41 replies to this topic

[Pappy]

I think you will find, Pappy, that currently only the swing itself is animated. No pre-shot waggle, no standing still, no relaxing or unwinding after the follow through etc... and no obnoxious post-shot reactions and fist pumps. It's basically a couple 3D freeze frames with a swing motion sandwiched in between them. And, yes: "It's alpha" i.e. the beginning of something - not the final destination. 

Hmmm, K11 maybe that's why my IRL golf game was pretty pitiful. I thought my swing looked good   - well too late now - maybe in my next life.

[Jimbobh]

I'm thinking it might be possible (in the future), to create your own character and place it in the game, and then add the PP animated golf swing to it. Why have thousands of players using the same character? I stumbled across a few free programs I've been playing with, where you can make your own 3d character, design and add your own clothing, and then animate it. Whether or not it will be useful for PP, I have no idea, but it is something to play around with.

 

http://www.makehuman.org/

http://www.blender.org/

 

[Mike Jones]

Very cool - would love to work along with something like this but I'm not sure what the practicalities or limitations might be. Thanks for linking the video Jim.

[Dazmaniac]

If something is do-able, I guess the bonus would be, like Unity, Blender can be obtained for free (or the version I managed to find was, lol).

 

[shimonko]

I'll have a play later today if I get a chance to see how easy the workflow is. I've never used Blender & Makehuman before, but I have used similar rigging tools and it's typically a very tedious job mapping bones and skinning. If I can get the character all rigged in Unity's format without tonnes of grunt work, then we would just have to put the character asset in the PG directory for it to load and it to assign the animation controller with all the swings, idle movements and just for K11, fist pumps.

 

I believe PG should still however have a "PlayerForge" Barbie dress-up screen area allowing simpler changes as it'll only be harder core players who will wish to do this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kablammo11]

Fists are usually being pumped on my side of the computer screen and I could not stand it if my avatar where to usurp this human gesture and fistnap it away into the digital universe. Fists also are being occasionally shaken in anger at fellow posters who maliciously overlook certain qualifying key adjectives like "obnoxious" to misrepresent my views.  

Fists will also be violently clenched at whomeverForge adds the suffix -Forge to anythingForge - without that something actually being forged in or around a furnace with a big hammer. Enough is enoughForge.

Regarding customizable animations: Sure, why the heck not? Myself, I seek other ways of expressing my individual uniqueness than creating a pixelated mini-me for public viewing, so I shall follow this particular sub-plot with lukewarm enthusiasm at best. But you kids go ahead and enjoy yourselves with them new-fangled thingumabobs...

 

There's of course also Poser™, a relatively cheap app, for shaping and creating faces and body builds, and Unity is able to import Poser models as well. And unlike makehuman, who unashamedly discriminates against non-Windows users, it comes in a Mac version, as any software should.

 

[shimonko]

Makehuman runs on MacForge and LinuxForge as well.

[shimonko]

So after watching the video above and getting my hopes up that Makehuman and Blender talk together well, I spent a good hour trying to make them do so. Then finally finding an obscure post on Makehuman's site saying the latest versions no longer talk nicely as the MHX format they used together in the past is being replaced.    

 

Not the end of the world - really only Blender was needed to add a club to the golfer which PG would be doing anyway. Also Makehuman has a very small wardrobe, so Blender helps out there.

 

So I went straight from Makehuman to Unity and ditched Blender. That worked pretty well except for all the fingers were all scrambled, with thumbs being where ring fingers are etc, with excruciating bends etc. 

 

After fixing that, I added some motion capture data to them (which put fingers out again a little):

 

 

At the moment, PP would probably need to write a Unity plugin to handle the mapping problems between Makehuman and Unity. However I read Makehuman are planning on making it directly compatible with Unity so by the time it becomes a priority, hopefully all will be sweet.  I see this viable in the future, at least for character sizes and looks, and clothing patterns and colors.

 

Customising clothing shapes gets a bit harder, customising swings and horse riding the flagstick gets lots harder, but once a workflow has been worked out, it just has to be followed.

 

 

 

[Jimbobh]

Nice job in a short amount of time shimonko. Looks like he's giving the girl a lesson.

A couple other things I found interesting with Blender, was this:

And more for a Dev team

 

http://www.faceshift.com/

 

[shimonko]

There's of course also Poser™, a relatively cheap app, for shaping and creating faces and body builds, and Unity is able to import Poser models as well.

It would be able with a lot of pain. Poser was released for specifically for games earlier this year to alleviate that pain (Poser for Unity), but at $500(!)

