Tip: Using Point Cache in 3dsmax !
polycounter lvl 18
A point cache is a model which has its animation stored as a point cloud. In a point cloud, every vertex has a position for every frame. Its like how Quake does its animations... no bones.
Now why is this useful? Well, if your doing a crowd scene or a flock of monsters, you will run into problems having hundreds of instances of controllers, bones and named objects. Your graph will turn black with lines and often your machine will just plain die.
Using a point cache modifier on a model, allows you to store all the animation in one single modifier which references a single data file. You can then delete everything but the mesh and it still animates.
In 3dsmax you can apply a point cache as a modifier. You basically define which frames you want stored and where you want the data file to be places, and then bake the animation. Once this is done, you can collapse the model leaving just the point cache modifier, delete the skeleton, muscle rigs and so forth.
Its important to note that there are two cache modifiers. World space locks the character (tip: or part of character)in place.
The other, more useful one, is local. It not only lets you shift clone the model, but transform it and scatter or spawn the mesh as a particle.. pr even lets you offset the animation so your crowd is not all doing the same thing at the same time.
I found this really handy recently when animating a couple of hundred guys running around frantically as a space ship scrambled in the foreground. I made only three or four model variant, used a combination of biped mocap data to make a handful of running and looking around animations into one long sequence. I then used offset to make them all look different.
Point cache is brilliant when using muscle dynamic simulations or dodgy stability modifiers and plugins. Much, much faster render times because the scene doesnt need a lot of calculation.
You can even keep your 'source' models for creating animation on file machine with the plugins, and then export the point cloud to render on all your other machines... saving your studio time and money.
Now why is this useful? Well, if your doing a crowd scene or a flock of monsters, you will run into problems having hundreds of instances of controllers, bones and named objects. Your graph will turn black with lines and often your machine will just plain die.
Using a point cache modifier on a model, allows you to store all the animation in one single modifier which references a single data file. You can then delete everything but the mesh and it still animates.
In 3dsmax you can apply a point cache as a modifier. You basically define which frames you want stored and where you want the data file to be places, and then bake the animation. Once this is done, you can collapse the model leaving just the point cache modifier, delete the skeleton, muscle rigs and so forth.
Its important to note that there are two cache modifiers. World space locks the character (tip: or part of character)in place.
The other, more useful one, is local. It not only lets you shift clone the model, but transform it and scatter or spawn the mesh as a particle.. pr even lets you offset the animation so your crowd is not all doing the same thing at the same time.
I found this really handy recently when animating a couple of hundred guys running around frantically as a space ship scrambled in the foreground. I made only three or four model variant, used a combination of biped mocap data to make a handful of running and looking around animations into one long sequence. I then used offset to make them all look different.
Point cache is brilliant when using muscle dynamic simulations or dodgy stability modifiers and plugins. Much, much faster render times because the scene doesnt need a lot of calculation.
You can even keep your 'source' models for creating animation on file machine with the plugins, and then export the point cloud to render on all your other machines... saving your studio time and money.
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