Calling Cactus_Dan and Sanciok.

[bobzilla]

Have you tried the dino rig? That has center hips AND you can move the hips in Z which is normally not possible, but I can't figure out how to do it myself.

[danb]

Yep i tried the Dino, Bird, and BIPED. The Biped and Dino rigs have the same expression. The Bird doesn't.

[Cactus Dan]

Howdy,

To set up the center hips for IKBob assign these objects to the nodes:
http://www.cactus3d.com/IKBobCentHip.jpg

To make IKBob an adjustable rig like Sanciok's biped rig, you can actually wire a switch in Xpresso to all of the "Keep Bones Connected" and "Keep Next Connected" switches of all of the expressions used. Once these switches have been activated, you can then just select a bone and use it's "Orange Handle" to adjust the length of the bone, or use the scroll arrows in the AM. As long as the expression's "Keep Next Connected" is activated, when you move the Orange Handle, the next bone chain stays connected to the tip of the previous bone chain, so it gets pushed out when you lengthen the bone and pulled in when you shorten the bone.

What kind of poping are you refering to? What system are you running the demo on. When I animated the Fish Rig, it was real jerky in the viewport (R8.5 running on an iMac 1GHz G4) but when I rendered a preview it was nice and smooth.

Adios,
Cactus Dan

[Stray]

Hey Y'all,
For a quickie override on the center hips thingy. Just place another null as a child under the object you have the center hips expression on.

Then place everything that was under the center hips expression into the override null.You should make the null appear as something easy to select. Like a cube.

This way you wil be able to have the auto hip center to work normally as it does but are not stuck with the centering properties of auto hip. Simply just grab the override null and animate it to shift your characters weight...

Cheers
-Danny

[danb]

Thanks Cactus_Dan that is how i setup the center hips expression. Also thanks for the hint about the "Keep Next Connected" switches. That is going to be real usefull.


I knew i was close with thinking that the extra null had something to do with overiding the center hips xpression. Thanks Stray.

Again thanks guys i will probably buy the plugin before this month's out. I really like all the tools.

One other thing. I was sampling the Visual Selector plugin with C4D r9 and CDIK tools. I can't move the finger expressions from CDIK Tools into the Visual Selector display. Those little finger and thumb expression tags are hard to find. Does anyone have any advice for making the finger and thumb expressions easier to find? Would it be possible for you to program this functionality into CDIKTools, Cactus_Dan? Or would that be something that Paul Everette would have to do?

[Cactus Dan]

Howdy,

One other thing. I was sampling the Visual Selector plugin with C4D r9 and CDIK tools. I can't move the finger expressions from CDIK Tools into the Visual Selector display. Those little finger and thumb expression tags are hard to find. Does anyone have any advice for making the finger and thumb expressions easier to find? Would it be possible for you to program this functionality into CDIKTools, Cactus_Dan? Or would that be something that Paul Everette would have to do?

Well, I don't have Visual Selector, yet, so I'm assuming it only works on objects and not expressions. One of the things that I'm planning on adding to CD IK Tools (as an update) will be a Hand Controller object where the user can drop all of the hand's Finger and Thumb expressions into a link and have access to all the sliders at once. Being an object, it would then be available for Visual Selector. Also it would be available for use as the Arm's tip goal. It might be a little while before I get that one done, though. For now, you can create User Data sliders on the Arm Controller object and wire them into the Finger and Thumb expression's sliders via Xpresso. Then add the Arm Controller to Visual Selector. Just make sure you set the type of data to Degrees, and note the upper and lower limits of the sliders on the expressions and set those same limits on the User Data sliders, or you might get some strange results. I haven't tried this yet but it should work fine.

The CD IK Tools 1.1 update with the auto Setup tool will be released soon (free to registered users).

Adios,
Cactus Dan

[Cactus Dan]

Howdy,

Hey Y'all,
For a quickie override on the center hips thingy. Just place another null as a child under the object you have the center hips expression on.

Then place everything that was under the center hips expression into the override null.You should make the null appear as something easy to select. Like a cube.

This way you wil be able to have the auto hip center to work normally as it does but are not stuck with the centering properties of auto hip. Simply just grab the override null and animate it to shift your characters weight...

Cheers
-Danny

Yeah, good point Stray! This technique (parenting) is very important when character rigging and should be emphasized more often, especially when it comes to Global versus Local rotations.

Adios,
Cactus Dan

[danb]

Thanks Cactus_Dan that update sounds really good. I had thought about using your work around when i first tried to move the expressions to visual selector. That is a nice and easy enough fix.

When you talk about the auto setup tool what exactly do you mean? Do you mean Sanciok's way of setting up bones or the hand object which holds the finger expressions?

Can't wait to see what is in store for CDIKTools.

[Cactus Dan]

Howdy,

When you talk about the auto setup tool what exactly do you mean? Do you mean Sanciok's way of setting up bones or the hand object which holds the finger expressions?

The Setup tool is basically like the Mocca setup tool, but specifically for use with CD IK Tools expressions. The user selects the first bone in a chain, then selects what kind of expression to set up for that bone chain and the Setup tool does the rest.

Here's a sneak peek of the GUI:
http://www.cactus3d.com/SetupGUI.jpg

This tool will make setting up the simple basic rig go much faster, especially for existing characters that have already been boned and weighted. Of course, the more customized advanced control setups will still have to be done manually (every animator has their own style when it comes to the more advanced control setups). But, this new tool will get you to that point very quickly.

Adios,
Cactus Dan

[danb]

Oh ok looks good. Will be ordering my copy shortly i think. Any more goodies due out for the update?

[Cactus Dan]

Howdy,

Any more goodies due out for the update?

For this update it's just the new additional tool and a few minor optimizations. I have a lot of ideas for many other additions. I just need to get them from idea to code.

Adios,
Cactus Dan

[danb]

Sounds good i will be waiting patiently, I hope.

[CGTalk Moderation]

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.