A:M Rigging
Rigging & Relationships
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In response to a query about how to find unassigned CPs, the answer is... every CP is assigned to something. Here's how to see it and change it: AssigningCPs.mov
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 0 replies
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PURPOSE We want discussions of "beginner" rigs, IK rigs, FK rigs, "auto" rigs, comparisons, suggestions, and design histories. POSTERS I suggest not commenting on a rig's strengths or weaknesses unless you have significant personal experience: this probably means accomplished animators and rig designers. An exception would be "first impressions": you can describe your initial experiences in trying out a particular rig for the rig's designer to think about. When you post into the topic, list your rig experience (maybe put it in your Signature). For example, 3DArtz (Mike Fitz) would have "designer: COGS" listed. You animators list the rigs you're familiar w…
Last reply by martin, -
Nerrazzi, is this what you wanted for shoulder movement?
Last reply by trajcedrv, -
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I figured this would be the best place to put this...it is an illustration of something I mentioned in another thread. It's a very simple car suspension. Don't critique me to death, I realize it needs a lot more. My only aim was to illustrate how to keep tires on the road using the same method that is in an IK leg. The example was made in v13. I hope this is helpful to someone. car_suspension_example.zip
Last reply by mtpeak2, -
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Hey guys, so, I've been knocking myself out trying to work through what I suppose is potential smart easy way to handle a pure on off IK/FK switch and as far as I know, it is currently not possible to do in software. But for anyone interested in killing a few moments to read here is the idea.... 1. have regular arm bones, shoulder, bicep, foream, hand. 2. have normal IK set up.... hash 2001 style. 3.have ON/Offpose called IKpose, where the IK constraints get activated. 4.have ON/Offpose called FKpose where the FK stuff gets activated.... basically just locking the bones but with this addition. Constraints that manuvuer the ik bones to exactly where they WOU…
Last reply by Dagooos, -
- 2 followers
- 61 replies
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Hi guys: I'm modeling a tentacle to go with my Nautilus and need some advice on how to rig the sucker for some smooth manipulation. So far I have a simple tentacle with linked bones for every segment. Bone 1 has spline ring 1 assigned to it, bone 2 has the second spline ring assigned to it, and so on down the tentacle. I have no fall off or anything else set up. I also don't have any experience in rigging. Soooo, if someone could walk me through the steps I need to take to get a nicely maneuverable tentacle, I'd be much obliged. Attached is a cap of the tentacle, bones, and the way it moves now. Not very pretty. Eric Edit: One thing I do know…
Last reply by mtpeak2, -
- 60 replies
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I thought it would be best to place this in the rigging section - I am doing a simple rig of my own for learning purposes. The penguin is not terribly complex and I think I can get by with fewer bones - flippers only have 2 bones, for instance. I am noticing something odd, though. Currently, I have my hierarchy set up this way: Head Neck Torso 2 Torso 1 Pelvis Left thigh Left femur Left foot Each of those bones in the list is a child of the one above it. However, in the properties panel when I turn on "attached to parent" I notice something odd in the case of the neck and head bones: when "atached to parent" is turned on for th…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I have finished the "rough draft" of my Warhawk BattleMech. This is the upper body portion. I put the following bones in Here is the PWS showing the relationship of these bones But when I try to move the lower arm bone (we would call it a forearm bone) all I can do is rotate it - but I want to translate it to move back and forth - either extending or retracting the "hand". Here is the lower half It will require a "chicken walk" I have looked at the Technical Reference, ToAM manual, the 2000 A:M manual, the "lets take a walk" tutorial, David Rogers book, ... Thanks so much for all the past help.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 53 replies
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This is a question for those who do quite a bit of rigging. I was imagining an interface gadget that would assist in apportioning weight percentages. Currently we type in values in the Edit CP Weights dialog and we try make them always total 100%. If a set of CPs had only two bones (A and B ) associated with it, A:M could show a slider that would adjust the weight from 100% A, 0% B on one end to 0% A, 100% B on the other end. If a set of CPs had three bones associated with it, a linear slider wouldn't be sufficient. A triangle shaped gadget could represent all the possibilities however. If your control was at position 1, that would indicate ne…
