itsjustme

Sure, but you would have to do a lot of modifying. The easiest thing to do would be to use TSM2, it's free now.

LOL! In Bertram's case, I really wanted functional pockets. 99.99% of the time, pockets aren't an issue...I can't remember a 3D character off the top of my head that actually used their pockets. I didn't want things to just magically appear in his hand or have him go into his pockets slightly off-camera to cheat the shot. I could have done the same sort of thing using Smartskin, but it would have taken longer to set up and I wouldn't have the bones to use as handles to open and close the pockets.

My spare time has been at a minimum for the past couple of weeks, sorry to be taking so long. I did get some time today to put in some controls for Bertram's pockets...he's going to have to be able to put his hands in them. Here are a couple of quick test clips showing how the pockets move with the legs and how the controls work. There are three fan bones with their bases anchored to the same nulls that anchor the legs, those bones have the inner and outer pocket bones as children and the CP Weighting is split up between them to get decent movement. It might need more tweaking of the weighting before it's finally finished. The next little addition that I need to mess with is a setup for the belt buckle, then I can get back to the gut add-on...I wanted to have the lower half of Bertram's body worked out first. pocket_controls_09_17_2008_Sorenson3.mov pocket_test_09_17_2008_Sorenson3.mov

The Path Ease (walk, then wave) tutorial might be a help for you on this one. If there is no previous key on a bone, then it will start its' movement from the beginning of the animation...add a key to the torso so that it won't begin turning until you want it to happen. Hope that helps.

You only have to create a username and password...that's it.

Looks great, Mark!

I spent a couple more days knocking around the Quad and Six Leg rigs, typed up the installation instructions and put together the Six Leg add-ons...it took a little longer than I initially thought it would. Mark is still shaking things down in the Quad and Six Leg rigs while doing the two installations on his plate, I'm now back to the gut rig add-on and then the biped rig while doing Bertram's installation and installation tutorial. A lot of things are going to be finished at the same time.

I added more splineage to Bertram's legs, I was a little too frugal when I modeled him initially. I'm hoping to get the gut rig to Mark in a day or two. I had to spend a couple of days getting the Posable Quad Squetch Rig updated and knocked together a Posable six legged Squetch Rig. Mark is going to be installing them in SO characters (I believe a frog and a grasshopper), so if that goes well we will release them as soon as we're pretty sure we've found any potential problems. We've had the Posable Quad Rig on a back burner for quite a while, it'll feel good to get that out.

The best explanation that I've seen is Yves' Tutorial. Hope that helps, Eric.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the free time I thought I would, so I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, George. I did some CP Weighting on the most recent installation of the legs and that's about it. I think the gut rig is close, there's one thing I still need to add to it...I need to finish the CP Weighting to do more testing. The leg installation is a place that I needed to do some experimenting on the bone placement, so that's what I'm going through. Normally, it would be just about finding the center of the hips, but Bertram's design isn't like most characters. Initially, I estimated too high for the origin of the thighs, so I lowered that and am redoing everything accordingly. The gut rig is set to raise the lower part of the gut on each side (it's adjustable) as the knees are raised, which affects how the CP Weighting needs to be done. I should have some time to work late tonight...I realize this has been taking way too long.

I can't pull a word out of my pocket like "bucolic", so I'll just have to settle for "that kicks ass"! Very cool so far, Mark!

I've been doing a lot of testing on the possible gut rig, re-rigged the legs on Bertram and did a lot of CP Weighting the past few days. I've also put some rotate manipulator limits on the toe and heel controls in the Squetch Rig...I know, that's a minor thing, but I figured I would mention it while I'm at it. I should be able to get a lot done this weekend.

I corrected the problems with the FACE interface (file is attached), it should now hide correctly using the Pose. However, in modeling mode, no Pose will hide anything...you'll have to select the geometry you want to see and then hit the "H" key to hide everything else. The face rig bones don't look like they are being used, you appear to be going for a muscle-based setup. If that's the case, you can delete the mouth, cheek, jowl, ear, nose, tongue and brow bones. You can also delete the "Face_underlying_controls" Poses. In order for the FACE controls to work, you will have to set up your Poses using the Poses in the "FACE Interface" folder. Mark Strohbehn's tutorials for setting up the FACE controls with muscle Poses are linked on this page. Hope that helps, Steve. rigging2_fixed2.zip

Good luck in the festivals, Dusan!

Looks very cool, Mark!

