Bones affecting groups within groups within groups

[Joelsquare]

Hi all,

I'm wondering if someone can help me out here - I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding bone usage, or if I need a scripting solution. Though I am a total AS noob, yes, I've done the tutorials, and yes I've searched the forums . Part of my reason for posting is that I think I've discovered that I do need a scripting solution, but I'm cowering away from scripting as I don't fully understand it. Also, I've discovered a few things which sound like they are maybe what I'm looking for, but I'm hoping someone may read this and say "Oh you need..."

So, my situation: I've got a character that is a fairly complex 3D robot. I've built him, er, it to have workable joints that for now don't rely on bones. To explain this a bit better, I'll focus on one part of his body so you can understand what I mean:

I have a Group folder called "Upper Body". Contained in that folder are the many things that make up his upper body, including a Group folder called "Right Arm". In that folder is a folder called "Upper Arm", in that, "Fore Arm", in that, "Wrist", in that "Palm" etc, etc. The reason I did it this way is so that when I move his torso, everything that should move when a torso moves, does so automatically. If I bend his elbow, everything that comes after it on the arm automatically follows as it should. This essentially creates a parent-child thing going on as you would find in Poser.

So now that I'm nearly done, I want to add a bone layer too, but I'm finding that it isn't working well. Having done the tutorials and gone through the forums, I'm suspecting that this is because bone layers only affect the non-group layers it contains, is that right?

Can someone suggest a way I can easily have 1 skeleton control every part of my robots body without me having to change the folder structure? Like I say, there are some scripts I've been reading about that might do the trick, but I'd love it if an expert could weigh in...

Cheers,
Joel

[neeters_guy]

...I'm suspecting that this is because bone layers only affect the non-group layers it contains, is that right?

The bone layer does affect all layers immediately below it, but not in sublayers (ie., layers nested in groups, switches, or bones). I believe there is a script by Mike Green or heyvern that uses master bones to control bones in sublayers as possible workaround, but I've not used either one myself.

Unfortunately, you will probably need put all robot parts in one bone layer and layer/point bind layer by layer. That's if you want all the bones in one layer for ease in animating. You could also nest bones in switch and bone layers to preserve folder structure but you will then need to move between layers to animate them.

It's a tough trade-off.

[Joelsquare]

Thanks for the response! I feared/suspected this.

I haven't managed to locate any of the scripts, so if anyone can help me out, I'd appreciate it!

Cheers,
Joel