A:M Rigging
Rigging & Relationships
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I've got this rigged character for my music video. When I put him in a chor I can enter skeletal mode and move his bones around. but once I deselect him, work on other models and go back to him, when I enter skeletal mode I can no longer activate, see or select his bones. I feel like I've seen this before not long ago but I'm stumped by it. Tested in v15 and the latest v16, on a pc. When I get home I'll test on a Mac, but any advice is welcome!
Last reply by Gerry, -
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Hi again. I made this short tutorial on expressions hopfuly to stimulate some positive debate on How to use the Expresions in AM. As a school student I hated Maths( I thought) later in life I found it was my maths teachers I didnt like. when I hit 40 I started to learn C and C++. My tutors were more human and I got to love the world of maths and programming. 20 years prevoisly I studied electronis and I enjoiyied the learning and the maths. It was fun because the maths made sense. If I wanted to know how much liquid I could get into a can all I needed was the formula for the Volume for a cyinder. The good thing at the time was that I didnt have to remember the formula o…
Last reply by yardie, -
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Heya, all-- Is there a "from the beginning" tut anywhere on how to construct a rig from the ground up? Thanks, Rich
Last reply by Darthlister, -
Here's a new rig I made based on the 2001 Rig and the rig used on Jeff Lew's dvd. Parts taken from the Jeff Lew rig are the ways the contraints are set up (no hinges or bicep orient bones etc.). It also has the Steady relationships from the 2001 rig, and it has the very cool heel setup that 3DArtZ came up with. Let me know if you like it or if you don't. Anyway, here it is if anyone wants to try it out: *note: it doesn't have any relationships for the fingers, only the main rig. New_Rig.mdl
Last reply by Rodney, -
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I'm trying to rig a bouncing ball. I've set up squash and stretch, which is pretty easy. What I'm trying to do now is allow the angle of the squash and stretch to change without rotating the ball. Any ideas?
Last reply by 3DArtZ, -
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I have been looking at The Setup Machine by Anzovin Studio and Weight Mover I was woundering if these plugins was worth the price and has it made your work flow faster? I have also noticed the last video series are for AM: 2003. Will these plugins work for AM: v12? Any feed back would be great. I need to make my work flow a little faster so I have been looking into AM resources and plugins. If anyone has any links to a demostration useing The Setup Machine by Anzovin Studio and Weight Mover it would be great. I would love to see what it can do. MP3D
Last reply by MP3D, -
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I have installed the 2001 rig in a model, courtesy of the tutorial in TAO. However, when it comes to installing the hand rig that controls the fingers, The tutorial stops. I understand that the rig for the hand controls the fingers curling and so on ? Is there a tutorial or info somewhere that can explain how to install those controls as I would like to have the figure play the guitar ? Thank you in advance. regards simon
Last reply by Simon Edmondson, -
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I am kind of stuck on this. I can't quite figure it out. I have a cable connected to the base of the head of my terminator model and it needs to be flexible with a chain of bones and connected to the bottom of the neck/top of the chest at the other end. How would I go about setting this up? It is a flexible cable... but a little stiff. It isn't limp. To create the "stiffness" I'm only using 3 bones in the chain... this keeps the cable from flexing too much... but I still need to keep both ends locked to different bones or parts of the skeleton that move independently. I started out with a single chain coming down from the top at the base of the head. the last bo…
Last reply by heyvern, -
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Hi everyone, I need to model, rig, and animate a bird wing. It needs to be a rather dramatic, scary thing (vulture) that will be attached to a human actor to create a mythical Harpy character. I've searched the web for anatomical resources about bird wings and flying - and although I have a good idea of how the skeletal bones work, i've yet to find an examble of how feathers fold and overlap through a full range of motion - from folded - through open - and flapping - flying. I assume that the feathers can be linked to the main bone via bones and rotation contraints? I am contemplating taking my old 12 gauge "blunder buster" out in the back yard to bag a "r…
Last reply by Scottj3d, -
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For some reason I can't seem to get the feet to stick to the ground when I move the body. Haven't set any constraints on the legs and body parts yet, just have the IK and Aim At on. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong? brown_recluse.zip
Last reply by robcat2075, -
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Just made a simple rig and was watching 'building first rig' by HomeSlice. Got to the point to do my Constraints, when I try to pic target bone it does not select the one I choose, so I go to select target and the needed bone (s) do not show up in the list. I'm sure it is something simple i have missed. FatGuy.prj
Last reply by itsjustme, -
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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 am just doing this for fun... but... Anyway... Here is an animated GIF that describes what I am trying to achieve. [attachmentid=10423] How would you go about getting that type of constraint at the base? I admit the illustration is "incorrect". One side would be "shorter" than the other and cause a slight "tightening" of the chain due to the difference in distance from the top to the connection at the base. I tried using a shorter chain of bones between the two chains and used a kinematic constraint of the last bone of each chain to the last bone of this center chain. It sort of worked... but not quite. If I offset any type of constraint …
Last reply by Paul Forwood, -
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I've got an action that I'd like to save as a Pose with a percentage slider. Is this possible?
