Realistic 3D eye

[Genete]

Hi all,
Finally I decided to put the post in tips and techniques.

This is the result of the use of this and this tips.

It is a 3D eye.

No point motion, no switch layers, no scripts, only bone motion and constraints. (190 bones... )

Enjoy!

http://amanoalzada.iespana.es/Mohostuff/3Deye.anme
http://amanoalzada.iespana.es/Mohostuff/3Deye.swf

If need help with the file please fell free to ask.
Genete.

[jahnocli]

That is COOL!!

[Hiddicop]

Very nice, and clever. I gave it a short look now, and I'll give it a closer look later.

However, I do not really see the point (besides being interesting). In the case of an eye, it can be done a lot easier. It took me just some seconds to produce the same effect:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/6/13/65465/Eye.swf
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/6/13/65465/Eye.anme

There is a flaw with my file, of course: the eye is only correct at the center of screen. However, this should not be too difficult to solve.

What can this effect be used for? It seems as if it would take too long a time to set up to actually be used.

Thanks for sharing!

[jahnocli]

I think you are confusing a technique with a principle. Let's take an example: I want to simulate a fish-eye lens effect of a spaceship going past (that's the kind of guy I am).
With Genete's file, I could easily adapt it to do what I want, and it would do it automatically -- that's the point. How would I do that with your file?
I'm not criticising what you've done, merely seeking to understand the differences between your file and Genete's.

J

[heyvern]

Hee hee

Genete you mad man! 190 bones! That's more than my whole face rig!



It is very cool though... And no scripts needed! I can't pull that off with my rig...

I am going to play with using higher bone strength to see what else could be "distorted" in that bone frame work.

Jahnocli is right, it could be used for more than just an eye and AS vector layers. Use flexible binding and put an image in that bone layer... cool idea!

-vern

[Genete]

Very nice, and clever. I gave it a short look now, and I'll give it a closer look later.

However, I do not really see the point (besides being interesting). In the case of an eye, it can be done a lot easier. It took me just some seconds to produce the same effect:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/6/13/65465/Eye.swf
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/6/13/65465/Eye.anme

There is a flaw with my file, of course: the eye is only correct at the center of screen. However, this should not be too difficult to solve.

What can this effect be used for? It seems as if it would take too long a time to set up to actually be used.

Thanks for sharing!

I agree that it is not the easiest way to obtain the same effect. Even easiest is to insert a 3D object properly mapped and that's all; any other aditional stuff is needed only the 3D object But try to integrate it into the rest of the character.
The cool thing is that with this use of bones you can give volumen to any thing that you want. If you have the x,y and z coordinates you can rotate it in this way.
Imagine that you want to add a eyelid to your example file.how did you do that? How do you make an eyelid to rotate? Perhaps putting a mask it could be done but always looking towards the camera. I can add a eyelid and make it rotate also like the eyeball.

And yes, it needs a lot of setup. But you need to do only once!!! I can use this eye in any of my characters, and its animation is very easy!!. I'm planning to apply it to a nose, ear, and mouth. In separate layers of course!!. (Managing more than 200 bones each time is a little ... hard).

Second thing is to hide the shapes properly. It could be done using several techs (Rasheed script flipby bones, change the order of the shapes (other script), or symply use switch layers.

I only have some problems with the curvature of the curve at some points and positions. It is due to in certain views the curvature need to be different than in others. It could be solved at the end when the animation is finished using the curvature tool by hand.

You can look also this post to see how this thech can be applied to other type of rotations.

Do not try to undesrtand the file itself. Try to read the previous posts and understand the movement of only a point. After you understand it you can apply to any point. I will post a explaining text file regarding to the geometry and math behind this concept. You need almost 15 bones to move a single target bone in the 3D space. It is a lot of bones but perhaps it is worse...

Once you have the cinematic chain done once you can copy/paste it modify the angle length and constraints and you have it!! Last 10 bones only took to me 2 hours to set up. First one took me 1 month...


Regards
Genete

[Genete]

Hee hee

Genete you mad man! 190 bones! That's more than my whole face rig!



It is very cool though... And no scripts needed! I can't pull that off with my rig...

I am going to play with using higher bone strength to see what else could be "distorted" in that bone frame work.

Jahnocli is right, it could be used for more than just an eye and AS vector layers. Use flexible binding and put an image in that bone layer... cool idea!

-vern

Yeah 190! but look to the drop down bone selection. Only four!!

I hope you enjoy it!

Regards
Genete

[Genete]

Flexible binding only works with small rotations. Flexible bonding don't "pull down" from the point properly. download my file and change to flexible binding. It will not work. Sorry.
Remember it is a point to point movement done with bones. Every cinematic chain is specific for every bone/point.
It is hard to setup but the result is fantastic!!! I'm so proud of it!!

Yeah!

-Genete

[heyvern]

I don't know... it seems to work sort of okay...

http://www.lowrestv.com/moho_stuff/sphe ... ortion.mov

-vern

[Genete]

Hi!
just a new update of the same eye. In this case I've modifed the geometry of the iris and pupil to make it with bump. Really the pupil is not in the bump because it is like a hole in the iris. But anyway I only wanted to demostrate that It is possible to sculpt a 3D object with this tech.

Also I've modified the rotation rules. The main rotation axis now is the X axis (the one who moves with the object) and the non moving is the Y. In this way I think is easier to setup a head beacuse now the view that is used to create the volume is the SIDE view and not the TOP view. The SIDE view is more natural than the TOP view por a human head.

I have some interesting ideas that I want to test regarding on new features apart of this rigging. For example I could enlarge or reduce the size of the 3D rig dinamically thru the time keyframes modifying the scale of certain bones. I have to test it. Keep connected. Other interesting idea is that once I have rigged one solid I can easily modify its volume / shape using onion skin. For example I make a 90 degree turn at frame 2 and at frame 1 it is unturned.. Then putting a onion skin to frame 2 and working with the scale and angles of the rig in frame 1 I can visually modify the rig in frame 1 and when I'm happy copy all the keyframes to frame 0 in only one step.

Please fell free to play with the file. And any feed back will be welcomed.
Enjoy!!!
The files:
http://amanoalzada.iespana.es/Mohostuff ... rotate.swf
http://amanoalzada.iespana.es/Mohostuff ... otate.anme
Best
Genete