itsjustme

Thanks! I forgot all about Squetchy Sam! Now... is there an easy way to make all of the geom bones visible in the Squetchy Sam model in the model view/bones mode? To make the "geom" bones visible in the Bones window, you can just run the InstallRig plugin...it won't affect anything else.

I keep "Squetchy Sam" up to date, you can get him in this post...there is also a link to all Squetch Rig related stuff on the Wiki page (it's also in my signature at the bottom of every post I make). There are a few bones here and there that aren't used in Squetchy Sam...they weren't needed for him, but might be necessary for other characters. He'll give you a good idea for most of the weighting though. Hope that helps, Rusty.

If you can point me at a model that you have rigged and what you want replaced, I can give you a step by step for that, Rusty.

The instructions I listed showed how to get rid of everything except the head stuff on a character rigged with the Squetch Rig, get rid of the head stuff on the Posable installation rig and then combine the two so that you had the head and face stuff from the previously installed character and a new installation for everything else. I went through all of the steps myself to make sure that I didn't give you incorrect information and it worked flawlessly...I got absolutely no errors. If the plugin can't find the parent bone, it just does nothing for that orphan bone. Was the character rigged with some other rig previously? That could cause the problem with not being able to find the parent. If it is a character with some other rig in it, the instructions I gave would need modifying.

Usually, I put the date in every character's name so that I can keep track of them better. That way I know which version is the latest, what rig version I used (or at least close) and what is old enough or unfinished enough to delete. I could put the rig version number in there somewhere if you really think it's necessary, but the way I work it isn't.

Since you're replacing a Squetch Rig head with another Squetch Rig head, you won't need to delete those Poses. The only thing that will probably be needed for those Poses is to reset the compensate on the "head_and_neck_orient_like_chest" Pose.

I haven't heard anything, but I assume it's still being worked on.

When you save out your model, you could include the rig version in the name...that would be one way to do it, Rusty.

Yes. Not really, the rig is complete, but the bone hierarchy has been split up for installation. The InstallRig plugin restores the bone hierarchy. In an Action or Choreography, the rig has Poses that hide all of the bones not used for animating...you can unhide whatever you need using those Poses. In the Bones window, the Poses don't apply, but, the InstallRig plugin will unhide all of the bones with "geom" (the geometry bones) in the name to help you assign CP's if you use that window. I use an Action to assign the CP Weighting for the most part, but I use the Bones window to rough them in. Sure, you could do that. How well it works would be dependent on the geometry changes. You could do that...that's what Rusty was asking how to do, sort of. That's the same kind of plan Rusty is using, his is slightly different. Having a generic character that you tweak the geometry of to make new characters should work fine. Hope that helps.

The Squetch Rig is different from a lot of rigs because the parenting of the bones isn't done in the same way. In a standard rig, all of the bones that the geometry is assigned to are parented much like the control setup. The Squetch Rig isolates each individual geometry bone so that you can squash and stretch every individual joint (and in some instances it's subdivided further than that). That makes it where you can't just drag a control bone in the Bones window and have everything that that bone moves follow, because there are a lot of bones that are tied to it using constraints instead of parenting. If you tried to use the 2001 Rig installation method on the Squetch Rig, you would have a tangled mess. To get around the problem, I put in "INSTALL" bones. I tore the rig apart and parented everything so that moving the "INSTALL" bones (using the rotate, scale and translate modes or poses in the Posable installation rig that Mark Skodacek made) would move everything correctly. The problem with that, is then you would have to go through and delete a couple hundred bones and re-parent everything manually...unless you use the InstallRig plugin (thanks to Noel). The InstallRig plugin deletes any bone that has "INSTALL" in its' name, reparents the bones using the hierarchy that is in the bone's name after the word "INSTALL" and unhides all of the geometry bones when in the Bones window. I made a tutorial that shows the process of making an installation rig that is located here...with that information, you could make your own installation rig that can use the InstallRig plugin. Once you get the bones in place and run the InstallRig plugin, you are left with resetting any compensates that need adjusting (there's a list included in the ZIP file) and CP Weighting. In the Squetch Rig, geometry should be assigned to bones with "geom" in their name. The Wiki page for the Squetch Rig has links to every version of the Squetch Rig, add-ons and tutorials. At the bottom of the page is a standalone version of the FACE setup, three different versions are included (one with just FACE, FACE with tongue bones and FACE with the entire bones setup). At present, I don't have a separate set of hands...but I can always strip out a set if necessary. Let me know if you still want them. I think I covered the questions...if I missed something, I can always try again.

No offense taken. I use MirrorBone a lot, it should be a part of everyone's workflow. Steffen did a fantastic job on it and his other plugins are just as good...well worth downloading all of them, in my opinion.

Yes. I'm sorry for the 'email hiccups'... this is a forum but it seems that stumbling 'cause written messages aren't always clear isn't confined to email... my bad.... it happens. Thanks!! Rusty Not a problem, Rusty. If there is something about the explanation that isn't clear or incorrect, let me know and I'll see if I can straighten it out. It's hard sometimes to get a procedure across with just text. Don't hesitate to ask if something doesn't go as expected.

