FINAL STEP

[mtpeak2]

Before exporting your model, Go to the "Animation Controls" pose folder>"FACE interface" pose folder, in the models user properties. Right click on the "FACE off/Joint Controls/Split Controls" pose and set it to "not set" and hit the spacebar to refresh the screen in the action window. This is very important.

[mtpeak2]

After resetting the pose, right click in a blank space of the action window. Select export>model, and save the model as "JD_export".

[mtpeak2]

Start a new project and open the "JD_export" model.

 

Delete the installation pose folder from the user properties and the relationship folder of your model.

 

Save model.

[mtpeak2]

Before running the "install rig" plug-in, this is also very important.

 

Go to bones mode and translate, in the Y and Z axis, the "FACE interface-Master" bone using the translate manipulator, while holding down the control key, to position the interface infront of the face.

 

Note: I did not add this to the install process, because I didn't want it in the way when of assigning cps to the face. Unfortunately, this has to be done before running the plug-in due to constraints and parenting in the rig. I will try to find a way around it.

 

Save model.

[mtpeak2]

Right click in modeling window and choose plug-ins>wizards>install rig

[mtpeak2]

Hopefully this wasn't too difficult for you. If you have any questions or problems with a particular step, please post in the corresponding thread. Thanks.

 

YOU CAN NOW ASSIGN AND WEIGHT CPS IN YOUR MODEL

[johnl3d]

Thanks I printed each step into a pdf file to folow along when I have some time

[mtpeak2]

Read THIS before exporting your model.

[steve392]

Good idea John ,do you think you could make a dl of that if possible .I am as busy as hell this week , I don't believe it I

 

had lots of time last week

This doese look easy enough to do ,magical stuff Mark

[Jeetman]

Hopefully this wasn't too difficult for you. If you have any questions or problems with a particular step, please post in the corresponding thread. Thanks.

 

YOU CAN NOW ASSIGN AND WEIGHT CPS IN YOUR MODEL

 

Is there going to be a thread to explain how to do this?

[thekamps]

I went through the whole thing.

Pretty straight forward but,

after I

"Delete the installation pose folder from the user properties and the relationship folder of the model."

and after I

"translate the "FACE interface-Master" bone while holding down the control key and position the interface infront of the head.

and I

"Right click in modeling window and choose plug-ins>wizards>install rig"

 

I get the yellow triangle with exclaimation point and then an unhandled exception #001.

 

Anyone else? Ideas?

 

JD_export.mdl

[mtpeak2]

There is a critical update to the posable rig in the getting started thread. This is a MUST update that you need before exporting your model from the action. I explain the process of swapping rigs in the same thread.

 

Also I noticed that the FACE interface is not correct. Did you set the "FACE off/Joint Controls/Split Controls" pose in the user properties, to NOT SET.

[thekamps]

Thanks for taking a look.

 

I didn't see anyone else posting problems so I figured I had done something wrong and was hoping for a quick fix

 

I had switched the "FACE off/Joint Controls/Split Controls" to NOT SET but I'll have to look into that again.

I had downloaded and rigged the model Tuesday morning and was hoping I had the latest rig but I may have missed the critical update posting. I'll try my luck and swap it over and see if that works or start over.

 

Thanks again for all your work. This will definitely help a lot of people.

[largento]

This is really an amazing thing!

 

After messing with the JD model a couple of times, I decided to give this a try with the updated rig on my Mr. Spott model.

 

Everything went fine until I got to the last step: running the InstallRig plug-in. I was trying it in 14b3 and it crashed A:M the first two times I tried. Thinking it might be the version of the plug-in (I was just using the one that was pre-installed), I moved the pre-installed one to my desktop and downloaded the latest one from the wiki. When I launched A:M, it told me that it couldn't load the plug-in.

 

So, I went to 13s and tried it. Same thing. It crashed and swapping out the plug-in would just result in a can't load plug-in message.

 

I also noticed that the exported model would not have some of the final step changes saved.

 

So, I went back into 14, re-deleted the installation poses and relationships, set the one FACE control slider to not set, option-dragged the FACE control bone down to the face and saved the model. I put the original, pre-installed plug-in back and this time when I opened it up, the InstallRig plug-in worked!

 

So, I'm thinking that was the missing bit. Saving those last couple of changes into the model first.

 

I started playing with assigning CPs this morning before I had to get ready for work and I think it's going to be a neat thing.

