• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
0

Six Arms, Four Eyes, and a Bunch of Questions

Explorer ,
May 24, 2017 May 24, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Relative noob here...

I've been working my way through the tutorials and tips and tricks.  I have created a fairly basic alien bug looking puppet with six arms, two eyes, and a nutcracker jaw.  I have keyboard triggers to make the claws pinch, make the hair go from solid to an animated psychedelic looking gradient, and change the eyebrows.  I've rigged the puppet to walk and that seems to work quite well.  I'm almost ready to have it do a scene.  I do however have a few questions.

- I tried adding profile shots for the head (created them as additional groups within the head group).  However, if those layers are present in the puppet, the walk feature will not work (even if I deactivate the layers and the head turner behavior).  Is there a step I missed?

- With the six arms, I can only rig one of the left and one of the right arms to animate during the walk behavior.  Is there a way to rig the other arms to move during walk as well, or will I need to animate them individually?

- Similarly with the second set of eyes (on the antennae stalks).  Is there a way to rig them to be controlled as a second pair of eyes, or should I just group them together and drag them around.

- Finally, is there an index to the subjects covered on the various tips and tricks videos.  While I watch them in my spare time to gain knowledge, when I'm down the rabbit hole rigging a puppet to do something, I tend to find myself wasting time searching through the videos to find the one that talked about what I need?  .

BuggyPuppet.JPG

Views

2.8K

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Adobe Employee ,
May 25, 2017 May 25, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

1. The most likely issue is that head turn and walk are both looking for the "left profile" and "right profile" tags, and where you add those tags can create issues. See the Maddie puppet at Character Animator Examples  - she successfully does walk and head turn. Check against that and see where she added her Walk and Headturner tags and behaviors and if they're in the same place as you.

2. Yes, I'll show this in the next tips video, but check out Aquavella here: http://okaysamurai.com/puppets/ - basically walk is only looking for the first instance of a tag it sees, so if you have 6 right elbows it only cares about the first one. The way around this is to add extra walk behaviors for extra limbs. Note how Aquavella has extra walk behaviors added to his second right and left tentacles - this is for the legs but the same idea applies to the arms.

3. For multiple eyes to work the best thing to do is add an extra views. Again, like the walk behavior, face is only looking for the first instance of a tag - so you have to trick it into thinking those eyes are in a different view. At the same link as Aquavella check out Shmarlop for an example of how to do three eyes.

4. There isn't a full index - great idea - but this is a list I've made that I often copy and paste from when helping people out: FAQ: What are some video examples of common issues?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
May 26, 2017 May 26, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Re: #2 - I followed the Aquavella pattern and put a Walk behavior on the overall puppet, then added the walk behavior separately in the puppet panel to 2 of the other arms, but they still won't move during the walk animation.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Adobe Employee ,
May 30, 2017 May 30, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Could you share here or DM me your .puppet file (File > Export > Puppet) via a shared link on Google Drive, Dropbox, or Creative Cloud to take a closer look?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
May 30, 2017 May 30, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

link sent via message.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Adobe Employee ,
May 30, 2017 May 30, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

For individual arm groups that have their own Walk behavior, you'll need to add a dummy Neck-tagged handle within the group -- Walk rotates the arms around the neck. You'll probably want to adjust Arm Angle and Strength for those arms, since they're not in the standard profile arrangement.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
May 31, 2017 May 31, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Thank you, that is the answer!!!!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Dec 14, 2017 Dec 14, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Trying out the walk-cycle with a zebra (four legs: three walk cycles). I followed the instructions for Mr Blue and Aquavella from June 2017 Tips and Tricks (several times) and still have a few problems. It's probably all something simple, but I've exhausted all the possibilities I could find.

1. Unless I disable the right and left profile view in Rigging mode, I see all three profiles in Record mode. And if I disable them, the walk cycle doesn't work at all. Tried adding a walk cycle to the Default view (which I want to be stationary), but that just makes the default zebra walk forwards and backwards.

