I’m in such a mess with it now i don’t even know what to do. I’ve tried several times asking people online for help but I’m really not understanding it.
So i’ve come here, I’m willing to pay someone to take a few minutes to look at all my bones and relationships etc, and get me a character thats limbs all move properly.
I’m not so worried about fingers right now as I can work that out myself (and have already started the weight painting, which took forever). I mainly want to be able to rotate the legs and feet, hands and arms. Head and belly are already working as i wish.
Offering 20 euros ($24). For someone who knows what they’re doing I would have thought this would only take a few minutes.
I’ll do it, provided you don’t want anything fancy (no custom bone shapes for example), but not for money. Instead, sometime in the next forty years, you are obligated to buy me a beer. I know you’ve worked hard on this, and the fact that you’re willing to put your money down is enough proof for me that it’s important to you.
It would help if you could link to a model that animates the way you’d like this robot to animate. There’s more than one way to rig a thing.
Send me a currrent copy of the model and any useful links. Don’t delete the rig you have, it will help me to understand what you want.
You sir, are a legend. I really appreciate all your input. I was actually semi-worried you would see my post here and think ‘wtf is he doing’?
I’m also now worried you will look at my rig and think i’m a total idiot. You’re wrong, only 90% idiot!
I was playing around lots trying to get things better, some things worked, some didn’t…You will be able to tell more than me what makes sense and what doesn’t.
The movement is pretty self explanatory, (going by the hinges). And as for control, I have the four poles for the knees and elbows (they kinda work), I would ideally like to be able to grab key areas and be able to move the whole character with bones following somewhat accordingly.
For example, the lowest spine-bone (or one of the spine bones), would be good to give movement from there up, kinda pelvic movements, ideally i think the foot IKs should control the angle of the feet, but is it possible to also have that as the ‘walk’ movement (whole leg)?
If it will take too long with all the specific rotation constraints etc then don’t worry, i can hopefully work that out - but whatever you can do is just amazing. The little guys name is Dietrich, and he rides on the back of his companion, a hamster, who I have now named, Bandages.
So kind of you to offer mate. Thank you so much. I really wish I could literally watch you do it or have you show me, I want to learn, but i’m been dealing with this all week and just not able to fully understand it yet.
I’m hoping with your changes I will be able to sit and study it and hopefully it will make more sense.
Just noticed a new weird error. None of my mesh parts are showing up in the outliner.
Payment as requested can be in beer, or alternatively if you need something that i CAN ACTUALLY DO doing, then the offer is open.
Sorry for big file-size, I tried to delete everything that wasn’t being used.
I’ve moved control bones onto layer 1 and moved non-control bones off. Should be simple controls here. Didn’t mess with hands because you said not to and hands are tedious. I of course made some design decisions along the way. IK bones respond to both grab and rotate operations. Head responds to grab and rotate as well-- neck currently stretches to it because I thought that was cute, but it’s easy enough to add a limit distance to that.
Some things have been moved out of the way to other layers. Look at the knee when the leg bends-- this should get some detail work, but your geometry for the kneecap is maybe not exactly what you want. Springs are off in another layer, not even painted, because they need to be converted to mesh (as far as I know) and weighting/rigging depends on how you want the knee working.
There’s some places where things are a little off from a humanoid, and I’ve done my best to work toward the vision I saw in your mesh. For example, a human would have some wobble in the ankle, but your mesh doesn’t support that, so your robot walks a little funny sometimes. Atypical rotation in the hip should compensate. Didn’t make a foot roll, just didn’t seem appropriate, not sure how you want that foot handled.
I’m sure there’s stuff I forgot to mention. Take a look.
Mate you’re amazing. Downloading the file, will take a look when it’s done if I haven’t fallen asleep by then. Which reminds me, where in the world are you?
For now just another big thank you! I will have a serious look at it all when my brain is functioning and get back to you. Cheers mate!
I’ve just had a quick look - I can’t tell you how satisfying is is to move that damn arm properly! Amazing. Exactly what I was trying to do, maybe even better! I also like how the rubber moves now in the mid section. All seems good for mirroring to me! This was the biggest hurdle for me, so I should be able to work out the rest for myself.
Your mesh isn’t a straight mirror, so the bones aren’t a straight mirror either. Hands/fingers still aren’t rigged/weighted, which is a bigger problem for the left hand. Quick testing checks out, but it’s easy to have missed an axis or something some place, write a PM if you run into a problem you can’t handle.
What you should do, though, is keep the unmirrored rig and try to recreate it on the left side yourself. It’ll be good practice. Do it manually: look at a bone, look at its axis, its IK limits, its parent, its constraints, look at how the mesh is weighted to it, and do the same thing on the other side. Think about why things are working the way they are while you copy. Bones are hard to wrap your head around for a while, sometimes it just takes some time. Plan on it for later if you’re sick of rigging, don’t get a block from working too hard on something you’re sick of. If you know how the bones work, you’ll have a better time animating it, you’ll have a better time making it do something different later on, and you’ll have a better time making the next model.
> where in the world are you?
West coast US. Seattle-ish.
> this would only take a few minutes
It takes more than a few minutes to even test deforms when you’re done to see if everything’s working like it’s supposed to. This is several hours work for me. I’m very far from expert but I’m not a newb either. I don’t think you were disrespectful, and I think you were offering a fair price for amateur work, but don’t think that Youtube tutorial speed is actual working speed. Youtube tutorials are a very special case for a number of reasons.
Edit: Oh, I might have hidden some bones while working, doesn’t quite justify 200MB reupload. Don’t forget alt-h in pose and edit mode to unhide.
> None of my mesh parts are showing up in the outliner
Objects are just inside the armature hierarchy. Hit the plus button next to the armature to expand it. Blender treats it as a parent-child relationship.
Thank you again Sir, yes I will do as your suggested and try to recreate your work from scratch. I appreciate your time, effort, and teaching. Yeah I was trying to get this done basically all week and did almost move on from it completely, i’m very happy to now be able to continue.
Just had a quick look, he is facing the wrong way in pose mode. Do i just re-align him manually? Also do I have to re-texture now?
Will PM you if and when I run into more problems. :spin:
