Main Char Bone

[flashawd]

Hello - this is an issue I have had before - I put a character in a scene and use the Left and Right foot Targets to make her walk forward - this leaves the Main bone back in the original spot, so it doesn't move with it - it seems to get left behind when you have a character move. That can then screw up other things when animating the char. When animating are you supposed to move this bone with it? - it makes the whole character move though - that is where I am confused. Thank you - Eric

[Dhar]

The bone you're speaking of is also known as the Root Bone. It is mainly used to place your character in the choreography at the start of a scene, afterwhich you do not need to use it.

[flashawd]

Lets say for example you had a character walking around and because of that the Root Bone was way off place and then you wanted the character to do a back flip - if you use the root bone to do the back flip it doesn't work real well, because it is now so off place. What do you do in a case like that, do you turn off the IK legs - will it work that way? Just trying to clear up some confusion. Thanks

[Dhar]

Do not use the root bone, it complicates things. You can do a back flip without it. If you made the walk without using the root bone (which is the right way to do it), it will be needlessly complicated to do a backflip with it. Animating the root bone is in extremely rare cases. In your case it is unwarranted.

[robcat2075]

Yes, a back flip animated with the Root bone would be very stiff looking and probably awkward to do since it isn't anywhere near a character's center of gravity.

 

If you switch the legs to FK they will follow the hips.

 

If you're in IK legs, animate the hip or pelvis bone to do the flip and animate the legs to follow it around.

 

flip done with IK legs:

 

gymnast.mov

[Luuk Steitner]

flip done with IK legs:

 

Hey, that's a nice flip. I think he tripped over his root bone

[flashawd]

Thanks for the replies - I agree that was a very realistic smooth flip. I wish I would have known that you don't flip w/ the root bone when I created my first animation project Samurai Gumstick - I did EVERY flip on there by using the root bone... oh well - not NEAR as smooth a Robcat's alien gymnast- at least now I know.

 

http://www.flashanimationwebsitedesign.com/ - Gumstick Video is right side middle of the site.

 

Thanks again - for your help.

-Eric

[robcat2075]

Hey , I remember that gumstick clip! That was fun.

 

I wish I would have known that you don't flip w/ the root bone when I created my first animation project Samurai Gumstick - I did EVERY flip on there by using the root bone

 

I suppose technically you can keyframe any bone anywhere you want, on any frame you want, so there's no reason you couldn't do a flip with the root bone.

 

BUT... you're probably more likely to get the basic motion right doing it some other way, and then when you polish that basic motion, things will be easier to adjust.

[flashawd]

Rob - to be honest it was insane to get the flip to look good when the root bone was not in the direct center of Gumstick like at the start of the animation - a lot of moving around the root bone at several frames to make it work. About half way through the root bone was so far off to where it got impossible to flip him - I had to actually drop a new version of Gumstick in the Chor with a centered root bone and hide the first gumstick under the trash can - it worked with a new camera angle at the drop in you couldn't even tell - then if you notice after that point there was no more walking, just strickly flips. Pretty funny - nice to know there is an easy way to do it. Thanks for the talk - take care - Eric