flashawd

Hi Phatso - yes I did notice a bit of a crease on some of the areas, but it doesn't matter for those areas, but other area need to be smoother as you mentioned. If you need more detail then 4 sections, is there any other techniques that you can suggest? I looked on some of the models like boneless Tom and the top of his head to see what they did - that just has the CPs scaled to the top. Anyway - thanks for your time.

Ah - Ken perfect - thank you.

Hi - I have run into this issue several times and not sure if it is correct or there is a better way of doing it. For example I am working on a "Teddy Bear" for a client and at the tip of his nose there are 6 CPs - in a case like this what do I do. Should I add a CP at the tip and bring the 6 into 1 or zoom way in on the 6 and scale them close so when I zoom out it isn't noticable. Would love any input on how to work with this situation. Thanks - Eric

Phatso - I agree and like the idea - not real experienced with lighting, what kind of light and where would you suggest I put or angle it? Thanks Robert, but calling myself a "professional character animator" might be pushing it a bit. Have a great weekend - Eric

Hi - just wanted to thank everyone who answered my numerous questions while working on this project. I finished the lotion girl to the best she is going to be... she's not Joe Williamsen's Hunter, I've got quite a way to go until I am anywhere near there Anyway, the client wanted the "Bratz Doll" look. Here is a link to the animation on her website and a couple images below. Not real happy with the lip sync, I have some practicing to do with that as well, but the project was taking too long and the client was happy so moving on. Have a great weekend, and thanks again for all your quick forum responses - Eric Animation: http://www.discountindoortanninglotions.com

Hi Rodney - no, the more info the better - thanks for taking the time and all the ideas - I'll start from scratch and go at it a little differently. Am I in the right area to find the recent fixes to the dopsheet code? - http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showforum=95 Thanks again - Eric

Worse than I thought - it is almost mixing a couple of letters together - some really distored mouth movements like two are being combined? May be time to start the Dope Sheet from scratch.

Hi - I created a Dope Sheet for a character and going through and spacing it appropriately, but for some reason between a couple of the words - her mouth opens. Am I supposed to key a frame or something? Not sure what I am doing wrong. Thanks- Eric

Rob - to be honest it was insane to get the flip to look good when the root bone was not in the direct center of Gumstick like at the start of the animation - a lot of moving around the root bone at several frames to make it work. About half way through the root bone was so far off to where it got impossible to flip him - I had to actually drop a new version of Gumstick in the Chor with a centered root bone and hide the first gumstick under the trash can - it worked with a new camera angle at the drop in you couldn't even tell - then if you notice after that point there was no more walking, just strickly flips. Pretty funny - nice to know there is an easy way to do it. Thanks for the talk - take care - Eric

Thanks for the replies - I agree that was a very realistic smooth flip. I wish I would have known that you don't flip w/ the root bone when I created my first animation project Samurai Gumstick - I did EVERY flip on there by using the root bone... oh well - not NEAR as smooth a Robcat's alien gymnast- at least now I know. http://www.flashanimationwebsitedesign.com/ - Gumstick Video is right side middle of the site. Thanks again - for your help. -Eric

Lets say for example you had a character walking around and because of that the Root Bone was way off place and then you wanted the character to do a back flip - if you use the root bone to do the back flip it doesn't work real well, because it is now so off place. What do you do in a case like that, do you turn off the IK legs - will it work that way? Just trying to clear up some confusion. Thanks

Hello - this is an issue I have had before - I put a character in a scene and use the Left and Right foot Targets to make her walk forward - this leaves the Main bone back in the original spot, so it doesn't move with it - it seems to get left behind when you have a character move. That can then screw up other things when animating the char. When animating are you supposed to move this bone with it? - it makes the whole character move though - that is where I am confused. Thank you - Eric

Thanks Jesse - that's what I was afraid of. Will keep that in mind for the next project... save poses till last. Have a great weekend. - E

Hi David - no, no actions were open - I did re-rig the model, could that have anything to do with it? Can I import another working models pose sliders? Bye the way your Squetch Rig is awesome - only had 3 hours to play around with it, but very nice. Looking forward to spending more time with it.

This is kind of odd - I save models every so often and the model version 0006 is the one that the pose sliders are not working - I opened up version 0004 and they work fine. I have done a lot of work since version 0004 - is there any way I can somehow import the working sliders from version 0004 to the current version 0006?

Hi - this has happened to me before... I created all the characters mouth movements for the Dope Sheet and also and "eyes close" pose slider, that after I created them origianlly I tested all of them in an action and they worked fine. Now none of them are working - has anyone had this problem or know what I am doing wrong? Thanks - Eric

Thank you - I'll check it out. ;-)

Hi - I am creating a walk cycle for a character and I have the first pose at 00:00:00 - I am trying to "copy frame" and "paste mirrored" into frame 00:20:00. For some reason it isn't pasting the "hips" and "pelvis" movement. Has anyone run into this problem - where it didn't copy the whole keyframe - that can let me know what I am doing wrong? Thanks - Eric

Thanks David.

My model is leaning forward when I turn "ON" the Ik Leg setup and bring her into an action - I'm pretty sure I did something wrong when rigging it. Here is pic. If anyone has run into this please let me know what I might have done wrong. Thank you - Eric http://www.flashanimationwebsitedesign.com...itlGirl0006.jpg

Perfect, it worked perfect by the way - thank you for your time.

Thank you - if you smart skin from an action, will it only work while you use that action?

Hi Ken - not a problem. The thigh and calf bone seem to dissapear when you bring it into an action as well - I am guessing it is because you don't use those bones to make her walk you use the right and left foot targets. There is no "x" on the eye icon on the thigh bones, so they are not hidden. Not sure what the problem is... any ideas? Thanks - Eric

Hi - I am smart skinning my model and everything in the upper body looks great, but it is a girl with a skirt on and I need to have her walk without her leg coming out of her skirt - what bone do I smart skin to fix the skirt when she is walking? When I click on one of her thigh bones and right click New Smartskin it bring me to the screen to do the smart skinning and her thigh bone has dissapeared. I don't know what I am doing.. help ;-) -Eric

Hi David - thank you very much. Yes I was talking about the difference between the 2001 rig and the Squetch Rig. Sounds like the new rig is quite a bit better. Thanks for the tutorial link - I'll check it out now.