Just a quick update on my progress. I spent a couple of days going over the Squetch Rig installations and fixed a few things...mostly in the four fingered version. There were a couple of Poses that were duplicated, the "z_right/left_toes_IK_pointer" bones needed to have the "z_" added to the name in the four fingered version, I changed the default euler limit on the negative side of the 'X' limit for the calves and forearms to "-10" (since that is going to be pretty common anyway), fixed the manipulator limits for elbow and knee controllers (a couple of them were showing all rotations instead of only the ones needed), added more movement to the installation Poses in the spine, added more scaling to the jaw installation Pose, added some 'Z' rotation Poses to the installation of the fingers and tightened up the bone positioning in the arms and legs to reduce errors (that's what took the most time). Once I get through a complete installation to find anything else that may need tweaking and have Mark go over the changes, I'll get the next release of the biped Squetch Rig posted. Then, I installed the four fingered biped rig into Bertram so that I can do better testing of the gut add-on that I want to put in. I'm in the middle of doing the CP Weighting on the body...I'm going to hold off on the face until I get the gut worked out, send that to Mark for review, then go back and finish the installation tutorial I started. It has taken some time, but I think it was necessary. ---------------------------------- EDIT ---------------------------------- I forgot to mention that the "z_right/left_toes_IK_pointer" bones renaming was in the "right/left_leg_FK_IK" Poses.

13s is the minimum needed to use the Posable installation, but, any v13 should work fine for using the Squetch Rig. The FACE controls can be unhidden in an Action or Choreography using the "Animation_Controls/FACE Interface/FACE off/Joint Controls/Split Controls" Pose in the "Pose Sliders" menu..."0" hides the FACE controls, "1" unhides the controls that link both sides of the face, "2" unhides the controls that split the sides of the face, "3" will also unhide the individual eyelid controls and "4" will unhide the eye socket bones. Hope that helps, Jake.

LOL! I've got the same dream, George. I don't think it will ever get that easy, but it can always improve. Thanks, George. Not a problem, Mike. Your testing and input on the things we're building are payment, it helps us a lot. Yessir, I've got a thing I'm putting together for Bertram's gut and "love handles" that could be an add-on. It's got a few areas that I need to adjust (that's what I'm going to work on tonight), but I should be sending you something to critique soon. I'll also send you the updated installation rigs for review.

It's been over a week since my last Bertram post, so I figured I had better post so that this section didn't appear dead. I'll pin this thread so that it will be easy to take a quick look to see what I'm bashing against my skull at that moment. What I've been doing is updating the biped Squetch Rig installation rigs, working on a possible add-on for the rig, started the Squetch Rig installation tutorial and started modeling a prop. Since most of those things are inter-related, they will probably all get finished at the same time...I'm using Bertram's rig installation to troubleshoot the rig and add-on, and as the model for the tutorial. Sorry for the delay on the things I'm going to release.

Just because he lacks modeling talent doesn't mean he should jeopardize his morals to make a movie. I'd like to think that it should go without saying (tasteful, that is) but who really knows what is going on in the minds of others on the net. "Tasteful" could mean a lot of things...later he clarifies that he's referring to porn. Saying, "As long as it isn't porn" is different than saying "As long as it's tasteful", don't you think? Good luck on the project, Darkwing.

It could be done, but you would have to make the overall rig different depending on exactly how you want it to work. If you want each part to be completely independent of the rest of the body and put into any rig, you would lose some of the things that rely on other parts...like steady shoulders, steady arms, auto hips, etc. It could be done though. If you want each part to be plugin parts to add up to a whole character that all use the same rig, you could do it by changing the installation some. So, that could be done as well...just differently. It's not a bad idea, but it would take a lot of work either way. To me, the second method would be the way to go, that way the number of variables is reduced.

I did a little messing with the latest version and think a couple of things would be decent additions, but not deal-breakers at all. I like how the thumb works with the Gizmo, but it would be cool if there was an option to exclude it. I got some good hand positions with it as-is, but I can see how it could be beneficial to have it independent. I think putting some "Rotate Only" manipulator limits on the toes would be helpful. That's all I could come up with in the way of suggestions...very solid, Mark!

Darkwing, have you ever heard the phrase "Looking a gift horse in the mouth"? You have someone willing to help you if you help them in an even trade and you want to have final approval on their project?

I haven't had a chance to look at the latest version, but I should get to it sometime tonight.

Jeff Lew has a couple of rigged characters that he made in v10.5 that you could use...they are here and here. There is an old version of Squetchy Sam that works in v11.1, here...he's rigged as well.