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Is there a way to control lag with a pose slider?


luckbat

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So, I've got a bunch of bones representing a cloak. Those bones are constrained to control bones, and the constraints have been set with various degrees of lag to make the cloak flow more realistically.

 

However, for certain kinds of quick motion, there are times when I need to minimize the lag. Ideally I'd like to have a "cloak lag" percentage pose, allowing me to shift from low lag to high lag as the animation requires. But since lags are a sub-property of each individual constraint, I don't see a way to separate these into their own pose slider. Does anyone know a simple way for me to selectively control my constraint lag?

 

I realize there might be a clumsy way of doing it, by duplicating my entire constraint hierarchy--one version with maximum lag, one with no lag--and cross-fading from one to the other. But this cloak rig has over 300 constraints built into it already, and I'm not about to spend another month rebuilding that.

 

All I really want is a "lag" percentage slider. Is there a way?

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I don't see why you can't. Enforcement and lag are the only properties of a constraint that you can access on an existing constraint. I've done this before on a dynamic constraint, original pose was a percentage slider for the stiffness of the chain and created a new pose for the enforcement. Just show more than drivers on the shortcut to model and go into the relationship folder, find the constraint and you'll see enforcement and lag properties for it.

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Update: No dice.

 

Even with "Show More Than Drivers" on, there's nothing listed in the Relationships folder other than the empty pose itself. It's not in the Bones folder, either. That just lists bones, not constraints.

 

no-lag-options.gif

 

Oh well. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

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Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on there. Your Relationships folder contains all the other existing Relationships, but mine contains only the one I'm working in.

 

It can't be a Mac thing; A:M's functionality/interface is identical across platforms.

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Here's your problem, turn on "show advanced properties' in the same place as where I told you to turn on 'show property triangle' in tools/options/global. You should be able to go right to the relationship folder, not through the drivers folder.

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The good news: Turning on "Show Advanced Properties" solved the problem. I could've sworn I tried toggling all of those things while I was experimenting, but as you can see by the time stamp on my post, I was up way too late last night.

 

The bad news: Unfortunately, from the looks of it, this method won't work. It only allows you to access the enforcement and lag properties of the pose itself, whereas I need to be able to control all the individual lags on all 72 constraints within that pose.

 

The good news: I figured out what I hope will be an alternate method of achieving the same effect, though it won't be as elegant as a standalone lag slider.

 

The bad news: It'll take me half a week of re-configuring just to see if it works.

 

In any event, I appreciate your thoroughness, Mark. It's still impressive that sliders can control the enforcement and lag of other sliders, even if it doesn't serve my current purposes.

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  • Hash Fellow

I need to be able to control all the individual lags on all 72 constraints within that pose.

 

Would it be possible to write one expression that addressed all 72 of those constraints?

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Hmmm, I'm not sure if you can put an expression in the lag channel?

Anyone?

 

I quickly tried earlier today to see about suggesting that, but was not able to do more then a very quick attempt.

But what I initially saw is that you cant put an expression in the lag channel.

 

I'll take another looksee.....

 

 

Mike Fitz

www.3dartz.com

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  • Hash Fellow

I quickly tried earlier today to see about suggesting that, but was not able to do more then a very quick attempt.

But what I initially saw is that you cant put an expression in the lag channel.

 

I'm not real up on expressions. I forgot they can't assign values to multiple parameters within their body, they can only read them.

 

So one expression to rule them all would be impossible in any event. Right?

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