Walking Granny

[MJL]

I’m doing an animation for our local community theater.  While Sir Nigel is narrating,  Granny here will be slowly (like Tim Conway vs Harvey Corman) crossing the street with her walker and will enter the theater and go to the dressing room. (When she comes out she will be Lambrina.

 

I had to “Build” Granny and rigged her with the 2008 light rig. The Lock IK is ‘on’ on both hand and forearm bones (and attached to parent). Both hands are “Translate to” constrained to the ‘Walker” bone, but when I move the walker bone, the hands move with the walker but pull away from the forearms.

I have probably gone wrong in several different directions, but I’m clueless as to when and where. Would appreciate any help offered. Thanks, Myron

 

Walker Granny.mdl

[robcat2075]

Myron, I've never used the 2008 Light Rig.

I presume something has been done wrong, I presume some step has not been done right (...why are there two "Basic Setup" poses and two different switches for IK legs, neither of which work?) but i don't know enough about it to  fix it.

When I look at the sample "Robbie" character in Holmes' lite rig thread, it has several Control nulls that are absent in your character. Something has been done wrong.

 

I recommend TSM2

This post shows how to get TSM2 and v15 https://forums.hash.com/topic/32426-tsm2-for-am-now-free/
 

This post has a start-to-finish video of TSM2 installation  https://forums.hash.com/topic/53638-tsm2-videos-and-fanta/

[robcat2075]

@MJL

I tried following the instructions in Holmes's Lite Rig post. I always get a crash when i try to export the  new model from the "install" action.

I think that's the step that would incorporate the  missing nulls into the model so i'm guessing you haven't completed that step either.

I don't see a way to proceed without that step completed.

If i had to get a model rigged today... i'd go with TSM2

 

[robcat2075]

@MJL

I realized I did something wrong when I tried to do Holmes' process.... i deleted all the bones in the model but I didn't delete all the relationships that were still in the model from previous rigging attempts. They ALL have to go before starting to rig again.
 

I don't have time to try it all again today to see if it still crashes, but you might look into that.

Or... stick with TSM2

[MJL]

I'll probably try both in the interests of gaining knowledge.

As always, Thank You Robcat.

 

[Bobby]

I experimented with the Thom (2001_Skeleton) model.

 

GrannyWalker_Test1.prj

 

 

[robcat2075]

I tried doing the LiteRig process again, starting with a clean Granny, with no bones and no poses but it still crashes when i go to export a model from the Install Pose.

If I make a simple test case of a vase with a couple bones and export that from an Action I don't get a crash so there must be something about this more complex situation that is the problem.

If I start a blank model, drag the Bones model into it,  open the Install Action with that blank model... force the keys, save the PRJ... then export a mdl from the Action, that also does not crash. But of course, there's no Granny in that.

There is something about the Granny model that is a problem

If someone can make it  all work, I would be curious to see that.

[robcat2075]

New findings... 

If I drag my boneless, poseless, Granny into a new empty model... that causes a crash.

If I COPY and PASTE just the mesh from Granny into a new model, then drag the Bones model  into that, and don't move any bones to fit the model, the export from the Install Action doesn't crash and the resulting model appears to have a working rig. Constraining the "left Arm IK Control" to the Walker cause the hand and arm to appropriately follow the walker.

the next step would be to do the above but also properly fit the bones to the Granny mesh.

[itsjustme]

I did a quick once-over.  It looks like the rig works, but I didn't do any weighting.  There probably is something wrong somewhere in this model....the modeling definitely needs a lot of work.  I tweaked a couple of things to make the bone positioning faster but it still needs quite a bit.

 

 

Walker Granny_update_with_bones_and_constraints.mdl

[MJL]

It's another case of trying to take a "shortcut" and making the trip longer than it should have been.

Thanks for the help, it'sjustme, and Bobby. I appreciate it. Granny was never meant to be a "major" character and I was trying to make things quick and easy, which , of course, neither has happened.  She just has one job, and that's to shuffle across the screen. I may give the 2001 rig a try

Robcat, I sent you a private message. at first it said that you couldn't recieve messages, but then it looked like it went through. Here's the gist; The computer that I do AM on is located differently and not on the interweb. I tried downloading the 2 TSM2 instructions from u-tube using Realplayer Download, but got a message that said RP cannot download from that page, which is unusual because it normally has no problem. Is there another way to get my hands on those two videos?