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**stirs up the crowd**
Teach Us! Teach Us!
Teach Us! Teach Us!
How to Make Units With Bryce 5
- Thread starter DJ Bonebraker
- Start date
DJ Bonebraker
a.k.a Laura
Well, the X-wing thing works with simple (i.e. not a whole lot of moving parts) models... The only way I can see the Galbadian Soldier thing workig would be to put the corresponding parts over top of the arms and such, and link them to their counterparts in the galbadian soldier (i.e. link the right upper arm of the new model to the R UpperArm group on the Galbadian soldier, the Right Lower arm of the new model to the R Forearm group of the galbadian soldier, etc). IMO, it would be much easier just to rig the new model, and copy the parameters of the various joint objects at the different keyframes, and manually set them in the new model, which would also eliminate the problems caused if you use a model with different proportioned arms and/or legs than the Galbadian SOldier.
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I already see what you mean, and it seems less trouble to just copy the attributes etc...tho, I never wanted to copy the animations, I just wanted an idea of things like: how far a foot moves per frame, and what moves other than feet/legs...and it did that great...but Im trying to get GOOD at modeling before I try animating(unless someone Bryces together a beaver...then animating it will become my new goal)...
Partizanac
Serbian Ambassador in CFC
Hears my camera settings why is there only one TAB up there?
Bjornlo
Deity
Thats is how it is supposed to look in the directors mode.Partizanac said:
Change the mode by clicking on the little blue chair.
DJ Bonebraker
a.k.a Laura
You're in the director view (symbol looks like a movie direcor's chair), when you should be in the Main camera view mode (looks sorta like a reel of film or an arrow with a circle attached to the ritght side), THEN edit the camera settings.
Here's some pics that Quinzy posted to illustrate what I'm talking about:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=4440755&postcount=50
Here's some pics that Quinzy posted to illustrate what I'm talking about:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=4440755&postcount=50
odintheking
Lighting the way...
Hey, I'm having some trouble with an animation. I set it up for 10 frames, and in it, I have 3 orange/reddish spheres expanding to create an explosion (since it was a royal pain in the ass to get any kind of actual fire to work, :angry: ). I increase their size frame by frame, but it only stays at one size for the animation. I don't get it. I use the scrubber bar to change the frame, change what I want, and then move on, but it doesn't do anything; all the frames are the same as the one I just edited. What's up with that?
Bjornlo
Deity
Hi Odin, sorry to hear of your problems... there are almost always moment of frustration for all of us as we learn new tools.
Have you tried the fire tutorial? It maks great fire and is very easy to do.
I have used varations of it in quite a few of my units deaths and in most of the muzzleblasts... it takes a little tweaking.. the muzzle blast I make hotter and more solid, while a vehicle burning might need more oil and I want it to pulse and stuff.
On to your animation issue.
Do animations like this:
Key frame all the items in frame 0 to lock the starting positions.
Key frame all the items in the final frame to set the final position. Once you get used to it, you can get fancy by adding an extra frame and then deleting it so it loops better... otherwise you have a 1 frame pause where it is in the exact same position for slightly too long.
The next varies depending on what you are going to do. So here is a simple example.
Suppose you want a ball to bounce.
The first frame would be at the top and fully round.
the impact frame would be at on the ground and it would naturally rebound through the final frames..
You notice it stays completley round... Hmm. so you key frame the frame before impact, so it won't compress in flight. You squish it on the ground and on the return bounce it will now expand as well as return to position.
You are working with 3 spheres... the simple thing is to plot (on paper or in notepad) what they will be doing and so on...
Then you see what points you need to key frame. Key frame only the points that you need to. Let Bryce do the menial work in between for you.
When you do the strubber, be careful. If you are in the wrong frame and ease all the animations, your current frame becomes the new default settings.
So for example, you didn't like the animation squence and wanted to do it over. Go to Frame 0 and do the SHIFT key and click on the - (minus) key.
Also, you can animate objects independently of each other. You have to select the object you want to change before you hit the key frame (+ or -). And be cautious of grouping and ungrouping once you start animating. Because animation is applied to the object selected... you can get some weird cases where objects with a group are animated independently of the group they are in.
For example, add the bounce to the ball. Group the ball and make the group swing left and right... The bouncy ball will typically still bounce, plus it will now swing. Ungroup and regroup and it may still both bounce and swing.
