robcat2075

Is there a program out there that does all this better? Is there a better system out there that someone can point me to a demonstration of. There are programs like Poser that make a character with a rig in it already (that's easier!) but you can't make your own character in Poser, you have to like the characters that Poser can make.. In Maya you manually place your bones and create your constraints one at a time like we do in A:M, and the various auto-rigging scripts and programs they have are not conceptually different or easier than what we have in things like TSM2 or the Squetch rig installer. If they were easier we'd see lots of user made characters being animated but we don't. I see a few stock characters that are widely used because most people with Maya can't rig their own characters (or maybe can't even make their own characters).

You can duplicate any bone in place by CTRL-dragging it in the PWS onto its parent. You will have to delete the new bone's children that also got copied if you don't want them. Yes I know that... Ahh... what you really meant was to create a new bone that used the start and end points of different bones? Like TSM can do. hmmm...

Everyone's input is valuable so i can see the scope of the disappointment or dissatisfaction. But some of it there are ready answers for. Is it harder than building the same rig from scratch and then adding the new thing? I would think those are both hard. I don't think these rigs are OVERLY complicated, I think they are what they need to be to do everything they do. You can exactly duplicate any bone in place by CTRL-dragging it in the PWS onto its parent. You will have to delete the new bone's children that also got copied if you don't want them.

One problem with TSM2 ( and TSM1 really) is that the documentation so briefly glossed over the the need for YOU the user to do proper CP weighting or fan boning that a lot of people missed that entirely and wondered why TSM wasn't making it look good automatically. I guess the problem with TSM2 is that it is just the control rig to move the body around and not something that properly weights or fan bones an elbow or a shoulder for you. We need to find a way to teach that elbow and shoulder weighting because they will need to know that no matter what they rig their character with.

If you're on the Mac TSM2 is not there for you, that's true. TSM2 still works on the current 32-bit A:M. Since you can have both 32-bit and 64 bit installed, I see that as only a minor problem for PC users. My question is directed to the PC users who have it, run it and are still stopped dead in their tracks by it. That normal default rig that TSM2 installs should be more than enough for to handle any animation situation that someone who is starting out with their own characters will encounter. I know it's more than enough because I've done lots of animation with it. My premise is that if you have made a character, you will be animating it sooner with TSM2 (or any "installer" rig) than if you try to learn rigging on your own and make one from scratch. Most beginners who try to build a rig from scratch will build a lousy one that is lousy to animate with and then complain that the program is the problem. The scripting... it was never sold as something any user would tinker with on the script level so i think it's a cool extra that it can be done AT ALL. Changing the scripts is not something a beginner needs to do at all to get TSM2 to work or to use it. Face rigs. You do have to do your own solution for face rigs with TSM because face rigs aren't part of it. But I've never had trouble putting my face rigs on it. The only bone up there is the head bone, navigating that and making your face bones children of that shouldn't be a big issue.

Would I download amcd.exe or would I go into the old directory and download am_v15.0i_cd.exe? You dont' want old, you want not old. And I'll bet you a dollar that something called v15.0i is not going to be v15.0j+ get amcd.exe

On TSM2, here's how I see it: 1- TSMBuilder puts geometry bones in your model. You scale them to fit one side of your model. 2a- TSMFlipper mirrors what you have from step 1 to the other 2b - YOU attach CPs to bones. Weight or fanbone or Smartskin as needed at the joints. 3- TSMRigger adds all the control bones, adds all the constraints and hides all the geometry bones and anything else you don't need to see to animate. Character ready to go! I think that's a straightforward process that doesn't require you to know what all the constraints are that make it work nor how to create them. Why isn't it? I really mean that... what part of that is not working for people?

Doable, yes. Redundant... somewhat, in the sense that the info is already available somewhere, just not in one place. I agree that having to keep an awareness of everything in your head is challenging (I find it boggling at times), but I don't think this display of info for one bone at a time will help much. I don't think it would advance novice riggers much. Perhaps we could brainstorm on a display that would genuinely and elegantly give us a global view with meaningful information.

