Moho Forum

Yeah...I looked at the other model I was working on and thought...OMG! if people can't reproduce these results quickly and easily there's not much point in me doing this stuff a all....so I stopped trying to make it perfect and just clonked out a basic easy to do vector model....there's only 8 bones to draw but the beauty is after you have set up one side of the head you just dupicate and flip your boned layer to make a left and a right side layer, reparent 4 points, drag both layers into a switch layer and start animating.

D.K

I'm really curious to see how you rig the mouth but so far the model looks great!

Thanks Darth. Yes...the mouth is going to require some thought...perhaps over christmas.

EDIT: Here's a screenshot of the bones setup.


Hope you all have a merry one!!!!

D.K

I have completed a mouth rig that I'm happy even though it is not technically correct for a mouth when it's in profile I decided to go with it for the sake of keeping it simple. If anyone would like to see a better mouth profile concept that uses switch layers I'm happy to go back to the drawing board on this. Opinons needed here.




EDIT: Thanks for the feedback Mkelly. I've added a range of vowels.

http://www.wienertoonz.com/SIMPLEHEAD8.swf

EDIT2: It's very easy to change the head shape. This took about two minutes.


http://www.wienertoonz.com/SIMPLEHEAD9.swf

EDIT 3: Here is the model with two arms added. All body rotation is
coming from 1 control bone.

EDIT 4: Now added boned switch layers for arms.

http://www.wienertoonz.com/SBOD1.swf


Cheers
D.K

I like it a lot.

I wouldn't worry too much about the mouth per se -- it looks great as is.

A new version with self masking sleeve lines.



http://www.wienertoonz.com/SBOD1.swf


D.K

Excellent! Keep it up DK!

Actually Genete....it's nearly done! Thanks to you once again, I was reading one of your older posts regarding boned switch layers....I had no idea you could rig switch layers with bones!!!....What a PERFECT SOLUTION FOR THE ARMS!

D.K

Here is the final version.



http://www.wienertoonz.com/TOONTURNFIN.swf

http://www.wienertoonz.com/DKTOONROTATE.zip

If you are interested, please stay tuned to this thread as I will be doing further updates.

Enjoy
D.K

It's absolutely amazing looking! I just hope the rig is not too complicated and something I can apply to my own characters.

Thanks so much for all this investigation and work -- very generous of you to share it with all here.

Thanks - this is fine work.

Can this be applied to realistic models?

WOW! I'm almost convinced, "BONES" are a good thing.
Love it. Great work! Thanks for sharing. I'll give it a try.
Bob P

Your're kicking my arse DK! Way to go!

Can this be applied to realistic models?

I am sure it could but you would probably run into the same problems I do trying to turn "realistic" characters. The more realistic the less you can get away with.

-vern

Oh well, I guess I'll stick with point animation then.

Still love what you're doing D.K.

Vern, you're still Dr Bones to me though. Without you there would never have been the challenge.

Hi...thanks for all the wonderfull comments......I'm not trying to kick anyones arse Vern hehe....you ARE a god when it comes to bones.

..I'm just what you might call a hands on mechanic....all the bone rigs are just little mechanical methods of moving points and shapes and hiding lines that together fake a 3D turn.

I know it looks complicated but it really is very easy to do. The hardest part was figuring out what points to move and the correct scale values to apply to achieve it. Once one body and head side layer is completed the layers are simply duplicated and flipped to make the opposing sides. So really you only have to set up a left head layer and a left body layer.

Human wrote:

Can this be applied to realistic models?

I'm sure you can apply this technique to a realistic model. The shapes will be a little more complicated though. I might try doing that next. I was worried about the arms but a boned switch layer minimises hand bones and allows you to draw your own hand positions which I think is a far better option than boning fingers.

mkelly wrote:

It's absolutely amazing looking! I just hope the rig is not too complicated and something I can apply to my own characters.

No problem at all to apply this to your own characters. There are a few simple rules to follow, but as long as the face , body shapes are generally kept basic there would be no problem.

rplate wrote:

Oh well, I guess I'll stick with point animation then.

If it hadn'nt been for you I would not have had the inspiration to start this in the first place. Bones are not hard things to use. I used to be a points only animator till I started getting sick of dragging tha same points around time after time. There's always actions I guess but I just like the hands on feeling that bones give you....kinda like puppetry.

Cheers
D.K