Animated flock of birds

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Mathaeus
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Animated flock of birds

Post by Mathaeus » 03 Apr 2010, 20:36

Hi all,

this is tutorial about animated ICE tree. That is, nothing is simulated there, all motion is driven by animated position of null. Birds are following 'virtual paths', created by meshes or NURBS grids. In the past, I've created a lot of these ICE trees, about 30-40 I think, for various motion graphic effects in TV commercials. ICE trees of this type can be more complex than simulated ones, but there is a total, immediate control, especially on timing. Also, there is nothing to cache.

This one is a bit simplified, I intentionally avoided 'cosmetics' such as randomizing, turbulence, additional motion inputs, but I think it have all important parts.


Link to tutorial online
Link to rar file, together wit sample Softimage model

[flv]http://www.matkovic.com/anto/animated-f ... -birds.flv[/flv]


Cheers
Last edited by Mathaeus on 03 Apr 2010, 20:46, edited 1 time in total.

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Hirazi Blue
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Re: Animated flock of birds

Post by Hirazi Blue » 03 Apr 2010, 20:44

On behalf of the whole si-community: thank you!!! :ymhug:
Stay safe, sane & healthy!

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farhaad_yousefi
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Re: Animated flock of birds

Post by farhaad_yousefi » 07 Apr 2010, 04:38

woow..its awesome.!! thanks man.! \m/
can we build an structure where we could blend between animation clips on different triggers like turning.!? :ymalien:

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Hirazi Blue
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Re: Animated flock of birds

Post by Hirazi Blue » 07 Apr 2010, 12:11

AFAIK (and I haven't checked SI2011 if this has changed) you can't drive the weight of the transitions in the Animation Mixer from an ICE Tree directly. You can however create a custom parameter, set the data of this value in the ICE Tree and let the custom parameter drive the weight of the transition by way of a simple expression... ;)
Stay safe, sane & healthy!

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Re: Animated flock of birds

Post by farhaad_yousefi » 07 Apr 2010, 17:27

Hirazi Blue wrote:AFAIK (and I haven't checked SI2011 if this has changed) you can't drive the weight of the transitions in the Animation Mixer from an ICE Tree directly. You can however create a custom parameter, set the data of this value in the ICE Tree and let the custom parameter drive the weight of the transition by way of a simple expression... ;)
hi Hirazi , and thanks for all you've done so far for us..
i'm trying to get a simple fuzzy structure like massive into ice nodes.!! and maybe we could have little massive style fuzzy brains in our own ice.!! :ymdaydream: :)

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Mathaeus
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Re: Animated flock of birds

Post by Mathaeus » 07 Apr 2010, 22:22

farhaad_yousefi wrote: can we build an structure where we could blend between animation clips on different triggers like turning.!?
Hi there

As Hirazi said, I also don't think it is possible.

What is possible to do, is to create another point cloud, but this time with one point for each part of body, let's say one point for bird's body, another two for wings, so on... Bird's body should be split in parts, each part is a small instance. Then you clone the points as many times as first point cloud have points, and assign attributes such as position, orientation, 'timer' attribute, all that via ID to Location node. Now you can drive animation of body parts separately, as an offset to movement of first point cloud. Of course, in this way you'll get only 'stiff' meshes, there is no deformation.

Another way may be something along line of MT static instancer: apply envelope to bird, duplicate all polygons as many times as first point cloud have points (mt static instancer will do that automatically), drive movement of polygon groups by first point cloud. Then you can apply an ICE envelope to mesh, which allows to use *different* groups of deformers for each polygon group - these groups only need to have the same number of objects.

Note that "timer output" value (in tutorial, this is "Self.Birds_TimeRatio"), can be plugged into function curve - if you want, birds can go backward. I used that for bouncing effect, when particles reaches the end of their paths.

Also, you can replace ICE FCurve node with 'real' curve - for example, "timer output" can be plugged into UV of UV To Location node. If real curve is somewhere inside world's 0 - 1, by converting the output of UV to Location, from point position to scalar, you'll get an equivalent od Mixer's Action Source, but this time you can use values from 'Action Source' at any time you want.

