Hi,
I’m posting this to see if the bone setup is correct for the object I’m trying to setup to animate.
Are there too many bones? Would setup pretty much this way for flexibility in the object part.
Thank you
Yes and no, it all really depends upon how this thing should look/act. To me, it looks like it’s something that will be sort of rigid - not having a lot of bend points. Like a human’s arm, there is only one bend point in an arm, the elbow, other than that, the arm is pretty much rigid. If that is the look you are going for, then yes, too many bones.
If you want it to deform like like a snake, all smooth bends and not really any joints, then no, you don’t have too many bones. If this is the case, then you are lacking a lot of edge loops in your modelling.
See the area where the blue arrow is pointing? You have 3 bones in there, but no edge loops in the mesh. You need a couple of edge loops where each bone connects to the next one to get a smooth bend in there.
The area where the red arrow is, you have some edge loops, but not enough for a smooth bend. But you have enough bones for a smooth bend, like a snake.
Really need to kind of know your vision for how this thing acts to know the best way to advise…
Randy
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I used the smooth setting just to give it that look, but yes, I’m trying to get a flexible movement, but not overwhelmingly detail, I think that is unrealistic, and not necessary, but just enough to give some sort of elastic like effect.
What I did before was, I don’t remember, but it was like a bad hard rock design, just completely static. So I think by using seperate objects, and join them, and add a skeleton, I can just about pull of a low poly character for the game engine, in order for it to work well with a player interaction, using python or the bricks. That is further along the road. A working object is really the objective. The previous body, here it is, caused nothing but instability.
I’ve even setup one arm, not sure on the other. Could as one, or just diplicate it.
I tried joining that arm, so it appears to connect okay.
They are seperate, but joined, so no actual vertice joined.
Ok, now I see what you are working on. I’ve seen the movie.
Let’s just focus on the legs. The arms are the same as the legs, so once legs are figured out, you’ll know how to do the arms.
First off, I think you are wrong on how you created the legs. Your screenshot:
Shows two upper legs.
This image from 40 seconds into the video shows one upper leg:
and 2 lower legs. Watch carefully and slowly how it moves around. 1 upper leg, and 2 lower legs.
So to rig the thing, I would want 1 upperleg bone and 2 lower leg bones, like so:
The blue line is the upper leg bone, green lines the lower leg bones
The lower leg mesh could be separate mesh objects because where they connect to the upper leg is kinda hidden by the area I outlined in yellow.
Those are my thoughts,
Randy
Correct, I don’t know how to create the arms. So the legs are a basic structure for the arms.
And yes, I am quite aware about the legs, I don’t know how to create a leg like the one of the film’s character. So the one I thought up seemed the best option.
Unless, I just join both leg objects together like a twig stick from a treet branch.
Not quite as smooth as the previous idea.
So with the armature there. I don’t know, if this could work okay. Right front leg moves and then the back after.
Thinking this over, I guess you would be better off with 2 upper legs, each having their own lower leg. Because how would one make a creature with 1 upper leg and 2 lower legs walk? They would walk like a human, moving both lower legs together. Doesn’t make sense. I noticed the movie clip never actually shows the creature walking, as in the upper leg, lower legs, and feet. It only hints at this movement, without showing it.
Anyway, 2 upper legs, 2 lower legs. Each leg should have 1 upper leg bone and 1 lower leg bone and 1 foot bone, not all the bones you are showing. All the bones you have in the upper leg area suggest you want the upper leg to bend and I don’t think you want or need that. I think you can make a convincing walk cycle with that without needing to bend the leg segments.
This will reduce the complexity of the rig, making it easier to manage. The legs will need to be animated using IK, so you don’t want all those bones part of an IK chain. Keep it simple.
Now for the neck, which acts like a snake, you’ll need more bones. But let’s focus on legs, the duplicate that to the arms, before getting into the neck.
Randy
So just duplicating bones, and creating a bone structure isn’t quite the way.
As for this upper leg, you mean remove the back leg and add it to the top of the branch type leg area.
Can you post a file?
Let me take a look at it.
Randy
So this is the file so far.
You think the leg complete object can serve as the arm objects too.