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
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One of the really ellegant ideas that is used in the Squetch Rig is the "Install Rig Plugin". This basically allows you to fit each component of a rig ( say, a complete leg rig ) with all its geometry, control bones, Nulls, etc into a new model. Then when the Install rig plugin is run, all the components of the rig get moved back into their correct positions in the bones heirachy, and all the install bones are removed. The details are here: The Hash Install Rig Plugin The problem is that to install the installation rig, you have to move the install bones via the the "n", "r" and "s" commands along with dragging the position manually on the screen. You can…
Last reply by mtpeak2, -
After Bones: 1 2
by MJL- 1 follower
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I have made a new character. As you can see he is fairly simple, having no legs. I know that there are a number of rigs available complete with installers, but I thought that this might a golden opportunity to learn in more depth, step by step and rig this little guy from scratch. I have made the necessary bones and assigned the cp's. What would be the next step? CP weighting? And what about IK and FK and that Chain Thing?.
Last reply by Paul Forwood, -
- 49 replies
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The Software Tutorials Forum is proud to announce David Simmons's Tutorial on Rigging a Face. Thanks to David for making this available to the A:M Community.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 48 replies
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I did some very extensive smartskinning on a shoulder while the other arm was hidden. Apparently I had mirror mode on and it keyed the other arm anyway. I usually try to do all my smartskin keyframes at 45 or 90 degrees just in case there is a problem I know where to look. Well, I deleted most of the keyframes on the other arm but there is still some slight twitches I can't track down. Please tell me there is a fix for this without deleting the ss and starting over.
Last reply by Gerry, -
- 47 replies
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I am trying to rig a coffeecup using the 2001 rig. What to do next? Scaling the arms? Or scaling the blue bone - Back2 - between the arms? Or what? I want to have the neck somewhere on the lower half of the coffeecup between the mouth and arms. Thanks for some advice!
Last reply by seven, -
- 47 replies
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Perhaps you've heard that Hash is starting a movie in 2006. One thing we'd like to have is a standard rig that can be used on all the characters. If you've developed a rig that serves you well, the animation directors for Oz would like to see it! Particularly ones that offer solutions to common problems. Or maybe you've made some stunning advance in the art. Post sample rigged characters in this thread. Of course, they will need to be non-proprietary rigs. I'm not a rigging expert, so I'll be looking at them from the POV of someone who'd have to use one to do shots in Tin Woodsman of Oz. And I invite all the other A:M animators to check these rigs ou…
Last reply by mouseman, -
- 38 replies
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Hey folks, I just wanted to share a spin that I've added to Cog/fan setups - many of you may already know this trick. But, I wanted to show it as a reminder for a way to explicitly design fan rigs through consideration of bone placement and length. The problem I started with was rigging the arm pit region of my more realistic model. I wanted a series of horizontal splines to collapse vertically, such that the outermost horizontal spline (out toward the hand) was at the top of the vertical stack. A standard Cog setup (as in Mike's lovely tutorial) will do this upside down, as the points will not change orientation relative to each other (as designed). The…
Last reply by 3DArtZ, -
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Hey Guys! Playing with V18E got me to this: I make a simple model, like a tube (simple circle extruded 8X) and I bring it into an action. I want to make a New Distort in the action to bend the tube, so I rt-click on the action and choose New Distort. I now notice that a new object has been created in the Objects PWS and an instant of it is in my Action... but if I go into muscle-mode to start deforming the distort-mesh, my tube-model remains unaffected. I see that there is a 'target' pull-down in the distort action object's properties... but it seems to be unable to select anything. How can I get this to work?
