Hi there,

I have not been active here for quite a while, sorry for that. I have been quite busy in the last months but I have a little bit more free time now and will visit this forum more frequently.

I have plans to fill my free time of course. ;-) It’s all about new CAT tutorials. It’s not yet fixed in which form they will appear. This is a question up to you and it’s the main reason why I opened this thread.

So here we go.

1. Do you prefer written or video tutorials or both?

2. Do you wish beginner tutorials or advanced tutorials or a mixture between both?

3. Do you want to have tutorials about general functionality of CAT or more practical-oriented tutorials?

4. Do you need more rigging or animation knowledge?

5. Do you have any special wishes or ideas that you would like to be covered?

Thank you all!

My CAT demoreel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfq-4VoeAPU

Hi Gräck, I’m very happy to hear you are making tutorials, and are even interested in what we’d like to see in them.

In answer to question 1, I don’t mind whether tutorials are written or video, I’ll take good information however it’s presented. Whatever is easy for you. Videos do record every step you do though, so nothing is ever skipped.

For question 2, I am looking for information that is different to the tutorials that can already be seen in the tutorial section of this site, or at least extends the concepts. Most tutorials show that there are parameters that can be changed to create certain walkcycles, and invite us learners to try changing the settings to see what we come up with (and we do), but I’d like to see a walk-through from start to finish that show how different walkcycles can be created. This is because with my own playing around I can’t get anything polished, just sort of ok. Along the way, we’d see how you correct the walkcycle to get it to work the way you want so we know what parameters to adjust.

Question 3, I’d like to see practical examples of CAT rigs being animated, maybe some action moves, but I’d love to see facial animation techniques using CAT and the layer system (more detailed than the facial rig example you did in one of your tutorials. Is the workflow different in the latest version of CAT?).

I’m not sure if there is anything to show how CAT bones could work with cloth to do anything interesting? I was experimenting with CAT bones to get some secondary motion in a dress to avoid using the cloth modifier at one stage, but failed because I didn’t know how to do it. I’m not sure if you use any bones in your demo reel for your dresses or coats, but if you do, I’d love to know how it works. Can cat bones be used to control hair splines? I need to see your demo reel again, my memory is a bit hazy, but I thought you may have done this, but I certainly could be wrong.

Question 4, both rigging and animation knowledge. :)

I have never been able to create a polished walkcycle with CAT, and the problem is always the knees. I always have a problem with getting the knee to bend nicely, and not pop or be clunky. Sometimes the knees look more like they are collapsing, like the back leg suddenly bends a lot after being in a nearly straight position, instead of gradually bending. I could never smooth that out.

Are there tips for this? I have tried raising and lowering the pelvis, adjusting the weight shift, the lift of the pelvis, etc etc, and I can improve it, but it’s never perfect. I always remember to have the knees pointing slightly forward in setup pose too, so I don’t know what is wrong with what I am doing. The last time I tried was with a female model in high heels. I’m not sure if there are special considerations to be made for the high heel foot/ankle position?

I feel that I could do a lot with CAT if I could create a polished walkcycle for any walk style I wanted. I wonder if you have had problems yourself creating walk cycles in the past and you know all of the pitfalls and their immediate solutions. If your tutorials were to show the typical problems and their solutions, they’d be very valuable to me. I have seen your old tutorials, they have been very helpful but the walkcycle examples were brief and don’t cover all of the problems I have come across.

I want to thank you very much in advance for wanting to take the time to make some tutorials. I’ve given a quick reply here for things that I can think of, off the top of my head, but I’m sure there’s more I’ll think of later. :)

3ds Max 2013, Windows 7 pro 64bit.
MSI NVidia GeForce GT240, 1GB DDR3 (Driver 286.19).
i7 2.93Ghz , 16Gb CORSAIR Vengeance RAM, DX9.0c.

you can use cat to animate whatever as long as the bones capture all the mesh. with hair splines. it would be better. to divide the hair into sections and use a strand of bones for each section

if interested I can show you some examples of bones mimicking cloth

with the foot try adjusting foot bend

Thanks for your detailed suggestions, MadViolinist! They are pretty much matching my plans.

I have another question to all of you:

6. Do you prefer learning scripting with CAT and/or Max or do you prefer using “ready-to-go” scripts?

Ideas from other users are very welcome!

My CAT demoreel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfq-4VoeAPU

I haven’t used any scripts for CAT so far, I’d love to know how scripting is used for CAT. I’d be interested to know what scripting you do for CAT, because I’m sure it would be very useful. It’d be great to learn how to script for CAT, again this would make your tutorials very valuable because I haven’t seen information like this in the usual tutorial places. Most CAT tutorials seem to be duplicates of what can be seen here at the Area’s tutorial section, which are good for getting beginners started.

