"Follower" in Messiah?

#1

Hello!
I’m trying to switch from Lightwave to messiah for CA. Hard when you’re used to one logic and some tools to find your way in a new interface!
I’m trying to add some dynamic fx on a cartoon dog’s ears. They are mainly moving with bones but I’d like the last tird of the ear to react when the head is moving. I know, I can keyframe It… but PLEASE! :-/
I’ve seen the samples that come with messiah, especialy the clown fish is really beautifully rigged (to my taste and my level of knowledge at least!!!)
So here are my two questions:
Is there (or better where?) an expression in the built in expressions list (command tab) that can mimic what “follower” does in lightwave.

And can anybody explain (even roughly) how the dynamotion is applied to the tails and fins bones in the clown fish example that comes with messiah 3 ? I’ve been trying to reverse engeneer the scene by myself but It’s not so easy. It looks to me like the bones are able to be controlled manually AND be affected by the dynamic motion as well, like a secondary motion… Am I wrong? The springs are made of nulls and not of a curve as I’ve seen in the tuts videos. Are those nulls affecting the bones ?

Thank you and a very happy new year!!! (Well, It doesn’t start so well if you spend some time to answer my question I guess!!! :stuck_out_tongue: )

THANK YOU!

#2

lhermittem,

check this link;
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=92&t=103215&highlight=Follower

R

#3

Thanks! Not “EXACTLY” what I was looking for (follower has a delay option for both the path or/and the frames plus you can choose the percent you want the “target” bone to be affected) but I should be able with my lame talents in expression to modify it to fit better what I was looking for! Great!

Now if anyone has the patience and knowledge to give a few directions about how to use bones plus dynamic motion in the same rig (controlled first by bones and THEN adding some dynamic on the top) I’ll be more than interested and really full of rekognition!

#4

Ok Rush123! I tried and experimented with the root inherit and I get some decent results! Negatives value work well for delaying the motion and I don’t have to apply It to every bone in the chain. Cool. So again thank you for the link!
Also I’d like to be able to apply It not only to a chain but to any object refering to the motion of another one even if the second one is a bone, not beeing animated Itself but under the motion of other bones (IKchain for instance)

#5

If you want it “automatic”, you can use Followframe, but maybe a spring would be better.

For Followframe, setup as follows. You create your bone chain, with a null at the end of the last bone, and then another Goal null in the same position. Finally, parented to the head, position one more null to match the last null. (Label it EarFollow or something clever.)

Create an ik expression for the ear. Create a Followframe expression, with the Goal following EarFollow at the number of frames you wish. Make sure you then drag the ik expression AFTER the Followframe expression in the list.

Now this works well for what it does. The only “problem” is that it is based on the head motion ONLY. SO, if you want it to settle with a back and forth movement, a spring setup would probably be better. I did a quick sample scene…just with the ear tips, as you mentioned. Obviously you can have more of a chain and play with amount of delay.

Best,
Rick

#6

Thank you Catizone!!! I appreciate your time and the goodie, the scene file!
Trying it right now!!!

#7

Yesss!
It’s what was looking for! Thank you for showing me!!!

#8

Glad it helped.

Best,
Rick

#9

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