As per a discussion on XSIBase:
http://www.xsibase.com/forum/index.php?board=11;action=display;threadid=39869;start=0#lastPost
I followed RayFigs video and setup his arm but then aslo took it a bit further to ensure that the Arm bones wouldn’t drift in rotation. Take a look at the attached file.
Eric T.
Upgrading your software is helpful in a number of different ways. One way is to get bugs and fixes fixed. In terms of online software like forums and CMSs, it is essential to keep up to date. Otherwise, you leave your website vulnerable to attacks and hacks. So in short, keep your software up to date to ensure a long and happy web site life.
Later,
Eric T.
So I decided tonight to figure out how to do a stretchy-bendy-adjustableknee leg setup. Attached are my results. I am having issues with the ThighFollow_Null and ShinFollow_Null and used a hacky way to stabilize it. Also I’m not 100% satisfied with the bend when you use the adjustable knee control.
Feel free to pull it apart / comment on it. It’s a work in progress still. Hopefully others can learn from it and we can find a solid way to accomplish this.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Christopher Crouzet for allowing people to download his rig to use and pull apart.
Thanks,
Eric T.
So I was looking over the XSI Base forums and happened upon a post of someone trying to create / modify a script. The script needed to create a cluster at each selected point on a mesh, then constrain a null to each created cluster. I didn’t know how to do this myself so I decided to take a stab at it and came up with the following script:
So today at work I was quite frustrated. I’ve been working on finishing a rig for a fairly simplistic character but somehow I had forgotten how to setup a bicep roll.
Bicep Roll: Gradual rotation of bones in the bicep area when the arm is twisted around. Allows for smooth deformation.
So yeah I forgot how to do it. I had a few thousands attempts at creating one but to no avail. I was missing something. In all reality it would probably have worked the way I had it, however I’ve learned that I have to prepare for the worste because of a certain un-named animator who sits down at his desk in the morning and goes, “Hmm… I wonder if I can break Eric’s rigs today…” Lovely. Simply lovely.
I have to give him credit because he’s got some of the most dynamic and funny shots in the show thus far and he knows as an animator that he has to push the rigs to their boundries. Though a slight consult with me would be greatly appreciated.
But getting back to the bicep roll. I held off on finalizing the rig because I need to have the roll functioning. I did a bit of research in some old tutorials I had bought on rigging and built another one but again still the flipping issue. I then started toying with the idea of setting constant expressions. No dice. Then I tossed a scripted operator at it and success! One thing I’ve learned in the past few years is that sometimes you have to throw everything you’ve got at a problem and usually the last thing you could think of to try is probably going to be the one that works. Fun times.
I also had a never ending slew of issues from the animators at the end of the day as well. Tried to get everything knocked out by quiting time. It was a successful endeavor. Now I’ll have a little time in the morning to re-arrange my desk. I’m also getting a shelf on which I will be placing many if not all of my toys. Need to clear off the desk to regain some productivity.
Off to do my push-ups and sit-ups.
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Eric
So I decided tonight to write a quick little script that would create a VERY simple guide that would allow you to then reposition the null objects created and then select them all and create a simple 2 bone chain. Why? Well it’s tedious to do this a bunch of times per day when rigging characters.
Read the rest of this entry »
As this is my first post about a Rigging and Animation topic I have decided to explain something rather simple yet extremely useful. The concept was introduced to me while I attended Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, Canada in 2008 by my Rigging professor Mike Fabris. Keith Lango also has an article about “Layers of abstraction” which is ideally the same principle.
When building a rig for a character, prop, or vehicle; it is important to be able to get your character back to a rest pose. This helps to reset the character if you need to redo a pose or a whole animation on a portion or on a character in its entirety. Some programs such as Autodesk’s Softimage and Maya have a feature which is called a neutral pose that allows you to set a global position as an objects local zeroed out position.
So if you take a cube object and move it vertically to a Y value of say 10. If this position is the default position you would like it to be in as its zero (neutral) position you would set a neutral pose on the object and the local transform for Y becomes 0 while leaving your object 10 units up on the Y axis. Technically this gets the job done, however there is a posibility that someone may be able to come along and mess with that neutral pose. Somehow an animator may accedently override the neutral pose. Then how are you to know where the neutral pose was? You can’t unless you store that information somewhere in maybe a backup file or if you write it down. Too much work to keep track of that stuff else where in my opinion. So a tried and true way to ensure that a neutral pose can never be lost is the following:
Hierarchy:
Simple_RestNull
-Simple_CNT
Now the Simple_CNT’s local coordinates are based off of the Simple_RestNull object. So if you move the Simple_CNT and need to get it back to its rest position all you need to do is reset it’s local transforms. Even if an animator is able to set a neutral pose on top of that, you can clear the neutral pose and reset the transforms to get it back to 0. Also if you ever need to adjust the rest position you simply unhide the _RestNull object and reposition it. The controller will follow along due to the parent hierarchy.
I use this method all the time and has never failed me. Live it, learn it, love it.
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Eric
Any time my family / friends need computer help I’m the man to call. Most of the time it’s just small little issues that are fixed with a click of a mouse or a scan of the hard drive for spyware. However there are the few occasions when something so messed up happens I can’t help over the phone. Even on top of that sometimes it gets so bad that I can’t even help if I use a remote login program either. When some kind of virus or spyware blocks certain programs from accessing the internet you know it isn’t good. Anyone ever been in this situation? Uhg, not a fun way to spend a night. Don’t get me wrong, I love helping my family and friends get back to using their computer again, but it’s a real chore trying to do it over the phone when you have to describe how to troubleshoot. People wonder why tech support over the phone from HP, Dell, or whoever else is so bad. It’s easier to do than to explain.
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Eric
One of my life-long favorite foods is a PB&J. Recently I’ve been able to enjoy this fine delicacy since I’ve moved out of my parents residence. Though it isn’t my first time living on my own, it certainly feels different. I have my own room, my own place, and only the responsibilities I place upon myself. This is a phase in my life that I have to go through. I am more independent than ever and have all the grown-up responsibilities that I didn’t have last year while I was living in Canada while attending Sheridan. I have felt lately that I am maybe too responsible for my age. I’ve felt this way for a number of years now and I can’t grasp whether it is a good thing or not. On one hand it makes sure that I do the things I’m supposed to. On the other it makes me very anal in regards to the way I think things should be. This is off-putting for some. Non-the-less, I’m on my own and am doing the growing-up part of life. All the while eating PB&J’s (the crunchy kind of PB, finally!)
Snowed pretty bad last night. Had to shovel a lot this morning. Wished other room-mate would pitch in a little. Instead, I only saw foot prints in the snow where he’d walked across the fully snowed in driveway.
Kind of odd that someone would accidentally break a glass of someone else and just leave it broken on the counter top. This is what I encounter when I go to make my PB&J this evening. I did the right thing and put it in a paper bag and cleared the small shattered pieces so no one would hurt themselves. Really?
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Eric