-andrew- Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 I have been away for a while, but I think it's time to upgrade. That is all. Des and fzadmin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Des Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 Yes, it got my attention too! I think this is going to be a perfect marriage. Time to get a computer with a big graphics card.. -andrew- and fzadmin 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snow Posted February 12, 2021 Share Posted February 12, 2021 could someone elaborate on this for those who didn't receive an email? I'm curious... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snow Posted February 12, 2021 Share Posted February 12, 2021 7 hours ago, snow said: could someone elaborate on this for those who didn't receive an email? I'm curious... nvm. ADS posted the forum update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
¢hris £und Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 Wouldn't it be nice if the rendering engine could be incorporated into fZ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smarttec Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 You mean that Epic Games buys Autodessys ? - now that's an intersting idea? f700es 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
¢hris £und Posted March 11, 2021 Share Posted March 11, 2021 Smarttec, If that was a response to my response... that isn't what I meant. Just that something like this would be a very cool replacement for the interactive renderers that fZ now imploys. Though, if Epic would invest in fZ that would be interesting. Then again, there is always the danger that a company purchases then shelves. Unfortunately, it happens all the time for various reasons. ¢£ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jldaureil Posted April 13, 2021 Share Posted April 13, 2021 Hi all We use fz and twinmotion from z6 to z9 and export to twinmotion with the datasmith plug-in From the latest news autodessys (sponsored with an epic grant) works to a direct link between fz and twinmotion... I don't know if this in good way ADS Anys news? I suppose this could be the decisive improvement for us to work with z9 Fz 9 draft + modeling interface wasn't completely ready for our workflow from our latest test I would like to try again with the latest built Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 I have created a few videos using Form.z modeling and a direct export out to TM. The model came in flawlessly with the texture maps aligned and sized correctly. I did need to tweak the materials a bit to get them to where I wanted them. Mostly just adjusted the Color factor in a material even if that material was a texture map. In other words, my stone looked too bright so I added some black to the color channel. Using TM was pretty intuitive right off the bat. I will be working on a video that explains my method as soon as I have enough experience with it to be fluid. As for the integration of TM into Form.z it is my understanding that is something in the works that should show up soon. It will be a direct plug in for Form.z so that there will be no need to use importing and exporting. One more thing to note: TM is set up for a completely flat environment by default. Unfortunately, for me the world is not flat, so it is necessary to create a terrain. To create terrain models in form.z I have an old habit of using the Terrain tool, which has been a major pain for as long as I can remember. Converting contour lines from my civil engineer into something the program can interpret has always been a struggle. If anyone knows of a better way to create physically accurate terrains using civil data I am all ears. Of course that would then need to be imported into either FMZ or TM. That's the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
¢hris £und Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 Andrew, With your civil data, can you trust the creation order to match that of the selection order you are expecting? Or the reverse? Sorry for the naive question, that is something I have never done. ¢£ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 No. There really is no way to universally apply any method to my civil data that can be used from one project to another. Often times I start by trying to use the contour lines they provide but end up retracing the splines anyway. It is a very time consuming process and the terrain tool crashes about half the time. In the case of a house with adjusted contours around the building I often need to push and pull points and segments to adjust for how the terrain hits it in spots. In V6 we had a tool for push/pull on meshes using profiles. That disappeared a while ago. Doing it in my current method easily corrupts the geometry and can lead to some big issues if not done slowly. Very slowly. I think on the next one I will create my terrain using Nurbs to see if that works better. I am still not sure how to create a terrain of substantial size in Form.z that I can bring into TM for an animation. I did create one in Vue but it was so heavy that Form.z crashed on import. It is also worth noting that TM looks at your terrain as one object so you must separate out those pieces that will require different textures. In my first model I differenced out the mass of the house from the terrain without deleting the polygons under the house. Then when I applied grass and plants to the landscape they appeared on the basement floor as well. So it might make more sense to create my terrain using planes instead of a solid for the ease of editing. Not sure how to approach that yet. In essence I would like to create a mesh that is a fairly loose approximation of my terrain and then apply a softening tool to it (similar to the subdivision soften tool, which doesn't work in this case). I will let you know how it goes. In the future Form.z might really benefit from a tool like the TurboSmooth tool in Max which works on absolutely everything. If only. AW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
santa Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 Recent positive developments, such as the availability of "meaty"renderers including TM, have made me want to return to using FZ after an absence of many years. I understand that TM was free for non-commercial use until December 2020. Their website, however, still offers a "free" trial, apparently without a time limit restriction. Is anyone familiar with it? What's the catch? Decisions, decisions..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Des Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 The option to use TM with FormZ has given me renued optimism. I still use Fz with Maxwell mostly but to be able to make animations so quickly is great. With regard to terrain modelling, l still use the terrain tool but occasionally I literally draw a flat plane (surface) in plan, convert it to a nurbs object with around 12 x 12 controls. then I show the controls and with snap turned off and perp to ref plane selected, I move the points so it pretty much matches the supplied contours. Then I slice and dice it for kerbs and paving etc. The beauty is that they retain their control points for further manipulation. I have even used a subdivision surface for landscape and can work very well. A thing to note is with TM you need a really good and large video card to get the quality. I'm limited to an iMac with 4gb vid ram so that reflects in the quality of my animations. They recommend a card of at least 16gb for good quality. D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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