Brain Fart - bone driven and point motion

madrobot · Post by **madrobot** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 12:32 am

I was wrestling with a scene yesterday, a character rig driven by bones,
and something Greykid (FreakishKid?) posted once came back to me.

Just because bones were driving the points didn't mean I had to
wrestle with the rig until I went insane, I could get in and tidy up with
point motion!!

What was I thinking, I wasn't extracting my own teeth with a pair of pliers,
or rigging a character in Lightwave!

I'm posting this knowing full well you guys are not as moronic as
I am, but it might help someone somewhere along the line -

- To know that the bone tools are awesome, but you don't have to
crawl up your own backside trying to get it all to behave exactly
right. If it's D-day, just rough it out with bones and then hand tweak
the point motion.

Quicker and easier in the end I found, (sure I had to go frame by
frame for a few there where they was a bit of creasing
on a bending leg, but was faster than fiddling with bones all day.)

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:04 am

Ha ha!

Even as a big supporter of "only bones" AS animation I too have used point motion in a "pinch" to save time. Especially at "the end" when tweaking the points is the final touch.

p.s. Your avatar freaks me out by the way.

-vern

madrobot · Post by **madrobot** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:10 am

I do think all the bone tools in AS, and the additional ones
you guys have scripted, are awesome.

I also think that having done (a little) 3D, I had in the
back of my mind that the bones rig was the be all and
end all, and that I had to get that right damn it!

Goes to show how flexible AS is. Bone motion is a great
tool, but you'd be a fool to think that bone motion and
point motion are mutually exclusive. Like I was. For 9 months.

(Sorry about the avatar. The only explanation I can offer
is that I had a bad headache that day.)

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:20 am

Yeah, I think this is a point people tend to forget. Luckily, I'm just a hobbyist and can afford to continue fiddling with bone only rigs.

The only real benefit of 'bone only' animation (aside from a cleaner timeline, which really isn't my concern) is it's ability to reuse the rig. Point motion is always very dependent on the specific shapes, sizes, and locations.

Just goes to show, even knowing the benefits of point motion over bones doesn't mean we're all smart enough to utilize it.

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 10:40 am

Saw the words 'brain fart'... it could only come from one poster here.....old rumble guts himself.
If only animation was as simple.