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Considering Buying TAFA (Read 837 times)
tawolf
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Considering Buying TAFA
on: Oct 14th, 2008, 11:08pm
 

I love TAFA!

Posts: 4
Dear Sir;  
My name is Ted wolf,I am seriously considering purchasing TAFA, much will depend on a couple of questions.
 
1. I am currently engaged in animating recent character that are  built for Poser.  They are already setup with a complete host of morphs that I have transferred along with the character into LW 9.5 do you envision any problems?
 
2 These characters are often very robust from a polygon standpoint, will their stuctures in TAFA be a problem?
 
3.  Is it required to go thru the process of "splitting the morphs" in modeler" (I,m not convinced I understand what that is about).  
 
4.  Does the program analyze a text version of the clip. breaking it down into the the phonomes, to aid in placing
 pheonomes in the audio clip.
 
5. What version will I be buying, and will I recieve updates.
 
6. What do you see as near future developments?
 
Well at should answer any lingering issues I have,  I am pretty excited about using the program, and I hate demos, normally you spend important production time only to find out that you cannot use the work because of some feature being locked out.
 
Sincerly
Ted Wolf
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Re: Considering Buying TAFA
Reply #1 on: Oct 15th, 2008, 2:05pm
 

The digital monk

Posts: 295
1. If you have already converted the Poser characters and their morphs into LW objects with endomorphs, then you should be fine.  You can also load collections of .OBJ files (one base and one per morph shape), if you need to work with models that haven't been LW converted, but since you'll be animating in LW, that shouldn't come up.  (TAFA includes some tools for fixing orientation issues when working with objects from different toolchains, should it be necessary)
 
2. That will depend on how hot your machine is (both CPU and GPU).  TAFA was originally designed for medium-poly control cages that are subdivided, and it does that subdividing in realtime as it animates.  Since you will be using much higher polygon models, you will want to set the subdivision level to 0 so that it doesn't try to increase the polygon count any further.
 
3. First, "splitting the morphs" is only an issue if you wish to apply a morph asymmetrically.  Say that you have a single morph that has both eyes closed.  You might want to asymmetrically apply just the left side of it to provide a wink.  If you are willing to use MDD files (which are much larger, but let TAFA do splitting without modifying your morph shapes), the MDD files specify the location of every vertex for every frame, so TAFA can specify any asymmetric balance you need.  If you need to use Morph Mixer files (which are much smaller), then TAFA can only specify a single weight for each existing morph -- which would require you to split your existing morphs into left/right pairs before TAFA could apply them "asymmetrically" (it isn't really asymmetrically -- TAFA has to apply the new morphs fully, but since the morphs themselves are asymmetric, the end result is the same).
 
3A. As a side note, TAFA's morph splitting was also designed with the idea of control cages that get subdivided.  The subdivision normally helps smooth out some of the transition zone between the left and right half of the model.  With a high polygon model and no subdivision, some morphs may not be as useful for asymmetric application.
 
4. No.  We've found that artists seeking cinema quality animation can actually produce the full animation data faster with TAFA than they can clean up and tweak the phonemes placed by automatic analyzers.  This result is dependent on how picky you are about the look of your character, however  Wink  If you are working on a daily 30 minute show, it may be more important to get the lipsync slapped in very very fast, even if it isn't as good -- in which case, unfortunately, TAFA isn't really the right tool.  But if you care more about your characters looking right, TAFA provides several useful tools.  One very useful tool is the ability to specify a punch-in/out region that it will play in a continuous loop.  You can drop in new morphs, move morphs, tweak morph strengths and balances, and it just keeps playing that loop showing you what things look like now.  It makes tweaking your animation very fast and easy.  TAFA also doesn't require any initial mapping from analyzer morph names to your morph names (but it does provide for changing morphs (or characters!) in a target after a scene has been set up -- you can remap old morphs to new morphs and have it applied to the whole scene, which can save an immense amount of time.  Lip syncing can start before final models are ready without losing work or requiring much rework, because the scene done with the early character can simply be remapped to the full up character.  It's a life saver for those late-in-the-project changes that would otherwise kill you.)  
 
5. The current version is v1.2.2.8.  TAFA checks for updates itself, and you will receive any updates that are short of a major rewrite.  As you look around on the board, you'll see that a major rewrite is not likely to pop up anytime soon (well, except that I'm now working on an XSI plugin version, but that won't affect you).  Certainly bug fixes and the like will be free.
 
6. I have a long list of features I'd like to work on, but I honestly don't place any of them (other than the XSI plugin) in the "near future" category, simply because TAFA is a home business and isn't what pays for my bills -- which necessarily puts it at a lower priority.
 
(Demo) While I understand the aversion to demos, I encourage you to try the TAFA demo for a few reasons:
A. You'll need it anyway if you do an online purchase -- the online purchase merely turns the demo into the full version.
B. It's the absolute best way to know if you'll have any problems with your models and performance, because the only missing feature is the ability to save files (which does mean that you won't want to spend a lot of time with the intent of serious output, but you could spend some time piddling around to see if it is fast/smooth/easy/intuitive enough).
C. I would recommend trying things in this order:
i. Load your model and see if basic loading and model rotation seems smooth enough.  Don't forget to switch to 0-subdivision with the buttons along the top.
ii. Go through at least the basic tutorial with the supplied models (or use your own -- the only difference will be that the morphs in your model won't match the morphs mentioned in the tutorials, but you can work around that).  The tutorial should only take 1-2 hours.
iii. If you did the tutorials with the supplied models, go back a play a bit with a short sentence with your own model to see if animation speed is acceptable.
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tawolf
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Re: Considering Buying TAFA
Reply #2 on: Oct 15th, 2008, 3:08pm
 

I love TAFA!

