#and to make it move u have to rig it and paint the weights or it fucks up and if u fuck up the constraints it also fucks up and there is a

[mira0000000-blog]

Touched blender again yey

[arcandoria]

joining the anons screaming at u for help hahahah ;] do u know any tutorial for adding physics to clothes/jewelry? i ran thru the whole modding wiki and found nothin

Hey anon! That's fine, I'm happy to help!

Both of these require the same thing: an existing item that sits and moves in the place you expect your custom mesh to be.

Adding physics to garments is limited because most of the NPC clothes use something called Cloth Proxy, which is not a system we have yet cracked to use.

For example, you can't have a jacket that dangles like River's because his jacket is a proxy mesh instead of a rig mesh.

You could, however, base a garment on Judy's overalls because the belt dangle has a rig and animgraph. This however limits you to having a garment/item on the legs, as it'd need to follow the general area of the original dangle - all you'd need is steal weights from it, as you would when handling a regular mesh re-weight without dangles.

Jewelry on the other hand has dozens of different rigs and dangles. I'll give an example with Farren's necklace, which uses Alt's physics.

As you can see, the first step is finding something in game that sits and moves like how you want your mesh to. Some have stronger movement in physics, others don't, and more often than not you have to try multiple meshes to find the one that works for you.

The easiest way to know if a mesh has physics is just to check in its folder if there is a .rig and .animgraph component with it. Items with physics also generally have bones that start with dyng, which you can check in the boneNames entry on WolvenKit:

Then it'll be just like a regular weight stealing process. Pop both meshes in Blender (you don't need to export the dangle entries), make sure your desired mesh is now using the rig of the transfer mesh, and that it sits roughly in the same spot so weight stealing is accurate.

Alt's Necklace:

Farren's Necklace:

I'm not gonna show how to weight transfer, but it's the exact same process of regular clothing/items. You do, however, sometimes need to do some manual painting in the dyng bones just to ensure the mesh won't break when dangling.

Good dangle dyng:

Bad dangle dyng:

After you have your mesh re-weighted, materials fixed, etc etc, you'll need to decide if that's going to be directly into a NPV/NPC+ or an ArchiveXL item. There is no way to simply make a mesh replacer for one of V's clothes because they don't have the means to reach the physics .rig and .animgraph. (At least, I don't recall so.)

For NPV/NPC+, all you need to do is path your jewelry into a regular component, and then its .rig and .animgraph on an animated entry.

You can custom path these if you want, I normally don't because nowadays rarely a mod will go poking into a NPC's dangle skeleton.

For ArchiveXL, you'll be pathing the dangle into an animated component entry of your garment's .ent.

After that, it's a matter of testing!

If the mesh promptly collapses into the floor when you equip/load it, then it's not reaching the rig and/or animgraph, or wasn't weighted properly, or might be in the wrong rig.

Hope that helps!

[dejilmcabrough]

Akira’s POV

I heard that after the hero defeated the calamity, he went rogue. I also heard he went and left Hateno to go to the faron province to worship the Zonai? My job after awakening from my 118 years of slumber is to bring him back. WOW, I’m Zelda’s older sister, why am I having to prove I am “good enough”. They didn’t even give me new clothes. 

I rode my black steed Hocus. Well the descendant of him. God it’s hot. I wipe sweat off my forehead. We crossed a bridge, I slowed him down. I hear rustling. Suddenly feeling a pain and a jolt, I feel my body hit the dirt ground. I open my eyes while gasping for breath, I see sharp blue eyes pierce through mine. My breath hitched in my throat. 

Link. It’s the hero of legend. The blonde pulled me up by my hair. “Ow, ow ow, that hurts!” I cried as he grabbed the reins of my horse and he made me get up off the ground. He pushed me in front of him and told me with a raspy breath, “move.” 

I start to walk and I ask, “where are we going?” Silence. He said nothing. We go through a gate to a cave. He pushed me to the ground and my hands were cut open from the rugged ground. I hiss from the pain. 

His sharp voice asked where I came from. “Did you come from the Castle?” He spit. “y-yes..I’m the first daughter of the Hylian royal family..Akira..” “They don’t have another daughter, the only one is Zelda.” He snarled. God he is horrifying. 

“I am the first daughter. I am 118 years old and I will not be treated this way by you.” I snarled back as I got off the ground. My grey royal dress was tattered. “I just woke up from the coma, and the first thing I had to do was come get you.” I sighed. He looked at me like I had two heads. 

He glared at me with intense daggers. “I’m not here to take you back, I know just how bad the hylians are.” I patted my legs off and looked up at him.  He stayed silent. “Even though I was born an abomination, I actually have full sheikah blood.” I unzipped my dress a little from the back. I showed him the thick black tattoo that was on my shoulders. It was the Sheikah eye.

He reached out and skimmed the tattoo with his finger tips. “I see..” Link straightened up and nodded. “I understand, so you won’t try to make me go back?” I nodded slightly. Then he looked guilty. “Sorry for pulling your hair and pushing you on the ground..” He looked embarrassed. “It’s okay I would have done something similar if someone tried to make me leave” I laugh. 

1

Link then told me to follow him. Hesitantly, I follow him down into the dark cave. The blonde led me to a large room with potions, water and all sorts of survival things. He tells me to sit down while he rummages through some jars. I sit down carefully and wince at my hands. 

He then sat down beside me. “Give me your hands.” He demanded and I gave him them. He opened a jar with pink cream looking stuff. “It’s an elixir, but I tweaked it to be a cream.” The boy looked intently down at my red smeared palms. He skimmed over them, remembering every cut he created. 

I sucked in my breath when he applied the pink stuff. The scent of petals invaded my nostrils. The cream was chilly and so I winced. Seeing my reaction, he softly blows on the cuts. He thought it was hurting. Why did…

I blushed awkwardly. He finished applying the petal scented stuff. “...what is this stuff made of?” Sharply he said, “Fairy Tonic, I had put fairies in a cook pot and made the perfect elixir out of it.” I sweatdrop. The blonde looked up and laughed at my reaction. “It’s true though” He commented. 

 I watch the cuts disappear and look up with a beaming smile. “Thanks for healing me,” he smiles back. “No problem” he says shortly. Then he waited a moment before talking again. “You’re not so bad, Akira.” “You’re not as bad as I originally thought either” I laugh while I trace over my palm. He looked away. “I’m glad you’re not a snotty princess that tells me what to do when all i’m doing is protecting you” He laughs, then went silent. 

“Are you okay?” I ask while putting my hand on his shoulder. “Yeah I’m fine, thanks.” He sharply replies. His sapphire eyes dart down to the ground. I feel extremely awkward. He takes his skull helmet off and sits it on the ground beside him. Then he raked his hand through his hair. His hair was so long. 

I then scoot closer. “Can I braid your hair?” I ask weary. He nods and I stand up, moving behind him. I softly raked my hands through his blonde hair. I assumed his hair would be at least a little dirty, but his hair is clean and a pretty golden color. I slowly braid his long soft hair and as soon as I finish the braid, I ask for a piece of lace. He hands me a lace piece and I tie it around his hair. 

2

He looked up at me and I smiled. “I’m done, it looks really good!” He then hands me a...Sheikah slate… “take a picture so i can see” He responds. I nod, then ask where the picture thing was. He turned and pointed at this icon. I nod. 

