Reign's thread

[ReignMocap]

Hey guys. So I decided to make a thread where we can shoot shit, talk about VAM, motion capture, animation, AI, scene ideas, models etc. etc.
Whatever crosses your mind as long as it in some way connected to VAM. I'll probably be here by myself and just look stupid but I thought I'd give it a shot and create a ''place'' where we can interact. For myself it's a way to interact with people that are not my subs or not on discord.

So yeah don't be shy. I won't bite...much.

 

[janet67]

Good Morning, I was not sure if this was specific to your resources. Any ways, I downloaded a animation this morning that uses McGrubers StateMachine plugin. Honestly, I never noticed it before. Have you used it? I looked up State machine on the web, something to do with how one state ends a different one starts and it kind of loops around to different states. First of all what is a state? Is it a pose? more than a pose? I am not a creator, but like to tinker, if you are familiar with the state machine plugin, can you give some clarity on its function? I looked at the plugin and I guess there are various states and a transition method. Also, how will a statemachine interact well with other plugins.... example, Alive, Blushing and Tears? BTW, I like that you as a proven creator, just reached out in the hub to assist with understanding VAM. I believe I have supported you before, I switch around as I only have so much to go around each month. I will double check, if I had not, I will work you into my Patreon, rotation. I now I have tried some of your resources.

 

[Origin69]

Hey Reign. Nice idea for the thread.

I'm curious what your workflow is for making looks and skin textures?

I use Gimp to layer and paint textures, plus an addon to do simpler Normal Maps from greyscale (it's really useful).
I then use Blender to sculpt morphs and high poly details I can bake to lowpoly as normal maps, stencil painting details and texture baking/UV texture transfer.

Both free software because I'm cheap. What do you use?

 

[MacGruber]

(...) Any ways, I downloaded a animation this morning that uses McGrubers StateMachine plugin. Honestly, I never noticed it before. Have you used it? I looked up State machine on the web, something to do with how one state ends a different one starts and it kind of loops around to different states. First of all what is a state? Is it a pose? more than a pose? I am not a creator, but like to tinker, if you are familiar with the state machine plugin, can you give some clarity on its function? I looked at the plugin and I guess there are various states and a transition method. Also, how will a statemachine interact well with other plugins.... example, Alive, Blushing and Tears?

A StateMachine is a very generic concept. It can be used for all sorts of things, not just animation. My IdlePoser plugin is also technically a StateMachine, except this one specifically suited to animation. I strongly recommend to have a look at the LogicBricks video tutorials. There is like 50min tutorial just specifically on StateMachine. Find them at the bottom here:

MacGruber's Video Tutorials - Guides -

This page will gather my hopefully growing collection of video tutorials about various VaM topics. "Pay after watching, IF you liked it!" Producing quality video tutorials consumes a LOT of time. Just producing 10min of video takes about 6-8...

hub.virtamate.com

Other than that, you can of course have a look at my various scenes. Both "DoubleTrouble" and "CyberNight" make heavy use of the StateMachine as their "master controller" for the scene logic. Also LogicBricks itself comes with 5 demo scenes containing altogether 26 examples, several of them also covering the StateMachine.

 

[janet67]

A StateMachine is a very generic concept. It can be used for all sorts of things, not just animation. My IdlePoser plugin is also technically a StateMachine, except this one specifically suited to animation. I strongly recommend to have a look at the LogicBricks video tutorials. There is like 50min tutorial just specifically on StateMachine. Find them at the bottom here:

MacGruber's Video Tutorials - Guides -

This page will gather my hopefully growing collection of video tutorials about various VaM topics. "Pay after watching, IF you liked it!" Producing quality video tutorials consumes a LOT of time. Just producing 10min of video takes about 6-8...

hub.virtamate.com

Other than that, you can of course have a look at my various scenes. Both "DoubleTrouble" and "CyberNight" make heavy use of the StateMachine as their "master controller" for the scene logic. Also LogicBricks itself comes with 5 demo scenes containing altogether 26 examples, several of them also covering the StateMachine.

Wow, the videos look impressive. I will try and watch them all. Its almost the end of the month. I will rotate you and Reignmocap into my Patron support rotation, in February. I have used one of your logic brick plugins, that let me start a scene a specific way, off the top of my head I cannot remember the name of it, SPQR recommended it when I asked him for assistance, when building on one of his scenes. Thanks

 

[ReignMocap]

@janet67 You came out of the gates punching me in the face. I was waiting for someone to jump in and save my ass as I was never able to integrate state machine in my work. I did not expect @MacGruber to be the one explaining things. Glad to see you bud. I thought you gave up on us.
@Origin69 I usually use existing sources. I use morphs and skins available in VAM and on the hub. Sadly I do not have the time to create stuff ground up. I would love to do that but I am not really very skilled. I find that what we have on the hub serves me well. I might take the time and build stuff ground up. Skins, morphs, even hair.

