LW char animation demo thread

#61

Thats why I dont like setting automatic constraints on characters because its very limiting. Adding additional controls to override them takes more time. Its easier IMO to just put the foot where you want it and rely on IK and the graph editor to keep them where you want them.

#62

The bone are placed at 0,0
The simple constraint attach the foot to the IK null.
If it moves pass the 0, it will.
I just like doing squats with IK. and I just like to know where to put the floor at.

When i do it in messiah. I use FK to IK slider (real simple to setup) to shut off expressions that limit me. I don’t use expressions that much in lw as once I get pass five expression I start getting loss on what is effecting what.

Lw needs a separate expression panel and/or flowchart.

#63

The IK FK slider thing was cool in messiah but there are similar things you can do to blend between an expression and FK in Lightwave. I have found that as time goes on and I do more and more rigs that I want to spend less time rigging and more time animating. For me I can see the floor by putting in a ground object or standin objects. I will go thru and block or rough out my animation and dont care too much if the feet dip thru the floor at that point in time. If the floor or ground change drastically its a pain for me to constantly override my expression to keep the feet at floor or ground level. If I have a large section where the ground is the same level Ill simply grab the Y values for the feet IK goals and set them to the same value. For me thats a lot faster and more flexible then setting up expressions. I find that for me, avoiding too many expression based controls or automated functions is better…it drops my setup time and allows me to get to the actual animating part. :slight_smile:
I also had the same problem in Messiah: Keeping track of which expressions were controlling what, what order to place them in because sometimes I would throw in an expression that would break something else. I would have drag and drop it up and down the list until it worked or redo it. I also had problems sometimes determining if I needed to use an expression before, during or after IK. Some expressions in Messiah are pretty straightforward but many were not. Some things IMO sound great in theory because in our imaginations everything works. In practice they can become a huge pain. Also when rigging there is a difference between rigging for me and rigging for someone else. I REALLY try and keep is simple when rigging for others. :slight_smile:

#64

Originally posted by SplineGod
I REALLY try and keep is simple when rigging for others. :slight_smile:

You make everything sound so simple :slight_smile:

#65

It is simple if you look at rigging the right way. Its not about IK, expressions or slick setups. Its about: What does the rig have to be able to do? Usually its a few things:

  1. The Rig should be very poseable but not break between poses.
  2. When a rig is put into a pose , moving some other part of the rig should not break the pose in another part of the rig.

These two rules can be broken down a bit more but thats it really in a nut shell. :slight_smile:

#66

Very interesting, nice thread :thumbsup:

salud

#67

Hi… I made a litle walk animation with the bolo character from Lukasz Pazeras´s Auto Character Setup 3…
Just for fun…
I used his rigg but changed the arm to FK…
Set driven key was used for his left arm so I only needed to animate the right one…
Hope you like it…

The clip is 1.1 MB and you need QT6 to see it…

http://www.vinyamar.com/~darkeden/meshbuilder/anima/bolo1.mov

#68

Originally posted by Meshbuilder
[B]Hi… I made a litle walk animation with the bolo character from Lukasz Pazeras´s Auto Character Setup 3…
Just for fun…
I used his rigg but changed the arm to FK…
Set driven key was used for his left arm so I only needed to animate the right one…
Hope you like it…

The clip is 1.1 MB and you need QT6 to see it…

http://www.vinyamar.com/~darkeden/meshbuilder/anima/bolo1.mov [/B]

Looks good

Stupid question but how do you use pre made rigs on other characters

#69

“Stupid question but how do you use pre made rigs on other characters”

Hmm I don’t know really… I think it’s pretty hard to reuse your riggs in Lightwave… And in other programs I worked with too…
With Pazeras’s auto character script you can do that… But I don’t like his IK setup for the arms…

I think it would be cool if Newtek did something about this in the next vesion of Lightwave… Now it’s real easy to remodel you skelegons in modeler but it’s mutch more difficult to change your bones in Layout after you have setup IK, expression and all that…

#70

With his script it’s pretty easy.
you can modify the skeleton in modeler to fit your own character then run the sript in layout. just swap his mesh for yours.
it’s as easy as Thanksgiving Pumkin pie!

He has some tips for this on his website by the way.