I opened the icon and it made a noise that startled me. I zoomed onto his hair and took a clear realistic picture of his braid. “Here Link!” I give it to him, and he intently looks at the picture. “Good job Akira, it’s perfect” He looked up at me and beamed with his toothy grin. 

I blush at his cute face. I then  look down at myself subconsciously. I am a literal hot mess. He looks down at what I'm looking at. “What?” He asks curiously. “Sorry, i just noticed how much of a mess I am” I laugh nervously. He nods slowly. “Here” He stands up quickly. He digs through a bag and pulls out an outfit that is a little revealing. 

He pulled me up and handed me the outfit. “There’s a spring farther back into the cave, you can bathe there” He smiles. “Well, Is there a soap I can use?” I inquired. He nodded and said it was already there. “I can show you there if you want” He shrugged. I say that would be perfect. He took my hand and led me to the spring. It was dim, and the water was a beautiful shade of blue. It was glowing like foxfire mushrooms. 

“Thank you Link, you can go now..” I say. He lets go of my hand and walks back the other direction. “See you when you’re done, Akira” He waved. I waited until he’s completely gone and took my tattered clothes off. I walked into the spring and it was warm. The soap was on the edge of the pool. 

I wash up and soak for a while. As soon as I was done, I rinsed myself and dried off. Tip toeing over the clothes, I pick them up. No wonder they looked revealing, They were also Barbarian clothes. I put them on and they were a perfect fit. 

I put on the shoes and picked up my clothes that were 101 YEARS OLD. I walked out of the spring room and saw Link picking up stuff around the cave. I call and he looks up. He sets a bunch of random stuff in the corner. “It suits you very well,” He commented. His face seemed more pink than normal. 

“Well, uh I can braid your hair too” He said as he grabbed a wooden comb from the pile. I nodded. Link sat me down on clothes and sat behind me. The boy gently combed my hair straight and he fishtailed my hair. “How can you do that, Link?” I asked curiously. “My mother taught me before the calamity” He responded. 

3

He took a picture of it as well and showed me. “It looks so much better than my braid..” I say flabbergasted. He chuckles. Then he looked rigged. “What's w-” “Do you want paint on too?” He interrupted me looking interested. “I guess, what colors do you have?” I ask looking back at him. “Any color you’d like” He replied. 

“I would like a purple color, kinda like yours” She said as she looked at his markings. “I see” He said as he stood up AGAIN and said while blending paint, “i think a more vibrant purple color will suit your skin tone” He mixed some blue, red with already existing purple making it more purple. 

He walked over with a jar full of paint. “First I'll go from your face, down ok?” he asked while he dipped his fingers into the jar. “Okay” I say while feeling butterflies in my stomach. He stares intently at my cheeks as he presses his cold painted finger on parts of my face. “As soon as I’m done, I'll show you on the reflecting glass” I nod, as his hands trail from my chin to my neck. 

He made three dots on my shoulders and re-dipped his finger into the jar.  He drew some lines and circles on my arms and a small triangle on the top of my wrist. Then he repeated onto the other arm. Then he made a swirl on my stomach just above my belly button. I blush at the touch. “Turn around” He said while making more purple lines on my body. 

I turn around and he makes a nice hum sound. “Your actual tattoo is so detailed, is it like a birthmark or..” I nod. “Yeah it’s a birthmark, everyone thought it was so weird it was there when I was born, since I was apparently 100% Hylian” I giggle. 

Link then makes some more symbols on my back, but I don't know what they are. “Stand up and turn around again” I do as he says and he puts paint on my thighs. They were lines and circles. 

“I think you’re done, Akira” He says as he wipes his stained hand on a cloth on the ground. “Okay, can I see?” I asked curiously. “Yeah follow me” He said. I followed him like a lost puppy until We were in front of a reflection. We looked like we were fixing to burn down a village. “Here I forgot something” He disappeared and appeared again a few minutes later with a helm. 

It was a cat skull with red braids and tribal ornaments. “It’s lovely,” I say as he puts it on my head. “It suits you very well, Akira” He smiles at me through the reflection. 

4

“Should we go find something to eat?” Link asked as he took my hand and dragged me outside. “Well I guess I'm hungry” I say as I look around. “What are you thinking, big guy?” I ask as I skim the jungle. “Birds, deer, squirrels..Anything” He said as he equipped himself with a bow and an axe. “What should I use?” I ask while I pet my horse. 

“Here is a dagger and light weighted bow, it's ok if you break either of those though” He said as he handed me the weapons. “..okay, so what do I use on what?” I asked. It dawned on him. “You don’t know how to use weapons huh?” I smiled. “Nope!” I said as I sheathed my dagger. 

Link hopped on my horse and lended me hand to get up on there as well. I took his hand and sat in front of him. I had one hand on the rein and one of the saddle pommel. Link grabbed the opposite side of the rein, and his other hand rested on my hip. I went a little ridged. I tapped Hocus’s sides with my feet stirrup. “Okay we are going to an area that is peaceful, so we can ruin the lives of animals! HAH'' He laughed maniacally. 

-TIME SKIP AFTER THE HUNTING SHENANIGANS-

I held all the bird eggs and Link lugged the deer bodies and bird bodies, onto Hocus, before letting him carry it back. “You are literally so weird Akira” Link laughed remembering what she did twenty mins later. “Sorry I threw a bird at you Link, I thought you were gonna shoot it” She giggled. 

“You threw it in my face Akira!” he yelled, chuckling afterward. “Well how was I supposed to know my strength!” I yelled back laughing. Link and I walked beside Hocus. We walked to the cave, before Link grabbed the meat off of the horse before going into the cave. After gently setting down the raw meat, I pulled out a few carrots for Hocus. “Be right back!” I yelled. 

I greet Hocus and pet him. He neighs with delight before searching me for food. I give him the carrot laughing. 

[blookmallow]

whats up i entered a story contest

ive been wanting to write short horror stories for Ages but never really had a solid concept 

our local bookshop is having a story contest, so i figure now’s as good a time as any to give it a shot. contest results aren’t out yet but i wanted to share it 

the only set rule was that it had to be within 1200 words

and so, i present to u: 

Sal

-----

I need you to understand, I didn’t do it.

They’re coming for me. Someone has to know the truth.

They’re not going to believe me, but maybe they’ll believe you – please… please tell them.

Tell everyone. Or at least… make sure it doesn’t happen again.

I never meant– I didn’t. I didn’t. Somehow, somehow, it was… her.

Let me start from the beginning.

When I was a kid, we always used to go to this one amusement park, Clown Town or something like that, really ancient, run-down kinda place, but you don’t notice that when you’re a kid. Everything is all bright shiny colors and lights, you’ve got pockets full of arcade tokens, cotton candy in your bloodstream, and it doesn’t really matter if the roller coaster squeals on the turns, and the paint’s peeling off all the sun-faded signs, and you know the carnival games are all rigged but you always play them anyway. Because you’re ten years old and it’s the best day of your life. You’re gonna scream yourself hoarse on every ride and eat sugar until you feel it buzzing in your skull, no school, no homework, nothing but saltwater taffy and cheap bright-neon plastic toys you suddenly want more than anything in the world.

