itsjustme

What I'm thinking is that I could set up poses that are like the blink setup poses...so all of the limits would be set up within poses. That would make it where you wouldn't have to actually type in percentages. It would probably mean adding some more bones and nulls and changing to "aim at" constraints in a few places, but I think it could be done relatively quickly.

I'll do some more thinking...maybe I can make it easier. The face setup as-is is very flexible, Tinman, TinGirl and Squetchy Sam are examples of what it can do. If I can streamline the installation without losing any of the capabilities, I'll do it. I'll give it a shot.

The "mouth_ud" and "mouth_lr" all have values in there, so those will work, but won't be suited to your character until edited. You mean set up the FACE controllers? I haven't put in any placeholders for those. ------------------ EDIT ------------------ I don't know if it's so complicated...it's just about finding out what amount of rotation to plug into each Pose. That's just how I do it, build the small things and then use those to build the big stuff.

For the face, I start by hiding all of the geometry except for the lips, gums and teeth. Then, I make an Action, unhide the "mouth_ud" (up/down) bones with the "Show_and_Hide_Rig_Components/hide_face_setup_bones/hide_mouth_ud_bones" Pose, manually (not using a pose) rotate the upper lip as high as I want it to go (exposing the gums) and the lower lip as low as I want it to go (also exposing the gums). In the same Pose, hide the "mouth_ud" bones again, then unhide the "mouth_lr" (left/right) bones using the "Show_and_Hide_Rig_Components/hide_face_setup_bones/hide_mouth_lr_bones" Pose. Then, manually rotate the "mouth_lr" bones to as wide as you would make the mouth (pulling slightly away from the sides of the teeth). Re-hide the "mouth_lr" bones and save that Action out as something like "lips_out" or something. Starting with the results of that Pose, you can then unhide the "mouth_ud" bones again and rotate the upper lip bones until the upper lip meets the lower lip. Save that out as an Action named something like "upper_lip_down" or something. Open the first Pose again, unhide the "mouth_ud" bones and rotate the lower lip bones until the lower lip meets the upper lip. Save that out as "lower_lip_up" or something. Make a new Action, unhide the "mouth_lr" bones and rotate them as far inward as you want the mouth to go. Then save that out as "lips_in" or something. Those poses will give you the numbers you put into the "mouth_ud" and "mouth_lr" Poses in the "Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls/lips/mouth_ud_individual" and "Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls/lips/mouth_lr_individual" Poses...the numbers that are originally in there are from Squetchy Sam and are meant to be placeholders until you get the actual numbers you are going to use for your character. So, open up those Actions, get the percentage of rotation for each bone and plug them into the "ud" and "lr" Poses with the corresponding names. I then turn off the "Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls/head_on/off_constraints/mouth_constraints/lip_limits" and make a new Action, rotate the "LowerTeeth" bone down and adjust the percentages of "orient like" on the "mouth_orient" bones in the "Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls/head_on/off_constraints/lips_orient_like_lower_teeth" Pose to get a good shape. Make another a new Action, rotate the "Maxilla" bone up and adjust the percentages of the "orient like" on the "mouth orient" bones in the "Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls/head_on/off_constraints/upper_lip_to_Maxilla" Pose to get a good shape. Make a new Action, and then rotate the "Maxilla" and "LowerTeeth" bones to determine what the limits need to be, then plug those numbers into the "Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls/head_on/off_constraints/mouth_constraints/lip_limits" Pose and turn it back on. Turn off the "Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls/head_on/off_constraints/mouth_constraints/jaw_limits" Pose, make another new Action, rotate the Jaw open and adjust the "orient like" of the "LowerTeeth" bone in the "Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls/lips/lips_to_jaw" Pose. Then, move the jaw around to determine the limits you want to place on it and plug those numbers into the "Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls/head_on/off_constraints/mouth_constraints/jaw_limits" Pose and then turn it back on. Once those poses are set, then I go about limiting the movement of the nose in the "Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls/nose_targeting" Pose and put limits on the cheeks in the "Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls/cheek_constraints" Pose. For the eyebrows, I unhide them using the "Show_and_Hide_Rig_Components/hide_face_setup_bones/hide_face_geom_bones" Pose, make a new Action and manually rotate them into a "eyebrows_raised" pose, make a new Action, make an "eyebrows_lower" Action and make a new Action for an "eyebrows_squeeze" Pose. I save those out as a safety, then I use those rotation numbers to make the FACE Poses for the eyebrows...you have to sort of split them up a little because the eyebrow controls divide them up, but you'll know what you're after at that point. Then, I move all of the controls to figure out if there is any CP Weighting that needs to be tweaked and make the FACE Poses. Depending on the character, there may be some percentages on Poses you'll want to tweak, but that is pretty much the process...if I left anything out, was confusing or gave out inaccurate information, let me know. Hope that helps. -------------------------- EDIT -------------------------- I left out the eyelids...once you've weighted your eyelids, you just make your eyelid Poses by rotating the "eyelid_control" bones. You can unhide them by setting the "Animation_Controls/FACE Interface/FACE off/Joint Controls/Split Controls" Pose to "3". To set the "Blink" Pose, make a new Action, set the "Blink" Pose to 100% and then move the sliders in the "Animation_Controls/FACE Interface/eyeblink_setup" Poses (in the model's User Properties so that it will be part of the model) until the blink location is where you want it.

