Basic character

[lazz]

Hey everybody. Whats goin on? I haven't posted much lately, last thing I was doing was working on my "jaguar xk" car but my computer crashed and I lost the file. Kindof a bummer, but I'll get over it. So, I was gettin kinda tired with just modeling and wanted to get to animating. So I made a basic character that'd be pretty easy to animate. Its all rigged and stuff but just with the TSM2 rig (no smartskin or fan bones or nuthin). I figured I'd put it up here for comments and critiques and if you guys want it later I could donate it to the forum or the next CD or somethin. K. Cool. Lemme know what you think. Later-

[arkaos]

I like the model. I sure could use it for keyframing practice. Let's see what this puppy can do. Post an animation to feed the addicts out here

[trajcedrv]

Love it!

 

Simple. elegant.

 

Let's see it moving

[Zaryin]

That is great, haha. I am planning on making my own "basic" caharacter to start practicing animation. I was going to try the squetch rig and the FACE rig in mine and see if I can learn about contraints and things at the same time.

 

I love the look of yours.

[Vash]

looks pretty dang cool. It could be a pretty good replacement for thom (if not the best!)

[lazz]

Thanks guys, I'm glad you like it. Here's an animation clip I just did. Its just a simple run test. Lemme know what you think.

 

Oh. And Zaryin, what’s the squetch rig and the FACE rig? I don’t really understand the whole art of rigging and constraints and stuff and it’d be cool to be able to make working rigs on my own. Thanks! Cool. Later-

runtest.mov

[itsjustme]

Thanks guys, I'm glad you like it. Here's an animation clip I just did. Its just a simple run test. Lemme know what you think.

 

Looks good so far, just some CP weighting issues at the shoulders, elbows, knees and hips that I saw.

 

what’s the squetch rig and the FACE rig?

 

The Squetch Rig is located in this thread. FACE is in the rig and there's a series of tutorials being put together for it in this thread. There are a few other tutorials being put together that should be finished in the next couple of weeks.

[lazz]

Looks good so far, just some CP weighting issues at the shoulders, elbows, knees and hips that I saw.

 

Wow I read through your squetch rig thread itsjustme. That's a whole lot of work you've put into that i really want to try it out. It'd be cool to understand rigging as well as you do. I dont understand setting up IK/FK relationships or how to assign a null into a rig and CP weighting . Its waaay over my head at this point. lol.

 

Sooo in the meantime I've just been workin with what I've got. I've made another quick animation. A roll type action. Let me know what you guys think. Fluidity of motion and whatnot. Cool! Thanks guys! Later-

rolltest1.mov

[itsjustme]

Nice roll Robert!

 

I made a face rigging tutorial that shows some CP weighting and how to use nulls and such in it...it's located here. In the next few weeks I'm hoping to get a couple more tutorials done that are Squetch Rig specific but that will have more CP weighting and a few other odds and ends thrown in.

 

As for IK/FK switching, this tutorial gives a good example.

[lazz]

Wow, time flies. Well, I'm back. And I made a rig for my character. I learned a lot from your face rigging tutorial thanks a WHOLE lot for sharing the link for it david. You rock. So here's a clip of the rig I made in action. Or at least at the arm. One more question, I have half the body rigged. Is there a way to copy and flip all the relationships and bones that I've got to rig the other side? I know there is, I just haven't figured it out yet i guess.

Oh, and when i finish rigging it would you want it for the next A:M CD or somethin?Cool! let me know what you guys think! Thanks!

rig_test1.mov

[itsjustme]

Is there a way to copy and flip all the relationships and bones that I've got to rig the other side? I know there is, I just haven't figured it out yet i guess.

 

Let's say you have the left side rigged, you can save a copy of the model as something like "right_side.mdl", select the base bone of the model, hit "S" for scale, scale it to -100 on the 'X' axis and save the file. Close AM, open the "right" model in a text editor and do a search and replace making "left" change to "right"...you should have named your bones with left or right in the name. Save the file as an "MDL" file, not a "TXT" file. Then, open your original model, import the new model and then delete the secondary bones that usually occur in the center of the character, like the head, spine, etc. Save out the combined model.

 

Looks good so far, Robert!