First Completed Character, Question about the Setup Machine

#1

First completed Character in HAsh animation Master… I know it’s still got alot of fixups to do, but after 5 tries, I hope I’m getting farther in the modelling department on this thing :)…

Question about the Setup MAchine, however,

How easy would it be to setup a skeleton with pose sliders for this character with the Setup Mahine, and how much time would it save me from having to setup a new skeleton for each new character? I’m wondering if it’s worth the $90’s? Also, is it easy to configure for a first timer?

Thanks
NEil

#2

It looks better than the first model I did! :slight_smile:

Now, about the Setup Machine…

What it does is create a skeletal rig to control the arms, legs, torso, and head (plus wings or tails if you want that). You will need to know how to assign the control points to the bones (which in AM is pretty easy to do), if you don’t know already.

Also, the Setup Machine has to be run on each character separately, unless you are going to create one model first, and then alter the first character to make the others. Since you’re modeling a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, you could model the first turtle and just change the colors on the other turtles, and you’ll only have to rig once.

However, it doesn’t create controls for facial expressions, the eyes, and so on. Also, you should learn how to create “Smartskins” (which are deformations of the splines around joint areas, so that the joints look correct when they are bent). Or you should learn how to use “fan bones” to control the deformations. You can find this out from the Hash forum, or from various tutorials at the Animation:Master Resource Matrix (the ARM).

I guess what I’m trying to say is the Setup Machine is well worth the $90 - I know it is for me! But to get the best results from it, you need to learn some other techniques first. It’s probably not going to be as easy for a beginner, but it is much easier than trying to create a rig from scratch. Good luck!

#3

I would recommend, that you try to use the 2001-skeleton first. That is most often enough and it is a nice rig too… it is on the hash-CD…

If you think, you character is too complex for the rig or you just dont like it: Go and buy the setup machine…

fuchur

PS: There is a tutorial on the CD how you have to assign the 2001-skeleton to your model…

#4

I’ve never been able to successfully complete a full rig manually. Since I bought TSM1 then upgraded to TSM2 - everyone of my models has a full rig.

Point is - do you want to spend the time to learn to rig then manually rig a model or spend all the time you have animating your model.

Cheers

#5

I would disagree with the whole “don’t learn to rig…drop an existing one in and use it” mentality. AM is amazingly simple to rig in, and by doing it, you have SO much more control over what you are doing. Yes, it takes a little bit of time to learn it, but I said LITTLE. Premade rigs are great, but if you don’t know how it works underneath, you’ll have a hard time making it work and animate the way you want. I have also noticed that some of the best rigs are very simple…no pose sliders or auto-balancing, etc. And believe me, I’ve done my fare share! If you want to animate efficiently, build your own rig. It’s really not that bad, and in diong so, you’ll ensure that it does EXACTLY what YOU want it to do. And your ability to build on what you learn will pay great dividends later on. That’s my 2 cents.

#6

I have to agree with you lednuzb, to a certain extent at least. I think it is good to do some animating before you jump into rigging otherwise how are you to know what you want from a rig? It is a good idea to practice with pre-made characters first.

For me, a lot of the most time-consuming part of rigging is deformation rigging. For a medium-complex character such as the one you have here, making him look ok in all positions will tend to take much longer than putting a simple rig in… and then you can spend some time after that making the deformations look really nice.

Granted, more advanced rigs can take a hell of a time to work out, but once they are done, you can just copy whatever parts you need.

Hope that helps… and keep those patches nice and even :wink:

#7

I recommend that you do the “Add some Backbone” tutorial in your manual. Learn the basics first, then you can look at TSM. You will benefit by understanding the simpler Hash2001 rig and knowing how to instal it in your character. That is much easier than trying to make it from scratch.
TSM will be a benefit to you for time saving, in the future, but as a beginner you might not realize that A:M already comes with what you need.

#8

If I can learn to rig a charactor from scratch anyone can:rolleyes:

#9

I would agree that having the knowledge to set up your own rig isn’t a bad thing. In fact it’s a very rewarding feeling to know you have that knowledge to fall back on. I will also agree that rigging in A:M is relatively simple, but does that mean a utility like TSM isn’t useful? The idea behind it is it’s a modular rigging system. It was made to speed up the process of rigging for professionals with deadlines (Soulcage Dept for example), for people who just want to get to animate their characters as quickly as possible, or for people who just can’t stand the process of rigging. Lets face it Rigging is one of the most analytical parts of the entire animation process even if A:M is one of the easiest programs to rig with. One of the great things about TSM is that due to it’s modular design you can add your own parts on top of it. This is one of the reasons that many people like it. Flexibility is important in a rig and despite being relatively easy to rig many of the things that TSM does in A:M, to put a rig as complex as TSM in to some characters could take hours/weeks/months for some individuals. As an example the crabs in Duel were rigged in about 10-15 minutes thanks to TSM. To have rigged these manually by an experienced rigger would have taken at least an hour or two: 8 multi jointed spider legs, 2 antenna eye stalks (on the red crab), 2 arms with pincher claws all with the ability to squash and stretch. For the man in black and the man in red characters we had to embed the facial rig on top of the TSM rig. The rip in the man in blacks sleeve was done on top of the TSM rig as well. Though these are relatively simple examples, I would be interested in hearing how other people feel TSM will limit their rigging options instead of enhancing them?

#10

I’m going to have to argue with this statement. An animator doesn’t have to know the intricate details of what every bone/expression does in a rig to use it effectively. So long as a rig is well documented in how to control it an animator should have little problem using any half way decent rig. When it comes to setting up a rig for deformations, depending on the rigging system this might limit the individual in some way. TSM was designed to offer the user the ability to bypass any part they don’t feel is flexible enough for them through it’s modular nature. This being said I personally think TSM’s systems are Flexible enough to meet the demands of most peoples rigging needs with out any problems. If you honestly can find a rigging limit that TSM can’t seem to get around I would suggest that you contact us about it, and substitute that element with you own rigging solution for the time being. Notice that I refer to the element of the rig as the potential problem not the rig as a whole. Again TSM is a modular system specifically for this kind of flexibility.

Though a rig doesn’t have to be done in a pose, I would argue that not doing a rig in a pose could result in potential headaches down the line if you do any form of non linear animation, because you would have to monitor where the action that applies the constrains is relative to all other actions. (what a head ache that could be) I can definitely understand using a on off pose for constraints over a slider based one unless there is a need to blend. For example if you are transitioning from FK to IK arms you might want a blend frame or two to keep potential popping from occurring. Thus in this situation a blend slider is nice to have, and honestly the best rigs often offer multiple solutions for different animators styles. Some people prefer IK and some prefer FK, and some prefer both depending on the situation. So to eliminate this kind of slider in fact makes a rig less flexible, and would in my opinion remove it from qualifying as one of the best rigs.

Auto-Balancing is indeed a feature that I and many other animators (including Raf) don’t recommend using; however, there are some people who seem to like this system, thus it remains an option to satisfy a larger audience. Again flexibility for the end user.

I agree with this statement for the most part. If you want absolute control over your rig for your self then the best way to achieve this is to build it your self. It is not a bad thing to know how to do, and is a very satisfying when it works the way you want it to work. That being said if the task of rigging is not your forte’ then alternate solutions aren’t a bad option to have. Also most of the perspective presented by lednuzb seems very individualized; however, If you ever end up working in a production environment rig flexibility (which innately adds to complexity) should be taken into consideration, as making a rig catered to a specific individual can limit the productivity of others on an animation team. My 2cents. :wink:

#11

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