I want to move on from there, to acheive the kind of quality that I can acheive with a bones rig. The only time I’ve acheived a smooth walkcycle with CAT is when I hand keyed the walk poses the old fashioned way, which took away much of what CAT was supposed to do in a fraction of the time.

I hope other people speak up with ideas for your tutorials, because it is a great opportunity for us all to learn more about CAT from someone with production experience, and we should take advantage of the opportunity while it is being offered. People have complained for a long time that there isn’t enough information about how to use CAT, beyond the basic tutorials.

3ds Max 2013, Windows 7 pro 64bit.
MSI NVidia GeForce GT240, 1GB DDR3 (Driver 286.19).
i7 2.93Ghz , 16Gb CORSAIR Vengeance RAM, DX9.0c.

Great initiative!
I would like to see some advanced animation. I feel that the rigging is shown quite well in previous tutorials. Also the simple animation and simple use of layers. Crank it up a notch.

How about animating a “typical” scene where two characters meet and interact with eachother, and also some objects.
Maybe a person walking up to a bike, then riding the bike, meeting another person who is lifting something up and throwing it away (maybe shoveling some dirt), that person decides to sit up on the back of the bike, and they both ride into the sunset.

Just thinking up a story top of my head here. This should answer many challenges with the animation in CAT.
For this you don’t need to use models. Just the CAT skeletons.
Maybe combine this with using some scripting if that could make this animation easier.

Edit:
so to sum up your questions:
1. Do you prefer written or video tutorials or both?
-- Preferably video with sound.

2. Do you wish beginner tutorials or advanced tutorials or a mixture between both?
-- advanced

3. Do you want to have tutorials about general functionality of CAT or more practical-oriented tutorials?
-- More practical-oriented

4. Do you need more rigging or animation knowledge?
-- more animation

5. Do you have any special wishes or ideas that you would like to be covered?
-- described above.

Thanks Gräck, i am very happy to hear you are making tutorials again, really I´ve using CAT in many projects but I don´t think I´m PRO, I don´t know anything scripting with CAT and others things

these are my answers

1. Do you prefer written or video tutorials or both?
Video

2. Do you wish beginner tutorials or advanced tutorials or a mixture between both?
Advanced

3. Do you want to have tutorials about general functionality of CAT or more practical-oriented tutorials?
practical-oriented tutorials

4. Do you need more rigging or animation knowledge?
Both

5. Do you have any special wishes or ideas that you would like to be covered?
Scripting with CAT

6. Do you prefer learning scripting with CAT and/or Max or do you prefer using “ready-to-go” scripts?
Both

Hey there,
Very nice to hear your offering more exquisite tutorials for people.

Most things have been said by the other users on this thread.

1. Do you prefer written or video tutorials or both?
Video tutorial with embedded sound would be very nice, you have a very clear English and a very good pace.

2. Do you wish beginner tutorials or advanced tutorials or a mixture between both?
I would definately prefer advanced, doc is very clear on the basics and very first steps.

3. Do you want to have tutorials about general functionality of CAT or more practical-oriented tutorials?
I would say both!

4. Do you need more rigging or animation knowledge?
I would say rigging without a doubt, focusing on extra bone with springs or other clothes,hair solvers on top of CAT controls.

5. Do you have any special wishes or ideas that you would like to be covered?
I would really appreciate a tutorial on animating the pivot footplatform or adding extra pivots on a CAT rig

THX a lot for your contribution!

Thanks to all for your suggestions! There are some interesting ideas. Keep’em coming! I will get back to you soon.

My CAT demoreel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfq-4VoeAPU

I was very busy the last months. This will continue, but I hope I will find some time to do this finally. It’s a never-ending story I guess. ;-) But as soon as I get into it, I’m sure you will be happy with the result.

The next days and weeks I’m going to find out if CAT in 2013 is ready for production. If yes, I’m going to use the latest Max version for video creation.

My current plan is to create video tutorials only. I want to put them on my site which doesn’t exist yet unfortunately. So you realize it’s more work than expected. I first need to create a website I’m happy with, then create video tutorials.

Please be patient, it’s a serious plan, but I can’t tell right now how long it will take.

My CAT demoreel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfq-4VoeAPU

Just tried CAT in 2013, and sadly, the Match IK and FK button is still screwed up!! its unbelievable that we still have to use 2011 for “serious” CAT work, i say “serious” because even in max2011 some of the main CAT features are broken...one has to find workarounds and workarounds to get it to work “OK"ish! :(