Gumbo

[Dhar]

Take a look at Robert's (Robcat) work here when he was with Animation Mentor. That character is trademark of Animation Mentor. That's what I'm going for, something that is unmistakably Animation:MASTER!

 

[JohnArtbox]

Great work Dhar, and great thread from everybody else who has chimed in. Like so many others I was surprised to see it's your first character model. Your presence has been on the forum for so long.

It's always interesting to see how different people approach modelling. Personally I'm a "less is more" kind of modellor, but the extra splinage does guarantee you control, I frequently wind up adding more splines when I'm animating.

The only comment I'd have about the body is aesthetic, it's relatively conventional in proportion while the head is quite cartoony. Have you thought of a longer trunk and shorter legs?

[Paul Forwood]

Very nice work, Dhar!

Amazing for a first model!

If he is going to be naked, (or wearing a figure hugging suit), you might want to make his feet as elegant as his hands. The hands lookexpressive. If he is to be a clothed character you might want to keep the bulk but just taper them a little.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

He has lots of character!

[Zaryin]

Yeah I know what your saying about wanting your character to look like "unmistakably Animation:MASTER!"-ish. All I know is I want to go back and rework my J.D. model with more definition. I wish my first character model was as good as yours is. I would definatly be a god of modeling by now, haha.

[itsjustme]

From the look of his head, I was expecting a shorter character with a heavier looking lower torso. That's what was in my mind, at least.

 

From a modeling standpoint...I would take out one of the chest splines and lower the hips (they end in the mid-section now). It looks like you hit the high points on spline placement, from what I can tell, Dhar. Nice job so far!

[Dhar]

Thanks for the great feed back guys. Immensely helpful.

 

Narrowed the chest area a little, that seems to help. I tried lowering the hips but that made the arms unable to reach the thighs. Then I decided to add color in the manner that I'll be using this model for, and suddenly accentuating the features didn't seem all that necessary.

 

Do you agree?

[Dhar]

Any pointers on how to get rid of this 5 pt anamoly?

[Zaryin]

I would break the splines around the area and respline it *shrug* -- I think

[Dhar]

Thanks Jeff, that's what I need to figure out without having to hook to animatable splines (lips).

 

Added two more aplines around the eyes since my concentration will be around facial animation.

[itsjustme]

I tried lowering the hips but that made the arms unable to reach the thighs.

 

I meant the top spline that was defining the hips...after re-reading my post, I see I wasn't clear. The way it was, the mid-section would look strange while bending. Moving that spline wouldn't affect the arms being able to reach the thighs, but it would reduce the vertical size of the hip area.

 

As for the five point patch...it will just take some re-routing of splines.

[Dhar]

Thanks David,

 

I added a ring of splines to the hip area instead of just lowering one. I am concerned, however, with the lack of splines where the thighs come out? Do you think that'll present a problem?

 

I also fleshed out where the eyebrows are so that expressions are clearly visible.

[itsjustme]

I added a ring of splines to the hip area instead of just lowering one. I am concerned, however, with the lack of splines where the thighs come out? Do you think that'll present a problem?

 

I don't think it will be a problem...might take some experimenting to find out though. In my mind, modeling isn't finished until the character is rigged. I would finish modeling him and just make adjustments as needed while rigging. For more complicated joints, a lower density of splines is almost always better...you get a lot of stuff for "free" when the patches are moved if the spline layout is good.

[robcat2075]

That's looking good Dhar. The semi-realistic head is going to make his body seem more naked than "Bishop" who has a quite unrealistic head.

 

Rigging the face to get the control you're seeking will be your biggest challenge I think.

[Dhar]

I think it's time to rig it. I'm wondering if I should keep this thread going or go to the Rigging folder??

[Tralfaz]

Excellent modelling job Dhar.

 

Your character already has a lot of 'character' to him. Based on viewing some of your other animations, I can't wait to see what you will be able to do with this guy.

 

Al

[largento]

Keep the thread going, Dhar. It's a nice "case study" for people wanting to create their own characters.

[Dhar]

After a few restarts on the rigging process I seem to have gotten myself stuck on STEP 6 where the unhide_eye_install_bone doesn't seem to unhide anything at all.

 

I'll post this problem is the Squetch Rig thread as well.