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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I did this test awhile ago, for my own education, to see what differences could result for a typically simple joint (such as elbow, knee) when using fan bones (3 bones total) and cp weighting, as well as for just cp weighting with 2 bones (no fan). This assumes that there are three rings for the joint. I did not test different positioning for the fan bone, nor joints that were not 3-ringed, ie 2 rings, or only 1 ring. The fan bone also has a constraint to orient 50% like bone 2. I didn't experiment with different orientation % either. The best choice would depend on the look that one wants. Just seemed simple to go with 2 bones and weight them for my purposes. …
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 33 replies
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Hello I am fixing some of my rigging on my penguin character, and am having to adjust the bones. The fan bones for 2 of the geometry bones in the flipper are not following either bone when moving the geometry bones, I am having to manually reposition them. They don't seem to have an option for "Attached to parent". Am I doing something wrong, or is this normal?
Last reply by Roger, -
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SO- the new version of 'Element 3D', which is Video Copilot's After Effects plug-in that renders 3D in AE via GPU now supports the importing of animated OBJ sequences, which brings me to wonder- how would I export an .obj sequence out of A:M?
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
I am wondering how to constrain the feather control bones on my wing. 1 through 3 are a chain. 4 through 8 are intended to pull the feathers (mesh) into a closed position. I am not sure which constraint to use to make the bones 4-8 stay in place on bone 2 but move inward similar to bone 3 when bone 3 is pulled into the folding position. As the lower shot shows the bones in question move with bone 3 but do not pivot as if attatched to bone 2. Is this also a problem of hierarchy where I need to drag 4-8 under bone 2 in the PWS?
Last reply by Scottj3d, -
- 31 replies
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This is for Robcat, if you're out there anywhere. I'm working on cleaning up the rigging on my penguin so I can hopefully finally start doing some test animations with her. The one ring in that model, the one between the ring that makes up the beginning of the neck and the one that makes up the shoulders, would I benefit from removing that completely? It is not really a critical ring but more a leftover from my modeling process. I'm not sure it needs to be there, I guess I can try removing it and see what happens.
Last reply by Roger, -
- 30 replies
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can I please get a list of available rigs with opinions on each and pros and cons? I plan to try to master installing and using just one rig and would like to know what each one offers. Thanks. Gene
Last reply by TheSpleen, -
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I added key blips to the motion arc tracker. This not only allows you to see the keys in regular shaded mode, but it also lets you see them when the tracker is not selected. This makes it practical to have multiple trackers in the scene, assigned to different joints. The color of the markers is set by the surface properties of the model. change the diffuse color for each copy of the tracker in your scene to make it east to distinguish between arcs. edit: original thread here Edit: Newer version further down this topic arctracker.mdl
Last reply by Rodney, -
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- 29 replies
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Hello - It's been a while since I posted on this forum. I've been slowly trying to develop characters for a music video. The attached is a 'Conductor' character (un-decaled) that I'm pretty happy with spline-wise, but rigging is another issue. I've tried educating myself on the topic of rigging using various sources - "Art of A:M", a Fan Bone tut from a 2005 3D Mag issue, Matthew Krick's wonderful online tuts, various CD-ROMS purchased from the Hash site, including Raf Anzovin's, etc. - to various degrees of success. Though I feel my best efforts came using the Matthew Krick tuts, I'm still not satisfied. The attached model has a basic rig and some fan bones …
Last reply by cribbidaj, -
- 29 replies
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It ought to be possible to have two separate bones Aim At each other because that would not be a true circularity. But A:M doesn't allow it. hmmm...
Last reply by Rodney, -
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- 29 replies
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So apart from my copy of the Rear Window set being cursed, something I'm beginning to suspect, what rational reason is there for bones within a rig, in this case the LiteRig, to just stop working after a time and/or randomly rotate themselves? The first casualty was the Lower Hip bone which died altogether on me, followed a little time later by the Neck bone randomly jumping out of sync with the head bone. At first I was sort of able to work around these but now the neck thing is happening nearly every time I rotate the head. Whilst it is possible to continue without using the Lower Hip bone, its pretty much impossible to animate without having control of the …
Last reply by mtpeak2, -
- 28 replies
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I have made a WOTW tripod modal that i want to use in a fan film but i cant get the rig i want on it it has a rig already but its not the one i want i want it to be like the 2001 rig but with a tripod not a biped and a easyer way to animate the tentacles but you don't need to do the tentacles if you don't want to but yes i would apreshiate it if one of you could rig my tripod here's the modal [attachmentid=14885] tripod3.zip
Last reply by cuboos, -
- 2 followers
- 27 replies
- 5.7k views
Hi there, I have a rig that I was working on a while ago. I am quite pleased with some of the features. It isn't finished yet and consequently the right half of the body isn't rigged as it should be. (**NOTE, ONLY THE LEFT SIDE OF THE BODY IS RIGGED PROPERLY** You may notice odd twitches from the right leg. This doesn't happen with the left. Some of the deformation is off because I removed geometry for the sake of sensorship and copyright.) **UPDATE** I POSTED A MORE COMPLETE VERSION OF THE RIG ON THE BOTTOM OF PAGE 1 Here are some instructions and notes (please forgive my wierd naming conventions): --------------------------------------…
Last reply by John Keates, -
- 26 replies
- 2k views
hi people, here is a simple muscle rig. maybe someone can use it. the principle is that there is a bone that scales. make a new action with the model. muscle.mdl
Last reply by bentothemax, -
- 26 replies
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I had hoped to have the tutorial done by now...but, since I don't, I thought I'd at least give people something to tear apart over the weekend. Here's a project file with a rigged and unrigged head (for practice or whatever). Hopefully, the tutorial will be done in the next couple of days...I just don't know when it will be anywhere to be downloaded. I still haven't e-mailed Hash about seeing if I can put it up at AM Films...man, I'm really dragging my feet. Thanks to Victor Navone for sharing the rig he designed for his character in Big Bang and thanks to Shaun Freeman for posting an example on his website (I don't know if the downloadable example is still th…
Last reply by itsjustme, -
- 26 replies
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So yeah, I'm trying to get at least one character done and out of the way for ELZ, however, I have been trying for days without ny success to rig this character. I modified the GenMan body found on the AM extras CD, and used the 2008 Rig to rig it. Except things just....don't work. I can't describe, and using pics would be useless, so here's the model, and someone please give me some pointers on how to not make things bump, twist, distort and mess up please. Zeroheadtest2010.mdl
Last reply by Darkwing, -
- 26 replies
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Background: Theo Jansen designs and builds creatures he calls Standbeests; they are quite large, wonderfully whimsical, and often wind-driven. Here’s a link to his website: www.strandbeest.com A few days ago, I decided to model a version of his Rhinoceros, not a particularly difficult task. Then - before building the model - I fell down the rabbit hole of trying to mimic the leg mechanism that drives the Beest the way it actually works. Not necessary to make a model animate, as a simple set of bones with basic key framing could do that job, but an interesting problem. I have been stuck in the rabbit hole for days. Rigging and constraints are …
Last reply by fraizer, -
- 25 replies
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Here's the scoop. My plan to use expressions for this isn't working as planned. I am absolutely certain something can be done using simple constraints. Imagine a chain of bones, in any configuration needed to achieve the results. Don't box yourself in. For my example this would be bone spaced out evenly to control the opening and closing of a curtain. It would be easy enough to just use a translate to or orient like on each bone to have this chain "collapse" but I want it to work in a specific way. I want each bone to only move when the previous bone reaches a specific point. Say, half the distance to the next bone, then that bone moves in unison until it hits the ne…
Last reply by heyvern, -
- 25 replies
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The initial test with a dynamic constraint: A simple model with one large uh... mass... attached to another mass. I applied a dynamic constraint in an action and played with settings til I found the ones pictured: Here are two vids of the constraint in action: testB.mov testc.mov I think this would work for many situations, but I still want to experiment with cloth. Just don't know how to get only part of a model to be cloth...