#71

Animation really happens in two parts:
Getting the physics correct - weight, balance etc
Getting the Art correct - personality, appeal etc.
Making a walk cycle and using expressions/motion modifiers to automate parts of it MAY help get the physics part done but wont make it look good artistically. Thats why few animators like rigs that autocenter themselves and so on.
You an easily reuse bones from one character to another in lightwave even if those bones have motion and IK on them. Lots of people say you cant but its simply not true. There are ways to do it without using that auto character setup script. There are many different ways to rig. :slight_smile:
I also think that using IK on the upper body of a character is a bad idea unless the characters hands need to stick to something.

#72

Yes, there are many ways to do it with out the script. You have mentioned a couple of good ways further back in this tread.
But what if you are lazy? or really have no desire what so ever to get good at rigging, but want to be a good animator. or do you have to be a good modeler and rigger before you can graduate to animation?

#73

Originally posted by KOryH
Yes, there are many ways to do it with out the script. You have mentioned a couple of good ways further back in this tread.
But what if you are lazy? or really have no desire what so ever to get good at rigging, but want to be a good animator. or do you have to be a good modeler and rigger before you can graduate to animation?

Good point. Lots of studios work that way. You have animators who cant rig or model and vice versa. I thinking knowing how to model and rig can help you become more well rounded and may help but not necessarily. If you dont rig but want to learn animation then I would suggest hooking up with someone who can rig well or buying a good rig somewhere to play with. If you are trying to learn to rig PROPERLY I would suggest finding someone who can animate to test your rigs on. ANY package is a good animation package if you have a good rig to start with. :slight_smile:

#74

SplineGod >“You an easily reuse bones from one character to another in lightwave even if those bones have motion and IK on them. Lots of people say you cant but its simply not true. There are ways to do it without using that auto character setup script.”

Ok say that we have one little dwarf running… Then we want to take his bones/animation and use it on another character, say a big orc…
How do I do that “easily”???

#75

wow!!! that stuff is awsome only if i knew how to do that but i yet dont. that is really cool

#76

Originally posted by Meshbuilder
[B]SplineGod >“You an easily reuse bones from one character to another in lightwave even if those bones have motion and IK on them. Lots of people say you cant but its simply not true. There are ways to do it without using that auto character setup script.”

Ok say that we have one little dwarf running… Then we want to take his bones/animation and use it on another character, say a big orc…
How do I do that “easily”??? [/B]

It’s pretty easy :

  1. Make sure u have on most bones rotation keys ( if u use FK)
  2. If u have some position keys on pelvis or some root bone leave it…
  3. Resize your bones using Rest Length - not Scale or Stretch!
  4. After resizing keep an eye on numeric area of interface (with Rest Length tool still selected) u mast see the Length of corrent bone, now copy this and paste to child bone on Z position.
  5. Proceed to another bone and make the same adjustment.
  6. In cases there u need to rotate bone (with child) but u have already assigned rotation keys - open Graph editor and select keys for axis u need to rotate, then move these keys up or down until u get correct bone rotation.
  7. Same thing with root bone (if ) that have position keys - move group of keys instead of bone …

This technique was used heavy with Mocap data before LW 7.5 BVH support and before FilmBox Keydara (hope i write name correctly).
Here is some tutorial of using LW with mocap data - it’s explain the same technique (for LW 6 - but can be done with 7.x as well)

#77

Cool… It wasn´t that hard… hihi :slight_smile:

http://www.vinyamar.com/~darkeden/meshbuilder/anima/bolougly.mov

#78

Originally posted by Meshbuilder
[B]SplineGod >“You an easily reuse bones from one character to another in lightwave even if those bones have motion and IK on them. Lots of people say you cant but its simply not true. There are ways to do it without using that auto character setup script.”

Ok say that we have one little dwarf running… Then we want to take his bones/animation and use it on another character, say a big orc…
How do I do that “easily”??? [/B]

I could do it faster then redoing it completely from scratch. I also probably wouldnt do that with this situation you described. The reason is that how a dwarf would be animated would depends on his size, what he was wearing, how heavy he was etc etc.
How that dwarf would move would be very different then how an orc would move. I would have to determine just how different the two characters would be and if it would be worth it to reuse bones and motions on such different characters.

#79

SplineGod > Yes you are absolutely right about that… It was a bad example from me…
Anyway… Can I reuse motionmixerclips from one character and add them to another?.. IF they have the same skelegon/bone structure??

#80

You are supposed to be able to share animations that way with motion mixer. Ive never done it for the same reason I described above. Ive worked on Max Steel and another similar all CGI show called Dan Dare and we never reused animations between characters simply because they wouldnt look right. I think doing things that way would work better for video game characters then for movies or TV.