Or you can just add some deformation to point positions, for example, factory 'Turbulize around value' node - that may be nice for butterflies...

If you can point to some picture or drawing of your 'fuzzy structure like massive' :) - that will be great..

Cheers

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Re: Animated flock of birds

Post by farhaad_yousefi » 08 Apr 2010, 01:12

Mathaeus wrote:
farhaad_yousefi wrote: can we build an structure where we could blend between animation clips on different triggers like turning.!?
Hi there

As Hirazi said, I also don't think it is possible.

What is possible to do, is to create another point cloud, but this time with one point for each part of body, let's say one point for bird's body, another two for wings, so on... Bird's body should be split in parts, each part is a small instance. Then you clone the points as many times as first point cloud have points, and assign attributes such as position, orientation, 'timer' attribute, all that via ID to Location node. Now you can drive animation of body parts separately, as an offset to movement of first point cloud. Of course, in this way you'll get only 'stiff' meshes, there is no deformation.

Another way may be something along line of MT static instancer: apply envelope to bird, duplicate all polygons as many times as first point cloud have points (mt static instancer will do that automatically), drive movement of polygon groups by first point cloud. Then you can apply an ICE envelope to mesh, which allows to use *different* groups of deformers for each polygon group - these groups only need to have the same number of objects.

Note that "timer output" value (in tutorial, this is "Self.Birds_TimeRatio"), can be plugged into function curve - if you want, birds can go backward. I used that for bouncing effect, when particles reaches the end of their paths.

Also, you can replace ICE FCurve node with 'real' curve - for example, "timer output" can be plugged into UV of UV To Location node. If real curve is somewhere inside world's 0 - 1, by converting the output of UV to Location, from point position to scalar, you'll get an equivalent od Mixer's Action Source, but this time you can use values from 'Action Source' at any time you want.

Or you can just add some deformation to point positions, for example, factory 'Turbulize around value' node - that may be nice for butterflies...

If you can point to some picture or drawing of your 'fuzzy structure like massive' :) - that will be great..

Cheers
wow thanks for complete explanation :ympeace:
how about the new ice kinematics can it save us from point cloud, in this specific matter.?!
by massive i meant the massive software..it has a fuzzy logic structure and handle the crowd better than our old behavior(almost same but more user friendly ;) )
so i wanted to know how ice can rebuild the massive software powers.. :ymdevil:

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Mathaeus
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Re: Animated flock of birds

Post by Mathaeus » 08 Apr 2010, 21:16

Well I really wouldn't try to replicate anything, except for learning purpose - If Massive software is the only solution, then go with Massive, what else to say...

Also, I wouldn't be sooo impressed with 'fuzzy logic' or 'gygapoly core' :), whatever of that, especially when it's bundled inside 18K bucks, plus standalone renderers... Who knows, maybe someone in Blender community already have some kind of 'Massive fuzzy logic lite' :), without all bells and whistles, but much easier to use in everyday work...
Nice structures, of course this can be done by using some advanced logic, but also with a very simple math - it all depend of artist and his knowledge about his tools.

By the way, this small tutorial is trying to show something completely opposite, how to animate group - 'by hand'.

Cheers

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farhaad_yousefi
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Re: Animated flock of birds

Post by farhaad_yousefi » 08 Apr 2010, 23:33

Mathaeus wrote:Well I really wouldn't try to replicate anything, except for learning purpose - If Massive software is the only solution, then go with Massive, what else to say...

Also, I wouldn't be sooo impressed with 'fuzzy logic' or 'gygapoly core' :), whatever of that, especially when it's bundled inside 18K bucks, plus standalone renderers... Who knows, maybe someone in Blender community already have some kind of 'Massive fuzzy logic lite' :), without all bells and whistles, but much easier to use in everyday work...
Nice structures, of course this can be done by using some advanced logic, but also with a very simple math - it all depend of artist and his knowledge about his tools.

By the way, this small tutorial is trying to show something completely opposite, how to animate group - 'by hand'.

Cheers
never the less you've done a great job.!! two thumbs up.!!\m/

p.s: i'm a big fan of Zagreb animation style.!! :ymdaydream:

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