One thing that helps is to remember not to group just because something is going to be the same color or texture. Use families for that (color groupings), you can assign a family to something by using the colored square when you select an object.. The default is a grey one.
Have you tried the fire tutorial? It maks great fire and is very easy to do.
I have used varations of it in quite a few of my units deaths and in most of the muzzleblasts... it takes a little tweaking.. the muzzle blast I make hotter and more solid, while a vehicle burning might need more oil and I want it to pulse and stuff.
On to your animation issue.
Do animations like this:
Key frame all the items in frame 0 to lock the starting positions.
Key frame all the items in the final frame to set the final position. Once you get used to it, you can get fancy by adding an extra frame and then deleting it so it loops better... otherwise you have a 1 frame pause where it is in the exact same position for slightly too long.
The next varies depending on what you are going to do. So here is a simple example.
Suppose you want a ball to bounce.
The first frame would be at the top and fully round.
the impact frame would be at on the ground and it would naturally rebound through the final frames..
You notice it stays completley round... Hmm. so you key frame the frame before impact, so it won't compress in flight. You squish it on the ground and on the return bounce it will now expand as well as return to position.
You are working with 3 spheres... the simple thing is to plot (on paper or in notepad) what they will be doing and so on...
Then you see what points you need to key frame. Key frame only the points that you need to. Let Bryce do the menial work in between for you.
When you do the strubber, be careful. If you are in the wrong frame and ease all the animations, your current frame becomes the new default settings.
So for example, you didn't like the animation squence and wanted to do it over. Go to Frame 0 and do the SHIFT key and click on the - (minus) key.
Also, you can animate objects independently of each other. You have to select the object you want to change before you hit the key frame (+ or -). And be cautious of grouping and ungrouping once you start animating. Because animation is applied to the object selected... you can get some weird cases where objects with a group are animated independently of the group they are in.
For example, add the bounce to the ball. Group the ball and make the group swing left and right... The bouncy ball will typically still bounce, plus it will now swing. Ungroup and regroup and it may still both bounce and swing.
One thing that helps is to remember not to group just because something is going to be the same color or texture. Use families for that (color groupings), you can assign a family to something by using the colored square when you select an object.. The default is a grey one.
odintheking
Lighting the way...
I think I got the fire to work! But I had to make it orange since my civ color was yellow, 
. I won't make that mistake next time. How do I set up keyframes, though? And I want to setup the ship to go like this, how do I do rotate it to do this?
. I won't make that mistake next time. How do I set up keyframes, though? And I want to setup the ship to go like this, how do I do rotate it to do this?
Bjornlo
Deity
You can probably do that in 2 key frames.
in frame zero, select the animation controller for the ship (the item which you parented the ship to) and click the + key down on the lower left.
move to the frame you want it vertical, rotate the ship by using the thing which looks like a gimble or 3 hoops for the 3 axis. Since the ship is not going more than 80-85 degrees, you probably won't need the key frames in the middle unless you want it to sink slowly at first and then faster.
In which case you start with frame 0
go to the next frame you want a key in the specific frame will vary based on your frame count.
and so on.
in frame zero, select the animation controller for the ship (the item which you parented the ship to) and click the + key down on the lower left.
move to the frame you want it vertical, rotate the ship by using the thing which looks like a gimble or 3 hoops for the 3 axis. Since the ship is not going more than 80-85 degrees, you probably won't need the key frames in the middle unless you want it to sink slowly at first and then faster.
In which case you start with frame 0
go to the next frame you want a key in the specific frame will vary based on your frame count.
and so on.
Hikaro Takayama said:
Hi HT
Are you using an older version of SBB? Since the one i just dled does not seem to have anything like "bmp file path". Here is a pic of what it has:
I could not get it to generate a storyboard. Can you explain the steps for it, or provide your own version of the program if it is different?
Also there are various different pinks in my bryce bmp file.
Bjornlo
Deity
just click on browse and navigate to your bmps. The storyboard will be built 1 level above your e\ne\n\nw\w\sw\s\se folders. I prefer to have all my BMPs render into the same folder.
