Well I tried mstram’s instructions in Ubuntu and the ffmpeg option works. I chose avi output with mpeg4(divX) codec and PCM sound;
http://www.ironclub.net/blender/amyffmpegsound.avi 363 kB
Note the size is smaller than when I used Windows and Virtual Dub;
First, thanks for the great tutorial marenzelleria.
After scanning it shortly I wanted to start right away, but now I’m stuck right at the beginning. At the section “creating the mouth” 
When I extrude, press rmb for abortion and scale it afterwards it turns out like this
image10.PNG
image11.jpg
(The one that resembles the right one most)
instead of this
Tutorial-after-first-extrude.jpg
I tried fixing it by changing “pivot” first but that didn’t work (for neither of them); and when I grabed the misplaced vertices an put them to the right spot I could continue somehow but it got messy really fast.
I hope you can help me, thanks in advance. (ps. blender version: 2.42a)
Someone else asked this - after setting up all the face shapes, and doing the lip-synch, the next page has “Blink” set up in the Plane in the actions window. I’ve searched the 4 previous pages and can’t find where/how this was done. I tried adding an action called Blink, and that adds “Plane” and “Blink” to the actions window, but there are no key frames, nothing.
What did I miss?
Open an IPO window and change the IPO type to Shape (marked RED in my attachment) .Click the little “legless Man icon” (GREEN) in the IPO window, to enable it (“Set IPO to be included in Action or Not”). Sometimes it seems that when you keyframe a shape change (by moving the sliders) the action gets automatically created, other times it doesn’t. I haven’t figured out the pattern yet 
Mike
Okay. I managed to get around that, had the lipsynching going pretty well, and then Blender crashed and now I can’t get the sound to play anymore. I’ve tried restarting (PC), going back several versions and re-importing, etc. And I still get nothing.
I take that back. I just clicked the “Play” button in the Sound panel of the Scene, Sound Block section, and it DID play the wav. So, then, it seems that the only problem is getting it to Scrub/Sync.
Any clue what I’ve done? Sorry. I’ve been following along really well - the tutorial is great up until this problem.
Not sure, but after a crash anything’s possible. I’d create a new file, then append (from the Objects) section all of the objects (press ‘a’ to select them all), then re-import the audio file and re-initialize it (F10 SCRUB/SYNC/RECALC).
Or you might just start with the F10 audio RECALC and see if that does the trick
Mike
Thanks. I’ll try all those and see what happens.
thanks marenzelleria for the awesome tutorial!! i was really struggling to get a grip on armatures until i found this but i think i still messed up somewhere.
i can’t find in the tut what to parent the hip bones to.
in the images i’ve attached note that in the first pic (pose.jpg), when i move the master bone the legs don’t move with the body!
but if i parent the hip bone to the spine, it jumps out of place (hipR-connectedtospine.jpg)!
can someone point out what i’ve missed somewhere please?
Make the hip.l/r bones “child of” values the “spine1” bone, but make sure the “Con(ected)” button is turned OFF. (A bone can be parented / child of another bone without being CON(ected).
I didn’t see in the tutorial where that is mentioned either.
On the last page of the tutorial you can download the completed rig if you want to compare yours to it
Mike
hi mike_s - thanks for your reply. i tried that and the hip bone immediately jumps up to the top of the spine1 bone like in that last pic i posted because before parenting the hip bone to spine1 there is no ‘con’ button to deselect! pressing ‘con’ after it’s connected makes no difference on my model.
after screwing around with it for a while i finally tried:
i’m using blender 2.42a so maybe my version is different, or can i assume that when you use the Armature Bones panel the default is to make the bones ‘connected’? anyway if this is driving anyone else crazy here’s something to try 
next step - animation!!!
thanks guys,
scatterbrain
Hmm, after deselecting Con(nneced), you just have to move the child bone back into position. (You have to first de-select the bone, then re-select it … I’d call that a bug … or at least an annoyance )
If after deselecting Con, the child bone really isn’t disconnected then something strange is going on in your rig
I think you meant CTRL-P
That operation is also available from the Armature/Parent menu on the 3d view header.
I think the Connected-child default is only when extruding from the tip of the bone, while “nonChild” is the default when extruding from the root of the bone.
Mike
Hmm, after deselecting Con(nneced), you just have to move the child bone back into position. (You have to first de-select the bone, then re-select it … I’d call that a bug … or at least an annoyance
ok i thought it was automatic
That operation is also available from the Armature/Parent menu on the 3d view header.
sweet! though i’m starting to fall for blender’s hotkeys selection…
I think the Connected-child default is only when extruding from the tip of the bone, while “nonChild” is the default when extruding from the root of the bone.
i think you nailed it; i didn’t know that. in the tutorial we were supposed to extrude symetrically from the root of spine1. i’m going to try and add that tidbit to the wiki cuz it drove me crazy for quite a while!
thanks again mike_S,
scatterbrain
Just wanted to say that I’m really busy right now and I’m trying to find time to make updates and address everyone’s comments here. It’ll happen, just not for another week or so.
Mike_S, thanks so much for helping out with everyone’s questions.
-Ryan
FYI, I created a PDF version of the tutorial. You can download it here:
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/BSoD/Introduction_to_Character_Animation
-Ryan
You are the greatest. Thank you so much for going into such detail!
Ryan,
I wonder if you could add a small piece to the “camera” section of the documentation. When they get to this point of the tute, several people have turned their models into the camera by doing an accidental Ctrl-numpad 0, which can lead to all kinds of insanity. See this thread for an example. Ctrl-0 (turns selected object into the active camera) is very poorly documented in the Blender universe, and it’s really easy to leave the Alt out of the clumsy Ctrl-Alt-0 combination. Would it be possible to add Ctrl-numpad 0 to the note box, perhaps even with a warning?
Thank you for all your hard work on this excellent document.
@CD38:
Good call. I don’t think I’ve hit Ctrl-Num 0 before . . . because I just tried it, and then had to read the thread you linked to to figure out how to fix it!
I added a note (called “Camera Troubles?”) at the end of the camera section addressing the issue:
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/BSoD/Introduction_to_Character_Animation/Lighting#Add_a_camera
thanks,
-Ryan
Ya, I find it amazing that it’s not in the view menu. I posted it in the bug tracker as I thought it was such a basic feature that I thought it was a bug not to be included in the menu system. It’s also in the TODO list, but still hasn’t made it into CVS.
Mike
sorry if this is off topic but did you change your name???
Hi!
First I’d like to thank Ryan for this impressive tutorial! :eek:
But I have a problem when trying to rig the lower part of the body:
The tute says the IK solver shouldn’t work right with ChainLen is set to 0…
Well, my problem is that it does work right! 
I don’t get it… I followed every step normally…
This is my bend file…
Where do I go from here, please?
Here’s what I’m talking about…
