Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

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heyvern
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by heyvern »

Target bones are really basic and simple.

Watch the v10 webinar:

http://my.smithmicro.com/webinars/anime ... -overview/

All you do is create a bone that is your target.
Select another bone to aim at that new target bone.
Click the "Bone Constraints" drop down thingy at the top.
Under "target:" select the bone you created in step one.
Done. Very simple.

To test, go to frame and drag the target and watch how it "aims" at the target.

There are additional IK stretching settings you can include with this so the aiming bone will stretch to reach the target. For the purposes of this specific technique you don't need those though.
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dueyftw
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by dueyftw »

Here is something to control phenomenons or anything else:



Sorry a bout the hissing background sound.

Dale
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hammerjammer
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by hammerjammer »

Thanks heyvern
Target bones are really basic and simple.

Watch the v10 webinar:
Thanks for the webinar video link. That was the only video I didn't watch over the last couple of days. I forgot those webinar video's were on the Smith Micro page.

Anyway. Target bones are very easy to understand especially after I saw the video. If any one else would like to see the Target bones part of the AS10 Webinar, its starts at the 12:00 minute mark. __________Here's the link.
http://my.smithmicro.com/webinars/anime ... -overview/
Wow, this is very cool. This is going to make walk cycles a lot faster and easier to make. As well as all that stuff you guys are doing with the smartbone actions. There is going to be some really cool stuff coming from this in the future I think...

I was confused at first because I didn't understand what the main purpose of Target bone feature was let alone the crazy stuff you guys are already dreaming up for it. I might not be the one finishes the race first, But I always finish.
Baby steps are the way to go. First learn the tool, then master its capabilities.

Thanks

HammerJammer
Check out All of my animations on my YouTube Channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/HammerAnimation/videos

Thanks for watching!
Hammerjammer
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heyvern
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by heyvern »

I have to say... of all the bone enhancements I have wished for for years... an "aim" constraint has always been at the top of the list. I just never imagined it actually getting in.

This is an absolutely awesome feature. It's so new that there are amazing mind blowing things that can be done with it no one has even dreamed of yet.
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funksmaname
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by funksmaname »

Dale, I really like your round array - smart!

I was just trying to play with putting bones at the corners of a square instead of halfway along the four middle points - but going up always makes the fact turn left etc... I have left/right at opposing corners, and up/down at the others, but I think i might have to copy the positions into the negative rotation of the opposing bone so that the effect is counter acted if you are above or below the center line... it's making my head hurt a bit and I've got other work to do :P

Incidentally, I found a nice trick - if you create your control bones really tiny (0.01) but have the 'Maximum IK stretching' set to something high (100) - they turn into really sharp lines that are always attached to your target bone...

Image

This stops them flapping around uncontrollably when your target is 'within' the length of the aimed bone
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dueyftw
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by dueyftw »

Incidentally, I found a nice trick - if you create your control bones really tiny (0.01) but have the 'Maximum IK stretching' set to something high (100) - they turn into really sharp lines that are always attached to your target bone...
Cool, this gives it a fluid motion.

Dale
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heyvern
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by heyvern »

I've been using a scaling trick to develop a "real" squash and stretch that actually squashes with IK.

An undocumented feature that's been around since the Moho days is that you can copy bone scaling from a frame above 0, and paste that key to frame 0. You now have a bone scaled in the "bone offset" view only. This allows you to scale down a bone, set a higher IK stretch value and then set your targets offset to get the bone in the right spot. On frame 0 you can't see the scaling so it doesn't mess up your character editing.

Still fiddling with this trick. Will post in a new topic once I get process all figured out.
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synthsin75
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by synthsin75 »

Brilliant circle control rig, Dale.
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funksmaname
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by funksmaname »

I think I solved a big problem with this approach. Essentially the idea is to have bottom/left and top/left as well as bottom/right and top/right to have an exactly the same left/right effect. The only way to achieve this is to move the aim bone away far enough from the control square so that it's arch pretty much covers the entire square. This is impossible having the bone so close to the square as bottom left being 100% would mean top left is only (approximately) 50% influence.