 

[ReignMocap]

@MacGruber Logic Bricks has to be one of the coolest additions to VAM. The things I was able to do using these plugins are magical. Thank you for this. Logic Bricks are a regular tool in my work.

 

[Origin69]

@Origin69 I usually use existing sources. I use morphs and skins available in VAM and on the hub. Sadly I do not have the time to create stuff ground up. I would love to do that but I am not really very skilled. I find that what we have on the hub serves me well. I might take the time and build stuff ground up. Skins, morphs, even hair.

Well you are damn skilled at scene composition and animation. If you ever need clothing, morphs or textures, feel free to ask.

 

[ReignMocap]

Well you are damn skilled at scene composition and animation. If you ever need clothing, morphs or textures, feel free to ask.

@Origin69 I am always in need of new skins. Skins are a very important part of the character creation. Also thank you for your kind words. You can always throw skins at me hahah. Also morphs

 

[janet67]

ReignMocap, I have recently joined your Patreon page and you have a lot of good animations. I may move up to the next tier. I looked at the mega bar scene with the dancer switching between, customer, waitress , etc. I was wondering if you have a Mardi Gras scene, or if you have thought about it. I know I have scene someone's upload where the woman lifts her top by a pool, or maybe removes it. I would think with the right street and the right animated asset people, a mardi gras scene with a few flashers would be right up your alley. I did a search and did not see one. Anyway, just a thought.

 

[ReignMocap]

ReignMocap, I have recently joined your Patreon page and you have a lot of good animations. I may move up to the next tier. I looked at the mega bar scene with the dancer switching between, customer, waitress , etc. I was wondering if you have a Mardi Gras scene, or if you have thought about it. I know I have scene someone's upload where the woman lifts her top by a pool, or maybe removes it. I would think with the right street and the right animated asset people, a mardi gras scene with a few flashers would be right up your alley. I did a search and did not see one. Anyway, just a thought.

Hey. No I do not have a scene like that. To be honest I don't fully understand what you are requesting.

 

[janet67]

Hey. No I do not have a scene like that. To be honest I don't fully understand what you are requesting.

I believe Mardi Gras is Feb 21? It is big in the US, a huge New Orleans event. Not sure where it originally came from, maybe the Caribbean? Any way, ground zero is Bourbon St. Which is quite a cool place anytime of year. I was there years ago, before the big storm. Anyway Bourbon St. is famous for women flashing their boobs for beads, especially during Mardi Gras. Its a huge party scene, with music, cops on horses, and women flashing their boobs, and shaking them, up to the people on balconies throwing them beads. They just flash them on the street to people as well. If you google Mardi Gras Bourbon Street flashing (images) you will get the idea. I saw your bar party scene and with Mardi Gras coming up, it came to me as a possible interesting fun scene creation. The street is lined with hotels with balconies, bars with jazz and rock bands, street vendors, restaurants, strip clubs, and crazy drunk people. Fun stuff! It would be cool if someone could find and port Bourbon St itself into VAM. * I found the scene, it was called titty drop, by jet I think.

 

[ReignMocap]

Mardi Gras and titty flashing aside, I think that the VAM community is missing out by general disinterest in creators working collaboratively on projects, each contributing their individual strengths. The few times that creators have come together generally realizes amazing results.

First of all let me say that there are cool people in the community. I am talking about simple users and not creators. However most download stuff with no reaction, no likes, no comments, complain about stupid shit (you know all about that), demand features on free stuff and most important steal all our premium works from a bunch of websites. So excuse me if I don't want to spend my time dealing with other creator's view on a scene we are making so that a bunch of randoms can jerk off. I'll take care of my patreon guys and that's it. I do drop free stuff from time to time but to be honest is just for flexing

 

[BStarG2]

Hey there Reign, love your work.

So I just wanted to suggest (not request, just a mere suggestion) something for your Mocap works but I don't know how tough that would be.

Basically, just more Girl-on-Girl Mocaps but not necessarily sexual or too explicit. Something as simple as just caressing or some sort of sensual 'feels' would do, since I think that's a type of scenes that is unfortunately really lacking in general (example: both girls standing up and caressing or fondling each others a bit, one girl behind the other, or perhaps both girls laying on a bed and just touching each others a bit, or two girls taking a shower together, etc... with maybe some sensual music in the scene, something simple enough; doesn't "need" to be sexual at all).

There was a Scene like that basically that you did make, which I still love very much to this day; I think it was called "Twins". It had a wood-base bed in the scene (with a small mirror on the head of the bed) with a speaker next to the bed on the floor. The two girls move around and interact a little bit with each others with some really funky techno grooves playing along.

