Newbie - Bendy Bones

[tjnyc]

Sorry, but I got to ask something simple, do you have the two bones at an angle or are they straight. If they are straight then that is the problem.

[ThomasHelzle]

It is always the best to post the scenefile as a .mpj so people can have a look. Nobody can guess what you may have done unintentionally to make this happen.
Sure messiah can do this >LOL<

[jonwalker]

Hi Tjnyc/Thomas,

The bones were straight but I gave them a slight angle and they still aren't 'bending'. I'm sure it's something really simple. I've tried to find an 'enable bendy bones' button but can't anywhere. :)

I've uploaded the scene here:
http://imagic.fileburst.com/users/TestBones.mpj

If you can take a look that would be great, thanks.

Jon

[ThomasHelzle]

As I thought, the solution was very easy:
- You need something at the end of your IK chain, in messiah I normally use a Null object.
- You need to enable "calculate IK" and select a goal for this terminating object or "endeffector" how it is called ...

Thats it :-)

Download it here:
http://www.screendream.de/stuff/TestBonesFixed.mpj

[jonwalker]

Hi Thomas,

That works, fantastic thanks! :thumbsup:

It looks like the documentation maybe wrong, I checked again over "Creating your first scene" in the help file and there is no mention of terminating nulls. Indeed it says you can just set the IK on the bone itself. Which makes more logical sense than creating extra Nulls for the IK.

Thanks, Jon

[cousin it]

The docs aren't wrong. The item that ends an IK chain can be a bone or a null depending on your personal preference.

[ThomasHelzle]

The docs aren't wrong. The item that ends an IK chain can be a bone or a null depending on your personal preference.

In fact it can be anything, even a light or a camera, messiah doesn't care :-)
In real life, I would recommend Null Objects though, since they don't deform your mesh - adding a small bone to the end of the chain works, but is adding an influence factor you may not always want. Use Nulls :-)

[jrsunshine]

Just a point of clarification...

If you set the SLIP value to 1.0 on a bone it will NOT influence the mesh. So, using a NULL or a bone with SLIP = 1.0 is identical.

[ThomasHelzle]

Just a point of clarification...

If you set the SLIP value to 1.0 on a bone it will NOT influence the mesh. So, using a NULL or a bone with SLIP = 1.0 is identical.

Yeah, but why do that?
Use a Null and you don't have to think about it anymore.
Or is there anything I miss about using bones that makes them superior? :shrug:

[jonwalker]

I've played with the Null terminator and it works ok. What I don't understand is why it doesn't work with a bone in my original post.

In my original project I made the bone a terminator (as per the Messiah docs tutorial) and it didn't work. That is, it wouldn't bend the bones at the joint. I'd be interested to know why, any ideas?

My project can be downloaded from:

http://imagic.fileburst.com/users/TestBones.mpj

Regards, Jon

[jrsunshine]

Nope. I don't think you missed anything about bones. I am new to messiah and using the SLIP on a bone was the way I learned (from Joe Cosmans tuts).

[MoodyB]

I've played with the Null terminator and it works ok. What I don't understand is why it doesn't work with a bone in my original post.

In my original project I made the bone a terminator (as per the Messiah docs tutorial) and it didn't work. That is, it wouldn't bend the bones at the joint. I'd be interested to know why, any ideas?



Your original project didn't work because you only had 2 bones in the IK chain :

From the Messiah docs, under General Info - IK ( Inverse Kinematics ) :

" IK chains need to have three or more items in order to work; for example, three bones or two bones and a null at the end "

If you haven't been through the ' Start Here ' section of the documentation, then I'd do that before following the other tutorials, etc.... It's very well written and laid out, easy to follow and contains plenty of useful hints and tips for working with Messiah, especially iin the 2 ' Learn It Once ' sections.

Hope this helps :)

[jonwalker]

Hi ALan,

You're the man! That works, thanks. :)

Regards, Jon

[paragonent]

jonwalker: hi man...in the messiah docs u have the simplest and basic IK setup using...2 bones:) try that! and then check the Legs setup witch is very simple to understand and if u break down to p[ieces u'll understand exactly an IK leg setup (i did that:))))

[jonwalker]

Hi Cyrus,

Thanks for the encourgement! :) I think I've pretty much got it working now. The trick was that you can't create an IK with only two objects, you need at least three otherwise it dosen't quite work.

Apart from some odd little quirks I'm really enjoying Messiah. Usually learning new software is a chore, but with the instant feedback this is fun. :)

Regards, Jon

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