rusty

That's what I thought too, Rusty. But if you look at Squetchy Sam, hardly a CP is assigned to a bone at 100%. The toe point, which you'd expect it to be 100% toes_geom, is actually weighted to the foot_geom as well. And then there is that "foot_shadow_geom" which came out of nowehere I'm starting at the feet and working my way up. The degree of difference such weighting would make... well... I'll just wish you good luck. Rusty

Dhar? Are you going one CP at a time looking at the weights on the feet? You do not need weighting on the feet. Rusty

Thanks!

David, Do I need to do these things to the rig you just sent me? Thanks, Rusty The only Pose missing on that model would be the "Animation_Controls/Squetch_Controls/ARMS/sleeves_squetch_like_bicep" Pose...just drag that one over. Hope that helps, Rusty. David, I've never 'dragged and dropped' a pose from one model to another -- do you 'drag' the pose from the Relationships area or from the User Properties area or... both? Thanks, Rusty

David, Do I need to do these things to the rig you just sent me? Thanks, Rusty

You're the BEST! THANKS! Rusty

Yikes! No progress on the knees yet? I'll keep checking. rusty

I'll look at that as well, Rusty. Here's the action. MaleKhakiUniformRigInstall100.zip

Mark/David, While you guys have the model, I discovered another problem if you'd be kind enough to take a look. We're packing getting ready to leave but while eating lunch I saw Dhar's problem and brought my model up to see if I had the same problem. I didn't but... If you put the model in a new action and pull down on the hips null so that the model bends its knees you'll see that both knees twist and untwist (that's twist completely around). Any ideas? Thanks, Rusty

I hope I'm not looking at my future (haven't tested the legs yet). Rusty Edit: No, mine is not doing this. Its doing other things... but the knees work.

There is something going on in there that I haven't identified yet...it doesn't happen on Squetchy Sam or any other setup I've tested yet, but there is some rotation ('Z' axis) on the wrist fan bones in this model that I can't explain yet. I'm doing some more tests...hopefully, I'll have an answer soon. David, Mark- I greatly appreciate your efforts and suggestions. One difference between 'Sam' and this model is that the elbow was modeled slightly bent and therefore I followed the 'reset compensates' instructions for this -- not at all sure how this might relate but I keep coming back to this. My wife and I and the 'kids' (our two dogs) are leaving for our Big Bear cabin today for a week. I should have modem access (we rough it up there LOL) and I'll also be bringing this model up there to work on 'now and then' (mostly I'll be taking a break from it all or so the theory goes). I tell you this in case I can't reply right away to developments -- don't think that this is not important to me. You guys are the greatest -- thanks for your help! Cheers, Rusty

David/Mark, Here's the model -- hopefully one of you can find what's wrong with it. If it's a mistake I made please let me know what it was so I an avoid it next timel Thanks, Rusty MaleKhakiUnifor116.zip

Hi Mark! Re Weighting: I haven't done any weighting around the wrist yet, this spline is 100% to the wrist fan. A good point on checking the enforcement... I'll look again. That's a very kind offer and I may take you up on that. I want to check out all that I can myself before I do that though and that will be tomorrow as we're getting ready to go out tonight. Thanks! Rusty

Hi David, Yes it is the same on both arms. Confusing stuff here... in the arm_constraints pose, the for left_wrist_fan_geom, Orient Like left_hand_geom and Orient Like left_forearm_3 were both set to 50% -- in 'Sam' they were at 100%. I have no idea how these could have gotten changed. I set them both to 100% but... but it did not fix the problem. More weird stuff... Scale Like wrist_left/right_bicep_flexor constraints were set to 10% in my model but 100% in "Sam". Again no idea how this changed!! Set mine to 100% but again, did not fix. I reset compensates on all the above as well as Aim At left/right_wrist_bicep_flexor_target. Hope this didn't hurt anything with my changes. Bottom line, I can't seem to fix it. And its a mystery how the enforcements changed. I can send model if you want. Thanks, Rusty