Last reply by Gerry, -
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What would be a good rig to start with for starting to play with character animation? I have the 2001 rig that came with AM but I also see the Squetch which sounds like maybe it's the new thing. I would like to learn the right way so figured I'd ask here, Should I just make my own rig instead? I couldn't find any stickies really explaining what "Squetch" is, only updates and other threads that assume that I know what it is. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough though. thanks all! -Tim
Last reply by KenH, -
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Hi All This is probably a dumb question, but I can't seem to find the answer. How do I deselect control points when rigging a model. I'm re-rigging the pink piggies hand, I needed the palm to face up. I turned the hand up and am trying to re-rig the hand. Some how when I selected the middle finger end bone and the nearby control points, most of the models control points were also selected. Now I can't figure out how to keep the finger control points selected while deselecting the rest of the control points. I've looked through the TAOAM.pdf and the TECHREF.pdf files and can't find the answer. I'm sure it's probably easy, but it's driving me crazy. If you h…
Last reply by earthquake, -
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Hello, I bought setup machine a while back to aid in the rigging of this guy once I finished modelling him. He's about as fine tuned as he's going to get in that area, so I thought I'd start w/ the rigging. One thing confuses me, though.....setup machine seems to generate more than just 2 bones for the arm....its generating like 3 or 4, which seems odd. I don't remember specifying more than 2, and I didn't think there was a way to do that. Since I have a long neck on the dragon, should I be manually be adding additional bones for that? It seems kind of difficult to get the bones positioned correctly before auto-assigning cp's. How closely do they …
Last reply by Ilidrake, -
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Hi riggers! I can't find an easy way to have a character raise on his toes. Is there a way to rig something where to whole body will raise with the rotation of the foot controls? Something like a null lifting the whole body except for the toes, with the foot aiming at the toes. Maybe there is an easier way i am missing. Anyway, it would be of great help. Michel
Last reply by nerrazzi, -
- 1 follower
- 6 replies
- 995 views
I'm playing with Dynamic Constraints and now I'd like to reproduce one of the simpler examples in the Tech Talk #3 Video; the one where thee bones collide with a one patch surface. What ever I try, I'm unable to make it work. I have set Object Collisions to ON, but What else do I have to do? What is the obvious think I'm missing?
Last reply by HomeSlice, -
- 9 replies
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I'm working on a model of a trout, and I've got the model and texturing down. Now I need to rig it so that I can start animating. I'm not very good at rigging, so if anyone could give me some pointers, I would be very appreciative. I want to animate as few bones as possible to make animations smoother. The current problem I have is that, whenever I turn a bone along the body, there is a noticeable crease that forms. I've worked a bit on it with bone falloff and CP weighting, but I just lack the experience in this area to make it look believable. I tried looking for a good fish bone system on the CDs, but I couldn't find one.
Last reply by nixie, -
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I love the video tutorials, they make learning some of the more complicated aspects of A:M way easier than reading written tutorials with either no pictures or static pictures. I learn far better by seeing and doing than reading, so was hoping I could find one specific to modeling, and rigging a hand for animation. I've read all the available tutorials, and have actually come up with a fairly decent hand model (using David Rogers book specifically for that tutorial)... However, I'm running into some problems with rigging it, and the written tutorial to rig it is hard to follow. If I could see it being done, I'd have a whole lot more luck...
Last reply by Rodney, -
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Hello, I'm animating a carnivorous plant which consists of: -a stem with several geometry bones -a leaf branching off the stem to the left and one to the right -a "head" with a mouth I'm using the TSM 2.0 neck and head rig. It occurs to me that animating this thing would be more natural if I had a null for the end of the stem control chain to drag the think around IK and then also a null for the middle of the stem so that I can control angle and degree of curvature of the stem using one null instead of setting keys for four control bones in the stem. I've attempted to use a combination of Aim AT and IK constraints. I'd like to know if there …
Last reply by nyahkitty, -
Hello dudes and dudets, the time has come for me to show Lottar, bones rig'd and not at all finnished. I have no idea how CP weighting works, so I'll have to look into that, links/winks/hints are very welcome. All c&c's are very welcome.
