Matrix Squiddies

[ebok]

Anyone have any idea how they animated the sentinel/squiddy machines in "The Matrix". I'm just interested in the tenticles - Was in bones? soft body dynamics w/goals? clusters? combination of these? I know that the answer could probably fill a book but if someone has an idea they can state briefly that would be helpful. I'm trying to animate the flagella of bacteria, it's a similar kind of thing. What I have right now looks okay but it's not really inspiring.

Ebok

[mckena]

I haven't seen Matrix yet. But browsing yesterday I found this, see it (if you haven't already) :

http://www.angelfire.com/id/gncgi/matrixrenders.html

[nexus]

Not sure what they did for the squids in Matrix, but in Maya I've had good results with using IK spline chains for hair, whips, tails, etc.

||| Nexus Architechtron - Shapeshifter |||

[dave-stripinis]

dfilm did the little squiggles I believe.

[anthony-1]

A couple months back www.vfxpro.com had an article describing the FX in the Matrix.

       Tony

[tony-4]

It was done using Houdini and there's an article on SideEffects' website.
http://www.sidefx.com/
------->Look under Stories / Dfilm

And Thanks alot for the link McKena, the shots are great.

[tony-4]

You know, Rodney Iwashina of Manex Entertainment who was the Digital Visual Effects Supervisor for "The Matrix" said in the interview with VFXPro "The animation of the bio-mechanical creatures, (which) was all done in Maya..."
But according to the SideFX story, Dfilm apparently used Houdini for alot of their CG effects.
Whatever they used, they used it expertly...love to hear any more insight into the process.

[jtk77]

I just went to that anglefire html link ...well , I made sure I wrote it right . went to some weird site and had a million popups attack me ...so don't go to the anglefire link . whatever stuff was on it abou the matrix is definitly not on there now . I've been tring to animate on coil using shape deformations (three cycles up , mid down motion ) its sort of working but kind of does somthing all together different . bones is a better way , make on a control coil then make others that follow the "masters" animation . I think a script couls offset the others so that they don't look exactly like the master . But still experementing here . just wanted to warn people about the anglefire link from above .

[tony-4]

I just tried the AngleFire site an IT WORKS! on IE5- and no popups.

[jtk77]

wow , I tried it twice and I got some werid porn stuff and international dating ...mmm , I'll try again . Maybe I keep typing it wrong ?

----just to add on this , I guess it went somewhere werid befor , I copied and pasted the link and boom Matrix stuff . How crazy . ignore my last post .

[pete865]

I think it went something like this, Houdini was used
for the little bug thing that gets planted into Neo, and the mirror scene.
Then Sentinels, Nebuchadnezzer, Fetus field, Docbot were animated in maya,
and all the bullettime stuff was Softimage. Heres a link to the vfxpro
article, http://vfxpro.com/.getarticle/.846504189 heres an excerpt form
it,

combined some procedural and blend-shape animation with a lot of keyframe animation. The procedural and blend-shape animation were useful for animation timing and rough blocking, but keyframe animation was always needed to add the nuances and character that bring these creatures to life.

HTH

E

[jtk77]

has the matrix been in ciniefx mag yet ? haven't seen the new one lately . If anyone knows please post the issue number ! good to know I wasn't to far off with my shape deformation teniques . still not matix !! haha

[photon]

The Matrix is covered in the current issue (77 I think). Check it out at www.cinefex.com

[misha123]

I achieved some very nice results by setting up a spline IK, convering the spline to soft body and using a copy as a goal object. Setting goal weights in the component editor was a great help for fine tuning. Then I applied a drag field and a little turblulence. Now I am playing around with rigid bodies so that the tentacle can even collide
The animation is still in progress but if you have any questions feel free to contact me, maybe I can help you or you can help me

Lucid Vision Worx - Tom Lippitsch