TSM and work flow

[SteelShark]

Hi,

I don't own TSM yet (still evaluating), but I did read through the pdf. I'm a little confused on the order of setting up the rig.

 

The pdf said to do all your smartskin before running the rig. If you are already boning the character, doing the smartskin, and checking joints, what is the actual TSM step for? Does it just get rid of the extra control bones? I guess I'm a little confused about what the setup step does.

 

(Note this is coming from someone who is still modeling and hasen't tried a rig yet. Hence the interest in the program!)

 

Also, How does the rig handle centipede type creatures? My creature has about 40 segments, each with two legs. It needs to flex, and also I'd like to not have to animate every single leg pair by hand, yet have the flexibility to do this for some of the front segment's legs.

[Bill_Y]

The easiest way to describe what TSM does is to compare it to a marionette. If some one were to build a marionette they spend quite a bit of time creating the actual puppet, but after they are done building it, they still have to build a controller and attach all the strings to the proper joints. In this kind of process this is where TSM would step in. It not only creates the controller, but it also attaches the strings to the proper points in the frame. In order to attach the stings to the puppet you need to ensure that the puppet has the appropriate frame work underneath it. This framework of the puppet is the equivalent to the skeleton of your model. TSM provides prefabricated parts you can insert into a model to help save you some additional time, and help it know where to attach the "strings" (constraints). Now you'll notice no where in this process did we talk about how the joints are linked together for bending. On a marionette you could use swivel joints, cloth, yarn or several other substance and on some puppets put a piece of clothing over the joint to help hide the joint and alow for a more natural looking bend. This processes, for the most part, is the equivalent of Smart skins, Cogs/Fan Bones or Weights on your characters joints. TSM can't tell how every model is suppose to deform around every joint. So this aspect of setup has been left to the users.

 

I hope this description helped.

 

As for the centipede, TSM is modular, so you can add as many legs as you like; however, the linking of leg pairs is not something TSM currently can do as it is an aspect of rigging a character that will differ from person to person on how they would want to handle the problem. Do they divide up the pairs in increments of 2, 3 or 4+? Also what if the user wants to later pull one of the leg pairs out of the setup to animate them separately for something like a dance, or to temporarily work as hands? These are questions that go beyond the limits of what TSM presently can handle. Some of these might be able to be addressed in a future release, but we'll have to see.

[SteelShark]

Thanks! Guess I'll use TSM for my humanoid creatures, and learn rigging on my ice wyrm! Can't wait....

[Mike Hart]

I'm just wonfering outloud, a bit, here but, would it be possible for Steelshark to use TSM on a single, 2-legged, segment of the wyrm and then string several instances of the TSM'd model together in a chor. to produce the whole worm? Each subsequent segment could then use Translate-to, with lag, and Orient-like constraints to get wyrm-ish locomotion.

He could also constrain the assembled wyrm(s) to a path and then animate the path to get the inch-wyrm effect.

 

Mike Hart

[Bill_Y]

I'm just wonfering outloud, a bit, here but, would it be possible for Steelshark to use TSM on a single, 2-legged, segment of the wyrm and then string several instances of the TSM'd model together in a chor. to produce the whole worm? Each subsequent segment could then use Translate-to, with lag, and Orient-like constraints to get wyrm-ish locomotion.

He could also constrain the assembled wyrm(s) to a path and then animate the path to get the inch-wyrm effect.

 

Mike Hart

Indeed he could do it this way if he wanted, but this can't be automaticaly setup by TSM currently.