Last reply by Mr. Jaqe, -
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- 5 replies
- 986 views
Does somebody know of a shoulder rig which allows the clavicle to rotate as a result of the bicep rotation? When the arm is straigh down, the clavicle should rotate down some in Y, and when the arm is up the clavicle should also rotate some upward... As far, my bicep is a child of the clavicle, so I am trying to avoid circular dependences. Thank you in advance, Gustavo Muñoz
Last reply by GusM, -
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- 985 views
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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- 6 replies
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I was just experimenting with ways to use one bones movement to affect anothers and making a chain of wacky bones that move in all sorts of directions and ways... and it sorta just sparked in my mind: Tank tread movement is sorta an eliptical movement- if I can get a bone to move in an eliptical path (without using a path), half the battle would be over. The details and math I don't know, but visually I can speculate the angles and speed of things, which led me to Turn a bone at an angle so that the handle movement looks like an elipse. Now how do I get a bone to only travel in x,y of this handle movement? #1- child a target bone to that bone in line with the handle. #…
Last reply by entity, -
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after staring at loads of tutorials i am beginning to wonder if i have missed something fundamental somewhere.... i need to use a Null, attached to the wrist of a character so that i can move the entire arm and hand model realistically, but i can't find out how to do this! I can create the Null, i just don't see how it relates to the model. I'm not using any pre-made skeleton, as the model does not lend itself to that, and because i think you learn more from making your own than by dragging in anothers. I am also finding the concept of modelling in one window, and adding constraints in another to be rather bizarre...maybe i'm just not in the correct window? …
Last reply by lightningad, -
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- 6 replies
- 977 views
What's the best way to keyframe poses? [EDIT] This thread started out as BVH and TSM2, but has been edited for the subject you see now.
Last reply by itsjustme, -
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I have been trying to rig my Armoured Killer Juggernaut model for a few weeks (during my evening free time) and have run into some stumbling blocks that have me stymied. I am wondering if in my reading of the manual, other AM books and the Forum I have missed some critical info. True False?: You must set orient like constrainst to bones PRIOR to assigning CP's? (I find if I don't the splines become a mess of spaghetti, parts go twisting away) True false? When you set orient like constraints the "fan" bone should re-position itself in the direction of the bone it has been oriented like. (In the print tutorials I always see that fan bone looking pretty 'poini…
Last reply by cfree68f, -
- 5 replies
- 970 views
I'm trying to get an animation into a competition by March 8th, but it might be an impossible task. I only just bought the program a couple weeks ago. What I need to be able to do is pull the arms, make them stretch, then pop off the body. The only thing I can think of is to have two different models, one with the arms on and one off, then just switch models in the frame that his arms come off. Will this mean I'll have to rig the arms twice? Should I use the 2001 rig? Ugh, not really sure what to do here, and time is of the essence.....
Last reply by pleavens, -
- 2 replies
- 968 views
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, -
- 5 replies
- 963 views
I was wondering if the Mirror Constraint plugin works for anyone else. Every time I try it it crashes AM. I am starting it from the modeling window. I am using AM v.15d It will be not nice at all to have to constraint the left side (specially the left hand) of the model every time y modify it (I have a base model that I plan to recycle using it to create more models from it and this involves moving bones around a bit according to body constitution). Thanks
Last reply by jakerupert, -
- 12 replies
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Hi All Got several new problems. 1st I created an eye from 'itsjustme' tutorial *the eye has a contact outside it that will open sideways *created a combination pose that will open the contact and will dilate the eye at the same time *at completion it worked perfect I saved it as a right eye, and a left eye (2 separate models) both worked perfect Now I bring them into my model separately place them. Question 1: why do the eye parts appear in the groups as all separate parts not as a unit or model? (image 1) Question 2: why did only 1 set of pose sliders show up in the model? (images 2&3) which only work the right eye…
Last reply by Rodney, -
- 9 replies
- 958 views
I have installed the (v12_2001 Skeleton_Squetch_five_fingers) with (12_FACE_with_bones_12_05_2007_installation) and the Relations group order are different. In what order should they be to make them work right?
