Not an exciting clip, but ZHS is back in the works! :)

[ddrake]

So, after completing my most recent project "The Brain Storm" ...
(shameless re-plug: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9YZmA6 ... ESjlW6YXGg,)...

... and finally dealing with some computer issues, I'm happy to announce I'm back at work on "ZHS" !

This isn't a very interesting or showy clip, but I thought this post might feel even more lackluster without something.



Don't worry, I'm sure I'll add more as I go. (Well after you're sick of them.)

[Danimal]

I see most of the hair doesn't move, but one piece over the right ear does make its way around during the head turn and looks completely believable. I'm sure I've said it previously but your head turns are exceptional.

Overall the animation style is great. Is this all vector work? For instance, when she bends her left arm, the little "elbow bump" vanishes and the forearm forms a line over the upper arm, just as it should. Without revealing too many of your trade secrets, how the heck do you do that? I've struggled with that for as long as I've used Anime Studio.

[ddrake]

Thanks again.

It's interesting that you ask about the arm, because I actually wasn't sure right away what method this rig was using, as I'd been working more with the heads now. Looking a little more closely I can see that I originally used a technique I'd seen here somewhere with a 3 line segmented joint.

**Edit** Actually if I recall this technique stems from a deconstruction of what I think the "Instant Limb" script out there somewhere creates.



Where the middle vector points are bound to the highlighted angle control bone, (set at .50 to the forearm bone) so that those points always maintain their distance as the arm bends. Then an overlap occurs as points bound to the top of the forearm cross over.



The small circles around each point are/were are just black dots, simply because earlier versions would sometimes leave a small "crack" in the outline where the line connects, and these just covered them up if they were to occur.

It works pretty well when it's set up, but this was also before I had use of smart bones. Currently the rig is a combination employing a bit of adjustment using smartbones in addition to this construction. It's really kind of unnecessary w smart bones, since you can control all points throughout the path of the bone angle to your liking. But I tend to try out a lot of combo things.

As far as the hair not moving, I'm not sure if you mean that it looks too static compared to the movement of the pony-tail, but is convincing anyway because the "ear wisps" contribute to the turn. Or if you think that the shape doesn't change as much as it could/should during a turn. Or if you just mean it isn't actually animated to react to movement. ? But then you're saying it looks good, so I guess if it's working well enough then that's great

No matter, I'll try to address those things as well. Mostly, this test was trying to find a bone dynamics setting for the pony tail that I liked, and would function properly as the head turned. (Some previous tests didn't seem to recognize dynamics for lateral movement of the ponytail bones when it was connected to a smartbone action e.g. the head turn.) That appears to work fine now, but different settings seem more appropriate for smaller movements, than if the character makes large and swift movements. So I'm still playing with that.

I've gone ahead and added a couple of bones to the large stems of hair that are influenced by bone dynamics as well. But instead of just having them be weird springy things, I create smart bone actions to tailor the movement to visual extremes, so as wild and crazy as the dynamics max out, they still only hit the smart bone extreme and helps control warp-age. Here's a test with those in place. The movement is pretty subtle during small motions, but I think it adds a little dimension, and doesn't require additional keying.



I still think there could be more polishing and more "turn" to the way the front hair piece reshapes in different positions. Just finding it tricky to picture the reality of what it would do, reconciled with my preference of the look of any particular static direction.

[Greenlaw]

That's very clever...thanks for sharing your technique.

[Little Yamori]

Thanks for sharing the elbow rigging, really gives me something to think about for future rigs. Your character's movements are really dynamic and lend so much to their character. Nice work

[Danimal]

As far as the hair not moving, I'm not sure if you mean that it looks too static compared to the movement of the pony-tail, but is convincing anyway because the "ear wisps" contribute to the turn.

It very definitely doesn't look too static. The restraint of movement helps in looking convincing.

Speaking of the ponytail, in that second video you posted it seems to move in front of the neck rather than behind like in the first video.

And finally, THANK YOU for posting that. I'm anxious to try it out as good arm and leg bends have long been a thorn in my side.

[ddrake]

Speaking of the ponytail, in that second video you posted it seems to move in front of the neck rather than behind like in the first video.

Ah ha! Yes, good eye. This is because of an inherent problem with the rig. Because sometimes I wind up with quite a few layers for a character, Instead of having all the layers that make up the character inside 1 bone layer I typically will have the main body rig, and then nested inside have a "head bone" that controls head turns and facial movement. But the logistics of having a Head layer that is in FRONT of the neck and torso, but having a ponytail layer INSIDE of that bone-layer to move BEHIND the neck and torso...

Anyway, short of redoing all the turn work and/or re-nesting layers etc, having the head turns built into an outer layer that contains both neck/torso and ponytail, I just have been animating the head, then when finished duplicating that layer and trashing everything but the ponytail. Pull the duplicate layer under the torso in the layer order and hide the original pony tail. An obnoxious extra step which I clearly forgot to do that time. Thanks for noticing

[neeters_guy]

It's interesting that you ask about the arm, because I actually wasn't sure right away what method this rig was using, as I'd been working more with the heads now. Looking a little more closely I can see that I originally used a technique I'd seen here somewhere with a 3 line segmented joint.

**Edit** Actually if I recall this technique stems from a deconstruction of what I think the "Instant Limb" script out there somewhere creates.

For those who are interested, here are two threads that discuss this rig, know as the mandcon rig, and ponysmasher's script:
arm bending
Instant limb *Major update, now a tool*

This is mostly for legacy's sake (prior to v9) since smart bones is a better way to deform joints these days.

[ddrake]

Yes! Thank you neeters! Wasn't sure where this stuff originated. A lot of the older "practical" rigging solution discussion has definitely fallen off after the advent of smartbones, but I will say that I think the technique and tools of mandcon and ponysmasher are still definitely worth exploring. Even beyond those with older versions. As much as anything, understanding and examining inventive ways to get around hurdles in the "pre-smartbone era" can be inspiration for new challenges. Thanks for finding the links

[Danimal]

For those who are interested, here are two threads that discuss this rig, know as the mandcon rig, and ponysmasher's script:
arm bending
Instant limb *Major update, now a tool*

Thanks! I'm interested and I did download the tool. It throws a few error though, so I'm not sure of its compatability with version 10, but it sure is fun to play with. And you're right, Smart Bones and patch layers can achieve a similar effect.