itsjustme

Most of the characters I've seen had a similar FK arm manipulation...I was going for a true FK making nothing move unless you specifically moved it, but, I have to agree that it is more intuitive the way you have it. You would have to be more conscious of what was moving where with a true FK. The v13 addition will be very cool. Not a problem, I left it as a percentage pose until everything was nailed down. Easy change. Thanks for spending so much time on this, Noel.

Okay, here's the first beta for the Squetch Rig so that the Animation Directors can give it a good going over. It still needs some stuff under the hood, but those things would either affect installation or a reduction in complexity. I expect there to be notes from the AD's on what they would like to see changed/fixed, so I'll hold off on the installation version until I can get everything in the engine and some more feedback from them. Some things to note: 1. I left the IK toe controllers untethered so that they can be translated when using them when the using FK feet when the legs are in IK. 2. There's a pose called "Tumbling" that frees everything up so that the character can do things like tumbling runs, etc. by translating/rotating the hips. 3. There is are percentage poses that allows the knees to be set to orient like the feet less than 100% ("knee_right/left_orient_like_foot_IK"). These come in handy when doing some extreme poses with the legs. 4. As has been the case with a few previous versions, the IK hands can be used in FK with the "IK_hand_right/left_hand_control" poses and the FK feet can be used when the legs are in IK with the "IK_foot_right/left" poses. 5. Squetching can be done using either the percentage poses in the "Squetch_Controls" section or you can squetch any joint in any direction using the underlying nulls that can be exposed using the poses that unhide them in the same section...it's less precise than using the sliders, but you can get just about anything you want out of them. I left the poses to unhide the squetch nulls in the "Squetch_Controls" section in order to have them in a more convenient place than the "Show_and_Hide_Rig_Components" section. I've decided to go with a date in the name since I don't want to name anything "Final"...I've done enough of that I want to thank David Rogers and Mike Fitzgerald for their help, it is invaluable and very much appreciated. In the next couple of days there should be more information and additions/modifications made. As always, if anyone sees a problem let me know and I'll fix it as quickly as I can.

Cool, Drvarceto! I'm guessing it's a parenting issue, unless I messed up the installation version after I tested it...try checking the hierarchy against Squetchy Thom to see if there's an issue. That's the easiest way to get a problem, if you accidentally drop a bone on the wrong parent it can mess things up. If you use the "show_geom_bones" pose in the "setup" tab of the Pose menu when you're doing the CP weighting it should help. You're right, it is an intimidating thing at first. I tried to make the installation as easy as I could...there's always room for improvement though. I can see how a plug-in or script could ease the installation process...if anyone wants to tackle it, I'll be in line to get it. It had to be put together so that the squetching could be isolated, the structure relies on a lot of "translate to" constraints and targets. Let me know how the search for problems goes. There is going to be a new installation version with some improvements and changes shortly along with an updated Squetchy Thom to reflect those changes.

That's definitely an "A+"...nice, jamagica!

Nice! I can't wait to see what you're cooking up for these characters.

What kind of corruption, Drvarceto? Was it that negative values of your sliders disappeared? If that was the case, the values are still there you would just have to reset the negative limit on the slider again. That is why you have to import the model you're rigging into the rig...it has a lot of sliders with negative values. However, that means that those values on the model you're importing will be affected if it has them. I should have qualified that statement by saying that that's the time it would take after having done it a few times...the first time will take longer, but, it doesn't sound like it went too bad for your first time through. LOL, I wouldn't go that far, but, it does make this installation easier. There are a lot of bones located in the same places and it would be very tedious to manually place each one. It was the easiest method I could come up with. I'm sure it's doable, I just don't know how much it would take. Maybe someone will come up with something. Let me know if you find anything that needs to be fixed with the installation version, Drvarceto. It sounds promising so far.

Thanks for taking a look, David! You're right about the location of the controls...I'll take a look at your example tonight, thanks for spending so much time on this. Thanks for taking a look, Bob! I learn something new every day! Very cool, I'll take a look at that again to see if I can cut down on the number of bones. Thanks, Noel! Very helpful. Sometimes I'm throwing so much around that I lose track of what I'm naming things...yeah, some of the names could use fixing. I think your elbow solution would be better...I'll take a look tonight. Once again, thanks for taking the time guys! I have a lot of good stuff to digest.

That's a good question, Charles...I havent' messed with it, but I don't see why there would be a problem.

Nice, Mike! Which company did you have make it? Plastic, right?

