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Have more than one skeleton control the vector image?

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 9:49 pm
by ShadowCory
In some 3d apps, you can use several control skeletons to drive a single geometry skeleton. This way you can make IK FK switching and such, using a weight value to determine which controller will drive the geo. Is there a recommended way to achieve this in AS? Can you use different bone set ups in a switch layer?

Cory

Re: Have more than one skeleton control the vector image?

Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 10:33 am
by slowtiger
You can always duplicate a whole charcter, kee the visible parts (image or vector layers), and erase all bones or just the ones you want to change.

Re: Have more than one skeleton control the vector image?

Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 5:47 pm
by ShadowCory
OK, that will be my plan. Now, is there a way to copy the vector drawing in a pose from a smart bone dial action? You know, in the altered position, then make that the default position of the copied character?

Re: Have more than one skeleton control the vector image?

Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 6:55 pm
by Greenlaw
Not if the second skeleton's structure is different from the first skeleton. I know it's annoying but it's not physically possible to copy and paste the poses to match since the rotational/positional/hierarchical data is probably going to be different between the two rigs.

As described above, you can duplicate the entire character as described above and modify that rig to do what you need. Depending on what you're trying to do, that can be a bit tricky though, especially if your 'new' rig needs to be drastically different to allow the action you want to animate.

IMO, a better approach is the plan ahead before you start animating the scene. If you have an animatic prepared, you should already know to the frame when these transitional moments will occur, and make preparations for animating them.

When I'm animating a single character using multiple rigs, I like to build-in the ability to animate a matching pose with the second rig. This could be a couple of morphing frames or a separate FBF sequence. If you look at our short film 'Scareplane', you can see method in use near the beginning when Sister unbuckles her seatbelt and stands up. Separate rigs were create for her sitting position and standing position animations, and separate morphing layers are being used to smooth the transition between sitting and standing for about five or six frames. Later on in the film, you can see a similar setup when she tumbles into a seat and stands up facing camera.

I find it helpful to import my storyboard frames as reference images to figure out how and where the transition occurs. This helps me set up the rigs so that the poses can be matched at the appropriate moment, and swapped by hiding/revealing the different rig groups or layers.

Hope this helps.

G.

Re: Have more than one skeleton control the vector image?

Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 11:24 pm
by ShadowCory
Thank you for the advice. I will be using copies, as you guys have suggested. I did something similar in my "Box" animation, switching to a mirrored copy in the middle of a jump, just matching poses, eyeballing it basically. You are right, I can make a better transitions with proper planning :). Interesting thing I found out was, if I duplicated the character after the animation was added, the keyframes are duplicated as well, allowing me to just move the keys for the jump into place, continuing the animation without having to animate the jump on the flipped version.

Cory

Re: Have more than one skeleton control the vector image?

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 2:16 pm
by kitzeldikatz
ShadowCory wrote:OK, that will be my plan. Now, is there a way to copy the vector drawing in a pose from a smart bone dial action? You know, in the altered position, then make that the default position of the copied character?
If you're only moving points in a vector layer you can copy the keyframe to frame 0.
If you do this with a bone the points in the vector layers won't follow unfortunaltey.

Re: Have more than one skeleton control the vector image?

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 6:31 pm
by ShadowCory
Greenlaw- I did have a look at the Airplane animation. Very Nice! It's pretty clear to me now how I will handle these transitions. I can see the need for a couple of different skeletons for general pose changes, but I understand the need for special condition changes as well. It seems easy enough to construct these in AS.

kitzeldikatz- Thanks, I will try that as well!

Cory