Free Rig:

[alphatron]

Thanks Danny,

I'm going to me modeling and animationg some retro robots for a short film of mine, so this should provide some great insight!

Haven't yet opened up the rig, but one quick question, is all the bskinning rigid?

Thanks!!!

[pOiNtPuShEr]

Most of the character is parented. the only skinned elements are in the torso and neck (much quicker animation
feedback that way, and it was made for simple little exercises.... :-(

Anyway, hope it can still help some :-) And post your stuff when you get it going!!!

Also, check out the links on the web page (in the rig explanation section) and check out Lawrence Northy's
work. The guy's robot sculptures are amazing!

Also, the geocities server is getting slammed, so it may shut you out for a bit... Sorry :-(


-DW

[goosh]

Hi dannyboy

Nice rig..

I hope you don't mind me commenting on it a bit...

Feet:
Check your rotation orders, you can avoid gimbal lock.
You are limmiting the rotation of Y to 45 degrees. I would say it's not a great idea to limit rotations 'cause if you need to push it a little bit more, you can't.. let the animator make that decision.
On you ankle rot and toe rot.. make the attribute from -10 to 10 not -1 to 1... it's better if you have a wider range.

Overall:
You've done a great job oh locking and moving the attributes so that they can't be keyed.. I did see that in some areas some of the stuff wasn't locked or unkeyed though.

Check your rotation orders so that you don't get gimbal

Hide the bones or make them template so that you don't accidentally select them..

When you are in FK mode, hide the IK controllers... and viceversa

All in all, it's a very nice rig.. awesome work.. nice model too :)

Goosh

[FloydBishop]

So Danny, will there be an "Elvin" robot on the way as well?

The rig is pretty nice. I haven't animated anything with it yet, but it looks like it's pretty well thought out.

I would have to agree with Goosh about the limits on rotations.

I also like to be able to break the arms at the elbows. The current rig only allows for rotation in X. Sometimes on really fast and frantic shots, I tend to put the arms in some really wild poses.

If the rig were more complicated, it would be nice to get some visibility controls on the character as well (turn on or off the IK controller or FK controllers, etc).

Thanks for making this available. I'm sure it was a beating, but the CG community needs more of this kind of thing.

Keep fighting the good fight!!

[strick9]

Thanks Danny,

I started animating a scene with him already. It's gonna take me awhile becuase I am still pretty new to all this, but I'll post it here when I am done.

Thanks again!! :applause:

[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.