Pin bones for limb rigs?

[ggoblin]

I saw a very intriguing tutorial by @Poptoogi on using pin bones for limb rigs (Nov 2021) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIOHDbOv8h4



Apparent advantages are easy fore-shortening of bones for forced perspective, also perhaps body turns?

Has anyone used this technique? From your experience what are the pluses and negatives of this approach? Are there costs to pay further down the line for the up front advantages it offers?

The idea seems to have been around at least since Nov 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCRN4un5jQM



and more recently Jun 2021:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QdzlMUuzgY

[WatchMotion]

Limb perspective is always something I've struggled with until recently but this pretty much blows my current technique out of the water I think. I'm really excited to try this soon. Thanks for sharing!

[Greenlaw]

I typically just shorten the limb bone as it enters the 'at camera' angle, and then switch drawings.

You can do this using Vitruvian Bones too...it's kinda like in Victor's old switch bones trick before we had Vitruvian Bones. The original thread is here: www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=30445

Actually, the recent promo video for Moho has a great example of this technique using Vitruvian Bones at 0:41: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmkysPJjoO8

Hope this helps.

[Daxel]

I have been wanting to try those techniques since I saw them months ago. I would like to know if they work well with more complex drawing styles and if you can control the limbs with targets like Victor Paredes show in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOLVMK1TAaM&t=728s

The solution I have used for non-destructive bone scaling so far is what Mult Rush teaches here (you can put subtittles):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcwTco4ZlQ8
By the way every Mult Rush video and script is gold.

Right now, with vitruvian bones, it's easier than ever to have a few different limbs with their own rigging technique that could be the best for a specific task.

[synthsin75]

Right now, with vitruvian bones, it's easier than ever to have a few different limbs with their own rigging technique that could be the best for a specific task.

This.

Since pin bone limbs cannot use inverse kinematics, they'd likely be harder to animate the legs in a walk cycle. But with v-bones, you can have both. IK for more profile walks and pin bones for the necessary foreshortening of a front walk cycle.

[ggoblin]

Good points regarding IK and side walk cycle, and pin bones in front walk cycle.

Will investigate vitruvian bones in time.

Thank you

[Greenlaw]

I finally got around to viewing the Pin Bone technique video. That's pretty cool!

Coincidentally, I was animating a similar arm setup but in a 3D rig in Maya a couple of weeks ago. In my case, the characters had squat bodies and large heads, and I needed this setup to be able to stretch the limbs far enough from the body so you could see the elbows and hands, and then have the arms get short again when they return to their rest state.

It hadn't occurred to me that this type of joint would be useful in a 2D animation too!

Thanks for sharing the video! I'm going to play around with this technique in Moho this weekend.