itsjustme

Thanks, guys. I've still got a few things to tweak...I also want to make sure it doesn't break too easily. You're going to laugh when you see what's driving it, Mark...it's very simple. I originally started with a lot more complex setup and then figured out I didn't need most of it. I'm hoping to get it in a condition to send you an example in the next couple of days...I need to reassure myself about a few movements.

I'm not what I would consider a "real" modeler, but I've done a modest amount of it. For organic models, I use very little bias tweaking...and only in areas that don't move or move very little. The reason is that the tweaked bias will maintain its' position as it is moved. It won't pop, but it also won't move like an untweaked bias. Sometimes that isn't a problem, but in a lot of areas it is. If the model is purely for a still image, then the tweaking won't matter. For an average human character, I tweak the bias in the eye (there's a link to my eye making tutorial in my signature), teeth, ear, sometimes the top of the skull, finger nails, tips of the fingers and I generally reduce the percentages along the edge of the nose to get a slight crease. For mechanical models, I tweak the bias quite a bit...also on parts that don't need to bend, but that (bending parts) is more rare in mechanical models. Hope that helps, Caroline.

I'm still tinkering with it, but I figured I should show where I'm at with the gut rig. Here is a quick clip showing how it presently works...there are still a few things that I need to do further testing on and some CP Weighting needs fixing. Bertram_gut_test1_Sorenson3.mov

Joe Williamson's "Hunter" is a stylized human, but it might give you an idea of what you could do. There are several animations: Hunter dynamics test Hunter motion capture Hunter forest (this one uses Hunter composited into live action video) Hunter dances Hunter motion matching test (this one also has Hunter composited into live action video) Hope that helps.

I've gotten the gut portion of the gut rig worked out, but I'm still working on the love handle portion. Hopefully, I'll get that worked out tonight so that I can show an example video. Sorry for taking so long to post, I wanted to have a decent visual...I'm not that far away from one, I think.

There are four "dead-end" splines that I have marked in red...there are a lot of other things that need to be tweaked, but that is the source of the sharp edges. Hope that helps.

For the face rig in the Squetch Rig, the solution was another layer of bones with "aim at" constraints in the "Blink" Poses...I don't know if that will work for this situation, but I thought I would mention it in case it does. It's looking fantastic, Mark!

Looks great so far, Heiner!

You are a scary man, Stian!

I returned to my normal work schedule a few days ago after three weeks with no time off from my job...I haven't had any free time, unfortunately. I started looking at the gut rig again last night and have done some revising. Sorry for the lack of updates, I'm going to have more time now, so I should get a lot done soon.

Very cool, Mark!

Squetchy Sam is completely rigged, including facial Poses...he's free to use for anything you want. Making and rigging your own characters is really the way to go, that way you get exactly what you want. Until you get to that point, Sam might be helpful to you.

Looks great, Mark & Mark!

It would definitely speed up the response on extremely complex rigs.

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!