Too many bones??

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Greenlaw
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Re: Too many bones??

Post by Greenlaw »

Here's another interesting example:

Image

Today, I needed to rig and animate a character with multiple layers of hair locks that wave In the air like tentacles. This is one of the layers with three locks, and I found I can branch a single Curver in three directions to rig the locks. (I repeated a similar setup for the other hair layers.)

To do this, I drew the first curve spanning from the left and right extremes, dividing the curve with a Sharp point in the middle. So, technically, this is one curve controlling two locks. Then I drew the second curve from the tip of the middle lock upward, but did not directly connect the curve. Instead, I double-clicked to end the curve, and manually dragged the curve's end point over the middle point of the first curve to auto-weld it. So, the end result is a single curve with three branches to control three locks of hair.

I did it this way because when I tried to branch the curve directly from the middle point, Moho drew a regular vector art curve, not a Curver curve. But if I drew the curve as unattached, it created it as a Curver curve, which I could then attach.

I just wanted to share this because, even though this was easy to do, it was tricky to solve, and until an hour ago, I didn't know Curver could do this. :D

Bonus Tips: I'm finding Compressible Curver works better for hair because it won't stretch the hair unnaturally from the roots. If you created your Curver layer as a regular Curver layer and you want to switch to a Compressible Curver, you can change it by checking the option in the Layer Settings window.
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Greenlaw
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Re: Too many bones??

Post by Greenlaw »

Greenlaw wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2024 11:56 pm I did it this way because when I tried to branch the curve directly from the middle point, Moho drew a regular vector art curve, not a Curver curve. But if I drew the curve as unattached, it created it as a Curver curve, which I could then attach.
I thought about this, and I think there are two things going on:

First is to follow the order of operations Curver expects. In other words, just do what I did to get the desired result. I think Curver needs the first point to be unattached to know you're creating a Curver curve.

Second, the 'vector art' curve I created by accident probably would have worked like a regular Curver curve, and it was just shaded wrong. It's probably best practice to disable Auto-Stroke when creating Curver curves. I came to this conclusion when I noticed that some of my Curver curves have a visible Stroke when the layer is unselected. Deleting the shape would probably fix this, but I just set it to Hide In Editing. Will test this later.

Hmm...I wonder if the branch drawn directly from the middle of the first curve would have worked if I had Auto-Stroke disabled. TBD...I'll check on this, too, when I have time.

BTW, I don't think this is a bug; it's just something to be aware of when making multi-branch Curver curves.
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Greenlaw
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Re: Too many bones??

Post by Greenlaw »

Greenlaw wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2024 12:28 am ...but I just set it to Hide In Editing. Will test this later.
Don't do this...it effectively disables the Curver layer.

Additionally, something is wrong with the curves that have a stroke shape, and removing the shape does not fix this.

Drawing the branching Curver curve with Auto-Stroke disabled seems to work...no more unwanted stroke shapes. I think this is a potential issue only when more than one curve is being drawn in the Curver layer.

That said, I'm not sure branching Curver like this is a good idea. ATM, I'm trying to animate this three-branched Curver curve, and I see the region where the points are welded in the middle can have a peculiar effect. In this case, I'm not concerned about it because the character's head is hiding the error, but it's really not necessary to weld these points to get the desired warping. The curve may look cleaner this way, but it works better when they are not welded.

In fact, I found I could eventually break the Curver if I messed with it while in the welded state. My unwelded version has been more reliable to work with, so now I'm thinking that branching a Curve curve is a bad idea. Don't do it.

Hmm...that's a lot of 'don'ts'. Well, I guess it's as important to know what NOT to do. :D

Just sharing, in case anyone else is thinking of trying this.
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Greenlaw
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Re: Too many bones??

Post by Greenlaw »

Another update, hopefully the last one: The branching Curver actually does work, but I'm seeing a long lag in its response...this made me think that the setup was breaking earlier. But, it's not broken; it's just really slow.

The unwelded multiple curves version of this setup is definitely more responsive...a LOT more responsive. This probably has more to do with overlapping Curver regions (i.e., conflicting warps) than the welded points and branching, so keep that in mind when placing the curves in the Curver layer.

So, this part hasn't changed: Don't branch your Curver curves.
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