To work out the ideal placement I drew a triangle from the far end of the box and enlarged it until I was satisfied that its influence covered the square. doing it this way, you only need two bones. In my example the bone angle constraints at this distance are -2.2 and 2.2 degrees respectively. (This will depend on the size of control box you want I guess). Make sure you have enough frames in your smart action to create smooth interpolation (don't use single frame smart actions, which is generally bad practice)

I only went side to side, but you should be able to do a full rotation in the same way.

Image

file:
https://www.mediafire.com/?gq222a5mf2mq8qf

----

Taking this concept further, though I'm not sure of the practicality (especially not at this level) - you could use these cones to create all sorts of control matrices. In the image below, there are 9 smart bone areas with crossing over influences - a veritable venn diagram of smart bone manipulation :P

Image

Perhaps Selgin can work up a practical application! :P
Danimal
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by Danimal »

funksmaname wrote:a veritable venn diagram of smart bone manipulation
I still see this as a great technique for more than smart bones. Now I picture a boat scene with everyone swaying to the motion of the water. Imagine how easy that would be with one, maybe two target bones pulling everyone. Everyone swaying, in sync, with ONE bone movement.
~Danimal
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dueyftw
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by dueyftw »

funksmaname wrote:I think I solved a big problem with this approach. Essentially the idea is to have bottom/left and top/left as well as bottom/right and top/right to have an exactly the same left/right effect. The only way to achieve this is to move the aim bone away far enough from the control square so that it's arch pretty much covers the entire square. This is impossible having the bone so close to the square as bottom left being 100% would mean top left is only (approximately) 50% influence.

To work out the ideal placement I drew a triangle from the far end of the box and enlarged it until I was satisfied that its influence covered the square. doing it this way, you only need two bones. In my example the bone angle constraints at this distance are -2.2 and 2.2 degrees respectively. (This will depend on the size of control box you want I guess). Make sure you have enough frames in your smart action to create smooth interpolation (don't use single frame smart actions, which is generally bad practice)

I only went side to side, but you should be able to do a full rotation in the same way.

Image

file:
https://www.mediafire.com/?gq222a5mf2mq8qf

----

Taking this concept further, though I'm not sure of the practicality (especially not at this level) - you could use these cones to create all sorts of control matrices. In the image below, there are 9 smart bone areas with crossing over influences - a veritable venn diagram of smart bone manipulation :P

Image

Perhaps Selgin can work up a practical application! :P
If you use normal size bones for up-down, left-right bones and have no angle limits. Your setup with two bones works fine. Have the bones point to the far corners of the box in the smart bone actions by stretching them. Once you set the angles of motion, remove the stretching keys in the smart bone action. The only thing is the area is not a box any more in use is small corners near the sides of the box where the bones are. Not perfect but very liveable.

Dale
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dueyftw
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by dueyftw »

What about this:

Turn the box 45 degrees. Place the control bones in the two corners. Each bone turns 90 degrees, covering the whole space of the box. Now there is no dead space.

Dale
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dueyftw
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by dueyftw »

dueyftw wrote:What about this:

Turn the box 45 degrees. Place the control bones in the two corners. Each bone turns 90 degrees, covering the whole space of the box. Now there is no dead space.

Dale

Here is the file. Sorry no screen shot.

https://app.box.com/s/uwtfeedvf9lmv73nacpu

Dale
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dueyftw
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by dueyftw »

Here is two more setups for target bone controls.

Layer 3 is a triangle of three bones where the target moves each bone independently or turn the target bone and they move all together.

Layer 4 is three bones in a line where each bone moves as the target bone reaches it. But to change the order of the bones you can turn the target bone.

All the bones have -70, 0 angles constants.

https://app.box.com/s/jh6w9hlvuio17cly047b

Dale
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Re: Target bone controling 5 smart bone actions

Post by Poptoogi »

This is brilliant! I've been trying to figure a way to control head positions of left and right and looking up and down with one bone and this solves it! And in a much simpler way than I thought possible! Freakin awesome!!!!
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