Caroline
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Stage 3 - Assign Control Points
1. Right click in Bones mode. Choose Auto Assign Bones. This will automatically assign all control points to the nearest bone.
2. Make sure that the whole head including the chin is assigned to the head bone.
3. Save your project.
You can now finish the TSM rigging:
1. Right click in Bones mode, choose Plug-ins > Wizards > TSM Rigger.
2. Wait for the bones to be "calculated"
3. Click Rig.
4. Wait for the bones to be rigged.
TSM is now installed into your model. Wasn't so hard, was it?
However, do not save this project, we have a way to go yet.
I am hoping that everything that can go wrong will go wrong, so that we can troubleshoot here.
5. Create an action using this model (remember we're not going to be saving this project)
TSM models always have to have their constraints set to on before using them - one of the more frustrating things about learning TSM is animating the bones, and wondering why the mesh is not following the bone.
6. In the Pose Sliders turn TSM Constraints ON.
That wasn't meant to happen
What this means is that the rotation of the bones was incorrect, and we have to go back to your saved stage 3 model.
All of the horizontal bones need to be rotated in the upright direction, as in this picture:
Question for the experts - is there any way of avoiding this rotation step? Did I do something wrong that all the bones came in sideways? (I realise now that I should have done this rotation before flipping.)
I will fix this tomorrow and upload a fixed model for us to continue with.
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Stage 2 - TSM Flipper
1. Right click in the bones window, and choose Plug-ins > Wizards > TSM Flipper. A mirror of the bones appears.
Just to prove that this is a live show, I find to my horror that Gala is not symmetrical.
So we will have a side lesson in Copy / Flip / Attach.
You can follow along if you want, or you can fast forward and download stage1b (located after these instructions).
1. In Modelling mode, select all CPs - Ctrl A.
2. With the left arrow key, make sure the central spline is directly on the Y axis.
3. Press <Esc> to deselect.
4. Click any cp on the body.
5. Press the / key to select all connected.
6. Press H to hide the eyes and teeth.
7. Click on the central spline between two cps. (I do not click an actual cp on the spline, because sometimes it will select the horizontal spline, not the vertical one)
8. Press the , key to select the spline.
9. Turn Show Manipulator Properties On.
10. Press S for the scale tool.
11. Change the X scale to 0. Turn Show Manipulator Properties Off.
12. Select the left half of the model up to and including the central spline. I do this zoomed out roughly, selecting more than I should, then zoom in and use the Alt key to deselect cps. You will be able to tell from the outline of selected CPs when you have deselected all the ones on the wrong side, as the outline will be very close to the Y axis..
13. Press Ctrl C to copy.
14. Press Ctrl A to select all
15. Press Delete to delete all.
16. Press Ctrl V to paste.
17. With all the CPs still selected, shift click the central spline (between cps), so that a bit of the spline goes green. (This might take a few clicks in different places to get it to go green)
18. Right click on the selected area and choose Copy/Flip/Attach.
Fill any 5 pointers that haven't filled. Most of them did, to my surprise.
I also had to rejoin a couple of splines on her rear, because of an awkward 3 point patch.
Now in Bones mode, click the Body bone, and use the N key to realign all the bones in the body. Remember to mouse-drag, and don't to use the arrow keys, so that all bones are moved together. The spine should be EXACTLY on the Y axis.
Also reposition the IK Foot control, which is not in the Body hierarchy.
Tips
1. Make sure you don't have Mirror Mode on (I did and things don't work right.
)2. Filling 5 pointers - hide most of the mesh, use the lasso tool to select the 5 points, and click the 5 point patch tool. I have not had this fail, as long as you only select the 5 points, and do not catch others behind.
Corrected GalaDM:
Repeat the original step 1 - TSM Flipper, and what a relief, everything matches.
Save your project under a different name.
In a perfect world, Stage 2 would have included assigning control points, but I'm doing this warts and all, because real life happens
(Wipes sweat off brow and goes to find something to restore nerves) -
Thank you, you guys are great! What an honour to be pinned.
And I thought Stage 1 was going to be easy.
It's fantastic to get an understanding of WHY you do things - I could have looked at a TSM model all day, and not realised WHY those leg bones were straight.Gala's splines are probably too simple for great animation - I looked at Project Bertram's fingers, and wondered why he had so many splines. I guess we'll find out why.
That IK foot control is another reason to look at bones in multiple views
Corrected GalaDM with better rotational position, and fingers and toes better positioned:
Tips:
1. I find Deskpins invaluable. (I haven't tested it on Vista)
I can copy a picture, like Mark's dots from the internet, paste into Irfanview, and use Deskpins to keep the Irfanview window on top so that I can refer to the positions.
2. Remember to walk away from the computer often. (I'm suffering from animator's neck again
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It only last a year now?
$299 gets you v15 CD that gives you updates for v15, and will not expire. You can take the CD and put it into different comuters. It is like your licence to use. CD must be in the computer to run it. I think you get Extra DVD, and hard copy TaoA:M. But I have not bought it, so cannot say from personal experience.
$49 gets you a subscription for 12 months, with all updates for that 12 months. After 12 months the program expires until you subscribe again. No CD needed, but is tied to one computer, which you activate by internet. Internet access is not required after activation. Manual and TaoA:M are pdf downloadable from web site. The models that were on the CD are downloadable from the Hash ftp site, but you don't get the Extra DVD, which can be purchased separately.
What's new:
And stability.
Hope that helps.
Personally, I like the $49, and I like the idea of it being an annual subscription at a very good price.
Cool drill - maybe the glowing is from specularity?
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I'm surprised to hear that the shortcuts differ. I haven't come across any that do.
However, there is a list (an old one from 10.5) here:
http://home.comcast.net/~christhom/Shortcuts.pdf
And you can change the shortcuts to suit yourself in A:M:
1. Click Tools Menu > Customize
2. Click the Keyboard tab.
I think you can search pdfs nowadays in Adobe Reader. There are some shortcut keys in The Art of Animation:Master manual too.
I tend to use:
The views - numbers on num pad
T = Turn
M = Move
, = select spline
. = invert selection
/ = select connected cps
Shift 8 = turn on/off particles
S = scale
R = Rotate
Those are the main ones I can think of, so there aren't too many. If I'm doing something repetitively then I try and remember the shortcut, like swapping between F8 (bones) and F9 (whole Model) when animating.
Just for the moment I'm using Ctrl D (decal on/off) a lot, but next week I will probably have forgotten it.
Oh, and good to see you on the forum.
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That's cool - you don't have to watch the whole thing - image properties, thanks, Rodney.
Also, rotoscope does work for me too. Don't know what I was thinking.
What's your video format?
One other thing, if you're importing a sequence of tga or jpg images, import them as an "Animation or Image Sequence", but just choose the first one, don't try and select all of them. By clicking the first numbered image, it will automatically load the sequence.
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1. Make sure that you import it as an "Animation or Image Sequence"
2. Decal it, not rotoscope. So if you have the action window open, right click THE MODEL under OBJECTS, not under action, and do New > Decal. Then position and apply.
That just worked for me with a QT mov.
Edit: I don't know how to set the length, etc - maybe you could edit the video before applying it?
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Edited 24th October 2008
This is the pdf document of this thread, with all the superfluous info removed.
Rigging_Gala_with_the_TSM_Rig.pdf
The models (Before and After):
The rest of this thread is useful to see comments and movies at various stages, if you require extra information.
Please feel free to add questions etc to this thread, and if you end up with a better Gala model, I will substitute yours for the "After"
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In this thread I am going to rig Gala with the TSM rig. (Gala is available with the v15.0 subscription in the data download) Hopefully this will encourage others to try TSM, and also encourage me to get a good working model
**Edit: I have assumed that you have basic rigging knowledge. If you don't, everything you need to know can be learned from Mechadelphia's Rigging Basics **
**Edit: Overview video of how TSM works http://www.pluginz.com/product/10614?g=3152#gallery **
I would welcome advice and crit from experts out there, as I have limited practical knowledge.
Stage 1 - Set up bones
This is the GalaDM mesh on its own.
1. Load the GalaDM model
2. In Bones Mode, right click and choose Plug-ins > Wizards > TSM Builder
3. Make your settings look like this:
4. Click OK
5. In a side view, click the bone that sticks out at the back (Body).
6. Press the N key (that's Translate) and drag the Body bone to the hip area. It is important you use the Translate (N key), and not the Standard Manipulator, as the Standard Manipulator only drags the one bone. The Translate will drag the Body bone and all bones in the hierarchy. Don't use the arrow keys to move it, either, as only the Body bone will move.
7. Press the S key (that's Scale), and scale the Body bone so that the head fits as in the picture.
8. Move and scale the top of the leg into position using the N and S keys, and the same for the shoulder bone.
9. Check top and side views. Do each finger.
10. Position each individual bone in the correct places. (There shouldn't be too many, here - mostly the fingers). We are using the Advanced fingers, so there is an extra bone in the hand. You will probably find the hand bone gets in the way, so hide it in the PWS temporarily. Remember to unhide it again.
