mouseman

Warning -- Five pointers have to be re-marked as a 5-point patch after CFA *IF* they are along the center line. It's usually not that big of a deal, though.

I tried doing that with the Robby model, and his fingers ended up being scattered all over the place (ETA: in the Choreography). The bone I scaled was the Root bone in the model window in bones mode, using the scale manipulator ("S") and the Ctrl key (on the PC). I think that's exactly what you were saying to do. One thing I noticed that was very different between Robby and the new Thom is that Robby's Root bone is vertical, from foot to head. The one on Thom is flat on the ground between his feet. I tried to move the Robby Root bone to be the same position as the Thom root bone, which might have helped a little but not much. (Obligatory joke: heh, and they say size doesn't matter!) There's an exercise you can never do too many times! Eventually I'll be able to do it in under 20 minutes down from 4 hours. That's the theory, anyways.

I just tried taking my baseball pitch animation, putting the latest "Robby_Final" into the objects folder, and then changing the shortcut to the Thom model to Robby_Final. Robby's hands are all in the wrong place, very high, though most of the other stuff seems to work okay. When I switch back to AMv13_2008_Rig_Thom, it's all fine again. There is a size difference between the two models (~1m for Thom, ~1.75m for Robby), but I don't think that is causing the problem.

I tried a semi-real animation with the rig and had quite a bit of success. It's your custom blue Thom pitching a baseball. (ETA: The project file should have everything except for AMv13_2008_Rig_Thom.mdl.) I did it in a blocking animation style, using hold every keyframe, in hopes I would be more efficient in animating. It is not complete yet. He does not let go of the ball, and the follow through and balance at the end isn't quite right. But it should be enough to show that the rig generally works for me. The biggest problem I had (my problem, not the rig's) was that I tried to turn the hips by turning the "Hips" bone instead of "Hips _Controller". I had to create a sample action to figure out what I should have done, and then I put the Hips back and rotated the Hips _Controller and everything seemed to work well. Is it desirable to be able to rotate the hips? When does rotating Hips conflict with Hips _Controller? Another thing is that I didn't notice the "Right Ball Controller" until the 2nd half of the animation. It comes in handy when the pitcher rotates on the ball of his foot. Very useful. AM2008rig.prj 2008rig_pitch2.mov

Very impressive.

Quick "How would I" question, not quite specific to the AM:2008 rig though I'm trying it on AMv13_2008_Rig4h... Say I have the character kneeling on one knee -- right one. So his left knee is up in the air. To get up, the character places his left on on his left leg (Left Thigh_Geom). I want to constrain the left hand to the leg. What is the easiest way to find the bone from within an action?

The finger controller controls the fingers, the thumb is independent from them. All the fingers have the same controls as the thumbs (they are hidden with a pose). There is an option for the thumbs to move with the finger controller, it's turned off by default. (look in the hands folder)Aah, I made the fingers visible and they are the same. I was just thrown off by the finger controller vs the rotators when I didn't have "Show Right Finger Controls" turned on. It is still a little weird to be rotating something coming out of the knuckle and having the finger bend in the opposite way. Unfortunately, the alternative (having the rotation angle being in the same axis as the bending of the finger) would probably be hard to arrange the bones. Unless it was just a little bit above the knuckle? In IK arms, with this pose ON (IK Hand Lock OFF), the arm will maintain orientation when the shoulder and chest controllers are rotated.I see, {Right,Left} IK Hand Lock and Steady {Right,Left} IK Arm are mutually exclusive. This is a universal thing with rigs, I think, knowing when settings are mutually exclusive. I'm not sure I know what you mean. If I understand correctly, why would you want to do that? If you turn off all the steady poses in the spine folder, the hip null works just like the hip null in the 2001 rig. You can also place the hip null anywhere you like in the modelling window.Nevermind. For some reason I didn't notice the differing functionality. Sorry for the confusion. The only other thing I've noticed so far is that in IK mode on the legs, it's easy to get the knee to go into weird directions when the foot target is closer to the body. However, it is probably easy enough to animate anyways.

Fun that he keeps hold of the book while being chased.

AMv13_2008_rig4h.mdl - I played with it a little this morning, so here is some feedback. I notice that the bending of the thumb controller works by the the roll handle, but the bending of the fingers (en masse) works with the tip of the bone controller. It's a little inconsistent. (I always find roll handles hard to grab. Is there a setting I can change in the UI to make it easier?) You can grab the "Right_Hand Geom" bone and just move it. Is that intentional? The "Right Hand Target" bone moves when the shoulder bone moves. Oh, I see, that's what the "Right IK Hand Lock" is for. Nevermind. Haven't figured out yet what Steady Right IK Arm is for yet. Love the Chest_Controller. And the Hips and the hip_controller. I'm slightly surprised at how high the hips controller is, but it doesn't seem to have any negative consequences and works for animating AFAICT. Could Hips and hip_controller be combined into a single bone?

