What is the most versatile way to rig/setup a character?

[Vercingetorix]

Looking at the sample characters that come included with Anime studio as well as a few other characters from Content paradise I've noticed that a lot of them are not actually rigged/setup very well for animation and by that I mean there are some very nice turn arounds containing tons of eyes and hand variations but none of them are capable of performing a simple task like turning their head without the rest of their body turning with it, or rotating their upper body without their hips turning as well etc

So I was just wondering if their are any examples or tutorials floating around of a really versatile way to set up your characters for these kind of movements?
any help would greatly appreciated
Thanks

[GCharb]

Only way to rig, or setup with turn around, is either with a very complex bone setup or with actions/blendmorph.

There are some examples on the forum.

Here is a head turn for v8

http://www.mediafire.com/?283ubcjdx0usise

and one for v6

http://www.mediafire.com/?h6ue6706j9dd36x

Personally I prefer a simpler way of animation, which usually gives very decent results, here is an example of such simpler head turn.

http://www.mediafire.com/?f500d9scj8dj42r

[jahnocli]

Instead of making a 2D applicaion jump through hoops, why don't you storyboard what you want to do. You could then try to solve a problem when you get to it, instead of trying to anticipate every eventuality and then only using 10% of what you have prepared.

[SvenFoster]

I'm with jahnocli on this... (not at his house, at his point of view)

I spent far to much time at the beginning trying to create a puppet that could do everything and then ended up using nothing but a 45 degree side view.

Unless you are intending to do a long running series of animations then its just not worth the resources.
If not you would make better use of your time by getting really quick at throwing an adequate bone structure on a new drawing when needing a change in perspective.

If you storyboard like suggested, you'll be surprised at how much more animated and polished things will look..even if they are bad.

That said, Things like head turns couldn't be easier if you use something like GCharb's technique and then it doesn't need a complex rig, just some stretch and squash and a few frames...


however....you asked about complex rig setups so I'll give it a go.
The problem I see with AS and turning heads/no body etc is that you cannot reference instances of objects.
So having a complex hand group, you would need to copy it to every arm position group. Then in turn every arm position would need to be in most body positions and it quickly gets unwieldy.
The alternative is to have the head, torso and legs in their own switchers and under the same group. the problem then is that you will most likely have to animate them seperatly as the transformations wont be inherited.

Its something 3d does great, animating the same resource from loads of angles etc.. 2d well there are some shortcuts but its hard work and sometimes depending on the effect its just quicker,easier and more sensible to draw it when needed.

good luck.

[funksmaname]

what they said ^^^

[NeedyN00b]

a breakthrough for me was when i realized i could (and should) beat the heck out of my rigs (move points everywhere, scale bones, translate bones, etc) *during* the animation. you can always reset the points and bones. you don't need the rig to make everything automatic. it takes way too long to set it up and the resulting animation frequently looks worse anyway.

so, what these guys said, but with the perhaps obvious point (to some) that you can just translate points and bones as necessary if something is out of place or not doing something you need it to do from your rig.