I believe the latest v15j+ installer for CD can be found here: ftp://ftp.hash.com/pub/updates/windows/v15/

I'm just bumping this so it will show on people's "New Posts" list in case they missed it previously.

Go to "Tools > Options" and activate at the gLobal-Tab "Resizeable filedialogs" and click ok. Now you should be able to resize the file dialog to be big enough to reveal the filename-field. I dont know why some have problems with the window being too small... most of us dont have to do that. See you *Fuchur* It is very possible that the "re-sizable File dialogs" option isn't in v15b... it IS in v15j+ which is another good reason to download the latest v15 installer and install it over your current v15b. Your CD will still enable running v15j+

It's as simple as pasting a downloaded Hopper JPG to a flat plane.... Great demo, Rodger.

OK, when you run the installer that is on that CD what version does it put on your computer? It will put a "Hash Inc" folder in your Program Files folder ("Program Files (x86)" if you are on a 64-bit OS) with a folder inside it name like "V13.0" I don't think Hash was selling anything that was online-activated three years ago. All you should need when you run that the first time is the serial number that was likely in the printed stuff you got with your CD.

This appears to be a variant of a bug that I thought was solved. I've reopened and added this to http://www.hash.com/reports/view.php?id=5992

Nice scenario Matt. At 11sec you don't have to vote on all of them for your votes to count, you can vote on just one if you want and it will count but it's gong to be the one they pick to serve up to you. If there's 100 entries and i only vote on 50, the next person who comes along will first get the 50 i didn't vote on so they get caught up on total views. You can skip an entry and not vote on it but they will keep bringing it back to you later until you vote on it. It would be very difficult for someone to get 50 friends to just vote on his particular entry. Beyond the limits of human patience I'd say.

Another observation... adding Squash and stretch to an individual bone in a rig... I would call that an advanced task. I would be very surprised if a typical user of any other program knew how to do that. Certainly most people called "animators" would not have a clue.

I can get that if I do your steps but if it's the perfect sphere you need its easier to position the mesh in relation to the vertical axis, select only one point and hit lathe.

Nancy's method has got to be the ultimate in quick and easy. One drag and they're gone.

Are you talking about visibility? Yep, just so you can unclutter the diagram pretty much. I believe enhanced Selection filters work on models also so you could use those to show any set you want in the PWS, Shift-select them and un-vis them in one swoop.

Not in one keystroke. but if you select the parent (1st click), hit asterisk (2nd click) that will expand its tree, then SHIFT-select the parent bone at the top of the tree (3rd click) and the last bone at the bottom of the tree(4th click) then hit Delete (1 keypress), that will delete them all. I don't think it would be possible to truly identify what you wanted to delete in only one keystroke. Nancy's method is better than mine.

Are you talking about visibility?

I've seen things like that and while it should be helpful I can't help but note that exceedingly few Maya users learn to rig even with that graphic aid. They don't seem to gain much more understanding of "why we rig" with it or without it. I think fewer Maya users get their own characters rigged than A:M users. Those charts look like lots of information is being presented in a clear format and yet it's only clear to the advanced user. A line from one bone to another that says "Rotation constraint" (instead of our current text listings) would speed me up quite a bit, but the user who doesn't grasp the purpose of the constraint isn't helped much. I think very very few people could look at a chart like that and predict what the rig will do.

Tell me more about what you don't understand. It might get covered in a tut eventually.

A lot of stuff in that TCM clip are probably flat cards painted and placed in the 3D environment. I didn't see any object in that that turned much in the camera view; we're always seeing them from one side. Genuine 3D models can be easily painted from a particular camera viewpoint in a 3D paint program like our own A:M Paint. I did a brief intro tut for A:M Paint here: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=356734 My Punch thread shows how to use cylindrical mapping to easily wrap a complex shape with a bitmap that can be painted on. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=317888

I hope to have a good explanation of "why we rig" in NewTAoA:M so that everyone can build a simple, functional rig from scratch and understand how it works and... learn enough from that so "installer" rigs make sense as the better option. I really think "installer" rigs are better and faster for most uses, but people seem to get stopped dead by them for a variety of reasons.