

- Debi (alphageekgirl)

Recent Posts

ANIMATION

Covers morphs, deformations, rigging and animation
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January 20, 2013 Posted by Debi in All Articles, ANIMATION, Constraints, Deformations, Morphs, Step-by-Step

Creating directional constraints for eyes

Description

When rendering out characters, most times it's preferable to have them looking straight at the camera. But you may need to move the camera around quite a bit so that you can get just the right angle, which means, you will need to keep manually adjusting the eyes so that they continue to look towards the camera. There is a way though that you can constrain the eyes to remain fixed on a particular spot (locator). That way you can then move the locator anywhere around and the eyes will follow, making it a lot easier for you to set up your shot.

If however, you move the locator really close to the eyes, they will go cross-eyed, so using a central controller can help deform the eyes in a non-destructive manner.
Step-by-Step

    Prepare eyes

    • Turn on deformations by pressing O.
    • Select Enable Deformers so they are visible to the camera
    • Put each eye into separate Item mesh layers
    • Select each eye Item individually and center pivot points inside each eye > Edit > Center to Bounding Box > Center

    Setup Tab

    • Select the Setup tab up the top and then press the Setup button (the viewport will be highlighted) - this effectively turns off deformations temporarily. Leave it on until the end.
    • Select one eye at a time, under the Commands menu > Deformers > Transform  . This will add a transformer inside the eye item. It will also create a Transform Effector, which essentially is a locator that the eye will become constrained to.
    • Rename the Transform Effectors Left & Right. As they will both be created in world space sitting at 0,0 they'll be difficult to tell apart.
    • Making sure that the eyes are visible (i.e. hide any distracting layers), from the Item List
    • Select one Transform Effector at a time, and while Match Position is selected, click on Drop Action and then drag'n'drop into each eye.
    • You can reduce the size of these Effector locators under  > Display > 3D Items > Size 
    • Select both locators and duplicate them, and then move them to out in front of the face.
    • Duplicate one of those locators and move it hoizontally so that it's in between the two.
    • Parent the locators to the central one which is now effectively the main controller
    • Now we need to create a directional constraint by selecting the left eye transform locator, and then shift-clicking on the left locator out the front.
    • Under the Modifiers tab, select Direction. Repeat with the right eye.
    • To test that it works, turn off Setup mode.
Source  You can watch a video that details the process here
Author  Daniel Ripley - cgdreams.co.uk
9.3/104votes
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Tags: constraint, deformers, effector, eyes, locator, parent, transform
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January 7, 2013 Posted by Debi in All Articles, ANIMATION, Constraints, Deformations, Modifiers, Step-by-Step

Bends and Magnet Deformers

In this YouTube video, Dominiek demonstrates animating a ball travelling through a pipe, and in a cartoon-like way, where the pipe bulges, like a snake swallowing a mouse. However cool it looked, I just could not get it working by following his instructions. But I was determined to try and figure it out. So, with the help of Dan Ablan's modo 601 Signature Course, I think I found a much simpler way of achieving what Dominiek's done - without resorting to using curves. Read more
9.7/103votes
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Tags: ball, bend, constraint, Dominiek De Ridder, magnet, path, pipe, tube
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January 4, 2013 Posted by Debi in All Articles, ANIMATION, Neat tips, RENDERING, Rendering out Movies

Rendering out a sequence of images using Photoshop

Photoshop > File > Open Photoshop File Open Dialog box
Description

Okay, so this is not actually MODO-specific, but the other day I rendered out a sequence of images in MODO. .You're right, I could have rendered them out as a movie. But if for some reason you have to shut down your machine, or it crashes - you lose EVERYTHING! - so individual images, though slower, is often a more reliable way..

Later I needed to quickly render them out as a .mov file. Of course I could have used After Effects, but I found it much quicker to do it in Photoshop.[/dcs_p]
Step-by-Step
    • Make sure that your files names are numbered sequentially with no gaps.
    • > File > Open
    • Check the Image Sequence box. That's all there is to it!
9.0/103votes
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Tags: image sequence, photoshop
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January 3, 2013 Posted by Debi in All Articles, ANIMATION, Neat tips, RENDERING, Rendering out Movies

Rendering animation sequences backwards

Description

I was just reminded of something that I discovered last year whilst rendering out my final animation assignment. I had around 1500 frames to render out, and I was fortunate to have two machines to work on. It was late, and I wanted to set them up and go home. But if I started one machine at frame #1, how could I guess whereabouts to start the second machine from to ensure all frames were covered? Simple. Start from the last frame and render out the image sequence in reverse order
Step-by-Step
    • Shader Tree > Properties > Render > Frame
      • Start = last frame number
      • Last  = 1
      • Step -1
Render-Backwards
Forum Link (Old Luxology Forums - no longer exists)
Source  James Darknell (Mutant Pixel)
9.5/102votes
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Tags: frame, image sequence, increment, reverse, step
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