rusty

Good tips. Two others; make sure the tilt of the head is the same in all photos (this is what messed me up a little on my attempt to do my face) and, find a way to also take photos at exactly 45 degrees to the left and right (or just one way then mirror it). Doing only front and back tends to create a square with unseen angles left to chance and use it by turning the model 45 degrees each way as an additional guide to the shape. Cheers, Rusty

Hi, Many have seen these models before but… here they are again.  Using Bill Young’s ‘Model a Face’ CD from Anzovin Studio, one model was based on my face and one was based on my daughter’s. Mine could be a little better, my daughter’s came out pretty good. Both heads are rigged using one of the first face rigs presented in the AM community; Shawn Freeman's as shown on one of the AM SIG Pro Training sets. On one, you can see that I've overlaid the 3D face control setup from an early version of the Squetch rig. Latter images show both the models in scenes from my current project. Comments welcome, Rusty

Hi Mark and also David (or anyone who can answer this!), The goal, I assume, is for all of us, is to learn how to rig our models -- this is, models other then JD. In the first sub-step (message) in step 3 the X and Y positions at which you place the 'shoulder joint' are pretty arbitrary. That is, we can see what you're doing with JD but, as I'm doing another model along with JD, I can see that it will be difficult to tell where these should be placed on another model. For the Y axis, the joints are not horizontally lined up with anything I can see (anything that would be transferable to another model). The X axis seems the same. Are there any guidelines that you can give for this placement? How did you decide where they should be placed in the JD model? Any help you guys (or anyone) can give me would be greatly appricated. Thanks, Rusty PS: This is more for others who will hopfully be helping me rig the wardrobe models but, it is also very much for myself. I can image where the upper arm joint will go and then imagine the arc this joint will make when the shoulder is raised or lowered and then, I can estimate a center point that will produce such an arc and arrive at the position. But my own method of estimating the point (assuming this method is correct to begin with) could certainly use a sanity check but, more importantly, trying to explain my method to someone else would be very difficult at best.

No big deal, and certainly not to take anything away from Bill who did very good job, but if you'd read the thread closer you would have known that Bill used Bill Young's 'How to Model a Face' and the spline layout, hooks, etc. all came from that. I use it as well. So... "Self... now why didn't you think of buying Bill Young's CD". There is still a LOT of work and a LOT of things you decide on as you use Young's system and that's where Bill did a splendid job. Well, I think. I don't have an image of Bill to compare to his model, LOL! But despite that he formed the face well. Many people can follow Young's CD and not do so well. My own attempt at doing this (which I'll post soon) could have been better as far as the likeness to myself goes. :-) Rusty

I'll post as soon as I have time to find or create images. Yes, there are rigged currently with the face bone rig introduced by S. Freeman on one of the SIG CD sets (note: my 'character models' are only the bald heads because, as virtual actors, they can't associated with specific hair-dos/hair color or outfits or even face maps -- these are all separate, interchangeable and I've developed a kind of 'snap on' system for all this). On one (the one of me) I've added the 3D Squetch controls over that rig. However, I too wish to change everything to the 'face rig/3D control' portion of the Squetch Rig. Older models I want to make improvements on are getting this upgrade now, my newer models rigged and tested 'might' get switched over later. My 'outfits' (everything below the neck) are currently rigged using TMS2 but I also wish to switch a couple of new outfits (rigged but not yet fine tuned) to Squetch. Cheers, Rusty

The way I always do it is about the same but a few less steps -- no create model and paste to new model. I guess pasting the half to another model is done for safety. But the 'save' just before does this for me. 1. Save and hide all but that which you wish to work with. 2. Select the center spline, set the pivot to 0 and scale on X to 0. 3. Select the side you wish to 'copy, flip and attach' and, copy it ( C... well for windows) 4. Select both sides and hit the delete key. 5. Do Paste ( V... on windows) to retrieve the mesh you wish to work with. BTW, this duplicates your groups but a free plug-in called... darn, don't remember... well it will fix this and another one fixes the decals this also duplicates. Also, for the copy/flip/attach I select the mesh AND then with the mesh selected I hold down shift and select the center spline then do the C/F/A. Probably this is not needed but I've had the C/F/A command do it the wrong way and this prevents this so I do it anyway (I think it use to be needed). For what its worth, Rusty

Bill, That's good! I have to disagree with reducing the splines around the cheeks, you need it when you start animating the face in my experience. The low spline examples are real nice but there's no way to get the wrinkles you need in extreme expressions (maybe using some kind of animated bump maps but I wouldn't want to try that). I adopted Bill Young's 'Modeling the Face' method a couple of years ago and also did a 'self portrait' and also one of my daughter. We're both staring in my current project LOL. Bill Young's CD is good. Its 'almost' a step by step process you can follow along with except when you get to adding the ear... he says something like 'and now I'll just connect these other splines around the ear...' but when he comes back, the splines below and behind the ear had changed on you! He skips to the neck part LOL. But with some investigation you can get around that. Another thing, if you compare the splines you now have (and also the splines on my 'self portrait') to the end result he winds up with you'll find that a spline coming off the side of the mouth is different! He skips that change too. But beyond that the cd is excellent and the spline construction is awesome for animation. I was going to post my own work but think I might do it in a new thread. Cheers, Rusty

