Amazing hidden feature: Flexible bone locking

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:16 pm

Hi guys, at office we discovered (or created...) a fantastic feature: the possibility of lock bones with movement.

Take a look on this file
http://www.mediafire.com/?gzzymnyzjiy
For all walks you see there, we only created one normal walk as base and then just move the parent bone to create several uniques walks.

Please! try with the "no movement" layer: move the parent bone on time to create your own cycle. The body will move, but the feet will be always on their original place! just like locked bones, but in movement!

I don't know if you are as excited as me, but this is a HUGE hidden feature which will make life a lot easier.

Now, how it works
First, create your animated walk (or whatever) as normal, then just lock each keyframe: All the secret is to lock each foot on all keyframes, but in backwards. I mean, first lock it on frame 24, then on 23, then on 22, then on 21... until the first one.

it is fantastic, isn't it?

It would be great something like this could be implemented "officially", or at least there would be an easy way to create it via scripting.
What do you think?
(please, I really need feedback, we discovered it friday night and just now I have time to publish it, I have been all weekend thinking about!)

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:33 pm

WoooHOOOOOO!!!

This is cool as freaking HECK! No wonder you are excited!!!

A long time ago I discovered the trick of locking bones "in reverse" but only did it like one time for a specific project and never expanded on it or even dreamed it could be used like this.

I can't wait to play around with this some more. I have 3 characters all walking and skipping through a meadow and this would really speed up the process of getting some interesting variety in the cycles.

p.s. Yes, scripting the keys would make sense. It all depends though on how AS "calculates" the keys for OTHER bones. When you key the bone locking it uses the IK solver to determine the bone rotations. Doing this with a script might not give the same results. Worth a shot though.

-vern

J. Baker · Post by **J. Baker** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:18 pm

That is awesome! It definitely makes it easier to add some character to a walk cycle.

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:52 pm

This is officially the "Selgin's Locked walk cycle technique".

Congratulations!!!!

-G

arfa · Post by **arfa** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 11:51 pm

That is so cool........ :shock:

Walk cycles are for sure one of my bugaboos and this gives a way to play about ---- with pizazz.

Many thanks for posting the example. I will watch for further development with much interest.

Thanks - arfa

ulrik · Post by **ulrik** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 11:52 pm

That is cool Selgin, great discovery!!

toonertime · Post by **toonertime** » Mon Aug 10, 2009 11:58 pm

boo hoo for us 5.7 users!

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 12:09 am

toonertime wrote:boo hoo for us 5.7 users!

Sorry, here you have a version on 5.6 I just made
http://www.mediafire.com/?lzmnum2mjj0

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 4:54 am

Dude, the snake technique and now this?! I think someone's shooting for MVP of the year...and I know who I'm voting for.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 5:09 am

Dagnabbit! I played with your silly walk dude file for A FREAKING HOUR!

It's so... dang FLEXIBLE. Sneaking walks... walk against a wind... strutting... all with the exact same stride length. I even played with bone scale and "squetch" and it STILL works.

I was thinking how to make this easier to use for a character moving across the screen:

You have a fixed distance between the two foot bones. The feet are off the ground for a set number of frames then "stick" to the ground and slide "back" for a set number of frames. The stride length would be calculated from the contact points when both feet touch the ground.

A script would then use the number of frames between the two contact points and the distance between the two foot bones to determine the distance to move either a layer or a root bone. The issue would be whether the forward motion is "linear".

My thought is the script would use the translation of the bones and "match it" in "reverse" to create a forward motion that matches the stride length and TIMING. A straight linear motion wouldn't work because there might be variations in the walk.

The good news... the information needed IS RIGHT THERE IN THE KEY FRAMES!

-vern

tonym · Post by **tonym** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 6:13 pm

Thank you, selgin!

wena · Post by **wena** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 8:07 pm

Please selgin

Could I have a copy of the Flexible bone locking I just failed to download it.

Wena

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 8:27 pm

wena wrote:Please selgin

Could I have a copy of the Flexible bone locking I just failed to download it.

http://www.zshare.net/download/6649074936919a7d/
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2TV0QMWG
http://depositfiles.com/es/files/30akw5fb3
Here you have 3 servers with the archive, so you really should be able to download the file at least from one

wena · Post by **wena** » Mon Oct 05, 2009 11:49 am

Thank you Selgin, I wish I could re-pay all of you for your kindness.

Wena

dsaenz825 · Post by **dsaenz825** » Tue Oct 06, 2009 6:52 pm

I managed to look at it yesterday, and man I wish I knew this before.
Its so simple yet very effective.