Smart bones change everything! Some examples

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Víctor Paredes
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by Víctor Paredes »

Diana Kennedy wrote:I'm a little stuck with these smartbones.

You install the action at frame zero, right?
Problem is, on that frame, it is'nt possible to adjust the points so the action knows the "target" where to go when bending. It works when I do it in frame 1 but that gives me a first frame I don't necesserly want, you see what I mean?
You make all the smart bone modificaction in frame one, not zero.
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by chucky »

I don't really understand what you mean Diana.
Just to get the knack try this first.
Most important is to copy the name of the bone to the action you create, this will ensure a smart bone is created.
Smart bones work best over many frames. So put the bone rotation on frame 1 at your first rotational limit, and chose a last frame for your other extreme. In the middle put your neutral bone position- this might be a copy of your frame 0.
Then go to your layers which hold the points you want to adjust, and edit the position of only the points you need to , making them best suit the rotation of the bone in each of its positions, go ahead and put any in betweens you like.

That's basically it .
You can test it on frame 0 or go back to the mainline and try rotating that smart bone. you will see relative point position to the rotation just as you had in the action. The only difference is there are no unnecessary point keys created in the mainline , keeping your timeline clean and easy to edit.
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Diana Kennedy
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by Diana Kennedy »

I'm sorry, as a non native Englsih speaker it is difficult to express what I mean.
chucky wrote: Most important is to copy the name of the bone to the action you create, this will ensure a smart bone is created.
This I did.

[/quote]Smart bones work best over many frames.[/quote]

Ah? This wasn't said in the manual.
So put the bone rotation on frame 1 at your first rotational limit, and chose a last frame for your other extreme.
In which one? 5, 6 7...??

In the middle put your neutral bone position- this might be a copy of your frame 0
Again, this wasn't said in the manual.
Then go to your layers which hold the points you want to adjust, and edit the position of only the points you need to , making them best suit the rotation of the bone in each of its positions, go ahead and put any in betweens you like.
Okay. Lets say, I have set one extreme at frame 1, the middle position at frame 5 and the opposite extreme on frame 8.

This makes me an animation from frame 1 - 8 on ly timeline and therefore in my clip which I didn't want. Or did I miss a mayor point? :?
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by chucky »

Yes you have missed it :)
The smart bone's actions duration has no relationship with your main clip.
All it does it set up a relationship between the bones rotation and the points relative position.

8 frames is actually pretty short , the longer it is the smother the transitions are, I go all the way to 100 frames sometimes.
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by funksmaname »

Watch my smart bone tutorial! It will clarify everything...
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by Víctor Paredes »

funksmaname wrote:Watch my smart bone tutorial! It will clarify everything...
hehe
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by RichardU »

selgin wrote:I separate layers mostly to animate the layer order and make masks.
Excellent point. So if I have a character in 3/4 view, the near arm is in front of the torso. Currently, if I want that hand behind his back, I change the layer order for the lower arm. But if the upper and lower arm are one piece, how do I do that? It will not look right to locate his torso in front of his upper arm. Any ideas?
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by Lukas »

I love the Circo-guy with the blue curly hair, what is it for? Do you have a video to show?
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by Víctor Paredes »

Lukas wrote:I love the Circo-guy with the blue curly hair, what is it for? Do you have a video to show?
Thanks. It's for a project of a tv show for kids. We haven't too much too show yet, but I can show some little scenes. It's not the final composition yet, but only my part.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3glf2qm27ivaa ... nos_20.mov
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yxhf043q798u6 ... ras_12.mov
(Sorry, but I haven't animated any scene with the blue curly hair guy yet)
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by Lukas »

Thanks for sharing Selgin, be sure to drop me an email if there's anything finished you can show, I'd love to see. :)
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by Diana Kennedy »

Hm..Doesn't work. :? It indeed creates just an animation on my main movie. I guess I will wait for a tutorial and until then, work the old way: Creating different layers for every part of an arm/.
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by chucky »



Diana, bonjour .

Watch this, I can assure you it works very well and it is quite simple.
Just follow the tutorial , be sure to name the action exactly as you do the smart bone. Also you do not need to copy the action to the mainline...... I think that is what you are doing wrong.
Once you have created the action go to the mainline and wiggle that smart bone with the rotation tool , watch the point move just like in the action.
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by Squeakydave »

Selgin
beautiful designs and excellent rigging.
I like the monkeys arm going behind the body and the body line re-appearing.
I just love the transparent elephant with the water level :-)
The spring bone and the hat are a fantastic way of using smart bones.
Thanks for sharing and inspiring!
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by Víctor Paredes »

Squeakydave wrote:Selgin
beautiful designs and excellent rigging.
I like the monkeys arm going behind the body and the body line re-appearing.
I just love the transparent elephant with the water level :-)
The spring bone and the hat are a fantastic way of using smart bones.
Thanks for sharing and inspiring!
Thank you :)
Just to clarify, in most of the projects I work with a team. Most of the design of the characters I have showed were made by the people of Fluor. I think I'm a better at rigging and animating than designing or illustrating.
I have some more characters, I'll try to upload videos from them when I find the time.
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Re: Smart bones changes everything! Some examples

Post by heyvern »

Thanks for clarifying this Selgin!

Phew! What a big relief! I feel much less inadequate knowing you have some help with these amazing creations. :)

Honestly, that is what I would love to do as well, help rigging other people's designs. It's so much less stressful. :)

-vern
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