Note: The BMPS can not contain numbers as part of the name... so if you've been working on tat worm of yours and wish to FLC the run... and your file name is wormy_run12.br5 save yourself the grief and save it as wormy_run.br5 before you start. Bryce will ask you to navigate to the folder... which folder will depend on your facing... but it it is
D:\civunits\wormy\anims\e all your east facing anims can go in there. SBB automatically sorts out which ones it should select. Also, it doesn't matter if you use select wormy_run001.bmp or wormy_run010.bmp... SBB will still grab the entire facing. It will also assume you have a file path similar to the one I laid out above and will go from E\ to SE\ etc and grab all your run anims without more work from you. Steph did just a fantastic job with this utility.
The simple way to fix the different pinks is to post process the storyboard in Photoshop (or equiv.).
Also I suggest you use the bryce blank scene I posted above. Should help eliminate the multiple pinks.
Note: The BMPS can not contain numbers as part of the name... so if you've been working on tat worm of yours and wish to FLC the run... and your file name is wormy_run12.br5 save yourself the grief and save it as wormy_run.br5 before you start. Bryce will ask you to navigate to the folder... which folder will depend on your facing... but it it is
D:\civunits\wormy\anims\e all your east facing anims can go in there. SBB automatically sorts out which ones it should select. Also, it doesn't matter if you use select wormy_run001.bmp or wormy_run010.bmp... SBB will still grab the entire facing. It will also assume you have a file path similar to the one I laid out above and will go from E\ to SE\ etc and grab all your run anims without more work from you. Steph did just a fantastic job with this utility.
The simple way to fix the different pinks is to post process the storyboard in Photoshop (or equiv.).
Also I suggest you use the bryce blank scene I posted above. Should help eliminate the multiple pinks.
You mean the Ohmu unit
Im not sure what i will work on first. The Ohmu needs a completely new skin, that is for sure, since atm it does not look much like an Ohmu.
I think that the fault was that i did not create any direction folders. I considered that secondary (im an artist, remember
). It seems that it is crucial (?).
Also if i decide to make smaller units (up to 12-16 frames at most for any animation) i can pretty much build them manually anyway, as if they were copy/pasted. Only the mammoth units will really need the SBB.
edit: ok, i now managed to make the storyboard using the SBB. Ty!
Im not sure what i will work on first. The Ohmu needs a completely new skin, that is for sure, since atm it does not look much like an Ohmu.
I think that the fault was that i did not create any direction folders. I considered that secondary (im an artist, remember
). It seems that it is crucial (?).Also if i decide to make smaller units (up to 12-16 frames at most for any animation) i can pretty much build them manually anyway, as if they were copy/pasted. Only the mammoth units will really need the SBB.
edit: ok, i now managed to make the storyboard using the SBB. Ty!
odintheking
Lighting the way...
Woo! I found out my problem; I was adding the keyframes before I changed the animation, 
. I finished the attack, and my first Bryce unit should be ready tommorrow.
. I finished the attack, and my first Bryce unit should be ready tommorrow.
odintheking
Lighting the way...
Ok, I've run into yet another problem. I rendered the SE direction of the death last night, and then saved. I tried to change the directions, but when it renders it ALWAYS reverts back to SE. What's going on? I didn't have this problem with the other animations...
Bjornlo
Deity
You must have key framed the ground plane.odintheking said:
Just go to Frame 0 select only the ground and while holding down the shift key while clicking with the mouse on the Minus key.
DJ Bonebraker
a.k.a Laura
Yeah, just select the ground plain (like Bjorn said), and click on the "Next Key Frame" button, and hit the small minus button (delete keyframes) on the animation pallette, and repeat, if necesary, so that the only keyframe left is frame 0.
I've done that before by accident, and kicked myself repeatedly for doing that, and went back and deleted the keyframes that I'd accidentally added to the ground plane.
I've done that before by accident, and kicked myself repeatedly for doing that, and went back and deleted the keyframes that I'd accidentally added to the ground plane.
odintheking
Lighting the way...
Thanks guys! It should be ready soon, but not today since I've got band.
odintheking
Lighting the way...
Sorry to double post, but it won't be ready as soon as I'd hoped. I'm unhappy with the attack and death, and might make a good run. I need help, though, on making fire. I read the tutorial on fire I saw in the Bryce is free thread, I tried it and I'm unhappy with it. What values do you guys assign to what material?
