bTraffic opposing roads...

Here's a bTraffic update on a few bits I added just before xmas and just after new year.
This version now has opposing road generation so you can set up a motorway/freeway quickly and easily. You can now also change the lane widths and specify a separation value between the roads. It's using the same particle emitter to fuel each road but it will later let you set the weighting of how busy each is.

bTraffic - multiple vehicle type selector...

I've finally got back to working on bTraffic, my traffic animation tool. The latest update includes the addition of vehicle types. What this means is that you can easily add multiple vehicles to the animation, such as models of trucks, cars, bikes etc just with a simple click of a button. Next up is to allow a weighting to the traffic so that you can have some simulations heavily laden with trucks whereas other simulations might be sparsely populated with traffic and only consist of cars.
Plenty more to do...

Here's an example of the generation of a road and the assignment of 3 different vehicles to the simulation:

virtually free virtual reality...

I've recently got back into some games I played a few years ago - Live for Speed 'LFS' for short (racing game) and IL2 Sturmovik (WW2 Flying). Each are great games and LFS even lets you play the demo online where there are hundreds of other demo players all wanting to race.
Anyways while getting back into IL2 I found that the hat view method of looking around the screen while flying was a bit restrictive and started searching for other methods. Two that I found were TrackIR and Freetrack. Both use the same idea of using infra-red or leds attached to your head (e.g, on a cap) and tracking the positions using standard webcam technology. From the captured information algorithms are run to determine whereabouts your head position is in 3D space and then this is transferred to the game that you are playing (if it supports it).
TrackIR is a commercial product including everything you need to start out of the box - an infra-red webcam, software and head markers but will set you back a fair amount of money. Seeing as I didnt want to fork out too much money I decided to have a go at Freetrack - the free one.
Freetrack is the actual software that takes your webcam information and figures out your current head position.
If going with Freetrack you will need the software, a webcam, a cap, some leds, some resistors, a bit of wire, a battery pack and some batteries and an old metal coathanger to make the framework that the leds sit on. It's probably advisable to get a switch as well so you dont have to keep taking the batteries out when you're not using it. So for the cost of a webcam (£20) and the other bits (a few pounds) I have a virtual reality type system :o)

Here's an in game example of someone using Freetrack in IL2:


and here's an example of using it in LFS

research paper...

Thought I'd post up a recent research paper I wrote for my Masters course. It's entitled 'Group Behavioural Animation Tools' and looks into using existing and modifications of existing theories to create tools specifically for computer animators.
Have a read and let me know what you think ;)
Group Behavioural Animation Tools - Simon Mann

space navigator annoyance...

I've been using a space navigator for a while now and really like how you can move around the viewport in Maya or 3ds Max without having to use the mouse.
The only problem in Maya is that whenever you install or update the latest drivers it defaults your current Maya shelf to be the 3dconnexion tool shelf - very annoying.
To get around this you need to hunt down and edit a file called MagellanStartup.mel that is located where ever you installed Maya (e.g, C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya\scripts\startup). Once you have found it search for the following line in the file 'C3DxShelfTab();' (without quotes) and comment it out by putting two forward slashes just before it like so: '// C3DxShelfTab();' (again without quotes). Now start Maya again and you should be presented with your old shelf preferences as before.

2D illustrations...

I've just updated my 2D section with a few older illustrations that coincide with the 'warcones' game I made a while back. The idea was to make a few different themed posters and resulted in a war, horror and family oriented style for each. I also made a science fiction one but that was a combination of 2D and 3D so it was added a while ago to the 3D section.
Have a great bonfire night :o)

maxscripting...

I had a go at Maxscript for the first time today. A group project at Uni required some automation of .obj importing and exporting so I sat down and started learning the language. The help in Max is pretty similar to Maya and so it was quite easy to pick up and do the necessaries. Here is the simple script for anyone who is interested import export .obj script
One or two interesting things to note is that running multi-line code in the Maxscript listener doesnt work. It took a while to figure that out and so I moved it all into an actual Maxscript and things started working fine. Another is the use of normal brackets () for loop statements and enclosing functions, a little strange when you've been using curly braces {} for years (PHP etc) and have just started learning not to use them as with Python.
All in all it looks a pretty goof thing to learn alongside Mel/Python and should be of value in the future :o)

bTraffic progress

I'm currently working on a particle based Maya animation tool called bTraffic.
What this allows an animator to do is to draw a series of lines in Maya and auto-generate traffic that drive along the lanes.
Further updates will add in extra functionality such as inner lane changing, exit road options, density controls and replacement of cubes with custom models.
Click the image to see some demo videos.

barcamp leeds...

Thought I'd do a little bit of advertising for barcamp leeds here seeing as I'll be going along and having a look at what 'barcamp' events are all about. It looks like an interesting lineup and has some people there that I used to work with back in the days of hardcore web programming. It's also at the Old Broadcasting House in Leeds which has facilities available for our current Masters group project (more about that when it is complete). It's a rather swanky place, nicely laid out and kitted out with some cool equipment.
Should be fun :)

you tube updates to the site...

Just a little note to say that I've uploaded my 3D videos onto you tube and linked them straight to these pages so people wont have to download movies before seeing what they are.
I've also split the 3D section into relevant categories so that it is easier to follow.
Finally all the videos that I have uploaded can be accessed from the following you tube page: My videos

An example can be seen below: