robcat2075

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!

Well, that's more than we have now but still odd looking. Does a Kleig, or Sun light have that pyramid shape?

last resort... try Help>Reset Settings

make sure the "Object Draw Mode" is set to curve(circle) not vector(diamond) It's in the PWS next to the Show More than Drivers Icon

You can change the color of the non-camera background (or any other interface element) in Tools>Customize>Appearance You can also name and save this "scheme" in that tab.

I'm trying to figure out how long the lights' translate manipulator has been broken. At least since v8. v5 might be around 1997 or so. I had it but can't find my CD.

I would add a bone to the head that originates where his lips are gripping the mouthpiece and then generally points in the direction of the body of the horn and constrain the horn and hands to that. For an orient-like constraint to make use of "lag" in this situation the bone will need to NOT be a child of the head but translate-to constrained to it instead. I haven't used automatic lag for this purpose but it might be a less labor-intensive way of loosening up the structure . I'd recommend getting your cuts done first before you polish the animation.

If by chance you have an installer for one of those around and can run it... Select a light and hit N for the translate manipulator. Does the Translate manipulator appear correctly? A box with red, green and blue handles on each side and corner, like for any other bone or the camera. and if so, can you screen capture it?

ba-dump bump.

My first observation is that the sax seems to be too rigidly locked to his head. There's a lot of opportunity for slight overlaps and lags in the motion to help give the sax a look of having weight. When i did my BUS STOP segment I first thought i could just constrain Shaggy's hands to his head when he is playing his imaginary oboe. But it was obvious pretty quick that that looked too rigid whenever he moved his head around, even a little. Instead, i constrained his hands to a bone sticking out of his mouth where the oboe would have been and worked at lagging that and overlapping that to the head motion. (a separate bone for each hand would have been better)

It's odd a how a computer can appear to be completely functional with outdated drivers and stuff... until you get A:M on it and then it damn well better be up to date!

I have v11, 13,15 and 16 on my Win7 PC and they seem to operate normally. I often hear people here say to not get a computer with integated video but that's just because those are slow. There are probably more current drivers for that video card none-the-less. That would be my first guess, find the appropriate latest drivers and install those. (And of course you have a way to revert your computer back to its original state just in case you mess something up when you do this.) Win 7 i supposed to look for updates automatically, but look anyway.

Anything that resides in the "components" folder of TSM2 needs to be a pre-V13 MDL or TSM2 won't recognize it during the Builder stage. But, your process isn't putting anything in the components folder, right?