Denny's Walkthrough Videos

[Denny]

As promised, here it is. After recording my first two walkthroughs I thought it would be nice to have them, and future videos, in one thread.

You can watch all videos one by one at ScreenToaster.com via this thread or go to my site where all is listed on the same page for easy viewing.
DennyLindberg.com (http://dennylindberg.com/tutorials/walkthroughs/)

Any future topics you want me to cover may be requested in this thread.


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The walkthrough series are small and quick videos where I show you how to do specific things in Unreal Development Kit and other programs. What's unique with these videos is that there is no narration, they are recorded in a speedy session so those of you who want to get straight to the point will get what you need and nothing else.

NO SOUND. These videos are not friendly for beginners so stay focused!

Additive Animation Walkthrough (http://www.screentoaster.com/watch/stVEtRRUdIR1xYRlxcXFhbVl9R/udk_additive_animation_walkthrough)
In this video I show you how to easily make a GetHit animation on a character and how to make it work in an AnimTree.

Morph Target Animation (http://www.screentoaster.com/watch/stVEtRRUdIR1xYRlxZU19RVFRc/udk_morph_target_track_walkthrough) - Maya Only Feature!
In this video I'll walk you through how to set up a mesh in Maya 2009, animate it with a Blend Shape (Morph Target) and get it to work in Unreal Development Kit. When imported I'll also show you how to set up the morph target to be played on the mesh and how to drive a material parameter based on the morph strength.

[micahpharoh]

good stuff. Too bad I don't have Maya :(

[Denny]

Sorry to say but the morph target tracks are currently Maya only. It's up to Epic to implement it in the future.


Morph Target Animation

* Support morph target animation (Maya only)
* [[http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MorphTargets#Morph Targets Animation

Additive animation can be done in all other 3d applications.

[PuckerFactor]

Great videos Denny...much appreciated! ....I also like the fact that you made them in a higher definition than most tutorials...if you go "full-Screen" with them... everything is still very clear.

[Denny]

Good to hear, I could've recorded them at 1920x1080 but the filesize limit at 20mb would fill up even quicker. :)

[micahpharoh]

Yes, I like that too. Was there something wrong with my connection or was there no sound, though?

[Denny]

There is no sound. "What's unique with these videos is that there is no narration." ;)

[micahpharoh]

I understood it, and figured out what was going on, but like I said, no Maya for me. Maybe next year when I feel like learning a new modeling program again :p

[bigcess]

Awesome! I haven't seen a morph target tutorial before.

[eh_gm]

Thanks Denny.
But I'm not a professional or even intermediate maya user so I would like to see your "3DS Max" tutorials as well.

[Brexer]

Maya ftw ^_^, thanks for those awesome video's :)

[Denny]

You're welcome.


Thanks Denny.
But I'm not a professional or even intermediate maya user so I would like to see your "3DS Max" tutorials as well.
I don't use 3dsmax nor do you need a specific application to use the methods above. The morph target animation isn't supported with 3dsmax.

[lubitel]

Denny. You Rock my world.....Thank you.

Adding some narration or a little more detailed description of what it is you do or why wold be even more awesome:)


again

Thank you for generousity.

[Denny]

Adding some narration or a little more detailed description of what it is you do or why wold be even more awesome:)
Sorry, I won't. ;)

[illincrux]

Thanks a ton denny!

Really insightful stuff!

And it is just great that you get straight to the point without talking yourself up into a windbag!

Bravo!

[Denny]

I knew there would be at least one or two who prefers it straight to the point and that's how I'm going to keep it. Glad you liked it. ;)

[Xero]

I'm not a Maya user but I should be able to apply these methods in Blender just the same.
Nice job Denny thanks.

[illincrux]

I haven't really dived into maya muscle yet nor do I have an extensive knowledge in rigs and animation... but I was curious to know what your take would be on getting realistic muscle deformations to work within unreal without it being too taxing on the clients system.


Any ideas?

[Edit]

A good example of this being done would be Fight Night Round 4:

http://www.ea.com/videos/9e7e59ee44631210VgnVCM100000ab65140aRCRD

[Denny]

I think the only two options are to either

1. Custom unreal script so you can scale joints based on animations or
2. Use the morph animation system as demonstrated in the second video

I think you should be able to make a quite complex "muscle" system with morph targets alone considering you're making it for a game. Please note that ActorX only understands Morph Targets and Skeletal Animation (joints) from Maya, don't bother with Maya Muscle. ;)

How many characters are you going to have on screen and such?

