Fixing unified result of various Smart Bones

[Leks Luci]

Hey guys, could you please help me resolve yet another Moho's mystery.

As the topic says, I have various smart bones that are fixing the geometry and its bending, nothing unusual here. Separately, each smart bone fixes its problematic area. But as I continue to alter a skeleton position that already consists of those smart bones, the combined result of positioning of various smart bones at the same time gives me new areas to fix.

So, I have tried to make a new smart bone, and with its help to control two other bones and their respective geometries, that is the new problematic area that occurred by moving these bones, that supposedly were fixing their respective problems.

Guess what, the result was expected and correct, but with some side effects unfortunately. Firstly, the new smart bone was acting as a movement controller, as it was expected to. And I was able to have the resulting problem area fixed by only controlling the new smart bone. But also, new problems have appeared. Moreover, to get to that resulting problem area I had to move those existing smart bones into their relative positions, thus writing their bone animation to the new smart bone controller timeline. In its turn that controller, now was limiting/controlling those two smartbones' angles, thus limiting their movement bias while they are in the resulting state that is fixing their combined problem area.

Ok, it was expected, but not desired nevertheless, as while resolving the resulting problem area, it also created a difficulty in positioning the bones to the needed state. That is, I've received a more complex rig than I wanted to.

Of course, I have tried to adjust those smart bones' actions, so there would be no need to fix their resulting geometry. I have achieved that, but only partially. Thus, still leaving me with a distorted geometry of two smarbones.

For example: Let's imagine, the forearm is bending nicely with the geometry of the shoulder, and by itself, the shoulder is bending well towards the neck. But when combining those bends, the new problem area occurs. And that area I was trying to fix.

Any ideas on how to adjust the resulting area of two smart bones movement?

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And the second problem, I meant, a mystery to resolve, hehe, is that every time I use a smart bone action, it causes the Inverse Kinematics constraints, that is all the target bones of the current bone group - to stop functioning/working/reacting to their related bones.

Note: Control Bones are fine and the Target bones are the only ones being affected.

I'm still trying to figure these out. Hehe, I'm in dire need of help as you can see. Thanks!

N.B. Moho version 14.2 build 20240604.

[Leks Luci]

I have just reproduced the Target Bones problem in a new file and a random figure. First, I have created two pin bones and then two normal bones, each one linked to a pin bone, are pointing to each other, and having each other as a target bone. This step is ok. Then I have created a new normal bone and made it a smart one, adjusting geometry around it. Advanced to the frame one and moved the smart bone. And that was it, the moment when the Target Bones stoped working. Note, I was using Flexi binding all along for the normal bones. I'll try layer and point binding as well, and let you know.

[Leks Luci]

The same situation persists with flexi binding and point binding. I guess it's a bug.
I'll be switching to the previous release of Moho's v.14.

[synthsin75]

Not seeing this problem here, in v14.2.

Perhaps someone could post a simple file illustrating the problem/s.

[Leks Luci]

I have tried every release of the Moho 14 and the 13.5. And the situation was persistent in all releases. Don't understand..... Why.... Hehe

Also I have deleted any 3d party content from the app, new scripts and their dependencies. But it didn't help either.

Here is a quick example file.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/n4bo40cl ... .moho/file

As soon as the Smart Bone is activated on frame 1 and up, it breaks the Target Bones. Thanks.

[synthsin75]

I have tried every release of the Moho 14 and the 13.5. And the situation was persistent in all releases. Don't understand..... Why.... Hehe

Also I have deteted any 3d party content from the app, new scripts and their dependencies. But it didn't help either.

Here is the quick example file.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/n4bo40cl ... .moho/file

As soon as the Smart Bone is activated on frame 1 and up, it breaks the Target Bones. Thanks.

That's because you've keyed those bones on frame one of the action. You've told the smart bone to control them, and smart bone controlled position isn't calculated for targets.

[Leks Luci]

That's because you've keyed those bones on frame one of the action. You've told the smart bone to control them, and smart bone controlled position isn't calculated for targets.

synthsin75, thanks a lot! I was mistakenly thinking that I was creating keyframes just for the selected bone. Oh, I wasn\t attentive enough, and without proper sleep for a week. You've saved my day! Much appreciated.

If I'm not mistaken, there is no shortcut for creating a keyframe just for a selected bone? I'll create one via Edit ->Edit keyboard shortcuts.

[Greenlaw]

I use Ctrl+Shift+Q, but I'm not sure that's native. If not, yes, you should be able to assign a shortcut.

[Greenlaw]

I just checked, and you're correct: there is no natively assigned shortcut for this.

Note that I have Ctrl+Shift+Q assigned to two commands for keyframing a selection: Freeze Selected Bones and Freeze Selected Points. Moho might complain about assigning the same shortcut to two commands, but since you can only do one or the other at any time, there is no conflict in assigning the same shortcut to both.

If you do this, you may want to disable Enable Audio Feedback. Otherwise, I think Moho will beep every time you use the shortcut. (I keep this option off regardless because I really don't want Moho beeping at me all the time.)

[Leks Luci]

Thanks Greenlaw!
I'll assign the shortcut to Ctrl+Shift+Q, it's convenient to access on the keyboard.
DId you mean turning off the sound notification within the program Settings, in the Tools section by unchecking Enable Audio Feedback?

By the way, do you know of a method to control the resulting area of two smartbones?

[Greenlaw]

DId you mean turning off the sound notification within the program Settings, in the Tools section by unchecking Enable Audio Feedback?

Yes, that.

By the way, do you know of a method to control the resulting area of two smartbones?

Using two smart bones to control the same points or bones at the same time can result in a conflict. If this is what you mean, you should watch KuzKuz's video explaining his Mixed Smart Bones technique. (It has English subtitles.)



Once you understand the technique, check out A.Evseeva's Mixed Smart Bones script, which automates the setup. You can download the script from mohoscripts.com. Here's a video describing how to use it.



I recommend learning how to do this manually first. The script can be a timesaver, but it generates a particular setup, and understanding how it works makes it easier to modify the results.

[Leks Luci]

Greenlaw, thanks a lot. This method is really helpful and works well. It took me a bit of practice, but I've got it. Much appreciated.