Last reply by itsjustme, -
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Hi guys! I forgot how to move full branch of bones in a bones mode? (like if you would like to place all bones in left arm move 10 inches downwards) I really hope someone could help me. Thank you in advance :-) Dusan
Last reply by kikiriki, -
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- 6 replies
- 956 views
Do you pre-rig anotomical parts that you may use in building new models? I was thinking about it today, and it seems like it would save a lot of time to import body parts that already have weights, smartskin, and rigging. You could hold down CTRL to transform/scale/rotate the mesh at the same time you are moving the part into position. Then just drag the bones into the proper place in the hierarchy. You could have eye lids already modeled around an eyball, that already have pose siders for blinks. What do you think would be a natural place to cut up the body, as far a rigs go? I suppose that you could alter the rig you typically install to allow for the hands,feet,h…
Last reply by Hutch, -
- 4 replies
- 956 views
Sorry the file as a QT was too large changed it to wmv file about 7megs instead of 30 http://johnl.inform.net/images/decalposetut.wmv okay here is a qt but its 9megs http://johnl.inform.net/images/decalposetut.mov both versions available for now
Last reply by cuboos, -
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- 951 views
I don't want the bone to change the direction it's pointing. In other words, I want it to be able to rotate, not translate.
Last reply by Nerdcore Steve, -
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Hey- searchin' the forum- but I don't even know what I am looking for... is it possible to have an audio file be the basis for a bones rotation... or general movement? Seems I saw something about this here once... Thanks!
Last reply by johnl3d, -
- 4 replies
- 945 views
Is it possible to lock the axis movement of a bone within an IK chain? I've locked one but it still rotates in the locked axis when the last in the chain is moved....
Last reply by Gerard, -
- 3 replies
- 941 views
I have a character that holds a staff and from it is a hook from which a lantern will swing back and forth. But what I want it to do is to swing naturally rather than animated myself if at all possible. So Basically the character will move the stick itself, then depending on the direction, speed, and etc the program will figure out how it will react.
Last reply by Sean delgatto, -
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- 940 views
i have some models i made and some that i edited can anyone rig them for me ?
Last reply by Symbiot2006, -
- 1 follower
- 8 replies
- 937 views
I'm trying to make a simple eye target 'aim at' null. I made one for my first robot and it worked perfectly. The second robot is a copy of the first. I added to eye bones under the head bone. Assigned cps to each eye target bone. Added a null. Did new pose > on/off. In the pose, select eye bone, new constraint, aim at - click null. BOOM - eye moves back behind model??? Both do it. Didn't do it on other model though. This seems fairly straightforward, I can't imagine what the problem is...any ideas?
Last reply by pixelmech, -
- 1 follower
- 5 replies
- 936 views
Here's a simple grid smartskinned to squash in one direction when the one bone's X axis is at -44 That's the only key I set... so why is motion created when the bone is rotated on only Y or Z? (I'm not looking for an alternate way to achieve this effect, I'm trying to understand the nuances of smartskin) SmartskinTest.zip
Last reply by zandoriastudios, -
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- 935 views
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, -
- 1 follower
- 7 replies
- 933 views
what exactly are nulls and how are they used? I can't seem to figure out when, where, why and how I would go about using them for, say, constraining a bone movement... Any help would be much appreciated. risk
Last reply by amarillospider, -
- 5 replies
- 932 views
Hey y'all! SO I'm working on an extremely simple character rig, and i followed a tutorial for how to do shoulders without using smartskin (which works great, by the way). And I'm thinking that set-up is irrelevant, because this happens with a lot of my constraints- I open a smartskin simply so that I can apply a constraint to a bone (If theres another way to apply a constraint to a bone, PLEASE tell me!!) I constrain a non-related bone to another non-related bone to execute an 'orient like' constraint. Simple enough. I then set the enforcement to 50%, or 15% or whatever percent i FREAKIN feel like. All is well and dandy, it works fantastically in an action, cho…
Last reply by Paul Forwood, -
- 1 reply
- 931 views
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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- 5 replies
- 929 views
I kinda went overboard on modeling the FW190 from our excercise and want to rig the landing gear to fold up into the wing. I have never done any rigging and am not sure how to approach this. I've already assigned a bone to the landing gear assembly and have even got it to fold up into the wing. The problem is that the assembly not only needs to rotate up, but it also needs to twist a little bit along its vertical axis at the same time. Would two bones controlled by a parent bone do the trick? Can this be done with one bone and a couple of constraints? Any help is greatly appreciated. This is a link to movie I threw together to show what I mean. It's got so…
Last reply by Eric2575, -
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- 929 views
I just exported my choreography action as an MDD... deleted all the actions on the model, and imported the same MDD... it didn't work so well. I was trying to sort of 'bake' the action(s). I used a setting of 1 on the polygon export/import dialogue... I think I may be misusing this feature. Anyone else try such a thing?
Last reply by Xtaz,