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zon
05-05-2004, 10:09 AM
I recently downloaded the M:A demo and briefly played around with the “T Rex lazy animator 01” rig, which was a joy to use. This is surely how a rig should be i.e. when you move a leg, the body moves accordingly etc. However when I set up a character using the auto-rig feature I notice that the auto- rig is more traditional and doesn’t exhibit the same dynamic abilities as the “lazy animator T-Rex rig” does (is this why it’s called the lazy animator?)

Professionally speaking, which type of rig is preferred? Is it better to have a less dynamic rig so that the animator can control more aspects of it manually, or is it better to have the whole thing set up in such a way that the minimum of work is required to make the model dance and sing? (like the lazy animator rig) If the latter case is true…how difficult is it to rig a dynamic “lazy animator” type set up in messiah? (I am one of those people that want to concentrate on the animation rather than the intricacies of rigging).

I come from lightwave 7.5 which has a similar dynamic rig called “Boxy-Bob” that has, to the best of my knowledge, never seemed to have been exploited by Newtek!

Thanks
Sil3
05-05-2004, 11:55 AM
To be honest, when i first saw a rig like the one from T-Rex Lazy Animator i thought whooooo...great, now i hate that system.

For secondary characters that dont have much showing time, yah its kinda cool cause we can animate it pretty fast, but for main characters or characters where we need total control on how it moves, than this system is not actually all that great. Unless of course we can have a rig where we can disable those auto functions.

To make a rig similar to the T-Rex Lazy one, where the hip always follow when we move a foot, all it needs is a couple of very simple Expressions.

Basically what those rigs have, are expressions that determine that the Hip is always centered between the characters feet. This expressions are really easy, for example:

[TRex_LeftFoot_zpos + TRexRightFoot_zpos]/2

NOTE: syntax is not correct but i dont have messiah open right now and CGtalk puts smiles if i use the real syntax :(



This means that the expression is taking the Z axis position of Left and Right feet and then dividing that value by 2, so it always stays in the midle of booth feet .

Now to have some more control on where the Hips are gonna stay, lets say u want to have this kinda setup but sometimes u need to foward a foot and want the character to stay in the same place, we can make it two ways, one is to embed this control right into the HIP, we create a new Control and add it to the expression, something like:


[TRex_LeftFoot_zpos + TRexRightFoot_zpos]/2 + HIP_Extra_Control_zpos

Now u place your character foot wherever u want, and use that extra HIP Control to adjust the Z position of its Hips.

Another way is to have this HIP control has a "ghost", it means that u make the same expression u did for the real HIP, but this time this new Control doesnt add anything to the character, its just there as a visual representation of where the Hips would be, so u can then move the real HIP to match the position of the "ghost" Hip Control object.


I hope it made sense
FB_Turbine
05-05-2004, 01:29 PM
For the most part I agree with Sil3, but I do like the lazy animator way for blocking out basic animation quickly. What’s being described here is part of what fb_waistcontrol does. It provides automated positioning and rotation for the waist based on some controls for the feet. For main characters that are a focus of the scene I typically will block out the animation using the lazy animators approach, drop some keys on the waist then disable the effect, which is much easier then having a whole bunch or expressions setup to do the controlling. For secondary/background characters it is often possible to just leave the effect in place and not worry about it since the viewers focus is somewhere else.

Fb_waistcontrol also adds a lot of functionality that is either difficult or too complicated to deal with in script. While there are some limitations I’m gotten far more functionality for dealing with rotations, child items, proxy objects and reverse foot setups then I was ever able to get from expressions or script.
Julez4001
05-05-2004, 04:45 PM
I have always had problems setting the auto foot pitch as the leg is lifted. Then when one does get it working, the driven animatedstuff needs to baked and/or turned off.
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