The Mad Professor!
Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger
Re: The Mad Professor!
Woohooo!
I finally got a perfect full body turn with proper arm "swapping".
My original solution involved moving the arm bones "back and forth", the left arm becomes the right arm, the right becomes left. It was awkward and not a good solution. It just seemed the only way. I also had an overly complicated process to turn the body that required a layer order and switch layer change in the main time line. I moved that to the body turn switch so the process is one step. What I did before would be to turn the body to the side.... then set the body switch to the "back" body, and reverse the smart bone body turn in the opposite direction.
The NEW body turn smart bone now goes the full turn from front to back with out having to do anything else (except layer order which is handled with another smart bone explained later).
Anyway, I got the full body turn in both directions with one smart bone almost done. I've got one complete turn to one side, and now have to replicate that for the opposite turn.
In the new turn, instead of going back and forth, I have the arm bones go all the way across to the other side, so the left stays left, right stays right and they cross at the center or "side" view. The problem I had originally was that I had created bicep smart bones for the left and right shoulders for the body layers. If the arms switch sides, then those smart bones were incorrect.... that was just stupid silly... I had to think outside of the box. I simply "swapped" the smart bone points so that the left bicep smart bone controlled the "right" shoulder points of just the back body points and vice versa. When the arms switch places the bicep bones move the correct points. This works because the back body switch is always "reversed" anyway. The bones controlling the points can stay the same as the front. Only the bicep smart bones had to be swapped. Of course the front body switch was fine as it was and didn't need changes.
Layer Order Smart Bone Solution
I was also able to put all of the layer ordering I need in a single smart bone. I did this so that I could control layer ordering more easily when doing the body turns. I no longer have to do any layer ordering "by hand" in the main time line. I have a smart bone with all of the different layer order keys I need for the body at different angles and set that bone with step keys.
For example:
Arms in front of body and head
Arms behind body
Left arm behind body, left forearm in front of body
etc etc etc
I have a bunch of these and they all fit fine in a single smart bone rotation. I don't have to worry about "resetting" a bunch of different layer order smart bones. They are all in one bone and I just set step keys so I can "jump" to any layer order combo I need.
This sounds like it might be confusing but it actually works AWESOME!!!! I discovered that there are only a fixed number of really needed layer order combinations and I have just been adding new ones to the "layer order bone dial" as needed. I am going to create a "dial" type of system on the layer order bone with markers of some kind to indicate the layer order angles.
Layer order keys are a PAIN to manage in the main time line. By doing all that set up ahead of time in the mart bone there are no layer order keys in the main timeline to deal with and the smart bone handles it perfectly. I can easily change the order I need right in the top bone layer. Set up is a bit of a pain but in reality I would have to deal with that "confusion" anyway in the main timeline and it's much harder to change those keys. Doing it this way really streamlines the animation process. For example in a turn there is a combination of layer order changes that have to take place, head, neck, body, arms, etc. By putting this specific layer order combination in the smart bone I can do this layer ordering with one bone rotation key instead of dragging a bunch of layers around every time I do a turn or hunting down a specific layer order key and copying and pasting it. With the smart bone I know exactly which angle has the layer order I need and can access it quick and easy.
Will have some more animation samples soon.
I finally got a perfect full body turn with proper arm "swapping".
My original solution involved moving the arm bones "back and forth", the left arm becomes the right arm, the right becomes left. It was awkward and not a good solution. It just seemed the only way. I also had an overly complicated process to turn the body that required a layer order and switch layer change in the main time line. I moved that to the body turn switch so the process is one step. What I did before would be to turn the body to the side.... then set the body switch to the "back" body, and reverse the smart bone body turn in the opposite direction.
The NEW body turn smart bone now goes the full turn from front to back with out having to do anything else (except layer order which is handled with another smart bone explained later).
Anyway, I got the full body turn in both directions with one smart bone almost done. I've got one complete turn to one side, and now have to replicate that for the opposite turn.
In the new turn, instead of going back and forth, I have the arm bones go all the way across to the other side, so the left stays left, right stays right and they cross at the center or "side" view. The problem I had originally was that I had created bicep smart bones for the left and right shoulders for the body layers. If the arms switch sides, then those smart bones were incorrect.... that was just stupid silly... I had to think outside of the box. I simply "swapped" the smart bone points so that the left bicep smart bone controlled the "right" shoulder points of just the back body points and vice versa. When the arms switch places the bicep bones move the correct points. This works because the back body switch is always "reversed" anyway. The bones controlling the points can stay the same as the front. Only the bicep smart bones had to be swapped. Of course the front body switch was fine as it was and didn't need changes.
