distorted image texture after bone rigging character

[Stoley]

I hope this is right board for asking for help, i saw other questions here...
Anyway, I created a character and used image texture as the fill for all the parts. I've been building the scene and even animated the character (without bones, just moving the layer around with key frames) and everything has been fine.
I finally rigged my character with the parts/bones broken apart at frame zero and again all the pieces looked fine. (See screen grab) http://imageshack.us/a/img163/7650/epu6.png . I then reassembled the parts using the offset bone tool and now the textures in some of the parts appear warped or distorted both in the workspace and when rendered. (see other screen grab). http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/1153/qie2.png
Does anyone know why this happens and how to make it right?
Any help is very appreciated, its making me crazy trying to figure this out.
Thanks!
Stoley

[neeters_guy]

Bone strengths are in conflict with each other. See selgin's post in this thread.
viewtopic.php?t=20243

[Stoley]

Hey Neeters, thanks!
But I'm not sure thats the problem. I'm not bending the shapes with the bones, just moving them around. look at this grab of the cat's back where the effect is much more pronounced on frame one before anything has even been moved. http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/7527/z8.png
its not a morphing as much as a distortion or garble.
Anyway, I like the idea of exporting the pieces and re-importing as PNGS, seems a tad time consuming though, especially at this point. I'll try it though.
Thanks again! I appreciate your help!

[amanandink]

Hi Stoley

that looks like it might be the textures not repeating in the shape fills.

Are you masking or using shape fills to apply the texture?
if it shape fills have you selected the dont repeat option?
this is fine to use if you increase the size of the texture with the handles but it might be distorting on frame 1 if you have no bone strength at all on the bones, there needs to be a little strength to control the texture.
I may be wrong but it seems to me looking at you screen grabs that you have either layer or point bound the shapes to the bones, which have no strength on them because you dont need it for what you want to do and when you move the bones and subsequently the shapes, as in frame 1 the shape is being moved to the end of the texture because it is on Dont Repeat.

if this isnt it I'd be happy to look at the file for you if you want to post it.
J

[Stoley]

Hey J, thanks for the response!
Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the problem either. I am using the image texture effect for the filling of my shapes but none of the them have the 'don't repeat' box checked.
For good measure I tried checking the 'don't repeat' box on all the shapes in the character's 'back view' bone layer just in case I had your advice mixed up and that didn't seem to change anything.
how would I go about posting the file for you to take a look?
I really appreciate your help.
thanks again!
stoley

[amanandink]

If you want to dropbox it or some online storage location i can download it from, and dont forget to zip up the images with it

J

[hayasidist]

if you use the shape tool (key Q) and look at a shape with image fill it has a control handle that will size and orient the texture in the shape. If you move the bone, and thus the points in the shape, this control handle doesn't move. this will make the fill move relative to the shape. this can lead to fill distortions. someone else has already mentioned bone strength overlap - this can also distort images when the bones move close to each other.

[heyvern]

In your original description you said you tested your texture fills without bones using layer movement, and THEN you bone rigged. How is you character split apart? Do you have a shape fill for each "part" of the arms and legs? Forearm, bicep, calf, thigh, etc. Are all of the points of each texture filled shape bound to a bone?

If so then don't use point binding. Use layer binding instead. This will prevent the texture fill distortion. Even with all points bound to a bone, the texture fill is still warped by the bones. If you bind the layer of each body part to a bone, the texture fills are not effected by the bones. This requires each body part shape to be on it's own layer.

If you have a texture fill inside a single shape, like an arm that is both forearm and bicep, then the bone distortion should be correct. If the arm points bend at the elbow the texture fill should as well.

Another option to try is changing your bone settings to REGION binding instead of flexible binding.

Flexible binding is "smoother' but, ALL bones have some influence on any points or images including texture fills. Region binding is more "specific". A point or portion of an image, will only be moved or influenced by the closest/strongest bone. Other bones will not have an effect. You can use that to determine which bones effect your texture fills. One draw back is that region bone binding on images causes "straight" or "block" areas of movement. It's not smooth and "liquidy" like flexible binding.

[Stoley]

if you use the shape tool (key Q) and look at a shape with image fill it has a control handle that will size and orient the texture in the shape. If you move the bone, and thus the points in the shape, this control handle doesn't move. this will make the fill move relative to the shape. this can lead to fill distortions. someone else has already mentioned bone strength overlap - this can also distort images when the bones move close to each other.

Hey Hayasidist,
My Bone strengths are small and there is minimal overlap. I also know of the texture handle and have tried adjusting it to get the image "clean" but it seems to just be distorted regardless of how I move that handle.
Thanks for the suggestion!

[Stoley]

In your original description you said you tested your texture fills without bones using layer movement, and THEN you bone rigged. How is you character split apart? Do you have a shape fill for each "part" of the arms and legs? Forearm, bicep, calf, thigh, etc. Are all of the points of each texture filled shape bound to a bone?

If so then don't use point binding. Use layer binding instead. This will prevent the texture fill distortion. Even with all points bound to a bone, the texture fill is still warped by the bones. If you bind the layer of each body part to a bone, the texture fills are not effected by the bones. This requires each body part shape to be on it's own layer.

If you have a texture fill inside a single shape, like an arm that is both forearm and bicep, then the bone distortion should be correct. If the arm points bend at the elbow the texture fill should as well.

Another option to try is changing your bone settings to REGION binding instead of flexible binding.

Flexible binding is "smoother' but, ALL bones have some influence on any points or images including texture fills. Region binding is more "specific". A point or portion of an image, will only be moved or influenced by the closest/strongest bone. Other bones will not have an effect. You can use that to determine which bones effect your texture fills. One draw back is that region bone binding on images causes "straight" or "block" areas of movement. It's not smooth and "liquidy" like flexible binding.

Hey Heyvern,
Each body part is on its own layer and the bones are region bound to them. I'm not bending the arms and legs, just rotating single shapes from the shoulders and knees. so there should be no image distortion. its crazy.
thanks for the help!

[heyvern]

Are you using Point binding or layer binding?

Point binding a texture fill shape will cause distortion of the image fill when moving the bones. The points are bound, the fill is not.

Layer Binding will not effect the texture fill. The whole layer including the texture fill is bound to the bone. No distortion.

[Teoderik]

I had the same problem while I used POINT binding instead of LAYER binding and it was doing weird warping to gradients and Tiles. SO use Layer binding