Hasta La Motion!

We propose a motion planning and control framework to manipulate a large object, such as an IKEA chair frame, using multiple manipulators in closed-chain. For more details, see the accompanying paper https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.01650

Video depicting instances when the robotic team failed at IKEA chair assembly.
Credit: Francisco Suárez-Ruiz and Quang-Cuong Pham, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Chinese 70s analog ribbon control string synthesizer.
invent secretly by Tian Jin Qin / 田进勤 during the cultural revolution, The first prototype was completed in 1978.
clip from documentary movie “Dian Zi Qin / 电子琴” (1980).

Just only a few days earlier, we were appraised of Marvel’s “first family” Fantastic Four returning to the realms of comics as the publication announced new series on the superhero quartet on the horizon later this year.

Now to add more fuel to the fire, it’s official YouTube handle dropped a teaser that wouldn’t only leave the fans nostalgic, but also excited about what’s in store ahead.

The clip glides through various fight sequences in the history that sees each of Mr.Fantastic, Susan Storm, the Thing and Human Torch locked in a confrontation with many villains such as the Silver Surfer, Doctor Doom and so on, and also highlighting how the team was divided by a “tragedy” that led to the demise of the Fantastic Four.

But, as it’s written in the tin, legends never truly die and Marvel want to revive the superhero unit in that spirit to newer adventures and challenges in the upcoming comic series. However, a dark shaded snap of the ensemble team suggests there are two new members in the squad, for there are six of them flashing the ‘4’ crest on their chest!

One would have to wait till they get their hands to unravel the mystery, as Fantastic Four Return hits the stands everywhere in August, penned by Dan Slott and Sara Pichelli.

The post Marvel teases the return of Fantastic Four comics with a trailer appeared first on AnimationXpress.

This short Cinema 4D tutorial will show you how to use the OpenVDB Mesher in X-Particles 4 to create realistic liquid movement.

Let’s setup a quick fluid simulation in Cinema 4D using X-Particles 4. It’s a flash, because XP4 has a new xpEmitter and OpenVDB Mesher that makes things easy. Ready? Let’s get to it.

Creating Fluids with X-Particles 4 in Cinema 4D

Open up Cinema 4D with your copy of X-Particles installed. (If you don’t have Insydium’s X-Particles 4, you can license a copy in our store.)

Click on the X-Particles menu and select xpSystem. You can hit play and see that X-Particles 4 automatically adds an Emitter ready to go.

Select xpSystem and head down into the Generators and Objects menu. In the Dynamics dropdown, select FLIP Domain. This will make your particles start to behave like fluid. For added realism, you’ll want to add gravity.

With xpSystem still selected head to the Modifiers menu and click on the Motion Modifiers dropdown. Then select Gravity.

Now we want to add the new mesher to make our particles look like fluid. In xpSystem, head back down to Generators and Objects.

Click the Generator Objects dropdown and select OpenVDB Mesher. You have to have XP4 to have access to this tool. 

In the OpenVDB Mesher, pull your xpEmitter into your sources. Now, to clean this up we need way more particles.

Select xpEmitter and increase the Birthrate of your particles. In this example, I’m going to bump this up to 40,000.

Head back into the OpenVDB Mesher, and let’s adjust some settings for a better look.

Adjust to Voxel size to change the particle’s smoothness. Then adjust the Point Radius to adjust the size of the spheres.

Working with these two tools will give your more or less detail, depending on your settings.

In the Filters tab of the OpenVDB Mesher, you can stack filters to adjust the look. I’m gonna select Use Filters, which will give me a Median filter.

I’m going to add a Gaussian filter. If you adjust the width of the filter, you can get the particles smoother, but I don’t want to over do it. I don’t want to sacrifice smoothness over detail.

That will get you started with fluids in XP4. Keep playing around, like I do in this tutorial by adding shapes. Hope you found this helpful.

Want more on X-Particles? Head over to our tutorials page for a ton of free XP videos. If you are ready to take a deep dive, I also have to recommend the incredible Gorilla Guide to X-Particles with Jon Bosley. It’s a real master series that covers all things X-Particles, including a new XP4 appendix. There’s over 20 hours in professional training ready for you to stream.

The post A Quick Intro to Creating Realistic Fluids in X-Particles 4 appeared first on Greyscalegorilla.