rusty

Never mind... default pose values for the leg fk/ik were set differently in the two models. I think a glitch (or difference) in the 'compensate' instructions or maybe I goofed up. Rusty

David, I've completed the install of the latest posable rig and assigned CPs but when I place my model in an action the leg bones are different from the 'Sam' model in an action. Also, if I pull down on the center null Sam's legs bend as I'd expect but my model just moves downward: Any Idea what's going on? Thanks, Rusty

David, In the new version of Reset Compensates instructions you have "Turn off"... steady_right/left_shoulder. Did you mean set this pose from 50% to 0%? Thanks, Rusty

Totally Awesome! All you can say! Rusty

For the most part, tutorials come from users. Also, I'd guess-timate that 95% of the past tutorials, if written in the last 4 years, are still completely valid. Cheers, Rusty

Hard to tell from what you've said but, it sounds like you've moved or rotated the model bone. This is bone that all models start with (put in bones mode and then click on the model name in the PWS to see it) and it determines how the model aligns itself in an action or chor and how it orientates itself on a path. As a general rule you do not touch this bone. r

A 'rad hair day'? Ah man... you gave away the ending to my book! r

Guide splines can be animated!?! Had no idea. Used smart skin to move bones as well as CPs (no big deal). But Mirror Smart Skin wouldn't include the bones... wonder about hair. Wonder what would happen if the bone you smart skinned the hair to... had a dynamic constraint? And the image on the hair was an animation. And can you animate the frame numbers of that animation, tying them to the rotation of the... bone. Give the bone motion in an action to rock the dynamic constraint. Put this contraption in a flock with the action... Sorry... my brain got away from me for a second. :-)

It is almost impossible to answer your question. If I understand you, you wish to put either horizontal or vertical lines on a model. Thick or thin lines? You want the lines to show from any view. If your model is a sphere or a square then this is easy. If your model is an airplane or a character then it maybe harder. We need more information -- if you could post an image of your model and perhaps in a paint program show us what you want, we could be of more help. r

That was unexpected. I completely missed the final update. 'Final' sounds ominous. Really appreciate your help. r

Mark, Well I do sweat it Mark. I feel bad. To be perfectly honest, I had very limited time on-line and I read and replied to all that I could. I did read your posts but I did not reply because they went over my head -- in the time I had I could not absorb and understand what you were saying. I planned to come back to them when I had time to think about what you were saying. I don't know the internals of the rig like you and David. Like I was standing behind my chair reading and typing as fast as I could while, in most cases, my wife was already calling for me. If you knew the in-laws I had to deal with the last three days you might understand the mush that existed where my brain normally resides. Perhaps I should have replied saying this. When I did get back to it, your posts were missing but at first I didn't know this. I saw David was replying to stuff that wasn't there. I actually replied to one or two of your posts through David's replies... look and see. After a point I became very confused and I jumped forward trying to see what was going on and landed on your post saying you'd removed your posts. If you knew the weekend I'd just gone through you'd understand why that post of yours didn't land well with me. Like I did my best on all fronts the last 3 days. I don't know about you but I'm blaming all of this unfortunate mess on my in-laws. r

David, Awesome -- I really appreciate it. BTW, my time on-line was limited over the last 3 days -- we had company. My posts were rushed and I didn't have time to read, absorb and reply to very many posts. I guess things I said that were meant in jest were not worded well and were taken wrong and, people exerting efforts on my behalf expected replies I couldn't get to soon enough. I inadvertently upset some people. I'm sorry if any of this came your way. r

As I attemted to convey in my post this morning (item number 2), there was little time to read and reply to things over the weekend and I wouldn't be able to review anything more until later this evening. Our family was visiting from LA this weekend through today and today we took my mother to Sea World. It never ocurred to me that this would cause problems on the AM forum and I'm sorry this resulted in any kind of insult to you! I don't know what to say. I hope your okay. Rusty

