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Jaspar

10-09-2003, 10:56 PM

I've had Messiah Animate 3 for a while now, but have never really got into/understood character rigging. I'm now trying to force myself through the pain and frustration again, but am as confused as ever. :banghead:

I've been following the getting started rig with my own model, and at times have sort of got it to work. The deformations have been dodgy, and I assume I'll have to use metaeffectors to stop the arm bones freaking out the foot, but things move alright.

But every now and then odd things start to happen. Everything looks fine in setup, then I go to animate and I have a shoulder bone wandering, the guy's back breaking, or the IK'd arm suddenly decides to stop bending at the elbow. Messiah crashed shortly after the wandering shoulder, but here's the rig with broken back and an arm that won't bend. I've got my arm_upper_left as the anchor, my hand as the calculate IK, and a null as the target. Can anyone give me any hints as to what I'm doing wrong? :cry:

http://website.lineone.net/~jaspar.cadenhead/Forum/SetupTab.jpg
http://website.lineone.net/~jaspar.cadenhead/Forum/AnimateTab.jpg

Sil3

10-10-2003, 01:44 AM

Ok let´s go by easy parts :)

First:

Make the entire skeleton first before going out of setup mode, what is happening is that since there are no Bones to hold the rest of the body, the Bones you have right now are affecting the entire mesh.

Second:

Make a keyframe for the Bones while in Setup Mode, that way they will preserve their position when you get to Animate Mode, or below the Keyframes info in the Animate Tab (X, Y and Z Move/Rotate/Scale) theres a button that Resets the Bones Positition, Rotation or All, everytime they come up a litle funky out of Setup Mode, just press the All button and they will revert back to their Setup position.

Third:

If the IK is not bending the right direction, go to the IK panel and make it - (minus) or + (plus) acording to what you have setuped, Messiah´s IK only function in one direction not both like the other 3D animation packages, this is one of the reasons why it´s IK is so blazing fast:applause:

To finalize:

Before you start making the IK Chains, rig the all model first, test the deformations, add, reposition Bones has you need to, after everything is like you want (or close) then go make those IK chains.

Hope it helped

dfaris

10-10-2003, 02:21 AM

The best advice I can give you is to get Joe Cosman's tuts, its the best thing you can do for yourself and you will be rigging models in no time. You can check them out here:
http://www.joecosman.com

Dave

Jaspar

10-10-2003, 11:20 AM

Thanks alot Sil3! You've reduced my terror of rigging considerably! Still not sure why the elbow wasn't bending at all (tried the IK direction settings).

I've been thinking about checking out the Joe Cosman vids for a while, think I'll splash out now. Are they quite in depth?

Thanks again

Gene Williams

10-10-2003, 04:54 PM

Hi,

I purchased both of Joes CDs and must say they are
excellent. The one on rigging characters is pretty
much all inclusive...it would take hours upon hours of
self study and frustration to get to where this video
will get you in 30 min....honestly. Good luck!

Gene Williams

mg3d

10-10-2003, 09:51 PM

yep...Joe's vids are an absolute "gotta have" if you're a newbie to messiah or just not familiar with rigging in general.

:beer:
-mG

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