How to add real clock hands to a watch prop?

Masterstroke · November 30

How do I add real clock hands to an already existing watch prop?

felis · November 30

Does it have hands so you can rig them?

If they for some reason can't be rigged (mesh is connected to other mesh and will deform), my suggestion is to hide them, and then add new hands. They can just be parented to the center.

Masterstroke · November 30

felis said:

Does it have hands so you can rig them?

If they for some reason can't be rigged (mesh is connected to other mesh and will deform), my suggestion is to hide them, and then add new hands. They can just be parented to the center.

I tryed to modify an existing watch, in order to add clock hands. Worked so far, but I ran into trouble rigging those.

thank you for answering, I might just purchase a watch with clock hands and kit bash something.

felis · November 30

If the hands have isolated geometry it is fairly straightforward.

If the watch already is rigged, then just find a proper bone to add 2 children to, that has bones following the hands.

And in geometry editor - vertex selection, select one vertex on a hand and select connected.

Then in weight editor, with the bone slected in scene tab, and in Tool Settings mark 'General weights' and right-click fill selected 100 %.

Repeat for the other hand.

You should now be able to rotate the hands. You might now in Parameters edit so you know which dial to use and potential limitations.

But good if you have found a solution.

SilverGirl · November 30

Masterstroke said:

felis said:

Does it have hands so you can rig them?

If they for some reason can't be rigged (mesh is connected to other mesh and will deform), my suggestion is to hide them, and then add new hands. They can just be parented to the center.

I tryed to modify an existing watch, in order to add clock hands. Worked so far, but I ran into trouble rigging those.

thank you for answering, I might just purchase a watch with clock hands and kit bash something.

Here's what I would try:

- Find a clock with rigged arms (I know I have a couple; I can look them up when I'm where my inventory .doc files are, if you like).

- geometry edit out everything on the clock except the face & arms

- geometry edit out the face & arms on the watch

- resize, position, & parent the clock face & arms to the watch

... I haven't done this myself, but I've done similar sorts of things. In theory it ought to work....

Good luck, and let me know if you need a suggestion for a rigged clock!

Masterstroke · December 1

SilverGirl said:

Masterstroke said:

felis said:

Does it have hands so you can rig them?

If they for some reason can't be rigged (mesh is connected to other mesh and will deform), my suggestion is to hide them, and then add new hands. They can just be parented to the center.

I tryed to modify an existing watch, in order to add clock hands. Worked so far, but I ran into trouble rigging those.

thank you for answering, I might just purchase a watch with clock hands and kit bash something.

Here's what I would try:

- Find a clock with rigged arms (I know I have a couple; I can look them up when I'm where my inventory .doc files are, if you like).

- geometry edit out everything on the clock except the face & arms

- geometry edit out the face & arms on the watch

- resize, position, & parent the clock face & arms to the watch

... I haven't done this myself, but I've done similar sorts of things. In theory it ought to work....

Good luck, and let me know if you need a suggestion for a rigged clock!

Yeah, rigging is not for me.
I have tried all that, but I am struggeling getting the bones pivot points and rotations right.
The clock hands just won't rotate correctly around their centers.
I just believed the bone should point from its green origin to its red end point, but that's not how it happens.
I just don't know, how to position the bone, in order to have a correct clock hand rotation.

SilverGirl · December 1

I get it - rigging is something I haven't had the time or necessity to sit down and figure out yet, either.

Now that I've got access to my notes, here are the sets I have that I've marked as having pre-rigged hands. I honestly thought there were more than just these two, but...

https://www.daz3d.com/modern-wall-clocks (this one has easy-enter times)

https://www.daz3d.com/everyday-gadgets (this one I haven't personally tried but it lists "time" along with "alarm on" and "extend stand" so I'm assuming that means you can alter the time. Given the level of detail in other parts of the set, it would seem odd if you couldn't)

Related: I just remembered that Richard Haseltine posted an instruction set on how to rig clock hands in response to an inquiry I had about whether https://www.daz3d.com/fg-clock-collection had rigged hands or not (they don't). You can read it here: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/8878106/#Comment_8878106

Hope this helps, and good luck!

Elor · December 1

Masterstroke said:

I just believed the bone should point from its green origin to its red end point, but that's not how it happens.

