rotating bones to curl?

[whtnoise]

wire all the bones in a heirarchial fashion to a controller (some sort of helper or dummy) with custom attributes. write divisionary expressions in the wire parameter dialog box that split the rotation down the chain based on the first bone's rotation.

[gundog]

go to www.scriptspot.com and take a look at Rotate Chain 1.1 by Shawn Lewis.

[thedaemon]

thanks both of you! Gundog, for somereason the script has an error, it says "-- Type error: startTool requires MouseTool, got:undefined"

so it wont work :(

whtnoise, I will try your method now, although it has a little moreset up than I was hoping ;)

EDIT: whtnoise, it worked and wasnt too hard. Thanks lots. Maybe I will figure out how to make this a script ;)
I just ran into a 'problem', when I setup this wireing, now I cannot just select the bone and rotate it by itself.:surprised Any workarounds for this?

[whtnoise]

for character rigging 'inside 3ds max 4' by kim lee is a really good book. my brother co-wrote a chapter on rigging for broadcast production applications and explains the process in detail. if you have any questions or problems let me know if i can help!

[whtnoise]

p.s. i know it's a bit of a complicated setup, but as far as i know this is prolly the easiest setup in max to get this kind of movement. there's no type of hierichial rotation function like here is in maya.

[whtnoise]

sorry bout that, you have to add a rotation float list controller thru the animation tab in the command panel or trackview to the top-level of the rotation control. under the list add a euler xyz controller and then create your wire parameters. this gives a weigted control between explicit euler rotations and the wired rotation parameters - hope this helps!

[thedaemon]

this whole controller thing is new to me, but it seems really great :beer: But your last message is a little confusing.

Lets say I have a 4 bone setup of a spine with a dummy. Where do I go from here with the Euler xyz stuff?

Do I first apply a euler xyz rotational controller, then wire my bone rotations to the dummy?

Thanks so much, and I might check out that book. You seem to know alot, and have been mucho helpful. :applause:

[whtnoise]

first apply the list controller, then apply the eauler xyz, set your initial rotations, for example if you wanted the fingers to always be in netrual relaxed pose. then apply the float wire controller below the euler xyz and underneath the rotation list or just wire your parameters after you've setup the animation structure.

[omarello]

hey,

there is an excelent example of curling the bone on the 3dbuzz video tutrials, just go to 3dbuzz.com create an account and download the VTM video for custome attributes.

hope this helps

[LFShade]

I have a couple of solutions for this that I can whip up into simple MacroScripts, if anyone's interested.

[gundog]

don't know what could cause that error. the Rotate Chain script works for me in 5 and 4.2.

[thedaemon]

LFShade, I am always up for new things :) go for it. Thanks guys, you have been my saviors ;)

[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.