One-Thousand Views + Video! · 1:27am Mar 25th, 2013
Wow, so a thousand unique viewers have at least checked-out Black Equinox, six-thousand views in all!
I'd call that a milestone, so since I'm in a bit of a 3D binge, thought I'd throw this up here: an animation test for Twilight Sparkle :-)
Hehehe, yeah!
This little number is a test of the various functions I required to make the Source-Filmmaker/Garrysmod models work in 3D Studio Max. Nahka, who updated the models for detail and facial animation, helped in this by posting his source files, but unfortunately his facial expressions came in the form of busts of different characters, so making them all work for Twilight here was a lot of tedious work snapping vertices into place. Hours upon hours of work, just for that, and Rarity and Fluttershy have their OWN to do O_o
Getting the eyes working was also an interesting task, since the game models depend on a sort of texture alignment in-game, and not physically spinning eyeballs. I managed that with look-at constraints and FFD lattice deformers, but still had to render the eyes seperately and matte them in, inside Adobe Premiere, since the eyeballs would penetrate the eyelids when she blinked. Works great now, though :-)
Set up a simple IK rig, but if the short gesture she does with her foreleg is any indicator, I'll need to add in a redundant skeleton for IK/FK switching to allow me more control. Also, her mane doesn't move here like it will when I figure out how to automate the secondary animation properly. Her tail currently uses a splineIK system with a flex modifier, but it's a bit erratic and jerky-looking.
Anyway, enough Star Trek technobabble about multi-modal reflection sorting, this is a decent example of what to expect from my animation in-future. Hope you like it =D
Also, this currently uses a cel-shading effect to make her look cartoony. Hopefully this doesn' creep anyone out, and if possible, I can add SOME shading to flesh-out the details a bit more. Also, I'm aware the lines aren't as thick as in the show. If they were, then her mouth would look pretty awful, and I don't have much of an effective way to change the size of the lines in specific areas. So teeny-thin lines are what we get. Take it as artistic license ;-)
Much better than I can do.
I'd say you did a pretty good job, and seem to know a lot about what your doing.
(Now if only you could get the next chapter out...)