Challenge of the Pot Belly

[fae_alba]

I've re-rigged Papa Bear (again) with the Saucy Rig. So far I'm loving the ease of the rig. But I've run into the same challenge that I have before, with the big guys big belly. When I rotate the leg up, I want it to obviously not penetrate the stomach. I've messed with CP weights, with smartskin, and a combination of both, but it never really is as smooth as I want it to be. Below are some screen grabs of the upper leg forward and backward rotation and where the challenge is. Any suggestions?

 

[Fuchur]

Looks to me like a typical smartskin-challenge... why is that not working for you?

You need to be very careful with how many positions to set typically (since otherwise it will look a bit jumpy) but what exactly is not working out there?

 

See you

*Fuchur*

[fae_alba]

Looks to me like a typical smartskin-challenge... why is that not working for you?

You need to be very careful with how many positions to set typically (since otherwise it will look a bit jumpy) but what exactly is not working out there?

 

See you

*Fuchur*

 

I got the "jumpies" on one or two cp's on the belly. I'll revisit smart skins, remove all of the weighting along those points and the smart skin over.

[NancyGormezano]

It will never be perfect.

 

I think perhaps your weighting shows that the lower hip is not influencing the joint movement. It is hard to tell without seeing where the pivots/bones are, and what you have set up for the weighting..

 

I typically do not use smartskins (too confusing for me) - I just go with cp weighting but

 

Joints for me are usually modeled with 3 spline rings, and I just do simple weighting - easy for me to remember, so I don't have to reinvent a new scheme for each new model.

[robcat2075]

Possibly useful is my video on rigging Roger's Penguin legs which are a similar baggy pants situation. It should be in my tuts link.

 

Found the thread...

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=40261&st=0&p=354005&&do=findComment&comment=354005

[detbear]

Hey Big Paul,

 

Since you have a really low cp count, you could insert an extension bone for each cp in the ring

that you want to solve. I'm not at my Studio, so I can't make a sample.

You can extend a bone from the base of that main mover in the thigh.

Aim the bone to the cp and attach the cp to it. Then place an "orient like" constraint to the main mover.

 

Then adjust the percentages. I have had success with this in the past. IT'S SEEMS LIKE I'M DESCRIBING A

FAN BONE.....BUT it's a little different because of the way the bone is placed.

 

YOU MUST MAKE AN EXTENSION BONE FOR EACH CP AROUND THE SPLINE. If you try to use a single bone, the

constraint will have only one percentage of movement. SOUNDS WACKY but it's really stable from what I remember.

 

Anyway....just a thought.

[fae_alba]

Thanks for all the input. Before I got the chance to look at everyone else's I started work on redoing the smartskin on the upper leg bone. Below is what I've accomplished so far. I can see myself that there still is work to do on the back of the leg when it is raised.

 

leg_test.avi

[zandoriastudios]

Looking at your screen capture, I would re-shape the two extremes in your smartskin. I hope you have these joints weighted to a fan bone, so that it doesn't screw up when the leg twists...Otherwise, keyframe the smartskin at 3 different roll positions for that.

[fae_alba]

Will, I plan on fixing the smartskin tonight. I did a quick spot check of a leg twist and it didn't seem to mess up the mesh. I haven't added any new bones to the Saucy rig, since I'm not certain how it will react when I go thru the install process. So far I've gotten all of the cp's assigned and am working on weighting etc before finalizing the installed rig. I'm trying to keep the rig simple, but at the same time as worry free as possible for animating so I'm not going on frame by frame in a chor to adjust cp's.

 

I'm a big fan of KISS!