Aim At Null target not moving with bones - is this normal

[bubba]

I have an IK chain of two leg bones. The knee has a null target. I noticed in a chor that the null does not follow the knee as it moves forward. Because it doesn't, I believe that it is causing the knee to bend inward somewhat.

 

Here are three screen captures of what I am talking about.

 

 

 

 

[robcat2075]

Make the knee targets children of the main hip or body bone, the thing the legs are attached to. You can just drag them in the PWS to change that.

 

Then they will follow along as you move the character and generally stay properly positioned in relation to the legs.

[bubba]

Ok, so targets can be children of the main lower body bone, just not children of the bones for which they are a target. Thanks.

[robcat2075]

just not children of the bones for which they are a target.

 

That would be called a "Circular constraint" which would be impossible for the computer to ever finish resolving. A:M tries to prevent you from making such a thing by not allowing you to select a child for a target.

[bubba]

This is what I have so far. There is still some wobble in the knee/upper bone. I went back into the model and made sure all the bones lined up properly, that the knee was pointing at the target, the roll handles were all pointing the same way - so I don't quite know what is going on? I used the constraint keys (1,2,3) to restrict movement in only one direction - forward.

 

 

Walking_Lower_Body.mov

[robcat2075]

That's not ghastly!

 

In your first over head pic it looks like the legs bones are not really aligned with the legs. that may be a small part of the wobble. For these legs you want them to appear to be pointing straight back in the over head view and pointing directly at the knee targets.

 

From the side view you want the targets to be about hip height.

 

Fix those in the model.

 

 

It may also be that you didn't have Compensate mode OFF when you did the upper leg constraints. Delete those two constraints and redo them in that Pose window. You can recall that Pose window by on its name in the User Properties and doing Edit Relationship.

 

The main body bone looks like it may be slightly angled so that when you use the translate manipulator to move it "forward" it is gradually creeping to the side. Fix that in the model window.

[bubba]

Are there any restraints (constraints) that can be applied to the bone? Some sort of Euler and Manipulator options?

[robcat2075]

Are there any restraints (constraints) that can be applied to the bone? Some sort of Euler and Manipulator options?

which bone?

[bubba]

which bone?

 

I was thinking about the upper leg bone, that is the one I think is twisting.

 

I went back to the model and re-checked alignment. Then I re-checked again. Just to be safe, I re-checked it again.

 

I then added the foot lift. Here it is:

 

Walking_Lower_Body.mov

 

 

Should we move this topic out of the Newbies form and into some other?

[robcat2075]

I don't see a lot of twisting there. Is it visible from some other angle?

[bubba]

I don't see a lot of twisting there. Is it visible from some other angle?

 

 

No, I think maybe rechecking the alignment helped.

 

I notice in your videos that you have "All" for your Timeline. Is that just a windows thing?

[robcat2075]

The "All" tab? That should be at the top of the Project WorkSpace window.

 

The "Timeline" window (ALT-2 to toggle it on and off) doesn't have those tabs.

[bubba]

I see how you have your setup. The PWS is at the bottom as opposed to the left-hand side. That way you don't have to open the Timeline window. Very neat.

[robcat2075]

Yup there's whole world on the right side of the PWS.

 

Normally I have the PWS detached from the main A:M window and it occupies my entire second monitor. But i can't screen capture it there.