I was ported the famous character Max into Blender. here the .blend.
I was fixed some issues in skinning, and added more controls in the hands.
Aligorith: I added a hinge in the torso
when i use hinge, i need select more bones, and hate this. (2.5 is the solution of all animation problems)
Bunny: Great animations!, i dont tested this character for production, i saw the spine rig, and this is amazing, can you implement Kiopaaās spine in the new version of Max?
Some issues lacks in this port, IK spine, space switching, FK arms, etc. Only basic controllers.
Wow! Nice job converting this! I especially like how youāve succeeded in enabling both heel and toe pivot in the foot rig. Max was one of the characters we frequently used in the Media Design School where I graduated in 3D Animation, and this one is pretty close indeed. I would love you to take this even further and add any of those extra things which you think are missing (IK spine etc)ā¦ a lot of heads would turn if it turned out Blender could fully rig and animate this character just like the traditional version.
Thanks heaps for this. Well worth waiting for BlenderArtists to get back online for.
Max for 3DSMaX was originally made as a free 3DS model by Peter Starostin.
When I studied 3D animation at Media Design School, a Maya version of Max was used in certain exercises (we sometimes had a choice of rigs). This version by James Hunt is the one I think the above is based on. See http://www.bockstyre.com/james/maxformaya/
James made the Maya version āwith permissionā, so it would indeed be good if we did the same.
Really? py-constraints/drivers and such wonāt allow the same capabilities? (within the narrow framework of rigging constraints, that is)
I have zero experiance with ācustom attributesā but from the quick Googleing I did, there didnāt seem to be much there that could not be handled in Blender as it stands.
Of course I do understand the power inherent in the custom attributes structure, the question is in the implementation and the preceived necessity of it.
This Max rig is one of the few Blender rigs which have actually pulled off a half decent foot rig, capable of a heel pivot as well as toe pivot. It is a basic part of classic animation to have a foot peel off the floor, leaving from the toe tip without awkward foot placing to avoid last minute sinking on each step. The lack of such basic detail in most available rigs is not a good look for Blender, which has really been able to do it all alongā¦ itās just that most Blender riggers donāt seem to have tapped into it. I made a very simple proof of concept for this some time back. Was I saying Blender is fundamentally wrong in doing so? No I wasnāt.
Okay pappy, letās take a simple stick figure rig which is ānot too big of an askā by production standardsā¦
The attached .blend file is a simple stick figure for you with a spine which has been badly rigged. The basic idea is correct, and how I would like it: three hoop controllers around the shoulders, waist and hips to move the body into any kind of S-bend. However, the results are far from ideal. The ācurveā has severe kinks in it and the modifiers even cause warping in the pelvis mesh which they should not do.
The spine needs to always bend smoothly. Also, it is important (to the animators) that the pivot point of the controller hoops stay centred to the spine, and animators mustnāt be able to pull them outside of the body (making them external magnets), as would happen if you used the BSoD ābones along a curveā rig.
So then pappy; two things:
hoop controllers to stay central to the spine they influence
spine should bend smoothly throughout entire animations
This kind of spine is simple to set up in other 3D applications and Iām highly interested in making the same work for Blender ā¦you up for the challenge?
P.S. Itās not my intention to hijack this thread with another rig. I will start another thread if more appropriate, though am currently replying to pappy's responses.
@Lancer:Your spine rig would work smoothly if you actually had a continuous bone chain for the spine. You can still have individual bone shapes, but your parenting hierarchy is all kindsa wonky.
It is a continuous chain. There are stretch constraints to try and free up the middle movement and Iāve hidden all but the base controller bones. Show the second bone layer and perhaps turn off custom bone shapes to get the idea.
ā¦might start another thread for this kind of spine rig in a while.
EDIT: Fweeb is correct in a sense, in that the stretch modifiers Iāve used have an effect similar to breaking the chain. Removing the stretch does not itself complete the rig to how it should be.
Lancer, Iām not going to make you happy by giving you a foil for your personal Blender wish list. I donāt have the time or patient to deal with a thread like your other āBlender doesnāt work like Xā threads.
Challanging me to do what you want with that rig is rediculous, first of all Iām not a ātrainedā animator/rigger, just someone who uses Blender for occasional professional assignments for his business. The requirements you are asking for have nothing to do with the realities of what I do.
If there is great value in ācustom attributesā or other non-Blender animation tools AND there is no reasonable workaround that is known to Blender riggers I would think that you would be best served adding a request for such capability to BlenderStorm.
Or perhaps you should post your rigging challange somewhere on the forum where others can have a crack at it. Heck, I just might look myself in that case.
I was just courious as to why you feel the need to āturn headsā. Personally I could care less, Iām quite delighted with Blender and the direction itās going as is.
Oh, I guess I should say āThanksā for the tone of your reply, it made me feel like a little kid again, been a long time since Iāve felt that way.
Sorry my reply made you feel small pappyā¦ was certainly not my intention.
I thought that your previous answers were saying that you felt confident enough of Blenderās abilities that you would be able to work around pretty much any animation requirements of a production studio. Therefore, as I had been struggling to make Blender attain certain fairly simple tasks, I decided I would send you one such example, both because it would have helped me if you could answer the problem, and also because it was a practical āreal worldā example specifically addressing the questions you raised about whether or not certain features were a necessity.
I do wish you would stop misquoting me though. The phrase ālike your other [snip] threadsā leads me to believe that you are already unfairly biased against what I am saying no matter what I actually write, which only causes continual misunderstandings.
So then, back to the real topic: this Max rig. :eyebrowlift:
Itās an excellent work and Iām really pleased cesio has put the effort into it. What I was trying to say before is that there are a certain group of Blender-hating āprofessionalsā out there (maybe Blender-underestimating would be a better word) who I would love to show off this rig to, especially if we could get those last few things working (itās amazing how quick people go āaha!ā over one missing feature).
I appreciate the Blender version is a stand alone work in itself of course, though Iād love to entertain developing this into a āclose as possibleā clone if we can.
How the heck did you port the facial expressions across?
Sorry my reply made you feel small pappyā¦ was certainly not my intention.
The proper wording would be āSorry for being condensending to you pappyāā¦ You donāt have the chops to make me feel small.
I do, and have, only itās for MY studio. I donāt spend all my time trying to replicate Autodesk techniques. For our projects we always use the most minimal rig possible, and cheat wherever we can. Our goal is ONLY to get the job done in a profitable manner. Blender has given me the tools to do this for the last four years.
So, are you going to put a clear request for help on YOUR rig in another thread? Like I said before, if you donāt make it a PERSONAL challange, I might just take a look. Iāll keep my eyes open for that. More importantly for you, perhaps someone else with serious Blender rigging skills will contribute.
As we are not adding anything of value to THIS thread with this discussion, Iāll not be checking back.
Hee hee! This is so fun. Iām going to keep pestering you about this rig, cesio!
This time I tried adding Kiopaaās method for āspline IK,ā (???) thinking I needed it to have the back lead in a fall like this. Afterward, though, I donāt think I used it in any way different than I couldāve without it, or with a B-Bone āspineā and rigid āchestā (like Iād set up in my own crappy rigs).
cesio:
In terms of tweakability, I think it would be quite helpful if the torso controls were set to āhingeā. That makes it easier to adjust a lower part of the torso without having to counter-rotate the upper parts.
(2.5 is the solution of all animation problems)