But there was… one thing about that park I hated, and I mean hated.

Her name was Laffing Sal. She was this massive animatronic woman, towering over you with a huge red gap-toothed grin plastered across her squashed face, her hulking torso convulsing with shrieking laughter all day long, her thick hands flailing in the air… the whole thing was just… grotesque, wrong. I thought she was supposed to stop but couldn’t, trapped forever in a sickening fit of hysterics, waiting for the day her body would finally just fall to pieces.

I actually used to have nightmares about this thing, all the time. But then, sometime after we moved, the old park shut down, some health code violation scandal or something, I never got the details. I thought I’d never see Sal again.

That is… until she came back.

Ten years later, a traveling carnival rolled into town. Some friends invited me along to come check it out. I’m a little old for carnivals now, but I was looking forward to it. I had almost forgot all about Sal, until… I heard it. That horrible, mocking, shrieking laughter. Before I even saw where it was coming from, I knew it was her, and my heart splashed down into my stomach. Twenty-four years old, and I was paralyzed, hit smack in the face with fight-or-flight terror in an instant. For half a crazed second I thought she was coming after me, like she’d followed me, chased me all the way here. My friends just laughed, joked about how creepy she was. No one else seemed to be affected by her like I was. They laughed it off while I stood far off in the corner, frozen, unable to look away from that monstrous face.

…So, there she was. Kept up in a case as part of some funhouse history display, still laughing just like she always did. I didn’t look at the signs – didn’t want to get any closer – but somehow, I knew it was her. The same Sal that terrorized me as a kid. She found me.

That night, I had the nightmare again for the first time in years. Thousands of her, surrounding me, looming out of the dark, laughing, laughing. The next night, it was the same thing. And the next. And the next. It went on for the whole week before I couldn’t take it anymore.

I had to get rid of her.

I snuck out late, shivering in the night air, and jumped the fence into the deserted carnival. Hidden in my backpack was the biggest, heaviest hammer I could find in my dad’s workshop. I could feel the weight of it against my back as I crept quietly into the carnival, feeling positive I was going to run into a security guard any second – but there was no one around. The tents and food stalls were all shut up for the night, shades drawn over the counters, lights out, the excited commotion of the day dissipated like mist, leaving nothing but empty walkways and the vague hints of saccharine scent still lingering in the air like cotton-candy ghosts. The huge painted face of the entrance sign clown stared down at me. All I wanted to do was run home, forget this insane revenge mission, get out of here before I was caught – but I knew what I had to do.

As I came closer, I realized I couldn’t hear her laughing now. Maybe they do turn her off at night, thank God – the thought of her still laughing her hideous curly head off all through the night, standing there in the dark all by herself, had haunted me for years.

I took the hammer from my bag, swinging it through the air, steadying myself. I was ready.

But when I turned the corner, the ground was sparkling with shattered glass.

The display case was destroyed, and Sal was… gone.

Was it possible someone else broke in and stole her? On the very same night I came to destroy her myself?

It wasn’t possible. I stared for ages at the glass, the hole, the empty case, trying to figure what could have happened, until…

Kk-thump. Kk-thump.

Echoes of coarse laughter, bouncing off the walls, coming closer.

I whirled around in a sudden blind panic, and there, heavy wooden feet clunking and scraping against the pavement, was Sal, slowly lurching by.  

My mind reeled with ice-water terror, suddenly boiling into righteous fury. It was just me and her and I was the only one who knew, I knew, I knew what she really was and I was the only one who could stop her, must stop her, flew at her with a panicked scream and a heavy cast-iron hammer, and – SMASH.

Her face shattered, falling all to pieces, her shrill, hideous laughter growing louder, distorting, shrieking, screaming, screaming, she was dying, she was falling to the ground, her smashed face a pool of – …

My hands were soaked with… something hot, dark and viscous… I ran. I ran until I had no breath left in me, my throat torn ragged and raw, and… somehow, I was home, desperately scrubbing red out of my skin, throwing stained clothes under the bed hoping to burn them later, sobbing.

She shouldn’t bleed, she shouldn’t bleed, WHY did she bleed?

In the news the next morning, the body of an elderly woman was found brutally murdered on the pavement at the carnival. Her skull smashed in with a hammer. Sal, back in her case, untouched, exactly as she was. No shattered glass. Just a dead woman on the ground.

I know what I saw. I know what I did. I destroyed a carnival automaton, a… monster, a thing. I didn’t kill anyone. I know what I did, and I’m telling you – there was no old woman.

There was only her.

At least in prison I won’t hear her laughing anymore.

[qvoixcc]

s4 tutorial: how to fix this problem from clothing meshes

I have absolutely no idea what this issue is called, weight paint? vertex group? spikes? idk, but i think they’re related one way or another.. probably. ok enough rambling. so you’ve made your mesh, everything is perfect but something like this happens. sample ⬇️⬇️⬇️ (second photo is much more common) - in ingame poses/cas/or when your sim moves it’ll appear as if a certain part of the mesh.. looks like that. (I got lazy on opening my game so I’m showing these samples on blender instead but I’m sure you guys get the point)

⬆️⬆️⬆️ when the sim moves their arm/hand in game/cas, that spikey part of the mesh will move along as well, and when u pose, it’ll show as well. same for this below, when your sim raises their arms, their pits area will look spikey cos of the clothing mesh. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

in a way, i guess the problem is something like you’ve got a bit of extra paint part for certain groups that shouldn’t have any to begin with?? sorry, i’m horrible with putting my thoughts to words, let alone sentences. but anyway, additional info on viewing your mesh on the 3d window (which basically is the area your mesh is in):

numpad 5: to toggle perspective/orthographic view

numpad 1: front view

numpad 7: top view

numpad 3: side view

ctrl+alt+Q: quad view

ok lets start~!

ok so first things first; click on your RIG on the right panel and toggle on the eye/cursor view for your RIG.

while you’re still in pose mode; R key to rotate the arms, left click to set it in that pose position. (you’ll be able to immediately see the issue if there’s any like sample 1/2) - i apparently took this screenie before the error ones.

method also works the same for outfit, bottom, etcetc meshes

next step, select your s4studio_mesh_x on the right panel and then go into weight paint mode.

Z Key to toggle solid/wireframe mode; this might help with the weight-painting but again, totally up to you, whichever works for you.

on the right panel, check on each of your vertex groups to see if there’s any mistake (you can either click on each one of them or with your cursor hovered over that box, press your up/down arrow keys on your keyboard) ----------

Example 1: originally, the weight for R_index0_ is suppose to only happen on the hand part, not the other part as it will cause issues such as these when your sim moves in game/cas.

ok so on the tools panel > brush (left panel) ➡️ ADD brush: to add weight ➡️ SUBTRACT brush: to remove weight

Important!! ➡️ NOTE: for additional info on how the colors work on weight paint; please read this as it has a much more detailed info to help u guys understand how things work around weight paint mode >> link

to fix these issues, use the subtract brush and paint over ONLY the parts that aren’t suppose to be there, not the entirely thing ok!! (for my case, it’s the bottom of the.. top mesh part that’s not wanted)

same method applies for if u see your mesh looking rather ‘flatten’ or something, u use the ADD brush to add some weight onto it. but again, please refer to the weight paint info i linked for more info on how it works.

when you’re done, click on the RIG again (on the right panel) and press A to select all the dots. You’ll know it’s being selected once all the dots are blue.