David, When I bend the arm at the elbow the wrist fan rotates... Before: After: Any ideas on this? Thanks, Rusty

Eric, I'm 95% sure that I explain and illustrate this in the tutorial on my site -- I know I do. And since its easier to point you there then redo it... go to my site: http://www.virtualmediastudios.com/ Then go Gallery and scroll to the end of the document, you see the tutorial link. Drop half way down the TOC and click on something like "Mapping the face: Map Layering Overview" its down in that document. Cheers, Rusty PS The order for placing maps comes from several books on layered mapping... now is this the best order for AM? Probably but... ? It's absolutely logical... the color goes down first (because everything else needs to be applied to the color), then the bump group (how to arrange is in tut), then the specular intensity, spec size and finally, diffuse. Its all a matter of taste too... I want the diffuse to tone down everything below it rather then applying the specular group to the diffuse. See what I mean.

The example Squetchy Sam with sleeves seems like the way to go to me. The sleeve was weighted exactly like the underlying bicep, then, the part of the weighting that was the actual bicep bones was changed to being the sleeve bones...which are in exactly the same place as the bicep bones. So, what I would do would be to get good looking movement on the underlying model without the shirt, then, use that information to weight the shirt. Make sense? Hope that helps, Rusty. Thanks, that is a good idea however the arm CPs and the sleeve CPs are nowhere near the same. If you have any other thoughts on 'how' you go about doing the arm, let me know. Rusty

Hi, Can anyone offer any suggestions or an approach to weighting the CPs for the bicep/shoulder rotation (the arm lowing to the side and raising up)? This is the 'sleeve' which should be easier then the arm itself. I've got the shoulder. But I keep getting lost on the bicep (sleeve) and I'm in my 3rd day! Think about what you do: = Do you start with one horizontal (or one vertical) spline and work with that... = Do you start with one pair of bones and then work in others... = Do you start with aligning the CPs on the X axes then shoot for the Y... = Something else entirely?? Thanks! Rusty

Dhar, What a pest you are LOL! (this is said tongue in cheek and in fun okay... some people might think I'm being serious) When you 'reset compensates' this means (at least here it means) doing it on constraints. right_leg_FK_IK is a pose! You would not mess with this. *** Important *** Dhar, if you could note what names are wrong as you go through the steps, I could correct them (i.e. one name in the model has changed to include the work 'bow' but the document has not been updated). Edit: actually, any errors you find okay! Rusty

In some instructions, the names don't match exactly. Recent changes to the rig caused this; in some cases the word bow has been added or replaces part of the name. Since we know that bowing is a new feature we figure it out and simply do it. David has not updated the instructions and neither have I. I hope you can get by these. I hate the reset compensates phase which is over 50 steps. I'll help in anyway I can... this afternoon though. I didn't get to bed until 4:00 am and I'm going back to bed for at least another 4 hours. Rusty

Yeah kind of like a lot of girls I knew back when I was single, there were your straight on/off and then there were the ones with various degrees of on/off. Of course us guys are always 'on'. Dhar, fear not... what you describe... that's not AM. You just have the stomach flu. Put the flavored tobacco away (hippy wantabe) and get some Chicken Noodle Soup. Eat two cold right out of the can and call me in the morning. Rusty

Whenever you are told to do something in a pose, you must edit that pose (right click on it and select 'edit relationship'). So you edit the Right_leg_FK_IK pose, then, in the Pose Slider Pallet you locate that pose (it will be highlighted in red) and you turn it off (or set it to zero: same thing) and then you proceed with resetting compensates and the constraints that are listed. (I'm going to anticipate your next question...) Also, further down, you'll come to a step that says "reset compensates when the pose is at 100% and 0%", here you: 1. start just like you always do, while editing the pose and the pose slider is at 100% you set the enforcement of the constraint to zero, click on the compensate mode icon and reset it to 100%. 2. But then, you must copy each rotation offset (x, y and z), set the pose slider to zero and then paste that offset there (repeat for x, y and z). * Important: you should be able to move these pose sliders from zero to 100% without the constraint's rotation offsets changing. But sometimes they will change. To fix this, in step 1 when you set the enforcement to 0% and before you click on the compensate icon, click on the constraint's offsets, right click and select 'set to default value' which should set all three (x, y and z) to zero. I'll send you a bill on Monday LOL. Cheers, Rusty

