Control bone delay

Discuss ideas for new features with other users. To submit feature requests to Smith Micro, please visit support.smithmicro.com

Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger

Post Reply
User avatar
slowtiger
Posts: 6067
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:53 pm
Location: Berlin, Germany
Contact:

Control bone delay

Post by slowtiger »

This night I dreamt about work, and a funny little idea struck me.

We all use the simple control bone feature to move one object and let lots of others follow. Works nicely, except that everything moves uniformingly. So what about adding another input field/dial into each line which determines the delay (in frames) at which the movement happens?

Imagine a blade of grass bowing, then the next, then the next, progressing quite naturally over the screen.

Technically, if in each frame a controlled bone asks for parameters by its controlling bone, it should be easy to get those from some frames earlier instead the current one.

Any ideas?
AS 9.5 MacPro Quadcore 3GHz 16GB OS 10.6.8 Quicktime 7.6.6
AS 11 MacPro 12core 3GHz 32GB OS 10.11 Quicktime 10.7.3
Moho 13.5 iMac Quadcore 2,9GHz 16GB OS 10.15

Moho 14.1 Mac Mini Plus OS 13.5
User avatar
Víctor Paredes
Site Admin
Posts: 5646
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Barcelona/Chile
Contact:

Re: Control bone delay

Post by Víctor Paredes »

I would love to see that implemented. It can be just a new box for the amount of frames for delay (including, of course, negative frames :wink: ).
Right now I'm animated seaweed and I'm using a lot of delayed cycles to give the sensation of the water generating a wave in the rotation. Having this constraint would make my life much easier (and the timeline much cleaner!).
+1
Image Image Image Image
Moho Product Manager

www.mohoanimation.com
Rigged animation supervisor in My father's dragon - Lead Moho artist in Wolfwalkers - Cartoon Saloon - My personal Youtube Channel
User avatar
hayasidist
Posts: 3492
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 8:12 pm
Location: Kent, England

Re: Control bone delay

Post by hayasidist »

have you considered Stan's "layer copies" script http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtop ... 12&t=33017 for this? -- IOW each blade (or group of blades) in it's own layer which is then copied and distributed in both space and along the timeline?
User avatar
slowtiger
Posts: 6067
Joined: Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:53 pm
Location: Berlin, Germany
Contact:

Re: Control bone delay

Post by slowtiger »

No, haven't used any script at all ...

It's interesting that I see many examples of "stuff spread over space" in many programs, mostly per particle animation or, in more complex systems, as "crowd control". It would be nice to have a "spread over time" feature as well, which should also include a speed up/slow down seed animation setting. But maybe that's not for Moho.
AS 9.5 MacPro Quadcore 3GHz 16GB OS 10.6.8 Quicktime 7.6.6
AS 11 MacPro 12core 3GHz 32GB OS 10.11 Quicktime 10.7.3
Moho 13.5 iMac Quadcore 2,9GHz 16GB OS 10.15

Moho 14.1 Mac Mini Plus OS 13.5
User avatar
Víctor Paredes
Site Admin
Posts: 5646
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 12:18 am
Location: Barcelona/Chile
Contact:

Re: Control bone delay

Post by Víctor Paredes »

I'm using Stan's script a lot. Currently I'm animating several scenes with chains. The characters are animated in TVPaint, but the chains needed to be done quicker.
So basically I created a switch layer with two pieces (front and side view of the chain) and used the script to create hundreds of references of that switch layer distributed along a path.
Doing that, I can simply animate the path (which is made normally of two or three points) and that moves all the pieces.

Anyway, that script is useful of creating different objects and delaying their animation. With a Constraint option, that delay could be applied inside of the same rig, which is something that can't be done right now.
Image Image Image Image
Moho Product Manager

www.mohoanimation.com
Rigged animation supervisor in My father's dragon - Lead Moho artist in Wolfwalkers - Cartoon Saloon - My personal Youtube Channel
User avatar
Greenlaw
Posts: 9192
Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:45 pm
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Re: Control bone delay

Post by Greenlaw »

That sounds crazy Victor. I hope you'll do a demonstration of the technique in the future. :)
Post Reply