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Motion Studio Tutorial
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Motion Studio Tutorial // Roundtable
Post by frank // Sep 21, 2006, 3:38pm
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frank
Total Posts: 709
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Note did not have to record a keyframe every frame in the TS/SE. Just did it on my 'keyframes' that were set in Motion Studio.
You are correct - that should work MOST of the time but...
MoStu bones move in arcs, so the vertices on the mesh follow in arcs. So if you have frame 0 and frame 10 with a jaw rotation in MoStu it will look natural but if you vertex-key only frame 0 and 10 in trueSpace, you basically get a linear morph between those two frames - not as natural. In that case, adding a vertex key at frame 5 or so should help a lot with the "arc" of the movement.
Those cases may be few, but I did want to mention it. |
Post by frank // Sep 26, 2006, 3:18am
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frank
Total Posts: 709
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Part 14 - Facial Animation is up on the German MoStu tutorial:
http://www.frankladner.com/mostu/german/MOSTU.HTM |
Post by frank // Sep 28, 2006, 10:52am
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frank
Total Posts: 709
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Part 12 - Poses & Pose Blending is up on the German MoStu tutorial:
http://www.frankladner.com/mostu/german/MOSTU.HTM |
Post by frank // Oct 2, 2006, 6:25am
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frank
Total Posts: 709
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Part 13 - Mark & Register is up on the German MoStu tutorial:
http://www.frankladner.com/mostu/german/MOSTU.HTM |
Post by Tiles // Oct 2, 2006, 6:40am
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Tiles
Total Posts: 1037
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Great job :) |
Post by frank // Oct 2, 2006, 8:48am
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frank
Total Posts: 709
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Thanks Tiles!
Also, thanks to fellow tS user Moersner/Emma for the translations! |
Post by Leif // Nov 5, 2006, 3:50pm
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Leif
Total Posts: 276
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Thanks Scott and Frank.
In the screengrabs on this page (http://www.frankladner.com/mostu/11.htm) there are vertical ticks on the gridline in the side view. How is that? |
Post by frank // Nov 6, 2006, 3:49am
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frank
Total Posts: 709
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You're welcome, Leif!
What vertical tick marks? Can you give me the link of the specific image? It may be something you see that I am used to seeing because nothing jumps out at me.
Thanks! |
Post by Leif // Nov 6, 2006, 2:29pm
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Leif
Total Posts: 276
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Like this 2883 |
Post by kurageart // Dec 20, 2006, 2:32pm
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kurageart
Total Posts: 37
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hi... learning motion studio, i must say that is very good for animating my characters...
One thing, that I didn't solved yet, wich seems to me pretty banal task, is :
how to copy a sub skeleton?
let's say I wanna copy and mirror an arm: how to do it?
thank!! |
Post by Tiles // Dec 20, 2006, 10:45pm
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Tiles
Total Posts: 1037
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Simple copy does indeed not work. Select your arm skeleton, save it as object. Then reload this object :) |
Post by kurageart // Dec 20, 2006, 10:46pm
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kurageart
Total Posts: 37
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uh, ok, right:) |
Post by kurageart // Dec 21, 2006, 12:46am
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kurageart
Total Posts: 37
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hello.
welcome back to "the super dumb questions series":
now, I'm pretty fine with my rig....
I was wondering on how would be possible save the entire character(severelap parts, actually)+rigs in the object library....
I tried selecting everything and pasting there, but it included only 1 joint... |
Post by Tiles // Dec 21, 2006, 1:03am
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Tiles
Total Posts: 1037
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Phew. Library?
Afaik you cannot store single parts of a rigged mesh. It is one piece nce you connected it. You can split it into its pieces though. But that destroys the rig when it is several subskeletons and one mesh.
One point is to make sure to be in ANIMATION mode before saving anything. Have lost several rigs in the beginning by that. Saving while being in the Setup Mode destroys the rig.
Another point. To save the complete rigged sprite or separated parts mark the skeleton in the motion studio panel. In that way really the whole skeleton is selected. And not just a joint. Then save it as Object. |
Post by kurageart // Dec 21, 2006, 1:36am
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kurageart
Total Posts: 37
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thanks!
one thing I noticed , is that virtuaout seems not working with motion studio setup:
joints are rendered, character is rendered in the rest pose (motion doesen't seems supported).
Ayone else experienced it?
Any fix to suggest? |
Post by kurageart // Dec 21, 2006, 1:52am
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kurageart
Total Posts: 37
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mmm by sayng: select the skelether in the motion studio panel, you mean selecting only the "root" skelether, or every single part uncollapse?
Im my setup I have several subskelethers... don't know if that meke the difference... |
Post by Tiles // Dec 21, 2006, 2:12am
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Tiles
Total Posts: 1037
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Collapse all. That skeletons that are still visible are the ones i mean ;) |
Post by kurageart // Dec 21, 2006, 2:13am
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kurageart
Total Posts: 37
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figured out about saving, reading the html manual :)
not yet about virtuaout render of motion studio characters... :( |
Post by Humdinger // Dec 21, 2006, 3:11am
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Humdinger
Total Posts: 319
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hi... learning motion studio, i must say that is very good for animating my characters...
One thing, that I didn't solved yet, wich seems to me pretty banal task, is :
how to copy a sub skeleton?
let's say I wanna copy and mirror an arm: how to do it?
thank!!
In Motion Studio 'mirroring' is not available techinically as far I know.
What you can do is select the sub skeleton you want to mirror/copy. Do this in the Left panel of Motion Studio by right clicking the Skeleton and selecting 'select'.
Press the copy button in TrueSpace
You now will have two identical skeletons
As long as the skeleton has a different name you technically do not have to rename the bones within the copied skeleton
You now can move the sub skeleton as a whole or the joints to get them in the proper place on your finished rig.
I am guessing you would like to also 'mirror' your poses. Create a walk pose with the right leg forward and left leg back...and then mirror that pose to get another keyframe for your animation. As far as I know this can not be done using Motion Studio. |
Post by Liger ZERO // Dec 21, 2006, 6:38pm
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Liger ZERO
Total Posts: 124
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That's odd. I have not run into any VO problems with Motion Studio. I wish I could help you with that problem. |
Post by kurageart // Dec 22, 2006, 12:52am
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kurageart
Total Posts: 37
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Motion studio it is very usefull tool... and also,maybe limited, but very easy to use.
One feature that I find be missing is such a "layer animation" feature and an align to path feauture.
The only solution for quickly animate my character while he's walking,making him doing other things beside walking, is to split the skelethon in 2 parts: legs and torso, and animating the torso with pose mixer....
do you think this is the right procedure?? |
Post by frank // Feb 16, 2007, 7:00am
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frank
Total Posts: 709
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Here's a Motion Studio skeleton I put together. Spent around 30 minutes or so on it. This isn't by any means the only way to build a biped skeleton. Motion Studio gives a lot of flexibility in this area, so you can come up with some crazy designs. You could even add ribcage bones and such to simulate breathing on a character, throw in some extra bones to control fat jiggle, etc
I try to use as few sub-skeletons as possible, because it makes selecting the different areas a tad easier. Notice the arm bones are on the same skeleton as the upper body, and the feet aren't separate from the leg, for instance.
On sub-skeletons with lots of bones (like hand skeletons), I attach those to a "stub" on the parent skeleton. On the arm, you'll notice a small "wrist" bone attached to the end of the arm. This is VERY USEFUL for quickly and easily controlling the overall rotation/twist of the hand. If it was instead just attached to the lower arm, you would have to re-pose each bone of the hand skeleton to get an equivalent rotation/twist. There's also a "stub" bone at the top of the legs/hip object, to control the overall twisting and turning of the upper body. Easy to setup, easy to use.
This thing can be modified however you like. Throw in some toe bones on the feet (for those I would likely use a separate attached skeleton), or add an extra finger.
By the way, I built only one hand skeleton and duplicated it for the other hand. ((TIP: Disable Auto Drill-Down Select in MoStu, select the skeleton, save it as a COB object, make a new scene, bring the COB file in, rename it, and save it. Now go back into the scene you were working on and load the COB file.))
Enjoy, and please ask any questions you may have regarding MoStu skeletons, rigging, animation, etc. |
Post by GraySho // Feb 16, 2007, 8:24am
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GraySho
Total Posts: 695
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Thanks a lot for sharing this :) |
Post by 3dpdk // Feb 17, 2007, 9:33am
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3dpdk
Total Posts: 212
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Hay Frank,
I found this tutorial last week and have been doing some learning exercises ever since. Here are some questions not answered by the tut. (at least not that I can find)
1. How does one attach a second skeleton to the first without connecting it with a bone and/or without losing it's flexability?
2. I made a hand skeleton as part of a complete skeleton. When I move the characters forearm the fingers follow like so many wet noodles. Example: My character is throwing a punch; his arm is cocked and ready to let loose with his hand in a fist. advance the counter about 20 frames , 2/3 sec, and position the arm to it's punch full extension; I find the fist has unraveled, trailing behind the arm and takes 45 min to re position the hand bones in the form of a fist again. How can I prevent this. Is this the reason for your wrist bone and if so, how do you attach a bone to a bone and is there a trick to the skin weights assignments in this setup?
