How to make a thing transform?

Hello all,

I was just wondering if you have some sort of a tutorial that shows techniques on object transformations. im really not sure how it's done and im having hard time looking for tutorials on the net. Para kasing complicated masyado yung mga transformations sa movies like transformers..daming parts ewan kung saan napupunta..

MAYA po sana pero ok lang pag MAX basta makuha ko logic. TIA po sa lahat.

It really depends on how long you want the transformation to happen. If its just a split of a second and no screen freezes, you could non-uniformly scale objects as they rotate or move, more or less the motion blur will hide the fact that they aren't detailed pieces of the puzzle.

In max, I'd probably animate invisibilities of objects so they could disappear and appear while they rotate or move.

Ask the mushroom, I remember one of his guy who did an ala-transformer a few months ago..

Will try that but I was really looking for a way to make it transform back and forth easily to avoid the need to manually do it everytime. Tnx for the referral, will probably PM him

add me up if you have yahoo. celesg1972

Tnx sir. Will add you up. hopefully you could give me some insights. Tnx

Cleansing Ritual.

teSSa wrote:Alicecocoz, you will be amazed at what SCALE and TOGGLE
VISIBILITY can do. And also, strategically positioning your
objects' PIVOTS.

Trust us, those 3 tiny things can work wonders.

Hahahaha! Haynaku tessa. No one could have said that better than you!

Cleansing Ritual.

I was wrangling with my simple kettle a while ago to illustrate the same idea. Thanks Tessa for posting the movie. While I'm sure Alice won't be animating teapots - I'd like to stress that the concept is pretty much the same for everything. That Old isn't bad really - its called old because it can also be cool, ready and mas masarap.



Kettle please transform from the vertexwrangler on Vimeo.

that's basically it alicecocoz, those transform buttons are all you need (scale rotate) + visibility.

in our case it was just a series of movements and rotations. pivots located in the joints. much like how the toy versions work.

here's a simple general guide to work on:

1. work with a base skeleton (the robot itself in standing mode) and the car with no interiors.
2. link and divide the robot into 2 sets - the torso upwards will be positioned in the car front, and from the torso downwards, the car's rear.
3. rotate scale and move the skeletal system so that it fits inside the car in normal mode.
4. slice the car skin according to the location of each skeletal part. you may add other elements as well to enhance the linkages and make it more "complex"
5. from there it is just a matter of animating the skeletal system back to its standing position, this time adding more transformations.

im reattaching the image for an easy reference.. you'll get the idea.

of course you can decide to play around with the transformations and experiment a factor to this kind of animation is, the more moving elements, the more complex they seem.

Ayos ah kabayan!
Salamat for posting!

Ahem, eto talaga gusto ko sa CGP eh. I admire each and everyone's efforts to lend a helping hand.

Maam Tessa, your team did a great work in there. Parang d ako makapaniwala na 2 weeks lang nabuo na yun hehe. I like the concept and you have proven it well Tnx a lot.

Sir vertex, thanks for making a very neat example of the idea. I appreciate you taking time to do it.

And Sir Mushroom, thanks po sa mga tips. I'll definitely take them into considerations. I'll still add you on YM if ever I need some help especially with the skeleton. Ang tindi po nung model nio!!

So basically it's all based on how you manipulate every parts. CG artists of transformers did a good job on tricking my eyes with all those parts coming out of nowhere.

Thanks a lot guys! I'll keep you posted with the outcome hehe

i also found this good tutorial or rather project overview from 3dtotal.com of how a 3d artist tackled an autobot transforming into a car.

'Making of Autobot'
by Tamás Tóthfalussy

i also rigged a robot arm so its transformation or retracting is controlled by a slider and reaction manager under 3ds max like what I did on this project. --> Cryogen knife . unfortunately i spent more time on trying to get the rig work and because everything is controlled by 1 slider you also lose manual control of each pieces being transformed. it was a great rigging exercise but i don't think it was a practical approach.

mushroom wrote:that's basically it alicecocoz, those transform buttons are all you need (scale rotate) + visibility.

in our case it was just a series of movements and rotations. pivots located in the joints. much like how the toy versions work.

here's a simple general guide to work on:

1. work with a base skeleton (the robot itself in standing mode) and the car with no interiors.
2. link and divide the robot into 2 sets - the torso upwards will be positioned in the car front, and from the torso downwards, the car's rear.
3. rotate scale and move the skeletal system so that it fits inside the car in normal mode.
4. slice the car skin according to the location of each skeletal part. you may add other elements as well to enhance the linkages and make it more "complex"
5. from there it is just a matter of animating the skeletal system back to its standing position, this time adding more transformations.

im reattaching the image for an easy reference.. you'll get the idea.

of course you can decide to play around with the transformations and experiment a factor to this kind of animation is, the more moving elements, the more complex they seem.

lufet nito dude! we can be buddies, right? hehehe galeng ng pagkatransform nito!

Guest wrote:I was wrangling with my simple kettle a while ago to illustrate the same idea. Thanks Tessa for posting the movie. While I'm sure Alice won't be animating teapots - I'd like to stress that the concept is pretty much the same for everything. That Old isn't bad really - its called old because it can also be cool, ready and mas masarap.


<object width="400" height="300"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2837043&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2837043&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="300"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/">Kettle please transform</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user954333">the vertexwrangler</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.

pardon my ignorance, but what are these? are they some kind of a link dude?

^^ must be a browser issue sir. the link is from sir vertex_wrangler's video of a teapot transforming.

fixed

hehe, thanks dude xboy....

rockgem wrote:i also found this good tutorial or rather project overview from 3dtotal.com of how a 3d artist tackled an autobot transforming into a car.

'Making of Autobot'
by Tamás Tóthfalussy

i also rigged a robot arm so its transformation or retracting is controlled by a slider and reaction manager under 3ds max like what I did on this project. --> Cryogen knife . unfortunately i spent more time on trying to get the rig work and because everything is controlled by 1 slider you also lose manual control of each pieces being transformed. it was a great rigging exercise but i don't think it was a practical approach.

Tnx bro. Actually I saw the video before but it did not tackle the best part which is transformation itself. Medyo naka focus sa modeling and texturing and to add gawa sa Max yung tutorial hehe..d masyado makarelate.

I saw your cryogen knife vid way back before and it looked great. I was thinking of implementing the same technique using sliders with the help of MEL scripting..kaya dapat lahat ng transformations parang pre animated lang and wala ka nga control..pero this would save me a lot of time since automated na yung transformation moving forward.

^ yeah he left out the best part of his animation in the dark and didn't show it in his tutorial but i think sir mushroom pretty much covered how it was done.

About the "automated" transformation, I would love to see your rig in maya with this concept sir. I'm not that much of a rigger in max but I do play heavily with wiring parameters and maybe I could learn from rig your as well and apply it on max. The thing with automation is that animators will lose detailed control on most of the objects when transforming, like secondary motion.

Cge bro share ko sau yung process once natapos..

nice po ito sana gumawa po kau ng tut in para matuto naman kami!!

Walang problema bro, share ko once natapos hehe

hi all sorry missed this thread, will ask eng to help you guys out on the process.

just saw this on cgtalk.

'56 Chevy Nomad Transformer

it's the artist's WIP thread and it looks pretty good as well. might be worth a look.