Press ALT+R to reset the pose position to the default position.

ok, so once you’ve done that, toggle off the eye/cursor view again by clicking on it and go back into object mode. and that’s pretty much it.

save as (make sure it’s save as cos it’ll save ya the trouble & time if something does go wrong) then import to sims4studio. ----------

ok now for the second example. again, same method as example one BUT this time, instead of R_index0_ (again these things varies from whatever mesh you’re working with) select b_R_shouldertwist / b_L_shouldertwist

so yes, like I said, left for left; right for right. meaning when you’re working with b_L_shouldertwist, you’re going to paint/fix the left part only, and when you have b_R_shouldertwist selected, you work on the right part.

another note: you can also change the brush size, weight and strength of how it’ll effect your mesh on the left panel. but again, please check with this link to learn more about how weight-painting works.

remember to save as so that you will not lost your original file in case something messes up, you can always go back to the original.

also, im not an expert; still learning, this is apparently how i fix my meshes so... ya. aight that’s it, hopefully all this makes sense; happy simming~!

[animalpipline]

Animation Project FMP

Lukas Pilipas

link for mine final animation:

https://youtu.be/SM7KQt7xO_I

Research and Progress

For mine FMP in the beginning mine mine final project support to be animation of girl and boy friendship because and struggle between them because on of them is made from fire and another is made from ice. But having talks with mine teachers I evolved mine work. One of main things what I wanted to focus was facial expression and how to make as realistic human as possible for the technology we have nowadays and the skills I have learn during mine period of study.

Modelling 

So I started to research first of what kind of person I wanted to create. I chose to make the women character I was looking in. I chose to make Asian girl as mine main character for mine FMP. 

Then I find the facial structure I want to use for mine main character then I started to think witch programs I will use for this project. I chose to create her first in zbrush to get the maximum details possible I can so I started to model her 

I was trying to sculpture as best as possible and from sculpturing I wanted to get the maximum details possible I can for example I was sculpturing the eyes of her, by masking mash of eyes and adding more details I can.

Then I finished modelling her in brush I started to work in Maya, first I wanted to retopo her but then I learned what u can low poly counts in the brush and its still keeps a lot of details of character, so by decreasing poly count and projecting on top of low poly mash the hight poly mash I kept a lot of final details of the model. But I did not know what later on I will have the problem of uv it properly and it will be hard to texturing that kind of topology mash. as swell it will be harder to animated because it will have. 

by fixing her in Maya I started to think to add some unrealistic things, so I decided to make her a horns who will holds 5 different planet of our solar system. It added the more confusing look on her what in the end people who will watch mine animation will have that weird feeling of looking in human but with some fantasy elements.

Rigging

Then I finished modelling her I started to think about what I will do with rigging I tho is really will be difficult for me to rig the character. So I ask help from mine teachers what they will suggest me to use for facial rig. I did not wanted to use blend shape one of mine teachers offered to me to try “clone” the program who picks points by camera and connect to mash and moving point later on u will animated ur character unfortunately that program was not free and plus swell the program running only on the windows machine so I possibly could not use it because I using Mac laptop for mine studies. then I found the program is Maya plugging for animation then u picking points and its automaticly rigging ur character unfortunately I tried like several times with different setup and it didn't work on mine this is a picture of the system what I was trying to run.

In the end non of them was working so I decided to do normal rigging with controls so I chose to pick the best point of mash where I will add the bones and controls to rig the character.

So by manually rigging the character I use simply just nurbs exactly on the top of bones I created so it will be easier for me to understand witch curbs controls with bone. Also I clean all curbs to have 0 translation so any time I want to come back to the original position I could just reset the whole translations and It will come back to beginning. because mine mash was symmetrical so I was waiting one side of the mash and copy weight paint on another side so all mash will move perfectly from both sides.

Xgen

Xgen is the hair system in Maya there u can create realistic human hair or any kind of hair u want to created I was working a lot with this part of mine work because I never used it before and was really hard and took me a lot of time and experimentation doing it in the beginning I was creating xgen interactive groomer, is type of hair there you only need apply the lenth on it and they will appear according to your mash and only thing what u will need to do it to make them the shape you want to be. But at that time I run to the problem I could not find the way how to make mine mash to collision with hair so each time I try animate the scene with that hair they did not work they was running like they wanted and keep crashing for me.

It was first hair I created for her. after I learned what you can created guides who will guide the hair in specific way u want them to be so I started to work with them it took me a lot of time to understand how its working and how to make the hair realistic by applying noises on hair coils to make them not all the same sizes. in the end I was really happy with what kind of facial hair I came up with 

texturing

With texturing I had a problems it was never mine focus during this degree so I never learned how to do it in proper way and on top of that in the end mine license of student version of substance painter was canceled and they did not fix it in the end. for planet I used the textures  

and for the horns of the character 

this is all the textures I try doing with her horns 

[threanimalpath]

Project Gladiator

Lukas Pilipas

Rigger/animator 

link of animation: 

https://youtu.be/Fq8O-VKhiZc

I N T R O D U C T I O N

We are three guys group who decided to create short animation there is focus of fight scene.  We was looking for inspiration most from Japanese anime suck as “Attack On Titan” “League of Legends” “beatless”. we wanted to focus into sharp camera angles and make animation realistic but also stylised.

S P E C I A L I S T S 

Jibraeel M. - Character Modeller.

Lukas P. - Character Rigger, Animator.

Liam G - Art Director, Environment Modeller, Texture Artist

P L A N  A N D  T I M I N G 

Then we received our brief and we made our group we made meeting there we made our time table of how our animation work will float. Firstly concept art we. was decided give it first free weeks. Then we have concept art we have two month from that day to complete models of character texture and environment. Then we have each modeller the person will start riggings and wight paining. Then we have two month for animating and left two month will be for post production. We was deciding with roles we would like to focus and what main focus of each of us will be and how we would deliver best work in the end of this group work so our specialists is.

T I M E  T A B L E

concept art

Proposed - Sept 23/19 - Oct 18/19

Actual - sept 23/19 - Nov 1/19

Character Modelling

Proposed - Oct 18/19 - Dec 18/19

Actual - Nov 1/19 - Dec 19/19

Environment Modelling

Proposed - Nov 1/19 - Feb 29/20

Actual - Nov 1/19 - Mar 15/20

Character and Environment Texturing

Proposed Dec - 18/19 - Feb 29/20

Actual Dec - 15/19 - Mar 29/20

Animation

Proposed - Dec 18/19 - Feb 29/20

Actual Feb 10/20 - May 4/2

M Y  S P E C I A L I S M

A N I M A T O R  A N D  R I G G E R

As a Animator I need to look and talk with art director and modellers about how character will move and help make final decisions about character and how in the end they will move. I decided to human rig the character and then weight pain and all work I will do in Maya. as I started to think about animation and how I would like to look I started to look for inspiration and I found what I most likely would want to do something like in Japanese 2d anime movies or series. So I started to look how I could put that animation feeling like in 2d animation. then by researching I found out what one of main reasons why the anime looks have that look is because they using sharp camera shots

by the group deadlines I will receive mine first character at 14 of November then I will start rigging and start to animate the scenes and look how the cameras should move and there they should be place for each of camera I would like to have and with angles they will have.

