1 Bone Rig Controlling 5 Positions: Body Turn

[drumlug13]

I'm obviously not trying to impress anyone with this character. I'm just trying to prove a concept. Hopefully I haven’t spent the last couple of hours trying to reinvent the wheel or another rig that’s floating around the forum. And hopefully you guys can rip it up and/or expand on it. This sounds like it could be a lot of extra work but for a character that will be used over and over it may be worth it. I think the benefit would be a character that animates more smoothly as it changes angles. (like the really bad character @ :13)

In my previous workflow, I was using a switch layer to switch between Bone Layers (one for each body position). The problems I encountered before were jumps in body positions as the rigs switched through the bone groups on the timeline. So I’ve been trying to build a character that has all the different body positions controlled by the single parent Bone Group. Smart Bones with the new nested layer control has made it possible… In my head anyway.
This is a 180 body turn using a smart bone. It's using a single bone rig to control 5 body positions nested in a switch layer (Front, ¾ Right, Side, ¾ Back and Back). The character changes color as the switch layer cycles through the different positions.

I obviously made a few mistakes along the way but here’s what I did.

I created the character in 5 different positions. Each body position is in its own group layer. But all of the nested limbs are bound to the parent Bone Group.
I made the “Body Turn” bone and created a Smart Bone Action for it.

Using the shift key to be precise, in the action timeline, I added keys to the switch layer as I rotated the “Body Turn” bone. At 24 frames I switched to the “3/4 Right” group. But then, of course, all of the bones were then out of position for the artwork of the “3/4 Right” character. So I moved the bones into the correct ¾ position… But of course since the artwork was already rigged to the parent bone layer, the vectors moved along with the bone. The solution was to just use a template of the artwork in the original position to move everything back into place. Then I just repeated the process until all 5 body positions were switched in the Body Turn Action. (Side view @ 48 frames etc…)
To turn the character completely around and simulate a 360, I just flipped the parent Bone Group when he reached the back position. BUT if we go ahead and make those other positions and switch to them with the smart bone action timeline, we can make a character turn all the way around as he’s moving his limbs. And everything should move smoothly just by controlling the parent Bone Group.
Obviously this would be more difficult for a character with more points and detailed artwork. Not to mention the joints between bones for the limbs. Plus, if an arm bend is made with another smart bone action…? I don’t know this may not work on a complex character. ..

I know some on the forum are working on 360s. Are you using this kind of rig or using a Switch layer to cycle between individually rigged characters? Am I working on something completely redundant here?

[rocky53204]

Neeters did some interesting work here...
http://www.kelleytown.com/forum/animato ... IC_ID=2497

[drumlug13]

That looks great ! I'm still messing with my simple shapes guy and I'm getting some conflict when smart bones cross over.

[drumlug13]

Does anyone know if there's a script that will allow animation for the length of a bone via the Translate Bone tool. It grays out when you leave frame 0.
If you can type in the exact location and length of a bone on the frame where the switch layer changes body position this style of 360 would work. Scaling the bone wrecks everything.