Posts: 4
Mac;
 
 Thank you for you quick response.http://www.macreitercreations.com/yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/smiley.gif
 
I am going to buy your plug-in looks like I have most every thing I need to get going.
 
I have an intel dual quad 2.6gig with 32 gig of Ram and a wildcat  realism 800.
 
so this brings up my next questions, will it run in a 64bit world, xp pro 64 ? this is not a show stopper, just a creature comfort.
 
I often use more than head morphs, examples such as chest expansion (breathing) any problem?
 
I have used characters birds and such, that have mouth, eye, head, neck morphs ?
 
About .MDD  I have spent zero time with MDD,  I use Motion Builder and FBX xfer. cant do facial though. I assume that its an easy process to get MDD files loaded and into a scene to be rendered, of course I will have to study up.
 
Is there the possibility of adding more than one audio track, say for the purpose of timing a reactive expression change ?
 
Well I could go on and on but I guess It't best just to get started.
 
I Look forward to working with you.
 
Sincerly
 
 Ted Wolf  
 
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Re: Considering Buying TAFA
Reply #3 on: Oct 16th, 2008, 2:28pm
 

The digital monk

Posts: 295
Glad you like  Smiley
 
It will run in a 64 bit world, though it is a 32bit application itself (it's a standalone EXE, not a plugin).
 
(Re: chest/eye/head/neck/etc morphs) All morphs present in the object will be available to you.  TAFA lets you show or hide various parts of your model, so if you want to do body animation, you would show everything, and for facial animation you would (typically) hide everything but the face.
 
The tutorial has a step by step guide for applying an MDD to an object.  There are a few specific tricks, but they're mentioned in the tutorial.  If you have any problems, we can work it out.
 
There is not currently any way to have more than one audio file.  Because of all the tricks I've had to use to make sure TAFA stays as perfectly audio synced as possible, I'd probably just have to mix the multiple tracks into a single track and play that, but no such logic exists at present.  I'm not familiar with the technique you're wanting to use (not an animator myself), so if you could describe the usage model (or point me to someone else's description), I might be able to rig something up fairly quickly.  (Remember, "might"  Wink )
 
Mac
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tawolf
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Re: Considering Buying TAFA
Reply #4 on: Oct 16th, 2008, 3:48pm
 

I love TAFA!

Posts: 4
Mac;
 
Your response to my questions satisfied my questions quite well.
 
As far as the extra sound track,  I was thinking of having a que track, for example a timed response to another characters voice track, a head nod after a pause, or an eye blink and a head turn in response to a footfall.  I think you are right however about using a mixed track as a step in the process, I can include any queing and ambient sounds and generate secondary motion accordingly.  My character is a B. Willis look alike, I have been studying  video clips to get a feel for his secondary reactions to environmental sounds, hesitation, response eye motions,etc.  I think that having a secondary track would be handy to help sync up, but again no showstopper, in lightwave, like anything else, experimentation is kind of fun.
 
As far as your great help goes,  I will be doing a class at "Montana Tech of the University of Montana" during the spring semester that will cover how 3d animation (LW) lends itself to problem solving.  It will be given to grad students in a number of engineering departments and to the grad students of the "Professional Technical information Dept".  I'm an alum of "tech" and pretty excited about showing how problem visualization can be  used to better illustrate various technical and often non-technical solutions.  
 
I will be sure to include in the "PTI" presentations, your work, and give you credits on my animated segment, narrated by the one and only B. Willis.  I'll send you a clip when I get bruce up and alive.
 
By the way several of the students from the mining engineering dept and I put together a presentation which included a working 3d model of an open pit mine.  The purpose was to illustrate the logistics involved in optimizing haulage.  It included shift change variants, weather effects on haulage routes and electrical distribution concerns.  It was quite fun and and a selling point for more animation.
 
Well good to hear from you again, I'll place my order today.
 
Ted Wolf
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Re: Considering Buying TAFA
Reply #5 on: Oct 17th, 2008, 6:48pm
 

The digital monk

Posts: 295
Would it be possible for me to post said clip of the virtual B. Willis (credited to you, and hopefully with some comments about your experience with TAFA) here as a demonstration?  Frequently, the nature of people's work limits the redistribution rights, so I understand if that won't be possible -- but it would be very cool if it was  Grin
 
Mac
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tawolf
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Re: Considering Buying TAFA
Reply #6 on: Oct 17th, 2008, 8:00pm
 

I love TAFA!

Posts: 4
Sure Mac I don't see any problem with sharing Mr. B.Willis with you. I am hoping to get all his morphs changed
 over to your protocol during the next week.  
 
By the way I just got my copy of the "Poser to lightwave Kit". Its a bunch of plugins from kurv studios $125.
it makes the process of importing Poser/Daz character much more reliable.  I am excited because these poser
characters look pretty good. This plugin set is able to import poser  weight, morph, and texture maps into lightwave. It also  
will bring in the poser rigs. These rig preform pretty good in motion builder.  I use BVH files and motion builder
to do most of my skeletal animation.  So this setup now will gives me literley hundreds of possible endomorphs to play with.  
 
The poser characters are still pretty heavy but I believe that is changing, several companies ie; vanishingpoint3d are  
working on lower polycount figures that look and behave niceley.
 
The nice thing about these model is they are cheap compared to the time it would take me to develope a fully
functional model.  There is even a number of 3d support products ie; ZBrush, that have put together professional grade  
tutorials focusing on poser products.
 
So with TAFA being a fast way of getting lipsync, expresions and morph control it doesn't get much better than that.
Of course using poser figure probably will not end me up with an interview with Pixar but I'll have fun and I don't have to  
move to Califoria.
 
I'll keep you posted.
Ted Wolf
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Mac Reiter CreationsGeneral StuffAnimation Tips : Facial « Previous topic | Next topic »