take a look at my last stop motion video: On top of old smokey
you'll love it.
please give me feedback

Yes, I always loved puppets as a kid. Yoda is probably my all time favorite that Frank Oz brought to life. In fact if you compared traditional puppets to VR, I'd say each has its own good and bad points. This is a VRChat full body capture. To think that Hollywood level abilities are coming to consumers means this kind of thing will eventually be used to make films.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUhAMRzcBVI

From a stop motion perspective, they could be quick ways of making animatics and even to use for pre-animating scenes by literally acting them out in real time. Even if you have a stop motion puppet with odd proportions, you can digitally hop into that puppet in VR, act out your scene and use that as your guide in Dragonframe or Stop Motion Pro. I am pretty sure Aardman animated (roughly) all of Chicken Run in CG to pre-plan the entire film.

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animateclay wrote: Yes, I think that eventually costs will come down and someone will figure out a way to turn this into something anyone can use. Probably the best app I know for animating CG characters is Mindshow. It's more like puppeteering but has some advantages over SMODO currently in some ways. Especially since it's instant.

WOW .. I am so blown-minded at Mindshow, Marc. This is awesome. I found it really hilarious and unique. There are definitely elements of puppeting, as far as acting performance and as far as CrisisZone from the beginning, it is even on stage. So funny. I really hope all these pioneers keep developing. Sticking always with stop motion charm in it, though.

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Yes, I think that eventually costs will come down and someone will figure out a way to turn this into something anyone can use. Probably the best app I know for animating CG characters is Mindshow. Take a look:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DsM1SKJORg

It's more like puppeteering but has some advantages over SMODO currently in some ways. Especially since it's instant.

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animateclay wrote: Yes Dan, SMODO is an interesting project that we briefly talked about on the live show. It's a lot like the Dinosaur Input Devices from Phil Tippet but using a webcam to capture the movements. think if you want to animate in CG, it's not a bad idea to use. If you have a flying rig everything would translate fairly nicely. Only I don't see a way for changing face expressions, so I don't know if that's something they plan to add. I also kinda wonder how they do head turns and things with twisting motions. Either way I do think the tech has some limits, maybe that's why they haven't done an update for a while?

As far as limitations concern, maybe I was anxiously thinking about the future and where it all could lead into. But yes. I recently read about Mr Force input, what he said regarding SMODO.

Mr. Force wrote: its just a Plugin for 3DsMAX used with their Cams & Puppet. Only larger studios can afford 3DsMax @ 250$ monthly or 5700$ for the Lic. They would do better to offer it as a plugin for Blender so anyone can work with it

Sure. Value and just being a plugin would not be as effective as it may seem. I am thinking however the outcome of such experimentation four or five years from now. This can be a beginning of a snowflake turning into a big snowball one day.

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SMODO
Another down side to SMODO other then I dont think its even offered for sale is that its just a Plugin for 3DsMAX used with their Cams &...SMODO
Another down side to SMODO other then I dont think its even offered for sale is that its just a Plugin for 3DsMAX used with their Cams & Puppet. Only larger studios can afford 3DsMax @ 250$ monthly or 5700$ for the Lic. They would do better to offer it as a plugin for Blender so anyone can work with it. Also like Marc said its a CG tool using a stopmotion armature. Show more

Yes Dan, SMODO is an interesting project that we briefly talked about on the live show. It's a lot like the Dinosaur Input Devices from Phil Tippet but using a webcam to capture the movements. There's the one video out there explaining it (sort of) here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls_xsjUJUik

I think if you want to animate in CG, it's not a bad idea to use. If you have a flying rig everything would translate fairly nicely. Only I don't see a way for changing face expressions, so I don't know if that's something they plan to add. I also kinda wonder how they do head turns and things with twisting motions. Either way I do think the tech has some limits, maybe that's why they haven't done an update for a while?

Read More...