Devin Johnston Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 I've got an AXYZ character with mocap data applied that is doing the motions of digging with a shovel. I have a shovel that I want him to use and I've tried linking the shovel to the mesh of the character but that doesn't work. Anyone have some advice on how to put the shovel in his hands and have it follow his movements? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricardo Eloy Posted October 28, 2009 Share Posted October 28, 2009 Have you tried animating a gizmo to behave like his hand and then linking the shovel? I know it sounds odd, but you probably can't link a mesh to a part of another mesh, so animating a gizmo would be fairly quick and give you a way to link the shovel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted October 28, 2009 Author Share Posted October 28, 2009 The animation is 600 frames and I'd have to animate two, one for each hand. I also have to do this for several other characters but they are running off the same mocap data so maybe I could get away with doing it once. Any other ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Alexander Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 Biped motion capture rigging typically has a standard bone structure and convention of set up. If I remember the hand/palm or wrist has an intrest/control null that you maybe able to use to control the position and rotation of the shovel. If not you might be able to child a null and or shovel to the palm bone center-pivot. If you can get that set up without wonking the motion capture driven animation it shouldn't ne too hard to have the left hand control the position and rotation of the shovel based on the palm and a controller to keep the shovel fixed to the other hand. Really if it's motion capture of a human shoveling the right hand may line up with the shovel handle by default..... I doubt it though. My thoughts, hope they aren't too arcaic. Have attached objects in Motion Builder way back when and it looks like MAX has implemented that functionality without the interface that made Motion Builder really pretty easy. Sweet app before AD to work with animation, motion capture and transfer there of. AXYZ's documentation is just plug and play type stuff, so it's hard to tell at a glance just how the charactor is rigged-though there is a uniform 'rig' set up associated with motion capture. Find and verify the rig stucture-------may get some ideas on how to connect up a shovel based on the structure. Cheers Wda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 Not to be a party pooper on the animated character, but are sure you are not over thinking this shot? .....I am not sure what you are doing, or how close you are to your subject. But... I do feel if you are close enough to notice the positioning of a shovel in a 3d characters hand, then it might be worth approaching the shot from a different process. If you are close enough to notice the shovel swing, then it might be worth investigating a video photo composite option. If you are far enough, maybe the positinig you have is fine, or maybe you can do a animated paint composite over the character? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonRashid Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 You should just be able to link the shovel to the hand/bone on your biped. If not you could always use linked xform. That way you can attach the shovel to a face/vert/poly/s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted October 29, 2009 Author Share Posted October 29, 2009 The guy digging is the center of attention in this shot, unfortunately they want to see him performing this action so I can't really hide it. I've already tried linking the shovel to the hand/bone but it just screwed up the shovel and the mesh of the character. I'll give it a try again but right now animating a gizmo or doing it the way WDA described seem to be my only options. I haven't done much charactor work but every time I mess with it I'm always amazed at how primitive the interface is. It would be nice if AutoDesk would spend some of my subscription money and bring some of the tool interfaces out of the 90's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonRashid Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 (edited) If your shovel will not link to the hand bone then you have messed something up in the hierarchy. If you have scaled any of your bones rather than using the interface to scale then this scaling is inherited by the children ie the shovel. You can disable inherited scale which may sort things out. The key to boning any mesh is that you always reset the xform values prior to enabling physique. The software interface has come on considerably since the 90's I can assure you as one of the older users Edited October 29, 2009 by JonRashid Spelling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted October 29, 2009 Author Share Posted October 29, 2009 John you were right I was able to link the shovel to one of the hand bones but it only works with one hand at a time, you can't link them both. It's much better than what I had but one of his hands is only on the shovel 50% of the time. Here's what it's looking like so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonRashid Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 cool, it's getting there. What you could do with the other hand is link its bone to the spade. However you will need to remove all the keys from the left arm. If you do that and then link the hand to the spade the IK in the biped should solve itself. You may have to correct it at some point as twists can some times need assistance. So at the end your right hand would control the movement of the spade which subsequently controls the movement of the left hand. You could also try it the other way around, without looking at the anim closely it's hard to make a decision as to which would be best as the master. If you find your hand is revolving around the handle you may have to add an intermediary step. If this causes a problem you will have to look at what inherited links are past on and disable the z/x/y (whichever is the relevant 1). If you line your shovel up properly at the beginning you should find that its main axis would line up with your hand and this would result in your child hand going with the shovel during the anim but not sliding about. Sorry about length of reply but not used to explaining things without a pc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonRashid Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 PS. would love to see the finished animation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonRashid Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 Hold on there maxer. I forgot that might cause a loop you cant have. Your second hand can't be a child cause its already in a hierachy with your other hand. Sorry about that. I have done a similar animation although it's 6yrs now since I did character animation so your accessing old memories. I will have a play and sort out how i did it last time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted October 29, 2009 Author Share Posted October 29, 2009 Thanks Jon I'm in way over my head with this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Alexander Posted October 29, 2009 Share Posted October 29, 2009 You might try a 'look at' controller for the rotation of the shovel xy local axis to shovel. Looking at the non pivot shovel hand. this may stop the handle from jumping out of that hand real bad. I was surpised how well the shovel followed the other hand....expected it to be much worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted November 11, 2009 Author Share Posted November 11, 2009 I've got another question relating to this, if I wanted to make copy's of the guy digging how would I do that? I've tried doing it the most obvious ways by selecting the mesh/bones but that doesn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quizzy Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 maxer, group the entire model including the bones, then you should be able to copy and move it.. as to the shovel "problem" I'm trying something for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quizzy Posted November 11, 2009 Share Posted November 11, 2009 shovel problem is in your email inbox dude... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted November 12, 2009 Author Share Posted November 12, 2009 Thanks Michiel I really appreciate the help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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