The new Gary the Gopher...

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 11:31 am

My new "Squetch" rig installed in Gary (forgive the lousy squetch example... did it in a hurry as a test):

http://www.lowrestv.com/anime_studio/im ... -gary3.mov

I had to do some funky bone positioning and constraints. Scaling the legs or pelvis normally would push them down requiring you to constantly put in keys to keep the feet on the ground when doing squash and stretch. This rig allows for stretching the legs individually and also the pelvis while keeping the feet "locked" to the ground and pushing up the torso.

The only draw back is when I might need to stretch the legs AWAY from the body... in the opposite direction. That can be done "by hand" by translating the bones. I would rather do that in those cases then the other way around.

-vern

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:15 pm

My God! that's Gary, the rubber made Gopher!

-G

bleep · Post by **bleep** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:52 pm

we thought someone was goin'on another vacation, keep up the good work though

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 3:33 pm

Here's a rough run cycle. It's got some issues which is why I did it. It helps me see where I need to fix things. Looks like I will have to use multiple leg layers or shapes. Completely forgot about the legs "overlapping" with a 3/4 view run or walk cycle. What is in there now works okay but needs some tweaking. Hand switches aren't done yet. I went with foot switches instead of a complex bone shifting rig. The feet are going to be hidden in the grass anyway! Most of this thing takes place with the characters standing in a grassy meadow... hide the feet.. save some time.

http://www.lowrestv.com/anime_studio/im ... -gary4.mov

-vern

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 5:11 pm

Thanks for the Brush info, new feature I haven't gotten around to playing with!

Love love love the "Squetch" rig. Maybe do that for everything but the legs. Look at some Fleischer animations, it would be amazing to see that rubberyness even in his run cycle, like his head elongating as in the "Squetch" vid.

Don't forget to flip his right hand, thumbs up.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 5:32 pm

Oh yeah... definitely will use squetch on the run and walk cycles. Luckily that segment is very short in the beginning as all the characters meet up and run through the grass.

I realized that the segment in the very beginning where the characters are running or walking is the only spot I need the "overlapping" legs. Still, I managed to fix it by modifying the character slightly. I just moved the lighter belly area up under his chin and down to the middle of his legs. I then "split" the body into two matching shapes on either side of the belly so I can move either leg over or under the other leg and body. Works great and still looks good. I had to split the body so the shaded effect works smoothly along the body edges. If I just split out a leg shape it wouldn't work.

----

By the way... brushes aren't a new feature actually. The COLOR brushes are new but brushes have been around since Moho (not talking about the "scatter" brush that draws vector shapes. That is a new feature)

-vern

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 6:21 pm

In the Brush window what does " minimize frame-to-frame randomness" do?

Its not animated so what frame-to-frame changes are happening that it needs to be minimized?

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Fri Aug 14, 2009 6:46 pm

If you leave that off or unchecked the brushes will sort of "jitter" with a randomized motion.

-vern

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 12:43 pm

I little bit of "lip sync" and some acting. Need to increase the mouth movement a bit. Not "big" enough. I'm using the bone wiggle script on a bone that is a constraint target for other bones controlling the mouth. Still some small glitches around the shoulders and the elbows. The audio is a really old test I did myself and distorted in Audacity.

http://www.lowrestv.com/anime_studio/im ... -gary7.mov

-vern

bleep · Post by **bleep** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 1:11 pm

I just saw one of these advance IK rigs in example files, its quite confusing though I mean, there are so many levers to pull press the right one to open eyes, press the left for his mouth, middle to raise his arm and press bottom left to raise his.... anyway

very cool

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Sat Aug 15, 2009 2:13 pm

EDIT

Just read about how you have a rig that allows the pelvis to be moved while the feet remain stuck to the ground. I'd like to know how you did that. Sounds a bit alright.

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 3:41 pm

For me, Gary's arms move around too much. Everything else is pretty impessive though!

toonertime · Post by **toonertime** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 3:44 pm

I agree about the arm movment. I think less
waving around but more meaningful gesture
would be more effective. Great design!

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 6:39 pm

Yes... his arms wave around too much. This was intended as a test. I kept telling Gary to stop waving his arms around but he doesn't take direction very well.

In the actual episode Gary is holding and paging through a script during almost the entire thing so I am hoping that will keep his hands occupied and prevent him from flailing about so much.

Mikdog wrote:EDIT

Just read about how you have a rig that allows the pelvis to be moved while the feet remain stuck to the ground. I'd like to know how you did that. Sounds a bit alright.

Just for scaling... squash and stretch. Basically the leg bones have an opposite rotated parent that is scaled. The leg bone is constrained to scale like the parent. Because they are the same length but opposite directions scaling the parent bone pushes the leg up at the same time that it scales. This makes the leg scale up from the feet.

The pelvis has a similar set up. An extra bone that is positioned at a specific point that is the parent of both the pelvis and the back bone (upper body). At the bottom of the rig is another bone that is a parent of the parent of the pelvis and back bone. This bone scales and the "real" pelvis is constrained to it. This also "counters" the scaling and pushes everything up from the feet.

Phew! It's actually much simpler than it sounds.

I'll try to post a simple sample soon.

-vern

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Sun Aug 16, 2009 6:48 pm

At the bottom of the rig is another bone that is a parent of the parent of the pelvis and back bone

...I think my brain just exploded...

TIP: Simple little tip for tablet users, when you need to create a "hold" key just hit the Reset button for whatever tool you are using. I do this now instead of clicking in the scene because inevitable I would always move or alter things with my sensitive tablet instead of just creating a keyframe.