Adjustable spherical constraint

[itsjustme]

After talking to Rodney Baker I decided to post a project file that was the result of a discussion on making a spherical constraint with Carl Raillard on CGTalk. Here's a description of what it does:

 

When you open the "spherical.prj" project, it should have "Action1" open and ready to mess with (if not, double-click on "Action1" to open it). What you see is "Bone1" as the bone that defines the sphere, "Bone2" as the bone you would attach any geometry to and "Null2" (at the intersection of "Bone1" and "Bone2") which is the manipulator...there is also a "Null1" that is set so that it isn't seen which helps drive this.

 

When you move "Null2" around ("Bone2" can be moved independently as well, but the constraint only works by manipulating "Null2") you'll see that "Bone2" follows while remaining within the area defined by "Bone1". You can move "Null2" outside of the defined area, but "Bone2" will still remain inside. You can adjust the area within the sphere that "Bone2" can occupy by changing the setting on the "Translate Limits" of "Null1" in the "Pose1" relationships folder. To make "Bone2" able to operate in a larger sphere, you'll need to increase the maximum translate limit for "X" to something above zero, to keep "Bone2" from reaching the center of the sphere, you have to change the the minimum translate limit for "X" to something higher (-14, -13, etc) than "-15cm".

[Rodney]

Hmmm still no takers.... either everyone already knows this stuff or you've managed to stun the riggers in the community into silence.*

 

I've not done much out of the realm of very basic rigging in A:M so this is cool stuff to me.... I learned more in 15 minutes of chatting with Itsjust than in 3 years of lurking on the animaster listserve.

 

Looking forward to seeing more about what setups like these can do to help animate our characters.

 

 

 

*Another reason could be that people aren't used to seeing WIPs on rigging in the WIP section. Seems like a perfect place to me!

[Ganthofer]

Thought I'd drop a line here. I down loaded the project back when you posted, but hadn't gotten around to looking at it. Saw Rodney's post and thought, "let's just make the time and take a look at it", so I did.

 

I've not worked much with constraints yet, but it seems they can save you a lot of work if done right.

 

Interesting piece of rigging. Not sure what situation it would be used in, but none the less, just seeing how the relationships are setup and being able to follow what's happening (without having dissect a complete rig ) has been very enlightening.

 

For those of us, OK just ME , that have only use simple bone structures ( parent - child ) and very few if any constraints. Aim At, Translate To, Translate Limits ... seem like fairly simple things, but figuring out how to combine them together to achieve a control is at times confusing and at other times beyond comprehension.

 

Enough babbling.

 

As much as I like figuring things out for myself, I don't think life's long enough to do that with everything.

 

Thanks for sharing, and as far as I'm concerned, keep it coming.

[itsjustme]

Well, after posting the eye tutorial I made I was asked about a cartoony eye and thought about applying the spherical constraint in this thread to the problem. It demonstrates a possible use for the constraint, so I thought I'd post it here. It's just a "proof of concept" type of thing, so don't expect it to be perfect...there are plenty of things about it that could be better.

 

In the project, open "Action1" if it's not already open and move the visible Null named "eyemanipulator". That moves the pupil around and deforms the eyeball. To adjust the size of the pupil, there is a "pupildilation" slider in the "User Properties" section of the "tooneye" model.

[Rodney]

David,

I gave your project file a looksee...

 

I like!

 

I was going to post a pic or two so others can see what is going on.

I attempted to place two eyes in a chor with one constrained to the other.

 

I failed to take baby steps though and managed to come up with a circular contraint problem when I attempted to get the two pupils to react together...

 

In short, I went a little to far beyond the simplicity of the setup and got myself in a corner.

 

I'll try again when I have a little more time to play.

 

I still think the setup would work great with a solar system of planets too!

[itsjustme]

Rodney,

 

Here's a two eye setup of the cartoon eye for people to mess with.

 

You can dilate each eye individually or together and you can manipulate both eyes at the same time or individually...there's an on/off pose for manipulating them at the same time in the model's (tooneye) "User Properties". I also applied the porcelain material this time and re-sized them.

 

When you first open the project the "botheyesmanipulator" is set to "on". In "Action1" grab the center null to move the eyes around. If you turn the "botheyesmanipulator" property off then you can use the right and left eye manipulators independently....it could be done better, I'll mess with it again tomorrow.

[itsjustme]

Okay, now I think it's working like it should...you can manipulate each eye individually and both eyes together in tandem. In "Action1" you use either the right or left eye manipulator nulls to move the eyes individually and the center null (botheyesmanipulator) to move them both. This way you can say have both eyes following different objects, meet in the middle and then move together to follow them as they move in the same area. Did that make sense? Well, experiment and you'll see what I mean if it didn't.

 

Edit--

If you were the first or second person to download this file and the controls aren't working correctly, download it again it should be fixed. I think I got the right version up before anyone downloaded, but I could be mistaken. Sorry 'bout that.

[Rodney]

Wow that was quick... checking it out now!