Conditional Bones

[ok_pepo]

Hello! How are you all? I have a question that's been driving me crazy, and I can't seem to solve it. I'm even thinking about giving up and pursuing something else. I have a rig for a character, and I need to define the legs and the waist. The problem is, in that area, I have two bones that individually control their respective points, but when combined, they should create a different point trajectory. This results in the leg moving correctly when manipulated individually, the waist moving correctly when manipulated individually, but when combined, it doesn't work correctly...

I've studied Mixed Bones, but they don't seem to work with bones within the rig... I assume it's because the bones themselves are already constantly moving points.

Does anyone know if there's a method for something like "Conditional Bones"? Meaning, if this bone is at X and this other one is at Y, then these points should move. I know something similar happens with the Mixed Bones technique.

Thank you so much for your time!

Bone 1


Bone 2


Combined:

[ok_pepo]

Or maybe a way to solve problems like this one? What do you do when you come across a situation like this, do you solve it directly in animation or can you fix the rig to make the animation easier afterwards?

Thank you!

[Hoptoad]

Or maybe a way to solve problems like this one? What do you do when you come across a situation like this, do you solve it directly in animation or can you fix the rig to make the animation easier afterwards?

Thank you!

In my opinion, sometimes the best approach to creating the perfect bone rig is to stop trying to create the perfect bone rig. For example, if your bone rig works 90% like you want, then perhaps stop working on it and start animating your character. There will be animation errors, of course. But then you enter PHASE 2, which is fixing the animation errors. Oftentimes, fixing the errors only takes only a few minutes. I suspect the error in your illustration with the leg and hip could be fixed by moving one or two points during animation.

If you are spending too much time fixing animations, then consider making a smart bone action to automate the the fix.

[ok_pepo]

Thank you so much for your reply! I guess that answer has been inside me since the first week I kept trying and failing over and over again.

I had to pass the rigs to someone else for animation, and I wanted to hand them over perfectly without any issues. Thank you very much; I think my problem is just that—I keep trying to create the perfect rig. And the worst part is that I'll probably keep trying.

I wish there were some kind of manual on how to make a rig that's more automatic, but there are so many possibilities for rigging that it becomes too challenging with all the alternatives and things to do. However, I see videos or samples of rigs made in Moho, and they're just amazing! I hope to reach that level someday.

[Hoptoad]

I'm self-taught, but I've been teaching myself for ages. I've learned that I can waste tons of time making rigs (I think it's fun). Nowadays I try to spend more time making backgrounds and other things.

In my opinion, more important than a perfect rig is timing. I think a good animator can take a basic rig and make it come to life through animation.

Of course, I am always trying to make my rigs better. A good rig saves animation time. But at some point (when I feel frustrated, usually) I ask myself, Should I spend a couple hours trying to fix a tiny error on my bone rig, or would my time be better spent just moving a few points around during animation?

No bone rig is good for everything, anyhow. A bone rig created for walk cycles and common movements might not work as well when the character climbs rocks. Sometimes an animator needs to unparent a foot bone and just use translate layer on the foot to put it where it needs to be.

Good luck!