Googly Eyes and Physics

[Jammeaze]

Hi,

I wonder if this fabulous community can help me with how I can go about accomplishing this task in the most effective/efficient way in Moho.

Long story short, I have some eyes that I'd like to simulate as googly eyes, like you see on those pipe cleaner craft toys that wiggle when you move them. Here are some screenshots to give you an idea of what I mean and by layers layout:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Astg6sFDdWTtj2DwGhM ... w?e=yPlPoC

I can't quite wrap my head around the physics feature of Moho from the manual and the tutorial resources, they don't quite get me to what I'm looking to do.

What I've done so far:
1. I know that physics requires the shape to be filled to work, so for the rims of the eyes, I created two circles (one inside another with the inside one only a few pixels smaller) with 1 pt strokes and I filled the in between
2. I created two filled circles each on their own layers and placed them inside the "rims"
3. Placed all three parts/layers into a group and enabled physics on the group layer
4. Created a bone layer and moved the group into that
5. Set the rims layer to non-movable object (because if I didn't it would all fall off the screen)
6. Play: googly eyes work... BUT....

What I want to do from this point is assign the group layer to a bone so essentially when I move the layer for the rims, the pupils get tossed around thus making googly eyes... or is it called wiggly eyes... I don't know.

I think I recall seeing something in the forum about disabling physics temporarily because the non-movable setting "breaks" the physics or something like, but can't figure this out.

I was hoping that a bone bound to a layer and then moving the bone/layer that contains the physics objects would do the trick, but it no play nice.


I'm open to any and all ideas of how this can be done using physics.


Thanks for your insights and expertise,

[synthsin75]

Dynamic bones are a much better fit for this than physics. They will automatically react to the rig moving and rotate like googly eyes.

[Greenlaw]

Ha, ha! That's great Wes.

@Jammeaze, additionally, if you add a child bone sharing the same pivot point as the 'dangling' bone in Wes' example, you can add directional control for the eyes. In other words, this allows the eyes to look at something and still respond to the dynamics.

[synthsin75]

Ha, ha! That's great Wes.

@Jammeaze, additionally, if you add a child bone sharing the same pivot point as the 'dangling' bone in Wes' example, you can add directional control for the eyes. In other words, this allows the eyes to look at something and still respond to the dynamics.

You could also parent the dynamic bones to independent angle bones, so they always come to rest pointing down, regardless of the orientation of the head.

[Jammeaze]

Oh you two do not disappoint! Great ideas!

I was bent on physics because all I could think about was the collision factor and it rolling on the bottom of the "rims", but dangling dynamic bones seems to make it much easier to manage and the addition of the other controls gives me good options. Gosh the things I do to make a short gag animation. I'll be sure to share the outcome once I finish it.

Thank you both for your help!

[Jammeaze]

Dynamic bones are a much better fit for this than physics. They will automatically react to the rig moving and rotate like googly eyes.

Thanks again for your input! Now that I'm experimenting with it have a few more questions:

1. Can you share the torque, spring, and dampening settings you set for your example?
2. I set up my rig with a parent bone child to a point bone child to a short bone that's point-bound to the pupil (glad I'm not having to say that otherwise lotta spraying going on lol). Is there any difference/advantage in having the pivot point as a point bone vs a drawn out bone?

[synthsin75]

Thanks again for your input! Now that I'm experimenting with it have a few more questions:

1. Can you share the torque, spring, and dampening settings you set for your example?
2. I set up my rig with a parent bone child to a point bone child to a short bone that's point-bound to the pupil (glad I'm not having to say that otherwise lotta spraying going on lol). Is there any difference/advantage in having the pivot point as a point bone vs a drawn out bone?

I don't remember exactly what I used, but something like 5-8/1/1.
The only real difference between pin bones and regular bones is that pin bones can do uniform scaling.

[Greenlaw]

The advantage with a normal bone is that it's easier to see exactly what the dynamics are doing and adjust their settings.

If you want to use pin bones just to reduce screen clutter, consider using the Shy Bone option instead. I prefer this option over using Hide Bone because it's easier to toggle on and off. (I have a button for this in my MQC panel for Moho 12/13.5.)