[pwknox]

I had a similar experience with 13s. This last step Exception faulted on the export model step. I figured that I had done something wrong. So I fiddled this last step a bunch of times. I re-downloaded 13s. I got the latest version of the HTX. I got the latest version of the Rig. I thought I had a working setup at one point. After assigning the CPs in the face, I noticed that none of the face poses work. The NULLS move but they don't move anything else. The face rig controls are in the right place but the boxes and words are sticking to JD's forehead like a tiera. I figure I must have a corrupt file somewhere (or royally goofed something up). I think I will start again from Step 1 in a new folder.

[pwknox]

OK. I have completed Steps 1-7 again and I have a stupid question.

 

When translating the "Face Interface - Master" bone, I am not sure what you want here.

 

1) If I simply select the bone, hold the CTRL key and drag. The interface and the camera stay put and only the "Face Interface - Master" bone moves. Is this what you want?

 

2) If I simply select the bone and drag. The entire interface moves. Is this what you want?

 

3) If I select the bone and whack the "n" key (putting the bone in translate mode), hold CTRL key and drag in the Y direction. The entire interface moves. Is this what you want?

 

What is the purpose of holding the CTRL key when dragging bones? What are we trying to make it do? The picture you provide shows the bone being selected but does not show the final product. Where is the interface supposed to end up? How do I know if I did this step correctly?

 

Thanks for your help,

Phil

 

PS: I am on a Windows system. Would this make a difference?

[itsjustme]

3) If I select the bone and whack the "n" key (putting the bone in translate mode), hold CTRL key and drag in the Y direction. The entire interface moves. Is this what you want?

 

Yes

 

What is the purpose of holding the CTRL key when dragging bones? What are we trying to make it do? The picture you provide shows the bone being selected but does not show the final product. Where is the interface supposed to end up? How do I know if I did this step correctly?

 

Holding the CTRL key down makes the geometry move with the bones when using translate mode. The interface should end up in front of the face...look at Squetchy Sam for a reference.

 

PS: I am on a Windows system. Would this make a difference?

 

It shouldn't.

 

Hope that helps.

[mtpeak2]

Sorry for the confusion, I edited the step to say translate using the translate manipulator.

 

I'm just so use to using the manipulators, that I just didn't think about it.

[largento]

Mark, any chance we could get a downloadable version of JD that is fully-rigged with all the CPs assigned, just so we can see which bones get CPs assigned to them?

[pwknox]

I am getting the dreaded yellow triangle when I run the install rig. Here is what I did.

 

1) Reboot computer (just to make sure)

2) Start AM 13s

3) Open new project

4) Import "JD_export2"

5) Delete Install Poses from model, delete install relationships

6) Translate "Face Interface - Master" using the translate manipulator (thanks for the clarification).

7) Run the InstallRig plugin from the model window.

 

ZAP!

JD_export2.zip

 

I re-downloaded the install rig this afternoon (5/6/2007). It was in the "Getting Started" post. It is called "13s_Posable_Five_Finger_Squetch_Rig_05_02_2007_installation.mdl". Any ideas?

 

Thanks again,

Phil

 

PS: I feel like I'm being a pest.

[pwknox]

Something I tried which avoids the deadly yellow triangle. After I translated the "Face Interface - Master" bone and before I ran the install plug-in.

 

1) "Save As" the JD_export model and name it something else.

2) Start a New Project

3) Import the model you just saved.

4) Run the Install Rig plug-in

 

No yellow triangle this time. Strange. Good but strange.

[mtpeak2]

Phil, I'll look into it and update the steps if necessary. Thanks

 

Mark, I'm working on assigning cps and weighting on JD. I'll upload when finished. I've been a little busy working on TWO this past weekend, I'll upload as soon as I can.

[c-wheeler]

Awesome work!

With just "auto assign bones" the ease of installing that rig was amazing. I made a few mistakes along the way, but they were all easiy to correct.

One or two thing puzzled me-

 

Are the values of the pose sliders set? When I was changing the values in a pose slider in the action file - eg from 100 to -992, I had to first set the value on the pose slider to -1000 max, when I later came back to correct a value, the pose sliders reset there max values to min 0, max 100.

 

I thought some of the show/hide poses were not working properly eg the unhide face install only showed me the cheek install bones, not the jowel or nostril target, and I was unable to see any of the nullds in the mouth install poses, or the geometry bones, wich were in the pictures.

 

But apart from these minor points - beautifull work

Chris

[mtpeak2]

You shouldn't have to go to -1000 to get -992, just type the value in where the percentage is in the pose slider. Un sure why it reset back to 0 min, 100 max. Hmm, not sure about not being able to see the bones that are in the images, either.

[pwknox]

Simple question this time. After running the Install Rig plugin, I noticed that the face controls were back above the head. I assigned the CPs. How do I get the face controls back down so that I can play with them? I am in a action now.

