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rcarr
02-13-2008, 05:47 PM
Can anyone help or point me to the correct forum or post I am kinda new to cgtalk.

I am just about to wrap up a face rig in Max 9 and need some help on how to go about taking an Expression

"Smile or Sad" animation keys and assign it to another controller or slider

The rig is currently set up using paths constrained to another path and my bone object constrained to one of those paths. The percent on the paths are wired to another control object.

With that said my dilemma is to attempt to get the same exact smile all the time without moving the main controllers positions exactly back where the original smile position was. For example if my smile animation lands on frame 30, how can I get frame 30 tied to another controller.

I hope this makes sense if not I will try to repost with more clarification.

OOOh most important, thanks to everyone who has help me in the past.

R:)B
designingpatrick
02-13-2008, 10:54 PM
rcarr,
Have you been using morph targets?
rcarr
02-14-2008, 11:35 AM
Our engine wont allow morph need to use bones.
storing a pose and get back to that pose at any point in time is what I am trying to acomplish
Or can i tie the pose to an object with morph on it hmmm?
I am pretty sure i tried that already.

Perhaps there is a plugin or a procedure to go about in max.

I will try again.

R:)B
Mattrne
02-14-2008, 06:49 PM
I could be totally missing your original problem (I have to admit I'm not sure I understand exactly what your problem is - is it that your 'face' jumps to the position in which the poses were originally authored? If this is the case then it may be that you need to modify your hierarchy so that you are working in parent space i.e. make sure your paths which your bones are constrained to follows your head bone)...

One technique I have used in the past is to create an object which has custom attributes (going from a value of 0-1) for all phonemes / expressions you need. Then use reaction manager to connect (for example) the AH phoneme to its relevant bones in the rest pose (with custom attribute at 0 and bones in the rest pose) and also at the pose at its maximum.

Then all you need have the animators do is animate the custom attributes, which will in turn drive the bones and will give you consistent results.

I hope that makes some kind of sense!
rcarr
02-15-2008, 11:30 AM
I found a plugin called PoseTool

What my problem is that Max doenst have a mixer to allow me to blend poses and save them to be used later in the animation If Max does have something like that inherint it is to time consuming wich doesnt fit my time budget

This plugin does the job quick and painless

PoseTool
www.simoworks.com (http://www.simoworks.com)
PEN
02-15-2008, 11:56 AM
That tool looks like a great solution. You can also use PEN Attribute Holder but it will be a bit more work.
rcarr
02-15-2008, 03:11 PM
thanks you guys for your input

you guys are GREAT!!!

R:)B
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02-15-2008, 03:11 PM
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