mtpeak2

This accurs if you go into the edit weights menu and not edit the weights before hitting apply or done or the X button to close the window. It will also do this if you change the weights, hit the apply or done and change the weights again. If you don't change the weights, select one cp from the list and hit balance selected before closing the window. If you do change the weight and hit apply or done, close the window first before changing the weight again.

I don't know how I missed this one. I like the wizard. The renders are a bit dark. I assume these renders are final. How much of the movie has been rendered to final? How long did it take?

As I said, I wasn't too happy with it yet. If you unhide the finger controls and use the small upright bones to clench the fingers (roll handle), using the X axis on the main controller, you can unclench the first knuckle. That's where the thinking was coming from, but that will probably change. The reason behind the perpendicular bone is because I didn't really like the position of the hand gizmo. It tends to get confusing as to which bone to grab, hand or gizmo, so I changed the orientation. I think I need to use expressions for the controls. I just can't find a way with constraints or relationships to get the controller to work properly. I'm working on a plan for expressions now. The hand gizmo is a brilliant piece of work and I can't compete with that. Thanks for the feedback.

I haven't had much time to work on the rig lately. Hmm, I guess the hand controls work ok?

Here's a scene I help Katt with the mist.

Mike, I use the smoke material from the AM cd. The settings I used probably wouldn't mean much, most of them depend on scale of the model. The main thing is to lower the initial velocity, gravity and spin to minimize the sprite movement.

You posted as I posted. Glad you got it straighten out. You don't need the constraint to the upper leg 2, it's a child of it and it already orients like it.

The hierarchy is right. When you delete a pose, you need to delete it from the user properties and the relationship folder. That's why you keep getting higher numbers when you create a new pose. It looks as though you deleted it from the relationship folder, but not the user properties. This may be the problem, the user properties may be holding some kind of information that is preventing you from selecting the correct bones. Delete all poses from the relationship folder AND the user properties and save the model. Then create a new pose and try again. If that doesn't work, I'll take a look at the model file.

I'll post a render shortly. Yes I have skype, (mtpeak2). [EDIT] Here's the render.

Steve, where in the hierarchy is the elbow fan located? It should be a child of "1 right upperarm2" bone and you constrain it to "1 right lowerarm 1" bone. So I'm unsure why you are looking for leg bones (which are showing up in the menu). I also see you are editing pose 9, is the bone already constrained in another pose?

Ok, I spent some time messing with a sprite material and this is what I have so far. Mind you, this is a 1 pass render. Let me know if this is the look you want. mist.mov

I'll see if I can come up with something for you.

No, there's nothing wrong with the placement you used. My placement leans towards the shoulder/bicep joint (like the elbow), where yours incorporates the shoulder area as well (automating some of the shoulder movement when rotating the bicep). My placement relies on manual shoulder bone rotation (arm bone in TSM). It all depends on what you want the fan bone to do.

I use a bicep fan, which is basicly what you are using. I place it at the same location and orientation as the bicep, but I don't use any fans in the locations that you are using.

Katt, can you post a screen shot of the set you need the misty fog?

It looks pretty good, but I never found the need to use shoulder fans, especially 4 of them.

Looks good David. I think I can even handle modeling eyes.

Looks like you're getting the hang of this Caroline.

I would straighten the arm bones out in the front view, may cause problems after running the rigger. I would also add another spline ring in the forearm, TSM rig is setup for twisting.

Movie "B" (last one) looks the best to me, but that doesn't look like the 50/50 weighting you you say it is. Movie "A" (middle one) looks like the 50/50 and movie "C" (first one) looks like no weighting. Did you put them in the right order? Movie "B" looks like the 90/10.

Took a break from other things I was doing and got the hands upgraded. I'm not that happy with them yet, but it's a start. I may need to resort to expressions to add better control. [EDIT] New update below.

The slight contraction helps the elbow from getting too pointy in extreme rotation. Finger fans and no extra splines is not too bad. This could probably be fixed using smartskin and adjusting the bias handles. finger fans and weighting with extra splines, you could add a little more weighting to the underside of the finger on the A and B spline. And yes, this is exactly why rigging should be done before texturing.

Sorry I didn't reply sooner Ken. I got involved with other things. I still need to upgrade the hands too. I'll probably not update the action anymore. After all, this is a rig thread, not an animating thread.

I think you could play with the weighting a bit more. I would lower the elbow fan weight to the cps on the back of the upper arm to 10% on spline B. I would also add around 5% weight to the upper arm 2 and lower arm 1 to the elbow spline for each bone. And adjust the weight to 90% and 10% on spline A. It's getting there, Caroline. You could add fan bones to the fingers, but it's not necessary. Gala.mov

Fan bones won't distort the geometry. If you look at the clip, you will see the spline ring for the elbow shrinks. Sometimes this will do, but not all the time. So, if you use a fan bone and add a little weight to the upper and lower arm bones, you can get it looking pretty good without smartskin.