Flag

[Tango]

I have to animate a flag and I started playing with the "Flag" plug-in (v2). It's simple but after working with the many variables I feel like I can go at it a long time before I get what I need. Has anyone done a flag with this plug-in?

I would appreciate if someone could give me a better starting point than the default values, that would speed-up the process.

Thanks,

Christian

[RichardJoly]

Bonjour Christian!

Here is a little movie I made showing different flags values.

http://www.rdn.qc.ca/eias/Flag_References.mov

Attached is the Long Flag I made awhile back.

I hope it will steer you in the right direction.

EIAS_long_flag.zip

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Rick!!!

You are AMAZING!!!

Thanks

Tom

[Tango]

Bounjour Richard,

Yeah, Tomas is right, you are amazing. You earn the right to wear your super hero costume. This will definitely get me going in the right direction.

Thanks,

Christian

[JoeV]

Hi Richard, -- Great job! All plugins should come with a sampler like that.

[scott8933]

Richard,

Nice reference for Flag! Are you able to get it to render without the triangle problem when close up?

Christian,

One thing you always have to remember with Flag is that it requires a lot of pre-roll before settling into a steady state, and the pre-roll is cached separately between Camera and the Preview window.

I.E., you run the simulation in the preview window for say, 30 seconds. By then it should look like a nice Flag-Waving-In-Wind. Go to hit Render however, and Camera won't render the same frame. So when you find a look you're satisfied with in Preview, remember that you'll have to let Camera render just as many frames for it to get there - again usually about 20-30 seconds worth.

You'll have to start rendering from frame 1 to get there, so every time you do a Flag animation, take into account that you'll need a lot of pad at the head of your animation that will be getting thrown away.

If you plan on integrating a Flag into a bigger animation, you'll have to account for that - remembering that the pre-roll must be rendered for it to work. You can't start rendering 30 seconds in, since the simulation starts from the first rendered frame, and not the first keyframe in Project.

Also, unless its been fixed, Flag tends to get this weird "triangle" look when rendered. As if its not meshing enough or if the smoothing angle isn't set high enough. It looks fine at a distance - see Richard's example - but in close-up it won't look good enough for critical work. It helps to use a combination of Dicer and/or Encage on it, it also helps to use good (like actual photos) texture maps in the Diffuse, Bump, and Transmission channels. They won't fix the smoothing completely but will cover it up enough to sell it as a real flag.

Bonjour Christian!

Here is a little movie I made showing different flags values.

http://www.rdn.qc.ca/eias/Flag_References.mov

Attached is the Long Flag I made awhile back.

I hope it will steer you in the right direction.

[RichardJoly]

Thank you guys. If the simulation looks good at 20 sec, simply put -20 in "start time, s" in the plugin setup window. Also remember that subdivide none gives you a nicer mesh than subdivide 3 steps. I don't think the Flag plugin was ever intended for closeup shots and it is far more slower and complicated to control with a dense mesh. I never tried with Encage nor Dicer. SimCloth can also make nice flags and looks nice at close up.

[scott8933]

Hah, all these years I never noticed that "start time" setting before.

Thank you guys. If the simulation looks good at 20 sec, simply put -20 in "start time, s" in the plugin setup window. Also remember that subdivide none gives you a nicer mesh than subdivide 3 steps. I don't think the Flag plugin was ever intended for closeup shots and it is far more slower and complicated to control with a dense mesh. I never tried with Encage nor Dicer. SimCloth can also make nice flags and looks nice at close up.

[Ian]

Nice Rick, I think we should bundle that video with the download...

[RichardJoly]

:)

[Tango]

I needed to start full screen on the flag, I did get the triangulation and could not get rid of it in rendering. My work around was to render a larger white flag that I would blur and cut with the alpha channel of the right size render. Comp on top of it a render of the design printed on it and added a shadow pass. I think I allowed about 30 sec. of pre-roll.

It worked out fine. I will have to keep in mind the Dicer option. When you are under the gun, you make it work somehow.

I have attached a sample of the section of the animation with the flag.

Thanks again Richard.

Video_loRez_h264.mov

[RichardJoly]

:D

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Tango,

Worked fine.. :)

Thanks

Tom

[scott8933]

In one case, the odd triangulation thing worked out pretty well - I used it for the end graphic in the "Borat" trailer.