Hi All,
I have been tasked with animating a paper doll like in the posted image.
I will need multiple copies of the character which need to bend, flex and join hands.
I am wondering what is the best approach to this? I am not strong on rigging or the NLA.
I would like to avoid both if possible.
Any tips are appreciated.
If you know of any rigs that might match the need that would be appreciated as well.
Thanks!
That looks pretty easy. If you want to upload a file of one, I can rig it for you. The object will need some subdivision so it can flex.
Here is what I have so far.
It is an extruded curve outline of a paper doll. I am not sure what the best way is to model it so it flexes.
The simpler the rig, the better, for me. I am also looking into the GUS tutorial as well.
This is a 2.49 project.
Thanks!
ras_paper_doll_outline.blend (129 KB)
I can’t remember which is which, but there are two tutorials in that section of the wiki. One is the gingerbread man and the other is a little more complex of a rig. I recommend both tutorials. By the way does your paper doll have to walk?
EDIT: OK looked at the file. I think you’d want to model this as a mesh and apply the subsurf modifier. Model it with even quads and have it segmented up evenly so it can deform. When you get that far and you still need some help, I am glad to rig it up for you.
Yes, it does have to have some kind of leg movement as well as being able to bend arms and head.
Ok, I chopped through the GUS tutorial and came up with a basic character. So the next step is how do I duplicate him so I can…
A.) Have different materials for the two colors I will need?
B.) Have a ring of them hold hands, like in the picture?
ras_gus_gingerbread_man.blend (209 KB)
Looks good.
You can either duplicate (shift D) the Object and the Armature or duplicate linked (Alt D) the Object and the Armature. If you choose the latter, you can update one in edit mode - say you realize it needs to have more segments - and the rest will update. In either case just make sure you either click on the number next to the material name to make it “single user”, or add a new material to the duplicate this way you can have two materials and you can change the color.
Suggested workflow is to make one and get the material just right. Then shift select both Armature and object then AltD to duplicate. Make the material single user on each one to change color and then any edits you make in edit mode to the Armature or object will update on all of them.
One word of advice to make your life easy. Turn off automatic keyframing if you move the Armature in object mode or all duplicate objects will snap back to that position.I know there is a way to get around that, but I forget off hand. Something to do with duplicating ipo in preferences and something else, but anyway, you don’t need key frames there. Only in pose mode. You can make a root bone that is a parent to all bone chains and move that if you want to keyframe the position of the entire thing.
Ok,
I duplicated both the armature and the mesh. I still have the paper doll bodies sharing the same mesh datablock as you suggested. I have centered the secondary armature at the world origin and moved it to an non-used layer (along with the secondary mesh which has it’s own new material). I added the secondary mesh to a group called “paper_doll” so I could make as many copies as I wanted using dupligroup via empties.
Do I need to add the secondary armature to the same group as the secondary mesh?
As you can see in my picture, everything looks fine in the interface, but when I render, there are problems. I am not sure why it looks different when I render as opposed to the GUI interface?
ras_paper_dolls_1a.blend (226 KB)
It’s the follow curve modifier on the dupliverts that is stuffing up the render… although as you say not in the viewport.
You can do the dupliverts from mesh vertices like this http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Modeling/Objects/Duplication/DupliVerts by putting in a circle mesh making it the parent of your armature and making it vert dup.
Hmm…
I tried adding the secondary armature to the same group as the secondary mesh. That seemed to fix it. I looks like if you are going to constrain a dupligrouped character via an empty, both the armature and the mesh should be part of the same group.
@atom,
took a look at your setup,
thought this approach with a simple mesh would be a nice training-example.
But
why did you not put a master(root)-bone into the armature?
That is the better idea in my opinion for moving them, but since he is using the empty that serves well also. You can always add the root to the armature if it is also been linked (alt D) and they will all update. For posing them and animating I think that is best.
I don’t know a lot about rigging. What makes a bone the “master/root” bone? Is that simply the first bone created? Can I add a master bone to my rig after it is already rigged?
Yes you can. What makes it the master or root, is its relationship to the other bones. Just parenting. Nothing special. Your rig is a little too simple for walking. You can do it, but it won’t have very much to work with. You can make it walk in place and then move it along though space with the root bone. There are techniques for that. Try searching “Stride Bone” and “Walk Cycle”. There are tutorials for setting it up so you can just have the walk cycle repeat and move the root bone along using the NLA I believe. Anyway I apologize, I don’t work that way so I can not give you specifics.
The way I work is to move the hip bone along with key frames as I make the walk.
But to your specific question. A root bone is the parent of all chains and is usually positioned at the hips sticking out backwards with the tip facing away from the character’s back.
Go into edit mode on your rig, don’t select any bones. But put the cursor at the center of the X axis and you can even set it to snap to the base of the lower spine bone. Then add a bone. It will start there at the base. Rotate it back 90 degress so it is facing backwards.
Then make it the parent of all of the bone chains. The legs and the spine in this case. The root bone does not deform so turn that off in the bone properties.
To convert your simple rig into something much easier to pose for walking you can do this:
First you’ll have your rig divided into two parts.
Upper Body
Lower Body
And you can use the root bone as I suggested but it will have a different function.
On the lower body:
Simply add a foot bone to the bottom of each leg. Do it in the same way as above, but snap the cursor to the tip of each lower leg bone and add a bone. Don’t make it a child. Or if you want to extrude it, unparent AltP after.
These will be your IK targets for each leg chain. You don’t need any foot bones or deformers for this simple character so turn deform off on these bones.
Then in Pose Mode select the foot bone and then shift click the lower leg bone and then Shift I. This will set up am IK chain.
Make sure and make the chain length 2 in the constrain properties. Do this for each leg.
Now you can simply convert any simple walk cycle tutorial to this rig. But no messing with the feet. All you have to do is position the foot bone.
The root bone now functions to move the upper body dragging the leg IK chains but leaving the feet in place. The feet stick to the floor until you move the foot goals into a new position. More to the walk cycle but this is the basic set up that will work for your character.
If you want a root bone to move the entire character, create another one and parent the “Root” or now “Hip” bone as it functions under the IK set up, and the feet goals to this bone and you can move the entire rig around with it.
Thanks for the instructions. I was able to add a ROOT bone and a spine to my GUS.
Next I will have to figure out actions and the NLA.
