Thorgal: Only the blender file!
That’s all well and good if you know exactly where you want to put the bones for each pose, but I require tweaking, which doesn’t lend itself to auto-recording very well.
Dudes sorry for the noob question but i guess i don’t know how to use the hand and foot drivers. I was reading Petunia’s documentation… Does i need to select the driver and then press “S” to scale? This is not working… 2.45 over here.
Thank you very much and congratulations for this great idea! Awesome challenge! :yes:
You need a newer version than 2.45 to have the drivers work. (i.e. the latest SVN development build, not an official Blender release.)
Sorry sorry sorry dudes! I am idiot! It was there all the time: to use that rig we need to download this Blender build (link already posted by Macouno): http://www.graphicall.org/builds/builds/showbuild.php?action=show&id=492
Thank you very much LRJ!
Is there a build for Linux (64-bit) that will work with this model?
Also, I have a small 32-bit Linux-based render farm running DrQueue if you’d like to render some test… let me know.
I’d love to try it out, but getting a svn version that works on my build of linux (64bit) is just not happening. I have to say I feel it is a bit strange that you have these requirements in order for us to use this rig, especially when this is on a relatively tight schedule. I really don’t understand why you didn’t give us a rig that would just work in the current stable version of Blender. Disappointed.
suhweet! I can’t wait to play w/ him! Thanks for this opportunity!
Dan, Picartj: Well sometimes you want to try the new features, and there’s so much cool stuff in the blender source right now that I don’t want to wait for 2.46.
BTW, it took me all of 1 minute to find this: http://www.blender.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10489
I’m not sure if that version will work, but I think it probably will. Just remember to check what happens when you resize an orange foot symbol or hand symbol… if nothing happens… it doesn’t work.
I made a pose for him, but I couldn’t bend the forearms inward. I really wanted to have his arms in front of him, but I changed the pose. Now to think up some action…
I’m having a hard time with the auto keying - I keep trying to use the W key to clear the translation, but the whole rig drops when I do that. Also, do I need to key all the bones at the onset of the pose? Sorry if this is redundantly circling the answer, but I haven’t used a rig like this before. 
Thanks for the rig and build, it’s fun to try it out.
samf: Yes that is a limitation of the mechanical arms. Not as flexible as us…
craigomatic: Also yes… auto recording doesn’t actually record untill you move something. You can of course just move thing a tiny little bit before you begin. I never really used the W key myself. I don’t know what you mean about the whole rig dropping. But yes somewhere something went wrong with the toes, which I had to fix. Not 100% sure what it was that did it. But I think it has to do with the fact I resized the armature at some point.
I do want to make the point that whatever might be “less than perfect” about the robot/rig… we’ll have to just live with 
It’s been downloaded almost 500 times now and I really don’t want to release a second version of the bot, then at the end figure out which was used by whom.
here is my file
http://www.dominomf.com/~mfoxdogg/production/temp/Petunia_sitting.blend
he is just sitting wriggling his toes and fingers while rocking his head back and forth
Kinda like he is listening to his iPod
Here’s a simple walk cycle that everyone is free to use to make a more interesting animation (or just to look at if you are new to animation and need some tips)
http://jasonpierce.animadillo.com/resource/Petunia_walk.blend
Okay, so I’ve never done character animation before. I have done some rigging and posing, but not more than that. Luckily, I recently bought the new Blender book. the Essential Blender. And I had read through a bit on character animation.
So I decided to do something probably a bit too ambitious for me for a beginner, but honestly I’d say it is coming out better than I thought. There are a few timing issues, and I’m having some serious issues with the way the robot was rigged, but I’m managing.
Check out my work so far! http://pixelsage.com/dump/Test%20Movie%201%20Export.mov
EDIT: On a personal note, I hate AO rendering. It doesn’t look as dynamic. =P
Great guys!!! Love seeing your stuff.
Mfoxdogg: that’s just lovely
Sketchy: Any chance of you making him walk around a bit? Like pacing back and forth or something? Then I can put your thing straight in. Lovely cycle btw
Pixel sage: I can see where you’re going… I’ve seen one or two others working on making him dance… we’ll need some funky music!
Of course I’m playing around myself as well. We have the motion track of the camera done now. It’s rather good. I don’t know if I’ll be showing you guys those tests… might be nice to keep it a bit of a surprise.
Here’s a little test of my own (hands and feet need more work): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoiiLmofQ_w
Originally Posted by Lord of the Rings Junkie
You need a newer version than 2.45 to have the drivers work. (i.e. the latest SVN development build, not an official Blender release.)
so why I can’t use the official version of blender?
do I have to use the ‘‘492_win32-vc.zip’’ version?
answer me!
Well most obviously because you can’t target an action to the resizing of an object in 2.45. Which is what I do with all those orange symbols. Also I’m rendering with the new qmc shadows which aren’t in 2.45. Thus… the robot was built using new features that are not in any official release… For any project it’s always a good idea to have everyone work in the same blender version, and I need the features in this one.
ps: I realise that I never explained this, but I made the model only for it to be animated by myself. Only after I finished the model/rig did I suddenly think “this might be fun for others as well”.
Macouno: I guess that means I should touch the rig, huh? =). Forgive me though, I did rework some materials for a bit of fun.
Check out my latest update. Besides the rendering style, you really won’t be able to see too much of a change, but I did a LOT of fixing, especially with Petunia’s butt to make the legs stop spazzing out, along with some timing issues. It’s still got a few glitches here and there, but most of them aren’t too noticable.
http://pixelsage.com/dump/Test%20Movie%205%20Export.mov
Question. Is there a way to make the hand stay stationary on the ground while moving the rest of the body? His hand stands aren’t working out too well =/