Picking up objects.

da2tha3 · Post by **da2tha3** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:38 am

Okay, I was wondering how to make a character easily pick up an object that is initially stationary on the ground. So far the only way I've been able to do it is to put the object into the same bone layer as the character, and bind it to a separate, stationary bone, until the character moves to pick it up. I then need to manually, frame-by-frame, match the movement of the object to the character's hands.

I'm thinking there must be a fix for this? In 3D apps, this is acheived by parent constraints, but Anime doesn't deal in those. Any help?

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:43 am

The easiest way is to have 3 layers: object, hand with object, hand without object. The two hand layers are inside a switch layer. As the hand (without object) is about to pick it up, switch the layer to 'hand with object', and make the object invisible. Voila! You have picked up an object...

da2tha3 · Post by **da2tha3** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 12:00 pm

Thanks for the reply. In most cases this is sufficient, and just requires matching up the points of the object on both layers, then having the switch over. However, how do you set a bone to affect the vectors held within a switch?

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 1:34 pm

Not sure I follow. Can you give an example?

da2tha3 · Post by **da2tha3** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 3:45 pm

Okay I've created a quick example hand file, which looks better than expected.

http://da2tha3.hostrator.com/HandExample.zip

However, if you open the file and look at it, you'll see that what I'm referring to is that the hand switch layer can only be parented to a single bone, which in this case doesn't present a problem... I was just wondering if there is indeed a way to have a switch layer influenced by more than one bone, or if I would need to create everything, as I have in the example, as seperate modules?

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Wed Aug 05, 2009 5:40 pm

You can insert bones in switch layers, and you can nest switch layers -- I thnk this can cover most eventualities.

arfa · Post by **arfa** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 10:12 pm

You don't really need a switch layer.

Hand -- with (invisible) paper bound to it. This way points can be tied to any bones you want.
+ visible paper

Hand moves - static/visible becomes invisible
Hand paper now visible.

The main thing is getting the two to line up at the vis/invis point.

You can have any number of objects bound - some visible, some not - although it can get a bit confusing as you work.

- arfa

da2tha3 · Post by **da2tha3** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 10:55 pm

This is the problem I'm having. It all adds to confusion. If only bone parenting could be edited as I described, it'd be the perfect and user-friendly solution.

arfa · Post by **arfa** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:28 pm

da2tha3

If only bone parenting could be edited

Have you tried fa_reparent_bone.lua? - one of Fazek's tools.

arfa

da2tha3 · Post by **da2tha3** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 4:27 pm

I have, but that only allows editing of parents on frame 0. I'm talking about changing the parenting along the timeline, animating it. I'm assuming it's not possible and the layer thing is the only workaround, but I thought I'd ask.

arfa · Post by **arfa** » Fri Aug 07, 2009 6:36 pm

No, bone parenting is not animatable.

rogermate · Post by **rogermate** » Sat Aug 08, 2009 8:38 pm

da2tha3 wrote:I have, but that only allows editing of parents on frame 0. I'm talking about changing the parenting along the timeline, animating it. I'm assuming it's not possible and the layer thing is the only workaround, but I thought I'd ask.

Here's an idea which might be helpful in some situations.

You could break the scene, as far as your workflow, at the moment the hand picks up the object. You wouldn't need to do a cut scene, the viewer wouldn't have to notice there was a break. But you could have a new .anme file for the "new" scene at the point where you want the parenting to change. Then just animate from there.

Obviously, this is a big work flow change. But it might be helpful for certain projects where there is a lot of animation under one bone parenting layout and then extensive animation thereafter.