[maniac]

I am trying to use the same processes for my own character but am running into problems. I have just gone and transferred all the same settings to my character to see what it will look like. I hit the start button and went to bed, when I got up for school its still sitting on frame 1 so I assume if froze so I told it to stop. What will make Motion designer die, I have more polys but cause it’s a full character not just the torso. I am using ACS4 also will motion designer not work with ace4? cause once I go to scene tab and turn on MD my prog bogs down really badly . Just wondering what is causing this to happen? Any help you can give is appreciated. Thanks

-Mitchell-

[Mark]

Hmm.. It may actually still have been caclulating the MD deformations. MD is very resource intensive and can take an absolute age to perform its calcs. I have heard that acceptable results can be achieved by getting MD to calculate the motion with a low poly stand in (then you simply save and re-import the MDD files with your production scene), but this potentially could lead to some deformation errors.

My best suggestion would be to (a) make sure you only have enough polys for what you need, and (b) before killing the simulation, check Windows Task manager to ensure that the application process isn't sitting totally at zero CPU time...

[maniac]

Yeah after I posted the message I thought of trying a low version...still havent tried yet but the thought had crossed my mind. When I click on the MD tab after I have put in the info for the serfaces (but havent hit start) my computer goes to like 1 frame a min if I try to scrubb the time line. What is causing this massive slow down...any ideas? I know sasquatch doesnt like acs4, does motion designer have probs with Acs4 also? if so im in bad luck cause I never get rigs to work right. well any more thoughts is help full, later.

-Mitch-

[Mark]

Its possible that LW is still attempting to deform the mesh since the MD plugin is applied - even though there's no deformation actually taking place (ie: the mesh deforms to the same position it already had in the previous frame). Thus, even though nothing visible is occuring, Lightwave still has to calculate all those vertex positions.

... or it could be something entirely different

[maniac]

Granted that it could still be running. but even when I make a low poly model and try its still takeing a lot longer to do then the tutorial red dress... it took about 2 hours to render the full test scene of the tutorial, its taken 24 hours for 1 frame on my character on just a test scene, not the actual animation. something is majorly wrong, if it takes this kind of time who would ever use it? all im trying to do is a shirt now not even as much as I had hoped to do. Please if anyone has an idea post it, this is verry fusterating .

-mitch-

[maniac]

Well, I have got it to where its deforming at a decent speed now, all it took was a reworking the body and shirt, which isn’t that big of a deal. My problem now is that when I take the shrink level down from 100% so something smaller (doesn’t matter what value) it again goes to over 24 hours perframe. I'm not sure how long, I don’t let it run more then 24 hours that’s a waist of time. at 100% it’s about 5 mins perframe or less.

My other problem is that once it falls and deforms to the mesh it doesn’t come to a rest, it’s continually moving, and wrinkling about, what do I need to change? the gravity, weight, skin thickness, shier? I know almost nothing about MD so if you have any ideas don’t just read and move on I'm asking for your help!

Thanks for your time.
-Mitch-

[Mark]

You might need to add some friction to the cloth to make sure that its dissipating kinetic energy each time it collides. That should help to slow it down. Turning the bound parameter down might also help.

Look at some of the presets that come with ClothFX for hints (The thin cotton for instance has the friction coefficient set up to 200%)

[maniac]

alright thanks for the reply again im kinda starting to get somewhere ill try your idea and see if it helps....Clothfx is only in LW8 right? im running 7.5c because I'm a student and cant fork over the money for an upgrade , if you meen in MD where it says what cloth it is ill take a look at that also. again thanks.
-mitch-

[Mark]

Yep. ClothFX is the LW8 version of the MD plugs. Slightly different layout of the panels and all, but essentially the same underneath I believe...

[maniac]

I'm almost where I want it to be. THANKS MARK!! :0.

I sent an e-mail off to philip about my questions but I guess he is really bussy or somthing cause I didnt ever get a reply, oh well I guess its better I didnt get anything from him....it forced me to keep tinkering with it and learn .

Why isnt Philip a moderator of this forum? it says this is where to ask questions about the vid tutorials, and well he has done all of them to date, so it just makes sence to me that he would be.

Anyways I hope to post a WIP animation soon with MD clothes.

Again thank you Mark for taking the time to help me out.

[Mark]

Heh - Patience Padawan. I believe that Phil is away on vacation for the next couple of weeks...

[maniac]

lol I didn’t mean anything against Philip, if it sounded that way im sorry just saying that ive almost got it by just working at it, and using your segustions, instead of being given the answer .

-mitch-

[Mark]

No problem. It's often the way in Lightwave - just keep tweaking and playing with the settings until it just about looks right. The other thing to remember when tweaking settings is that anything can go way beyond 100% and way below 0% -- just tweak, adjust, render, tweak, adjust, render ...

You'll be really surprised at some of the funky stuff you can acomplish with really off the wall values ....

[maniac]

well im back working on my project after taken little time off. I have a question again about MD....how do I make the shirt be effected by more then one thing? right now its only effected by the skin serface....how to I make it be effected by either the ground or by an object its rubbing across while being effected by the skin?

Also is where a way for it to be effected by sasquatch? not the demo but the full plugin. Thanks
Mitch