Squash and Stretch

[maks]

The easiest way top set up squash and stretch, without any expression needed, are muscle bones. You could create a hierarchy out of nulls and stick muscle bones between the nulls. This way you can S&S the individual joints by moving a joint (null) along the bone's axis, instead of rotating it. :)

[My Fault]

Interesting idea maks, I'll give it a go.

[My Fault]

I must just be the dumbest person on the planet as I am still not getting this. I tried setting up an IK leg using nulls and muscle bones inbetween. When I pull the IKHandle too far away the bones do not stretch. So I then added an IKTel on top so it would and that did work, sort of. The problem then becomes that the whole chain stretches waaaay out and past the actual IK Handle.

Here's the scene (http://www.briannicolucci.com/SandSTest-02.fxs)

Anyhelp would be appreciated. I am sure I am missing something super easy but right now my poor addled brain just ain't gettin it. :)

[JoeCosman]

your muscle bones need to be children of the main skeleton. i.e. hipnull, kneenull, and ankleNull are the heirarchy for IK. hipMuscle and kneeMuscle are children of their respective nulls, that way, there is no double transform. so if you need to squash knee, you can move it along Z to squash it.

[maks]

The muscle target can't be a child of the muscle at the same time, or you get double transformation, as Joe said. I attached a modified scene, where I also added another Null to the end of the chain for the telescopic IK to work, because the last element in the chain doesn't expand with it. Hope this helps :)

[My Fault]

Aaaah, so clear now. Huge thanks to both of you for that. Slowly my brain, complete with it's 4 working brain cells LOL, is starting to grasp this. I kept looking at ways to reset the null in between so it's scale would negate the double transform when I should have been using my noggin more. For some reason I keep think that I need to be way more complex to do things in messiah when I really just need to understand better how it works. Joe's tutorial CD's have been a big help so far, now when do we get some maks CD's? :)

[maks]

Joe's tutorial CD's have been a big help so far, now when do we get some maks CD's? :)

:scream: Seriously, I'd make one if I had the time and concentration... :rolleyes: Well, who knows, maybe one day... ;)

[My Fault]

:scream: Seriously, I'd make one if I had the time and concentration... :rolleyes: Well, who knows, maybe one day... ;)

Well I'll keep my credit card taped to my hand just in case you do :scream:

I know Joe's CD's have been an enormous help in making messiah much more useable to me. I am able to work through many more issues then before because of the better understanding I have of the program thanks to him. I hate getting stuck like I did on this S&S issue, makes me feel like a complete moron but I suppose I would rather look like a moron for a short while and eventually understand this stuff then stay a moron :)

[maks]

You don't have to feel like a moron, you know, we all ran across such problems one way or another ;) Btw, entertaining read on your AM blog :) So, do you think that this school is worth its money?

[DMack]

A Maks tutorial DVD going over concepts of rigging (eg double transforms etc, organisation, tips and tricks) would certainly get an order from me.....Maybe you and Thomas and Joe should do a joint effort full DVD set for Messiah Animate.....Definitely get an order from me ;) The LW set were brilliant...even when I'd been using the program for a while it still brought things up that made me go 'aaahh'.

[DMack]

Maks, a quickie....How long did the facial rig take?

[maks]

Difficult to tell, since I built it upon an already existing rig. But I'd say around 4 days from scratch, including writing and modifying scripts (wich is an area where I still learn as well)...

[My Fault]

You don't have to feel like a moron, you know, we all ran across such problems one way or another ;) Btw, entertaining read on your AM blog :) So, do you think that this school is worth its money?

Thanks man! And AM is absolutely worth it. I have learned a ton so far, met a heap of great people, gotten a lot of great contacts, learned that Bobby Beck has more energy then most small cities, etc. Awesome stuff!

[Robken]

I just rigged a bird's neck with SandS.

I just used 2 expressions and a slider.


first I multiply the zscale of the bone with the value of the slider + 0.015 (just because, if the slider reaches 0, the squash and stretch would freak out.
then I equal that epression to the Y and X scale of the bone

[bone:zscale]*(([Slider:xpos])+0.015)
= [bone:xscale]
= [bone:yscale]

this basically makes sure, that the x and y scale always get less when the slider decreases. and they get less by the value of the slider, multiplied with Zscale

then to control the zscale, I just take the current value of the Zscale, and I divide it by the value of the slider, then feed this value into the zscale.

[bone:zscale]/(([Slider:xpos])+0.015)
x [bone:zscale]




It worked for me :)

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