Layer Order Smart Bone Solution
I was also able to put all of the layer ordering I need in a single smart bone. I did this so that I could control layer ordering more easily when doing the body turns. I no longer have to do any layer ordering "by hand" in the main time line. I have a smart bone with all of the different layer order keys I need for the body at different angles and set that bone with step keys.
For example:
Arms in front of body and head
Arms behind body
Left arm behind body, left forearm in front of body
etc etc etc
I have a bunch of these and they all fit fine in a single smart bone rotation. I don't have to worry about "resetting" a bunch of different layer order smart bones. They are all in one bone and I just set step keys so I can "jump" to any layer order combo I need.
This sounds like it might be confusing but it actually works AWESOME!!!! I discovered that there are only a fixed number of really needed layer order combinations and I have just been adding new ones to the "layer order bone dial" as needed. I am going to create a "dial" type of system on the layer order bone with markers of some kind to indicate the layer order angles.
Layer order keys are a PAIN to manage in the main time line. By doing all that set up ahead of time in the mart bone there are no layer order keys in the main timeline to deal with and the smart bone handles it perfectly. I can easily change the order I need right in the top bone layer. Set up is a bit of a pain but in reality I would have to deal with that "confusion" anyway in the main timeline and it's much harder to change those keys. Doing it this way really streamlines the animation process. For example in a turn there is a combination of layer order changes that have to take place, head, neck, body, arms, etc. By putting this specific layer order combination in the smart bone I can do this layer ordering with one bone rotation key instead of dragging a bunch of layers around every time I do a turn or hunting down a specific layer order key and copying and pasting it. With the smart bone I know exactly which angle has the layer order I need and can access it quick and easy.
Will have some more animation samples soon.
Re: The Mad Professor!
Wow , nice work Vern, you are really taking advantage of the smart bones and effect features.
It has that unique AS look and showing some of its most powerful capabilities.
It has that unique AS look and showing some of its most powerful capabilities.
Re: The Mad Professor!
This sound awesome!!
I'm looking forward to se what you have come up with, will you make a tutorial for the "Layer ordering dial" ?
I'm looking forward to se what you have come up with, will you make a tutorial for the "Layer ordering dial" ?
Re: The Mad Professor!
Well, Lots of work on this guy. A lot of the work is writing scripts to make smart bone creation easier.
I created a script for mirroring points for symmetrical mesh shapes that works fine for now.
Now I am testing out a new script for mirroring KEYS for all animation channels.
This was created specifically for smart bones but would work in any situation where you want to "reverse" keys.
How this started was a slight "mistake" I made when creating the full head and body turns on the Mad Professor. I did a full turn from front to back, keying the points by hand to get it looking right. Moving points on all the layers to create the 360 turn. To do both directions of the turn I used my Mirror Symmetrical points script. Worked great.
The mistake I made was where and why I "split" the turn. I was looking at this turn and realized a simple missing feature. I had a full 360 turn all the way to the back view of the character. All the keys were there for a full 360 turn, but they were "stuck" in two different smart bone actions with that smart bone rotating in opposite directions. I could turn right all the way to the back. I could turn left all the way to the back.
But supposing I wanted a back view of the character turning smoothly left and right, talking to an audience for example. Can't do a smooth turn because smart bone turns are "absolute" cumulative rotations. My right turn, front to back is the first smart bone action that goes from 0 to 180. Left turn is 0 to -180. I'm stuck at either 180 or -180 with no smooth transition for the back view turn left and right. I can put in a single bone rotation key right next to another key and "jump" to the opposite rotation to continue the turn in the opposite direction but then there is a "bump" and it's not smooth.
I suddenly realized I could simply put the FULL 360 turn in BOTH left and right actions. The right full 360 turn would go from 0 to 360, the full left turn would go from 0 to -360 and they wouldn't conflict at all.
At this point I realized it would be possible to copy those keys that already existed "by hand", but it would be a pain in the arse. This is a job for scripting! It was all very simple math to reverse the keys. Much faster to script it then to do it by hand.
