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Work in Progress / Classic Greyhound Racing

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 30th Jun 2006 17:07
Thanks! I use Anim8or. It's just keyframes, and IK between frames.

Alvarus
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Posted: 30th Jun 2006 17:22
Hey Pincho, models are looking good as always! One thing: the run animation seems a bit off.

Check out this site:
http://www.greyhound-data.com/d?r=2001745&z=3DaBqG

You'll need to download a codec from the site to view the video.

Man, those dogs are fast! But you can still distinguish their positioning when you go through frame by frame.

Since you're rendering your animations to planes, will you be adding a motion blur?

Crit
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Posted: 30th Jun 2006 17:53
I agree, it looks great!

But if you can make your animation look like this, people will worship you

CHESS ENCOUNTER
Demo
WIP
Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 30th Jun 2006 18:13
Where did you find that Greyhound in Motion? I was looking for something like that. Now I can get it perfect.

Thanks!!!

Crit
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Posted: 30th Jun 2006 18:29
Looking forward to seeing your results!

CHESS ENCOUNTER
Demo
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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 30th Jun 2006 18:30
@pincho - I'd appreciate a mini-tutorial on how you did that. I'd love to be able to make animations like that! Is it easy?

[center]
Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 30th Jun 2006 19:02 Edited at: 30th Jun 2006 19:07
It's easy yes. But you only end up with 2D AVI Export, or multiple BMP's, not 3DS, or X. So you have to paste the images as textures to plains. This is the tutorial that I studied to do this....


http://www.anim8or.com/tutorials/simplewalk/index.html

Van B
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Posted: 1st Jul 2006 02:28
You could load lots of models in, like maybe 24 frames then cycle them - lots of media to load with that method though. I used to have a program that exported a .3DS for each frame of a bone animated .X file - like you could animate with characterFX then grab all the meshes for each frame.

If you wanted to be really stingy, you could make sure each dog used a different frame, and then 1 set of animations would do, you'd just retexture them .

Just thinking about that old DBC+ mesh deform cop-out demo by Lee, with Boba Fett and the dodgy twist dance.

Aegrescit medendo
Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 1st Jul 2006 03:32
Yeah. There was an animation export for Anim8or, that saved all frames as a different 3DS model, but it doesn't work in Windows XP. So I decided to go for the plains.

Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 1st Jul 2006 12:05 Edited at: 1st Jul 2006 14:11
Ok. The new animation using the Greyhound in Motion as my reference animation. I think that this must be right now....

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 1st Jul 2006 14:11 Edited at: 3rd Jul 2006 02:37
I just had to make some changes to the front legs....

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 3rd Jul 2006 02:38 Edited at: 3rd Jul 2006 20:55
Another update on the Greyhound Animation.....

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Shark
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Posted: 3rd Jul 2006 02:42
Looks really nice Pincho Paxton!

My site: http://awesomegames.galekus.com/home/
Forum: http://awesomegames.galekus.com/forum
Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 3rd Jul 2006 02:46
Thanks! I think I've got it right this time.

Alvarus
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Posted: 3rd Jul 2006 16:07
Wow, looking really good now! The head motion is the only aspect that could use a bit more work.

I took a few screens from the videos that I posted earlier (attached). Notice the way the dog's head is upright when the legs are together and it looks like it's almost as if it's diving when it is stretched out.

Keep up the good work!

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 3rd Jul 2006 17:21
Great pictures!!! Yes, the head dips, very important to get that right for Photo finishes!!!

Thanks!!!

Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 3rd Jul 2006 20:55 Edited at: 3rd Jul 2006 20:56
New Greyhound...With head bobbing action!!!



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Alvarus
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Posted: 3rd Jul 2006 21:04
Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 3rd Jul 2006 21:21
Great thanks!!! It's done. It's worth the time spent, because the other dogs are all the same animations, just with different textures, so in all, I am making 6 dogs in one go. Plus any camera angles I want. I still need to do the leaning around a bend, coming out of the traps they dip down, and slowing down they tend to bob about a lot.

Alvarus
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Posted: 3rd Jul 2006 23:50
Quote: "slowing down they tend to bob about a lot. "


Yeah, I noticed in the video they look pretty happy once the race is over. I guess they get a treat or something...

Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 4th Jul 2006 01:35
Thats unbelievable!

Are you going to have animated objects or animations playing on plains?

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 4th Jul 2006 01:41
The dogs will be on plains from every camera angle, so there will be a realistic 3D effect. A side view for camera 1, an isometric view, a rotation around a bend, so it will look like mesh deformed models.

Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 4th Jul 2006 11:09
Surely it would be more simple to use an animated model in that case?! Unless I'm understanding you incorrectly..

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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 4th Jul 2006 14:17
DB Classic can't use Mesh Deform, so you would have robot limbs on the dogs.

Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 6th Jul 2006 14:05 Edited at: 6th Jul 2006 14:05
Put the dog on the track. I can rotate around the dog quite a lot before you can tell that it's 2D, so that means that I do not need as many frames as I thought at first. Rotations will be in steps, hopefully invisible to the naked eye.



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Alvarus
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Posted: 6th Jul 2006 16:02
Nice. You can see how far your dog animation has come by comparing the dog in this screenshot to the dog in your sig.

Are you considering putting an animated shadow plane under the dogs?

Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 6th Jul 2006 18:10 Edited at: 6th Jul 2006 18:13
I'm considering putting real shadows under the dogs. Shadows that can overlap properly.

Depends on how fast it works....

But if it works OK there should be shadows for everything like the traps, and the tractor, and the windows maybe.

