fae_alba

John, I'm going to perform one more test tonight, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you are correct. What it comes down to is how "realistic" do I want my shorts to feel. I'm on the fence about that, and I will most likely open up another thread for an open debate.

I had thought that too, so I added a pose to increase the size of the shirt (scale it up to try and make sure that that wouldn't happen. Sadly it didn't do any better. I'm going to try and re-work the bone chain and cp assignment so that the bones influence cp's running the height of the shirt and not the length. perhaps that will help.

I've been trying to get a dynamic bone chain to bring life to a shirt worn by Pappa Bear rather than using sim cloth. I added two dynamic bone chains to the shirt opening, then enabled collision detection. The issue comes about when stressing the range of motion as shown with the attached movie clip. I've fiddled with just about all of the settings with no real change in the behavior. I'd really like to get this to a point where I can animate the character without having to worry about the behavior of the shirt, but at this point I don't know if that is realistic. shirt_testc.mov One thing I'm wondering is if I need another bone chain to run along the bottom hem of the shirt to prevent the shirt from occurring. Anybody have ideas let's hear them.

I'll be honest here, with the exception of the feet, I liked your first iteration with the spikes. The feeler idea I think is a good one, only have them pointing down not up. Add a dynamic bone chain to the feelers and let them move freely with body motion. That would add some "character" to the character.

So I tried sim cloth, didn't like the results so much and the effort required. Since I plan on Pappa Bear being in a series of shorts I need to streamline the animation rendering process. So I went the dynamic constraint route and added a bone chain to each edge of the open shirt. Below is a first pass test using all default values. Looks passable, though I think I'll be damping it down a bit more, then I have to look into collisions with the body mesh. shirt_test.mov

Go tall my son, go tall

I thought it would be easy too...then I caught myself in an endless loop of tweeks, changes and re-renders. Last night I simply said enough is enough and sent the beast in.

how to "stage" my character is what I've been struggling with. What to use for render settings etc to give the most impact but still fit into the ability to reproduce for Hash is proving troublesome to me. I've re-rendered half a dozen times already and still not happy with the results. Edit: And having just said all that, I made some changes, rendered, liked the results, and sent it in!

Well then It's been awhile since I updated this but low and behold I have, finally, something to show. There is still a lot of rigging work to do on the head, but PappaBear is nearing the point where I can move from the modeling phase and into story telling. I wanted to put a sim cloth shirt on him, and worked for a bit on that, but the sim went wacky, and honestly I came to the conclusion that simcloth posed more overhead in modeling and rendering than what I am intending to do with the character. So I modeled a shirt, and perhaps I'll add some dynamics to it with a rig, but for now, it is a simple mesh. I don't really like the decaling and how it stretches on the sides, and will need to do something about it, but for now, here it is...

I'm pushing my limits...trying to get a cloth Hawaiian shirt to work on PappaBear....first attempt never even made it passed the sim...so tonight I'm back at it. Feeling the pressure of the sands of time though!

pappa bear will definitely make an appearance...cleaning up the model as we speak!

David, thanks a lot man! I figured I had nudged some CP's out of place during weighting. I appreciate it.

Right, so attempt number two. I had the whole right side so that it felt good to me. Weighting done, etc. Ran the mirror bones and it only sort of worked. It left some cp's unassigned (all of the left toes, cp rings around the left elbow) and it didn't add the left foot null. I've attached the version of the model just prior to running the mirror bones wizard. Any guidance would be appreciated. PappaBearRigged_V3t11.mdl

Rodney, It's funny, your post about interest in cartooning, and producing an actual product couldn't be more apropos. My youngest, who just graduated from high school is chomping at the bit to create her own animated comic. She is a big Marvel fun, and is writing her own script for a series. She keeps asking if "there is someone in the A:M forum who could help her on it". Long story short, I'm "making" her get at least an A.S. in computer science just so she has something to get a job with. This is a sample of her work....

Simon, you are correct. Education is not the same, since a good university would/should also require a more well-rounded course load that educates the student in other disciplines (language, science, math, history etc.) This in theory, produces a student better prepared to survive in the real world. Dealing with other cultures, understanding the world around you and so forth. That is the importance of a good education. Added to that, if (when) the student can't survive working in the art industry, then finding a job in say the business community would be next to impossible without a college degree.

Mu daughter spent $80k (of my money of course) getting a fine arts degree. She is now working at the local YMCA child care facility earning min wage. I'll be paying off the student loans for the next ten years. Her words right after getting her diploma..."wish I hadn't gone to school here...waste of money." Ouch.

"Gramps" Ouch. Break out my walker, rockin' chair, moonshine, and corn cob pipe...time to yell at them thar youn whipper snappers walkin on my lawn!

thanks folks! not much going on here, kids are all working or recovering from having the first grandkid..wife is working (chef) and I'm sittin' here doing well, not much.

PappaBearRigged_V1.mdl This is a backup copy of the model with the rig scaled, but perhaps not entirely positioned properly. Tried to follow the tut, but nothin sayin I didn't mess even that little bit up!

Good thing I saved multiple copies! Perhaps what I will do is post versions of the model at each major juncture of the rigging process for you to proof? Might not be tonight...first grandson is supposedly making an appearance today.... I DO NOT feel like a grandpa!

I did...doesn't mean I didn't mess it up in the process!

and so here it is PappaBearRigged_V1_6.mdl

And the rigging saga continues. This one is really dealing with the hand rig I suppose. When I rotate the right finger controller in an action window the pinky finger distorts. It looks kind of painful, really, and I was hoping our rigging gurus will point me in the right direction to correct it. hand_issue.avi

now we're talking! it always takes another set of eyes to see the obvious...many thanks

did i say the elbow fan??? my bad. The ring is assigned to the right bicep fan