Motionbuilder 5, squash and stretch

[jipe]

You can select parts of the FK skeleton and scale them for squash and stretch. I can make a little demo video if you want, or you can download the MB5 demo from Kaydara's site..

[LFGabel]

Nope, That's all I needed to hear.

Thanks! :thumbsup:

[RuiFeliciano]

Jipe,

I'd like to have further feedback from you (or any other MB5 user) on this area (squasch/strech). I'm very new to MB and from the little I've been experimenting unless I'm missing something very obvious (which I admit I may be) MB5 is not very suitable for cartoon type animation.
Imagine your typical Willie Coyote and Road Runner scene, the coyote gets hit by a huge rock in the head that will squash half his body. The way I see it in slow motion is as the rock hits the head, it begins squashing towards the neck and then towards the body and stops at the hips. From the little I've experimented in MB5, when I select the top half of a FK skeleton in order to be able to scale it, the scale center is placed at the center of my selected items thus what happens is that the head and the hips start squashing to the chest area (the center of the selected items). What am I missing here?

Also, I get the feeling (from my very brief experience with MB) that MB is a take it or leave it solution towards animation ie we have to import either a biped or quadruped skeleton and use the corresponding rig that the program has preconfigured and that's it. Do we have any configurability towards the rig behaviour? Say that I want my superhero's feet to be glued onto the floor so that when I grab his hips all the skeleton but the feet follow (so the legs stretch like they're elastic). Is this kind of configuration/asnimation possible within the Mb environment?

Thanks in advance!

[Rodi]

I also agree with u that MB is geared towards 'realistic' human or animal animation.

[FredMerlos]

Hello RuiFeliciano,

After reading your post I wanted to try the situation of your superhero who his feet are glued onto the floor and the legs stretch like they're elastic.
You can get this effect by just scaling the FK CtrlLeftUpLeg/CtrRigthUpLeg.
The entire hierarchy is scaled but the feet stay pinned on the floor. Then you have to re-scale the foot to 1 if you want to keep them in the original shape.
Now if you want an "automatic" interaction, you have to add a constraint relation (or write an expression) in order to drive the UpLeg scale according to the hip elevation.

regards,

[RuiFeliciano]

Hi FredMerlos,

I tried what you mentioned (elastic legs) and it worked for the exception that I could not get my feet to revert to Scale = 1. Whenever I selected a foot and tried to scale it, it would not modify (this is something that is also puzzling me, because I'm not proeficient enough in MB yet, I don't know where the rig mechanics are hidden and how to modify them to my own liking.
I could also not replicate this same behaviour for the upper part of the body not the arms.

Is it possible by using constraints, expressions or whatever to simply grab the wrists of a character and have the feet pinned but the rest of the skeleton stretch? I guess that what I want to know before I invest more learning time in MB is whether it is possible to customize the default rig to specific situations. There's no rig in this world that will accomodate every situation in your production environment and what I'm trying to know is if Mb is some kind of Poser on steroids for animation (where you're forced to use whatever is at your disposal but that's it) or if, infact, MB is a customizable production environment where I can fully program how my rig will react whenever I grab either a foot, hand or whatever.
Is it possible to build a rig from scratch in MB to animate, say, a fish?

Thanks a lot for your time!

[FredMerlos]

Hi Rui,

- Are you sure you selected the FK ctrl foot (yellow rig)? It works on my side.

- All elements include the automatic rigs are fully customizable.
The MB's constraint set is very impressive and it's one of the most complete than I have ever seen before.
I suggest you to take a look at the 3dbuzz VTM if you want to have an overview of the possibility, I'm sure after that, you cannot compare any more MB to Poser ;)

- Yes, it's possible to build a rig from scratch in MB. but you will have to place the IK and all the other constraints.

Frédéric

[RuiFeliciano]

I just tried this procedure on the PlasticMan character that ships with MB and it works, I can scale any part of the rig (before I was trying it on another character that has a diferent rig behaviour). At the moment I'm unable to understand the diferrences between both rigs but just the fact to know that one can build/customize a rig's behaviour from scratch is enough to invest in learning time.
I've just started on the second VTM.

Thanks for taking the time FredMerlos!

[jipe]

I'm unable to replicate the elastic legs - when I scale the FK LeftUpLeg and RightUpLeg, it scales up but bends drastically at the knees..

[RuiFeliciano]

That's because the hip stays at the same place. After doing the scale you have to move the hips, hands and chest up to correct the bended knees.

[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.