CCMP - Learning animation thread.

Roygee

Mike - I get exactly the same behaviour using cubes - thanks for the hint, though - it helped me pinpoint the problem. This happens when constraints - any constraints are applied. Remove the constraints and all is well:)

Just to check that this is not something peculiar to my rig, I tested on the Freak - exactly the same thing.

Happy to have solved that one - using THO's to synch eye movement is very handy:)

Dartanbeck

Okay,
I've made some low rez ambient motion creatures in Carrara as a supplement to an upcoming product, which uses a Carrara bone rig. First, I can totally see the frustration in keeping a bone selected, even when being absolutely certain that it's the translate tool that your cursor is selecting before pressing down on that mouse button. I've found that, by selecting each bone individually and, in the Effects tab, deselect "Show Bone when Attached" (or whatever the exact wording is), for each bone, this helps a TON!
Hope this helps.
By the way, here's a clip of the little buggers in action acting as Gulls flying in formation, rather than looking like their true, drogonesque forms :)
Turned out pretty cool, I think - well... except for the ultra-low render settings used in the test. They turned out great! But the scene gets icky the further away from the camera the render goes.

Edit:
Oh, and in case some of the project members or watchers missed the post,
I've created a CCMP thread index in the Carrara Information thread to make navigation between the contained information a bit easier. If there are any more tags or other details, etc., you'd like me to include in their descriptions to make it easier for your personal reference, let me know. Any other way that I can utilize that thread to help out this endeavor, let me know. I'm happy to help.

:coolhmm: Dartanbeck

Roygee

Hiding and unhiding bones gets stale very fast:)

According to Fenric, who knows these things, it is actually programatically easier to make solid bones than those dotted line atrocities!

Nice flock flying action, although they look more like crows than gulls to me - possibly your inland gulls are different to our coastal ones?

mmoir

Dartanbeck,
Nice effect , very cool.

MatCreator

So has something of an established system been "established" yet? Like you guys, the skeleton creation is the easy part, and I'm shocked to hear that weight painting is optional...

Making a figure that Daz would distribute/market is the (my) goal, because that would be the "mark" of a universal level of acceptability. A standard to follow so to speak.

What entails this standard???

3DAGE

Hi Mat :)

the process of attaching rigging to a mesh in every program i've used,. creates an "area of influence" (for the mesh defomation) ,.around the bones,. automagically..

if the user then want's to re-define, or adjust those weights,.(by manually weight painting) ... that is optional..

Carrara does a pretty decent job of creating the mesh weights based on the bones. but those can be adjusted or changed easily (using Bone influence slider controls,.. or painting by hand) in the weightpainting area.

As for an established system,. 

Ideally,. you'd make the mesh for your figure,. then add bones to allow deformation of the mesh,. then attach those bones to the mesh.

whether you do the bones in Carrara, Poser, or even daz studio would depend on the intended use for that model,. EG: personal use, limited use EG: a single animation project

, for commercial profit, (mass retail) etc

In carrara,. you could simply make a mesh,. export it as an OBJ,. and use Poser or Daz Studio to "Transfer" the rigging from an existing figure (eg Victoria/Michael/Genesis) onto your imported OBJ mesh from carrara.  ...this is ideal for creating clothing "figures" for Genesis etc..

(note) this will automagicallly create weights for your mesh based on the bones.

In Daz Studio,. there's a function called "Transfer Utility" under Assets,. which allows the user to select a "Source" figure, and "Target" mesh, and auto transfers the rigging and creates weights from that rigging to fit the mesh.

Hope it helps :)