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Posing Assistance Please

poorman_65poorman_65 Posts: 140
in New Users

I struggle with trying to pose characters particularly when the pose requires movement of the hip. For example, I have one pose where the character is kneeling and the hips are leaning to one side. As part of my animation I want to shift the hips to the other side without moving the shins and the shins maintaining contact with the floor.

I have tried messing around with the Rotation Tool and Pinning the shins but no matter what I do the positioning gets messed up. Typically this includes the character rotating through the floor. If there were only minor movements on the floor surface it would probably look ok but I end up having to completely reposition the character.

I have similar problems when I have a standing character and simply want to bend the knees.

Can someone please help me with this situation and also could you point me at some tutorials that will help with real world posing (as opposed to the very simplistic stuff that I am finding that simply repositions upper body parts)?

Comments

  • CGI3DMCGI3DM Posts: 276

    - Create Null

    - In Abdomen, Point at Null,

     - Ajust Position Null

    (Shin or Legs Point at Null2) 

    With Scripts

    https://sites.google.com/site/mcasualsdazscripts/mcjautolimb

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/219786/pinning-feet-to-use-in-timeline-animation#latest

  • poorman_65poorman_65 Posts: 140

    Thanks a lot for the info. This will remove much of the frustration.

  • gederixgederix Posts: 390

    Might also want to play with the active pose tool and associated 'red' pin system, which is separate from the universal purple pins. Use active pose in conjunction with the tool settings pane to add/remove pins and change how they 'pin' (origin/end/both). So in your first example try pinning both shins of the kneeling figure with 'pin at both' and then move the pelvis. Active pose pins also only work with that tool so if you switch to another tool (rotate, translate, universal...) the pins will not be acknowledged. Active pose pins also persist through saves, which is often quite handy. And the tool has a posing gizmo you can turn on and off.

    For bending the knees of a standing character you would pin the feet then grab the pelvis and push down but if the legs are not bent at all in the starting position you will likely need to pull the shins forward a bit to get the knee bend started, then grab the pelvis and push it back to vertical and then down.

  • poorman_65poorman_65 Posts: 140

    Thought I would give an update to help others and also throw out another couple questions.

    I looked into mcjAutoLimb that was suggested and discovered the plethora of Scripts and Utilities that mcasual/Jacques has created. Very impressive! If I end up having some financial success with this I am definitely going to donate to his effort.

    There were Scripts out there that do things automatically that I was doing manually. For example, he has a Script "mcjMakeHeadCam" which creates a new Camera and positions it at the head position of the selected figure. I had already done that crudely by hand but the Script positions the camera precisely.

    Also I have been using the suggested Active Pose tool with some luck. Posing is definitely a challenge even with better understanding of the tools.

    So far I have used the following mcasual scripts:

    mcjAutoLimb2015 - Positions the Foot or Hand (or other node) at the Target object during a specified part of the animation. Awesome for keeping feet or hands where they belong and for having them move precisely to the postion they need to go to. (I used this in conjuction with mcjMakeTarget ​to precisely position a Null at my Foot position and mcjHoldOn to keep my figures hands properly positioned on a pole while they moved along the pole). So for the hand, mcjAutoLimb2015 moves the hand  along the pole and then mcjHoldOn keeps the hand properly oriented so I don't have to re-oriented the hand and fingers along the path.

    mcjMakeHeadCam - Creates a camera at the position of the head of the selected figure

    mcjMakeTarget - Creates a new Null target at the position of the selected figure node

    mcjHoldOn - Keeps the hand attached to and properly postioned on another object throughout the animation

    mcjComeHere - Brings the selected object right in front of your selected cameras position

    mcjLookAtCamera - Keeps the selected Figure looking at the Camera throughout the selected animation range

    There are other Scripts that I know I will use during some animations that I have planned.

    Also a note for those trying to use these scripts. I found a few times that if the Script didn't work like I wanted and I needed to make changes and re-run the script, which is to be expected. However, in a couple cases I had to expand the Figure in KeyMate and delete the keys that were incorrect. Simply re-running the script didn't always have the result I was expecting.

     

    As for questions:

    1) For some reason if I don't Pin my Figure in place, the Figure will instantly jump down when I try to move any part of it in any direction. Perhaps this has something to do with heels since the drop seems to be about the height of my FIgures shoe heels. Any clue as to why this is happening?

    2) The Active Pose Tool has sliders for Stiffness and Accuracy. Could someone explain how these are used during Posing?

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