RIGGING

As I got character I started to rig them. Probably rigging was the most hard part of mine role. I received a lot of complicated task. then I started rigging Nia (female gladiator). Nia was the character who was separated all armour pieces to make the rigging easier unfortunately that was not easier as I expexted because she was in so many different mashes is was hard to find the way how to connect all of them with weight painting so I was really confusing. then first time I try to bond rig with mash some parts was moving out of the space they should be so I try to fix it as possible but I could not find why is happening that. Then I try to find in internet or something like this happening to another people and I find what sometimes mash was not freeze transform and that's why then you rigging it, its moving out of shapes, so I try to freeze transform and its helped out until you move character in animation bar. then those parts then again in same position what was not correct. So by trying a lot of ways how to fix the problem I have mine personal and group deadlines was running out of time. So I just started to find a way how to make weight paining as good as possible to work with character mashes I have.

Crane(male gladiator) his weight painting was a bit different then Nia.His body and arms was not simetrical as another character so I needed weight paint him each body side separated to make as best outcome I can. In the end they moved corectly and I started animation.

This picture shows the problem I had.

A N I M A T I O N 

then I finished rigging I started animate. In the end I realise what length of animation we chose to make is was to long and complicated then I expected to be. So I shorted it for that I was expecting will be the best I can do. As story of animation was not really any of our focus in this project so. While I was doing this animation I learn a lot of new skills what before I did not know. going from how each your character effect another person and timing the distances between each of them, and movement of fight scene. I learn Aswell how to make by frame time wrap to slow don't or speed up your animation so its gives that felling where person need to focus while watching mine animation. how human body must to move and prepare for the action. 

S T O R Y B O A R D  A R T I S T

So as also a story writer I did not had a lot of struggle to do it. I been watching a lot of anime and moves so imagination of story writing. So we need to make short animation but the animation must to have story behind it also so then I was watching video from “League of legends- awaken” music video its linked below I so scene there they fight in the coliseum and they was gladiators. So I wanted to created something similar to the video I saw so I made the the story board.

all story is takes us to futuristic world. taking realistic but also stylise style of art. The story is about two main characters who will be in love with each other a and the main character Crane will be in love with Nia they will be force to fight agains each other in the coliseum for freedom but in change of that one of them   must to die. 

as animation starts we will see the main character walking and seeing the coliseum already destroyed from age have passed. but he still remembers what happened inside of it. and we will move to his memory of the day he was forced to fight agains Nia.

In the end of animation Nia decide what she don't want to kill him and live without him having freedom. She choose to let her weapon go and Crane will kill her.

Unfortunately I could not managed to finish all the story what we planed to make in the first place of animation as we plane. So I made the animation shorter and made just part of the fight scene witch one I was thinking will look the best.

C O N C L U S I O N

Mine conclusion would be this task what we was given was hard to complete and working in team who have different roles in the project made us realise how important each of us in the group are and how difficult is to sometimes work with people and we need to learn the way to work it out. In the end we learn a lot about team work and helping your teammates with technical issues they had and try to support each other. This task teach us a lot about work what we will do in the companies we planing to work  after graduating and teach us a lot of individual skill of specific roles we chose  I really happy about the team and how we worked together.

R E S E A R C H

Research for animation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF5Ddo9JdpY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB8TyLTD7EE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXtFlunjuMc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP4Z8h3VFE8&t=120s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlwrdQscU6M

research for music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rviXy-7zMgQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SssT8ujxxA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_NeZj3RSQg

[rachelknight-animationpractice]

Evaluation

I thought my animation turned out well as I feel it flows nicely and turned out how I wanted it to. I think that what happens in the story is clear and allows children to understand what has happened to the Elephant and lets them know that these animals are in danger. I had trouble with some of the animating as it became difficult to move the character without the character completely changing shape, this is most likely due to the weight painting. When I tried to resolve this issue, nothing changed and therefore in the bit where the lion walks at the end, I had to move the legs so that it looked like he was walking on the spot but move the environment so that it looked like he was moving forward. If I was to do this animation again, I would download a weight painting plugin for Maya so that I can get a higher quality weight paint and would ideally not have this same problem. The weight painting also became a slight issue when moving the arms and legs, however this was an easier fix.

I also had an issue with the eyes. In ZBrush, I made the eye balls separate to the rest of the body as I wanted them to move around. In Maya, I had to recreate the eyes so that the texture that I made could be applied to the eye balls and so the Arnold material could make them look shiny. I did this by simply deleting the original eyes and replacing them with spheres in Maya. However, when I tried to parent them to the rig, it would not work and therefore had to have the separate to the body and move them around with the rest of the body. This did not work as well as I thought it would has it was hard to get them in the same place each time. This means the eyes look as though they vibrate almost in the animation. If I was to recreate this animation, I would take more time to find solutions to this or re-rig or re-model the character in a way that would allow me to connect the eyes to the rest of the character so that the final animation looks a lot more professional. This affected the Lion more than the Elephant as the Lion had the most movement.

When rigging the character, I had difficulty using the quick-rig as the characters are not very simple due to them having trunks and tails, the characters also are not in a T or A pose which made things a little more difficult as well. Due to this, I had to make the skeleton myself by making and parenting the bones. This was actually a lot more straight forward than I thought it would be as it was quite easy to make the bones and move them to the right place so that it formed a body. Although a quick-rig may have been more accurate than the skeleton I created, I am happy with how it turned out as it worked well and still allowed me to move the characters the way I wanted to.

When making my animation, I started to realise that it might be considered a bit dark or sad for the age range it is aimed for. The main reason I chose to not show what happens to the elephant was so it was not too graphic for children and be more education rather than scary. I looked at other animations aimed at this age range that provided me with some reassurance that my animation is still age appropriate. For Example, In Bambi, the mother deer is killed off screen, in a similar way to how I have done my animation. This is a very sad part of the film, but is still included in an animation that has been rated “U” which means it is suitable for all ages. The Lion King can also be used as an example of this. In the film Mufasa if shown being thrown off a cliff and is even shown lying dead while Simba tries to wake him up. The Lion King is also rated a “U” and therefore is considered suitable for young children even though it includes a tragic scene like this. Therefore, although my animation could be considered fairly sad or dark, it is still suitable for the 5-11 age range it has been aimed for as there are many animations for young children that have shown things similar, if not worse, that have still been considered suitable for children and not too scary or graphic.

Overall, I think my animation works well and gets across the point that these animals are endangered and must be protected. If I were to re-do or add to the animation, I think I would make it a bit more informative and playful so that the children can find out more facts about why the animals are endangered and have fun watching it. However, this would be quite difficult to do without scaring the children watching. This is why I had the lion say they had TAKEN his friend, rather than KILLED, so that it was cushioned a bit while also putting forward the message. I think the animation flows quite well and I was able to overcome quite a few obstacles considering this was my first time using Maya properly.

