Points that won't bind at all!

fiziwig · Post by **fiziwig** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 7:22 pm

So far for me the most frustrating part of Anime Studio is the mysterious bone binding problems I seem to always run into. Bones that are bound to NO points, yet still insist on dragging one isolated point around with them, and bones that simply won't bind to any points no matter what you do.

Here's the problem I'm having right now. In this anme file ( http://fiziwig.com/bind_problem.anme ) the bone layer named "Front Arm Bone" is supposed to control points in the layer "Front Arm". Using the bind points tool in the "Front Arm" layer, you can verify that each bone has a number of points bound to it. Yet when I move the bones, NO points will follow the bones.

Can anyone tell me what I have done wrong? I've done this identical type of thing before and the points always bind to the bones just fine.

Thanks for any help.

--gary

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:39 pm

Try this:
Select vector layer. Select "Release Layer" from Bone menu.
Select all points. Select "Release Points" from Bone menu.
Select "Flexi-bind Points" from Bone menu.

fiziwig · Post by **fiziwig** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:49 pm

Vielen Dank!

That worked. But I sure wish I knew why.

What is more interesting is that after doing that I am now able to use the bind points tool again.

Perhaps my file was corrupted somehow? I did report a reproducible crash bug using that file in the bugs forum.

--gary

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 10:04 pm

Sometimes a file gets fucked up when I do too many changes back and forth. Nearly always I can rescue it via copying all points from one vector layer into a new, empty one.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 11:23 pm

This happens to me all the time. I am so use to it that if I change any point binding I always release all points first and then flexi-bind points.

Sometimes with "stray" points I have had to delete the point and add it back in... that is rare though.

In some cases it has to do with bone influence. Sometimes I will have some points that are sort of in a weird spot that isn't covered by the bone I think it should be. Sort of like surveillance cameras, the bad guys always find one corner that the cameras can't see and use that to get in and steal the top secret documents.

So I do all those other tricks first... only to discover I just needed to bump up bone strength just a teeny bit on one bone.

Copying and pasting points to a new layer works great because of how AS orders point ID's. When you paste it sort of "resets" everything.

-vern

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 1:42 am

I have a set of tool scripts that help on finding what's the binding values of the points:
Search in my signature link for this:
TOGGLE SELECTION OF POINTS BASED ON ITS BINDING VALUES

Hope it helps.
-G

fiziwig · Post by **fiziwig** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 2:33 am

Genete,

If and when I upgrade to PRO version I will certainly check those out. For now I'm still using non-Pro, so no scripting.

--gary

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:11 am

fiziwig wrote:Genete,

If and when I upgrade to PRO version I will certainly check those out. For now I'm still using non-Pro, so no scripting.

--gary

Hey Gary!
I believe you don't need to upgrade for tool scripts!. You are using NOW tool scripts, so, why cannot you install your own new tool scripts?

Scripts for PRO are under a "scripts" folder at Anime Studio folder installation. There are there the followings folders:

menu (this one probably doesn't exists in NON PRO version)

tools

utility (this folder contains some scripts for common task of the tools and for communication between tools).

and under tool folder:

_tool_list.txt: this is a text file containing the tools arrangement values. It tells where to placed the existing tools in groups, the group names, if the tool is a button tool or a normal tool, and the group color background. You can change it for your own proposes.

Code: Select all

group Bone
color	204 220 232 255
tool	lm_select_bone		B
tool	lm_translate_bone	T
tool	lm_scale_bone		S
tool	lm_rotate_bone		R

tool	lm_add_bone		A
tool	lm_reparent_bone	P
tool	lm_bone_strength	...
tool	lm_manipulate_bones	Z

tool	lm_bind_layer		...
tool	fa_bind_points		I
tool	lm_offset_bone		...
button	ge_bone_of_shape	...

button	ge_uname_bones		U
button  ge_select_released_points ...
button  ge_select_flexibound_points ...	
button  ge_select_bound_points ...

here it is a porttion of my _tool_list.txt file. It is my bone group. You can see there that I've the Lost Marble tools (the one starting with "lm"), one fazek tool ("fa") and some genete's tools ("ge"). Also "tool" word means it is a normal tool (interaction with the use and keep the tool active until a new tool is selected) and "button" means a one time execution tool like a menu entry. So although you don't have the Scripts menu entry in the application you can install your own tools at the tool palette.

and the followings file (one pair for each tool):

tool_name.lua: the lua file ( it is an ASCII file) that is the script itself.

tool_name.png: the image of the tool button.

So you can download my scripts, place them at the tools folder and modify _tool_list.txt file for your own added scritps.

Please feed back if this is possible. It would be so interesting for non PRO users.

Enjoy!

-G

fiziwig · Post by **fiziwig** » Sun Jan 20, 2008 7:28 pm

Genete,

Yes, thank you. That works.

--gary