17 replies to this topic

[jamoram62]

The last silly thingy I've made as an exercise in props with particle fx associated: (movie deleted, under revision)

 

 GB01.jpg   88.4KB   1 downloads  GB02.jpg   80.25KB   0 downloads

 

 

EDIT: Forgot to mention: I'm in the process of doing some cleaning and tuning of the mod, and perhaps a little addition, before uploading.

 

 

[primaveranz]

More brilliance, Jam! 

[Nahton]

Held Prop? Is it a hat substitute or did you ignite the head bone?

[aroundworld]

FABULOUS!

[jamoram62]

More brilliance, Jam! 

 

On the contrary, I need to tone the intensity of the light halo down a bit.

[jamoram62]

Held Prop? Is it a hat substitute or did you ignite the head bone?

 

Yes, a common, ordinary held prop, with some peculiarities, though nothing really especial about it (and you know very well the matter, for I've been inspired by your own work on your fire extinguisher):

 

- The mesh is assigned a to a bone named 'emitter_bone' -think it's a mere convention, but I'm not sure- and applied a material with 100% transparency and a texture. My first thought was to include the flaming_device fully inside the brains of the puppet, but there is a good reason to go with an invisible contraption instead... IMPORTANT: this bone must be a terminal bone! And its orientation plays an important part in the direction the particles are emitted.

 

 

 

- The initial animation triggers a custom event passing the name of a particle effect (flameon)

    <AnimTransition>
      <menuPath>male01/flameon</menuPath>
      <soundTime>0.0</soundTime>
      <soundLevel>1.0</soundLevel>
      <interest>0</interest>
      <events>
        <mscope.things.ai.transitions.CustomEvent>
          <methodName>playEffect</methodName>
          <argString>flameon</argString>
          <playbackFlags>3</playbackFlags>
          <name>playEffect</name>
          <time>0.0</time>
        </mscope.things.ai.transitions.CustomEvent>
      </events>  
      <name>male01/flameon</name>
      <resources class="enum-set" enum-type="Resource"></resources>
    </AnimTransition>

- The prop's template defines a binding of the bone and the particle effect:

  </materials>
    ...
  </materials>
  <bindings>
    <boneBindings>
      <EffectBinding>
        <mpsPath>Data/fx/Flaming_Head.mps</mpsPath>
        <light>
          <type>flicker</type>
          <color>0.5 0.475 0.2 1.0</color>
          <halo>
            <radius>2.0</radius>
          </halo>
        </light>
        <name>flameon</name>
        <bone>emitter_bone</bone>
      </EffectBinding>
    </boneBindings>
  </bindings>

- About the particle fx definition itself (Data/fx/Flaming_Head.mps), it's a tweaked version of one of the standard ones.

 

- Finally: the prop must be of type PyroProp (otherwise, it will raise an exception and no particle effect will be triggered), and holdable:

<ModelDescriptor>
  <name>Flaming_Head</name>
  <model>Flaming_Head</model>
  <type>PyroProp</type>
  <tags>
...
  </tags>
  <defaultVariant>Flaming_Head</defaultVariant>
  <attributes>
...
    <entry>
      <string>HoldBone</string>
      <string>HEAD</string>
    </entry>
...
  </attributes>
  <sitBones/>
</ModelDescriptor>

Now, what's the reason to go with a invisible prop? I must confess I'm not satisfied with the result: because of the working common to held props, there are times that the prop is shown a bit displaced to its designed position relative to the puppet's head. I've tried to offer a partial solution to this problem with an animation which displaces the prop (and the emitting bone) forward, to be used when the puppet is walking. But I've seen unexplained and large misplacements during the execution of some concurrent complex animations. So I'm afraid that it's far from perfect, and its usability is limited at best, though I have not assessed the extent of this issue.

 

My first idea was to create a bodypart other than an accessory (they won't ever accept an animation), probably a custom head, bind one of the terminal head bones to a particle effect and create a gesture animation "ad hoc" to trigger the event, but there is a fatal flaw in this schema: bodyparts can't be flagged as a PyroProp

 

Anyway I'm going to complete my work on this unlucky creation of me and unleash it to the public domain.

 

 

[jamoram62]

Almost there!

 

 Unsaved-Movie_Main-Camera_150317-205932.jpg   91.91KB   2 downloads

 

Gorgeous, ain't she?

 

Freely available very soon.

[BrianGray]

Great work jam...

where did the leather jacket come from? Do the men get one?

 

 

Brian

[Nahton]

Awesome work Jam. Thanks for providing the clarification to my question above. 

 

I have the same question as Brian. Is there a male leather jacket?

[jamoram62]

Actually the garments are from content packs by Moviestorm/ShortFuze: Mr Fiery Brains' is the 'Motorbike leathers' included in the Wardrobe02 pack, and Lady Blazing Lips' is the 'Trenchcoat' in the Wardrobe01, IIRC. So nothing especial about them.

 

 

 

 

[Nahton]

I must of missed them somehow as I was recently looking for leathers. Thanks Jam

[jamoram62]

I must of missed them somehow as I was recently looking for leathers. Thanks Jam

 

Just in the case you're interested in, Tree created some leather costumes, but I can't find the thread announcing them:

 

 

[jamoram62]

And as a bonus: Firefly, the new superheroine in the town:

 

 Firefly.jpg   109.91KB   1 downloads

 

His shiny twin brother is coming also...

[jamoram62]

Now available from my shared folder at https://drive.google...aTNsSFBuN0sxZHM

 

From the README:

LAST UPDATE: 2017/03/16
Two held props for fiery and body lighting fx, for both female and male characters, including some variants:
    Flaming_Head:
        base
        dim lighting
        no halo
        no halo, dim lighting
        
    Body_Halo:
        base
        dim lighting

KNOWN ISSUES:
    * Flaming_Head: it doesn't work very well with some gestures and, especially, postures other than idle. In these
      cases the prop, and the fx associated, can appear out of place. An animation which moves forward the prop can
      be of some help when the puppet is walking and in other circumstances. Sometimes the only solution may be some clever
      camera working. Also, it's highly recommendable to disable both the puppet's breathing and improvisations.

[jamoram62]

A demo movie with the body halo effect: http://www.moviestor...w&vid_id=111942

 

And, again, a new version of Ghost Biker: http://www.moviestor...w&vid_id=111943

 

 

BTW, an updated version of the mod has been uploaded, to include an animation for switching off the 'body halo' fx.

 

 

[jamoram62]

An updated version of the mod has been released. The only change introduced relates to the 'Body halo' held prop, so there is now just one variant, with two animation series for switching on and off the effect with two different lighting intensity (normal and dim).

 

 

[jamoram62]

New updated version of the mod uploaded to the shared folder.

 

Added new variants of the dimmed halo body held prop (white, red, green and blue).

 

 

 

 

[jamoram62]

New version, now including a variant of the Body Halo compatible with props held with the right hand -the original variant is compatible with props held in the left hand.

 

File name: jm_FlamingHead_20170920.zip