(912 words)

[fncpractice]

Seal and Bear animation

creating characters 

at first I actually did not even did mood board or story board. I just chose which animals I would like to do and I just then in brush and started to make them. of course in mid way I just got tired and lost so I desisted to  drawings of the them and how they look so I started to draw a bit then I finished I started to work on it in 3d programs

so then I finally finished my character drawing i started to model in zbrush so I was making my model with full details into zbrush. I did not had alot of difficulties doing this I feel confident with program and familiar. so everything turned out great

then I finished modelling in zbrush I exported it and imported to Maya.

and I started to retopolagy of my bear and seal what its turned a bit hard for me because I never used Maya before and I was more familiar with 3dmax because last year I was working on not on Maya. So first I started to work on seal and its turned not so great and I needed to remake retopolagy kind many times till I figured out where I have triangle and remake retopolagy. but then I went to do a bear everything then way more faster and easier because I learned kind good from mine mistakes.

after I started to uv mapping it was not that hard after I was watching couple of videos how to do it. And I did not had many difficulties in that

this is uv of my bear

and this is uv of mine seal

then I was finished with my uv mapping and because of retopology mine beer lose his details and kind a lot so I wanted to really wanted to make him have more details and I find out what u can bake high poly version on low poly version to make same count of polys and have same amount of details.

so I was watching videos how to do it and what setting I need to use to make it.  Unfortunately its did not worked out at all I try a lot of different settings and change baking quality but its did not looked like I wanted to some places got details what I wanted to have but eyes and his face get starched and damage so I decided to not use this in mine final project

after I uv mine seal I did not thanked to try bake high poly version on top. Seal did not had that much of different after retopology and I was kind of happy about how he looked like so I started to texturing it. I chose to texture my work on photoshop and I think that was kind of difficult to understand witch parts of ur uv sometimes getting effected and match cuts of ur uv with texture was actually kind of hard I struggled a bit for that

rigging

then I start rigging its started to be weird. I was thinking is just so small bug on Maya but not so big issues what received. for my seal I actually did bones and joints by myself and I found it kind interesting and relaxing. after I finished to do bones a bind them to skin and I needed to weight paint my seal because my bones did not effect my skin in that way I wanted. in the beginning I was thinking what its always only one bone who will make that movement in that way I don't like and I did not realised what actually a lot of bones effect the skin that's why is moving that way so I start paint and movie mine character in a lot of ways until I got the final seal version what I liked.

but with the bear I used quick rig tool and it was way faster and easier to do I did not weight pain him as much as seal because most bones was moving in that way I liked it and worked my way out. Unfortunately I started to relive some bug in may what I did not really understand why is happening that way sometimes then I was weight paining my character just move and all my skin  lose them shape. overall it was not so bad and I enjoyed my time doing this.

background and story board

I was thinking so much what mine story should be and what I wanted to show trow it.

so I chose to make mine both characters swim in the ocean together and be friendly and swim around each other and ocean starts with nice and clean water but while they swim the water change the colour from light blue to mixture of blue and green and my animation will lead to what people drops trash inside the sea and oceans and make animals get posioned and infected and after they will cross trow the tent of fishers and they will start swim faster to run away till they reach again the clean and nice ocean water.

I made mine models into 3d and I chose to make my backgound 2d in the after effect program where I was been doing my water scene 

https://youtu.be/AkjOl0ykSYU

animation

And I moved to animation in Maya to record mine character movement. And I think I had most frustrating time. I could not even move one frame then Maya was just turns off. I tried many different ways of doing it I open different files and its just did not help me. I deleted Maya from my computer and reinstalled and it did not help me at all. each time I set second Frame or even select any frame to connect with 1 one Maya just turned off or dropping report bug button. https://youtu.be/B99-oMcctNc Then I decide to down grade mine Maya to 2017 to fix the problem. the animation started to work but sometimes its still was lagging and dropping bug and I needed to redoing frames or animation. swell mine weight painting did not worked properly and in the end of I could not fully pain mine bear weight because is just stuck and shutting down in Maya. I reported a lot of different bugs for Maya by email to show them. but over I finished doing with Maya. I moved to after effect to finish mine animation in there. was kind of fun to use after effect I liked it and enjoyed to do it. Main mine idea was texture the characters bear white because he is polar bear and he presenting yang as bright side and seal I decided to make him black and present yin as dark side. so animation is starting what polar bear swim in clean and nice water. And after the seal starting to swim close to him he present the dark side and the yin and yang symbol appear and then they swimming they show balance and water. and then water become dirty and pollution appears showing the main problem what I wanted to talk in mine video.

here is the link to see mine final animation 

https://youtu.be/OpcCGwx9OS8

[saintedfury]

Time Traveling | Bossville | IC Drabble

Summary: Furia is still struggling with the loss of her lover and a close friend. So far, very little is staving off the weight of her guilt and grief.

a/n: It was totally incidental that Furia ran into the younger version of herself from the Criminals In Bloom thread with @bosselimitchell.

Time Traveling

-1-

There were moments when Furia thought about using the time machine, but she never honestly entertained the idea. It wouldn’t do more than create more problems than it would solve, at least according to Matt and Kinzie.

A time or two she considered taking up Talon’s suggestion and asking Evvie about reaching out to Troy in the afterlife. There might be some temporary relief, but in the end, she knew it would do nothing more than make it harder to move on.

And that’s what she had to do … move on. Easy enough in theory, but it was proving so much harder to do on her own than she remembered.

He’d been such a big part of her life for so long. Longer than even her own mother, she realized after a few moments of thought.

She did the things she thought she was supposed to in an attempt to make it easier. She stripped the suite they shared, turned it into her room rather than their room. She kept herself busy with work and tried to keep herself distracted during her down time. Though now, she spent far less of that in Bossville.

Sometimes she would just cross over the rift and wander—on foot or in a car she appropriated. All in all, her impromptu visits to Bossville were rare. It did not feel as welcoming as it had in the past, nor was it as safe.

And Furia was fully aware, especially after meeting a resurrected Talon, that she was at least one reason why it could be judged thus.

-2-

The purples and lavenders rippled, like a stormy alien sea. She stood in the center of a blank, gray concrete room just watching the motion of the rift for quite some time. She didn’t know how long she stood there before she heard that grating, high-pitched nasal voice.

“Boss,” she called again. Kinzie’s voice held that annoying note of concern that Furia was starting to hate hearing, even if she knew it was justified.

“¿Qué?” she sighed.

“Just checking in on you. You’ve been standing there for like 20 minutes.”

“Síp.”

With a nod and not another word, Furia relieved Kinzie of her concern and stepped through the rift. On the other side, she didn’t linger. The place might have been stripped after she closed the rift, but Matt and CID had since rigged the entire building securely again. So, while she so far refused to rebuild the place wasn’t completely abandoned. Two of CIDs remote units detoured uninvited visitors, but also served to greet friends and acquaintances that might (but hadn’t) come by for a visit. Not that Furia blamed any of them; she didn’t really roll out the welcome mat when she returned.

In part, she didn’t want them tiptoeing like her crew continued to do. She didn’t want pity, no empathy or sympathy. Just wanted them to treat her like normal. But she knew that couldn’t happen. She wasn’t the same.

With a huff, she punched the button near the door and it slowly unlocked and swung open. Once she cleared it, the mechanisms whirred and ground as it closed again. It was the last defense of her rift; she never kept it closed before. Now, with everything empty it was the smartest choice for everyone involved.