This can be specified in Tools->Customize for all but the camera view (which is probably what you see just opening it default settings), for this go to the camera properties in the PWS in the Chor. However, what you describe does not sound right. I'd try updating your video drivers. Rusty

Hi, I'm doing both JD and one of mine. In a case like the attached image, would you straighten out the character or, if not, where would align the rig (waist, feet, head)? Thanks, Rusty

Awesome dude! Now I'll hope for a 'posable' version of this but, since I have only six character models right now (heads), this is good enough! And I do see a need for this... you're going to have faces on characters that have 8, 6 and 0 legs (i.e. no ready made Squetch rig for the body). Rusty

Smart move! A list of this kind of 'self' fixes; letting stuff build up for the next release and in many cases allowing the user easy fixes they can apply to their rigged models and the rig. This post brought back memories of my early programming days when I'd beat myself up for the stupid mistakes I'd make and the total embarrassment of re-release, re-release -- finally I learned to do effectively what you've just done and also... that a) this is complicated stuff, humans make mistakes and the number is proportionate to the level of complication and c) it is very hard, if not impossible, to test your own work.

That's the way I did it for many years, however, an easier way is to switch the model from/to 'active' in the properties. Now, having said that, the last time I tried that, a long time ago, in an older version of AM (sounds like an into to Star Wars huh), it seemed to do what I wanted until I rendered it and then, I discovered that the 'active' switch had a problem at that time and didn't work at all when actually rendered. I'm sure that problem has long since been fixed but render to file to be sure. Rusty

Shades of my old 'Visible Engine' which I got for Christmas at about the age of nine! Cool! The next year I got the 'Visible Pregnant Woman' (what were my parents thinking!) but after the initial thrill I liked my clear plastic V8 better (girls were of course one thing but a clear plastic pregnant woman complete with baby and organs... at that age... like yuck!). :-) Rusty

This is cool, thanks for sharing! Kind of the established method (if there is one) for doing this has been to place multiple cameras where you want them and then, have a main camera you use for rendering jump to each as needed using constraints. Your method is less work and less project weight and, off hand, I can't think of any other pluses or minuses. Thanks! Rusty

Dho! Oooookay, I get it now. BTW, I've watched ALL of your videos -- some more than once! Great stuff. I just didn't make the connection at first.... you know, lol, connecting 'parenting' with... 'parenting'. :-/ Thanks, Rusty

That's pretty much what I thought but you never know if some element crosses over. BTW, as I do realistic characters I rarely if ever do any kind of squash and stretch. I know I should and with this rig perhaps I will. My plan is to have the Squetch Rig on both head and body but yes, I could run into this situation later as I'm probably not going to convert all my bodies right away. I don't know what you mean by parenting instructions but then I haven't done anything yet with the Squetch Rig or Posable Install (past step 3) -- don't take this wrong, LOL, but I'm giving it a day or so after an updarte... to see if yet another update comes out. :-) I plan to jump back into rigging full time tomorrow (today is AO and 'key group poses'). I simply parent the head's head bone to the body's head bone -- that's what I have been doing anyway with the TSM2 body rig (I've been calling the head's head bone 'head proxy' in the head but this does not matter). This way when I have the body selected I can animate the body and head (almost like a normal model). Then I select the head for all the other head stuff. I appreciate that and I certainly will! Thanks again! Rusty

I'm just happy it's doing the job you need done, Rusty...that's the goal. As for your specific need...are you saying you just want the head because you already have a body rigged with the Squetch Rig, or you have another rig/no rig that needs a Squetch Rig head? I could fix up a special version for you whichever the case is...I just need to make sure which way. Or is it something else that I'm not getting? David, Now your confusing me! LOL! Actually all my models... that is 'my heads' and, most of my wardrobe 'outfits' (i.e. bodies) are currently rigged (v1.0 models: Muscle mode based on Animating Facial Features & Expressions by Bill Fleming / TSM1; v2.0 models: Freeman Face Rig (SIG 2004) and 3D controls based on Stop Starring, Osipa 2003 / TSM2). I constrain the heads to the bodies in the chor (also the hairdos are added this way). However, for our purposes pretend nothing is rigged. I want to upgrade all to the Squetch Rig / Posable Install. I want to improve my models and also standardize their construction. I can simply marry a head to an outfit and use the Squetch Rig / Posable Install as is (and I will do exactly this during the evaluation period) but eventually I'll need to separate the head and body of the Squetch / Posable Install. One thing this means is that the rig that controls the neck/throat be altered so it is driven by the head but I see this as an add-on to the head rig -- I already have most of this sub-system developed. As usual I'm putting out too much info and confusing the issue. Bottom line, I need to figure out how to modify the Squetch Rig / Posable Install so I can rig bodies and heads separately. For bodies I think this just means cutting off the head part. For heads... hopefully I can just cut out the body part. I'm blown away by your "I could fix up a special version for you" -- how much other work will you do for free LOL! Seriously, that is a very generous offer. However, unless you see a need (beyond just myself) for a separate head and body rig 'and' can talk Mark into doing the pose work and other changes for these new rig types (I certainly want the posable install) 'and', on top of this, be willing to add these to the rigs you must update... this does not seem like it would be an economical approach for you guys -- don't you have enough to do? In any event, though I have no doubt I'll use the rig(s), I must install and evaluate them before I know for certain and clearly, any 'work' done toward my special implementation must also wait. Cheers, Rusty