2. The front legs, for which I created separate walk cycles, are running away from the rest of the body (when all views are enabled in Rigging). The settings for each walk cycle are identical.

3. The head doesn't bob at all

How soon until an update so 4+ legged creatures can use walk cycle? Zoey Zebra.png

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Adobe Employee ,
Dec 17, 2017 Dec 17, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

1. Does the tip here about tagging both heel & toe help? Character Animator Walk Cycle Issues

2. I think we'll need to see the .puppet file (File > Export > Puppet...) to figure that out

3. do you have a Neck-tagged handle (within each view)? -- that should get it bobbing

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Dec 18, 2017 Dec 18, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Heel and toe issues make sense, but it just isn't working. I've watched all the tutorial videos on walk cycles again and even though there's a few things I noticed I may have had wrong, changing them didn't make a difference. Also, I can't figure out how to send the puppet file. Seems like there should be a "attach file" button?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Adobe Employee ,
Dec 19, 2017 Dec 19, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

When you're responding, click "use advanced editor", then on the lower right side there's a paperclip with the work "Attach" next to it. I wish this was shown by default.

Happy to take a look at your puppet though.

Dan R.

CH QA

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Dec 19, 2017 Dec 19, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Am I responding in the wrong place? All I see is text style options, attach image, video, link, emoji, quote previous message, check spelling, @Mention and !App. I also tried sending you a direct message, but there's no "use advanced editor" there either. I even typed it into Adobe support search and got nothing. Is there a forum where we can request that this kind of thing be more obvious?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Adobe Employee ,
Dec 19, 2017 Dec 19, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I attached screenshots of where those buttons are.

You're welcome to send me a direct message too, but I don't know where the attachment options would be there.

Dan R.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Dec 19, 2017 Dec 19, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Interesting. I wasn't using the link in the email--I was just going to the forum directly. There's no "Reply" button and your screenshots aren't visible. I'm writing this from the 'advance editor', and the attachment icon isn't there. I'm using Safari. I'll try Chrome.

Screen Shot 2017-12-19 at 11.50.43 AM.pngScreen Shot 2017-12-19 at 12.03.29 PM.png

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Dec 19, 2017 Dec 19, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Maybe this will work.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Adobe Employee ,
Dec 20, 2017 Dec 20, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Very confusing. In any case, feel free to contact me directly at dramirez|at|adobe.com and I can directly take a look. I'll be on holiday with my family until Jan 2nd, but should be able to find time to help in the meantime.

Best,

Dan R.

CH QA

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Dec 26, 2017 Dec 26, 2017

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST

oksamuraiI think I figured it out! I started over completely and instead of using the "default" view, duplicating it twice and renaming the copies inside of CA (from June Tips and Tricks), I did the duplicating within AI.

Step by step:

1. Name the static layer "Frontal". Make sure there isn't a + before the legs names (I named them right leg front, left leg front, etc)

2. Name the other two layers "Right Profile" and "Left Profile" and make sure that the front left leg is named "left leg front" in the reflected view (same for all legs and eyes--anything that you reflect)

3. In CA, make sure the Frontal view is labeled Frontal in the Properties (do the same for Left and Right Profiles)

4. Add a walk cycle to the top level

5. Tag everything normally, making sure to add tags for Neck on the Head of both Right and Left profiles as well as waist and hip tags (Samurai Dave says heel and toe tags are super important, but I didn't try it without adding them). I made the front legs part of the primary walk cycle and put the waist and hips tags slightly above the front legs. Add sticks to the Frontal view feet and tag them with Fixed.

6. Add walk cycles to each of the four hind legs. Here's the twist---I accidentally forgot to change one of the legs Body Speed to 100%---it stayed locked to the body! The other leg went off on it's own. So even though the primary walk cycle Body Speed is set to 100%, the secondary walk cycles need to be at 0% to stay locked to the body.

Maybe I missed something along the way, but it's working woo hoo!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines