A:M Rigging
Rigging & Relationships
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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, -
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Is there a way to snap bone joints to specific locations in bones mode? I mean, apart from the number boxes in the properties panel (which provide all the joys of character rigging in Microsoft Excel). I fully expected an option to snap joints to spline points—that way you could make a rubber band figure and snap-snap-snap together a skeleton in no time. But I can't find anything like that in the program or in the manual. What tricks do you use for the purpose?
Last reply by nemyax, -
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A:M Technique: Smartskin & CP Weighting is back online! 2 hours of video https://youtu.be/gkBmYlRwP_8
Last reply by fae_alba, -
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xhttp://youtu.be/DkSeWGv_E48 I see at AEScripts.com they have version 2 of the Newton Dynamics engine available for AE for $250. V2 is the newer version (I don't think we have) with joints and bones... it came-up in a discussion Vern and I had YEARS ago on this forum about making a dynamic 'rag-doll' model... that could be rolled down stairs and such with dynamic reactions for comedic purposes. At $250, makes A:M look like a bargain in that ours is true 3D whereas AE's is a 2D dynamic engine. For new users, Newton Dynamics does stuff like this: http://youtu.be/O2OynevFsF4?list=PL8436A345ABE90D98
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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As I have been working on a face rig I have found late night thinking has been invaluable. In fact last night just as I was drifting off I came up with an idea of how to hide the rig when the pose slider turns off the rig. Since all my nulls and bones are on a mockup of the face to the side of the character I have struggled to hide the text and mockup when the rig is turned off. I will keep you informed as i will test it this evening.
Last reply by Shelton, -
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https://www.youtube.com/embed/5WT7_F5wsQk Saw this video from Animation Mentor about an upgraded version of their "Bishop" character. It has a bunch of switches and controls to allow it to change the character (al la Poser) into a multitude of characters. It occurs to me that we could possibly make a similar character in A:M using the examples of Mechadelphias "Saucy" Rig and the pose based action objects shown by Shelton and Mouseman.... Thom 2.0?
Last reply by Rodney, -
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This is a branch off of John (aka Pitcher)'s topic about exporting rigs as I don't want to take that one off topic. In that topic I was exploring the thought of using Named Groups to drive Control Point assignments to rigging. To be honest I thought this was a really old methodology but in my review of the exercises from TaoA:M etc. I can't find any reference that actually uses that approach. I ran a few tests and in my effort to explore more deeply (exploring the idea of having image settings drive CP weighting) ran afoul of using features I've never used before (resulting in a crash to the desktop). Ah, now we are getting somewhere! So this topic is a p…
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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I made a skeleton for one model, and have several other models that are similar. How can I save the skeleton and use it in another model. Is there a way to export just the skeleton?
Last reply by NancyGormezano, -
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Hey Guys, I have a winged character and I set up a few poses for wing positions on the "right" wing. I figured I could copy/ paste mirrored the keys in additional poses so that the "Left" wing would have the same poses also. Is there a way to get this to work. I tried to copy the bones on the keyframe in one pose and "paste/ Mirrored" in a different pose. But that doesn't work.. Do I need to renaim the bones a certain way? I remember doing this operation with cps fine. But bones don't seem to paste mirrored. Nothing happens at all. Thanks, William
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I am starting somewhat of a face rig. It is going to be a small amount of bones and a lot of pose sliders. I want to do Face cam and nulls to activate the pose sliders. Face cam no issue. Nulls activating pose sliders big issue. Can some one direct me in the right direction Steve
Last reply by 3DArtZ, -
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I'm trying to constrain a bone to follow a single cp. My attempted process: 1. I made the single cp a group and gave it a name. "cp group" 2. In a pose(on/off), I gave the bone a "group constraint" and set the target as the "cp group." 3. But in an action....when the cp is moved....the bone does not move. It just sits there and laughs at me. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the group constraint a bit. Anyone have an idea why that isn't working?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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When I animate I almost all the time select a given bone and then click “rotate mode” and rotate that bone into position. I therefore find it a problem in A:M that the moment I let go of the bone, the mode selection jumps back to “Standard Mode”, instead of staying in “rotate mode”, ready for the next rotate action (or in any other mode apart from standard mode for that matter). I wonder if there is a workaround or a preferences setting I have overlooked to make the mode buttons stick, or if this is a candidate for a feature request?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Hey all, I seem to be getting sort of an "equal but opposite" reaction when moving certain bones--like cameras...after many frames of sitting still, if I want the bone or camera, etc. to pan or move in a certain direction, in the chor, I'll make the move then, when keying through the chor, I find that the bone has, before the previously mentioned keyframe, moved an *opposite* direction in the same distance so that, by the keyframe, it's back at the starting point to do the move I had originally intended. ?? I'm able to obviate this somewhat by going into the timeline and straightening the bone line out, but it's getting frustrating. Almost as if the prog…
Last reply by Darthlister, -
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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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Hi all. What's the best way to avoid wantint to putt all your eyebrow hair out when having tow characters physicallly interact? Using kinematics to keep them connected, but running into my models turning into rubber bands if I move one or the others juuust so... Rich
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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i have a robot with joints that have euler limits, they just can move in one axis. i want to add a dynamic constraint, but want that constraint to also accept the euler limits... right now the dynamic chain works, but in all directions. any ideas?
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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Occasionally the "Mirror All Smartskin" command will not work on a model. That is under investigation, but in the meantime, here is a demonstration of a workflow that will get your smartskins mirrored to the other side of your model... SmartskinMirrorManually.mov I'll note that for bones that are oriented in a fashion unlike the leg bones in the video (arms maybe) the correct angle for a mirrored bone may the opposite angle rather than the same angle. Some initial experimentation and observation may be needed before doing any pasting.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Hello, I am trying to use models using the rig "steave headgizmo V2" on the V17 or V16 version on win.64bit. but "CEyebrowsCentre, CEyelids, CMouth and CCheeks" no longer work. Do you know what is wrong with this rig in V.17? What needs to change to make it work again?
Last reply by Malo, -
Sometimes when dissecting and otherwise looking through models I come across a bone named COG in capital letters. But I can find no documentation as to what COG's are. Are they relics from an earlier time in A:M's history? Can anyone enlighten me?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Hi Everyone, I was just wondering if the setup machine is no longer compatible with Animation Master as it seems to crash whenever I try using it with A:M 17. I haven't encountered any issue with it when I was using an old version like 11 but I can't even get the rigger to load without it crashing anymore... Maybe there's something I have to do to make it compatible in 17? I don't mind boning everything by hand, but this was a neat tool before when I tried using it to rig a model quickly... Thank you everyone
Last reply by Kombowz, -
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I know this is scientifically inaccurate, sort of a solar wind wrapping around the Earth... I am having success forcing particles around where I want them with forces. This is a technique I use sometimes on Hair, by making a force in the model(child of the head bone) and aiming it and adjusting the magnitude so it constantly blows the hair into a curl, or a style. HERE- I am using 4 different forces: Force1- is set to neg200 and 'collects' the particles, forcing them to sort of wrap around the globe. Force2- is cylindrical, and reinforces force1, the plan was to set it to 'vortex' to get the particles to begin to spiral... need to work on that.(magnitude neg70…
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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http://youtu.be/3xklaT-gJNM Joe McPeek demos the ease of use and wonderful end-product of Mixamo.com's free rigging service. The end result, as demo'ed is an incredibly flexible ready-to-animate character. But I don't think the bones and weights and constraints would transfer over into A:M's unique language. Also- I don't think the end result provides any traditional animators 'handles' for hand key-frame animating. Instead, this setup is ideal for BVH motion captured actions, which gamers are ga-ga for, apparently. Anyways, it is a quick video... a good insight to see what the world of rigging has been evolving into, and what I consider a 'dream' rigging utilit…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Recently, I was befuddled trying to get eye-highlights to show up consistently. Naturally, I played with my eye geometry's specular settings... adjusted lights etc but I was never really happy with getting a consistent highlite in the eye... essential to giving the 'spark' that helps make the eye look glossy, alive, vital, sharp... etcetera. Since my initial effort was to make an illustration, I automatically thought- 'oh, just add it later in Photoshop.' But when I considered animating the scene I decided I needed an 'always on' solution, so I modeled it as a simple lathed circle with 100% ambiance. SO- I simply made geometry that would guarantee the highlites 'ever…
Last reply by John Bigboote, -
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I have a gun, with detachable magazine and 10 rounds each round made up of the Cartidge and Projectile. Since I want to animate the gun, I cannot parent anything (or can I???) so how best should I 'join' all the parts yet make each part animatable (independant) when 'fired'. At present I have them as a single model each with their own bone - no parent. Cheer
Last reply by higginsdj, -
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I have dynamic constraints turned on but the results, when rendering with Netrender are terrible (obviously since each render node does not know where the 'position' of the dynamic bone is from one frame to the next). Is there a simulate or 'bake' option? Cheers
Last reply by markw, -
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OK, so I have a foil, boned it, rigged it and set up some smartskin to allow for flexing. What is the best way to rig this for 'automatic' dynamic flexing? I have 2 control bones - one for translation and rotation and another to control the bending. piratefoil_0000.mov
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I have an effect I would like to try, like a video/slide projector projecting imagery onto 3D geometry from it's unique perspective... only then rendering this scene from a 2nd camera. I've read the manual entry called 'Front Projection Maps'(page 546 in mine) and it shows how I need to specify the target for the projection (like the screen) and I can see the effect working- but once I jump to a 2nd-alternate view camera I lose the effect. Wondering if instead of a camera, I should use a light? ... or is there a way?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I placed some flowers in the hand of a Figure and put a translate constraint on the model bone to attach it to the hand geometry bone. That worked for the walking and reaction movements in previous scene but, Although I haven't changed the settings or property values, the plants seem to be moving outside of the hand when I animate the figure sitting down. Could anyone suggest what the error might be, and how to fix it ? regards simon
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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A thought occured to me. AM has been using the same ol' yellow fella forever now. I'm just curious would it be possible to create a morphing rig? One that could be rigged to change shape and apperance. Fat, skinny, tall, short....change eyes colors, hair styles (helmet hair)...something like that.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I realise this is a bit of an open question, for which my apologies. I'm working away on a sequence were the figure rises to standing, turn, shifts weight and settles. Thought it was ok until I noticed some joint pops and went to look what was causing it. The interpolation is set to spline. There is a four frame space between one pose and the next but, as you can see, on frames 16-17, there is a definite pop in the joint. Leg_pop.mov Is there a way around that ? The key is on 15, the pop on 16 and 17 and the next key on 20. Its not too big but it is noticeable and, if anyone has a suggestion as to cause and possible cure I would be very grateful. reg…
Last reply by Simon Edmondson, -
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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, -
Along with TSM2 Anzovin used to have a tool called wieghtmover or something close to that. Anyone know where I can get a copy now?
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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AMers Not sure what to call what I'm looking to animate, I'm working on a pitate ship and I'm thinking on having a sail roll up and down and not sure how to go about it, or the best way...the sail are made of cloth but not sure if I can figure out a way to animate the cloth material to roll up on the mast? or go another direction.........any help is appreciated..... Mike
Last reply by Kamikaze, -
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Hiya all, Is there any way to minimize the above? After every click, bone move, etc., AM seems to recalculate before allowing me to change anything. Is there any way to minimize this? Is it an issue with particles? Rich
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Is there a key when using the rotate manipulater in bones mode to move in just one direction,as I keep moving at big jumps even when I zoom in I can;t seem to get it fine enough to hit the spot cheers Steve
Last reply by steve392, -
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Hi! I need to build a model (or chor) which contains 100 spheres evenly spaced in a cube formation (25 to a side) and be able to do the following using 2 poses: 1. Increase/decrease the size of all spheres. 2. Increase/decrease the spacing between each sphere. I'm looking for an easier way to do this. Something that's not as much work as creating/positioning each sphere and creating poses (or constraints) for each sphere. Ideas? Thanks, Rusty
Last reply by rusty, -
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I'm making good progress with the 2008 rig, putting it into Colfax, the one human character in Nightcallers. I'm still at the "rigging the right half" and am just finishing up the cp weighting. I'm thinking that I should put in half of a face rig at this point but I'm not sure how to proceed. I could put in half of Holmes' LiteFace but that would cause probs possibly with some multi-d relationships and may end up being more trouble than it's worth. I could just attempt to rig it from scratch but that seems like I could get in beyond my skills when it comes to adding the controls. How do other folks add a face rig at this point?
Last reply by steve392, -
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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, -
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A simple-case demonstration of how the results of the two techniques differ. CPWeighting_vs_FanBoning.mov search tags: CP weights weighting Fan Bone Fan-Boning Fanboning Original: (above) Updated: [quicktime]http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=61324[/quicktime] From left to right: -The original CP weighted model -the original fan boned model -a dense mesh weighted with Bone Falloffs from just two bones -a dense mesh weighted by the AW_Transfer plugin using just the 3-spline-ring fanbone model as the source.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
- 8 replies
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After seeing how some other apps(ikinema within modo) are using distortion meshs for joint and full body rigging as opposed(or in conjunction with) features such as bone-weighting, smartskin, fan bones... I've been looking into the prospect of doing something similar in A:M. I am stuck early in the process and wonder if smarter riggers might know of a way... I will attempt to illustrate what I am trying to do here: I have modeled an arm and gave it some simple bones. I could have started with an existing rigged model and used the arm bones as they are... I decided to keep it simple for the purpose of illustration.
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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- 900 views
One of the problems I've been encountering with my characters for Red Squad is that they're very stiff. Joints and things don't really roll and the model never looks relaxed or natural. So at first I thought it might be my modelling and then found out it's my rigging. To date I've just been using the 2008 rig (which I do quite like) but I think it's time for a more customized approach. So I just slapped some bones down and already the model moves much more fluidly. Now, my rigging knowledge is next to squat. So my question is, how do I do that thing where feet stay on the ground and when you move the hip or something, the feet stay placed firmly on the ground, allowi…
Last reply by Darkwing, -
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Greetings, It's been a few years since I rigged anything - I'm wondering what the difference between the 2001 rig - last one I used - and the 2008 as well as the tsm2 rigs are. Also, are there new instructions for the various rigs? I thought I saw an illustrated rigging walk-through (using thom?) the other day but can't find it again. Any points in the right direction(s) would be much appreciated. Thanks, Douglas
Last reply by mouseman, -
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Hi, this is a more or less advanced question, but maybe someone can give me a hint in the right direction. I am setting up a simple own rig in a percentage pose. (I think it ineeds to be one to be able to blend between the two states... My simple IK-Chain-Setup (an Arm or something) contains of two bones in a row, a null-aim at the end and an elbow-aim-bone. I use an AimAt-Constraint to point the upper arm at the elbow aim and a IK-constraint to point the lower arm at the IK aim. This works. But now the tricky-part: How do I blend those Constraints that they will blend the motion and not just pop into position on a higher enforcement-level thatn 0%? …
Last reply by mtpeak2, -
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Got an annoying problem folks. Last night I constrained 4 objects to 4 paths. Adjusted everything until I was happy with it, saved and went to bed. Got up this morning and loaded the project to discover that the objects weren't moving when I scrubbed through the timeline. A quick investigation revealed that while the path constraints were all present in the PWS they had somehow lost their targets. Re-selecting the targets did nothing and to make them behave again I had to make a whole new constraint. I saved again and re-loaded, same thing all the constraints had lost their targets, all the ease keyframes etc are still there just the target is gone and setting the ta…
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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I have been working on the rear window project and decided I needed a break tonight. I have a character that I finished a year ago for Cupids Sick Day and needed to rig her. I have been installing the 2008 rig. It took all of about 1.5 to place the rig and now going through and assigning cps. Thanks for all the hard work Mark on 2008 rig and David on Squetch. (will be using face rig) Steve
Last reply by Shelton, -
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Hello all Looking for a step by step quad rigging tut. I wanna build my own ....I dont want it to complex and sense Im a simple fellow with a simple mind I might be able to make a simple quad rig for my Deer model with some help ....well that is one that has control bones .... it's rigged with geo. bones......I think I use to use TSM2 but want something simpler........ Personally I like making actions using pose sliders.....on the setup I have now I do have the neck the way I like it and with pose sliders to control movement and I like the way it works....... Thanks, Mike Deer_Whitetail_14c.mdl
Last reply by Kamikaze, -
Anyone have a tut or example of how to rig a wing on say a bird or something? I've been trying but rigging ain't my strong point so some guidance would be most appreciated.
Last reply by markw, -
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hi all, I have a bone that is a parent to several other bones. I want to be able to scale the parent bone without the child-bones scaling. I want them only to translate (expand). Is there a way to "lock" the scaling of bones? Do I need to make an expression or is there some constraint to do the job? This is for my face-setup. I want my lip-control bones to not scale so that the lips always stay the same thicknes when I scale my mouth bone (the parent). thanks.
Last reply by Fuchur, -
- 4 replies
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I have an old model I want to move all the bones down a touch as theye or the model has been moved .How do I select all the bones please
Last reply by steve392, -
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I want to make the mouth for the "O" phoneme a little rounder but not sure where to do it. I've been experimenting but not saving as I didn't want to break anything. I started out trying to edit the phoneme relationship itself, but then decided that I needed to alter the mouth constraints. However I'm at a loss as to whether I should edit the Mouth Corner Constraints, or the Face Control Limits. But I'm leery about altering any of this stuff, I know it will come back to bite me. Then I wondered if I should just animate the cp's in the O phoneme itself and not mess with the bones. I think ultimately this would be the easiest fix. Anyone have any advice or opinion…
Last reply by Gerry,
