strohbehn

Mark, that's beautifully simple (shoulderbones.mov). Is that the same setup used for the Shouldertest3.mov you posted in your rigging thread showing the straight forward position? If so, are you going to post specifics of how it works, or a sample?

I'm with you, Vern... beauty isn't only mesh deep.

Very impressive, Mark. That's a tough model to deform well, and you nailed it.

For some reason this latest quicktime goes solid green after a half second. I tried a few times and got the same result.

Very good, Bjorn. Your illustration makes the point well. Thanks a lot for that handy tip!

That's a fine looking shoulder, Mark. I'd be curious to see a quicktime with the arm straight up and straight forward. Very nice job on the rig as well. Is there a reason you put the "elbow position" on a slider instead of a visible null that you can grab?

Hey, Master John.... Holy catfish, this is a great rig! I've been working on other projects lately and hadn't seen this till now. Ken nailed it when he said "this model is acting like it is alive and moves right where I expect it to go every time". I like the location of your foot and leg controls. It's very easy to select the bone you're after the first try. The knee pointer is in a good spot, too. I was a bit skeptical at first. Also, I love the separate upper and lower body control.... this puppet moves so naturally. This didn't make sense to me. Can you please enlighten me on what this does? David and Rodney, it's good to see you've checked in here. You mentioned it's been awhile since you worked on this. Didn't you ever finish it? Have you animated anything with this rig yet? Do you plan on finishing it? Will the Johnrig be available for large amounts of cash? Thanks so much for sharing this. I look forward to your reply. Mark

Mike, GREAT deformations! Is the rig identical to your POMcKnuckles rig? Did you end up smartskinning at all, or is this pure "cog joint / mesh design" magic? Keep posting your progress.

I like the appeal of this character, Mike. He looks like he'd be fun to animate. Looks like your rigging is up to par as well... nice deformations. You said this is just a quick and messy walk cycle, so take this for what it's worth... his hip needs to drop a bit on the side of the lifted (passing) leg, not raise. The way it is now gives him an unnatural sway. Does this mean you've solved the distortion box issues you were having? I'm curious to hear an update on that. Nice job.

Hey David, Two hours of fantastic quality instructional rigging video with audio (for free) is an unbelievable gift! Thanks so much for doing this. I'm sure we can't even begin to imagine the time you put into this. To those reading this post who may wonder if it's worth the download... ABSOLUTELY! Whether you are working on a face or any other rigging project, you will learn a lot from watching David work. From copying bones, flipping, adding constraints, organizing your work, etc., it's all there. Great job, and thanks again! Mark

You're almost there. It's looking very nice. This is what I had to do to finally get a natural look in this area:

Beautiful, Ken!!! Worked like charm the first try. Thanks for the quick reply. I think it's time to go back and review some of the basics. I didn't remember that you could start the smartskinning process from an action window.

I'm touching up a shoulder joint and want to add a smartskin to control outer-shoulder CP position when the arm is straight down. The position of the arm (and therefore all arm bones) is controlled by a hand null. When I go into the smartskin relationship window (for the bicep bone) I cannot move this hand null to get the arm into the down position to be able to apply the smartskin. Do I have to add the smartskin to the bicep bone prior to all arm rigging to get this to work? Thanks for any help. Mark

Great job! This is one of those simple-to-use tools that makes life easier and more fun. Thanks a lot for developing it and making it available for us.

dinocarl, Thanks so much for the extra effort to make things clear for me. I hope to dig into it in the next few days to sort it all out.

Hey Dinocarl, The dino neck rig appears to deform you mesh extremely well. I understand the first half of what you wrote. I'm with you so far. I get the concept, but don't get how you are controlling the shape of the paths and keeping them moving with the dino model. Which bones are the "hanging bones" you refer to? Are they the "aimer bones"? Now you lost me completely.... Would you be willing to have another go at the last half or your explanation, or possibly posting a simplified model file of the neck rig? Thanks for showing us your techniques. Mark

This Arc Tracker is amazing, people. What a fantastic learning and troubleshooting tool! Thanks for developing this, and keep us posted on updates.

Seven, maybe you haven't seen the other threads relating to David's work with his "Bertram" model, but the point of this tutorial is on rigging and constraints, not modeling. The model is just there to give an idea of CP weighting and layout in relation to the bones. It's really a treasure of information if people take the time to work through it. Great work, David. And thanks a ton for all of the time and effort you've put into this. Mark

Hey David, Your pose folders are so well-organized and easy to follow, I was just wondering if this is due to a lot of preplanning on your part before creating the poses, or did you rearrange your poses into folders after-the-fact? If so, how'd you do it so everything still works? Because I'm constantly tinkering, adding new poses and constraints, I end up with just a long laundry-list of unorganized poses. Also, a video tutorial from you on how you did this rigging would be a huge benefit to everyone on this board. You've done a great job with Bertram's rig! Thanks, Mark

Outstanding work, Chris! I'd have bet $50 that was a photograph. Thanks for showing the wireframes and some insights on how you did it. Is the fabric fuzz on the edges of the head strap done in photoshop?

Go through these threads for most of your answers. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=4114&hl= http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=8443&hl=

The answer likely depends on how much contour and detail your character's face has. After spending countless hours adapting both Victor's and Osipa's types of rigs to my head models, I find osipa's rig works best and is the easiest to set up. For the more cartoony models with a bit less detail, you will likely be better off with Victor's style of rigging. He said he had better control with that style of rig on his model. Another thought... if you go with Osipa's rig you can easily remodel your head into other head models and the facial poses with still work with only very minor tweaking (if any). I don't think you could do this as easily with the Navone-style rig. I'm interested to hear what other's opinions are as well.

Colin, are you saying that it was so much easier for you to only work with half the mesh that you wouldn't consider doing it with the full mesh in a pose? Just for fun I tried creating a new pose with the altered mesh, copying a muscle keyframe, then pasting this into the original mesh's new pose window. It didn't work, though. Either I messed up, or it's not possible to do this. I thought since the 2 meshes have exactly the same CP's, just in slightly different locations that it maybe should have worked. If anyone knows how to do this I'd love to know how.

Melissa, thanks for the kind comments. Chris and Ken, After I did the morphing as a new model I thwacked myself on the head and thought, "I should have done this as pose so I could morph between the two". Colin's Cooper thread mentions this too. It's a fun idea to try in the future. I was amazed, too, when the Incredibles commentary made mention of using one mesh for all of the different characters. It would be fun to know how much work went into each new variant.

Hey Colin, I LOVE this work you did! This little character is really likeable, and looks like he could be a handfull. Did you do this all with magnet mode, or did you use lattices at all to deform your mesh? Thank you for your activity on this board because it is very informative, and inspirational. Mark