Here's a quick look at installing the eye setup...the method in the Posable version is different, but pretty self-explanatory, I'll mention one thing in particular in the course of this explanation. The orange "Eye_right_INSTALL" and "Eye_left_INSTALL" bones are translated, scaled and rotated using the modes for those purposes, then hidden (the tip of those bones end at the curvature of the eyeball). That makes it easier to see the red "Eyelids_right_rotate_INSTALL" and "Eyelids_left_rotate_INSTALL" bones, which are for rotating the eyelid bones (from the front view, using rotate mode) on their 'Z' axis in order to match the orientation of the eye sockets. Then, those rotate INSTALL bones are hidden. The white eyelid INSTALL bones are rotated and scaled using the modes for each so that they end at the eyelid along the curve of the lid (see Squetchy Sam for a reference) and hidden. This exposes the black blink INSTALL bones. The blink INSTALL bones then are rotated on their 'X' axis until their 'X' rotation is "0" (ideally, but close to that is fine...I wasn't precise in the example because I wanted to keep the video as short as possible). That should make the blink INSTALL bones have the same 'X' rotation as the orange "Eye_right_INSTALL" and "Eye_left_INSTALL" bones. The rotating of the black blink INSTALL bones is automated in the Posable installation rigs. Hopefully, that will give you a good idea. eyelid_installation_example_Sorenson3.mov

Here's a couple of examples of how things in the divided eyelid setup work. eye_update_example_1_Sorenson3.mov eye_update_example_2_Sorenson3.mov

Here's the update with divided eyelids. In this update, along with the tweaks in the non-divided eyelid version, you have a lot more control of the eyelids. The example videos in the next post should give you an idea of what it can do, the divided eyelid versions of Squetchy Sam in this post has this setup installed so that you can mess with it. Some of the ideas came from watching a demo of something Raf Anzovin is making for other software and from watching the behind the scenes of an animation I liked (also other software). I then added a few things that I thought would be nice to have, an animatable blink location, some squetching and the ability to reshape the eyelids on the 'Z' axis. Mark will be uploading the Posable versions as soon as he's gone over them. If anyone finds any problems with these, let me know and I'll fix it as fast as I can. Thanks to Mark Skodacek, Mark Strohbehn and David Seymour for double-checking these updates. If you are using v11.1, you'll need the DLL files located here, there are instructions for installing them inside the ZIP file. You will need the InstallRig plugin for all versions. For the MirrorBones versions, you'll need the MirrorBone plugin. There is more information and add-ons on the Wiki. ---------------------------------- EDIT ---------------------------------- The files that have been updated were deleted from this post...the next update is here.

First, here's an update to the last versions of the rig...only a couple of very small organizational tweaks and an updated and corrected sheet listing the compensates. I decided that there should be a finalized, completely straightened out version (as far as I can tell at the moment, at least) of the non-divided eyelid versions of the rig. The first reason is that there presently isn't a tutorial covering the installation of the divided eyelid setup. I'll do a cursory explanation as a stop-gap measure for now and I plan to go through rigging a face in the course of a personal project that I'll be starting a thread on in the WIP section soon. The second reason is that there may be people that don't like the new eyelid setup and would rather use the previous version. Rather than try to maintain both eyelid versions, since the new version could be stripped down to be like the old setup, this will be the last release of the older eyelid setup. If there are requests for a step-by-step method of stripping the new version down, I'll try to get that done as time permits. If you are using v11.1, you'll need the DLL files located here, there are instructions for installing them inside the ZIP file. You will need the InstallRig plugin for all versions. For the MirrorBones versions, you'll need the MirrorBone plugin. There is more information and add-ons on the Wiki. ------------------------------ EDIT ------------------------------ These files have been deleted, the latest biped versions are here and the latest Quad versions are here.

