Thank you - I will try to get a video out in the next few days.
Cheers, Toymaker.
So now I have given him some monitor speakers, a microphone (oh dear maybe I should not have done that) and a mic-ed up drum machine - probably another big mistake. :eek:
I am currently cooking another video - might be some time before it is ready… :spin:
“There is no pain, you are receding,
A distant ship’s smoke on the horizon,
You are only coming through in waves,
Your lips move, but I don’t hear what you’re saying,
When I was a child …”
Cheers, Toymaker. 
Now I think I am about done with getting him to play chords - he can play 6 now and is a fast leaner, It takes me about 15 minutes to setup each new chord. I have added the sound-light box, drum machine, animated speakers, chord and solo guitar playing, and animated “beat” lights on the drum machine to the project. Here is a 100% (i.e. none) compression image. I have now passed this project across to my server for video rendering - it will be a long job me thinks.:yes:
He now has a bit of a stage to play on and a PA system and will be singing on the next video - you have been warned!
Just wondering what else I can get hime to do next. Maybe a trumpet/vocal number, I have a song by C W Stoneking called “The Love Me Or Die” in mind, could be interesting to get the trumpet valves going properly to the notes.
I am going to add a drum kit to the “Clockophone”, with a mechanical playing mechanism, rather than Erki, I am not sure he really goes with the other machine.
Cheers, Toymaker
And with little regard for the health and safety of Erkinator the Toymaker forged on relentlessly…
Most of this stuff is higher grade to me Clock, but it is looking great.
Shaun
Eee Gad! you’ve broken him… 
Maybe I should glue him to the floor. :eyebrowlift2:
Cheers, Toymaker.
Just like a guitarist… Brings TWO friggin Marshal stacks to venue that fits twenty…Hasn’t anyone heard of PA support?
Good job, Clock! The musician in you is strong…
@Danpro - ROFL!
In my defence M’Lud - The stack on the left is the drum machine, but I admit he does have two amps and many speakers, but then he is a typical guitarist. I only ever played bass with a band, so I had just one amp and a humungous speaker cabinet.
Are you suggesting I should mic-up the guitar speakers as well? Hmmm might be a good idea, just in case the guitar is not loud enough…
Cheers, Toymaker.
PS. Video is still cooking…
This is Honey - she is the new keyboard player: :eek:
She is very good on the keyboard, very good with Reason on her MacBook, not bad looking, but sometimes a little rude when the camera is pointing at her…:o
Cheers, Toymaker.
EDIT:
I have just noticed that this is my 1100th post - some of the previous 1099 might actually have been worth reading, but it is doubtful…
Hey clockmender,
Had to stop on by and see what you’re been up to… I am impressed!!! and I’m not someone who is easily impressed…
I’ve read thru everything, but I skimmed over the technical parts, and it’s looking very interesting, but I am curious as to what your goal is?
You first started out with the ‘Clockophone’, an interesting device to say the least! I have 1 small comment about that device. The last render of it showed an air compressor, I think. It’s kinda hard to hear anything when you are in a room with an air compressor running… other than the compressor.
Now you’ve got the Erkinator playing drums & guitar, great work done there!!! And a new blonde chick playing the keyboards? Interesting!
One usually starts out with ideas about what they want to create, then along the way, new ideas come to mind and directions change. That for me is the fun part of a project. Well we could do this, or change that, add something else, or mix these two together and end up with something better than our original idea. I hope you create something great here, you have a fine start!
I guess after saying that, I’m not real curious as to what your goal is… If you’re having fun with it, that’s what matters…
Randy
Thanks for the comment Randy! That is really kind of you to say those nice things.
So my project here; it started off as an intellectual exercise to see if I could animate objects in time with music. I started off taking timings from a Reason file and animating the balls that play the tubular bells by hand - a long and tedious process. Next I tried to do this by reading a MIDI file - the problems I had here are well documented in previous posts.
Being who I am, I was not satisfied here and tried to animate a keyboard playing a tune - fairly simple stuff (relatively) since a single object can be moved to rotate a piano key. Then the drums could be animated the same way in that I could have a stick per drum and animate them from the MIDI file. But this does not represent how drums are played in that you have two hands and two feet only! So I set about getting a character to play the drums. Here is where the first of my “jokes” (I have a somewhat curious sense of humour at times) came in. I decided to use the Erkinator robot from my Canberra WIP as the drummer.
This is where the project became much more fun as well as intellectually challenging. I got Erki to play the drums from a MIDI file using Child Of constraints with driven influence to get his arms to move to the correct position to play the drums in time with the music. The air compressor is another of my “jokes” in that it is as you rightly say, totally impractical, but this is BlenderLand - compressors can be totally silent! :eyebrowlift2: I then arrived at the two song extracts played by the “Clockophone” - my next challenge was to get Erki playing guitar - this is more demanding since his fingers must move to the correct string and fret to play each note, this is much harder than the piano.
Next was to get him playing chords, where he has to use all his fingers and get his left hand in the right place. I decided to use “Chord Controls”, which contain the fret and finger locations so that when a chord is played his hand moves and his fingers cover the correct strings. This also means that I have to modify the MIDI file - since Blender does not know that notes F, A & C represent the basic F major chord. So the MIDI file only contains the base note of the chord -F in that case, and whether it is major, minor, sharp, flat, etc. The chord control then translates this information into notes and therefore strings and frets. The video of him playing chords and a guitar solo is still cooking (4060 frames at about 4.5 minutes per frame to render).
