rusty

Thanks Mark! I'm just at the end of step 5. Will I be able to continue and get everything right using what documentation is available (steps 6, 7, 'final' and the douments in the zip file) or, should I wait? I see in the model's poses in step 7, poses for scaling and positioning 'switches'. I kind of understand what these are from reading the forum posts. However, I also thought I saw a post saying that the 'switches' were being dropped (removed from the rig). Are these staying or or going? Thanks, Rusty

Hi, Are the 8 steps Mark posted here still valid (the most up to date instructions) for installing the posable Squetch Rig? Thanks! Rusty

Hi, Thanks for the tips! The first thing I did was look at real thumbs. Anyway, I'll need to play with it because seemingly depending on the position the thumb is modeled in (even though it is modeled true to life for that position) I seem to get different results when I attempt to move it -- and I sat here for 5 minutes trying to explain what I'm seeing and I can't -- I would need to post pictures. Just thought there was an easy answer I was over looking. And if I get desperate I'll post pictures. Cheers, Rusty

Hi, No matter what the rig – this time it’s the Squetch rig -- I’ve always had a problem with how I model the thumb. TS2 allowed you to rotate the thumb determining the way it would close in on the hand/fist so you could pretty much make it work correctly. Squetch doesn’t so… any suggestions? Should it be modeled even with the hand, angled down slightly or angled down a lot… and at what angle should you rotate the thumb. Looking at examples… existing models… some from TWO… their all different. The way the rig works must have something to do with how you model the thumb. So… any suggestions? Cheers, Rusty

Edit: If anyone read this email... forget all I said LOL... I was totally wrong... in fact just the opposite of what I said was true. Sometimes I shouldn't try to multi-task LOL. Rusty

Gee... can't you ask? Or... is it one of 'those' situations (without listing all of the things it 'could' be... here)? In taking stock I see I have a few days before I actually start (want to review the new stuff, documentation, posts, 'compensates' list) so maybe the update will be out by then. Thanks for all you do! Rusty

Hello all, I'm trying to get back into things. Will a new version of the Squetch Rig be released soon? If so, what will be in the new version? Thanks for your help as well as all the hard work you guys have put in! Rusty Edit: Wow!!!! Posable Face, and so much else... David, Mark, et al... You guys are like a dream come true! Still have those manual 'reset compensates' I see but the rest more then makes up for this LOL. Hey should I take another 5 months off and maybe the 'compensates' will be gone? (smiles) Seriously, all the new stuff looks GREAT!

Its alive... Hi this is Rusty. Can someone point me at the latest reset compensates document (or did this go away?)? I've read most of this thread but somehow missed the info on this. Thanks, Rusty

Nice. You should have water and food dispensers, litter at the bottom of the cage (droppings optional) and... a way to get in and out of the cage and also the cage could have a carring handle on top. Will there be a 'great escape' (or prison break)? Cheers, Rusty PS: hope you and family had great TG day and also Merry Christmas John!

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David, Mark, et al I hope everyone had a nice TG (even if you aren't American and it was just 'a nice day'!). It seems that life has taken on a 'life' of its own and is dragging me along with it. The cruise was great, got back for a TG family dinner then up to Big Bear for a week. Now I'm home but there's the Dept 56 village and outside decors to setup. And... shopping. And cards. And tree. Ba-humbug! Not sure when I'll be allowed to come back to 3D endeavors. Oh wa WA wa... poor me. What would I do if I had to have a job and work like almost everyone else. ;-\ I was able to get some work done while on the cruise and up at Big Bear ; one thing was the development a small and somewhat tricky add-on rig (sleeve helper rig) to resolve some problems I had with the sleeve and arm muscle expansions. In theory what's there works but in practice (for me anyway) the sleeve must rotate to expand with a rotating flexed arm and, at least for my model, this doesn't look good (or, I'm possibly missing something in how it all is suppose to work). John3d helped me get past some problems I encountered with expressions for the 'sleeve helper rig'. The small rig is inserted in the upper arm and allows the sleeve to stay in place while a flexed arm rotates by rotating the sleeve expansion force but not the sleeve itself (if that makes sense). Less 'compensates' is awesome! Cheers, Rusty

My guess is that David is just using weighting on the finger joints. Weighting allows you to achieve much the same effect without the need for intermediate bones. You must try it, Zaryin! It is easy to apply and makes a huge difference to the quality of an animated model. Guess again Paul! Or ask Dhar. David weights every CP! Every CP! That's my understanding. I sure as heck don't... different strokes I guess. Rusty

