Locking bones in debut

[Mayanima]

Very frustrated finding out I don't have target bones in Debut version, but trying to manage locking (foot)bones instead.
Looking for some more info, to properly locking/unlocking feet during walkcycle, freeze post not enough it seems?
Just doing simple cut out animation, but need it to look ok.

[Greenlaw]

Yeah, in Moho Pro, I prefer to use target bones and Independent Rotation to lock feet. This keeps feet locked firmly in place and prevents IK from rotating them. Sometimes I wish I could keyframe Independent Rotation but most of the time this is perfectly fine.

Debut doesn't officially allow you to use Bone Targets like in Moho Pro, but here's the workaround for enabling them...



The trick is to use the shortcuts for the Parent Bone tool: Alt-Click to select the targeting bone and Ctrl-Click to select the target bone.

Unfortunately, Debut doesn't fully support target bones. For example, because the Parent Tool isn't keyframeable in Debut, you can't keyframe the bone to switch targets during the animation. Also, because Debut does not support editing Constraints, you cannot enable Independent Rotation like you can in Moho Pro.

So for locking feet in Debut you're left with using the Lock Bone option. This feature isn't as convenient as the method I described for Moho Pro but it does work reasonably well. Just select the bones you wish to Lock and click on the Lock switch. Like so...



Debut will keyframe the Lock so the bones stay fixed and can't be rotated. This is similar to what happens with Target Bones and Independent Rotation in Moho Pro, except you can't freely rotate the foot bones in Debut if you need to.

Lock Bone is easy to use for a standing character as shown above but it's a little tricky in a walk cycle. It's possible though and I believe Victor made a video on this topic a few years ago. Try searching for Lock Bones on his YouTube channel.

If I have time today, I'll try to whip up a Debut 'lock and walk' example to post here.

Hope this helps.

[Greenlaw]

Oh, it just occurred to me that if you need to rotate the foot bone while the Lock is active, you can insert an offset bone in-between the foot and lower leg, and lock this offset bone instead. This should allow the foot to be animated independently, and since the offset bone is Locked, the IK should not affect the foot bone.

Where this probably breaks is when you pull the character away from the the locked bones. I haven't tried this myself but that's my guess what will happen.

Just some ideas for you to play around with.

[Greenlaw]

I spent a few minutes during my lunch break animating a quick walk in Debut, and I found you don't need Lock Bones to animate the walk, just use the Target bones as described at the top. This makes it easier to animate the torso's vertical position. Then, when the character is standing still, you can enable Lock Bones. This should make animating a character rig using IK a bit easier in Debut. At least, that's my theory for now.

I'm going to make a proper Debut tutorial for this tonight if I'm not too caught up with other projects.

[Greenlaw]

Yup, in Debut, that's the way to go: use Bone Targets for walking and Lock Bone for standing.

This walk test took only a few minutes to set up and animate in Debut...



Later tonight or tomorrow I'll record a proper video to explain in further detail...maybe even add some artwork. Right now my wife says I need to finish working on my taxes. I've procrastinated enough today already.

[Mayanima]

Thank you so much for the instructions, I will try them out, looks great!

Earlier while looking for Victor Paredes and bone locking, I found this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGCCDkDNzcI
with switch bones, just thought maybe it could be possible to use switch for alternating foot/legpositions, as when alternating pictures in frame by frame animation. Haven't tried it yet though.

[Mayanima]

Gave it a try, and needs practicing, but bone targets as shown above, the workaround, works perfect - you saved my day And weeks.

(combining with freeze poze at some keyframes)

[Greenlaw]

Yeah, Freeze Pose is a good technique for your main keyframes...using it makes it easier to retime the animation, especially when working in Consolidated mode (Debut's default mode.)

I would be careful about using Freeze Pose for every frame...that can make it harder to change keyframes between the key poses. When this happens, you may need to exit Consolidated mode to edit the keys.

For example, in the above animation, I'm using Freeze Pose for the extremes of the walk (1, 12, 24) and the passing poses (6, 18), and then at the beginning of the the transition to standing pose (103)...this last one releases the rig from the cycle (the big gap between 24-103.)