[axe360]

It's  only $499.00..

[karma4u]

and with a nose like that, there must be another large appendage involved...........   kidding, but it was there 

[Kablammo11]

Poser is 64.99 in the cheapest version, which is plenty enough for the level of character  manipulation required. You can procure earlier versions of Poser, like Poser 8, on the 2nd hand market for a lot less. My big-nosed example (his name is Osgood), was created in Poser 7.

I gave makehuman a test run yesterday. It's okay-ish in a low expectations kind of way, but only for full body design. Facial features are a bit meh ...Forge. Bottom line is that good-looking 3D models of humans, with all their intricate little details in every aspect, clothing and motion, are not yet something that can be accomplished on the cheap in the domain of the point-and-click, unschooled average user, but require a bit of pro know-how and specialised (i.e. costly) pro apps. That should change in the future, but we're not quit there yet today.

 

You may only have been kidding, karma4u, but a lot of people buy Poser because it gives them a good shot and affordable tools for creating their own, home-made 3D porn. Aaah, haven't we all dreamt of steaming hot scenes of young elvish twin sister princesses being brutally molested by 200 10ft orcs with massive appendages? That's the real reason why Poser (and even makehuman.org) really exist. Sad, innit?

[Dazmaniac]

Poser is 64.99 in the cheapest version, which is plenty enough for the level of character  manipulation required. You can procure earlier versions of Poser, like Poser 8, on the 2nd hand market for a lot less. My big-nosed example (his name is Osgood), was created in Poser 7.

I gave makehuman a test run yesterday. It's okay-ish in a low expectations kind of way, but only for full body design. Facial features are a bit meh ...Forge. Bottom line is that good-looking 3D models of humans, with all their intricate little details in every aspect, clothing and motion, are not yet something that can be accomplished on the cheap in the domain of the point-and-click, unschooled average user, but require a bit of pro know-how and specialised (i.e. costly) pro apps. That should change in the future, but we're not quit there yet today.

 

You may only have been kidding, karma4u, but a lot of people buy Poser because it gives them a good shot and affordable tools for creating their own, home-made 3D porn. Aaah, haven't we all dreamt of steaming hot scenes of young elvish twin sister princesses being brutally molested by 200 10ft orcs with massive appendages? That's the real reason why Poser (and even makehuman.org) really exist. Sad, innit?

 

Errrr, no. What version of Lord of the Rings have you been watching?

 

I'll dream as much as the next man, but it doesn't include big green goblins.

 

[Kablammo11]

Not knowing your orcs and goblins, Daz? I'm afraid the Tolkien Society will feed your nether appendage to the wargs over this. There's also similar smut about princess Leia and Wookies. Quite hairy... 

Back on track and to my point, 'ere bad karma set us on the misleading path of appendages (and I readily let him succeed): Good golfer avatar customization requires, imho, either its own very complex engineForge the way EA had it with game face, or pro tools wielded by pros, to secure acceptable results. Forge. 

[shimonko]

Poser is 64.99 in the cheapest version, which is plenty enough for the level of character  manipulation required. You can procure earlier versions of Poser, like Poser 8, on the 2nd hand market for a lot less. My big-nosed example (his name is Osgood), was created in Poser 7.

 

The normal versions of Poser are too high poly for demanding gaming purposes, plus won't be rigged for Unity. The manual work required to make them so can easily take a day, hence the existence of the game version of Poser. Same with the other popular alternative, Daz3d, which released a Decimate version for gaming.

[karma4u]

  way too funny, but i did succeed in my silly quest  

[Kablammo11]

Thanks for clarifying, shimonko. I did not realize that and it seems I was plain wrong. Again. 

[TheBigYin519]

Getting back to page 1,  #1.

The animation looks good.

It's a pretty good likeness of Jake.

My hat goes off to anyone who will dress up in skin tight clothing, have little round stickers stuck all over his body, then stand around swinging a golf club till the camera guys think they have enough footage.

[Perculator]

Getting back to page 1,  #1.

The animation looks good.

It's a pretty good likeness of Jake.

My hat goes off to anyone who will dress up in skin tight clothing, have little round stickers stuck all over his body, then stand around swinging a golf club till the camera guys think they have enough footage.

 

I would do it! And frankly, they need some real "every day" swings in the game. I played golf for almost 50 years, I developed a "swing" over that span of time. It was not that pretty most of the time. But I can tell you this, several times during a round the planets would align and I would hit real good shots. Bottom line, I would welcome an "everyday hacker" type animation. Jus' sayin