Interesting idea. This is the first I have heard of it, it certainly looks flexible…
is there a file with an example of this arm rig floating around someplace?
Right now I have three arm rigs and use sliders to switch between them one rig that behaved and looked like FK but with the advantages of IK would be prefered 
Being that I am just now starting the rigging for the characters in my short this would be perfect timing to explore new options
-David Rogers
I have been using this type of rig recently and can vouch for its usefullness. I noticed some problems recently with it as there would be noise on the bones in some situations. However this has been fixed in v11 as Hash has implemented a new type of bone maths which is more efficient and so accumulates less noise.
Hello.
David wrote:
“is there a file with an example of this arm rig
floating around someplace?”
Well … I’m somewhat reluctant to give away my alligator boy. Gaty is not even ready for v10.5. I created him in v8.5 and he has tons of fan bones; the constriants on these fans need some reordering before they work properly in v10.5. And right now I’m just pressed for time. I’ve been busy with work and other projects – I haven’t had a chance to do much in A:M lately. :sad:
Maybe Stephen Millingen wouldn’t mind sharing his modified version of Schlitzy? Ho? Would that be okay with you, Stephen? How about Jim Talbot? Does Jim need to give his blessing on this, too? It’s fine with me, if anyone cares for my opinion! 
The more people who use the chatter-buster rig, the better, as far as I’m concerned.
John wrote:
“I noticed some problems recently with it as
there would be noise on the bones in some
situations. However this has been fixed in v11
as Hash has implemented a new type of bone
maths which is more efficient and so
accumulates less noise.”
Bob Croucher devised the new method of calculating IK chains. The improvements were designed to help situations where the bones of an IK chain are nearly straight. Think of an elegant female standing as tall as she can while shifting her weight slightly. Stephen Millingen was animating Briar Rose in such a posture, and poor Briar’s legs were vibrating like a sewing machine! Me & Stephen howled, and the guys at Hash got onto it. Hopefully Bob’s work rectifies all such problems. These improvements are Bob Croucher’s doing, and he is to be thanked. :applause:
There’s one caveat about the chatter-buster rig:
It benefits from a precise placement of bones. You need to chord all the arm bones straight out. This means the values of the Y and Z start & end positions of the arm bones MUST be identical. Close is not good enough. Both the rig bones and the geometry bones should share the same Y & Z values. If you fail to chord the bones, the arms shall behave like a cheap lawn chair, bending in the wrong direction, etc.
Okay, that’s all for now.
Sincerely,
Carl Raillard
Originally posted by raillard
[B]Maybe Stephen Millingen wouldn’t mind sharing his modified version of Schlitzy? Ho? Would that be okay with you, Stephen? How about Jim Talbot? Does Jim need to give his blessing on this, too? It’s fine with me, if anyone cares for my opinion!
The more people who use the chatter-buster rig, the better, as far as I’m concerned.
[/B]
The rules to the animation contest state that we should make available to the rest of the entrants, any improvements to the Schlitzy model. So it is definitely fine with me!
Jim
I’m only too happy to share my modified version of Schlitzy.
www.hash.com/users/milos/schlitzynewrig4.mdl.zip
A couple of things I should mention,
Carl suggested one should ‘chord’ the arm bones. A combination of my natural indolence and haste to rig the model, I’ve overlooked this recommendation.
The rest of the rig is not too dissimilar to the Egg rig. There’s no auto CG or balance aspect to it though.
To switch between FK to IK, simply slide the pose slider (RightHand IN/OUT) from 0 to 100 in as many frames you want the transition to take place.
If you’ve got any questions I’ll do my best to answer them.
Oh! the noise on the bones that Bob Croucher has brilliantly fixed in v11, was something that was present in all rigs, it wasn’t peculiar to this one.
Hello, all.
I just grabbed a minute to look at Stephen’s chatter-buster version of Schlitzy. (Gosh, that’s a super model, Jim!). Anyway, I tried moving the dwarf’s right hand and got a circularity error message. The correct hand control bone is not visible. Here’s how to fix the problem:
http://www.sonic.net/raillard/hash/fix.gif
I spent a moment moving the arms around. I could not detect any bad behavior due to his arms not being chorded. Well, that’s great, I guess! Maybe v10.5 is less finicky than v8.5p+ in this respect?
Well, enough about my chatter-buster rig. I’m looking forward to seeing more of Schlitzy’s antics!
You know what might be cool? Filming Schlitzy’s screen test in black and white, with some added film grain and screen noise – maybe a hair or two – tossed on. Make it look like archival footage from “Vault Disney.”
Sincerely,
Carl Raillard
Cheers Carl, ironically I went through the model before uploading it, hiding bones to try and make it simpler to understand and of course messed up.
BTW Carl, translate limits on the wrist nulls seem to work again in 10.5.
Here’s my second pass on Schlitzy, it could do with another few passes but for this one I’ve mostly played around with the lighting:
Very (very) Nice!
Only thing i have to say would be that his pupils and eyebrows are really really hard to see , making it hard to read his facial expression sometimes.
Very (very) Nice though.
:drool:
-drakk
Excellent! A little crunchy in the hip area at one point, but other than that it looks great.