As long as the bones are either in the same plane as the watch face or perpendicular to it and right at the pivot point of each hand I think it should be fine even they don't go from the starting point to the end point.

jmucchiello · December 1

Just find a rigged clock and shrink it down to the watch face.

crosswind · December 1

If you want to rig the clock hands from very beginning, better rig them on the target zeroed figure / prop. That would be much easier to align the orign / end points from proper Views.

Since now you're just adopting the rigged clock hands from another watch, you can simply Reparent the watch bones to the root node of that watch with Joint Editor, delete other bones as well as the polygons you don't need, then parent the rigged watch hands to the target non-rigged watch. (Vanity Watch...) (ss1)

Or, you can further rig one watch to another with Greedy and Merge Hierarchies options in Transfer Utility, then do: Merge Fitted Figure(s) Geometry with Geometry Editor on the root watch node, the geometry of two watches can be merged as a single watch figure.

Finally, save a Figure Asset... as needed. (ss2)

Masterstroke · December 1

So, I finally got the clock arms rigged and made the watch a figure, but NOT a conforming figure.
I still have to parent it to the forearm.
Creating a conforming figure didn't work, because it messes up the clock arm bones.
So I leave it with a parenting figure, which is okay.
Now, there is one more thing to do, that I have not figured out yet.
I wanted to make control dials for the clock arms and I expected an erc freeze command would do it, but that messes up my rig again.
So, how to add control dials for the bones (hours from 0-12 and minutes from 0-60)?

Cybersox · December 1

I'm surprised that no one has mentioined the option of doing it with an animated texture overlay (using https://www.daz3d.com/texture-animator or https://www.daz3d.com/animated-textures-script-pro-for-daz-studio-3-4, for example) and a video of a real clock face, which has the bonus of also working with a digital read-out.

crosswind · December 2

Masterstroke said:

So, I finally got the clock arms rigged and made the watch a figure, but NOT a conforming figure.
I still have to parent it to the forearm.
Creating a conforming figure didn't work, because it messes up the clock arm bones.
So I leave it with a parenting figure, which is okay.
Now, there is one more thing to do, that I have not figured out yet.
I wanted to make control dials for the clock arms and I expected an erc freeze command would do it, but that messes up my rig again.
So, how to add control dials for the bones (hours from 0-12 and minutes from 0-60)?

If you want to make the watch as a conformer, rig it with the settitngs shown in screen shot 1, by using Transfer Utility > Merge Hierarchies. The clock hand bones will be reserved and intact. Then Reparent Bones. But if there're Transforms on them..., you have to hide their polygons with Geometry Editor, and also tick Respect Hidden Facets on Target when rigging, then they shouldn't be messed up ~

For setting up controlling dials, you can refer to screen shot 2. For instance, setting an Hour controller: 1) set Min Max to -360 ~ 0 in Y Rotate. Hide it. 2) Create a Hour Controller, set its Min Max to 0 ~ 12, Nudge to 1. 3) Set YRotate as Hour's 1st Stage Sub-Component. Scalar as -30.

For Minutes controller, Min Max 0 ~ 60, Scalar -6... accordingly.

Masterstroke · December 3

Holy ***
Thanks for helping.
I guess, I will go with the parenting figure, instead of the conforming figure.

When it comes to the Arm controler, how do I do it best?
drag and drop.
Usually it shouldn't be a big deal, and I have done this many times before, but this time it all gets quite tricky.
With the ERC command, a lot of bone parameters are checked sub components. If I uncheck them in the list, it messes up my rig.
Drag and drop always gets me into trouble for creating duplicate formulas.
As I said tricky

crosswind · December 3

Masterstroke said:

Holy ***
Thanks for helping.
I guess, I will go with the parenting figure, instead of the conforming figure.

When it comes to the Arm controler, how do I do it best?
drag and drop.
Usually it shouldn't be a big deal, and I have done this many times before, but this time it all gets quite tricky.
With the ERC command, a lot of bone parameters are checked sub components. If I uncheck them in the list, it messes up my rig.
Drag and drop always gets me into trouble for creating duplicate formulas.
As I said tricky

In this case, you're just building ERC Links in between a controller and a sub-component with specific rules in attributes, so drag 'n drop in Property Hierarchy can easily get the job done. Better not use ERC Freeze.

Esp, in case you ERC Freeze for times without ERC Bake each time, it'll save duplicate formulas in DSF file(s) ~~

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How to add real clock hands to a watch prop?

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