Using the Posable rig, remove (as in get rid of) everything related to the head except the head bone... leaving the posable rig for everything below the neck and the head bone. If I'm understanding (maybe I'm still not), isn't that what I outlined, Rusty?

Maybe I'm confused, Rusty...the instructions I outlined are for if you have a face and head on a character that you want to keep the rigging for and want to replace the rest of the rig. The instructions for the character deletes everything except the head and face/FACE stuff, the instructions for the installation rig deletes only the head and face/FACE stuff. On the Posable installation rig, you will still need the main head "INSTALL" bone so that you can get the neck to end in the correct place. Is that what you need?

Okay, I believe this is the answer, Rusty: If you have a character that is already rigged with a version of the Squetch Rig, and want to keep your current face rig, FACE controls and weighting (for the face and head), here's what I would do: On your character: 1. Move the "body_SQUETCH_base/body_SQUETCH_pivot/body_SQUETCH_character/base_bone/head_orient_like_chest/neck_control/head_manual_control" (along with all of its' children) and the "body_SQUETCH_base/FACE Interface - Master" (along with all of its' children) to the top of the Bones folder (which would put it on the same level in the hierarchy as the "Master_EyeTarget"). 2. Delete every bone other than the "Master_EyeTarget", "FACE Interface - Master" and the "head_manual_control" (and their children). 3. Delete all of the non-FACE related Smartskins. 4. Delete all Poses except in the following folders: a-"Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls" b-"Animation_Controls/FACE Interface" c-"Show_and_Hide_Rig_Components/hide_all_eyeblink_nulls" d-"Show_and_Hide_Rig_Components/hide_face_setup_bones" e-"Show_and_Hide_Rig_Components/hide_FACE_non_tweaking_bones" In the Posable installation rig: 1. Delete "Master_EyeTarget", "blink_main_INSTALL", "HeadProxy_INSTALL", "face_INSTALL" and the "FACE Interface_INSTALL_body_SQUETCH_base" (and their children). 2. Delete the "head_manual_control" bone and its' children (it's under one of the children of the "head_INSTALL" bone). 3. Under "Groups", delete the "FACE_groups" folder. 4. Delete the FACE control labels in the modeling window. 5. Delete all of the FACE related Smartskins. 6. Delete the following Pose folders: a-"Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls" b-"Animation_Controls/FACE Interface" c-"Show_and_Hide_Rig_Components/hide_all_eyeblink_nulls" d-"Show_and_Hide_Rig_Components/hide_face_setup_bones" e-"Show_and_Hide_Rig_Components/hide_FACE_non_tweaking_bones" Now, after saving both of those models, import the character into the Posable installation model and go through the normal Posable installation method. After you have run the InstallRig plugin, re-parent the "FACE Interface - Master" bone as a child of the "body_SQUETCH_base" bone and re-parent the "head_manual_control" bone as a child of the "body_SQUETCH_base/body_SQUETCH_pivot/body_SQUETCH_character/base_bone/head_orient_like_chest/neck_control" bone. It shouldn't cause a problem. Hope that helps.

I show a similar method in the A Face Rigging Method tutorial, that might help. However, if you are using v13 or v14, you can just use Steffen Gross' "MirrorBone" plugin that you can find on this page. Hope that helps.

I'll have to answer this one tonight...I'm out of time at the moment, but I thought I'd let you know that I saw this and will get you an answer tonight. I want to make sure what I'm telling you is correct, so I'll have to actually go through the steps to confirm everything. Sorry for the delay, Rusty.

All of the bones not needed for animating are hidden using Poses (with a couple of exceptions, like the eyelid bones). You can unhide whatever you want in bones mode, but they will (for the most part, like I said) be hidden in an Action or Choreography. Hope that helps, Rusty.

Did you make the Poses with an Action open? Sometimes the Action gets the changes by accident. Whenever you make a new Pose, close all other Actions and Poses...unless there is some copying between them. Hope that helps.

The Hash Online Store takes credit cards...you can also call them, the contact information is here. Hope that helps.

So, it's a legal copy? Without a "Data" folder?

Sorry I gave the wrong file name, I left part out, I actually tried to save a file called (rabbitwalk1.prj--I typed it all in myself) and then got error and I am runnig on windows xp professional. I recently upgraded from v.12 to v.13 and I have not tried to make file name longer to see if that was an issue or not. So if length is not the issue I have no ideal why it would give an error.. I really enjoy this software and this forum is very helpful. I apppreciate the time anyone takes to answer a post or give advice. Thanks. Were you overwriting a previous Project with the same name? Or did this happen the first time you saved the Project under that name?

I regularly save long file names with underscores instead of spaces...I have never hit a limit. This is on WinXP, but I know on older operating systems like Win98 it might be a problem. An example of a filename I've used would be "v13_Four_Finger_Squetch_Rig_06_15_2007_installation_Foot_Gizmo.mdl"...I've had similarly long filenames for Projects, but I don't remember them at the moment.

Maybe a bone for each button with a dynamic constraint (collisions turned on) on them for the springiness and a path constraint to anchor the button bones to the material (a short spline sticking up off of the surface of the material)? I haven't tried it, but it works in my head.

It looks like the hip null has been moved forward in a Pose somewhere...that's not the only thing it could be, but that's what it looks like. Hope that helps.