Hi Jeff! I only have time to take a shot at your first question. As you attempt to follow the general steps below, use the appropriate version of the 'Sam' model as a guide. Start in a general way; start with assigning the CPs to the bone that is closest to them. However, when it comes to any part that has a right and left side (arms, hands... but not chest) only assign the models right side. Doing 'Auto Assign Bones' to start is not a bad way to go -- it does a little too much for my taste though. Doing this will assign both right and left side bones but this is okay... just work with the right side only, ignore the left. Later you'll use the mirror bones plug-in to mirror the right side to the left. Regarding the 2 bones that are the chest and stomic bones (they point forward), ignore these for now. These are done in the CP Weighting phasre. Then you get more specific; the shoulder bone (again right side only) will only affect portions of the chest and shoulder areas -- pretty much you decide on what works best for your model. The fan bones normally only control the middle spline causing it to turn 50% to blend the CPs as the joint bends. At this stage your model should move correctly in a broad sense on the right side -- for the details around the joints and muscles CP weighting and then Smart Skin are needed. I hope that helps a little Jeff. Rusty

Why 30 patchs (or is there more)? Why not one for front, one for back and so on for sides? If you need it to bend (a soft cover book) then use 4 patches for front/back. When you apply the image, do you apply it to more then a single layer of patches? Do you apply it to the front and back at the same time? Its hard to know what it going on. Those squares of missing image are... wrong. r

Backup... you open AM and have a model in the modeling window in muscle mode (there is nothing else). Now tell me what you do. Rusty What I meant is I access the smartskin feature either by right clicking in the modelling window in bones mode or in an action and select new smartskin (if there wasn't any) or the name of the smartskin container. In action window I right click it While in action window I always make sure that the relationship icon (chain link icon) is turned on while I am smart skinning and turned of while I am not, for example when testing the rotation. I always make sure key muscle is turned on too. By the way I don't think there is any other way in accessing the smartskin accidentally or something like that which is why I didn't mentioned it. There's also the choreography way of accessing it but I don't use that often. One thing I need to mention is this 'problem' or whatever it is occurs most of the time. Sometimes it occurs in varying degrees depends on how many times I smartskin it and delete the smartskin after that. Like I sometimes need to smartskin the same bone over 3 times until it subsides. Sometimes it goes away sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it took me weeks to smartskin a single bone until it goes away. Sometimes it only works (to a certain extent) by copy pasting the SS keyframes incrementally from another copy of the model into a completely empty SS container in another model. I am too sleepy to answer this properly but this is what I suspected. I did not discover doing SS from an action until just recently (much better this way). So... I never saw jumping CPs and I never created SS from an action -- I always right clicked on the bone in the modeling window and selected New SS from here. Does this matter? Do jumping CPs come from creating SS from an action i older versions? I don't know. Just a thought. Cheers, r

I don't think that there is one... wait, one of the first tuts in the TAOA books (and videos) shows you how to drag a stage into the cho and characters and they do the CanCan. A memory from 2001 when I first started. I mean basically you just drag models (or images) into the chor and arrange them. I'm not sure what else there is to it outside of how to properly stage, block and balance. There's a good book on that... lets see.. Digital Cinematography & Directing (Paperback) by Dan Ablan: http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Cinematograp...607&sr=1-11 There are many books... I found this one to be good. I hope this helps, Rusty

Right click in the modeling window and select 'create icon' (or something close -- I don't have am open right now), then in the PWS right click on the model name and select 'add to library'. Or (and for everything else including sounds) drag it from the PWS to the library window. Note: you must have moved the library from the CD to your hard disk. Or... click on Tools->Options and sel the folder tab... locate library files in the drop down. Here you specify where am looks for lib files. Pick a place NOT in the AM program folder (or you'll lose it when you upgrade). Now organize all of your models, materials, etc in file folders (use the stuff {the data folder} from the CD that you moved to your hard disk as a starting point). Then run the lib_manager program (search the forum for the link) to build the lib file. Now every time you add something new, filing it away in you folder structure, rerun lib_manage (name approximate) to update the AM libraries. Haven't had coffee yet, hope that's clear enough. Rusty Rusty

Backup... you open AM and have a model in the modeling window in muscle mode (there is nothing else). Now tell me what you do. Rusty

