Bone dynamics not working!!

[Nicohk92]

Hey everyone,
I'm having a pretty big problem here while on a deadline. I spent 2 hours creating foliage with bone dynamics in a separate file.

I have my master parent bone intact at the beginning of the branch, then, bones with dynamic settings for the leafs and such. They all work fine so I saved them in the library.

Now that I import them in my scene, the bone dynamics don't work anymore.

However there is no difference. The master bone rotation is the same (sometime even already in the library object). I tried importing the foliage elements via the "import" option instead of library and no more luck.

What's wrong? Is there a setting per project to allow bone dynamic that I am not aware of?

It works on a few foliage elements (the more simple ones) but still, I see no reason dynamics work in one file and not another (with same project settings).

Any leads?


Thanks

[dueyftw]

Check parenting?

Post the file. I can only guess with out looking at it.

Dale

[Nicohk92]

It's not parenting. I just sent you a PM. thanks

[dueyftw]

Look at you file. You have a lot that has pink time line layers. The visibility is off on them.
Dale

[Nicohk92]

To notify the develloper and in case someone has the same problem.

I must start by saying that my project is very long as I'm aiming for one continuous movement and there are no convenient ways to cut in parts and tie up in an editing software.

Also I'm a bit messy as frame zero and I don't get along. My frame zero always gets cluttered in seconds so I took the habits for most things of just editing wherever i'm at. It usually works fine however even though indeed sometimes elements arrive invisible when I've set my play range beyond Frame0 (no biggie there).

Duey gave me some leads and I tried various things to see why some of my elements didn't have bone dynamics working upon landing on my main timeline.

Setting the playrange back from frame 0 and importing there, it could finally work but then I still had to bring the element all the way to frame 900 something. No matter what I tried, when pushing it that far into the timeline, the bone dynamics failed miserably.

The good news is, they are effective on renders so i'm saved. I'll have to refine them at frame 0 and then place them along the way with a bit of guesswork but it works.

I may have to be more disciplined with frame 0 in the future and advise all that if you overcrowd your sequence and extend it too much (as modern processing power no allows) bone dynamics won't follow.

[heyvern]

I did a HUGE GIGANTIC physics animation demo video for Smith Micro when the feature was first introduced. This was one long continuous physics project, like a Rube Goldberg machine. It ran for at least 30 seconds or more from start to finish.

When first constructed I built each section in parts that all started at frame 0. Once the simulation was run through I turned off physics and used just the key frames that were created to speed up the editing and camera movement. I panned and zoomed the camera to focus on each section of the simulation. I would suggest do it this way so you don't have to worry about physics "not working". Set up your physics "normally", turn it off, and then simply move the keys or use the sequencer to move the keyed simulation wherever it should go in the time line.

You CAN animate the start and stop of physics. So importing at frame zero you shouldn't have to drag the whole thing down to frame 900+. You could just set it to hidden, show it when it needs to show and key frame the physics to turn on at that spot. Actually using the sequencer would only activate the physics when the time line hits the start frame of that layer.

You probably should be aware of how Anime Studio works with the frame 0 set up frame. Importing in the middle of the timeline can create all kinds of key frame management issues and lots of confusion. Editing things "where ever you happen to be" in the timeline is not... the best way to handle things. If you are doing frame by frame animation of points and bones this makes sense, but if your frame 0 set up needs adjusting it should be done there or at the start frame of the layer.

[dueyftw]

My advice is to brake up the animation into sections. Most of the elements that are in frame 1 to 288 are not seen by the camera after frame 290. So that would be one section. Then the next section would be 289 to say 500. And then 500 to 1000. Keeping with in 300 to 500 frames of animation.

The advantages of doing this is: You can delete everything that is not going to be render by the camera. Laying out the camera moments over a long animation then cutting the animation up will save rendering times. Will let add more elements that your computer can handle if it is only just one file. And you only have to fix a section if something is or goes wrong. Also you can add elements far down the animation and import them on frame zero.

Dale

[Nicohk92]

Heyvern thanks for the advice. After a few project with asp I got used to the keyframe management issues with not importing aty frame 0. I guess as I go to more complex work, I'll just have to get back in line. I was talking about bone dynamics. It's different from physics right? Cannot animate trhe start and stop of bone dynamics as far as I know.

Thanks for everything Duey. I'm just gonna keep pushing through with my current method (my mac is running fine and no other issues to report) but I'll definitly implement your advice if I run into more problems. it is indeed the way to go and I sense i'll have to render part by part anyway.

[heyvern]

Oops!

My mistake. I don't use bone dynamics very often and jumped to the wrong conclusion. I thought it was PHYSICS you were having trouble with.

[Nicohk92]

The good news is, they are effective on renders so i'm saved.

Actually they're not. So i'm not saved...

[Nicohk92]

Yes! Found the fix.

I imported all my plants from the library into a group at frame zero of my main project.

Now my other plants along the timeline seem to work.


pfioo!