robcat2075

BTW, are there any true-scandal fans who recognize the allusion to then-contemporary events in that Flintstones poster?

I'm glad to hear of your success!

My preference (not that I am a painting expert) is to wrap a large bitmap on a model via cyl mappings and paint on that in 3Dpainter. http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=317888 I think this is preferable to flattening in A:M or using the auto-tiling ability. Edges on a spline? explain that more.

make sure your cyl shape is centered about the Y axis. If it isn't that way in your model, make a pose that moves it there adn apply the decal in the pose. Here's a case where I decal a face with cyl mapping http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=317888 3 is the correct number for x. A:M uses one copy over a imaginarily flattened mesh as best it can and uses one more on each side to catch any stray bits of mesh that the first one didn't cover. This makes it possible for a rectangular decal to appear to wrap around a mesh that doesn't have a straight seam on the back. normals don't matter for decals.

briefly the Basic Elements: -Attach groups allow you to fix a part of a cloth mesh to a bone so it doesn't fall freely. Holding a handkerchief would be a use of this. -The Flag tut in TAoA:M will introduce creating cloth attach groups. Do that tut. -the Attach group CPs must be associated to a bone. -Attach Groups must be turned ON in the Model. -Attach Groups can be turned ON and OFF in the Chor -To make a character hold a handkerchief, constrain its attach group's bone to his hand. -To make the handkerchief drop, turn its Attach group OFF in the chor . -When the Character wants to pick the handkerchief up again the group can be turned ON to follow the bone still constrained to his hand. -The group will follow from whatever distance it is when the group is turned back on. -If a cloth falls such that the original attach group is not in the right place for a character to reach (underneath the rest of the cloth, perhaps?), a new group in convenient location can be selected in muscle mode in the Chor. Rename this group in the model, make it an attach group, add a bone for it in the model and resave the model. Return to your chor and use the new bone for moving your cloth around. It is possible to to get confused while doing these maneuvers and get unexpected results, however it does work. My BUSSTOP animation is an example of using various attach groups to: keep the rope from sliding off Shaggy while he was carrying it, let it fall when he needed to drop it, not jitter when it needed to lie motionless, and be picked up again to do the dance.

I think we can now declare it to be the longest-standing bug ever. A memorial may be in order when it gets squashed.

It seems to me that since we can turn off and on any and all constraints with poses this should be possible. But like I say, don't put off anything pressing for this. This is a back burner type item.

That's a soprano sax, actually. Bb i think. If that small instrument is heavy enough that he can't hold it exactly 100% rigidly in the same exact space in front of his head as he moves around, a larger heavier instrument will have even more overlap. Standing motionless as possible is a goal for a real player because he's visibly alive in other ways and the horn only fits in the mouth a certain way. But for the animated player it's dead because he's not alive in other ways and actually can be absolutely motionless, something the real player can never do. I'll paraphrase something Tex Henson told me: Don't make a drawing of someone playing the sax. Make a drawing about someone playing the sax!

Here's a diagram I found that illustrates how the COG varies depending on the arrangement of the body parts In the first drawing it's very close to where the main body controller is on many rigs. In the second, it's higher. In the third it's not even in the body anymore. If he were a diver doing a somersault you would need to move the rig so tht it moved around that imaginary point rather than moving around a bone in the body.

Eugene (the skeleton?) Would be an easy re-rig since he doesn't have any skin that needs to be weighted between two bones. If you haven't done a TSM2 rig yet he would be a good starter example.

If Eugene is rigged with TSM2.

