adamP

1.) The Ik arms and legs are already set up, but to have arms and legs that are not "attached to parent" while still having IK setups, do I need an extra set of arm and leg bones? 2.) How would I set up a heel bone so that I can rotate the heel up or down while the toes remain in place? 3.) Do I need all of the setup relationships (like basic setup, steady, balance, balance rigid, right hand lock, and left hand lock) that are already on the rig? Thanks

I didn't have time to animate it, but his robot friend Spike, who's twice his size, is the one throwing the ball. I guess that's why I made the recoil so big and his head get hit so hard. I just assumed that having a 10 foot tall robot throwing a rubber ball would hurt real bad.

Thanks for all the comments everyone!

I think I like this angle better. dodgeball_motion_blur_1.mov

forgot multi-pass, actually I never used it before, but it looks great! dodgeballfront_motionblur_1.mov

front view... dodgeballfront_motionblur_1.mov

Here ya go! I also fixed the shadow. dodgeball_motion_blur_1.mov

Here's another angle. dodgeballfront1.mov

I had some spare time on my hands, so I decided to practice some animation. This is the first animation I've cranked out in a while. C & C welcome. dodgeball1.mov

Hey Mike, I have a quick question for ya. Does the mesh for the shoulders and hips look like it will give me a hard time when it comes to rigging?

!? How do I do this?

no, it is a final render Is this what you are talking about?

I've been trying to smooth out the mesh before I started any rigging, but I'm running into some problem areas...

Yeah I've seen those before, but never tried them. I might give it a shot. What type of system is best (or easiest) for shoulders and hips: Smartskin, CP weights, or Cogs (assuming that's what Patason's tutorial is based on)?

btw, any suggestions for a nice shoulder and hip rigging tutorial?

Thanks a lot guys I wish I woulda done that I've still got some tweaking to do and I'm going to try and shape his shoulders a little better so that the space from his neck to his arm isnt' a fairly flat surface.

and a wireframe if anyone's interested. It still needs to be tweaked a little, but my main concern is do the shoulders and hips look like they will give me trouble as far as creasing? I'm not sure because I've never modeled a single unified mesh before.

and here's the updated body:

Here's my main character that I thought was done, but I decided to touch-up his body. Here's the original body:

Okay... his upper teeth no longer move, and his mouth opens in more of a downward motion than before. I have to say that after following Justin's and Mike's advice, I am pleasantly surprised at how much better and more natural the mouth moves. C & C welcome! lipsync3.mov

First of all... thanks to everyone's comments and help. This alien is 1 of my 2 complete characters and the other one does have a jaw bone. I've just always felt that the alien looked better without one. I've always pictured my alien with having more of a firm fleshly head instead of a hard skull. That's why his upper teeth moved, because they weren't really attached to a "skull". I think what I might do is raise the teeth in the model and minimize the movement of the upper teeth in the mouth poses. That way, there's still some movement, but not nearly as much. Again, thanks to everyone.

Are you saying I should move all of the teeth up in the model, or are you saying I can keep the upper teeth moving in the mouth poses? So I would only need to make the top teeth stationary for poses in which they are visible. P.S. Beaker's "jaw" was more like a flap than a chin/jaw. With my character, he has "muscles" pulling his mouth.

Okay, I'm going to make the top teeth stationary in the mouth poses, but I have an idea... Instead of reworking the mouth mesh in the poses, couldn't I just raise all of the teeth in the model so that the starting point for the "jaw" is higher? basically, instead of having the "jaw" start where it currently does but end lower, why don't I just make it start higher and end in the same spot by raising the teeth? also, do I need the top teeth to be stationary for poses like O, U, and W?

Okay, I've watched the updated version over and over and I'm still not sure which one looks better. I completely understand what Justin is saying about the jaw, but my character doesn't really have a jaw. He doesn't even have a chin. Any suggestions?

Here's an updated version. I'm still not sure about the top teeth though. It just looks a little weird to me. lipsync2.mov