CGTalk - Moving a fully rigged character?

View Full Version : Moving a fully rigged character?

Jon Jones

12-12-2003, 01:07 AM

I searched through the archives here and everything people have mentioned to try so far hasnt worked for me.

I'm trying to move a character approximately five feet off to the side and keep his animations intact. Not a walk cycle, I just need him to stand somewhere else while his upper body animates. I've tried selecting every single item in the scene (model, skeleton, IK handles and pole vectors) and moving it manually, but everything moves at a different rate. For every 1 foot I move the skeleton, for example, the body will move 10 feet, and the IK handles will move 20, and so on.

I did find a way to move the model by selecting the first skeleton root below the primary skeleton root and then the IK handles and pole vectors, but the animation is destroyed when this happens.

I've also tried parenting everything to a small object and moving that object, but all that accomplishes is the first problem where all objects move at different rates and destroys everything.

Can anyone help me? This can't honestly be this difficult, can it?

john_homer

12-12-2003, 03:18 AM

moving everything is..... bad.

because you will have stuff parented to stuff... so you get what is comonly refered to as double deformation/transforamtions... which basically means, (in this case) you are moving a parent and the child, so the child moves because its parent is moving (as it should) then it is moving again because you are translating it.

its hard to tell you what to move without seeing the rig...

there is generally a node at the top of the control rig...

PM me if you like, I'll give you my email and take a quick look at it...
.j

misterdi

12-12-2003, 03:47 AM

Yes as john_homer said, it is a sign of double transformation.

Without looking at your rig it will be a bit difficult to find the problems.

Usually instead of parenting, I'll use grouping. Or in case I need to see the transform node, locator could be used as parent.

Watch out for any deformer if you group/parenting your rig. The one that you need to group is the control object not the deform object.

For a simple example create a sphere, bind it to a skeleton, create an IK for the skeleton.

If you want to move it away from current position what you should group will be the skeleton and IK handle only, don't include the sphere.

Jon Jones

12-12-2003, 05:08 PM

Thanks for the replies, guys!

Unfortunately, since this is for work, I can't show you the file, but I have been able to find the root of the skeleton that will actually move everything in non-stupid way. I'm thinking I'll probably just start with doing that, but that leads me to another question:

After moving the model, how can I alter all the subsequent keyframes to adjust their position to the new location? Any way I can automate or at least simplify that?

john_homer

12-15-2003, 12:12 AM

move the keyframes rather than the root node.. if your cahracter is already keyed, then moving the root, will just change/set a keyframe on that frame....

you can do it easy in the graph editor, by selecting the entire curve, and typing +=5 (to move all keyframes 5 units) inthe "value" field....

you must type it "over" the current value, dont delete the value then type it...
.j

CGTalk Moderation

01-16-2006, 10:00 PM

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.