Blend Shape B******s
 

Right this might sound like a doughnut question but... I have bound the skin of knobby to his skeleton, now I want to do some blend shapes. Thing is when I select the body of knobby, although I can duplicate the bloody thing,I cannot move the git!!! The move handle is all greyed out. So question is how can I duplicate the body and move it over.

I also noticed that when you wan to create blend shapes for the head it is best to model the head separately so you have a smaller object to blend from. In my case the whole body is attached to the head. If I duplicate this (previous model by the way) and delete the body part the blend shape goes crazy. What a palarva!!!

I am in need of that new character animation book since I have question all the time developing and my 'Learning Maya' book don't give me the answers... :banghead:

Right here's another one! Please see attached image. I managed to create a morph target using the whole mesh. I have created a blend shape of knobby frowning it works fine.

Fine until I use the locator above his head with SDK to translate and rotate the head. If I rotate the head and then apply the blend shape it goes back to its bind pose... ?

Has this got something to do with dleteing the mesh history before I bind it or hae I hit on something weird?

Bang me head again :banghead:. Oh, this was so much easier in Animation:Master until it crashed... ;)

SHIT! It would help if I attached the picture wouldn't it!

Hmm... not a blend shape guy. Hey Mike! You around??? :D

Also, I haven't had a chance to really dig through your rigging setup. Upon initial inspection, parenting the cluster groups to the neck bone won't work. The clusters are parented, but their animations are whacked out afterwards. Since you're using blend shapes, you might consider using them for your eyeblinks instead of using clusters. Just a thought.

Did you make all the blend shapes before or after you bound the skeleton?

Mike!

I cannot remember... since I was pretty much following the book I am sure I bound the skin first then made the blend shapes, in fact I did that for the clusters too! Come to think of it, yes, I did both after I bound the skeleton. Thanks Mike, I think that might be the answer, at least that would make logical sense.

Not so impressed with that book now, it is useful and shows you how to do alot but it doesn't show you the order to do things. Bind the skin last! I am getting there!

I think that Character animation book is coming sooner than I think...

:cool:

Hi Gaz... just had a look at your setup - very nice indeed :beer:
if you take a look at the attached file (btw this is mostly in reference to your original prob) you'll hopefully find everything is ok, though I cant promise anything as I'm really hungover (office party last night :rolleyes: ).
As you'll see theres a new root node, and the clusters and head locator are parented and move properly with the rest of it. The reason everything was getting screwy was because of the deformation order. If you selct the mesh, then click on "Inputs to the selected object" (next to the magnet) and from that list click All Inputs..
Then move the skin cluster entry up to the top of the list. You'll probably need to do the same with blend shapes too..
hope this helps mate

Kal

Thanks m8 it worked a treat, I kinda thought that this was the problem... I DID! Cos I read about it in me 'Character Rigging' book but couldn't quite figure out how to do it.

What I wanted to ask you was why did you add another root node and how? Did you group the joint root and then group it, cos when I done that it didn't work.

I think I am gonna have to go and learn a few of the fundamentals of Maya that I am missing on like proerply understanding inputs and outputs.

:beer:

glad it made sense mate

I selected the pelvis joint(or whatever was highest in the heirachy) and grouped it to itself (ctrl+g or edit>group). I'll have a look when i get home as to why i did it (cant remember off the top of my head) but its was probably to add another zero transformed node for parenting the other animation controls. will have a look lter on :)

He has facial movements!
 

For anyone who is interested I have added some endearing facial blend shapes!

That's cute. Keep up the good work. Character rigging and animation are really tough!

Dannyngan

Thanks! I learnt the rigging and animation concepts in Animation:Master and now I am applying them in Maya.

Trick is learning the tools properly in Maya to do it - or is that the fun part?

Well, I learn a little, think about it, learn a bit more, think about it and start to enjoy it, so something must be happening...