 

Phil

 

PS: I am not sure that this is the place for this question.

 

Edit: I started poking around. In the "Constraints (do not touch) Relationships" I found a few constraints on the "FACE Interface - Master" bone constraining it to the "head_control". The enforcement was set to 0%. I set it to 100% thinking it was an oversight. Well, I figured out why it is labeled "do not touch" Ouch! Things went wacky in a hurry. I will now sit down and wait patiently for your answer.

[itsjustme]

Simple question this time. After running the Install Rig plugin, I noticed that the face controls were back above the head. I assigned the CPs. How do I get the face controls back down so that I can play with them? I am in a action now.

 

Phil

 

PS: I am not sure that this is the place for this question.

 

Edit: I started poking around. In the "Constraints (do not touch) Relationships" I found a few constraints on the "FACE Interface - Master" bone constraining it to the "head_control". The enforcement was set to 0%. I set it to 100% thinking it was an oversight. Well, I figured out why it is labeled "do not touch" Ouch! Things went wacky in a hurry. I will now sit down and wait patiently for your answer.

 

Yes, you set those constraints to 100%, but press the "compensate" button first...then it should stay in place.

 

Hope that helps, Phil.

[mtpeak2]

Where is it in the modeling window, bones mode? With the constraint at 0 %, it should still be in front of the face in an action. Where and when did you translate the interface? This is done after exporting your model and before running the install rig plug-in, in the modeling window in bones mode.

[pwknox]

Where is it in the modeling window, bones mode? With the constraint at 0 %, it should still be in front of the face in an action.

In the modeling window, bones mode, and actions it (face interface) is about half a "JD height" above his head.

 

Where and when did you translate the interface? This is done after exporting your model and before running the install rig plug-in, in the modeling window in bones mode.

Ah ha... I think I understand what you are getting at. If I was in an action when I translated the "FACE Interface - Master" bone down in front of the face, I would expect it to be still up high after the install plug-in. Ummmmm..... I don't remember. When I get home tonight I will make sure I am in the modeling window\bones mode when I move the bone and when I run the plug-in.

 

Thanks,

Phil

[pwknox]

Confound it. I can't reproduce the face high problem. Frustrating, good but frustrating. I opened a new project and imported my JD_pre-installrig model (the face interface was in the right place). I then tried running the install rig plug-in from a bunch of different contexts. They all worked correctly. Humpf!

 

O well, I must have mucked it up before. Sorry to send you all on a wild goose chase.

 

Phil

[mtpeak2]

I think I know what the problem is, the bones/nulls of the interface are in front of the face, but the geometry is not, correct? The "FACE off/Joint Controls/Split Controls" pose is a muscle pose that hides the geometry of the interface. This pose needs to be edited to move the geomtry inside the head mesh, in all positions of the pose.

 

I never liked this setup. The geomtry has bones for each part of it. I'm going to look into using constrains and scale the bones to do what the muscle pose does. This will eleminate the need to edit this.

[pwknox]

I spent a few hours assigning CPs. The body works really well. What is the secret to getting the face interface to work? The interface is in front of the face but onle three of the controls work. The toungue roll works. The eye control at the top works. The rotate interface control works. None of the others seem to be doing anything. I unhid the geometry bones and they don't seem to be moving. Any hints?

 

Thanks,

Phil

[itsjustme]

I spent a few hours assigning CPs. The body works really well. What is the secret to getting the face interface to work? The interface is in front of the face but onle three of the controls work. The toungue roll works. The eye control at the top works. The rotate interface control works. None of the others seem to be doing anything. I unhid the geometry bones and they don't seem to be moving. Any hints?

 

Thanks,

Phil

 

The Poses for the FACE controllers need to be set up. If you are using the bones face rig that is standard in the rig, you'll need to set up the "Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls" folder then the "Animation_Controls/FACE Interface/Lower Face Poses" and "Animation_Controls/FACE Interface/Upper Face Poses". Squetchy Sam is a rigged character that you can use as a reference (pull all the levers and see what moves)...he's located in this post. There isn't a step-by-step tutorial yet...the closest thing is a tutorial that is for how to build a similar setup that I made a couple of years ago. It's located here. There have been quite a few changes/updates since then, but it will give you an idea of how things work.

 

Once the "Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls" are set up, it's pretty easy to do the FACE Poses...Mark Strohbehn did some tutorials on setting up FACE using muscle-based poses here. The difference is that, if you use the bones setup, the "Animation_Controls/Face_underlying_controls" drive the FACE poses.