3 Can the movement of any one joint be limited?
I like the way the Motion Studio bones act on the skin and the skinning setup interface, but for animating, the description in #2 makes things a bit tedious and trueSpace bones with it's IK behave better in this case. The jury is still out on who's bones I prefer. One thing I definitely like about Motion Studio bones is not having vertices of the model being sent unpredictably off to Timbuktu |
Post by Tiles // Feb 17, 2007, 10:58pm
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Tiles
Total Posts: 1037
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1) Talking about having all in one hierarchy: don't create a second skeleton for that. There was this trick with first click at create new joint instead create new bone, and then at new bone. Which produces a not particular connected bone that can float around, but is still part of the skeleton, in the same hierarchy. I think i have read this part somewhere in this thread.
You can of course attach a second skeleton as a child. But that part is mentioned in the tutorial. Note: the now available free version has some changings compared to the older version here. You need to rightclick instead leftclick at your subskeleton. So choose your bone to attach the subskeleton to, rightclick at your subskeleton, and then hold and drag the skeleton to the bone where you want to attach the subskeleton to. Took me a while to figure out why it refused to work the old way :)
Make the top joint of your sub skeleton nailed. And it will stick at relative position to the bone where you have attached the subskeleton to.
2) You can pose a skeleton. The whole skeleton. But not single bones. That's the reason why i use a subskeleton for hands. And why i use subskeletons for the arms. Now i can pose it and use the poses whenever needed ;)
3) Nope, unfortunately. Was planned for the never released Mostu Version 2 ...
Both bones systems have their pros and cons. One of the biggest pros of Mostu is the vertex weighting and multiple nails. I don't want to miss them anymore. Makes animations possible that you simply cannot do with native bones. And so i rarely use the native bones nowadays. |
Post by frank // Feb 19, 2007, 6:57am
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frank
Total Posts: 709
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graysho: You are welcome!
3dpdk: Sorry for the delay in response! Have been away from the computer the past couple of days.
I'm glad Tiles was able to help with your questions, though (Thanks Tiles!)
2.) Correct - use a separate skeleton for this. To attach, say, a hand to an arm on the main skeleton, select the main skeleton and then the bone at the end of the arm from the list in MoStu, then RIGHT-CLICK (last update requires using this button for drag-n-drop, otherwise if you use a standard left click, the list is populated with the bones of the skeleton you clicked) the sub-skeleton (hand skeleton) from the list on the left side, and drag it over to the arm/wrist bone on the main skeleton.
If that doesn't make sense, or if you have other questions, don't hesitate to ask. :) |
Post by Humdinger // Feb 19, 2007, 7:03am
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Humdinger
Total Posts: 319
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Hay Frank,
When I move the characters forearm the fingers follow like so many wet noodles.
lol
yup..that was one of the things that's been around with Motion Studio from the beginning.
As mentioned elsewhere using sub-skeletons fixes that problem, but as you said it can get a bit tedious.
Hell, other than the lower half of the body I try never to have more than two bones in any skeleton.
However, the rigs that you can create and the resulting freedom with which they can be posed makes it a far better choice for me that the native bones.
Not to mention that you can animate your mesh and then add geometry to it and not lose the animation!!
And retain most... if not all of your skinning information (removing geometry seems to cause all the previous skinning weights to go ga-ga)
In the end though I do hope it all becomes unnecessary with the release of TS 7.5.
Though Motion Studio 2.0 would most definitely get my attention as well.
TrueSpace brought me into 3D...and almost moved me out of it...Motion Studio brought me back...apparently forever. ;) |
Post by frank // Feb 19, 2007, 9:12am
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frank
Total Posts: 709
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One thing I hardly ever use (isn't mentioned in my tutorial, and isn't given much attention in the documentation), is the Parent feature.
Instead of trying to explain it, I've attached a picture to show how it works. This may be exactly what you're looking for if you don't want to use sub-skeletons.
Here's what the documentation says about it:
Parenting
A Joint in Parent mode, when moved, will move it's children by the same amount. Note: this is a forward kinematics (FK) effect simulated by inverse kinematics (IK). Note that IK causes drag on the child joints, preventing the children from anchoring completely. |
Post by 3dpdk // Feb 19, 2007, 11:51am
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3dpdk
Total Posts: 212
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Ah- HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:banana:
Thanks Frank!
Humdinger; Simple character animation has been a four year search for me, but I have never been tempted to leave tS as much as just trying to find the best supplement. Motion studio so far has shown the best results. I just need to learn some of the intricate details like Frank just pointed out.
As you said, if tS7.5 makes some vast improvements with their resident bones I'll probably upgrade as soon as it's available. I'd like to see some demos.
Paul |
Post by frank // Feb 19, 2007, 12:03pm
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frank
Total Posts: 709
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3dpdk: Glad I could help! |
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