It shouldn't be hard to put in, David...just adjusting one thing and making a new percentage pose. I'll look at it tonight. Well, as the rig is now, if you want to do some mid-air spinning and tumbling you need to use FK leg controls and then rotate the "hips_IK", "chest_FK", "neck_control" and "head_control" bones. I could put in a couple more bones strictly for tumbling to make it easier. I would put in one for each axis so as to minimize the chance of gimble lock. If I'm already adding to it, I might as well do both. I'm just looking silly with the names I'm using... Whatever I add will also go into an updated version of the installation rig and the Loon rig. ------------------------------ EDIT ------------------------------ Anything else while I'm under the hood?

The heel raiser is in front of the shins like Mark Strohbehn pointed out. The control that moves the heel up and down at the back of the foot is for deforming the foot when it needs to wrap around something like walking on a balance beam. I think that CP weighting would solve most problems...some characters might require modifications. As an example, I added individual toes for the Loon. I'm thinking that I should add two more controls to Squetchy Thom for overall body tumbling...I haven't because it's a simple addition, and I feel really silly making "Final_update_v1000". It's a different set of controls than you are probably used to, it'll take a little getting used to.

Installation isn't very lengthy really...I've just been busy, and obsessive. It would only take thirty minutes or so to get the rig in, the CP weighting depends on the person doing it and how obsessive they are.

Very cool, David! Nice animation!

Thanks for giving it a good once over, Drvarceto. If you find anything that needs fixing, let me know. Hopefully, I did it right the first time.

Thanks for testing it out, Mark. I don't think there will be any problems, but I might have mis-labeled something or forgot to do something...hopefully, it works right the first time. Let me know if you find anything that needs to be addressed.

I'll bump this once in case it got buried and anyone interested missed it.

Also, the installation version of the four-fingered rig...the five fingered version will get done when I get a little time. The instructions are in a PDF inside the ZIP file along with the installation version. In the examples I used in the instructions I used the Loon character even though the final rig in that character will be altered...it's what I had at this time to use as an illustration, so, rather than wait longer I went with it. I'll name it "beta1" for now in case there are any problems that I missed. If you have any problems with this or have any questions, flag me down.

I'm going to post a few things to try to clean up a few loose ends today. First, here's the Final for Squetchy Thom. The only differences in this version is a correction I made in the forearms that won't show up unless you are installing the rig...it makes the movement of the "forearm_1" and "forearm_2" bone movement more like I originally intended. As a result of the change, I altered the CP weighting in the forearms...it shouldn't affect any Actions that you made with the update6 version. As usual, if I overlooked something and there is a problem, let me know and I'll fix it as fast as I can.

I'm finally going to have some more time over the next couple of days, so, I should have something soon...I know, I've said that before. Life has been getting in the way some lately. I don't know if I'll render any tests for the Loon...I'm thinking that having a model to mess with would be better for people to evaluate and make suggestions. I may end up posting the Loon, the installation version and an updated Squetchy Thom all at the same time...or nearly the same time. Thanks for giving Squetchy Thom a workout, Drvarceto.

LOL, I didn't notice it was backwards. Still, at least you thought about it.

I like the pupil dilation, nice detail. As far as paint programs that can create TGA's with an alpha, GIMP is a fantastic free paint program. Incidentally, I have a Script-Fu for GIMP that will generate an iris (including one with lizard-like pupils) here...the August 10, 2005 entry.

Yessir, I changed the values in the action and a couple of names. First, I opened the action in Notepad (text editor) and did a search and replace that changed "bicep_left/right_FK" to "bicep_left/right_FK_controller" and "forearm_left/right_FK" to "forearm_left/right_FK_controller". Next, the "foot_control_left/right_IK" bones 'Z' orientation is 180 degrees different than they used to be...I thought it would be better to be able to aim the roll handles at something on the ground. So, I opened the Action in AM (I actually had the current update of Squetchy Thom loaded so that I could see if I was actually fixing it) and went to each key frame for each foot control and changed the 'Z' values to 180 degrees different (the starting point would be "0", so, if the control was 180, it would be changed to "0" and a little addition/subtraction depending on the difference from 180). That fixed the feet. Finally, the "chest_FK" bone needed to have the 'X' value change from "-90" to "0" and the 'Z' value from "-180" to "0" as the starting point. I went to each keyframe for that bone and changed the values based on that starting point. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused, Ken. How many Actions did you make? I could fix them for you if you'd like, just send me a PM with your e-mail address and I'll give you mine so you can send them if you need to.

Okay, here's the fixed version of your Action, Ken. It wasn't that anything was broken, it was that the orientation of some bones and the controls had changed since this was made...it worked fine with the Finalupdate2 version of Squetchy Thom as it was. The updated Action works fine with the latest update...you might want to double check to make sure I didn't miss anything though. Nice Action, by the way.

Ken? Maybe you missed the last post...could you post the Action? Also, is anyone else having the same issue? If so, could you post an Action?

Hmmm, could you post the Action, Ken? It looks like a bone somewhere is flipping...the Action would help me isolate it.