Getting With The Program

FreedomDylan

Hello everyone!

    It's my first day here. I might be a little out of place here because I am working on a 3D animation film and not a videogame. But all the same I need to float this anyway...

   I am working on a script for an animated film about the English rock group Led Zeppelin. The film is called "Friends" and takes place between January 1969 and January 1970. There are also a few flashbacks and medieval scenes...

Below are stills of some of the characters:


{Bedwir}


{Pagey}


{Jonesy}


{Bonzo}

   There are more where that came from. And I'm mainly trying out software right now, Those figures were created with the use of Adobe Fuse. The problem with uploading to Mixamo is that every time I upload characters to Mixamo their hair comes out as gray even though none of my characters have gray hair!! Besides that I need animations that Mixamo might not have...

  I know that a lot of people seem to like Blender. But I had an extremely odd experience with it. That is to say that if you upload a character to Blender in obj format then it comes out looking like a giant statue!! So any ideas on alternatives??

Three of these characters play instruments and I need to be able to show that. I figured out re Fuse how to make characters "speak" and "sing" by opening their mouths and utilizing facial expressions. Eventually I am going to be taking an online course in animation from Academy Of Art University. But until then I'm looking the following animations:

1) Nod
2) Shake head
3) Crying {add tears to face and animate}
4) Shocked {right index finger points downward while left hand covers mouth}.
5) Clenched fist {for another char not shown in post}
6) Semi-raised fist {see #5}
7) Rythmic clapping {seated}
8) Rythmic clapping {standing}
9) Typing hands {seated, mainly used for Jonesy because IRL he played both piano/organ and bass with Led Zeppelin}
9) Air guitar {standing, both used for Pagey and Jonesy}
10) Air guitar {seated, used specifically for Pagey, something else there, i have seen photos and footage of Jimmy Page playing guitar with head down and sometimes with eyes closed}
11) Drumming hands {with sticks}
12) Handshake
13) Hand shaking tambourine
14) Stomping feet
15) Stop motion
16) Come motion {index and middle fingertips,facing inward toward shoulder ad move up and down twice}
17) Lay down
18) Hand holding mug

   I'm also trying to figure out how to place the instruments among other things. One of the issues for me is getting around the T-Pose!

   Any thoughts??

Get back to me on this please,
Thanks!
Dylan

Eric Chadwick

Welcome to Polycount.

Please use meaningful specific subject headers. "Getting With The Program" doesn't help people answer your questions. Better title would be something like "[Blender] Trouble with T-Pose, Instruments"
http://polycount.com/discussion/63361/information-about-polycount-new-member-introductions/p1#use

The blue text makes your post difficult to read. 

It would help to state your questions immediately at the start of your text, so people don't have to hunt for them. And it helps to indicate what you've tried so far. See: http://polycount.com/discussion/63361/information-about-polycount-new-member-introductions/p1#asking

kanga

What you are doing with your characters is way too specific for an automated animation system, plus you have the added detail of interacting with props/instruments. It would be faster in the end if you imported the meshes into Blender, resized, applied materials, and rigged them there. Once you have a Blender rig there are tutorials for that and animating them, also with props. The automated solutions are great if you just want to have characters walking past a archiviz model, and sitting in a park, but beyond that you will be fighting the system and in the end may never get the result you want.

Blender has available tutorials (free) for everything you want, up the wazoo. No sense in trying to whack a square peg in a round hole.