 

Hope that helps, Phil.

[steve392]

I got to the final step and done the wizared but got a 001 exception

Iv been over and over the last steps and it looks ok.The only thing looks diferant is the name of the model ,yours is 5 finger sqoach rig and mine is jd export ,plus when I go to deleat the

instalation poses and the relationship folder I only see the istalation poses folder but I deleated that ,any idea

[rusty]

David and/or Mark --

 

If I wanted to take the posable install rig (which I assume the same or almost the same as the regular Squetch rig except for the poses) and, I wanted to remove all of the face rig so I would only be left with the bones for the body with the exception of a functional head bone to constrain a separate head rig to... would I remove everything below the "head control" bone?

 

And, the "head control" bone would be the bone I'd constrain the head rig to?

 

Conversely, if I wanted to separate the head rig from the body, would I retain the "head control" bone and all of its children?

 

Of course that's just the bones, not the poses (which seems clear cut) nor all the relationships which, I think, may also be clear cut. Any thoughts on this stuff, or anything else I might be forgetting would be greatly appreciated.

 

For the head it might be easier to just do it manually as I believe the head is already split out as a separate rig.

 

Thanks!!

Rusty

[itsjustme]

David and/or Mark --

 

If I wanted to take the posable install rig (which I assume the same or almost the same as the regular Squetch rig except for the poses) and, I wanted to remove all of the face rig so I would only be left with the bones for the body with the exception of a functional head bone to constrain a separate head rig to... would I remove everything below the "head control" bone?

 

And, the "head control" bone would be the bone I'd constrain the head rig to?

 

Conversely, if I wanted to separate the head rig from the body, would I retain the "head control" bone and all of its children?

 

Of course that's just the bones, not the poses (which seems clear cut) nor all the relationships which, I think, may also be clear cut. Any thoughts on this stuff, or anything else I might be forgetting would be greatly appreciated.

 

For the head it might be easier to just do it manually as I believe the head is already split out as a separate rig.

 

Thanks!!

Rusty

 

I'm thinking that what you really want is just the face rig separate, Rusty...that would mean that everything that is a child of the "head_geom_front" could be deleted on a character along with the FACE bones, poses and geometry and the "Face_underlying_controls" poses. Then, you could install one of the standalone FACE installations. Of course, those installations are looking for a bone named "head" to parent everything to, so you could either re-do the parenting in the installation rig, re-name the "head_geom_front" bone to "head" or copy the "head_geom_front" bone as a child of that bone, name it "head" and then delete it after you do the installation. The standalones would also work with other rigs if the character has another one already installed.

 

You could make your own FACE/face rig installation by deleting everything under and including the "base_bone_INSTALL" and all Poses other than the FACE, "Face_underlying_controls", "hide_face_setup_bones" and "hide_FACE_non_tweaking_bones" poses, all Smartskins other than the FACE ones should be deleted as well.

 

Hope that helps.

[itsjustme]

I got to the final step and done the wizared but got a 001 exception

Iv been over and over the last steps and it looks ok.The only thing looks diferant is the name of the model ,yours is 5 finger sqoach rig and mine is jd export ,plus when I go to deleat the

instalation poses and the relationship folder I only see the istalation poses folder but I deleated that ,any idea

 

I'm not sure what's going on there, Steve...posting the Project saved just before you run the plugin might make it easier to figure out.

[steve392]

Thank's David here is the prj with the face pose set to not set and should be ready to export .Hope you can see what's wrong ,or more likely what Iv done wrong .I would really like to get this working it seems so simple

 

 

link

[mtpeak2]

First thing, I looked at the project file, some of your poses are not done correctly. Most of the poses are in the face installation. Eye translation in the Z axis is in the wrong place and the scale is incorrect. And the mouth poses could use some adjustments. (see images in STEP 6, they show the pose slider percentages).

 

 

Your project file does not contain the model (JD_install) so I use the model I had for the action that is in the file, so I don't know if it is a problem with your model or not. You also had a few bones that had keyframes on them that I deleted.

 

Before exporting I reset the "FACE off/Joint Controls/Split Controls" pose in the Animation Controls>Face interface to NOT SET in the user properties of the model, then exported model.

 

Started new project and opened the exported model. Deleted the installation poses from the relationship folder and the user properties of the model, saved model. Translated the FACE interface Master bone using the translate manipulator while holding the control key down (this will translate the geometry with the bones), saved model again. Ran the install plug-in. I had no problems and had no exception errors.

