Moving a child in a group

[kmp3d]

I don't know if theres a better way to do this but heres what I did and it worked. First just group the eyes together. Now go to translate and press insert so you can move the pivot point of the group, and snap the pivot to the bone that is at the root of the jaw (the bone that the entire head pivots from). Now point and orient constrain just the group to that bone (make sure that your local axis of the group and the bone are aligned correctly). That should be it. Your eyes should now keep they're position in relation to the head. And you should be able to set up aim constraints to control where the eyes looks. :eek:

[nemirc]

Originally posted by kmp3d
I don't know if theres a better way to do this but heres what I did and it worked. First just group the eyes together. Now go to translate and press insert so you can move the pivot point of the group, and snap the pivot to the bone that is at the root of the jaw (the bone that the entire head pivots from). Now point and orient constrain just the group to that bone (make sure that your local axis of the group and the bone are aligned correctly). That should be it. Your eyes should now keep they're position in relation to the head. And you should be able to set up aim constraints to control where the eyes looks. :eek:

I am not so sure about it but wouldn`t it cause the eyes to rotate *around* the jaw if you use the aim?.

What I do:
I center two locators on the eyes and parent the eyes to the locators. Then I parent those locators to the head-joint.
Then I setup an aim constraint and that helps me to control the "viewing direction". :lightbulb
As you can see I don't need to group anything at all.

[Elliotjnewman]

Well the problem is that I have already done the animation. I'll give the first response a try and see what happens. If I cant get that method to work is there a way of taking the eyes out of the group but maintaining there animation? Perhaps if I duplicate the bones in the same place and then apply them to the un-grouped eyes? ...

[Andrei2k]

parent the eyes grouped to the bone in the skeleton that is inside the head that way you and animate them seperately and they will move with the heads direction


for the animations of looking around you can create locators and with a little mell in the expression editor you can tell the rotate of the eyes to follow the locators.....havent done it in a while but i know it worked for me a while back.......then you animate the locators and the eyes are parented to the bone inside the head (assuming you have one there hopefully)

[Ocean Size]

Create aim constraints via locators for the eyes, then make the eyes child to the apropriate bones to move correctly with head, don't forget you can always group again to create a freedom node too.

[kmp3d]

I'm not sure..... I just setup a set of eyes the way I said and it works perfectly. Like I said it may not be the best way to do it, but it works great for me. If Elliotjnewman or anyone else would like to see it, I can email it to you. If anyone has any opinions to improve upon it I'm alway open to suggestion.

[nemirc]

Originally posted by kmp3d
I'm not sure..... I just setup a set of eyes the way I said and it works perfectly. Like I said it may not be the best way to do it, but it works great for me. If Elliotjnewman or anyone else would like to see it, I can email it to you. If anyone has any opinions to improve upon it I'm alway open to suggestion.

You're right. Everyone has his method. At least the only thing that matters is that you get the job done, right? :cool:

[Elliotjnewman]

hey kmp3d if you could email it to me that would be great! elliejnews@yahoo.com I will make an attempt about what you have all said tommorrow when I get backk into things...

Elliot.

[ELKey]

:beer:
what a good idea,so wish it to be.....

[Elliotjnewman]

Well I have taken the eyes out of the head group and grouped them together. I have also unlocked both translate and rotate so I can now animate the eyes aswell as have them following with the head which is great! But I cant seem to get the locator point constraint to work, When I create a point constraint the locator moves into the pivot point of the eye, I then try and select it the other way round and apply the constraint and it says it couldnt create it. I'm guessing this is because something is locking the eyes? I have checked out kmp3d's scene which works well and is what I am trying to re-create. I guess I could just rotate the eyes each as seperate objects by rotating them with there own pivots and then copying the rotation to the other eye - but I would like to be able to create locators for this... much easier...

little help...

thanks, L.

[kmp3d]

You may have misunderstood the usage of my eye rig. Rotate the nurbs circle around the neck to rotate and move the head, the eyes will still maintain they're correct alignment. The nurbs circle in front of the face is where the eyes look. You can move the nurbs circle to control where the eyes look, or move the locators in the middle of the circle to control each eye individually. Using the control objects you shouldn't have rotate the eyes at all, just keyframe the control objects. Does that make sense????

[Elliotjnewman]

kmp3d - I am very impressed with your eye setup, I would be very interested if you would be able to upload a tutorial on creating it! As for my setup I have just started to look at doing it - I have created an aim constraint using locators and by grouping both the eyes seperately, however when I create the aim constraint the eye shifts its rotation 90 degrees - I have fixed this by changing the rotation offset of the aim constraint, this seems to work fine but when I move the locator the eye snaps back to its original rotation - like it was before I changed it. Have I done this wrong? because apart from that this setup seems to work ok. Also does anyone know how to change the pivot point of an object? is there an interactive way of changingits position? (I know about the 'centre pivot point tool)

Thnaks, ell.

[kmp3d]

this thread may never die................
:eek:

Pressing insert will enable you to move the pivot of and object (or group ...hint ...hint.......) without moving the actual object or group, then press insert again to return to normal transform control. I'm just all about grouping. I guess because when you group, it creates a new pivot node, and you still keep the local pivot of the orginal object. Elliotjnewman I'l try to whip up a detailed explanation of the eye rig later.... I'll email you when I'm done.

[Elliotjnewman]

Sorry to dig this up again. I have managed to create aim locators for the eyes and they move in the right way. However the eyes rotate around their own pivot point, but the pivot points dont move with the model - they just stay in the same place so when the head turns qand I try and rotate the eyes they swing out of their sockets because the pivot point has stayed in its same position. How do I lock the pivot points of the eyes so they move like they should do, with the animation?

cheers, ell.

[Elliotjnewman]

How do you bind a locator with a set of bones?

[Elliotjnewman]

Urika! I have sorted it! not an ideal solution but will have to do! Next time I will make sure I setup everything bofore I animate!:hmm: thanks for all your input on this! - kmp3d I will look forward to seeing a explanation of your eye setup!

ell.

[kmp3d]

Cool good you got something working..... I'll try to finish an explanation of my eye rig. But I've been real busy lately. :thumbsup:

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