1. If you have a lot of AM windows open in the background (like modeling windows, action, material etc) it can cause big lag problems. Also you should be able to expand the model properties and click on the active property and make it inactive and this should help. Do it with everything you are not animating. Also I lock (icon to the right of model in PWS) everything I'm not animating at that moment. Another big helper is to simply leave out complex models until you render (in your case maybe the best idea). Note: if your camera does not move and your characters do not go behind a background model... render all of your background models separately and use the image as the background -- not only will your PC work faster but this will really reduce your render times! Instead of rendering a tree 300 time you only render it once!! Understand? In fact, ANY thing that you can only render once and use the image instead of the model is the way to go! Edit: Knowing what you can render and then use as an image can be tricky... if you try to do this with the ground, you could lose the character's shadow. If you say okay, I'll render the ground with the character and other background stuff I'll make an image of and use... then shadows of the background items may be lost of the ground (so split the ground into two grounds)! Plan carefully. 2. Animate in the chor mainly. The chor is where you place your set, lights, camera, props (do not put these in an action! do not render from an action unless for a test and then do shaded only!). The action is also for animating when you want to animate in a vacuum so to speak (only the model and perhaps one or two secondary model know as an action item) then you drag the action on to the character (or model) in the chor. You need to get hold of Anzovin's Non-Linear video. 3. answered 4. Too general a question to answer here... sorry. I could go on forever. :-) Rusty

Yes I do (see this as a discussion), thanks! (I was watching for a reply kind of dreading it, LOL. I don't like to tell someone that they are 'utterly wrong'... its like saying 'always' if you know what I mean. Almost never a wise thing to do but in this case... well...) I don't know what to say. I've used SS a whole lot (without WCPs) and have almost never had a problem... actually never had a problem that I couldn't fix. One exception, if you have a joint like the shoulder joint and you find you have to put too much SS on it, you lose control and its time to go back to the fan bones (or WCPs now days). In general I have to say that your statement is still wrong. But, for you... I guess not. Again, don't know what to say. Cheers (and thanks for not over reacting, and I'm sorry for having to say... your wrong), Rusty PS: I was very into Anzovin's faking multi-axis SS btw. This really put SS through the paces. PPS: Please tell me the process you use for applying SS (in short general steps -- there are two very different ways to apply SS -- maybe more) and also what version where you last experienced the jumping CP problem. I kind of remember seeing a jumping CP problem now that I think about it. I also remember finding out that most others applied SS differently then I use to (and still usually do). Probably nothing but... ? PP-PS: There is always an answer (somewhere). I've come to believe that. And Lord knows how often I've wondered around the house scratching my hand and saying that to myself (by no means exclusively for AM!).

I have a Wacom Tablet and love it but not to replace a mouse or wheel or keyboard (not for myself anyway). If I just don't type so much and, I switch between the mouse and several other wheels and mice I have I'm okay. Been working a lot on my book and all the typing did the damage. r

I have not been able to try your last suggestion and in fact I'm at a dead stop with not only the Squetch rig but with all my animation efforts. I have a very bad case of tendinitis dating from 1997 and once in a while it slams me down. My wrists, elbows and shoulders hurt so bad that I can't do anything on the computer (except talk to it using dragon and this does no good for AM :-( ). I must also admit that I've become very discouraged with the Squetch rig... after 4 months I have yet to rig a single character. But I'm the original 'bounce back kid' and I know that once I can use my hands again -- i.e. use the mouse and keyboard again -- I'll return to the battle. What a drag... I'm already going through AM withdrawal! Cheers, Rusty

Wav files can have different properties... I also have problems with them playing in some applications (I don't use them in AM) and as I recall the difference was in the wav file being 32 bit instead of 16 bit (though I might be wrong). Rusty

I'm sorry, and I don't mean to slam you however... I don't know where you got these ideas but they are simply utterly untrue. We had SS (both 3-axis and later multi axial) years before WCPs and even today many people still use only SS (I did for at lest a year after WCP came along plus the majority of my character models {realistic} still use only SS). SS, when used correctly, works fine all by itself. WCPs are used alone without any SS by many people (or so they say... they say WCPs completely replaces SS). There is no requirement at all that one does not work without the other. SS jumping around is a symptom of placing SS key frames too close together (you adjust one way then come back later and at almost the same rotation you adjust it another way). Again, I don't mean to slam you but what you say is simply untrue. Martin resisted implementing WCPs for years because they crimped joints (as I recall his post saying anyway) and all we had was SS for many years and all of us used it without WCPs. Rusty

Yep, I do this all the time. However, unless this has been fixed by hash, Mirror all Smart Skins only works with CPs. Rusty