Alvarus
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Posted: 6th Jul 2006 18:16
Wouldn't a shadow cast by the hardware lights on the dog plane be square? Or would the light pass through the transparent portions?

Graphiboc
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Posted: 6th Jul 2006 18:32
looks nice
for the shadows, i think that hardware shadows wont afect so much in a project like your

Sry for mybad english
Van B
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Posted: 6th Jul 2006 18:52
Have you considered rendering them in DB?

I haven't used Anim8or so I'm not sure how your rendering, but it's a lot of work when you consider you have to do it 8 times and at several angles.

If you could load the meshes into DB and render them - it could be automated, like render all the frames at the required angles and with each dog texture. Might save you some time if Anim8or has nothing like that to make it easier.

Aegrescit medendo
Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 6th Jul 2006 21:05 Edited at: 6th Jul 2006 21:11
Thanks for the replies. Well I'm not hardware rendering them, because I don't think that DB Classic can do Hardware rendered shadows. If it can... tell me how. Well it can on a matrix, I know, but I don't have a matrix in my game.

I'm just trying a sort of cheat, that might work, or might not work. Using Black masks as cookie cutters, to cut out shadows from a dark texture that matches the sand texture. Actually, I just had another idea that is faster. Just make a plain like the usual way, but instead of ghosting it, put the texture of the darker sand on it, and scroll the texture as the dog moves. Might work...

Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 7th Jul 2006 15:23
Aargh! My shadow routine is slow. Try it out from the link, and see if anyone can speed this up.

This is the source link!!! Please try to speed this up.
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=83352&b=10

Thanks!!!

Pincho.

Van B
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Posted: 7th Jul 2006 15:44
Ouch!

Fade Bitmap is probably the problem.

Maybe there's something else you can use instead of fade, been so long since I used DBC for this stuff that I'm not sure.

Aegrescit medendo
Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 7th Jul 2006 16:14 Edited at: 7th Jul 2006 16:16
Maybe gamma, but even if I take out fade bitmap it is slow.

Looks like the ghosted plains are all I can do. Maybe I can make sure that they don't overlap by having the light from the top down.

zzz
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Posted: 7th Jul 2006 16:15
Pincho, can´t you just make a shadow version of your dog animation, put it on a white backround, paste it onto a plane and put dark ghosting on it?

Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 7th Jul 2006 16:18
Quote: "Pincho, can´t you just make a shadow version of your dog animation, put it on a white backround, paste it onto a plane and put dark ghosting on it?"


Yeah, but when they overlap they go darker...I think. I shall just have to make sure that they don't overlap.

Van B
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Posted: 7th Jul 2006 16:46 Edited at: 7th Jul 2006 16:47
Yeah, I think the point is to get that flat shadow effect - you do get that in DBPro with the new shaders - but nobody tries stuff like this in DBC anymore, not even Bolt now that he's switched to Pro. DBC has plenty oomphf these days on modern PC's .

Maybe using a solid shadow would be best. Like using a black background and dark grey shadow images, you could paste them onto a single bitmap in position, grab that - then texture it onto a ghosted shadow plain you can stick under the dogs. Meaning 1 big plain for the dog shadows, all of them pasted then textured onto a single plain.

I think GET IMAGE is quite fast in DBClassic, which is really the biggest concearn in that method - no fading necessary, so it would be faster I think.

Aegrescit medendo
Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 7th Jul 2006 16:52 Edited at: 7th Jul 2006 16:54
Quote: "Maybe using a solid shadow would be best. Like using a black background and dark grey shadow images, you could paste them onto a single bitmap in position, grab that - then texture it onto a ghosted shadow plain you can stick under the dogs. Meaning 1 big plain for the dog shadows, all of them pasted then textured onto a single plain."


Yeah, good idea. What I loose in creating the shadows, I gain in just having 1 plain. So just 2 polys ghosted. Although, if the dogs are far apart, I end up with a huge 5000*800+++ bitmap texture.

Kentaree
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Posted: 7th Jul 2006 17:11
Maybe its smarter that you check how far the dogs are apart, and if they're witihn a certain distance, you use one plain, and maybe individual ones for dogs that are further away

Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 7th Jul 2006 23:05 Edited at: 7th Jul 2006 23:13
Well, yes Distant overlapping shadows might not be noticed if they turn black. Plus less chance of two dogs being far back to cause bad shadows. So that might be good.

Funny that the small shadow program RAR that I uploaded is slower than my whole project so far.

EDIT: Might make the distant shadows from a solid colour. That is probably the best thing to do. Dark brown... No ghosting at all.

DVader
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Posted: 8th Jul 2006 17:10
Looking good Pincho! Not spoke in a while. I see your artistic skills keep getting better. I haven't done much in DB lately, just started a desert strike inspired game in the last few weeks. I'm gonna post something here in a bit. Just spotted your post before I got started. I remember you showing me the dog animation last time I was over.

Looking forward to seeing this in action!
Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 8th Jul 2006 18:20
Thanks! You'll have to come down some time. Glad to see you are using DB Pro again.

Roxas
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Posted: 11th Aug 2006 22:24
You dont have gived up ? dont ya ?

You singature was removed by mod because it was too cool..
zzz
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Posted: 13th Aug 2006 20:13
Have you released a demo yet?

Diggsey
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Posted: 15th Aug 2006 00:17
Why don't you make another set of images which you texture to a plain at the same time as you animat the dog. For these images have a darker version of the sand instead of the dog texture with the background black. Then you could just set transparency on, and not have it ghosted

There are three types of people, those that can count and those that can't.

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