[steve392]

Well not bad at all then I will start again and keep in mind what you just said . Thanks for your time will let you know how it goes

[steve392]

Ahhh still not working I went through it again ,the thing I might be getting wrong is deleating the relationship folders I can only find 1 folder to do but the pose slider window still has the install 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 so not sure what Im doing I have included the jd-export model so that maybe you can see where I need to deleat .As it is when I ran the wizard the bones are not atached to the cp's and the face rig is not in the place I put it.I am lost,I would appreciate your help AGAIN sorry to be the only one thats not getting it

 

model

[mtpeak2]

I update the first post of this thread with an image here. This must be done before exporting the model from the action. This is done in the models "USER PROPERTIES", not the pose slider window.

 

Delete the installation poses in the "USER PROPERTIES" of the model see image in post #3 here.

[steve392]

Mark I did see them updates ,honestly but my prj just aint the same as yours ,there is no percentage slider in the posething where I can put not set ,allso after I export the model and make a new prj bring in the modeljd-export then there is only 1 folder to deleat the top one in your image I will have to show you in a screenshot first one is the not set thing .This must be driving you mad I am sorry but Im pretty sure Im not mad I think

[mtpeak2]

Ok, go to the top menu and choose tools>options>global tab and put a check mark the the show property triangle.

 

You will now see a small triangle next to your models name. Click the triangle to see the "USER PROPERTIES", there you can delete the "Installation Poses" folder (hilight it to make it yellow and delete using the delete key on keyboard) and set the pose I mentioned to "NOT SET", by right clicking on the pose.

[steve392]

Oh yes now I can see them thank's Mark .I done that and ran it again but getting the exception #001.I have the hxt plug-in from the zip update 4 ,as far as I can see its the latest one .I done the not set on the face thing /exported model /made new prj /imported model /deleated the 2 folders /moved the head interface and done the wizard .Jeez I think I must be a jinx ,why me

[itsjustme]

Oh yes now I can see them thank's Mark .I done that and ran it again but getting the exception #001.I have the hxt plug-in from the zip update 4 ,as far as I can see its the latest one .I done the not set on the face thing /exported model /made new prj /imported model /deleated the 2 folders /moved the head interface and done the wizard .Jeez I think I must be a jinx ,why me

 

Try this, Steve...just before you use the InstallRig plugin, save your model again, then make sure you're in Modeling Mode instead of Bones Mode and run the plugin. There have been times that I've gotten an exception when in Bones Mode and saving the model again is just a thing that may or may not affect anything (in my head, it helps, but it might do nothing). It may not fix your problem, but it can't hurt to try.

 

Hope that helps.

[steve392]

Thank's David ,yes that did make a differance ,I didn't get the error this time but the bones are not atached to the cp's ,heres a screenshot ,I moved the arm bone .Unless I need to swich something on

[itsjustme]

Thank's David ,yes that did make a differance ,I didn't get the error this time but the bones are not atached to the cp's ,heres a screenshot ,I moved the arm bone .Unless I need to swich something on

 

The CP's won't be assigned, you'll have to do the CP Weighting for that...the Posable installation gets the bones positioned. You can do a quick and dirty assigning by selecting the character in modeling mode and hitting the "H" key to hide the FACE controls geometry, going into Bones Mode, right mouse clicking and selecting "Auto Assign Bones". That won't do a great job, but it will be enough so that you can see if the resetting of compensates (the next step) is going right. There should be a text file that lists what constraints to reset the compensates on and the order to do it. Once you finish that, you can go through and do the CP Weighting.

 

Hope that helps, Steve.

[steve392]

Oh I see ,I kept thinking I was doing something wrong lol ,not like me .Thank's to you David and Mark I got there in the end

[rusty]

David / Mark -

 

As you know I took away the head rig and everything associated with it. When I ran the install plug-in I got the following error.

 

 

 

This may mean nothing because I know this bone is missing. Or it may mean that the plug-in aborted and did nothing or ab ended before completion. I'm not sure how to find out. Any ideas?

 

Thanks!

Rusty

 

Edit: Darn... looking at the PWS I'd have to say that the plug-in blew up:

 

[itsjustme]

The instructions I listed showed how to get rid of everything except the head stuff on a character rigged with the Squetch Rig, get rid of the head stuff on the Posable installation rig and then combine the two so that you had the head and face stuff from the previously installed character and a new installation for everything else. I went through all of the steps myself to make sure that I didn't give you incorrect information and it worked flawlessly...I got absolutely no errors.

 

If the plugin can't find the parent bone, it just does nothing for that orphan bone.

 

Was the character rigged with some other rig previously? That could cause the problem with not being able to find the parent. If it is a character with some other rig in it, the instructions I gave would need modifying.