Rigging a simple hand

[Phil]

Hi,

 

I've been rigging a hand and noticed that when i rotate the "control index 2 right" bone past -180 degress it goes out of whack. Can some one explain what I'm doing wrong

here's the hand model I was using handtest.mdl

[robcat2075]

180° is tough thing to track, the geometry bone is trying to split the difference between where it would be when the control bone is at 179° and -179°

 

How about... instead of using that 50% orient-like constraint... how about using a smartskin relationship to link the rotation of the geo bones to that control bone.

[Phil]

how about using a smartskin relationship to link the rotation of the geo bones to that control bone.

can you explain this a bit. Might be the lack of caffeine but , I'm not seeing it

[robcat2075]

I can do that , however I just had another idea... why use a 50% constraint for that?

 

Why not use 100%? Then you won't need to bend the control bone all the way back to get the geometry bone half way back.

 

Would that work?

[robcat2075]

OK, I see you need to leave 100% for the third finger bone.

[robcat2075]

Try this Smartskin approach. I think this will do what you want to do.

 

clip3457PhilsFinger.mov

[Phil]

Try this Smartskin approach. I think this will do what you want to do.

 

clip3457PhilsFinger.mov

 

I was trying not to use smartskin. but this is better than anything I tried. let me give this a go

thanks

[largento]

I didn't know you could add other bones to smartskin. Learn something new everyday. :-)

[robcat2075]

I didn't know you could add other bones to smartskin. Learn something new everyday. :-)

 

I might phrase it more generally... you can relate any keyable thing to the rotation of the bone.

 

Typically Smartskin is used to relate the deformation of a mesh (mesh deformations are something that can be keyframed) to the rotation of the bone.

 

However it could be anything... color properties, bone scaling, hair length... anything that can be keyframed can be keyframed to have a certain setting at a certain rotation of the bone the "Smartskin" belongs to.

 

And, of course, A:M will interpolate those settings between the other rotations of the bone.

 

Powerful stuff!