JOINT HELP!!!
 

how do i add a joint coming off of the root joint, that NOT an entirely new joint, but one that inserts a joint into a limb i already have?, the joint after it is a another dual joint so i cant just go to next one..:headbang: :headbang: HELP!!!!

use "shift p" to unparent the joint, then you can add a joint in between and re-parent the joint after.

it not working

i have the root joint at the neck and becuase of that i cant move the Neck:angery:

i also cant move the lower jaw seperate form the upper
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/5383/skele7ak.png

Select the joint where the head is, then hold down the shift key and press "p".

That will unparent the joint at the head.

Then you can put one or more joints between them.


Now, when they are in place, select the neck joint you added first, then the root joint(s), and hit the "p" key to parent them to the root joint.

Select the head joint, then the joint you put in and hit "p" again.

The same process will fix the jaw problem.

how do i make the joint ball thing smaller it taking up too much space

Go here . . .

actually it happened to me just join size not the ik one, but thanks that was a big help:bow: :bow:

ok i have the dog movements mostly working, (well ive only checked the back legs but thats not the point), i have made changes to the rotation limit on on of the back legs and i want to have the same limits on the other leg, is there a quick way to transfer the stats, (the other leg is already made and has skin attached,

im also wonder if there is a quick way to get the entine figure back to resting position (all joint settings at 0)

Not so sure on that, you may want to post it on a new question heading. I do not use the standard method of animation, I am to lazy :attn: to go thru that much work every time I want to animate something! I have a program that I wrote that does all the hard work for you. [Of course if you are intending to work for an animation company, you had best learn the standard method!] If not, you can check out my program here . . .


http://www.simplymaya.com/download_p...tid=6&typeid=4

There is an "install" file that shows how to install it. As soon as they update the download section of this website, I am going to post the final version of the program that includes a bird.

do u know if it will work for 7.0?

My program? Certainly, without a doubt it will work, it is written in MEL, which is Maya's programming language . . . . It should work in nearly every version of Maya, with possible exception of something like Maya 1.0 or something that early, but who in their right mind would be working in something as early as that?

umm should they have have pictures in them?http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/5497/blank3im.png

that is quite easy to fix . . . Go here . . .

Select the shelf button you want to add the image to . . . .

Then find the icon for that particular one. Do this by hitting the "change Image" button.

When you get done you should have these three only . . .

The biped, quadraped, and centaur in that particular order. The bird is not in the code you downloaded, I have not officially released the code for it yet.

Any other extra shelves are superfluous, extra, unneeded. Drag-drop to trash can on right upper side.

With the quadraped, you have to set the forward speed to make it move, to get good results, generally, I set the speed to 1, if you think it should be faster or slower, all you have to do is manipulate the setting. I have it set without speed so you can view it in different gaits easily.

how exaclty do u use it is there a turorial??

After you click the creature you need to animate, for example, the quadraped, it will create the skeleton for you; after that all you need to do is skin the character, you will most likely need to use the controls to scale the character bones, and you may need to manipulate them manually to fit the skeleton. After everything is ready, if it is a biped, or quadraped, you need to hit the "stabilization" button.

Then hit play. After you hit play, it will walk automatically. You can change the gait by hitting buttons that control it.

If you just want to see what it does before you skin the character, just hit the control to create the skeleton and then hit the play button.

Most of the controls on the window that appears are quite intuitive. If you are doing a biped, there is a button that you need to hit that will allow you to open the hand all at once or control the individual fingers in the hand.

You may need to expirement a little to get the results that you want, but the big advantage with this program is that if the skinning does not work quite right, all you have to do is hit the rewind button, and the character will be re-posed, unskin the character, change what needs to be changed and then re-skin it again . . . . you can't do that so easily with the standard animation methods.

As far as the tutorial goes, it is something that I work on based on the questions I am asked, so it gradually grows bigger, and it is all in the installation file. I will be adding this question and answer to the file. I also added your earlier questions to it, and they will be released with the final version that I will be releasing once the owners of this website update the download section.


To see it "walk", you need to set the forward speed to something other than zero!

Let me know if you have further questions . . . :beer:

is there any way to se how it moves before i attach skin?

Yes . . . first, in the window, make sure that there is a speed other than zero. For a walk, generally you want to set it at or around the value of 1.2 (That appears right to me) A value of one is a little to slow. See below, but set it to 1.2.

After you do that, just hit the "play" button.

By the looks of this, I am inclined to set the defaults automatically
on the gait changes for the final version of this program, that will make it easier for everyone. The reason I set it initially to zero speed is because it makes it easy to see the different gaits rapidly, but in this case I think it would be easier for users to get things going faster if the speed for each gait was already set, then if they want to modify that, they can still do it, so instead of having the speed at zero for each gait, it will be set already when the skeleton appears . . . .

yeah a tutorial is really what we need, cause there is no way im going to figure this out by myself... how far are u on it? ill just try to mess around till u get it ready

Here is a copy of the latest version of the program, you can download it, then just over-write all of the older files from the previous download. That will make all of the creatures ready to go by just hitting the play button. (If you think the the speed setting is not quite right, you can still modify it).

As far as the tutorial goes, I have included the latest version with this zip file, but you will not see much new in it, as I have so far been working on it based on question that people ask regarding how to do particular things.

I will give you a little more info on the skinning process, and hopefully that will be helpful. Just let me know if you have other questions . . .

When you start things up, you most likely will have a situation like this photo, where the size is incorrect. Easy solution is to click the buttons to re-size the skeleton until you get it close to the size you need:

Once you have the size approximately correct, you have to line the bones up correctly, in both the sideview and the front view.

Once you have the size approximately correct, you have to line the bones up correctly, in both the sideview and the front view.

Note: I did add two joints in to help stabilize the skin in the area in front and in back of the front legs. You will most likely need to do this too.

no wehat i want is a tutorial on how to change the way it moves you have all these #'s u can change i want to know what each one does and how to use them

best way yo do that is set the speed to zero, click the "play" button on the lower right, and then play with the sliders . . . you will see the result of whatever you try . . . for example, if you change the initial Y Position, the position of the quadraped will change in the +Y or -Y direction. If you change the Bounce, the character will bounce more.

You do not need to skin the character to find out what things are, all you have to do is set the speed to zero and then just play around with the settings . . . you will see directly what they do, and it will not hurt anything to play with the settings. If the settings get so far out of wack that things are all screwed up, all you have to do is click the "D" button and the setting will be returned to the original setting.

By the way, if you want to know what those buttons do, all you have to do is hold your mouse over them, and a tool tip will tell you.

umm in your new version u didnt include the text file that etll u how to do stuff

Yikes, the file is to big to post here . . . I only slept about 3.5 hours last night, so I am going to have to get some sleep before I do more on this . . . . I may need to post it to a link where it will download well from, rather than here . . . . I will post back on here once I have solved the issue. The install file contains ALL that was in the old version that you have, and then just the answers I posted to questions you asked, nothing more . . . as I mentioned the tutorial is an ongoing thing, I just finished doing most of the coding recently . . .

i don't pretend to be an expert on horses, but it think you gallop animation is a bit off

I would not disagree with you on that point, if you can improve it any let me know! ;)

What might sound funny is that actually the walk coding was the hardest to do . . . . why? . . because the whole skeleton is moving slower during a walk, which means that you cannot get away with minor inaccuracies if you want it to look right. With the faster gaits, your going to have motion blur anyway, so you can get away with a little more inaccuracy.