One "caveat" though: No male involved in the scene (I.E. both girls would interact with each others only, without any dude sitting on a chair watching them motionless; just without that part, like having a genuine just girl-on-girl scene where the user freely observes rather than interacts with them).

So just more Scenes like that.

I think though that, of course, if there's two characters and they do interact then I assume there's two Mocap actors / actresses involved? Or was it just one in that example I mentioned and one actress had to record two times for each character? If indeed it's just one Mocap actress then obviously it would involve at least two recordings for just one scene; not sure how difficult that would be (or not? I mean you did do it with that Twins scene after all hehe).

So yeah, just that, girl-on-girl scenes without a male interaction involved (I.E. no interaction in the Mocap suggesting the player should interact at any point).

 

[ReignMocap]

Hey there Reign, love your work.

So I just wanted to suggest (not request, just a mere suggestion) something for your Mocap works but I don't know how tough that would be.

Basically, just more Girl-on-Girl Mocaps but not necessarily sexual or too explicit. Something as simple as just caressing or some sort of sensual 'feels' would do, since I think that's a type of scenes that is unfortunately really lacking in general (example: both girls standing up and caressing or fondling each others a bit, one girl behind the other, or perhaps both girls laying on a bed and just touching each others a bit, or two girls taking a shower together, etc... with maybe some sensual music in the scene, something simple enough; doesn't "need" to be sexual at all).

There was a Scene like that basically that you did make, which I still love very much to this day; I think it was called "Twins". It had a wood-base bed in the scene (with a small mirror on the head of the bed) with a speaker next to the bed on the floor. The two girls move around and interact a little bit with each others with some really funky techno grooves playing along.

One "caveat" though: No male involved in the scene (I.E. both girls would interact with each others only, without any dude sitting on a chair watching them motionless; just without that part, like having a genuine just girl-on-girl scene where the user freely observes rather than interacts with them).

So just more Scenes like that.

I think though that, of course, if there's two characters and they do interact then I assume there's two Mocap actors / actresses involved? Or was it just one in that example I mentioned and one actress had to record two times for each character? If indeed it's just one Mocap actress then obviously it would involve at least two recordings for just one scene; not sure how difficult that would be (or not? I mean you did do it with that Twins scene after all hehe).

So yeah, just that, girl-on-girl scenes without a male interaction involved (I.E. no interaction in the Mocap suggesting the player should interact at any point).

I got you bro

 

[Stratzilla]

I'd like to jump in and just say how great this group is. Like everyone else I've spent a lot of time on various forums over the years and sometimes it's just not a great place to be (I'm a musician and some of the music forums can be brutal). I'm sure it happens here but I honestly can't recall seeing a rude or smart ass reply to anyone's question - even when it's a question that's already been answered dozens of times. I only discovered VAM a few months ago, and don't have the time or knowledge to be very good, but in a short time I've really wrapped my head around it pretty well, thanks to this group. I admit I don't post often, but that's because I can usually search around enough here to figure it out and haven't learned enough yet to be able to really comment and help anyone. Hopefully one day.

But that leads me to another thing, Reign you made a good point. I am guilty of downloading some amazing resources here and seldom take the time to at least comment and thank the creators for their hard work. That needs to change and I'll do better in that area (although I do sub and at least thank some creators financially). But it all makes me very jealous because there are some crazy talented people here! But, hey, I'm pretty damn good with a guitar so I have that going for me. Although VAM is cutting into my practice time lately. Lol.

 

[ReignMocap]

I'd like to jump in and just say how great this group is. Like everyone else I've spent a lot of time on various forums over the years and sometimes it's just not a great place to be (I'm a musician and some of the music forums can be brutal). I'm sure it happens here but I honestly can't recall seeing a rude or smart ass reply to anyone's question - even when it's a question that's already been answered dozens of times. I only discovered VAM a few months ago, and don't have the time or knowledge to be very good, but in a short time I've really wrapped my head around it pretty well, thanks to this group. I admit I don't post often, but that's because I can usually search around enough here to figure it out and haven't learned enough yet to be able to really comment and help anyone. Hopefully one day.

But that leads me to another thing, Reign you made a good point. I am guilty of downloading some amazing resources here and seldom take the time to at least comment and thank the creators for their hard work. That needs to change and I'll do better in that area (although I do sub and at least thank some creators financially). But it all makes me very jealous because there are some crazy talented people here! But, hey, I'm pretty damn good with a guitar so I have that going for me. Although VAM is cutting into my practice time lately. Lol.

I preach this but to be honest I also do it. Download stuff and forget to thank the creator. I do my best to leave a like or even send private messages to the creators. Most are very happy and grateful. I am the same when I receive messages. Glad you are around dude. VAM is amazing. Have fun but do not neglect your guitar