Basically the script uses the last key of the smart bone action as the "center" of the flip. I simply subtract the key frame number on the "left side" from the center frame number and then add that result to the center frame number to get the reversed side frame number and insert a copy of that key frame. BINGO BANGO! Flipped reversed keys!
Currently it's a bit limited and kind of buggy. I need to add in all the layer channels; flip, layer order, blur, etc etc. I also want to run the script so it will reverse keys fro ALL layers with smart bone keys, and an option to simply reverse the keys without a center frame so you could reverse an entire range of keys in the main time line if you wanted to. This would mean a total automation of creating reversed smart bone actions of symmetrically drawn characters (still has to be symmetrical). With one script I will be able to create a matching opposite action for a head turn or whatever. This will really speed things up. Nice smooth head turns are difficult and time consuming but we all still like them for some reason... if this can make it ten times faster to do it will be much more fun.
Ultimately this will also do matching smart bones for left and right limbs as well.
I am excited!!!!
I created a script for mirroring points for symmetrical mesh shapes that works fine for now.
Now I am testing out a new script for mirroring KEYS for all animation channels.
This was created specifically for smart bones but would work in any situation where you want to "reverse" keys.
How this started was a slight "mistake" I made when creating the full head and body turns on the Mad Professor. I did a full turn from front to back, keying the points by hand to get it looking right. Moving points on all the layers to create the 360 turn. To do both directions of the turn I used my Mirror Symmetrical points script. Worked great.
The mistake I made was where and why I "split" the turn. I was looking at this turn and realized a simple missing feature. I had a full 360 turn all the way to the back view of the character. All the keys were there for a full 360 turn, but they were "stuck" in two different smart bone actions with that smart bone rotating in opposite directions. I could turn right all the way to the back. I could turn left all the way to the back.
But supposing I wanted a back view of the character turning smoothly left and right, talking to an audience for example. Can't do a smooth turn because smart bone turns are "absolute" cumulative rotations. My right turn, front to back is the first smart bone action that goes from 0 to 180. Left turn is 0 to -180. I'm stuck at either 180 or -180 with no smooth transition for the back view turn left and right. I can put in a single bone rotation key right next to another key and "jump" to the opposite rotation to continue the turn in the opposite direction but then there is a "bump" and it's not smooth.
I suddenly realized I could simply put the FULL 360 turn in BOTH left and right actions. The right full 360 turn would go from 0 to 360, the full left turn would go from 0 to -360 and they wouldn't conflict at all.
At this point I realized it would be possible to copy those keys that already existed "by hand", but it would be a pain in the arse. This is a job for scripting! It was all very simple math to reverse the keys. Much faster to script it then to do it by hand.
Basically the script uses the last key of the smart bone action as the "center" of the flip. I simply subtract the key frame number on the "left side" from the center frame number and then add that result to the center frame number to get the reversed side frame number and insert a copy of that key frame. BINGO BANGO! Flipped reversed keys!
Currently it's a bit limited and kind of buggy. I need to add in all the layer channels; flip, layer order, blur, etc etc. I also want to run the script so it will reverse keys fro ALL layers with smart bone keys, and an option to simply reverse the keys without a center frame so you could reverse an entire range of keys in the main time line if you wanted to. This would mean a total automation of creating reversed smart bone actions of symmetrically drawn characters (still has to be symmetrical). With one script I will be able to create a matching opposite action for a head turn or whatever. This will really speed things up. Nice smooth head turns are difficult and time consuming but we all still like them for some reason... if this can make it ten times faster to do it will be much more fun.
Ultimately this will also do matching smart bones for left and right limbs as well.
I am excited!!!!
Re: The Mad Professor!
I must read this a few times to fully understand all that you say Vern. I made a similar error when I made a hand rig designed to turn and assume as many positions as possible. When I get back from holiday I might share that with you, I'm sure it will be of interest, you will see where it works great and where it falls apart.
You will probably know exactly what to do make it fully functional.
You will probably know exactly what to do make it fully functional.
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djwaterman
- Posts: 292
- Joined: Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:36 am
- Location: Sydney
Re: The Mad Professor!
You are really inovating and discovering things that may become common practice for a lot of AS users in future.
Re: The Mad Professor!
Wow, this is pretty cool. Nice turns and movement.