Multiple tenticle rig

[alfiebabes]

hello John,
I had a quick look at your file (may come in usefull with squirrel tails) but clicking on the link opened up the file as a word / I.E. file?
You know when you open your file in a text editor to do things with it? Did you zip the file up?

[John Keates]

Thats odd, it works for me. Are you right clicking and saving?

[chikega]

I downloaded and opened it up in A:M 10.5 - cool rigging there John. Thanks for posting the project file for us to take a peak.:)

[John Keates]

Originally posted by chikega
I downloaded and opened it up in A:M 10.5 - cool rigging there John. Thanks for posting the project file for us to take a peak.:)

Hope yo find it usefull ;)

[Wil]

hi john,

its a nice rig!!
i tried the same, first also with dynamic constraints, but that was too uncontrollable for me.
so i decided to create a rig with standard contraints and lag.
i wanted also to controll the movement of the tantacle with pose sliders. i used for that expressions.
here is the project file:

tentacle.zip (http://www.soulcage-department.de/tentacle.zip)

i hope you like it.

[John Keates]

Hi Will,

I like yours also!! I particularly like the way that you can change the speed etc with pose sliders.

I can see myself using a similar technique instead of dynamic constraints which seem to have limitations at the moment. I am hoping that they will be improved and have sent in a number of requests for this. Joe W was trying to drum up enthusiasm for this earlier.

I have a lot of tenticles on my creature and I need them all seperate sizes so I am making my model with bones to which the tenticles will be constrained afterwards in a chor. The idea is to have them scale like the bones to which they are constrained so that I can set their size in a pose. This would mean that I could replace the tenticles at a later date and not have to size them all again.

I would like a number of these beasts though so I am thinking that I might try to export the chor as a model. Can you forsee any problems with this?

I have tried having the tenticles as action objects but I had problems using many instances of the same model and setting constraints to them.

Any help much appreciated.

Ps. I love the work that you guys are doing.

[Wil]

hi john,

you want also to constrain a bone chain to a controller bone or null and use that controller to scale the bone chain, right?
if so, here´s a project file that demonstrates that.

2tentacles-scale.zip (http://www.soulcage-department.de/2tentacles-scale.zip)

there are 2 nulls that control the scale of the bone chains. if you scale one of the nulls the bones will scale in the same way. all is done in a choreography. you can also add additional contraints to the bones (tranlate to, orient like, etc...)

i used an expression on the first bones of the chain (bone1 and bone4). that expression tells the bones to scale in Z-direction like the null.

i hope this will help you out.

if you want to "composite" your model in a choreography, i don´t know what will happen with the bones and contraints when you save the model out of the choreography. just try.

[John Keates]

Hi Will

Wow, you are one helpfull fellow!

I have had some sucess in using the scale like coonstraint to change the scale of the chain. What would be the advantage of using expressions?

Also, I am finding it hard to control the chain when the null is scaled. I am using v11 Beta.

I will report my findings when I try compositing my model later.

[John Keates]

Ok, I tested the process and found that the constraints were not baked into the new model. I could use the technique to scale the tenticles but this wouldn't be hard to do anyway and it would mean loosing all the constraints that I have made so far (there are a lot of them).

I guess I will just have to attach the tenticles for each instance and save the choriography. That is unless you can think of something else?

Oh, whilst we are here. Is there an easy/fast way to transfer constraints from one side of the model to the next. I can handle the copying of the bones but making constraints is a pain.

EDIT: At least the ability to scale the tenticles by having them scale like the place holder bones do in a pose works.

[John Keates]

STOP PRESS!!

I just noticed that a whole load of extra dynamic constraint optoins have been added to v11 Beta!

I am off to check them out...

[chikega]

Boy, this is getting good ... :)

[Bugle]

Originally posted by John Keates

Oh, whilst we are here. Is there an easy/fast way to transfer constraints from one side of the model to the next. I can handle the copying of the bones but making constraints is a pain.


Chorography>add a second instance of model>scale -100 in X axis, rename to left & right">export as model & then open in text file to repair the damage.

Does work... although it's a while since I did it, can't remember if I did it at the smartskinning or constraints phase

[John Keates]

Originally posted by Bugle
Chorography>add a second instance of model>scale -100 in X axis, rename to left & right">export as model & then open in text file to repair the damage.

Does work... although it's a while since I did it, can't remember if I did it at the smartskinning or constraints phase

I have tried this in v10.5 and v11 with no luck. The constraints don't get carried across.

Looks like I had better put some music on and get down to it.

[Bugle]

Sorry, been a while since I tried it.

BTW, be careful with your project, it starts as harmless rigging practice but it can end up like this (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=124611)

:)

[John Keates]

Originally posted by Bugle
Sorry, been a while since I tried it.


Thats OK. Actually, It is quite good that I am constructing the thing in the chor. as this means that I can change the shortcuts for the tenticles. The dynamic constraints are real slow when there are loads of them.

Originally posted by Bugle
BTW, be careful with your project, it starts as harmless rigging practice but it can end up like this (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=124611)

:) [/B]

He he, I have to say that I feel a little like that trying to manage all those tenticles - 39 in total. It is a great image actually.

By the way, here are some of the things that they have added to the dynamic constraints:

The ability to have the end of the constraint attach to a null or bone so you can make a skipping rope or whatever.

The ability to have the constraint apply befor the action so you can tweek the movement post simulation.

The ability to set up a cyclic movement that wiggles the chain periodically.

Drag, so you can slow the chain down.

A choice as to weather the DC is effected by gravity or forces.

The ability to set your own gravity type force for x,y,z.

The ability to set an angle limit on the bones in the chain.

Collision detection

Some other stuff that I don't really understand.

It is a well fleshed out feature now. I think that it may need some tweeking here and there but having said that, I don't fully understand all the options so maybe possible to get all that I want with more fiddling.

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