Yeah, someone would have to modify the existing rigs to all have the same geometry bone set. If we came up with a name for the standard geometry bones ("A:M 2008 biped geometry bones"), then we could refer to the "2001 rig for the 2008 biped geometry" or the "squetch rig for the 2008 biped geometry" or the "2008 rig for the 2008 biped geometry" or the "TSM2 rig for the 2008 biped geometry". There's one complication of what happens when one rig has requirements for different geometry bone sets than what the others need? Wow! The description of what you mentioned goes way beyond what I knew was possible in A:M. But the basic steps you outlined sound like a much easier way of rigging a character with an existing rig! Could this installation method also be applied to other rigs (e.g. Squetch)? You and Dave S are in frequent contact, can you guys coordinate to have the same geometry bones in the 2008 rig and squetch? (or are there restrictions for having similarities between the 2001 rig and 2008 rig? or is it too late in the development of the two rigs to make these things common?) I'm imagining a world where I install the geometry bones, assign control points, do some CP weighting and maybe some smart skin if I have to all on geometry bones. Then whenever I want, I can open my character in the the rig action for any of the rigs, save the new version, and start animating in a new chor. If I ever need to change the model, I just change the original, then go through the 2-minute process of re-rigging the character, and I'm ready to continue. Or if the rig gets updated, I just go through the 2-minute process of re-rigging the character with the updated rig.

Neat to see more rigging research being done. I've thought it would be neat to have a standard set of geometry bones, and then be able to install a rig on top of that. For example, I create my model, import geometry bones, translate and size them, assign points, do CP weighting, etc. Then, I can do a 10-second procedure that would install the 2001 rig, or the TSM rig, or the Squetch rig, or the 2008 rig. Maybe it would involve dragging the rig onto the model in the chor or action and there would be a link to the rig under the link to the model. Basically, the rig is like the marionette controls and strings, and the geometry bones are the things the rig strings attach to. The other thing is that the animator animates to the rig, not to the model. This would take a huge amount of programming, I'm sure, but I thought it would be fun to mention.

I've only played a little bit with it. I believe it does quite well at mass, gravity, inertia/momentum (both vector and rotational), and friction (static and dynamic). It also does explosions. I think you can add other forces, as well, but I'm not sure. See the NewtonPhysics page (oops, you already saw it), and the NewtonPhysics forum.

But of course this is a family-oriented web board.

Or I should have been a little more clear! I'm a little nervous about modifying the 2001 rig. 1. The project is close to being done, and I'd be afraid of messing up the rest of the animation; 2. I have some smarts for rigging, but not a huge amount. On the next project, I'm definitely switching over to the squetch rig. From what I can tell, there will probably be far fewer of these kinds of "gotchas". (And that's largly your accomplishment! Which everyone is hugely grateful for!)

I didn't scale it, I just moved it. The reason I moved the bones was that I sat in a chair, breathed in deeply, and noticed that not only did my chest expand (muscle movement), but I also slightly moved my upper back, neck, and head (bones). I can probably do the pose without moving the upper back, but this is a case for the 2001 rig where it is clear that because of dependencies, if you move higher-level bones (such as pelvis, back, back2, shoulder) after lower-level bones (hand, or hand target), you mess up the positions of the lower-level bones. This can be frustrating for anyone that is not intimately familiar with all of the ramifications of the rig. It can also be frustrating for anyone that has a need to go back and clean up animation. A quick look at the squetch rig ... it looks like when FK_IK is on, the hands stay where they are. I think the target in question is not directly below the geometry for the back and shoulders. This is how I was expecting (incorrectly) the 2001 rig to behave.

I'm going back to work on the old Eggs, Potatoes, and Bacon animation I had submitted to MMC ... what, 5? 6? Anyways, as far as suggestions, one person had mentioned that one of the characters seemed to freeze sometimes. I thought a neat way of making him continue to move was to implement a breathe pose. I can just have it go up and down periodically; it could go up just before he begins a phrase, and go down as he completes it. I created the pose, did some muscle (control point) changes to make his chest expand, and then did some skeletal changes to make his Back2, Head, and Neck move. I then went to the existing chor, created a new chor action, and had the slider value for the new Breathe pose vary between 0 and 35-50 as appropriate for a test period. Then I clicked "play" and ... His hands are moving when they shouldn't. In the 2001 rig, the Right (and Left) Hand Target are both under Back2. Thus if Back2 moves, so do the hands. Rats! The best laid plans ...

I haven't found any films dated 2008, though I didn't look extensively.

There is a data.zip here: http://www.hash.com/ftp/pub/misc/ 158M

I would prefer something like that for the Squetch rig. If I had the time, I'd try writing a plugin for Squetch, but alas I don't. I'm guessing that if I tried to install a Squetch rig by hand at my skill level, I'd have to redo everything 5 or 6 times before I got it mostly right. From what I've seen, it's a long and complicated process.

You might already have these in the plans, but here are some suggestions ... - less reflection on the cabinet fronts , table top, and fridge. - a back-splash on the countertop. - a back-splash which includes a timer and a clock on the stove, and perhaps an extra plug Other than that, it looks great! (Okay, even with that, it looks great.)

Largento, this is an amazing project. You say that you don't see as much progress as you wanted. However, from my point of view, you are doing some incredible stuff, and a lot of it! We all know how much work it is to do something that is both interesting and visually appealing. You're doing it! And I think everyone here appreciates being able to follow your progress and understands the amount of work that you are putting into it! ETA: You might be amused to listen to a song called "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate".

What are the 180 degree rules?

I've always wished TAO A:M had an exercise that dealt with transitioning between three or four different actions.

Are the plugin and default rigs going to be included with an update to the 14.x series? It would be nice if they were automatically installed with each update. EDIT: This page links to this file for the PC version of the plugin; however, the link is broken.

The new phonemes are phenomenal. The model is looking quite good! I agree with the comment about nose creases ... they look a little improved.