Hi,

Anyone aware of any affordable crowd simulation software, ideally that sits in AE7 or Cinema4D?

I'm not really in the right league for Massive Prime or Jet ($18,000 for a Prime licence!) and my needs aren't for crowds on a LOTR scale anyway. I really am looking to be able to create a densely populated arena as opposed to artificially intelligent warriors in epic battle scenes (although that does sound like fun).

I was thinking of experimenting with Particle Illusion or with other particles in C4D or AE. Anyone tried that yet and able to offer some tips?

Cheers!

Ian . . .

Hi Ian,
In Lightwave we have a plugin called HD Instance that creates a large number of objects using volmetrics has C4D got something simlar?

Or why not go for Poser models or images mapped on to polys OR the old in camera shot of coloured clothes pegs shoot stills then map the images on to polys as well (they did this in one of the more resent Star Wars apparently for back ground crowds, with live and CGI comped into the fore grounds.).

In 3ds max, its not that difficult to set up, and you can use bipeds to speed things up. There are also many, "people" collection online (for around $100) you can get a collection of highly realistic (near photoreal) (great for semi-close up shots)

If that fails you can always get those collections of stock people shot against greenscreen and use (via copying) muliple times.

http://www.marlinstudios.com/products/people/people.htm

Also check out evermotion and


http://www.complete-soldiers.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=9449d5ae09ad6e00f7b2d149ab409acd

Anhar

Thanks guys. Very informative. I'll explore!

Ian . . .

Hi,
I suggest you check this out, a nice cheap way of doing it!
http://belief.com/process/index.php?theme=industrial&section=process&project=02.Zoom%20Network%20Launch&id=01.How%20To%20Make%20a%20Crowd.800x600.mov
just click on view movie and you are good to go
Good luck!

Rob

Rob, that's a great little tutorial. Many thanks for pointing it out.

Cheers.

Ian . . .