Observations about multiple bone selections

#1

Hello, all.

I discovered an interesting quirk about one of A:M’s spiffier features, the ability to select multiple bones. As you probably know, if you hold down the shift key and keep selecting bones, then whatever transformation you do to the last bone will be done to all of them. What I discovered was that the transformation is based on how the bone was oriented in the Bones mode of the modeller. For example, if you have an upper body bone that points backwards, and a pair of foot nulls that point forward, and if you select all three, the feet and the upper body will move in opposite directions if you try translating them along the Z axis. :hmm:

In order to take full advantage of the multiple bone selection feature, I’ve decided to realign some of the major target bones in my character. See the attached jpg.

Multiple bone selection is a really cool feature. When your character needs to move two (or more) parts of his body in unison, this feature just saves gobs of time. Here’s a little test, to show you. I moved both of Gaty’s hands as a unit. http://www.sonic.net/raillard/hash/mime_schtick.mov
Like I said: Cool. :cool:

Sincerely,

Carl Raillard

#2

Gaty has turned into one of those annoying street entertainers :smiley:

Very interesting feature Carl, one of those I always forget that exists. Perhaps you should put this in the Tricks ‘n’ Tips section.

#3

http://www.sonic.net/raillard/hash/Gaty_greets_a_wearisome_suggestion.mov

Of course I should. Just did.

I must say I’m really beginning to dig v10.5. The realtime playback is so fast, I don’t have to do test-renders anymore. Which is a relief, 'cuz the new render interface is a bit crude, IMHO. The final renders, however, are suuweeet! I doodled this, a couple of weeks ago:
http://www.sonic.net/raillard/hash/tumbletest.mov

The new porcelain is a dream. :thumbsup:

Sincerely,

Carl Raillard

PS: One thing I do like about the new render interface is the cool Briar & Gordon throbber.:buttrock:

#4

First mime now tumbling… whatever next, Gaty has the circus in his blood. Anyway, very nice somersaults, I like the way his tail is used to cushion his landing.

cuz the new render interface is a bit crude, IMHO

Hash obviously haven’t quite settle on this rendering interface. They’ve changed it again in v11.1. The ‘Render preview’ is always a bit glitchy for me, well, I can’t get it to playback a clip at the correct speed. I wish they bring back the old system where after the final render was complete, QuickTime would launch automatically and play back the render.

#5

Ha! Nice work, Carl! Gaty has a lot of energy. He’s a very finished looking model. He seems to deform very well. How long have you worked on him? I seem to have to redo so many areas on my models that I never really finish them.

Jim

#6

Hey that was a great clip of gaty duing the flips and stuff!
How’d you do it? keyframed all of it?
Nice!

Mike Fitz
www.3dartz.com

#7

That is great stuff there carl!

also a good tip, frankly I didn’t even think about the multi-select feature and how it applied to bones (i just knew that it didn’t work like I wanted it to in relation to the time line window)

Thanks for the post!
-David

#8

Glad you like the upgrade and great to see Gatty alive and well after the transition.

I have been using the multi-select ability for foot nulls when roughing movement out. Really handy.

I think I remember that V.Navone uses it… for fingers I think.

I have had less luck when using it whilst modelling but I havn’t checked up on that recently.

You should also find that it is possible to group choriography objects now and move them together.

#9

Thanks guys, for the comments.

I think I understand why they wanted a built-in playback device. When I ran AMv7 on a windows 95 machine I had to generate avi files, because I could only create one mov file per session. If I wanted another mov file, I had to exit and restart the program. From my brother Hans, I’ve learned to expect that problems of this nature are probably not Hash’s fault. This is the sort of PC vs. Mac glitch that Apple and Microsoft are both guilty of. Hans, who works with both macs and PCs, swears at both of them. The Hash team probably got fed up with handling service calls to fix other people’s players. My main quibble with the new Hash player is the lack of an outer box; I really want to see how I’ve framed the model. But, like I said, the program’s realtime playback is so screamingly fast, I find I’m not even making test renders anymore. I can live with that. :cool:

I can’t seem to finish Gaty, either. His head was created in version 4. His body is an edited version of Joe Cosman’s take on Putty Dude. This is kind of embarrassing to admit, actually. :blush:

Yeah, it was keyframed from a video reference that I had lying about on my hard disc. One thing about working from video: I HAVE to punch it up, afterwards. Gaty just lumbers around, heavily, in the straight animation. Luckily AM is so good with NLA that it’s a simple matter to lacquer on another action, and make him spring up higher and farther, like a proper cartoon character.

Thank you, everyone, for kindly overlooking the twitch in his shoulder when he does the cartwheel. Bum IK/FK switch, right there! :slight_smile:

The timeline must a chore for the programmers to work with. Those screws and thumbtacks never really worked. I get the impression computers are lousy at keeping tabs on two or more things at the same time. They like taking tasks in succession, one at a time. They can do that fast … but that’s how they like to work. “Just show me all the bones I need to keep an eye on!” is a confusing request, for a computer. “Which bone is selected?” is a soothing question, for a computer. Imagine selecting a bone that was not previously pinned in the timeline. Should the timeline show it? Should it not? A computer’s small feverish mind is easy overwhelmed by such decisions. Someday the Hash team will devise an intuitive timeline, but, to paraphrase Aragorn:“Today is not that day.” My workaround is to add a number in front of all my control bones. Body parts share the same numerical prefix. This isolates the bones into little blocks; I manually adjust the hieght of the timeline to crop what I want to focus on.

Okay.The caffeine is wearing off.

Sincerely,

Carl Raillard

#10

Man, it just keeps getting better! :applause:

Sincerely,

Carl Raillard

#11

I can’t seem to finish Gaty, either. His head was created in version 4. His body is an edited version of Joe Cosman’s take on Putty Dude. This is kind of embarrassing to admit, actually.

Well that actually gives me hope then. Seems like i’ve been working on my Onion Head for decades now - i’m rerigging him for the umpteenth time !

Great animation clips Carl. Nice toony motions. Thanks for posting - it put a smile on my yap. And also thanks for keeping the fire alive here.

#12

Ooops, just read that you have 10.5… not sure if that is available in 10.5 - might be 11. Can’t remember.

#13

cool work :applause:

#14

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