Hello, my name is Mark Weller, my nickname is TacoBallZ (Taco-Ball-Zee). Or just "Taco" for short. I'll probably explain why I use that nickname in a later post.
My goal for this forum is to get Animation Master users up to speed with utilizing the built in dynamic driven capabilities.
What this means in simple terms is getting cloth, hair, particles, and even bones to animate using the environmental effects such as gravity and wind.
Here is a small example of what I am talking about.
This first example, the tail of the block creature is completely driven by the secondary motion of the character and by gravity and by the physicality of the floor.

Block Creature's Tail, Quicktime H.264 3.5MB

The next example is the cloth ribbon of a sword as it moves through the environment.
Sword with Ribbons, Quicktime Sorenson3, 1.4MB


I am looking forward to questions and suggestions for projects!

I'm looking forward to this forum.

Simple but effective examples. Consider me one of your followers

Good luck with the forum!



Since you ask... I'd like to see a workflow for success with cloth as clothing.

What do we need to do to make it hang on the body, not jump or jitter around on its own, and not make the simulation fail?

Something more complex than a cape. Maybe a basic t-shirt would be a good test-case.
.

As someone whose main character wears a sash, I am very much looking forward to this!

Thank you all for the interest!
I also plan to go over all of the particle dynamics as well (Sprites, Hair, Blobbies, etc.) Also a little bit of Newton Physics and the new water material, these will be a learning process for me as well!

<largento>The sash sounds like a great idea. I have already done some simple simulations with that level of clothing detail.

Everyone-else, My ultimate goal would be able to create full dynamic clothing for characters, but one thing I will have to educate users on is that with all technologies there are limitations (even with a program such as great as A:M). To simulate an entire shirt may not be the best way to achieve the results you need (the result would be a jelly-like shirt!) Just simulating the sleeves, and under-hanging parts of the clothing may be all what is needed and A:M cloth can handle that wonderfully. It may be possible to work through some complex examples, but I want to get everyone used to how the cloth dynamics system works first.

Again, thanks everyone for your interest!!

Now you're declaring defeat already. There' s whole bunch of paramteres available on cloth. Somewhere there's a combination that will make it not look like jelly. If Pixar can do it, so can we.

I'm not claiming defeat
I've done exntensive cloth testing in AM and there is a trade off with complexity versus speed and usability. A full cloth simulation, especially with finely tailored clothing may take longer to simulate and the end result may only look marginally better than strategically placed dynamics. I personally think that if you can lead the viewer into believing the cloth is fully dynamic, then you have done your job. Does a matte painter have to paint the backsides of mountains for the effect to look real?

It's just my opinion of course. However, part of my goal for the Simulation forum is to see how far we can push AMs capabilities as well! Who knows what we may come up with. I'm very optimistic and excited about this opportunity.

Im lovin these new forums, great examples! look forward to more of your handy work...

This is going be fun and looking forward to it.

Are you going to do any tutorials on Fluids? That would be cool. If so i'm greatly looking forward to it

I tried doing some experiments today but with little success. I thought it would be cool if i could replicate the Mummy Face in the sand type of deal. Here's a short clip.

Click to view attachment

Mark,
My standards aren't as high as yours but that sure looks like a good deal of success to me.

Perhaps in many film productions this would be pass one with additional run throughs adding or removing elements.
All the separate passes then being combined together in composite.
If you are trying to pull off the entire effect in one pass my hat is off to you.

Well, if someone starts a compositing forum, I'll be there
I'll post more examples tomorrow of what i was trying to accomplish

A compositing forum would be timely for me personally. Now composting I've had some experience with, but we probably don't need a forum for that.

Can we have a tutorial on softbody. pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee?

I don't think A:M supports softbody dynamics. Please, someone correct me if I am wrong on this. Did I miss something in one of the A:M updates for 2008?

I saw one of the Hall of Fame A:M Films by Joe Williamsen and thought that was softbody, but I could be wrong. What ever technique he used for that movie it is great. If you look at test projects by Steffen when he creates the Newton Physic plug-in. I think it also can be moified to use for softbody, but I could be wrong.

http://www.hash.com/amfilms/

Since I have mentioned the softbody, should this be a new upcoming feature?

CHEERS!