Next I decided to get a hand to play a keyboard, using both chords and melodies - even more challenging! Then slipped in another of my “jokes” - why not have a soft body character as the keyboard player? So I created Honey - the “Blonde Chick” using MakeHuman (why are there no girlie clothes in MakeHuman?) I then added her clothes and shoes, and some nail varnish, etc. Being silly I also added some character to her - the “joke” of her giving me “the bird” when I took a picture of her. So far I have her playing chords, using chord controls the same as for Erki and his guitar. The MIDI file contains the base note and derivative for the chord, the piano keys will move when the chord control is activated and her hand will respond by moving fingers and a hand to play the chord. She has a twin manual keyboard (two sets of 88 keys) and there is a clever switch to change her hand from one keyboard to the next, which works in association with the chord control, so F chord, for example, can be played on either set of keys from one chord control. The melody will be harder as I will have to get her hand to move and the fingers to move independently to play a melody - I am getting there with this, but it is hard work.
So overall, what started off as a simple intellectual exercise has grown to be very challenging technically and a great deal of fun to boot! You will have to forgive my my off-the-wall humour at times, please, but I cannot do the difficult stuff without some humour along the way, you may remember Erki lifting the front of the tow tractor in my Canberra WIP. 
Here is Honey and her keyboards, her Mac - with a Reason project open and playing the keyboard rather than being rude, maybe she didn’t see the camera…:
I have given her a microphone, I hope her language is not too coarse! I have a song in mind for her, which will feature her singing (no, not me with my balls in a vice) and playing a synthesiser. Erki will be accompanying her on bass guitar and the drum machine, “Redrum” Instrument from Reason, will provide the beat. It will take some time to do - maybe two weeks or so, but I hope it will be worth waiting for. If anyone has any suggestions as to how I can improve the scene, lighting, rendering, etc. I should be most grateful, as I feel I am lacking experience and technique in these areas.
Oh yes, the end goal - Solving a technically difficult problem and having fun on the way. :spin:
Cheers, Toymaker.
Update - here is Honey playing F chord on the lower manual with her left hand and F5 note with her right thumb on the upper manual - she is getting quite clever and can now play a melody - it meant I had to modify the Rigify armature to have IK targets on the ends of her right hand fingers and thumb:
She can now play the chords A - B flat - D minor - D sharp - C and F, She starts and ends the song with F chord (that gives you the key), that is the only clue I will give as to which song I have in mind for her. :evilgrin:
I know her skin will need some work - HELP HERE PLEASE - I can get her working, but not looking right. :o
Cheers, Rude-Blonde-Chick-Maker.
Hey Rude-Blonde-Chick-Maker, :eyebrowlift:
Couple of quick comments for you on the areas you posted about…
For skin to look good, IMO, you need to use a Sub Surface Scattering (SSS) material at the bare minimum. Also as a bare essential, you need color variation for different parts of the body. Your arm pit isn’t as tanned as your shoulder is, cheeks tend to be more tanned than say the skin above you upper eyelids. Since it’s MH, it should be already uv-unwapped, so coloring the existing texture image for her should be easy. Gimp and a Wacom tablet makes this easy. As to the SSS material, look for one online for the render engine you’re using…
Is this cycles or BI?
When it comes to lighting, mix things up a bit. Your lighting is a bit 1 dimensional. Uniform color and direction of the lighting. It’s like the scene has only 1 white light. Adding different colored lights pointing in different directions at the subject can help to break this up. Take a room with a single fluorescent over head light, that will give you a 1 dimensional lighting, very cold feeling. Add in an incandescent (yellowish glowing) light in, and you warm up the room. Add in some bright morning sun coming in thru the windows, and you have a very warm inviting room. A little bit of contrasting color can be cast by other lights pointing opposite of the warm lights, helps to chill out the warm scene.
Hopes this makes sense, had a beer while writing it, or two…
This all costs you in render time. The better the image, the longer the render times. If you’re not using it, use Ambient Occulusion, in the world properties panel. that will soften your shadows and increase your render time…
Randy
Honey and Erki have been practicing the new song:
I recorded this brief exchange during the first practice session:
HONEY: “Oi Tin-dick, I said play this tune in F key!”
ERKINATOR: “Beep-pling-dit-dit-whirr-kerplunk-err-efky-efky-efky-does-not-compute-ha-ha-ha”.
HONEY: Hey Clock, I think you need to reprogram your dumb-ass robot?
I think they will get along just fine…
Cheers, Peacemaker.
EDIT:
I am using Cycles. Thanks very much for the tips, I will build them in over the next few days.
Love the universe you’ve been creating here!
Hey Clock
Nice Gal, been wondering how to enhance her, well stage presence…:evilgrin:
Shaun
Shaun,
I am open to suggestions…
Cheers, Toymaker
Thanks, it’s a brief insight into the crazy world of the Clockmender.
Cheers!
HONEY: “Hey Clock, thanks for the new hairdo - it’s marginally better but could do with some streaks, the bling - loving it! and the new clothes - whatever possessed you to dress me in “snot-green” is totally beyond me! I don’t want any tattoos just in case you were thinking of doing that. BTW I see you took a photo of my butt a few days ago - don’t do that again…”
I have worked on the lighting after the help from Randy - it’s not right yet, but I think it’s getting better. I will spend some time on her skin now.
Cheers, Toymaker
PS. Yes, I am rapidly losing my grip on reality…
I have a question - how do I get her hair to be “softer” like fuzzy around the edges?
Cheers, Clock.
For that style? Mix in some 2D strips using alpha mapping.
If it was particle hair, the solution would be something different. Random rough setting or something like that.