I’m guessing no NLA…
With an obstacle course like that, there’s not going to be much repetition
Very nice work! Classy stuff!
You’ve got a really natural flow to the movement.
Great sense of weight too.
one thing…
the landing at the end…
It’s quite clearly an artist’s mannequin. Nice rig.
Saw your test clip and simply had to try some animation of my own.
I rushed it, but it was fun. Hope to do a lot more and learn…
Nice work!
Very nice and dynamic animation Nathan. Did you use often IK/FK switching (e.g. run vs. wall climbing) or decided at the beginning only to use one attitude?
There’s no NLA. It’s all hand keyed in one action. To be honest, I don’t even know how to use Blender’s NLA system. I know all the principles, but for the life of me I can’t figure out the interface.
I used a lot of IK/FK switching.
Very cool animation Cessen :yes: Liked it allot!
In the 2000 frames sequence of Orion Tear I divided it in four or five 500 frames actions (for each character), and then joined them in the NLA… but 
I don’t remember why 
… I know it was easier to do something that way.
Cessen, could you give us some info on how you switch between FK and IK without the limbs ‘popping’?
Very, very clean, compact, and complex all at the same time. I first thought of an artists mannequin when I saw it (as others have also remarked). This will definitely be a useful asset when I’m animating. Thanks!
Túrin
PS about the job: best of luck, and with your skill, I doubt it will be very hard to find one.
Umm… I do it very carefully?
For the final finished animation I try to make sure that the switching happens over a single frame (i.e. no frames that are partly one and partly the other).
On IK frames that border a switch between IK and FK, I make sure that both the IK controls and FK controls are fully keyed. To insert keys for the FK controls use a “visual loc-rot” key (that way they will be keyed to the same pose as the IK limb). If you change the IK pose, make sure to re-key the FK limbs to keep them in sync.
That’s about all the advice I can offer. Really, all this stuff should be done for you by the rig or Blender. The animator shouldn’t have to worry about managing technical BS like this. But I haven’t found a good way to automate it yet.
I accidentally deleted the .blend and went to download it again. When i opened it the IK controls weren’t there. Can you upload the file again?
I haven’t played around with it yet but the animation looks great.
They’re on the 8th armature layer. Just unhide it.
Okay Cessen, it’s time for me to get humble and ask what probably a very dopey question.
It’s to do with the rig root and how it relates to the IK feet.
In previous rigs I’ve built (and I’m still very much a novice at this) I’ve made the IK feet independent of the rest of the rig, so that I can position footsteps and they stay put. It makes doing a walk very easy, because I know the feet will stay on the ground when needed.
In your rig, whether IK is on or off on the legs, the feet move with the rig root.
So, how do you animate the walks and runs without the feet drifting on the ground?
freen: the root is actually supposed to move the entire character, regardless of the IK/FK settings. It’s useful for managing walk cycles, for example (you can animate the character walking forward, and then just use the root to slide it back during the walk and mkae it loop).
If you want to make a non-cycle walk or run, just use the hip control. You shouldn’t need to use the root for most non-cycle animation.
Nathan!!! WHOOOOO!!!
Cessen - beating a dead horse a bit here I know - I still don’t understand the MCH bones. I get that they keep the shoulder socket in place. I get that they are needed due to the ChildOf constraint. If I turn off both the ChildOf and the Copy Location, the rig seems to work just the same.
Why do you need the ChildOf constraint? It seems to work the same without it, or am I missing something?
Yes. Yes. I wasn’t suggesting it was like that by accident, just that there was something I missed.
I avoid cycles, so it didn’t make sense to me. Now I get it.
Did you use cycles in your test animation?
The root is also useful if you have to move the character with something. Character gets on an escalator or elevator or something it’s a lot easier to get the general movement with the root and then tweak it with the other bits.
At least… that’s how I’ve done it. I think for 100 animators there are about 100 different ways to get the job done 
Just downloaded the rig. I’m gonna play about with it and steal all your ideas
Cessen: Is there a way we can get .blend file with animation of the character? Please 
I was messing around with the file and created this on accident by adding a camera but forgetting to add a light. I call it Bipod. Thanks again for sharing. As you can see it is helpful for learning rigging/animate among other things.