[Dhar]

Starting the rigging over

 

:::sigh:::

 

 

EDIT: Here's a tip; save each step of the tutorial as separate projects. i.e. Model_Rigging_1, Model_Rigging_2 ...etc.. so that if a crash occurs you don't have to start from the start like I did (silly me).

[Dhar]

:::wheeeeew::::

 

After yet another false start, and thanks to David and Mark, the rig looks installed. If the rig gods don't see anything out of the ordinary, I'll be CP assigning next

[mtpeak2]

Can I see a side view of the head? The brow bones look out of position from this angle.

[Dhar]

Can I see a side view of the head? The brow bones look out of position from this angle.

 

There you go.

 

Is there anyway to reduce the Face Camera's angle? I need to narrow it down

[itsjustme]

The settings for the FACE camera can be adjusted in the "Animation_Controls/FACE Interface/Customize_interface/Camera" folder.

 

It looks like the cheek, jowl and nostril bones are in some strange places. You'll also want to move the bases of the nose bones farther back to where the nose connects to the face. To make manipulating them easier, the Maxilla, LowerTeeth and Jaw bones could be lengthened.

 

If you unhide the bones in Squetchy Sam, it should give you a good idea of what I mean.

 

You're getting there, Dhar!

 

The easiest way to make the adjustments would be to open the last saved Action (hopefully, just before you exported, so that everything you did is saved), make the adjustments and then export again.

 

Hope that helps.

 

-------------------------------

EDIT

-------------------------------

 

When I originally posted this, I thought the eyebrow bones wouldn't work right like you have them...but now I see that you're probably right. Considering the curvature of Gumbo's skull and the location of the brows, I think you've got them closer to the right place. If not, those would be an easy fix. The bases of the eyebrow bones might need to be raised slightly to get some proper lift...a little experimenting will provide the answer.

[Dhar]

Could you please show me where they should be???

[mtpeak2]

The brows could be moved up slightly, but it's in pretty good position. Did you scale the eye install bones? It shouldn't be that long, I'll have to check the posable rig.

 

The placement of the null is the biggest problem, it should be near the corners of the mouth. The base of the cheek bone could be moved up and back slightly.

 

Moving the null should fix the problem in the last image.

[Dhar]

I may have scaled the eye install bones just so I can match the tutorial example.

 

However, when I was going to try and assign cps to the cheek and jowl bones, the cheek bone is now ear bone???

[itsjustme]

The cheek bone and ear bone are located in the same place...you may have to hide one to get to the other or pick it from the PWS.

[Dhar]

Thanks David.

 

First operator error .....yeeeesh - I didn't want to make the Elephant Man

[itsjustme]

Have you reset the compensates using the accompanying text file, Dhar?

[Dhar]

Have you reset the compensates using the accompanying text file, Dhar?

 

Reset the compensate? Which step is that in?

[c-wheeler]

Going good so far, Dhar.

Resetting compensates is, I think, 6c.

6a is the bit where you've just finished and are eager to try out you new rig.

6b is the one where you find you've just made the elephant man or Mr Inside-out Face

 

Rusty has done a great list on resetting the compensates.

Here

 

Once you have done the compensates, I also found it useful to look at Davids older videos - Face rigging 1.mov and Face rigging 2.mov as well as all those on This Thread

 

Although the link for mirror splines(Is that still available?)doesn't work

 

Hope this helps,

 

Chris

[Dhar]

Thanks Chris. So the compensate is supposed to be done after the rig is installed, the INSTALL bones deleted but before CP assignments?

[mtpeak2]

Compensating has to be done after the install rig plug-in is used and the installation poses deleted. It can be done before or after assigning cps. I usually do it after, just so I can see the result better, than just seeing if the bone moved correctly or not (better visual).

 

The bone adjustments you made look better, but you still have bones in the nose area that are out of position.

[itsjustme]

Thanks Chris. So the compensate is supposed to be done after the rig is installed, the INSTALL bones deleted but before CP assignments?

 

Yessir.

[Dhar]

A couple of questions; am I supposed to assign CPs to "wrist fan geom", and, "hand carpal geom" bones?

 

Thanks

[itsjustme]

A couple of questions; am I supposed to assign CPs to "wrist fan geom", and, "hand carpal geom" bones?

 

Thanks

 

Yessir. The "wrist_fan_geom" will help blend the transition from the forearm to the hand and the carpal bones are the bases for the fingers which help shape the hand for things like cupping, etc. Check Squetchy Sam's hands for an example.

