Crazy wild point curvature in switch layer interpolation

[heyvern]

This is crazy. It seems to be related to trying to change/animate point curvature inside switch layers with interpolation turned on. Th e curvature of the points goes crazy and shoot all over the place. Checking the values indicates no changes to the curve values on a point.

I am pushing Moho pretty hard with a very complex set up that involves a set of phonemes with each layer in a switch controlled by a smart bone for a head turn. It works great. My first pass has no issues. The phonemes interpolate smoothly and also work with the head turn smart bone action without issues.

What happened suddenly was when I was editing one of the layers and had to move points around because they were in the wrong spot and had incorrect curvature on the points. I modified the "base" switch layer and then went in and edited the smart bone actions. This required changing point curvature keys in the action.

This is when things went crazy on one layer. When interpolating to the other phonemes some of the points with modified curve keys go WILD and shoot way off to extreme values. But there are no keys with those values. I haven't been able to figure out how to change the behavior. I was able to fix one layer by adding in curve keys and "forcing" it normal then just deleting the keys.

I can fix it this by "starting over" with backup layers but would prefer not to. I am just checking if anyone else has had issues with switch layers and point curve interpolation issues.

[synthsin75]

Since when can smart bones interpolate a switch?! Have I missed something?

[heyvern]

<sigh> This happens all the time. So I've been struggling with this for a couple hours... well... longer actually. I even installed an update I missed and no changes.

Suddenly, immediately after writing this post, I go back and start testing out all the phonemes to check if I can fix this issue... and... er... IT'S FREAKING GONE! The problem has mysteriously vanished. No crazy curves everything is fine. Have no clue what happened. I am thinking it was the 14.3 update and it just took a little while to "fix" the issue. not sure.

[heyvern]

Since when can smart bones interpolate a switch?! Have I missed something?

Uh... er... well.. no it can't of course. The smart bone is only doing the head turn for each switch layer with 2 actions, LEFT-TURN and RIGHT-TURN on a single head turn bone. I am doing phoneme switch changes "by hand". So each switch layer as it's own head turn in the actions. When I turn the head turn bone it makes ALL the phonemes do the head turn. When I change the switch layer each one interpolates even during a turn which is freaking awesome.

Hold on not done yet!!!! There's MORE!
HOWEVER, I did update an old script from 2009 that DOES BONE CONTROLLED SWITCH INTERPOLATION. Works a treat. I will post it here eventually.

How it works is you have a bone with the same name as the switch layer and a "prefix". The script simply checks the bone for the angle constraint, divides that amount by the number of layers in the matching switch, looks for an angle keyframe on the bone, and adds a matching keyframe to the switch layer for the phoneme of the bone angle. It also DELETES key frames from the switch layer if the bone keys are deleted. The bonus feature is the keys for the switch layers are still there without the script.

[synthsin75]

Ah, that makes so much more sense. Switch sublayers controlled by smart bone, but not the switching itself.

[lucasfranca]

Hold on not done yet!!!! There's MORE!
HOWEVER, I did update an old script from 2009 that DOES BONE CONTROLLED SWITCH INTERPOLATION. Works a treat. I will post it here eventually.

How it works is you have a bone with the same name as the switch layer and a "prefix". The script simply checks the bone for the angle constraint, divides that amount by the number of layers in the matching switch, looks for an angle keyframe on the bone, and adds a matching keyframe to the switch layer for the phoneme of the bone angle. It also DELETES key frames from the switch layer if the bone keys are deleted. The bonus feature is the keys for the switch layers are still there without the script.

I would like to try this script if I can! This was a function that always wanted.

[heyvern]

Absolutely. I will post it here once I add some additional features.

I had a layer script that was "hard coded" to work with ONE specific file with specific bones and layer names and also had a bazillion other crazy features that aren't needed. I simplified it to be more universal but I really REALLY REALLY need it to work with angle control bones. So if a bone is controlled by another bone it won't leave a key frame so it won't activate a matching switch.

I have a character with a bunch of optional body and face features that can be turned on and off with smart bones, suit, t-shirt, hair, beard, glasses etc. It's been sitting around gathering dust and almost done. I had always planned to donate it to Moho when ready but life gets in the way. I was updating stuff for my new website and went down a rabbit hole updating this character file.

The key is I need all the features (hair, beard etc) to be moduler and in different switch layers to make them easier to turn on and off. This means they have to be in separate switch layers with individual scripted controlling bones to active the keys. So I have a bunch of bones that control the switches interpolation but using an angle control in bone constraints won't put keys on the controlled bones so I need to figure out a way to look for the controlling bone's keys instead. It should be an easy fix.

It's still in development and just writing it down some ideas popped in my head to make it easier but I still want that dang angle control to activate keys feature.

p.s. Actually I falsely assumed switch layer interpolation with smart bones worked in the latest version. I hadn't tried it out in ages. When it didn't work I dragged out this old script.