3d face/ body turn without smartbones

[No2Nuclear]

Hi I am quite new to this. ow do I create the 3D head turn without the use of smart bones? I have 13.5 and can use the robot moho character that has a 3d body turn option but cannot find any tutorials on how to do this.

Can anyone help?

KR Nuke

[Hoptoad]

Frame by frame animation is a good option.

You could also use point animation. For example: draw an entire character as vector art on frame 0, then go to frame 8 or whatever and move the points to new positions. The process is easy to learn, but execution is actually difficult. Masking would be helpful (that's a big understatement). Almost nobody does 3d-like point animation for more than a few seconds of animation, by the way. Frame by frame is way easier.

[concavepgons]

I guess a way you could try to do it in Moho Debut is by using a Switch layer and in its settings, enable "Interpolate sub-layers". You would then create copies of the head layer inside the Switch layer, one for each different rotation of the head. Then when animating you would then create keyframes to switch between the different premade head rotations. This method does have its limitations but it can be worth a shot.

[Greenlaw]

You can do a very basic head turn by parenting all the facial features to a single bone and sliding the bone inside the head shape. Like this...



No Smart Bone Actions are used, just regular bones and a Switch layer.

This is a simple example, but the ideas presented here are the foundation for making head turns in many of the rigs used in our TV shows.

Here's the Moho project file if you want to examine it...

basicHeadTurn.zip

In a nutshell, I just parented the face elements to a face bone that's parented to the head bone. Also, the head group has a mask enabled, so the head shape erases part of the face in the turn. (Remember to enable Exclude Strokes to draw the head outlines on top of the face layer.)

In an advanced head turn setup, I would break the face parts into separate layers and groups (eyes, nose, mouth, etc.,) but it's the same idea: just parent everything to the face bone and animate the face bone. I would also put the basic turn motion inside a Smart Bone Action and additively move the face bone for more unique posing.

Obviously, there can be a lot more to rigging a head turn, but let's keep it simple while you're learning.

Hope this helps.

[Greenlaw]

Bonus tip: I just realized my freshly installed Moho 14 still had Color Bones in the Timeline enabled. This can result in a ton of unnecessary clutter in the Timeline. 99% of the time, I never need or want to see all this extra data because the same animation data is already displayed in the first two bone channel sets, All Bones and Selected Bone.

So I tell Moho to hide it for me. To do this, select a bone layer and then choose Timeline Channels... Scroll down to the section for Bone color, and set all of them to the minus option.



This makes extra bone color channels go away. For example, from this...



To this...



Whenever you do need them, you can re-enable the channels you need to see later.

[Greenlaw]

One last tip:

Notice how I do almost all of the animation in the Bones layer. When I'm using Smart Bone Actions, I'm usually able to do ALL of my animation in the Bones layer.

But in the above example, because I'm not using Smart Bones, it's helpful to have the face Switch layer visible at the same time as the Bones layer. To do this, enable the Timeline Visibility for these two layers (the stopwatch column in the Layers window)

To switch between the two layers, click on the name in the Timeline. This can be easier than looking for the layers in the Layers window.

[Greenlaw]

I lied...here's one more tip...but it's for whenever you get around to using Smart Bones.

When you animate the head turn in a Smart Bone, try to minimize what the Smart Bone is moving. In the above example, I'd be using Smart Bones to move only the face bone and not the individual parts. For example, one Smart Bone to move the face bone up/down, and another to move it left/right. This allows me to manually move the individual parts of the face without worrying about creating Smart Bone conflicts that can distort the artwork.

Also, I would make additional child bones for each face part (eyeL, eyeR, mouth, etc.,) and parent these bones to the face bone. Then, to animate the face parts individually, I animate the bones, not the art layers. This way, I can keep all the animation inside the Bones layer and not have to hunt down keyframes hidden in nested artwork layers.

I find simpler is always better, especially when it gives me the same complex results.

[No2Nuclear]

Thank you for all the replies so far. D R Greenlaw, the zip file does not seem to be available. Can you post it again please?