Last reply by Gerry, -
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- 24 replies
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I'm glad Mulls ressurected this topic: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...=0entry116078 because I'm really enjoying working with one of these setups. BillY, (If you happen to poke your head in here) Am I correct in assuming that there's similar info in the "animate a face" cd from Anzovin Studios? because if so, I'm buyin'!! Anyway, Like I said in the other thread, To save a lot of time, I set up my interface as a single patch with an image decaled onto it. I gave the interface patch a bone, and parented the nulls to the bone. That way I can grab the interface bone and straighten it out no matter what view I'm in. When I want to do a final re…
Last reply by strohbehn, -
- 1 follower
- 24 replies
- 1.4k views
Has anyone else noticed that the weight editor is acting quite differently in V16 from the way it did in the past? Say, if you have some CPs and they are weighted 50% to bone 1 and 50% to bone 2, and you want to throw in a 3rd bone at only 20% but keep bone 1 at 50%... so it would be B1-50%, B2 30%, B3 20%... it used to be that all you needed to do was (in the editor) click a bone, enter a value one by one, and 'apply'. NOW- if I put the 3rd bone in there and give it a value of 20... the editor will automatically 'do the math' on the other two and give them 40-40%... but I want bone 1 at 50%... so I click bone 1 and enter 50... but the editor again 'does the math' o…
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 23 replies
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I'm animating a logo for a friend. The original logo consists of simple pen or brush strokes. The "arms" are the handle and spout and the "legs" are just two zig-zag strokes. This should be easy to rig and plenty of squash-and-stretch is spot on for this type of character. A picture of the logo is attached. I'd like to use the TSM2 rig, but the challenge here is that the "hips" and "shoulders" will be offset by 90 degrees (hips side to side like normal characters, but "arms" fore and aft like the coffee pot it is). Since the the various parts are abstract and not actually connected, I'm hoping I can set it up in a normal T pose, then rotate the arms and "body" of…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 1 follower
- 21 replies
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Hi! I'd like to constrain a bone with the "orient like" constrain to another bone but with more "enforcement" then 100%. Is it possible that a bone moves twice the speed (or anything higher than 100%) than it's "parent"? I bet it can be done with an expression, but that's a locked book for my brain ... Cheers, David
Last reply by DeeJay, -
- 2 followers
- 21 replies
- 2k views
Now that I am half way throw rigging my model with the squetch rig. I was hopping someone knows of a skeleton rig that conforms to a real human skeleton geometry. Thou I do like the squetch rig It is a lot more then I will need for my hobby project. Ever thou I would like to adapt the hand and feet gizmo’s and some of the face controls it’s a bit more then I need. The stretchability is a little more then I need. Even thou I will probably finish it as I go along for the experience. Dose any one know of a rig with the proper offset hinges for the knees, hips and shoulders? Or do I have to make one my self?
Last reply by DJBREIT, -
- 2 followers
- 21 replies
- 1.2k views
A video tutorial for building a simple animation rig. Part 1 29ed4da8c3d3f5a3ae7c Part 2 d452035300f18b984988 If you have trouble playing these movies, you may download them here: Building Your First Rig
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
- 20 replies
- 3.1k views
I started using Lightwave3D and combine AM rigging ability with Lightwave3D. AM still has the best smart bone rigging system, However its weakness is driving a high patch count model with rigging. We have a weight transfer plug-in for AM model. That's almost like a cage driven system. I wonder if having a plugin that allows you to rig a lo rez model and animate it, then link that mesh to a hi rez model and animate it? Basically what I am working on now is to rig a cage mesh in AM and then export the action file thru MDD, and then use the mdd file to drive the hi rez model in Lightwave3D by way of lo rez cage model.