I'm not absolutely sure about the positions of the shoulder bone.
11. And the toes - I think the toes have 2 bones, and the third base bone goes into the foot, so that the foot will be able to curl a little.
And that's the end of stage 1.
Make sure you save your project under different names at each stage, in case you want to go back.
Here's GalaDM after stage 1.
Tips
1. When doing a small area like fingers or toes, hide the mesh in modelling mode then go to bones mode to size the bones. And hide/show bones using the eye in the PWS.
2. You can hide / show a hierarchy by Shift-Clicking the eye at the top level.
3. To expand/contract a hierarchy, click on the top level. Press the * key on the num pad.
4. Remember to check all views - the first stage 1 I uploaded here, the toes were a long way under the feet.
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Remarks/Suggestions for Improvement: Please
Looks good for a quick march. He's holding his ears very stiff, but perhaps rabbits do that on parade
The slippage/jerkiness you will probably be able to deal with better after doing ex 6.
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Will do.
Thanks, Mark, for pointing out Steffen's resurface - I don't know how I missed this one. I'll give it a whirl.
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Thanks - I hope it works well for people. The hard part is creating clothes that look good and work properly. One day - not enough lifetimes here - I'd like to have a primer on learning A:M that way, just another approach.
That's be great to put it out there if it does, Martin - do you need the source too? (Embarrassingly simple
- you could probably knock it out in a couple of hours, but it was a great way to get my fingers into the SDK)Steffen tells me that expressions may work in a future v15, so there may be a version 2 with those in, so clothing bulge poses could match bulge poses in the base figure.
Does it work for you now, Rodney? (lol "first" plugin)
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Those ones you listed are the ones that come up when you don't have cps selected. John's picture shows what comes up when you do.
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Very nicely thought out and well-documented so far.
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Still looking awesome - I'm enjoying a regular Friday post.
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You can only change the thickness in the hair emitter, not the hair system, so where it says 0.1cm. This makes sense, because you can have several emitters in one hair system with different thicknesses.
Click on the word thickness, and you should see 0 - 100% in the timeline. Move the slider to 50% and change the thickness to 1. Move the slider to 100% and change it to 0.1. You should now have a spline to play with.
Sadly, I think the diffuse colour along the length is still broken in v15.
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Couldn't find it and don't remember what I post yesterday, let alone way back when.
However, you will find all details about changing thickness here:
http://www.hash.com/Technical_Reference/v110/Hair.htm
It's the dodo section, which explains about feathers.
(Brush up on hair - teehee)
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Are you sure you have cps selected? Do you see Sweeper and Extruder plugins?
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Rodney, it works for me on Vista. I only tested v13, as I do not have the web subscription on the Vista computer. I put the hxt file in the hxt subfolder and it just worked.
I guess I will put this up in the main forum this weekend. I am making other stuff to go with it, but I am so over-particular that nothing seems to be finished
. Still, I have learned a huge number of things on a deeper level in these few weeks. I am learning all over again what an amazing piece of software this is. No Limits.I thought of calling it DressMe. That could be the option off the plugin menu too - Plugin > DressMe.
(Nancy, You suck at Photoshop always makes me roll about too - especially as I teach it. The one where he's trying to make her look attractive - rofl.)
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I just put one of my chors from v15 to v14, and got a message that it was created in a newer version and it may not load correctly
I think that is right - it MAY not load correctly. Mine did. But you would have to try it. And if it works for one, it MAY not work for them all.
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If you search for +dual +core, you should get something.
A direct link to one:
http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31281 however, think twice before messing with the Registry, as if you do it wrong you might have to reinstall windows.
But here's a discussion about how it doesn't really help:
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And, this probably isn't it unless you've been messing with the program files, check that your hxt folder is being pointed to in Tools Menu > Options. (You should have only the 2nd one showing - the first was for TWO webrender, and the third is for 3rd party stuff I've picked up)
Edit - the hxt folder is for plugins that extend the base A:M code. Like Import / Export or 3d Painter, or TSM.
Exercise 11: Giraffe
in TaoA:M and the A:M Technical Reference
Posted
That's a great treatment. Is that done through lighting, and/or material with edge threshold?
I had exactly the same with the aeroplane. Just wasn't attractive to me. Still, it's improving self-discipline, which will make you more successful