Your question might get a more answers if it weren't in a thread about IBL but... A quick search on "toon" and "rendering" gets this list of topics: http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?act=S...Btoon+rendering some of the links in those threads are very old, but can often be retrieved with the Wayback machine at www.Archive.org For example, I got back Krickets toon tutorial in this thread with the Wayback machine... http://web.archive.org/web/20090409175822/....com/tutorials/

It seems to me like there ought to be a way to use the existing bones, but... I suppose that once that Shoulder-Upperarm set becomes an IK construction it would need some sort of pointer like the elbow or knee has when an arm or leg has the usual IK arrangement.

that's getting better! The torso definitely looks more flexed. If you posed the arms in FK rather than IK you could probably make them trail more easily. Biggest next item is his path through the air. After he gets hit he goes horizontal for a way then falls. Unless there's something carrying him he would move in an arc down rather than that L shaped path. Like a stone that had been heaved sideways

Actually it would be a third mode that you switch to instead of the other two. I sort of envisioned it as being a center position on the same slider between FK and IK but I don' know if that's feasible. Or maybe it's a new position beyond either the FK or IK positions? One slider is better than two. If you always had to switch to one of those before you turned on ElbowK, I guess it would not matter which since it is so easy to switch IK FK anyway.

That's essentially it! In actual practice the lower arm would need to be not affected by the movement above the elbow and the null that defines the elbow pivot point would need to be pose-able to the place where the elbow skin contacts the table rather than at the actual bone joint. But you have the core concept correct there. This isn't an emergency need of mine so don't drop whatever else you are doing to do this, but this is something rigs are being expected to do more now these days.

Just aiming the elbow controller won't do it, partly because it can't pull the shoulder into position. This is for shots where one has elbows on a table. The spine or hands can move about ( within limiits) and the elbow stays put on the table surface. Translate constraining the FK upper arm (Which does pull the shoulder) to an external null at the elbow point gets an approximate effect but not as solid as a real IK structure.

This is why motion capture is usually unsatisfying. Most real life overlap is so subtle you can't see it without a calipers. But try this where he's "playing" for the camera. There's a fair amount going on: It's impossible to move his body and maintain a perfect placement of a horn that probably weighs several pounds. There is overlap there. (Also note that they're swinging the camera quite a bit to make him look even more dynamic.) "real" sax players don't actually need to dance for a camera so they can concentrate staying still and holding the sax just right. But video sax players gotta show that music coming out. there's gotta be some visual performance,

Hey Mark, do you think there's a way to fit a middle state in the IK-FK thing? This would be "elbow K" where the elbow keeps a fixed position and the shoulder and upper arm move to match it, much like the upper arm and lower arm move to meet an IK hand target in regular IK.

For me, most revealing lecture they showed us at AnimationMentor was the one on "Spine reversals". This is probably the main technique for keeping characters from looking stiff. Build key poses that change the shape of the spine. they have a brief description of the concept here http://www.animationmentor.com/newsletter/...ature_geek.html He's using a broad motion of a heavy lift there. But it's very effective even on slight movements. A slight reversal of the spine curvature (from the view of the camera) makes everything change position in relation to everything else and makes it not look like a rigid shell. There has to be a reason for the change to happen, there has to be some movement that "needs" it, otherwise it looks like wandering body motion. This was my first attempt at putting that into practice to loosen up the body where there is almost no real "action". I tended to use them in pairs where one is the anticipation for the next one. http://www.brilliantisland.com/am/youreright228s.mov Spine reversals on frames: 019 100 111 252 264 there's also a stretch from 130-180 where I'm only barely changing the spine shape. That bothers me now. Another spine reversal probably isn't called for but some better overlap between the head/torso/hips would have kept the spine more flexible looking.

It's like Big Bird in a Sea Anemone costume.

That's the even harder part! You're on the right track with "chain reaction". it's a bit like waves traveling through the body.

Unless it's terribly private it would be interesting to have you post that PRJ (with everything embedded!) to see what the problem was.

Good looking character! This is a very difficult move to do. My first observation would be to treat the torso more flexibly and not as a rigid unit. It will have a different bend to it depending on whether he gets hit high, mid or low and everything else will trail and be pulled after the part that gets hit.

Thanks, Matt!