First off, congratulations to @Víctor Paredes on that amazing John Lennon collaboration he did using the Fred Blunt drawing. This is beautiful and very inspiring! I love seeing how many variations of art styles that can be created using the Moho vector tools/brushes. Amazing job Victor!
Arm Rigging Question:
In your very helpful 'making of' video that you posted, I saw that you used two separate arm rigging methods- FK and a Curve.
I want to learn how to set up a similar rig so I can use both rigs too. Do you have any tutorials on this anywhere? How can I set up two arm rigs for the same arm??
I took some snapshots from your video [see below] to show exactly what I am referring too.
I believe what Victor is doing there is parenting the Curver to the Bones. Specifically, he's using Curver to deform the artwork layer and the Bones to deform the Curver. A reason to do this is that, while Curver applies a smoother deformation to the artwork, bones are more easily animated than Curver...at least for an arm anyway.
If you want to use two or more variations of an arm setup within a single character and switch between them, you should use Vitruvian Bones. For example, this Vitruvian Bones will allow you to switch between a standard bones setup, a Bones-Curver hybrid setup like I just described, a Curver-only setup, a Sketch Bones setup, and whatever else you may wish to add.
Thanks so much for your response, DR Greenlaw! That is very helpful and explains why Victor set it up that way.
Using a curver helps explain how to achieve a smooth deformation.
Rubber Hose arms: I'm actually looking for a good solution to set up rubber hose-style arms.- but with the convenience of animating with FK bones. Could Vitruvian bones be that solution?? Or would a setup like Victor's be a better solution??
Also, your comment said: For example, this Vitruvian Bones will allow you to switch between a standard bones setup: Was this comment pointing to something [video or article??]
There are a few ways to do rubber hose arms. Here are four that come to mind:
1. Curver gives you very nice deformations, but it can be tricky to animate by itself.
2. Curver-Bones hybrid, as shown in Victor's demo, gives you more control when the 'hose' needs to follow a general arm structure. The setup does limit you to what the bones are doing, but that's the point. Plus, you can animate the Curver off the bones when you need to.
3. Use Sketch Bones. This one is a favorite because I can literally draw the 'hose' animation in whatever shape I want. For me, this is the most organic approach. I've used it for rubber hose arms in the past, and always for tail animations.
4. Follow Path. I've used this method a few times in the past, but maybe this one is obsolete now because we have Curver? I'll have to think about it.
I used to switch between different arm sub-rigs using Victor's old rig-swap technique, but Vitruvian Bones makes this setup easier and cleaner to animate with. (For example, to switch between regular elbow-joint arm to a rubber hose arm.)
You can combine any of the above. I would experiment with simplified setups, and when you figure out which one suits your needs, apply it to your actual character rig.
Thanks again DR! Very much appreciated. I'll dig into your suggestions as they all sound suitable!
Have you seen any good tutorials outlining the methods you suggested??