[illincrux]

Well, it's a 3rd Person tactical melee action fighter consisting of 2-8 players (1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4) in an arena type environment, with the possibility of there being a war mode in which case there would be dozens of npcs on opposing sides going at it sort of like the way the mechanics work in Defense of the Ancients mod in Warcraft 3. Although the melee action side of it would be more similar to Rune: Halls of Valhalla. Although, what I mean by tactical, is that you'd have to strategically place your strikes in order to land a blow on an opponent. The last I can divulge is that there will be cut sequences of players performing non-linear cinematic fatalities in which the tides could turn for either end during this end event...and this is where I'd like to capture as much detail as possible in these final moments of struggle with muscles flexing, bones cracking, and flesh being ripped from one another.


So yeah, it'll definitely be M rated but there's not going to be anymore than 8 players at the most with each character consisting of 8-10k poly(weapons included).

[Denny]

Then there shouldn't be much of a problem. You can make sure that all the details will only be visible up close using the LOD system. If there are no morphs on the lower detail LOD it won't play the morph, hence it becoming cheaper. I think you should be able to push a lot of details before performance starts dropping. :)

[illincrux]

Oh cool, that is really awesome!

I almost forgot to ask,a maya muscle rig really couldn't be used to create the muscle morphs and such or would that just make things way over-complicated?

Thanks!

[Denny]

I wouldn't recommend it, sounds like unnecessary work. I'd recommend doing the morphs by hand, you have better control that way.

[Filmico]

Hi denny, thanks so much for the video that are excelent to start understanding this UDK technology. I been trying during several days a way to introduce my custom rigs from Maya to UDK and I've a couple of questions.

I need to port to the UDK engine a custom biped rig with an animation baked from Motion builder to the UDK using Maya as the bridge. In this process and with your videos I could figure how to do it. So, at the end I obtain a Mesh and the animation to be imported in the UDK.
Following your steps I've imported the mesh in a new animation set pointing inside wich animation files I've decided to use with the character. Later I've created a new Animtree with a simple blend between two of that animations and everthing goes right.

1) How can I use this custom character and rigg inside a simple stage I've created to see it running or doing the animation I've created inside the Animthree.
I figure that If I drag the mesh it is imported static.

2) I know that there are some scripts to change the camera view and see the Main actor in third person, but how can I change the main character with my own character?

3) I'm completly new to this tech, and I'd like to know where and how can I build some basic "if then else" to chose between two different animations of my character depending wich keyboard key is pressed. For example to go from Idle with no key is pressed to go to the run animation when the up key is pressed.

I think that your tutorials are great and in my case they finished exactly in the point where I need to follow you to the next step, but may be you know how to continue.

If you have any resource or know some post regarding this it will help me so much to continue the research.

Thanks a lot.

[Denny]

1. If you add it in the world as a SkeletalMeshMat_Actor you should be able to use Matinée to preview your animations based on the AnimTree. This involves quite a bit of steps so it's nothing I can give a short answer to.
2. I'm afraid you have to do this in UnrealScript.
3. You could either do this with UnrealScript or a custom UI scene listening to inputs.

[illincrux]

Not too long ago, I played Tomb Raider: Underworld and one of the first things I noticed was the various facial animations. It appeared to me that they were in part using textures to blend between raised/lowered eye brows, frowns lines, and things of that nature while also using blend shapes for things that needed a greater degree of deformation...I could be completely wrong though?

My question is, would it be less resource intensive to generate normal maps to the various muscle deformations and to blend between them or would it be better to divide things up between using morph targets and blending between materials?

I guess what I'm trying to ask is, which is more processor/resource intensive?

Thanks!

[GamerKnight]

Thanks alot Denny.

Nice work.