Virtualdub is a free video editor for Windows that can also deinterlace for those that don't have Premiere.

The nose flares automatically when the mouth widens, but there isn't a specific pose for just nostril flaring at the moment...it would be easy to add a muscle pose though. There is an automatic bicep flex in there...there aren't any leg flexing things in at the moment, but they could be added in the same way I did the biceps. There isn't any throat/neck movement in there at the moment. The cheeks and ears have automatic movement...poses could be added for direct control. There isn't a "tongue in cheek" pose or swallow at the moment, but the next update (in the next couple of days) will have a lot of eye stuff that might have the ability to do a "tick" (depending on what type of "tick" you're talking about). "Sniff" could probably be gotten across using the "sneer" controls. Face jiggle could be put in pretty easily. A Wiki would probably be the way to go. I'm going to try to make tutorials as I work on this project I'm on and see if I can knock a few things out at once. There are still some places that the rig can be added to, you point out some that I'll be looking at as I go along, Rusty. I've got a pretty significant upgrade to the eyes/eyelids that I'll be getting out in the next couple of days...it's a start.

The "stomach_IO_geom" and "chest_IO_geom" are for chest and stomach expansion and contraction and are used in the "Animation_Controls/TORSO" Poses. You don't have to use them, you can use muscle movement for that if you like. If you do decide to use them, weight them last for the torso. First, do your weighting using the "stomach_geom", "mid_section_geom" and "chest_geom", get everything to bend the way you want, and then expand the stomach and chest using those torso poses to weight between those and the "IO" bones. If you put together a FAQ, it would probably help a lot of people...you've been very thorough in everything else you've done, Rusty. Anyone that wants to make a tutorial, guide, chart, list or whatever is more than welcome as long as they make sure the information is accurate at the time it's made. I'm going to be doing some tutorials over the next couple of months as I put together a personal project, hopefully those will help people as well.

All of the bones appeared to be in the correct place, so I don't think it's the installer. It looks like you missed the "right_thigh_base" bone when you reset compensates, Rusty...it can domino from there. I reset the compensates and it appears to work fine, I'll send you a link in a PM.

I only checked the arms and shoulders, Rusty...I'll take a look at it this evening.

Hit "Ctrl+P" to open the "Options" menu, select the "Global" tab and change your "Realtime driver" (it's on the bottom left)...if it's "OpenGL", change it to "Direct3D", if it's "Direct3D" change it to "OpenGL". Hope that helps.

There's a contact page here. Hope that helps.

Did the knight that someone gave you look like this? ---------------------------- EDIT ---------------------------- I guess I'll have to call this contest (I've run out of play time for today)...Vern was definitely the winner. You've got great instincts, Vern. I wonder if the models fell off this CD too?

Try this one. Hope that helps.

So, you're looking for a specific alien model? If you're expecting something to match your exact specifications, you're probably going to have to make it yourself...unless it's one you've seen somewhere before and you're asking if anyone knows where to find it. Can you be a little clearer about which it is?

I have run across instances occasionally where I had to use the Timeline to set the "0" end of the compensates...I would try that here. At 100%, set the enforcement to "0", hit the compensate button, change the enforcement to 100%, open the Timeline, select each compensate individually and copy the values from the 100% to the 0% of the Pose. It shouldn't move at all when you slide the Pose slider. If it still twitches, there's something else we'll have to track down. Hope that helps, Rusty.

Porcelain is on the CD under "data/materials/geometry"...if you set it to "0" it will help and not make your model look like porcelain. The biggest thing though, don't use porcelain or bias tweaks to try to make up for bad modeling...it will just bite you when you try moving the character. Hope that helps.

Welcome to the community, Russ! To solve your problem, it would be easier if we could see the Action file...you can start a thread somewhere like the WIP section and post it there.

I think the "make alien" button would be better in this case...it's right next to the "make dragon" button.

Jeff Paries is using Animation Master from 1999 in the tutorial, but it should work the same for your version. He doesn't show making the actual Pose...your image has you about to make one, you just have to select either "Percentage" or "On/Off". That will make a Pose that you can edit...that's what the links are in your Project Workspace's Relationship folder. Next time, try posting your image as either a PNG or JPG...BMP's are pretty big in file size. Hope that helps.

The A.R.M. isn't being maintained anymore, so there are probably quite a few broken links. You might try the Tutorials section of the forum, the list here, do a forum search or ask someone. Hope that helps.

I'm curious, Rusty.