David Simmons and Mark Skodacek, Both of you have my total respect and admiration -- the Squetch rig is, IMHO, simply a masterpiece of engineering and rigging and, the Posable Action Install (hopefully I have the name right this time) is absolutely total killer. I think the last thing I've seen that rivals your accomplishments in the AM user world, is what Raf Anzovin did with AM's V8.5 cloth implementation in his 'Animation Apprentice' short (Sig 2001 I think) -- while the rest of us struggled with flags and capes, the shirt on Raf's little dog flew and waved all over the place in absolute perfection and he made it look easy. (If that comparison offends anyone, in anyway, for any reason forgive me, I'm dumb.) Now that I've hopefully buttered you up (but I do mean every word of the above)... I have a slightly unique situation... in a word, I must separate the 'head rig and head pose install' from the 'body rig and body pose install'. And do so with each update! My character models can't be tied to outfits and so my character models are just 'head and neck' and, everything below the neck is 'wardrobe'. I will attempt to fend for myself on this (and, though I'm nowhere near your level, I'm 'okay' in the rig building department). I know you'll try to answer any specific questions I come up with as I get into it because... you guys are awesome. However, any tips or thoughts you have on this now, off the top of your heads, would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Rusty

Inconvenience?!? Look again! And thanks again! To both of you! Rusty

Like... totally awesome dude! (Like this is California!) :-) Rusty

Hi, This might be the wrong thread, if so let me know. As I understand it the current rig for the 'pose-able install' is a special one and, we are waiting for a bug to be fixed and a new version to be posted... is that right? Does this special version of the rig come from someone else? If so, and given the frequency of new versions, it may be difficult to keep this special rig in sync with the rest. I might add that its hard to see why anyone would not choose the 'pose-able install' (except where a certain flavor of the rig does not have this option) but I'm sure that even where someone might prefer the the non-special version they could still installed the 'special version' manually -- the install poses deleted or ignored (provided there were no deeper changes). I guess I'm saying that it might be better to just make the poses part of the regular rig and not have a 'special version'. I could be wrong. Just a thought. Thanks, Rusty

Well I'm glad my question was a good one. I simply saw new updates coming at a good clip and wondered how I was going handle this; jump in now or wait for the next or ??? I know very little yet about the rig or the pose driven install (I'm on step 4 or 5) but, what you suggest sounds pretty solid. The action saves the 'scaling' and would therefore scale a new rig (as long as the install bones did not change). If assignments and weighting are saved and can be re-applied by Transfer_AW (I haven't really looked at this plug-in yet nor for that matter done CP assignments and weighting for the Squetch rig) then, beyond smart skin, all that I think remains is the removal of the install bones and since I believe the plug-in that does this also gets updated when the rig does, that takes care of that. Except, as you point out, for changes in the geometry bones themselves and how often do those change? What's driving the continued updates anyway? I assume either new features, improvements, bugs or all of these. Regardless, at some point the rig should stabilize and updates should drop to maybe yearly, if that... yes? Rusty

Hi! So here's a novel question (i.e. possibly stupid): Every time a new version of the Squetch Rig is posted, what do people do with it? Huh? Probably, people save it and use it for future rigging and, the models they've already rigged with previous versions either a) stay that way or, perhaps you re-rig them if you need to or feel like it (but, not every time new ones are posted?). But possibly, something else is meant to happen... perhaps there is some easy way to upgrade your existing 'rigged' models (UpGradeSquetchRig.hxt? Wouldn't that be something!). Anyway, I figured I'd best be finding out. Thanks, Rusty

This is GREAT! And, for myself, I can't believe the timing is so good (I was preparing to face this stuff by myself when this happened). Purely out of curiosity, what AM version are you using? Thanks, Rusty

Yes, that would be "safe than sorry". But you're excused if English isn't your first language. Carry on. Whoops. After 20 years of... If (whatever) THEN do this else do that All 'than's and 'then's became... 'then's. Don't know why. :-) But what's amazing is... well, you must be really bored to actually create a post to point it out. Happy I could help. he he r