Answered long ago and already done! But thanks! I understand. Sincerely, Rusty

I guess this wouldn't be an option? To me, this makes the most sense. A posable geometry bone rig can be used to install the bones (these bones would have the parenting name in them to reparent into the control rig). After exporting the model, you would assign cps, weight and smartskin. After all that is done, you save a copy in a safe place for future updates. Now you open a copy of this model and import the control installation rig, open a new action and turn on the installation constraints pose and export. Reopen the model and run the install rig plug-in to reparent the rig. You still have a copy of the model with the geometry bones only (with cps assigned and weighted already), if there are new updates to the rig or you want to reposition the geometry bones, you can just import the control installation rig and turn on the installation pose in an action. If the recompensating process becomes a thing of the past, this would be quite easy. Absolutely, I wouldn't rule anything out. It makes a lot of sense, bordering on genius really. To add to that, if there were a lo-res proxy included with the geometry bones installation, the Transfer_AW plugin could make roughing them in a lot faster the first time through. Sorry I neglected to respond to that idea, Mark...in gathering my thoughts, things got jumbled a little in my head and it shook loose. I'll have to get something to strap my head together...there's a lot of junk rattling around in there. Mark, Sounds very slick! That said, the Squetch rig contains techniques I've not dealt before with so some of what you say, for myself, is kind of out of context and I may be guessing wrong about what is meant. That said, 'sounds' awesome. r

You know I was kidding about the hijacking yes? I was doing it myself no? And why would I care? But the discussion deserving a better thread title was true. :-) Rusty

Yikes! Why would ever want to do that???? Its the same rig, the same model...???? Now I really have to go!! r

No time to review but that would be right... if that is so. r

***** Suggestion ***** If the Squetch rig is stable right now (and I think it is) I would humbly suggest that you call the rig as it is right now V1.0 and freeze it. Then, all the changes you are thinking of, put in V2.0 alpha. Then, later on, drop support for v1.0 so you're not supporting 2 versions. As an aside... 1. I don't mind you hijacking my thread but its a shame all this great discussion isn't under a more appropriate thread. 2. I have not had time to read all the recent posts and won't until later today (just wanted to get this in now). 3. FYI, it is very unlikely that I will move to a new version of the rig that contains massive changes until after my current project (I guess one reason for my suggestion). I'm too far behind and need stability and an end to the learning process... not, LOL, a journey! Later, Rusty

David, This most likely a compensate but I can't find which one. Perhaps I doing one of the steps wrong... over and over again. But maybe its a bug. If it is a compensate, perhaps this time do not fix it for me but rather just tell me which compensate it is and let me fix it... this way I'll see why I keep missing it and can not seem to find it. The shoulder bone slants up but in an action it does not slant up enough causing the arm bones to be lower. The password is the same as before. Thanks! Rusty

David, In the "Animation_Controls/Leg_Controls/right_knee_orient_like_foot_IK" pose, reset the compensates when the pose is at 100% and 0%. Regarding the above, no matter what I do the Y and Z offsets change as the pose is moved between 0% and 100%. I've copied/pasted these values from the 100% position to the 0%... even pasted them at 50%. Does this matter? If so, any suggestions? Could it be the interpolation? Thanks! Rusty

Yep. But what we're talking about is making a decision to upgrade a working rigged model to a new release of the rig. There would have to be a compelling reason to do this. Furthermore, I always archive the post-rig model and as for post rig changes I keep good revision notes so I'd know what I was losing to fall back to the archived copy. Cheers, Rusty

Sure, it's possible...I haven't tried it, but I'm sure it's possible with identical meshes. I suppose that is possible. As long as I don't do anything to change the CP numbers and geometry bones don't change names. And as long as there is a single identifiable XML section in the model file. Good call. r

Okay Mark and David, ignore my last post. See if I care. :-) But I do need an answer for one question that was in there: 'It' being the reset compensate step. It will determine how much effort I put into my invention for myself. As far as all the ideas flying back and forth, all the ones I can get my head around (most) sound great. Starting with a weighted template you can 'stamp' on your model (if you want) is a great idea! The text editor find/replace is unfortunate -- I don't mind, do it all the time but, it's borderline for some users. It knocks me down that Windows doesn't come with something like grep or awk that will process/find/replace text! Yeah I'm an old UNIX dude. Cheers, Rusty

Never step on a nail.