She didn’t take the elevator, opting for the stairs, and ducked out the back door. The metal of the heavy door scrapped the door jamb as she shouldered it open. The sound startled someone in the alley.

“Mierda,” a quiet voice muttered before a can tinkled against the asphalt.

If she had to guess the vandal caught mid-tag was a teenager and not just because of the torn jeans and over-sized hoodie. Their reaction and the way they moved just seemed like a kid, plus they left behind their backpack.

Furia toed the can and examined it before giving it a kick. It skittered toward the wall, which drew her gaze upward. It was pretty good. In the white blocked out portion only a few letters were legible—F and U. She shook her head. It didn’t take a mastermind to know what they were likely aiming for.

Her laughter echoed off the brick and asphalt as she crouched near the bag.  She was mainly looking for something to identify the absent artist, but the kid was smart. Nothing more than paint, or so it seemed. Furia upended the bag and more than a dozen cans clattered to the ground. Buried beneath it all was folded and worn composition book.

Flattening it out, Furia reeled when she read the name drawn in a similar script as the letters on the wall.

¡FURIA!

HANDS OFF!

She didn’t understand it. Bossville was a son of a bitch but this wasn’t possible. The boss disregarded the warning on the cover and flipped through the pages. It was a mix of journal and art diary. There were realistic sketches, graffiti-style drawings, and notes.

Where am I? This isn’t Stilwater.

The signs on the bridge are bullshit. It’s like this place is a circle, looping back on itself over and over.

I’m beginning to think I’ll never figure out how to get out of here.

Hate to admit it. That jerk with the accent was right. You can get away with a lot here.

I wonder if they even realize I’m gone.

Furia folded the book again, squeezing it in her hands as she stared at the wall again. Perhaps the little artist wasn’t writing what she thought she’d been. She looked at the cover of the book again, then at the wall.

“I can at least finish it for her,” she said, thinking out loud. It had been more years and she would ever admit since she’d done this. Even so, Furia got to her feet, stuffed the cans back into the bag and grabbed the one she kicked across the alley.

She tried to bolster her own confidence, as she stared at the wall. With the first shaky movements of her hand, she lost herself in the motions that came back to her slowly.

More than an hour later, Furia stepped back and examined her work. After a moment of thoughtful contemplation, laughter spilled out of her. It was horrible. Her laughter continued, with no sign of stopping. She gasped for breath, her side aching.

Horrible was putting it nicely. Furia realized that she wasn’t a writer anymore. “No, you’ve devolved to a toy, Ladrón,” she said, chuckling. Thankfully, the maniacal laughter was dying down.

Eventually, she regained a modicum of control and dropped the last can in the girl’s bag. She ripped a sheet out of her piecebook and wrote her a quick note. Pro tip: Don’t tag under your real name, Princesita. Then she folded the note and slid it and some cash into the book before packing up her bag and leaving it where the teen left it.

If it really was some version of her, she’d be back. Furia knew she wouldn’t let that book go easily; that was likely important to the girl. The paint still being there would be a bonus.

Staring at the butchered tag, Furia considered how for the last hour she hadn’t felt like she was drowning. It was the first time in months that she didn’t feel weighted down. Suddenly, she was desperate to feel that again. It led her to boost a common maroon sedan, the first car she saw when she left the alley.

Then she returned to the building, entering through the front to avoid spooking the young would-be writer. The clear advantage of the building being empty was instantly clear. Furia roped one of the CID units into carrying the crates to the 8th floor for her; then she banished him and ordered Matt’s feed for the floor off.

Alone, she whiled away hours experimenting. It all looked like shit, but it relaxed her more than most of the other diversions she’d tried. Before she left, she splashed white paint over her practice strokes and stowed her paint.

[hauntsofmissouri]

The Flying Dutchman is one of the most famous ghost ships in the world. There are many theories to the history and legend of the ship.

On the third of August, 1942, H.M.S. Jubilee was on the way to the Royal Navy base at Simonstown, near Cape Town. At 9 p.m., a phantom sailing ship was seen. The second officer, Davies, was in charge of the watch. Sharing this duty was the third officer, Nicholas Monsarrat, author of The Cruel Sea. Monsarrat signaled to the strange ship, but there was no response. Davies recorded in the log that a schooner, of a class that he did not recognize, was moving under full sail, even though there was no wind. The Jubilee had to change course, to avoid a collision. During the war, Davies’ superiors would have been in no mood for nonsense, and he must have had to weigh that against the dangers, especially in wartime, of not recording the strange things that he saw. In an interview, Monsarrat admitted that the sighting inspired him to write his novel The Master Mariner. According to Admiral Karl Doenitz, U Boat crews logged sightings of the Flying Dutchman, off the Cape Peninsula. For most or all of these crews, it proved to be a terrible omen. The ghostly East Indiaman was also seen at Muizenberg, in 1939. On a calm day in 1941, a crowd at Glencairn beach saw a ship with wind-filled sails, but it vanished just as it was about to crash onto the rocks. During the war years, there was plenty of room for bad omens. Spectral ships in other parts of the world are sometimes generically called “The Flying Dutchman”, but the one that still tries to round the Cape of Good Hope is the original. The ship’s captain is Hendrik van der Decken, who, in 1641, swore to round the Cape of Good Hope even if it took him till Doomsday. (Lawrence Green quoted a date of 1680 as appearing in records of the Dutch East India Company, but he was not writing at first hand. He later acknowledged that there was no record of Captain Van der Decken in the diary of the Cape Colony’s governors. However, the colony was not founded until 1652. The year 1729 is quoted even less frequently). Some sources say that the voyage was from Amsterdam to Batavia, in the Dutch East Indies, but the historian Eric Rosenthal was sure that it was on the return journey to Amsterdam that the ship was lost. In some versions of the legend, the ship’s captain is called Falkenburg. Sir Walter Scott wrote of the Flying Dutchman “She is distinguished from earthly vessels by bearing a press of sail when other vessels are unable, from stress of weather, to show an inch of canvas.” According to one account, the ship was painted yellow when it left Batavia, but it must have been much weathered by the time that it reached the Cape. All agree that Van der Decken tries to pass letters home to other ships, but to accept these letters is certain doom.In what was then the British Museum library, Lawrence Green found an anonymous account of a passenger ship which did allow Van der Decken to send across a boat with four men. A Dutch seaman tried to hand letters to the passenger ship’s chaplain, who wisely declined to take them. The Dutch seaman left the letters on the deck, weighted down with an iron bar, and returned to his ship. Fortunately, the passenger ship lurched, dislodging the bar, and the letters were blown overboard. The passengers survived. The most famous Royal Navy sighting, however, was recorded by King George V, who in 1881 was a midshipman on H.M.S. Bacchante. In his diary, for July 11, he unequivocally wrote “At four a.m., the Flying Dutchman crossed our bows.” The lookout on the forecastle, and the officer of the watch, also saw the ghost ship off the port bow. Prince George described “a strange red light, as of a phantom ship, all aglow in the midst of which light the mast, spars and sails of a brig two hundred yards distant stood out in strong relief as she came up.” The ghost ship was sighted from other ships in the squadron, the Cleopatra and the Tourmaline. Thirteen crewmen, in all, witnessed the phenomenon. The squadron was commanded by Prince Louis of Battenberg, great uncle of the present Prince Philip. The seaman who first reported the ghost ship died from a fall, only seven hours afterwards. With the help of the Reverend John Neale Dalton, Prince George published his account as The Cruise Of H.M.S. Bacchante. Before publication, naval authorities at the Admiralty checked the manuscript, to ensure that it contained no errors.There is a story that the phantom ship entered Table Bay, and was fired on by the garrison, but there appears to be no record of this. Many other sightings have been recorded, however. Keepers of the Cape Point lighthouse often reported seeing her during storms. In 1835, R. Montgomery Martin, South Africa’s first statistician, described a personal encounter with Van der Decken’s vessel. In 1879, the steamer S.S. Pretoria changed course, after the passengers and crew saw lights which they thought to be a distress signal. A strange sailing ship was seen, but it vanished when the steamer approached it. In 1911, an American whaler almost collided with the ghost ship, off the Cape Peninsula, and as recently as 1959, the crew of the freighter Straat Magelhaen reported a near collision with the Flying Dutchman.