 

Hope that helps.

[Zaryin]

This is coming along nicely. I'm glad your doing it like this. It's easy to follow and you pointing out stuff I would probably be having problems with when I start rigging

[Dhar]

Thanks Jeff - why haven't you started rigging yet?

 

Thank you David. Let me know if anything looks way out of the ordinary here - I know it's not detailed but just from a quick look.

 

And who's Yessir?

[itsjustme]

Thank you David. Let me know if anything looks way out of the ordinary here - I know it's not detailed but just from a quick look.

 

What I'm able to see looks fine, Dhar. It's hard to tell about the face and fingers, but the arms, legs, torso and feet appear alright.

 

And who's Yessir?

 

It's just a colloquial contraction of "Yes sir"...it's humorous to me. There are some stranger things that I use conversationally for the same reason.

[Dhar]

OK, so I guess I'm now ready to "reset all compensates", line one says:

 

1. Turn off the following Poses (if they aren't

already turned off)

 

How do I know if the poses are on or off?

 

Second question; may I see a pic of this:

 

"In "Animation_Controls/Arm_Controls":

a. left_arm_FK_IK

b. left_arm_maintain_orientation_chest_controller

c. left_arm_maintain_orientation_shoulder

d. steady_right_shoulder (set to 0%)

e. right_arm_FK_IK

f. right_arm_maintain_orientation_chest_controller

g. right_arm_maintain_orientation_shoulder

h. steady_left_shoulder (set to 0%) "

[itsjustme]

OK, so I guess I'm now ready to "reset all compensates", line one says:

 

1. Turn off the following Poses (if they aren't

already turned off)

 

How do I know if the poses are on or off?

 

Second question; may I see a pic of this:

 

"In "Animation_Controls/Arm_Controls":

a. left_arm_FK_IK

b. left_arm_maintain_orientation_chest_controller

c. left_arm_maintain_orientation_shoulder

d. steady_right_shoulder (set to 0%)

e. right_arm_FK_IK

f. right_arm_maintain_orientation_chest_controller

g. right_arm_maintain_orientation_shoulder

h. steady_left_shoulder (set to 0%) "

 

The Poses will be set at "off" or "0%" in the model's "User Properties". Here are a couple of images that show what it should look like for both the arms and legs when beginning to reset compensates.

 

Hope that helps, Dhar.

[Zaryin]

It looks to me like some of the bones for the legs are outside the model. Is that ok?

 

Dhar: I'll start rigging when I get some time. I'm suposed to be finishing a ani for TWO, but I can't even get to that this week. I've been really busy lately. *sigh*

[Dhar]

It looks to me like some of the bones for the legs are outside the model. Is that ok?

 

Where do you see that? I don't have any bones outside the mesh.

[Zaryin]

On the last shaded one you posted it looks like some of the bones are not within the mesh below the knee on the right leg. Could just be perspective though.

[Dhar]

Now I see it, it does look like that, but it isn't. The modeling window doesn't give true perspective. Notice how the bones on either side retain their length.

 

Weird.

[Dhar]

Alright Dave, no sliders show up for me

[itsjustme]

Alright Dave, no sliders show up for me

 

Select the model in the PWS, then in the "Properties" menu expand the "User Properties". The same poses that are in the "Pose Sliders" menu are in there, except changes in that section will stay with the model if you save after adjusting them.

 

Hope that helps, Dhar.

[Dhar]

How come I don't get the pose sliders but you do?

[itsjustme]

How come I don't get the pose sliders but you do?

 

I don't know, Dhar. So, you are selecting the model in the PWS? Do you have the "Properties" menu open? If you do, then look for the "User Properties" in there and expand it...that's where you should find them.

 

Hope that helps.

[Dhar]

Ah! I was in relationships instead of Use Properties. Thanks Dave.

 

Am I supposed to set "left_knee_orient_like_foot_IK" and "right_knee_orient_like_foot_IK" to 0 ?

 

And can't find any Spines in the Rig Components! Is there an updated list of resets that I don't know about?

[Dhar]

Thanks to Rusty I now have an updated Compensate list. However, I am still stuck on step # 2. Reset torso compensates - I don't see any a., b., c., or d.

 

 

Please help