Newbie switch layer + bones problem

fiziwig · Post by **fiziwig** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 5:14 am

I've only been using AS since yesterday, so I'm still a very new newbie.

Here's my problem: I want a dragon to walk through a door, left to right, pause, and then turn his head (from profile) to face the camera. Since you only see the front half of the dragon that's all I drew.

I have the dragon rigged with bones for the two front legs, the head, and the lower jaw. I animated the sequence of him walking through the door, and that works just fine.

I scanned pencil sketches of the 5 intermediate head stages as the head turns toward the camera, and I'm trying to get those layers into a switch layer.

I created the switch layer and dragged the head layer into it. Now I have a bone layer which contains a switch layer which contains first head layer. The head is a vector layer, as the other 5 heads will be.

Now when I run through the animation sequence the head layer is somehow bound to the left leg bones, so as the left left leg lifts up to walk, the head gets ripped off the body and flies around keeping an exact distance from the front foreleg bone.

I didn't bind any bones to any layers, and the head worked fine until I dragged it into the switch layer. Then suddenly it's all mixed up with the left foreleg motion.

How did the head layer get bound to the foreleg? And how can I unbind the layer?

Any help would be much appreciated.

thanks,

--gary

fiziwig · Post by **fiziwig** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:11 am

A related problem: Somehow (I swear I didn't do it manually) several points got bound to a bone they don't belong bound to. How can I see what points are bound to a bone, and how can I un-bind points from a bone?

Thanks again,

--gary

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:12 am

This happens sometimes.

Even though you didn't bind any layers to bones the best way to fix this is to bind the head switch layer to the head bone. The head vector layer INSIDE the head switch layer is not what is moving. That layer can not be moved by bones outside of the switch. It is the head SWITCH layer that has gotten bound to the foot bone or is being influenced by it.

So select the head switch layer, select the bind layer tool

and click on the head bone.

Another problem you may find is that the lower jaw bone will be useless. It can't possibly effect any vectors in the head switch layer. You can put bones in the head switch layer to move the jaw or you could make a jaw layer that is separate. Hard to say without seeing what you are trying to do.

-vern

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:18 am

fiziwig wrote:A related problem: Somehow (I swear I didn't do it manually) several points got bound to a bone they don't belong bound to. How can I see what points are bound to a bone, and how can I un-bind points from a bone?

Thanks again,

--gary

Select all the points. Under the "Bone" menu select "Release points" and then select "Flexi-Bind points". Selecting the release points is just something I throw in there. It isn't really a necessary step but I like to do this just to be sure.

Sometimes points can get accidentally or weirdly "unbound"... like Frankenstein in that movie.

-vern

fiziwig · Post by **fiziwig** » Sat Jan 05, 2008 8:38 am

Thanks for the help. I think I'm going to save switch layers until I've mastered some of the more basic stuff. Then I'll come back to them.

--gary