|
|
Setting up a rig walk thru? Where?
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Setting up a rig walk thru? Where? // Roundtable
Post by RichLevy // Sep 28, 2008, 12:14pm
|
RichLevy
Total Posts: 1140
|
I am looking for a walk thru for setting up a rig (not the skeleton) but the locks for the pelvis legs hips feet shoulders, IK Handles and everything else you can think of :D I know it is here on these forums somewhere but I am not mcoming up with them in my searches... any links to where to look? I am using TS7.6 so I do not want/need any tutomrials on the older Model side bones or TS7.51 or before.
Thanks
Rich |
Post by jayr // Sep 29, 2008, 12:40am
|
jayr
Total Posts: 1074
|
I'll second that, a walk thru by someone with some experience would be a great help! |
Post by W!ZARD // Sep 29, 2008, 2:14am
|
W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
|
FWIW I think that one of the biggest problems with this aspect of tS is that it's almost TOO flexible!
Search the forums for "Walk Cycles" and you'll get lots of reading material.
Having studied this at some length I'm still not 100% confident of the 'best' way to set up your locks and handles, mostly because there are so many possible ways to do it!
Much will depend on how you are wanting to animate your character - Forward Kinesthetics, Inverse Kinesthetics, BVH files, phys sims and so on. Some lock/handle combinations will (I think) work better than others depending on how you want to animate.
So far my preferred method is to place an IK handle on each foot, each hand and at the waist. I rarely use them but they can be handy. In addition I put full locks at the feet, the thighs, the hips the chest (where the shoulders branch off) on each shoulder bone and each hand. By turning them on and off as required I get pretty good control over my meshes. Having said that I don't know of any other animators using the same (or even similar) lock configurations!!
The other thing that I find really useful is to think in terms of "what motion am I trying to create right now?" rather than "how can I set up a character rig that will allow me to do everything?". Using this approach, if I need a lock I just put one on the bone in question, set my keyFrame and then remove the lock from the skeleton as required. You can also change an existing lock from a full lock to a rotational lock as required.
Rather than building an all-purpose lock and handle combo, take it one step at a time and create one movement or pose at a time. Add and remove and change your locks as required as you go.
Note that most of my animation uses IK to set the broadest shape of the pose and good old-fashioned FK to fine tune it. Of course if you are animating with Phys sims you'll probably want a more 'fixed' locking setup.
So, given the incredible flexibility and range of options providing a detailed walk through for setting things up could be more misleading than helpful. For this reason I suggest you rig a character and spend some time experimenting with different lock and handle combos.
Finally, the thing that was most helpful for me was spending a solid week figuring out how to get a good walk cycle - in the process I learnt to use locks and handles in a much more fluid and intuitive way than I would of had I just followed someone's techniques else by rote.
Hope this helps....;) |
Post by RichLevy // Sep 29, 2008, 12:28pm
|
RichLevy
Total Posts: 1140
|
Hmmm, I will not agree with you on bmeing too flexible. It is easy to get a basic rig done though.
Very nice bit of information Wizard. I can only add what the manual mentions about setting up locks and IKHandles as another reference point.
Chapter #8 Character editing pages #29-#38 will give you the basics of setting locks and IKHandles to setting up basic IK chains and than you advance to more advanced IK chains and setups... It's worth a read. Unfortunately I am having an audio problem with my system so I am not able to get as much out of the videos that come with TS 7.6. I was advised to give them a look by one of the beta testers, he said there was a bit of information in them to get things going also.
Hopefully this and Wizards post will be a good starting point for anyone searching the forums for this information. Also look for the Saturday Animators Club hosted on Shared Space by 3DFrog.
Thanks
Rich |
Post by mrbones // Sep 29, 2008, 12:47pm
|
mrbones
Total Posts: 1280
|
There is another way to set limits, without using any limits or locks.
for example if you place simple cube prims around the character in strategic places. The character becomes constrained and responds to physmove tool during sim recordings. |
|