[Denny]

illincrux >> As you saw in my video you can drive material parameters with the morph targets. If you were to have a system like in TR:U you'd have to add all the normal map samples you need in one material and use LERPs to blend between them depending on expression. What I'm trying to say is that you can't blend between materials, but the parameters in one single. There's also the issue that you can't drive material parameters through animation without a morph target, unless you script functionality for it. So in short I'd bet that morph targets + skeletal animation is better in the long run. I don't think the performance difference is that big to be worth spending time on implementing the functionality of blending material parameters and skip morph targets.
GamerKnight >> You're welcome. :)

[Denny]

I'll have to recapture them with another app to get them up on Youtube.

[Amir Hossein]

Hi .. im Maya man .. Very good Tutorials Denny , i wating for you Future tutorials .. :D

[Denny]

I can't promise any new tutorials in a while. I'm dead busy working on a character, need to finish up a portfolio, pronto! :)

[Froyok]

I'm not a maya user, I prefer XSI, but for export my character I have some problems with xsi.
So, I try to export my chara with your tuto and files, work fines... for a cube, not for my stickman ! I don't understand at all.

I export my stickman from xsi to maya with an obj file, and import the obj into the "male" scene.
I do the same step as you in this video : http://www.screentoaster.com/watch/stVEtRRUdIR1xfQV1fX1JbUFdQ/how_to_get_your_mesh_and_animation_into_ut3

I make a cube in maya, rig as in the video, export : work in udk.
I use my stick man, rig as in the video : can't export, when I click on the export button, it's happen nothing.

http://uppix.net/0/8/c/c30154c027e9e8905a4476994f0b2t.jpg (http://uppix.net/0/8/c/c30154c027e9e8905a4476994f0b2.html)
My stickman in xsi (simple mesh just for testing).

Sorry if I ask in the wrong place...

[Denny]

It could be something simple as your character not having a UV set. Also make sure you skin using smooth bind. :)

[Froyok]

Damn, I'm totaly stupid... that's was the UVset ! :D
God save the Denny !

Hmm, what is the difference between rigid and smoot bind ?
Hmmm, it's possible do rig manualy ? (Because some vertex on my stickman are not good in animation...)
Sorry, I promess, no more questions.
Thanks you very much ! ;)

[Denny]

Rigid Bind simply means a vertex follows or it doesn't, no inbetween values. It's still different than just setting value 1/0 on a vertex, in what way I don't know but it simply doesn't work with exporting to UDK. To edit skin weights, go to (menu) Skin > Edit Smooth Skin > Paint Skin Weights Tool > Option Box. :)

[Froyok]

Thank you ! :)

[Denny]

By the way, the UV issue might be the same in XSI. ;)

[crapageddon]

Denny....I love you. Deal with it. You're way too awesome.

[Denny]

I love you too. :p

[Froyok]

Just a wish : can you remake/reencode your video for youtube or downlaod ?
I try with Download helper or free music zilla : we cannot save your video on our hard disk. It's annoying because I do not have internet access as I wish.
And your system (screentoaster) have not a good player (we cannot jumpe at a precise moment of the video).

[Denny]

Sorry, can't. The videos was recorded/uploaded directly with the app on their site. I don't have the videos on my harddrive. I must re-record them if I want to upload to Youtube.

[lubitel]

Just a wish : can you remake/reencode your video for youtube or downlaod ?
I try with Download helper or free music zilla : we cannot save your video on our hard disk. It's annoying because I do not have internet access as I wish.
And your system (screentoaster) have not a good player (we cannot jumpe at a precise moment of the video).

DownloadHelper for Mozilla does the job;)

http://www.downloadhelper.net/


Denny is Amazing:)!!!!

[Froyok]

DownloadHelper for Mozilla does the job;)

http://www.downloadhelper.net/
Don't work for me... :(
can you send me the video ? (PM ?)

[micahpharoh]

if you download RealPlayer it comes with a plugin for downloading flash video from the web. Works on Denny's tutorials, as well as things like YouTube.

[ThePriest909]

Great job Denny thanks.

[thetnswe]

Hi. Denny,
I know this topic is quite old for now.. But I got some problem with doing Additive animation is posted in here

http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=75280 (http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=752808)8 ... But no body can answer my problem.. Any special requirement for rigging and exporting?


Please Help me ...

[bisse123]

bumping this post.
Done anyone have the tutorial showing how to use Morph targets?

[bisse123]

bump to top...