Last reply by 3DArtZ, -
- 2 followers
- 19 replies
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I've got two gears and a large door. I've given each gear a bone and placed constraints that only allow them to roll. The larger gear is constrained to the first gear so that when the small one turns it turns. Only problem is that the larger gear actually needs to turn the opposite way. Does anyone know what constraints to apply to make this happen, cause I'm stumped.
Last reply by Ilidrake, -
- 19 replies
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CP weights are a new feature to me. I have only just started playing with them and love what they can do for those troublesome areas around joints. The problem that I am having is with the scant documentation. I have the Techtalk movie but that always throws out a C library error and crashes on both my machines. I don't think it covers my question anyway. What I would like to know is if I adjust my CP weights in an action am I creating values which are specific to that action or am I adjusting the "base" values which I have set up in model mode. It appears that new values are created in an action. Is that correct? Thanks for any info on this.
Last reply by mtpeak2, -
- 19 replies
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The Train Wheel Rig – An alternative method for and elbow / knee joints Updated 11/15/12 with missing model file I came up with something that I though I’d share with the rest to you. The problem I wanted to solve was that the methods for rigging a joint like an elbow that I’ve tried (Fan Bones, CP weighting) all result in a collapsing geometry at the site of the joint. Then I'd have go back and repair the geometry with oodles of smart skin especially when I have a char with thick / muscular joints that have CPs far from the bicep / wrist bones to begin with. So here’s what I came up with: The Elbow / Knee Type Rig: Using an elbow as an example, I h…
Last reply by 3DArtZ, -
- 2 followers
- 19 replies
- 3.3k views
Hey everyone, I have a rigging question.....for ideas. I have a few of my own concerning this, but I wanted to get some feedback. I have a mesh/ human character. There are currently no bones or rig. However, All the joint motions are already on sliders. For example, there is a slider that bends the legs. There's a slider that bends the bicep, etc. In other words, the joint motions of the character are all on individual sliders. These move the mesh as though bones were already present. I want to place a rig on this character that utilizes these sliders. Obviously, the skinning, weighting is in the slider motions already. I thought of some kind of M…
Last reply by zandoriastudios, -
- 18 replies
- 1.5k views
I've got much to learn about rigging. I've learned a lot about constraints and relationships by developing a tree-growth animation rig (another topic later perhaps). Here is a simple character that poses (pun intended) a bit of a challange (to me anyway). He's a spineless little fellow--a Marshmallow! Basically a head with arms and legs... I've worked out rigging the face controls and I've experimented a bit with just one of his arms to learn about fan bones, Smartskin, CP weighting, etc., especially to make the shoulder behave. There are some specific challenges that come with having no hip, spine, and torso. Since he has no waist or neck, his wh…
Last reply by williamgaylord, -
I'd like to know what everyone would like in a rig? FK setup, IK setup, basic fan bones, heel setup, torso and head control bones or all of the above? I'm working on a rig right now that I plan on adding all of them, most of it is in place. Is there anything that you can add to the list? I'm planning on putting it up on the forum for testing this weekend. I would appreciate some suggestions.
Last reply by pancho simpson, -
- 18 replies
- 1.6k views
I LOVE the Jeff Lew rig, it's really simple and easy for someone like me . . . but im having a problem. The contraints are setup through an action, and when i try to make a new action, the contraints get all messed up . . . can someone help me?
Last reply by jamagica, -
- 18 replies
- 1.6k views
Can anyone explain this to me? Two bones, siblings of each other. the left one is "aim at" constrained to the right one, with offsets (so it maintains it's original direction in relation to the target bone) so far so good. but as I lower the enforcement of the constraint, the bone veers from its original direction, then snaps back right at 0% You can't say it was returning it's original direction, it was there already. Is this a feature or a bug? And if it is a feature, what purpose does it serve? Is there a workaround? constraintmovement.zip
Last reply by Maszie,
