New improved Head Turn Technique!

Have you come up with a good Moho trick? Need help solving an animation problem? Come on in.

Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger

User avatar
Víctor Paredes
Site Admin
Posts: 5646
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Barcelona/Chile
Contact:

Post by Víctor Paredes »

Sorry for the late response. I'm glad you like this technique. I just worked on a couple characters which use it, sadly I can't show them.
Anyway, it would be awesome if AS could make this kind of masking without so much effort and scripting. If only there was a "bitted apple" masking mode all would be awesomely easy and, with the help of blend morph, headturns would be solved forever. Imagine everybody making that awesome headturns as the GK's. Well, it's my own dream, so I can't expect it become reality. At least not soon.

funksmaname, that bumps layer is a great idea! thanks!
Sorry, I have no time right now to read your technique thread. I will soon.

And yes, as neeters_guy said, I just ignore the message. I know it couldn't be the most orthodox decision, but works well so far.
jwlane, it would be awesome to see an animation from you using this technique, I'm absolutely sure you would push it to the max.
Image Image Image Image
Moho Product Manager

www.mohoanimation.com
Rigged animation supervisor in My father's dragon - Lead Moho artist in Wolfwalkers - Cartoon Saloon - My personal Youtube Channel
User avatar
funksmaname
Posts: 3174
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 11:31 am
Location: New Zealand

Post by funksmaname »

Selgin, do you mind if i create a screencast with this technique?
let me know - I'm sure it would be useful for people to see how to use Ramon's lost layer tool, dup script, and your fantastic technique in motion :)
User avatar
Víctor Paredes
Site Admin
Posts: 5646
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Barcelona/Chile
Contact:

Post by Víctor Paredes »

funksmaname wrote:Selgin, do you mind if i create a screencast with this technique?
let me know - I'm sure it would be useful for people to see how to use Ramon's lost layer tool, dup script, and your fantastic technique in motion :)
Definitely!
That would be fantastic, funksmaname!
thanks :D
Image Image Image Image
Moho Product Manager

www.mohoanimation.com
Rigged animation supervisor in My father's dragon - Lead Moho artist in Wolfwalkers - Cartoon Saloon - My personal Youtube Channel
User avatar
funksmaname
Posts: 3174
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 11:31 am
Location: New Zealand

Post by funksmaname »

you know what? I just tried to record a screencast and I dont think it really makes it any easier to understand how to do this than your original post!
It's quite a fiddly process and people who want to use this technique should already know how to use masking and embedding scripts so i don't think the screencast is that necessary!

The most important thing in this whole process is to follow your mask type selections, and having that shown as in the first post is more useful then me quickly pressing buttons in a video...

on another note, it's strange how the masking messes up ramons meshinstance mod! :P Anyhow - sorry it didn't happen but I really think i would confuse people more than help them!

:)
User avatar
Víctor Paredes
Site Admin
Posts: 5646
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Barcelona/Chile
Contact:

Post by Víctor Paredes »

Hehe, don't worry, funksmaname. I definitely know it's a not easy to understand task. Actually, It takes me a lot of time to write that first post and try to let it as clear as possible :wink:.

Thank you, anyway, funksmaname. I hope this technique could be done easier in the future. Some months ago I wrote to LM asking him what he thought about a new "bitted apple" masking type (I explained everything about and send him a link to this thread). Unfortunately, I never got an answer, but, who knows, maybe I made some kind of inception on his mind and he add it to version 8 thinking it was his own idea...
Image Image Image Image
Moho Product Manager

www.mohoanimation.com
Rigged animation supervisor in My father's dragon - Lead Moho artist in Wolfwalkers - Cartoon Saloon - My personal Youtube Channel
User avatar
funksmaname
Posts: 3174
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 11:31 am
Location: New Zealand

Post by funksmaname »

yeah it would be great - this would be amazing used with MorphDials, but as it uses the embedded script slot it means good old fashioned point animation has to be used :) I wonder if morphdials can have meshinstance included...

It's a great workaround though! not being able to do this has always been a major drawback.
User avatar
neeters_guy
Posts: 1614
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:33 pm
Contact:

Post by neeters_guy »

I made this video to illustrate some animation principles, but it's also a good example of Selgin's head turn set up.

ShaddoPhase Head Turn Test

Just two bones--one for the head and one for the neck--the rest is point animation and some layer scaling. The "bitten apple" effect makes for nice transition, I think.

Thanks to Selgin for this useful idea.
User avatar
funksmaname
Posts: 3174
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 11:31 am
Location: New Zealand

Post by funksmaname »

Great vid Neeters guide... and nice use of Selgins technique - i can't seem to brake out of the circular head setup when using it - would be very interested in seeing your AS file ;)

this is a 'private' video i sent Rudiger the other day about using his MorphDials in combo with Selgin's head setup... trying to do this isn't really for the faint of heart as merging the meshinstance and morphdials scripts has its quirks, but as a proof of concept - good things are possible :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdsnNhP-Gdg
User avatar
Víctor Paredes
Site Admin
Posts: 5646
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Barcelona/Chile
Contact:

Post by Víctor Paredes »

Both videos are excellent!
Thank you guys for taking this seriously. I'm very sure this can be huge if LM come here and take a look. Rudiger's scripts are fantastic, it's very bad I have became a no time man. I really want to play with this stuff. It's so inspiring!
thank you guys, really.
Image Image Image Image
Moho Product Manager

www.mohoanimation.com
Rigged animation supervisor in My father's dragon - Lead Moho artist in Wolfwalkers - Cartoon Saloon - My personal Youtube Channel
User avatar
freecartman™
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2010 10:15 pm

script

Post by freecartman™ »

Hi selgin!! Thanks for your fantastic technique!! i just have one (maybe stupid) question:the script to control two layers at the same time, is the fa_meshinstance.lua we can find in the .anme file you loaded at the first post?
User avatar
funksmaname
Posts: 3174
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 11:31 am
Location: New Zealand

Post by funksmaname »

No worries Selgin! You are the innovator, we (well, I - not really Rudiger! lol) are just the minions getting excited about our new toys you create. Please keep sharing your amazing techniques!

yes cartman, that's the file.
DarthFurby
Posts: 510
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2006 1:34 pm
Location: New York City
Contact:

Post by DarthFurby »

selgin - thanks for sharing, this is a very interesting technique.

Neeters - After watching that I'm really convinced you need to post more work around here!
User avatar
neeters_guy
Posts: 1614
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:33 pm
Contact:

Post by neeters_guy »

Thanks, DF. I'm following funksmaname's suggestion and I'm working a generic version of the file that I hope to post soon.
User avatar
funksmaname
Posts: 3174
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 11:31 am
Location: New Zealand

Post by funksmaname »

Thanks neeters! look forward to seeing it :)
User avatar
neeters_guy
Posts: 1614
Joined: Mon Sep 14, 2009 7:33 pm
Contact:

Post by neeters_guy »

For those of you who are curious about how I adapted Selgin's set up, here's an AS file (ver. 6.2) that you can pick apart:

NG_SelginHeadTurn.zip
or
NG_SelginHeadTurn2.zip

Image

I also included my notes (in pdf and open office format) if you want all the messy details. Hope some of you find this useful.

edit: add link to second version.
Last edited by neeters_guy on Sun Sep 26, 2010 5:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
Post Reply