Reset compensates means to set the enforcement of the constraint to zero, click on the compensate mode button and reset the enforcement to 100 (or whatever it was before... it isn't always 100 so watch out). Rusty BTW, what this does is this (and this is the same for most constraints), if you have a translate to constraint the bone will jump to the target bone... if you don't want that you use compensate mode and the bone will not jump to the target... an offset will be set to keep the bone were it is at. If you move that bone (as you do when you size to rig to your model) then the offset is no longer valid and so you must 'reset the compensate'. This is what the above accomplishes. BTW, when setting up a constraint, if you forget to click on 'compensate mode' before clicking on the target, you correct this in the same way: set the constraint's enforcement to zero, click on 'compensate mode' and then reset the enforcement to 100%. I'm happy that Hash wrote the code this way! It saves a lot of time. As David would say... I hope this helps! :-)

Dhar, Your wish is... a pain in the butt... (just kidding ;-) )! Check in the first post of this thread, I've added it there. Cheers, Rusty

In general, the way I do CP weighting is this: * Before I start weighting I'll get the joint as close as I can using fan bones * I have a modeling window open to access the CP weights and next to it I have the model in an action to watch the effect of the weighting. I can grab the splines or CPs in the Action window (where the joint is rotated) and these are also selected in the modeling window were I'll right click on them and select 'Edit CP Weights' * I will only weight one side of the model then I'll use the MirrorBones plug-in to mirror my work to the other side * In most cases, in the CP Weighting dialog box I can make an adjustment and click on Apply to see the result in the action window and then, if needed, adjust the weights again and click on 'Done' (trying to click on Apply a third time does not work so well... I should report this). If further adjustments are needed I'll just reopen the Edit Weights dialog box. * I've found that in the action window, instead of rotating the bone by hand it is often far better to set key frames for the rotation extremes and then scrub through the time-line to rotate the joint. This way you can turn on the geometry bones to see what is happening, exercise the joint in muscle mode to see it without the bones in the way and there are other advantages I can't think of right now (?). On joints that move in more than one axes, eventually you must go back to direct manipulation of the control bones for the fine tuning. * In joints that move in more then one axes I get the extreme rotations in the 3 main axes one at a time, then check at the extremes of rotations half way between these and finally free motion. Weighting is a one-way affair and find a weighting that works best for all rotations is the name of the game -- fine tuning beyond this is left for smart skin. * Because my brain has been dulled by calculators, in instances where I have points weighted between more then two bones I have a spread sheet which assists me in the proper division of weights. Say the CP(s) are already weighted between two bones: I can enter the existing weights in the spread sheet and then I can estimate the percent I'd want to give the third bone as if there was only one other bone, the enter this and the spread sheet automatically gives me the proper adjusted percentages for the existing bones. * I rotate the model a lot to see it from different views and I rotate the bone in its extremes to see the effects of the weighting. * In many cases I work the silhouette of the mesh first and then do any splines in between * I always try to weight CPs in groups then, if needed, adjust smaller groups or single CPs as needed. I try to use logical groups (like a circular spline or logical square) and on occasion I'll create temporary groups so I remember what CPs were weighted the same. * In most cases I'll do a 50/50 split for the spline directly over the rotation pivot then I'll start with a 25% reduction progression (75/25 -- 88/12 -- 94/6) as the splines radiate out from the pivot and fine tune from there. If the splines come too close to another joint, many times a third bone will get mixed in to ease the transition. Please add any other tips or methods you've found! Cheers, Rusty