Thank you

[Greenlaw]

Oops! Sorry, I didn't insert the link. It should work now.

[hayasidist]

... I have 13.5 and can use the robot moho character that has a 3d body turn option but cannot find any tutorials on how to do this.

Greenlaw has given you a huge amount of very valuable info -- so this is more curiosity about the "robot" character... (is this RD_Robot? or the mannequin in Character Wizard? or ...) and your reference to a "3d body turn option" ???

[Greenlaw]

A couple more tips....

Here's another advanced one for when you're using Smart Bone Actions: To avoid Smart Bone conflicts between vertical and horizontal controls, I'll have one Smart Bone control the bone (i.e., the Face bone) and have the other one control either a layer Transform (recommended) or Point Animation (less recommended.) Since each bone is controlling completely different things, there is no conflict. This is simpler and easier than setting up a Mix Smart Bone setup.

But keep the Mix Smart Bone technique in your back pocket because it can be a lifesaver when you really need it.

The reason I say Point Animation is less recommended in this situation is because if you have an Action control the point positions, you may run into a conflict when you want to additively edit the point position (like with the Magnet tool) during animation.

Something to remember: Evaluate each new situation for the best approach. No single technique is best for every character design and animation style.

[No2Nuclear]

... I have 13.5 and can use the robot moho character that has a 3d body turn option but cannot find any tutorials on how to do this.

Greenlaw has given you a huge amount of very valuable info -- so this is more curiosity about the "robot" character... (is this RD_Robot? or the mannequin in Character Wizard? or ...) and your reference to a "3d body turn option" ???

I am so gratefull to Greenlaw for the information. The robot is robot.moho (a moho created character)it seems to have a bone to the left of it that controls the body turn but I think this may be a smart bone. Can we use the smart bones that have been created in pro if we are using debut? if so that would explain why it has this extra bone if this makes sense.

I know I cannot create smart bones in debut but can they be used if already created?

Nuke

[No2Nuclear]

A couple more tips....

Here's another advanced one for when you're using Smart Bone Actions: To avoid Smart Bone conflicts between vertical and horizontal controls, I'll have one Smart Bone control the bone (i.e., the Face bone) and have the other one control either a layer Transform (recommended) or Point Animation (less recommended.) Since each bone is controlling completely different things, there is no conflict. This is simpler and easier than setting up a Mix Smart Bone setup.

But keep the Mix Smart Bone technique in your back pocket because it can be a lifesaver when you really need it.

The reason I say Point Animation is less recommended in this situation is because if you have an Action control the point positions, you may run into a conflict when you want to additively edit the point position (like with the Magnet tool) during animation.

Something to remember: Evaluate each new situation for the best approach. No single technique is best for every character design and animation style.

Thank you Mr Greenlaw, I am grateful for your help so far .I will test with a more simple rig first, think i am trying to run before I can walk.

KR Nuke

[Greenlaw]

I know I cannot create smart bones in debut but can they be used if already created?

Yes, I believe Smart Bones will operate in Debut; you just can't edit them in Debut or create new Smart Bone Actions.

Note that some Smart Bone setups will only work correctly on an animation frame (frame 1 and above.)

The setup frame (frame 0,) is meant for drawing and rigging, not testing. You can test some things there but it's more reliable to use an animation frame. Note that in Moho 14 you can toggle between an animation frame and the setup frame by clicking the Design Mode button under the workspace. In Moho 13.5.5 and earlier, you need to use the menu command, shortcut, or my MQC button panel to toggle this mode.

(Update: edited for clarity.)

[hayasidist]

The robot is robot.moho (a moho created character)it seems to have a bone to the left of it that controls the body turn but I think this may be a smart bone. Can we use the smart bones that have been created in pro if we are using debut? if so that would explain why it has this extra bone if this makes sense.
I know I cannot create smart bones in debut but can they be used if already created?

Ah! do you mean Render.moho (which is a robot!)? and yes, you can use the bones but you can't access the Action (i.e. you can't change how the smartbone behaves)