itsjustme

I'm not sure if this is just something I'm doing wrong, so I thought I'd ask before I submitted it to Hash. I posted it here so that I could attach the sample project. I have been getting some errors when making a key frame when there's a bone that rotates on the "Z" axis. I put together a project file here that illustrates what I'm encountering. In "Action1", rotate the "redhalf" bone (it should be the only one visible) on the "Z" axis (the limits are set where it should only move that way anyway), then set a key. If you are getting what I am, the geometry will move when you set the key and it will move a little more if you hit the button to set the key again. It does that for a couple of hits of the button. In "Action2", select the "rotator" bone (there should be two visible) and rotate it on the "Z" axis (it should only rotate on that axis as well), then set a key. If you are getting what I am, "bone1" will move when you set the key and it will also move more each time you hit the button (at least for a couple of times). If anyone can tell me what I'm doing wrong, I'd appreciate it. I've tried this test in v11t and v11o.

Okay, now I think it's working like it should...you can manipulate each eye individually and both eyes together in tandem. In "Action1" you use either the right or left eye manipulator nulls to move the eyes individually and the center null (botheyesmanipulator) to move them both. This way you can say have both eyes following different objects, meet in the middle and then move together to follow them as they move in the same area. Did that make sense? Well, experiment and you'll see what I mean if it didn't. Edit-- If you were the first or second person to download this file and the controls aren't working correctly, download it again it should be fixed. I think I got the right version up before anyone downloaded, but I could be mistaken. Sorry 'bout that.

Rodney, Here's a two eye setup of the cartoon eye for people to mess with. You can dilate each eye individually or together and you can manipulate both eyes at the same time or individually...there's an on/off pose for manipulating them at the same time in the model's (tooneye) "User Properties". I also applied the porcelain material this time and re-sized them. When you first open the project the "botheyesmanipulator" is set to "on". In "Action1" grab the center null to move the eyes around. If you turn the "botheyesmanipulator" property off then you can use the right and left eye manipulators independently....it could be done better, I'll mess with it again tomorrow.

Well, after posting the eye tutorial I made I was asked about a cartoony eye and thought about applying the spherical constraint in this thread to the problem. It demonstrates a possible use for the constraint, so I thought I'd post it here. It's just a "proof of concept" type of thing, so don't expect it to be perfect...there are plenty of things about it that could be better. In the project, open "Action1" if it's not already open and move the visible Null named "eyemanipulator". That moves the pupil around and deforms the eyeball. To adjust the size of the pupil, there is a "pupildilation" slider in the "User Properties" section of the "tooneye" model.

After talking to Rodney Baker I decided to post a project file that was the result of a discussion on making a spherical constraint with Carl Raillard on CGTalk. Here's a description of what it does: When you open the "spherical.prj" project, it should have "Action1" open and ready to mess with (if not, double-click on "Action1" to open it). What you see is "Bone1" as the bone that defines the sphere, "Bone2" as the bone you would attach any geometry to and "Null2" (at the intersection of "Bone1" and "Bone2") which is the manipulator...there is also a "Null1" that is set so that it isn't seen which helps drive this. When you move "Null2" around ("Bone2" can be moved independently as well, but the constraint only works by manipulating "Null2") you'll see that "Bone2" follows while remaining within the area defined by "Bone1". You can move "Null2" outside of the defined area, but "Bone2" will still remain inside. You can adjust the area within the sphere that "Bone2" can occupy by changing the setting on the "Translate Limits" of "Null1" in the "Pose1" relationships folder. To make "Bone2" able to operate in a larger sphere, you'll need to increase the maximum translate limit for "X" to something above zero, to keep "Bone2" from reaching the center of the sphere, you have to change the the minimum translate limit for "X" to something higher (-14, -13, etc) than "-15cm".