Jurassic Nonsense

[Hannes]

Still playing with MDD animation. I had some trouble in 3ds Max that each time I applied a point cache modifier to the imported model (to create the motion file), the model was faceted afterwards, but I sorted it out. If anyone has the same problem, feel free to ask. I have to say, that these models were glm files. So I had to open them in Blender and export them as FBX. No idea, if this caused the problem...

However here is another animation without any deeper meaning. After I realized the T. Rex sinks in a bit with each footstep, I made a footprint texture fitting his steps as a displacement map masked by a moving simple shape shader. You can barely see it, but it's there.

[Dune]

Absolutely ridiculous(ly great)! It seems a pretty meticulous job to match the footprints (which are terrific, as well as the slow sinking of the feet), or was that quite straightforward?

[Hannes]

Thanks a lot, Ulco!! Actually the sinking of the feet was part of the initial animation the model came with. So I had to deal with it. The dino was walking in place, so I had to check out, what distance he was walking within 100 frames. That was a bit trial and error, but I managed to find that out. After I created the point cache file for the dino, I deleted everything except the feet and rendered that from a top view. I placed a plane below the animal and used the previously created render (made to high contrast black and white) as a texture map. So I had a plane with the exact footprints. I exported this plane and loaded it into TG as reference for an image map with the footprints texture placed exactly where the plane was. I used this image map as an additional displacement map and masked it with a simple shape shader moving along with the dinosaur to make the footprints appear, when the dino actually makes them.

[Dune]

Wow, that's indeed not very simple. Very ingenious actually. You could probably even use this displacement map to crunch plants underfoot by mesh displacement (although that doesn't work in world space, I believe).

[Hannes]

Here's a movie showing the footprints. Seems I was a bit sloppy. His left footprints don't really match up. But fortunately it's not that obvious...

[KlausK]

That`s another nice one, Hannes!

CHeers, Klaus

[Dune]

Ah! Thanks for posting this as well. But you don't see it in the field, luckily.

[Hannes]

Thanks guys! Yes, it's not that obvious in the final scene, but lesson learned: next time I'll check it before I cover it with stuff.

[Kadri]

Sweet animation