KNEES AND FOOT TARGETS DRIFTING...

[Kelley]

I got Boneless Thom to walk...thought Cheech would be easy. He's just Legs and Spine. But something has gone awry. Perhaps I missed a step. The Knees and Foot Targets don't want to stay with the mesh. Feet flip around backwards.

 

This rig of Cheech has the Head, Hands and Arms deleted. IK Leg Setup is ON, IK Arms Setup is OFF, and, as in the tutorial: Steady=0, Balance=100 and Balance Rigid=30 [The Blue Arrows=Knees, the Red Arrows=Foot Targets] Hips/Pelvis and Spine bones have no problem.

 

Where have I gone wrong?[attachmentid=14619]

[Dhar]

In your Timeline, did you 'zero slope' your Interpolation Method?

[Kelley]

In your Timeline, did you 'zero slope' your Interpolation Method?

 

This is new ground for me, so it took a while to ferret through all the manuals to figure out what "'zero slope' the Interpolation Method" actually meant. The Good News is now I know what those little bouncy graph lines mean. The Bad News is, that setting the Interpolation to 'zero slope' seems to do nothing. The model in the Action Window behaves exactly the same way.

 

One thing I noted is that 'Right Knee' does not appear in the Bones List at all. Until I clicked on it [on the Model] Then it appeared in the PWS list, but it has no "+" and cannot open to show Interpolation Graphs.

 

I am beginning to think my best bet is to simply clear the bones, and start fresh.

[Stuart Rogers]

Although I don't think it pertains to your problem, I suggest setting 'Balance' and 'Balance Rigid' to zero. As their names suggest, these try to keep your character upright as you pull him about. When I was starting out in A:M I found they confused me, making it hard to learn how to operate a rig. YMMV.

[Kelley]

Although I don't think it pertains to your problem, I suggest setting 'Balance' and 'Balance Rigid' to zero. As their names suggest, these try to keep your character upright as you pull him about. When I was starting out in A:M I found they confused me, making it hard to learn how to operate a rig. YMMV.

 

Sorry, Stuart. As you feared, it didn't affect anything. [YMMV?]

[mtpeak2]

It looks a though you moved the hips too far forward, the foot targets are not children of the hips. If you are creating a walk cycle, you should animate him as though he is on a treadmill (walking in place). When translating the hips, you also have to translate the foot targets to keep up. The knee is a child of the leg hinge which aims at and scales to reach the foot target. The rig is working as expected.

[Stuart Rogers]

[YMMV?]

"Your mileage might vary". I prefer to not use bells-and-whistles like auto-balance - you might, you might not. I just thought it might be worth mentioning.

[Kelley]

[YMMV?]

"Your mileage might vary". I prefer to not use bells-and-whistles like auto-balance - you might, you might not. I just thought it might be worth mentioning.

 

Stuart: Then do you delete the six 'Balance' bones? Or ignore them?

[Stuart Rogers]

I prefer to not use bells-and-whistles like auto-balance - you might, you might not.

Stuart: Then do you delete the six 'Balance' bones? Or ignore them?

I set the pose sliders to zero and ignore them - mostly because I was afraid that if I started pulling bits out, I'd screw it up entirely. These days I'm working on my own rig (initially based on the Hash rig) which has no hint of a balance mechanism.