robcat2075

Best wishes, Paul V.!

If that's v16, screencam it, that would be a good A:M report.

Successories! Looks like one little patch isn't taking its decal well. Maybe a CP got moved?

I think its greatest use may be for quickly blocking in mouth poses for dialog, something that typically involves a number of bones or controls that , for polishing and nuance, need to be not locked to each other as a pose slider control does. There's a $200 add-on for Maya that has the same functionality.

You have to try to imagine where the center of all that mass is. The center of gravity on a person varies depending on how he's standing or bending or crouching or slouching or whatever.

It downloaded for me. Try later or possibly with another browser.

Mine is not really an exploration of the best timing. It's in the ball park, but there are others. Mostly I just wanted to show it's possible to pose his weight farther forward so when he's jumping it really is over his toes when he is pushing with his legs. All your legs can really do is push your body straight away from where ever they are touching. So if you want to go straight away from the earth (up) you need the body to be up from (above) the contact point. If the weight is not directly over, some front or back motion will happen. Look at these three cases. The blue arrow is where they are contacting the ground. Where is each one's mass in relation to that point? The first one is obviously not able to jump straight up from his pose. the second is close but sill has his mass behind the contact point. Only the last one of these is really posed to go straight up when he straightens out

How about putting the sky on a plate behind him so the camera can still move in?

Will the lighting be brighter on my shot? Right now it's so dark I can't see anything unless I turn on the wireframe.

I suppose the basic goal is -move weight over the toes while he's crouching -keep the weight over the toes while he's jumping and landing -move the weight back towards the heels as he recovers You've pretty much got that going. His feet are very long so it may not look right to shift him so far forward from his standing position, but I'd experiment to see how close you could get so he'd really be pushing up from where his toes are contacting the floor. You may already be at the happy medium. (His toes are still wandering below the ground.) Here's my quick attempt at getting his weight further forward over the toes during the pushing and landing poses. This is just the key poses and I dont' feel i have it quite right. jumpingBlockedD.prj It would probably be helpful to shoot someone from the side doing this jump-in-place to really see when the hips and body are moved forward and back. That would be a good thing for you to do to investigate this further.

I like that one, trying to figure out where up is.

I like the up and down motion better. I thing you've got the slow in and out at the top going well. Yes, he does look like he's leaning backwards during his jump. He's probably in the air a bit too long and that's what gives it the moon-gravity look, but overall this is much improved.

Here's basically the whole performance. I'm not proud of the fist pump, I might find something less to do. Still need to do the actual lip motions and some facial expression and overall polishing. NoMatter_600.mov

There's probably a similar dead end spline on the other side of the hand? I'd just continue them to meet in a CP in the middle. You won't be able to use a hook as a side of the 5-ponters that are already there. However...first trick to try to make a five pointer... select all 5 points, then hit the period key twice.

How do the other programs pick a new rotation center that is not the 0,0,0 and is not something else selected?

That's the way it works. It rotates around whatever is currently selected and that's the model bone if nothing else is selected. If you are working on some far-flung part of the model you could temporarily move the model bone out there (don't use the translate manipulator). Just remember to move it back to 0,0,0 when you are done.

A video you might find very illuminating at this point is my "Keyframing basics", which you can find in the screencam tuts link in my signature.

So that's actual A:M hair on that guy, right? That's a pretty good 'do.

the rulers are turned on with the... you'll never guess... "Show Rulers" button! It's at the top and looks like a ruler. the background grid is turned in Options>Action>Display Grid There's one like that for chors in Options>Choreography too. You can also turn them on and off with SHIFT-3 And you make markers by clicking on a ruler.

More comments... jumpCommentsB.mov

I didn't know that one either!

thats where the problem is. i don't know where the right place is suppose to be. Did you watch the tut on counter animating? that shows exactly how to line the toe up with a marker so it isn't moving. In general, for a character with such long feet, you should pose him at the start so that his body isn't right over his heels, but somewhere between the heels and the toes. If he's going to jump straight up and he's pushing off with his toes he'll really have to have his weight over the toes, but with his feet so long that wont' look right. You'll have to cheat it a bit. Is that what you mean by "the right place"?

I like the "depth of field" look.

What about move-it-to-the-right-place is not doable?

Those toes are definitely not staying in place. Here's a tut on counter animating Also notice that you're up and down aren't the same length of time any more. The up trip in the air needs to be the same as the down trip in the air. Also note that the rig doesn't simulate anything about proper body motion for you. It's up to you to put everything where it needs to be at the right time. If something is not in the right place at the right time, move it so it is.