The Flying Dutchman is without a doubt the most well-known of all ghost ships. Although much of its story is legend, it is based on fact – a vessel captained by Hendrick Vanderdecken who set sail in 1680 from Ams0terdam to Batavia, a port in Dutch East India. According to the legend, Vanderdecken’s ship encountered a severe storm as is was rounding the Cape of Good Hope. Vanderdecken ignored the dangers of the storm – thought by the crew to be a warning from God – and pressed on. Battered by the tempest, the ship foundered, sending all aboard to their deaths. As punishment, they say, Vanderdecken and his ship were doomed to ply the waters near the Cape for eternity. What has perpetuated this romantic legend is the fact that several people claim to have actually seen The Flying Dutchman – even into the 20th century. One of the first recorded sightings was by the captain and crew of a British ship in 1835. They recorded that they saw the phantom ship approaching in the shroud of a terrible storm. It came so close that the British crew feared the two ships might collide, but then the ghost ship suddenly vanished. The Flying Dutchman was again seen by two crewmen of the H.M.S. Bacchante in 1881. The following day, one of those men fell from the rigging to his death. As recently as March, 1939, the ghost ship was seen off the coast of South Africa by dozens of bathers who provided detailed descriptions of the ship, although most had probably never seen a 17th century merchantman. The British South Africa Annual of 1939 included the story, derived from newspaper reports: “With uncanny volition, the ship sailed steadily on as the Glencairn beachfolk stood about keenly discussing the whys and wherefores of the vessel. Just as the excitement reached its climax, however, the mystery ship vanished into thin air as strangely as it had come.” The last recorded sighting was in 1942 off the coast of Cape Town. Four witnesses saw the Dutchman sail into Table Bay… and disappear.The legend of the Flying Dutchman is said to have started in the year 1641, when a Dutch ship, of that name, sank off the coast of Sourhern Africa, while attempting to round the Cape of Good Hope:The Captain, a man of evil repute, named Henrik van der Decken was pleased. The trip to the Far East had been highly successful and at last, they were on their way home to Holland. As the ship approached the tip of Africa, the captain thought that he should make a suggestion to the Dutch East India Company (his employers) to start a settlement at the Cape on the tip of Africa, thereby providing a welcome respite to ships at sea. He let out a scream out in terror, did he realize that they had sailed straight into a fierce storm. The captain and his crew battled for hours to get out of the storm and at one stage it looked like they would make it. Then they heard a sickening crunch – the ship had hit treacherous rocks and began to sink. As the ship plunged downwards, Captain van der Decken knew that death was approaching. He was not ready to die and screamed out a curse: “;I WILL round this Cape even if I have to keep sailing until doomsday! God, himself, cannot keep me from rounding this cape.” So, even today whenever a storm brews off the Cape of Good Hope, if you look into the eye of the storm, you will be able to see the ship and it’s captain – The Flying Dutchman. Don’t look too carefully, for the old folk claim that whoever sights the ship will die a terrible death and be damned to join van der Decken’s crew… sailing forever into the teeth of a raging storm. It is also said that the Flying Dutchman appears to those who have led particularly evil and debauched lives… with the same terrifying result. Many people have claimed to have seen The Flying Dutchman, from the crew of a German submarine during World War II to cruise boats filled with vacationers. On 11 July 1881, the Royal Navy ship, the Bacchante was rounding the tip of Africa, when they were confronted with the sight of The Flying Dutchman. The midshipman who logged the initial shighting… a prince who later became King George V… recorded that both the lookout and the Officer of the Watch had seen the Flying Dutchman and he used these words to describe the ship: A strange red light as of a phantom ship all aglow, in the midst of which light the mast, spars and sails of a brig 200 yards distant stood out in strong relief." It’s pity that the lookout saw the Flying Dutchman, for soon after on the same trip, he accidentally fell from a mast and died. Fortunately for the English royal family, the young midshipman survived the curse. In June, 1944, Jack Loggins, then Chief Machinist’s Mate on the U.S.S. Knight, a United States Navy Destroyer, serving as a convoy escort en route to South Africa from Norfork, Virginia, was standing on deck, smoking with a friend when they saw the Dutchman sailing directly toward their convoy. This sighting of the Flying Dutchman is unusual, in that it occurred in broad daylight, rather than at night, when such sightings usually take place. “It was about three o’clock in the afternoon… We were making seventeen to twenty knotts, I guess,”  he stated. “and were zig-zagging. We had just sailed out of a pretty bad blow. I looked up and saw her… an old sailing ship with tattered, ragged sails… She looked like she was beating into a force five gale. I motioned to my buddy… a deck ape named Jackson… and pointed it out to him… He saw it too. As we watched, she came within about two thousand yards of us… and then… just vanished…” Loggins still has chills when he recounts sighting the “ghost ship”. He is convinced that he and his friend actually saw the Flying Dutchman..”We didn’t report it.” he continued. “Nobody would have believed us… I wish we had, now. Maybe somebody else saw it (the ship) too.” Jack Loggins now spends much time thinking about this experience of some half a century ago… concerned with the fate of his soul… The difference in the fate of the witness seems to lie in the nature of the sighting. If one only sees the ship, then results could range from simple bad luck to the disastrous… but not necessarily to damnation. If one is unfortunate to see van der Decken, or any of his phantom crew, the fate of the victim, in both this world and the next, seems to be sealed. It is widely reported that famed U-Boat Ace Otto Kretchmer, now nearing his ninetieth birthday, once sighted the Flying Dutchman… but unlike another, less fortunate officer in his “wolfpack” did not see van der Decken or any of his crew. Recent reports of sightings of the Flying Dutchman range from an Australian Aircraft Carrier, HMAS Anzak, which sighted the infamous ghost ship in the fall of 1996, and promptly warped a propeller shaft, causing major at-sea repairs and several injuries, to a South African excursion boat full of holiday sightseers which foundered and sank after sighting the Dutchman, killing some 17 of the hapless vacationers in the Summer of 1999. Is the Flying Dutchman real, or is it just another “legend” of the sea? Those who ride the waves, in the parts of the world that she is said to frequent, tend to think it better not to look too closely into the eye of a storm or the dark of the night… unless it is absolutely necessary…

The Flying Dutchman The Flying Dutchman is one of the most famous ghost ships in the world. There are many theories to the history and legend of the ship.