action constraints help

Support Animation and Rigging
1

Hi!
I am starting to learn action constrains on a simple character.
I have added a bone at the wrist to control his hand making a fist. But I have run into a problem.
At the beginning , I animate the control bone to form the fist…
http://www.cafes.net/ladyb/pos1.jpg

then I animate the arm to raise above his head. But when I do the fist deforms, because the control bone changes position…
http://www.cafes.net/ladyb/pos2.jpg

This is not good… How do I fix this?

Edit:Nevermind I had some wrong values entered. I wish there was a way you could delete your own thread.

2

Sometimes asking the question gives you the answer :slight_smile:

I have started to post pc problems in a tech forum many times only to come up with the solution while trying to describe my problem in detail.

3

Heh, yea. I fixed it by clicking the henge button on the bone that controls the action, then unclicking the local button in all the fingers action constraints. Im sure this is not the correct way, and would appreciate any help that you could give me, but it was good enough for me to finish his first 3 seconds :slight_smile:
http://www.cafes.net/ladyb/0001_0100.zip
It is a .mov file at medium quality. I am on a slow connection so I try anything I can to compress the video.
I have since learned about limiting bone rotations in his legs, so his knees don’t flop too much(well he doesnt have knees, but u could see it in the top of his boots)
I have a couple more questions.

  1. Is there a better format to save in than .mov? By better I mean smallest file size without totally destroying quality. It took me 10 min to upload that 3 second clip :open_mouth:
  2. Well I forgot 2 so I will ask it later.
4

Is there another way to do hands without actions… 'cos I’m making a human model and I want the hands to loads of things.

…is there a proven set up fo moving all the fingers individually?

5

kanfien, here’s a link to the tut I am using to learn how to rig the hand using action constraints. He has done a seperate action for each finger.

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread?t=18754

edit-its actually not a tut, and its also kinda old, but you will get the idea.

6

Check out the link to my Ludwig rig in my signature. The hands use action constraints, but I think you will find that they are quite flexible and will do most reasonable motions. Your other options are to make each finger an IK chain (not a bad option with the recent improvements to the IK system) or simply make each finger an FK chain. FK obviously gives the most control and flexibility, but takes much more time to pose.

7

Ive decide to try action constraints… to see the potential and learn a bit more…

ive set up the hand as in “ludwig” rigged example, with the action and the actuator bones etc… but i dont seem to be able to set the min + max “…values for target channel range” correctly, 'cos the finger jumps from the start key to the end key and both are displaced slightly from what i actually set up. :confused:

  • how do you work out the min + max values?
  • am i just being stupid?

Apologies for not having an image/movie to show.

EDIT

I seem to have solved the problem by reversing the keys in the action to key one is hand open and key 20 is closed rather than the opposite… and then using 10min + 5max? …it works but i dont know why… if sumone could explain that would be good otherwise i fear it make do sumthing messy later. :slight_smile:

…still only works for one finger…argh!

…is it a bad idea to set up a number of actions for closing the hand? if i want to be able to lets say, “form a fist” and “bend only the 2nd + 3rd knuckles” (eg:pain)? …might the keys cause problems with building actions on others actions therefore the total rotation of a finger being like 180degrees to far!?