Target bones not moving with my rig

[Allibanos]

Evening all,

I am following the Moho tutorials and in their 8th video I was following this to set up target bones in the feet so I could set it up to have him jump in the air and then land, with his feet flexing. In the 9th video in the series (link below), 40 seconds in, you can see Copper jumping and the target bones stay attached to his feet throughout the jump:

https://youtu.be/WjRY7HB2ito?si=aCsZNFvuT2I292jW

My question is, would Chad (animator giving tutorial) have manually moved the target bones per frame to have them stay with the feet or would they be connected to the feet? I only ask as on my Copper rig my target bones don’t move up and down as I move the rig up and down past frame 0. You can see where he sets this up in the 8th video from 4 minutes 32 seconds:

https://youtu.be/dakH5euAEc8?si=gZRNaZRfxhZr_2Sr

Key points to note from the 8th video are that both main bones in each leg have had ‘Create Smooth Joint For Bone Pair’ applied. Separately for both legs he then selects the three bones, excluding the target bone, and clicks on the Link Bones button.

I am conscious that I want the character to land in the same spot, for simplicity and learning purposes at this point, but I don’t know if he has moved the target bones per frame or if they are sticking to the feet through some additional steps I am not aware of. If you do have to manually move the target bones per frame and want the character to land back in the same spot, what is the easiest and most accurate way to establish where the target bones were first situated before the jump?

Thanks!

[Greenlaw]

I haven't watched those videos but I just animate my target bones with the rig when I want them to continue affecting the character. There are many ways to do this. Here are four examples:

1. Just animate the targets along with the rest of the rig. This is my preferred choice because it's the easiest and fastest method.

Or...

2. Parent the targets to a common 'root' bone and animate the root bone. This moves the entire rig and the target bones along with the common root. (IMO, this is just okay. )

Or...

3. Insert the rig in a Group and position the Layer Origin where you want to animate from, and then animate the Group. I might do this when I need to animate the character flipping in the air or swinging from a rope. Sometimes, I'll nest the rig inside multiple groups, each with its own origin, when the character needs to perform multiple actions that require this. This is typically a shot-specific setup and I wouldn't do this for a rig master project.

Or...

4. Disable the target bones at the moment of jumping. You can do this using the Parent Bone hotkey, which is faster and more intuitive than using the Constraints window. To be honest though, if you're doing this, you may as well use Lock Bone, which is essentially the same technique.

Any of these are valid techniques, and some work better than others in a given situation. Practice each one in a test project to see which works best for you.

Hope this helps.

[Allibanos]

I haven't watched those videos but I just animate my target bones with the rig when I want them to continue affecting the character. There are many ways to do this. Here are four examples:

1. Just animate the targets along with the rest of the rig. This is my preferred choice because it's the easiest and fastest method.

Or...

2. Parent the targets to a common 'root' bone and animate the root bone. This moves the entire rig and the target bones along with the common root. (IMO, this is just okay. )

Or...

3. Insert the rig in a Group and position the Layer Origin where you want to animate from, and then animate the Group. I might do this when I need to animate the character flipping in the air or swinging from a rope.

Or...

4. Disable the target bones at the moment of jumping. You can do this using the Parent Bone hotkey, which is faster and more intuitive than using the Constraints window. To be honest though, if you're doing this, you may as well use Lock Bone, which is essentially the same technique.

Any of these are valid techniques, and some work better than others in a given situation. Practice each one in a test project to see which works best for you.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Greenlaw.

I’ll give these a try and, of course, will have this thread for future reference as well.

I’m finding I’m having to watch and re-watch videos multiple times before the penny drops on how to do something correctly in Moho. Slow progress, but it’s progress.

HNY!