... animate bones before they act in physic-engine

[Tagirijus]

Hi there,

I have a basic problem, I think. I want to animate a bone-controlled character, before it gets controlled by the physic engine. I tried to make 2 layers and switch them when the physic engine should start, but the bone-character in the physic group is in its startposition and I cannot change the starting pose. What could I do?

Hopefully someone understand my problem. I tried to make 3 pics and uploaded the .anme file (just very trivial samples):

How it actually is:



How I want to be the start pose of the character.


File: Ragdoll.anme

I also do not want to make the character "new" and set the bones new in the pose I want to let the character start acting in the physic engine. Is there some other way I could solve this?

Thanks.
Manu

[sbtamu]

Are you wanting to have normal animation going on then at some point in the time line have physics turned on?

If so, just use one layer and at the point you want physics check the box in the grp file at that moment.

[ulrik]

I understand what you mean, I animated the character before I activated it with physics but all animation was lost, it didn't work.

sbtamu said: Are you wanting to have normal animation going on then at some point in the time line have physics turned on?

If so, just use one layer and at the point you want physics check the box in the grp file at that moment.

How do you mean? The "physics" on/off doesn't seem to be animatably

cheers!

[sbtamu]

I understand what you mean, I animated the character before I activated it with physics but all animation was lost, it didn't work.

sbtamu said: Are you wanting to have normal animation going on then at some point in the time line have physics turned on?

If so, just use one layer and at the point you want physics check the box in the grp file at that moment.

How do you mean? The "physics" on/off doesn't seem to be animatably

cheers!

Ah OK, they want to have animations while in physics mode. I have not tried this yet. I'll mess with this tonight.

Use the baked physics option

I am not sure what baked physics is but it did allow me to manipulate bones while in physics mode.

[ulrik]

I understand what you mean, I animated the character before I activated it with physics but all animation was lost, it didn't work.

sbtamu said: Are you wanting to have normal animation going on then at some point in the time line have physics turned on?

If so, just use one layer and at the point you want physics check the box in the grp file at that moment.

How do you mean? The "physics" on/off doesn't seem to be animatably

cheers!

Ah OK, they want to have animations while in physics mode. I have not tried this yet. I'll mess with this tonight.

Use the baked physics option

I am not sure what baked physics is but it did allow me to manipulate bones while in physics mode.

Yes, it's possible to use the baked physics and animate, so you can solve the problem if you:
1. don't check the "baked physics" button yet
2. place the character in the position you want him to have just before he'll be "hit" by the physics, play from the frame just before the "hit" and let it roll untill there's no more motion, (now you will only have keyframes in the timeline during the "hit" and till you stopped)
3. check the baked physics button (your character will now only use/play the keyframes that your character have.
4. now you can animate the character on the empty frames before the "hit"

ps. When checking the baked physics button all objects inside the physics group will be effected.

[neeters_guy]

So that's how "baked physics" works! Thanks for the tip!

[Tagirijus]

I already tried it with the "baked option", but it did not work. Could someone maybe show me an example .anme, if this is not too much? This would be very nice.

[ulrik]

This is how I did in this file:
http://www.musikboden.se/asfiles/bakedphysicstest.anme

1.play whole animation with baked physics off (you will get the "physics" keyframes)
2. note where the "physics" should start
3. go to frame zero
4. delete the characters keyframes from frame 1 - where the "physics" should start
5. turn "baked physics" on
6. now you are able to animate the characters bones between frame 1 - where the "physics" should start.

good luck!!

[Tagirijus]

Okay I tested it. This is exactly how I did it. Unfortunately there is still the problem:

If I have a more complex character, this character can only act in the physics engine starting with its basicc pose (the arms to the right and the left... you know... this T-pose), or? I want a character start acting in the physic engine in anther position than the creation-pose. Is this somehow possible?

Nevertheless: Thanks for the post, the file and the effort.


Edit: - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I think that I now have an idea. I make it nearly like you said. I just try furthermore to correct the pose in the calculated physics a bit. I think it will work.

For inetrested people:

secon anme file

rendered mov file

Thanks again for the help!