PDA

View Full Version : CD joints+skin question ( + motionbuilder )

robotbob
06-22-2006, 09:55 PM
hey there

hopefully someone can answer this without too much hastle.

i am kind of struggling without any joints and skin documentation but i am building a rig for a character and i want to keep the option to move it to motionbuilder.

the thing is, with bones i would make the hips into a null bone as i would the hand.

if you look at NEWIKBOB dan uses bones as nulls for the hand as well. Granted not the for the hips but this is what is recomended by MAXON when porting to motionbuilder.

there is no way i can see to make a joint a null or something like a null + people far cleverer than me have scorned the use of nulls in rigs.

instead i have made these joints very smal ( hips + hand ) - this might look like a better way to do it anyhow.

is this ok ? is there another better method that i have missed ?

cheers

pedro
AdamT
06-22-2006, 10:11 PM
instead i have made these joints very smal ( hips + hand ) - this might look like a better way to do it anyhow.

is this ok ? is there another better method that i have missed ?
That's what I've always done going back and forth between Cinema and MB--no problems.
robotbob
06-22-2006, 10:14 PM
righto' adam - thanks for that mate.
robotbob
06-22-2006, 11:00 PM
another question - would you paint zero weights on these tiny bones/joints ?

cheers

pedro
Cactus Dan
06-24-2006, 05:04 AM
Howdy,

Hmmmm, looks like I missed something there. It was supposed to check if there was a child joint with it's Connect to Parent option on, and if there was no child joint with the connection on, then make it a Null Bone. I'll have to fix that.

Each joint is basically the same as a Null Bone. The "bones" you see drawn between the joints are purely a visual indicator in the viewport.

If you know you're going to need a Null Bone at the start of a leg chain after converting to bones, you can just add a joint to the top of the leg chain before doing the conversion. After I make the fix, you'll be able to turn off the Connect to Parent option of the child and it will convert that one to a Null Bone. But until then, you can just manually change those to Null Bones. You may need to add them to the Skin (but paint no weight for them) so they'll still get a CB tag. If I'm not mistaken, all bones have to have CB weights on them, right?

Adios,
Cactus Dan

Edit: BTW the c4dportal forum is back online, so the CD Character Tools forum link in my signature works again ;)
robotbob
06-24-2006, 10:54 AM
If I'm not mistaken, all bones have to have CB weights on them, right?

yes thats right.

well your setup works very well now by making joints like Hip tiny and with zero weighting
so dont sweat it.

also would you prefer that i asked any CD CA tools questions over at cdportal ?

pedro
Cactus Dan
06-24-2006, 01:04 PM
Howdy,
also would you prefer that i asked any CD CA tools questions over at cdportal ?
Well, that's up to you. Since that is a subforum for my plugins, I'm subscribed to it and I get notified by email whenever there is a new thread started. ;)

Adios,
Cactus Dan
CGTalk Moderation
06-24-2006, 01:04 PM
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.