Paul Forwood

This sounds like a great idea!

Thanks, Mark, I will go through that when I get the time. I wonder how Richard Harrowell is getting on with automating this part? That would make it a breeze!

Oops! Sorry, David! I thought that Mark had made that list for some reason. I'm having trouble locating some of these constraints and I'm concerned that I may start introducing errors so I'm going to leave it alone now. Thanks.

In Mark Stohbehn's Instructions for re-compensating constraints the last item in Part 2, "head_and_neck_orient_like_chest" is missing from my torso/neck/head_constraints relationship. Is this something that went wrong with my installation, something that has changed in the rig or am I just not seeing it?

Ah! Very good! A choice of "non_Z" for forearms that don't twist like the hand and the four little bones are for more realistic twisting forearms. Got it. That sounds like my way. At least I can see if I have left anything behind in the move. Is No. I don't know what I did but I have done the installation again and it seems to have worked out better this time. I still have to do the recompensating and weighting but I have just been testing the rig in an action and, apart from a few things that might be related to the recompensating, it appears to have installed correctly. I notice that the shoulder fans are not doing what I thought they would do so I am not using them at the moment. Thanks for the explanation, David! Very reassuring. More good stuff. Thanks, Mark!

I have a question regarding assigning CPs to the geometry rig: I am rigging a simple model to start with, (after my last attempt I thought I would keep everything as simple as possible), and therefore has very low geometry for the forearms. Could David or Mark please clarify what the right/left_forearm_base_non__Z_geom bones are for? As the forearms on my model are so simple which of the following would be the best arrangement: 1) Assign spline ring A to right_forearm_0_geom and spline ring B to right_forearm_3_geom. 2) Assign spline ring A to right_forearm_0_geom and spline ring B to right_forearm_2_geom, (To spread the twist more evenly along the forearm). 3) Assign spline rings A and B to right_forearm_non_Z_geom ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Also could you tell me if it is possible to adjust geometry bones on just one side of the rig or are there hidden roller bones, etc., that would be affected by moving the finger bones, for instance? I have found that my model is not quite symmetrical. It's only a little out but enough to affect the finger joints as you can see in the attached image for the left hand: Any advice appreciated. Thanks ----------------------------------------- Edit: I appear to have done something wrong. I just started to go through the compensating steps and I am seeing "Error Loading String:####" in the PWS\Relationships where some of the constraints should be. Could you please explain what is meant by "Reset Compensates"? I was hoping it would become clear when I got to this point but I am lost. I do know how to use compensate when creating constraints but I haven't got a clue how you recompensate and I haven't found any links to a description yet. Does it mean to reapply the constraint with compensate mode on?

She looks good! Does the displacement ripple across the surface too?

Wow! That has imported really well, Dennis! Interesting how the CP, where there appears to be 5 intersecting splines, doesn't appear to be causing any problems. I would have expected a crease. Any chance of a closeup of that area? With a bit of tweaking of the geometry, to make the features stand out, and some weighting to the skin on his haunches this could be a great little model. Add some dragon wings, and a mouth, and have some real fun!

Select the black patches and hit the "F" key to flip them. You may find after flipping the normals that you have to save and reload your project before they display correctly. Not sure. Sorry. Clicking on those links under Rodney's post should help you. No. Just ask away but you will be encouraged to upgrade. Welcome back!

In your render options expand the Buffers folder and set Alpha to ON.

Check also that you haven't got two actions running on the same bones at the same time. In other words, does your piston have another action, (perhaps a choreography action), which is below the cycle action in the PWS hierarchy?

Yes, you need to turn stride length OFF. Then set the number of times that the action will repeat in the choreography. If it doesn't show up when you set it save your project and then open it again. That should work. (Unless I am misunderstanding the problem).

Regarding the purple "safe" markers: You could try hitting the "1" key on your keypad to make sure that you are still looking through the camera. 0,2,4,5,6,8=Orthogonal 7=Bird's eye 1=Camera view. You probably knew that but just incase.... --------------------------------------------- Actually, if the boxes are flashing off and on it sounds like a graphics card issue. You might try changing swapping between OpenGL and DirX to see if that improves anything or updating your drivers. (Then again it could be a bug). Oh, the ship looks amazing!

Count me in, Gaz.

Thanks. I was trying to run the install rig plugin from the action. (I know...I know). I have exported the model from the Action and then imported it to a new Project. I ran the "InstallRig" plugin in the model window and I get this message:

Okay. I'm confused. (I knew it wouldn't take long). I have the rig aligned and I would like to start assigning CPs to the bones but the question is... which bones? How do I see just the geo-rig?

Yes. Sorry, I realised that right after posting and got lost in the rigging instead of editing my post. Ah! Thanks. WooHoo!!! You guys are beautiful!!! (Oh...excuse me getting carried away. That is something that I have wanted automating for a long time). BIG THANKYOU from me! That will save some time! And I was just on the verge of moving from using intermediate bones on finger joints to using weighting alone anyway. On the subject of losing z-rotation data, if I don't need to alter any of the z-rot values then I am assuming that the rig will be okay in A:M13r. Is that correct?

Okay, I am up to positioning the rig for the eyes and I am finding that it is not possible to get the cluster of bones to centre accurately on the eye balls. The pose slider moves the bones in a step size that is too large. Is it safe to translate them by hand, (with the "N" key), and if so is there one bone that will carry the others with it or should I do them all one at a time? The rig didn't seem so confusing this time except that I can't find the slider for rotating the calve around the x-axis. I know it's there somewhere. I normally use intermediate bones for all the joints so I was wondering if this installer could be made to add them by turning on a pose or setting some kind of flag or is it considered better practice these days to use weighting? Thanks!

I'm about to start again so I will try to keep notes this time. I have tried both A:M13r and A:M14 Alpha6. Which is the best version to use?

This is amazing!!! David and Mark, and all the guys at Hash Inc, you guys astound me! This is a beautiful solution to the squetch installation and will make it accessible to everyone. There are some sliders that are a little confusing at the moment, as they seem to repeat the movement of previous slider adjustments, but I'm sure they are there for a very good reason. On the down side, I have made two attempts at rigging a character so far and unfortunately both ended with an "Exception #001" about half way through. The last time was as I was adjusting the position of the fingers. I'll try again later. ------------------------- Gold stars to all of you Squetchy geniuses!!!

Just an addition to what Scott has said: The above method only works for surface attributes and materials that act on the selection group. It will not work for decalled surfaces. If you add or remove points from a decalled group of patches you will need to reapply the decal.

It is a matter of tweaking the bias handles until you get the best blend possible. After that you may want to try the "porcelain" material. You will find it on the A:M CD in the "data" directory. Data/Materials/Geometry/Porcelain.mat Just import this material and then drag it onto a "Group" that you want smoothed. With lots of patience and practise you can achieve a pretty smooth flow of patches without porcelain.

I'm guessing that you have "snap-to-grid" on and you are using a large grid or are zoomed in close.

Very nice indeed!

Thank you for all the positive notes! Jay, just drive SW for about an hour and a half.