Wow! That is some second pass. All the little details look great, the paper conforming to his nose, the eyebrow and eyelid motion, etc. I especially like the double take, as he first leans against the stool, and his embarassed shrug.
I like the lighting, too, but as mentioned before, it may be a little blown out too much in the brighter areas.
What kind of render set up did you use? Was it multipass or the regular AA? I assume multipass because the motion blur looks good. And how long did it take to render? On your Mac or PC?
Nosy, aren’t I?
Excellent work!
Jim
Fantastic stuff as usual Pequod! IT would be interesting to see what you do with it for the next pass, I realy don’t think that I could think of anything myself. The timing of the fall is just right. The lighting is realy good aslo.
Just for fun, my guess is that you are using AA with a penumbrea Klieg and then real smart motion blur in EA.
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Drakkheim,
Only thing i have to say would be that his pupils and eyebrows are really really hard to see , making it hard to read his facial expression sometimes.
I agree, his pale blue eyes and white hair make it difficult to read with my strong stage lighting. I’ll reduce the light intensity and maybe add some bloom. I might also create a pose slider to vary the size of his pupils.
Zaryin,
Define ‘crunchy’
:rolleyes:
Jim,
What kind of render set up did you use? Was it multipass or the regular AA? I assume multipass because the motion blur looks good. And how long did it take to render? On your Mac or PC?
I used regular AA so that the hair would look better for this test. Multipass would have taken too long, but I shall use it for the final render cuz it’s mo-blur is so much better. An example of the trouble with AA mo-blur is his arm swinging behind his back, the mo-blur cuts into his back making it look like an intersection.
I animated him on my G4 Mac, (I’ve put a 1.2 Gig processor upgrade in recently). However, when it came time to render him with his hair on, it would always crash. So I rendered him on the PC (1.4 Gig) and it took the best part of the day to complete. It averaged 50 seconds per frame (approx 750 frames). Amazingly, I tried out the latest OSX AM alpha version, and it’s so much more responsive than using the program in 9.2. It’s quicker to open projects, save files and the FPS seem a tad faster, hopefully this will mean that AM on the Mac will at last be equal to or even better than the PC version. I digress.
I’ll work on some timing issues next and do a bit of extra smartskinning, especially around the shoulders and then I suppose I should add the sound, what a drag!
Hi,
You have some really nice stuff there! Love the facial expressions and all the secondary movement, really captures the drunken state well. Looks like you had this well planned out.
The part where he swings aroung on the stool is really sweet 
getting better all the time and I still love this!
1- what’s the strange shadow that appears back where he came from when Schlitzy is in mid-rotate on the stool?
2- not quite so convinced with the end of the rotate on the stool. First time I watched it it almost seemed like he jumped into a fairly steady position. I’d like to see him stagger a bit more after he’s come off the stool.
I agree everything Drakkheim said about the eye expressions but
3- Shouldn’t his hands show the transfer of body weight a bit more onto the seat of the stool before he loses balance?
I know I’m probably being a pain but if he loses balance it’s because he’s trying to lean on the stool? Presently he seems to tap the stool then fall over.
Hope that helps - feel free to ignore me!
WOW … WOW … WOW! That’s your second pass?!? That is awesome! I’ll be happy if my final animation is even half that good. I really like the way you captured the character. The fall is also great. Nothing else to add really that hasn’t already been said. I’m certainly inspired to work even harder on my entry. Can’t wait to see it when you’re done.
:bowdown:
Kevin
John,
No penumbra or Reel smart motion blur, but the rest of your guess is right. Reel smart has problems with dark scenes.
Dagooos,
Thanks. Actually, I did plan out the original idea, hence the storyboard. However, I abandoned that idea, whereas this one has just grown ‘organically’ so to speak.
Alfiebabes,
Thanks for the suggestions.
(1)The strange shadow I hadn’t noticed, but it’s to be expected with z-buffered lights.
(2)The stool does need another couple of little settling hops as it comes to rest.
(3) His hand is searching for the stool, not tapping it. If you are misreading this I’ll have to make it clearer. I’m going to keep the smile on his face for longer, in his inebriated state he would not necessarily be too aware of most things that are going on -like a misplaced chair.
Cosmonaut,
Actually this is more of a third pass, sorry everyone for misleading you. My excuse, is that after about the second pass, I don’t really do passes anymore but jump around the timeline fixing things as they occur to me.
I reckon I’ve spent about two weekends working on Schlitzy so far, animation and rigging.
Awesome, Stephen!
About the eyes: Maybe you should try adding a glow (increase the ambience) to the whites of the eyes? That would make the iris and pupils look darker in comparison. Increasing the size of the pupils is a very good idea, too, 'cuz the room he’s in is fairly dark.
I hope you’ll add some secondary motion to his hat? I want to see the rear pouch fly out, with centrifugal force, when he spins around on the chair! Be sure to make the pouch come to a rest immediately after he stops moving, to suggest its weightlessness. What am I doing, telling YOU how to animate?!? 
'Looking forward to seeing the next pass!
Sincerely,
Carl Raillard
IIt just looked tat at some points the creasing of the clothing seemed too much, but now that I watched it again I think I’ve changed my mind :).